Five Most — James Franco Performances
Last night was “The Comedy Central Roast of James Franco,” with comedians and friends including Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Sarah Silverman and Nick Kroll tooling on the actor for his eclectic filmography and for just being an odd dude in general. That got me thinking about my favorite Franco performances. Here are five of them, in no particular order — feel free to chime in with yours:
_ “Spring Breakers” (2013): Franco is just out-of-his-mind great in director Harmony Korine’s candy-colored cautionary tale about girls gone wild. As a wannabe gangsta rapper named Alien (pronounced a-LEEN), he’s an amalgamation of white-trash Florida stereotypes with his cornrows, shiny grill and flashy convertible. But he’s also lonely and needy, and in a group of bikini-clad college girls, he thinks he’s found his soul mates. It’s a showy, wonderfully weird performance, but Franco also finds the vulnerability beneath the bravado.
_ “127 Hours” (2010): Danny Boyle’s claustrophobic thriller provided Franco with a tour-de-force performance and earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor — the same year he co-hosted the Oscar ceremony in ignominious fashion alongside Anne Hathaway. Based on the true story of Aron Ralston, the hiker who had to resort to drastic tactics to dislodge himself from a giant boulder in the Utah desert, “127 Hours” allows Franco to show every bit of his range: his gift for effortless comedy, which he showed off in a scene-stealing performance in the next film on this list, as well as the sort of subtle but deep despair earned him a Golden Globe and made him a star in the 2001 “James Dean” TV movie.
_ “Pineapple Express” (2008): David Gordon Green’s stoner romp allowed Franco to display his comic gifts, which we hadn’t seen much of previously at this point. As an affable and earnest pot dealer named Saul, Franco has terrific chemistry with Rogen, who plays the uptight customer with whom he gets tangled in criminal shenanigans. Franco is sweetly goofy, prone to non sequiturs but instantly likable. The film is at its best when it’s about these two opposites getting to know each other by talking about absolutely nothing.
_ “Milk” (2008): It’s Sean Penn’s movie, of course. Penn’s mesmerizing performance as Harvey Milk, the slain San Francisco politician and gay rights activist, earned him the second of his two Academy Awards for best actor. But Franco, as Milk’s boyfriend and first real love — the much younger Scott Smith — is absolutely lovely. Supportive and romantic but also conflicted, Franco is as comfortable here in an understated but crucial role as he was playing an amiable pot dealer earlier in the year in “Pineapple Express.”
_ “James Dean” (2001): A TV movie, but we’re going to count it because it’s the role that made him a star and defined his early career. Franco famously immersed himself to play the mysterious and doomed screen legend, and indeed captures his beautiful and brooding persona. Franco’s uncanny resemblance to Dean went a long way toward making him that much more believable in the role. “James Dean” may have the by-the-numbers feel of a made-for-TNT film, but Franco goes beyond sheer mimicry to find the depth within this iconic figure.
This is the End and Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Favorite James Franco films:
(1.) Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He anchored that film for me.
(2.) OZ, The Great and Powerful. He got a lot of critisism for this role but I thought he was sweetly corrupt in this role.
(3.) Milk, he seemed to morph into the character with such ease.
My hesitation with James Franco is that he always comes across as if he’s Acting. He’s at his best when that fits into the narrative — i.e., the reality-on-steroids sensibility of Oz — but for the most part I always feel that he’s winking at me and saying, “Look at my performance, yo.” Then again, that may just be my own narcissism.
Ah — so maybe when he’s saying “Look at my shit,” he’s not just referring to his machine guns and shorts in every color, but rather his process. I like it.
___Howl____ wins
If you’re counting TV movies, I’ll count a TV show: Freaks and Geeks.
His Daniel Desario initially comes off as a do nothing unmotivated slacker, but over the course of 18 episodes, he shows Daniel as a teenager trying to figure out life with varying degrees of success and failures.
I can only imagine how much more he could have done with the character over a multi-season run.
Freaks and Geeks — great cite. It’s amazing the influence that short-run show had on so many.
Christy – I have to agree that “Pineapple Express” is among his finest performances. For someone who seems to be such a high-strung and inaccessible person in real life to play a laid-back stoner was a true display of talent. The character wasn’t serious, but Franco was serious about playing the role. By contrast, his character in “Spring Breakers” felt to me like a cheap impression of the “Pineapple” part, right down to the overexaggerated and excessive use of words like “yo” and “y’all.”
If the Academy recognized comedy films as a legitimate genre, I would think Franco’s “Pineapple” role was Oscar-worthy, as it was one of the best comedic performances of the past decade, if you ask me.