"Nice Guys Don't Work In Hollywood." So says the title of author Curtis Harrington's recently published book. It's some sort of memoir about his career and the ups and downs of... whatever. Look, I really have no idea what it's about because I haven't read it, nor do I intend to, even though I'm using it here to help me with this intro (is that wrong?). However, I can think of a bunch of actors who have no idea what he's talking about, because they're an affable group of seemingly likable people who have found major success in Tinseltown. My guess is that should these people ever run into this Harrington fellow, they'd most likely tell him to go soak his head for spreading such utter bull sauce. Because that's how nice guys talk. Now, whether or not these actors are (or in some cases were) actually nice in real life isn't for me to say. I mean, I've never met any of them personally, so they could very well be a bunch of baby-slappin' b*stards for all I know. All I have to go on is the roles they've played and the PR they've generated along the way, yet at one point or another, these "nice" guys have each taken a cinematic left turn, gone the full Vader, taken on truly evil roles and fully embraced their dark sides, not what we were accustomed to seeing from them and in some cases, kind of a risky career move. A few of those risks paid off, while others didn't really make much of a difference at all. But hey, let's give 'em props for trying to shake things up a little. Like Socrates once said, "For if we never experience the darkness we can never truly appreciate the light." Not quoting the ancient philosopher guy, I'm talking about Alexi Socrates, who owns the diner over near the office where I work. Always saying stuff like that when all I want is to sit quietly at the counter and eat my burger...
Honorable Mention: Steve Carell - Foxcatcher
Yup, that's Steve Carell scowling behind that prosthetic nose. Not much to say about this one since it doesn't hit theaters until Dec. 20th, but Carell breaking bad to play real-life murderer John du Pont just has to be mentioned. Rumor has it that Carell, who's made his bones playing lovable doofuses like The Office's Michael Scott and Anchorman's Brick Tamland, is really just going all out for it with this role. And of course, by "going for it", I mean looking for an Oscar. To be fair, though, this won't be the first time Carell's put on his bad-boy pants. Who could forget his villainous turn as Gru in Despicable Me? And then again in Despicable Me 2? And then...I got nothing after that. If the surname of Carell's dramatic undertaking seems at all familiar to you, it might be due to the fact that roughly 60% of everything you come in contact with on a daily basis is manufactured by his family's chemical empire (hope you enjoyed those McNuggets, by the way). Not satisfied with simply being filthy rich by profits made every time the world turns, du Pont got involved with a pair of Olympic wrestlers and...you'll have to wait until December to find out the rest. Or, seeing as it's a true story, you could just go Google John du Pont and read about it. Your choice, really.