Alec Baldwin: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked
2. Shelly Kaplow - The Cooler
Baldwin's performance in Wayne Kramer's noir-ish floors-eye view of the casino game was the one thing that lifted this indie flick and put it on something of a hot streak come award season. Playing old school casino boss Shelly Kaplow, Baldwin finally nails the bad guy role - goodbye memories of The Juror - where he balances menace with a lamentable charm, his character being very much the pit boss of old, adverse to the so called Disneyfication of Nevada's Sin City. But when Kaplow goes, Kaplow goes, with wincing scenes including him breaking Ron Livingston's arm and the knowledge that somewhere in the backstory he kneecapped WIlliam H Macy. Easily one of Baldwin's best turns, one that was rightly nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category at the 76th Academy Awards.
Shaun is a former contributor for a number of Future Publishing titles and more recently worked as a staffer at Imagine Publishing.
He can now be found banking in the daytime and writing a variety of articles for What Culture, namely around his favourite topics of film, retro gaming, music, TV and, when he's feeling clever, literature.
