7. Allen in Happiness
A role in a Todd Solondz film is either a God-sent gift for an aspiring actor looking to sink his/her teeth into a role and rise to fame or alternatively a toxic poison that can completely ruin their careers with the inescapably controversial nature of their part(s). If you're not playing a pedophile, the chances are you're a murderer or a serial masturbator. In Hoffman's case he is the latter in Solondz's seminal American independent masterpiece, Happiness. He plays the part of Allen, a thick-rimmed glasses-wearing pervert who passes his time calling up strangers and masturbating with unsettling enthusiasm during said prank calls. Drawing natural comparison to his portrayal of Scotty in Boogie Nights, Hoffman manages to imbue Allen with a desperate sense of loneliness that underlies the largely comic representations of his character that the film creates, mostly to great effect. Hoffman delivers an incredibly brave performance; the film contains some pretty uncompromising and disturbing masturbation scenes that he carries out without even a modicum of restraint. Again, we can see through the character of Allen the ease with which Hoffman can interweave a myriad of conflicting emotions until they become difficult to discern from one another. He manages to make you feel intensely uncomfortable, beguilingly amused and forlornly sympathetic for the character of Allen all at once. A great film and a landmark performance from Hoffman.