Peter Dinklage

He tops out at four feet, four inches. And yet, he has become a giant in the acting field. Peter Dinklage may be small, but his talent is way big!

    His best known role is as Tyrion Lannister in the award winning television series Game Of Thrones (2011-2019). He was nominated for an Emmy an incredible nine times, and he won four of them. He is known in the business for his kindness and humility. Some of his colleagues on the show said they found it hard to play parts where they were mean to his character. He has been married to Erica since 2005 and they have two children. Now only 54, he’s just getting started. 

The Dinklage resume’  includes quite a number of excellent movies. He was already well known for his stage work when he made his movie break-out in Living In Oblivion (1995) playing an actor frustrated by the limitations placed on his career because of his size. 

In Elf (2003) he almost steals the thing as a bad-tempered, thin-skinned children’s book author Miles Finch.  Will Farrell actually plays the title character, who lands at the North Pole and is named Buddy by his colleagues because that’s the trade name on his diaper. Buddy’s total cluelessness  is hilarious. So is Finch’s meanness. 

   In the strangely-named Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) Dinklage appears as James, who happens by to put out the burning police station. The plot revolves around Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) renting three billboards to advertise the fact that law enforcement has not caught the man who raped and killed her daughter. Police chief Willoughby (Woody Harrellson) and deputy Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell) unsuccessfully try to get Mildred to take the billboards down. Both McDormand and Rockwell won Oscars for this film. 

In Rostand’s novel Cyrano is too shy to court Roxanne because of his outsize nose. In Cyrano (2021) Peter Dinklage plays the character as too shy to court Roxanne because of his diminutive size. This is the musical version. Dinklage isn’t a strong singer but his swaggering but vulnerable Cyrano reveling in words but aching with love is spot on.  It works!

I saved the best for last. One of my all time favorite movies is The Station Agent (2003). Dinklage plays Finbar McBride. Fin quietly works in a model train hobby shop. When the owner dies, he leaves an abandoned train car to Fin. He moves in and makes it his home, hoping for solitude. But neighbor Joe Aramas (Bobby Cannavale) and lonely, grieving Olivia (Patricia Clarkson) befriend him anyway. Clarkson’s performance is spectacular. As is the bar scene when Finbar vents his rage at being demeaned because of his size. 

All of the movies in this article are available somewhere. All are for adults.  

                                                  Good Films You Never Heard Of 

                                                         Part 7

    From Mr. Movie’s apparently bottomless trunk, here are another batch of really good movies most of you have probably never heard of. Give one or more a try!

    Beatriz At Dinner (2017) gives diminutive Salma Hayek a chance to shine. She plays a massage therapist with her own business. When her car breaks down after a session with super rich Kathy, she is invited to stay for dinner. The other guests include Doug Strutt (aptly named and played to the hilt by John Lithgow). When Beatriz enters the room, Doug assumes she is a servant and acts accordingly. Even when he discovers otherwise, he continues to be the quintessential bigot. My daughter and I both loved everything about this film except the ending. What do you think? 

Crown Heights (2017) is one of the best innocent-man-sent-to-prison films I’ve ever seen. It is based on a true, and unbelievable, story. There is no one in it you’ve ever heard of, but that’s to the good. Colin Warner was no Boy Scout. He had a long rap sheet and was up to no good the night Mario Hamilton was shot and killed. But he had nothing to do with the murder although an eye witness says that he did. His best friend loses his job and his family to gather proof of Colin’s innocence. It takes a while. Like 21 years. Spellbinding film!

Remember that incredibly cute couple in Barefoot In The Park (1967)? Okay, maybe you don’t. Anyway, Jane Fonda and Robert Redford are back 50 years later in Our Souls At Night (2017) Based on Kent Haruf’s wonderful book, it is the story of two aging people finding companionship and even romance. Both have survived the death of a spouse, and the story begins when she asks him to come over and sleep with her. Platonically, just for the warmth and comfort of another person. He reluctantly agrees

Five Flights Up (2014) also stars two actors who are consummate pros. Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton are a couple who have been married many years. Their nice apartment is up five flights of stairs. There is no elevator and they’re getting up in years. The plot, such as it is, deals with their search for a new place, their care for their aged dog, and their relationship with their daughter. Just a nice time at the movies!

An Honest Liar (2014) is a riveting documentary about James Randi, a magician by trade. He tells you he is going to fool you, and then he does. There is nothing supernatural about the magic of true magicians. He despises and sets out to destroy charlatans who bilk the public by pretending they have supernatural powers. How they do their tricks, and how he catches and exposes them, is quite good.

All of the films in this article are theoretically available on DVD. A word about availability: With the demise of Netflix DVD discs, it will be hard to find these and other recommended films. I always check with Amazon and if they have the disc, I say it’s available. But it may not be free. Your library has many DVDs that appear in this column, though not by any means all of them. You can share my sadness.

                                                  EVAN HUNTER A/K/A ED MCBAIN

Evan Hunter died  at 78. He wrote under several names and was one of the most prolific authors of our time. As Ed McBain he produced 55 wonderful 87th precinct novels, the best police procedurals ever written. Some were made into a mediocre TV series in the 60's; there is an unmined lode here someone should use. Mr. McBain invented the crime novel using an ensemble cast, copied without apology by Hill Street Blues, CSI, and a host of other crime shows. Reading 87th novels, you get to know Meyer Meyer, Steve Carella, Cotton, Hal, Eileen , Andy and of course Fat Ollie and the Deaf Man. Will somebody please make this into a series? 

In 1955 Mr. Hunter wrote Blackboard Jungle based on his experiences teaching at a vocational school. It became a surprise blockbuster book, and super movie with Glenn Ford. Nearly 70 years later it remains the best movie about what really goes on in high school, and the sometimes dangerous problems teachers face. 

The legendary Alfred Hitchcock knew the writer he wanted for his terrifying The Birds (1963)- it was Evan Hunter, who obliged. The pair produced what is still one of the scariest movies ever made; it makes the teen-age slasher genre seem tame. Ever wonder what would happen if Mother Nature really turned against us?

Mr. Hunter’s strangest credit came in 1962 when he wrote the screenplay for High and Low, a very interesting thriller based on one of his stories. Why strange? Well, it’s a Japanese movie,  in Japanese, shot in Japan, with a Japanese cast and crew. Of course we can get it with subtitles, and it’s really a very good story about a businessman who nobly pays the ransom for his chauffeur’s kidnaped son. 

Fuzz (1972) is based on an 87th precinct story and Mr. Hunter wrote the screenplay. Unfortunately, the movie, with Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch, never makes up its mind what it wants to be, and it is not very good. The book was really good, though. 

On the other hand, Last Summer (1969) is a terrific movie about some kids spending their summer at the beach. It is firmly based on an Evan Hunter story. Frank Perry directed a fine ensemble cast featuring incredibly young Richard Thomas and Barbara Hershey. The film does a fine job evoking the presence of evil even in the most idyllic settings. 

All of the movies in this column are available on DVD.  All are for mature audiences. 

    A word about availability: Now that Netflix is no longer doing discs, it will get harder and harder to find movies you can watch at home. Mr. Movie checks with Amazon to see if there is a DVD out there. But these are not free...

                                                        BLACK AND WHITE FOREVER

Colorization is the bastardization of black and white films into dreadful colors. It has been around for a while. Ted Turner famously tried to colorize Citizen Kane, but he encountered such a firestorm of outraged opposition that he dropped the idea. He, and others, just won’t let it go. And the process produces a dim, washed out look. .Good grief!

Lots of movie fans I know tell me they just won’t watch any movie in black and white. BIG MISTAKE! Director Alexander Payne (Sideways, About Schmidt) decided to film Nebraska (2013) in black and white. Excellent choice! Bruce Dern is an aged alcoholic bordering on dementia who receives one of those “you’ve already won one million dollars” things and believes it. He is determined to venture from Montana to Nebraska to claim his prize. He can’t be convinced it’s a scam. Will Forte, really good as his son, decides to humor him and make it a road trip. And June Squibb is superb as Dern’s long-suffering wife. The film got five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. The dreary, barren Midwestern landscape, the dingy small towns and the dysfunctional family members are perfect in black and white. 

And remember while we’re on this topic that a black and white movie, The Artist, won the Best Picture Oscar for 2011 (it’s also silent!). 

Orson Welles perhaps understood how to use the subtle shadings of black and white better than anyone else. His landmark film Citizen Kane (1941) is exhibit A. But an even better use of the medium, though a lesser film, is The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) which is shot almost entirely in the gloomy old Amberson mansion.

In Raging Bull (1980), the brutality and violence of the ring (and the kitchen) are more exquisitely captured in black and white than any color imaginable. The sleazy, smoky nightclubs that become Jake LaMotta's environment seem much more oppressive and atmospheric in black and white.

Casablanca (1942) has dark filmic echoes of the war and the end of a culture, and is one of the most romantic films ever made. I cannot imagine it in color. 

My favorite example of black and white cinematography is How Green Was My Valley (1941), about life in a Welsh mining village and a boy who wants out. Use your freeze button on any frame in this movie and you could hang it on your wall. 

Some other splendid examples of black and white: Schindler’s List (1993), The Hustler (1961), High Noon 1952, On the Waterfront (1954), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Good Night And Good Luck (2005) and Brief Encounter (1945).

If you happen to be one of the “never black and white” people, I ask only that you give any of the films in this column a look. Then ask yourself if it would have been better in color. 

All of the movies in this column are available on DVD. None are really suitable for children under 12, mostly because they wouldn't like them.