7. Behind The Candelabra
It can't be understated just how fresh and audacious Steven Soderbergh's adaptation of the memoir Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace turned out to be. A subject like Liberace, so stereotypical in his affectations and lifestyle, hadn't really been performed justly on the big screen. Michael Douglas as the wildly flamboyant (and equally narcissistic) Liberace is a treat, not because he hits all of the piano prodigy's highs with great abandon, but because he immerses himself in the lowest points with a darkly comic, hammy pride. By contrast then, Matt Damon's boy toy Scott Thorson, who wrote the memoir the film is based on, plays the somewhat "straight man" role. (Pun very much intended.) But Damon imbues Liberace's teenaged lover with a simmering anxiety and subtle naiveté that turns his character into the most interesting thing on the screen, despite Douglas' constant scene-chewing. A movie about Liberace had to be excessive and larger-than-life, which is exactly what Behind the Candelabra turned out to be. But it also has the decency to depict its characters' blemishes, which makes it so much more interesting.