More favorites: Philip Baker Hall as Sherwood, the handwriting specialist who starts drinking a little; Clea Duvall, with a great heat-check scene; John Goetz (as transcribed), from Blood Simple, as the Chronicle editor; and Anthony Edwards, fantastic and unexpected.
One pick gives the award specifically to Cox, with the Melvin Belli phone-call clip played, 'Is there something I can call you that's a little less ominous?', for making the most of his few moments, the television interview, the sincere attempt to offer the caller a lifeline, and the way he physically takes the incredible screaming sound.
Jimmy Simpson (as transcribed), who plays the shooting victim at the start and returns at the end, prompts a detail: the character is Mike Mageau, and when the name is reported over the Vallejo PD wire it is said aloud in the newsroom as 'Mayhew', so the film intentionally misleads in a way that was probably true to how it was said, an obsessive Fincherism; James LeGroix (as transcribed) is good and weird, and Zach Granier (as transcribed), the boss in Fight Club, runs the Vallejo police department.
A second pick is Elias Codius (as transcribed) as Detective Mullinax (as transcribed), a great real name: a that-guy who can shoot when given the ball, known to the hosts' generation as Casey from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a guy who looks like a cop and rarely gets a stage this large, and a great serial killer in Fallen with Denzel Washington, directed by Gregory Hoblitz (as transcribed).
Asked directly for a winner, a third pick is John Carroll Lynch as Arthur Lee Allen, with the 'Nobody calls me Arthur' clip: the role basically made the second half of his career, he directed the last film starring Harry Dean Stan (as transcribed) this year, and he is a well-known theater actor remembered as Norm in bed with Francis McNormand (as transcribed) at the end of Fargo.
Asked whether the film still works with a huge star like Anthony Hopkins as Arthur, the answer is not as well: it has to be a face whose physical presence unsettles because you feel you could have seen him without knowing why, since viewers bring previous films into the room and would read a famous actor as an important part; the misdirect succeeds because the only place to remember Lynch is Fargo, where Norm is a completely different, friendly disposition.
Later, the Ioni Sky (as transcribed) roadside scene is called another Dion Waiters performance and the hardest scene for one host to watch.
Introduced as a new category, the nominees are John C. McGinley as a stereotypical loud, angry police chief, James LaGrosse (as transcribed) as one of the surfers, Beecher from Oz as Rosie, Anthony Kiedis and Tom Sizemore; one host goes John, Dr. Cox every time over everybody.
Another goes with James Legros as Roach, for his heavy surfer-accent line about how small the cold water leaves him feeling, with a pinching gesture, and 'you didn't tell me it was gonna be like this, man'; someone bought Legros stock in 1991, and the role is likened to Valkeem Kilmer (as transcribed) in Heat, the supporting robber you root for when he gets shot.
Picks the unidentified actor from the first, violent surfing gang who surfs into Johnny Utah and decides it is time to pull a switchblade. — Mark Titus
The switchblade scene set the tone that surfing is serious, against Bodhi's nonviolent mantra of only showing the guns; a host asks who swims with a switchblade and jokes about expecting Shay to say he used to.
Later, during best quote, McGinley's going-for-it line delivery is called a Dion Waiters, shooting every time he gets the ball.
