#Margo Martindale

[fairweathermyth]

POKER FACE 2.06 ⌁ Sloppy Joseph

[perhapsblues]

Witch? Yeah. Evil? No. platonicsource’s may event 2025 – friendship in film ↳ Practical Magic: Sally&Linda&Carla

[dearreader]

me anytime i see margo martindale on any show or movie: Oh my gosh! it’s character actress margo martindale!

[ultramoderngurl]

natasha lyonne, clea duvall, uzo aduba and margo martindale at the poker face season 2 premiere

[porterdavis]

This is a hoot. People might vaguely remember the theft of tens of millions of dollars worth of maple syrup (!) several years back. This is absolutely not the true story, but a clever takeoff of how it could have been.

The series veers towards slapstick physical comedy at times, but Margo Martindale owns the show, even outshining a surprise appearance by Jamie Lee Curtis (who did double duty as the producer).

The dialogue was pitch-perfect in capturing the Quebec slang, especially the cursing.

The show ends in a bit of a jumble, but that's OK. The viewer gets to decide if they succeeded or not. Sort depends on your definition of success...

[aliveandfullofjoy]

Happy new year! If you're following me, you know that I watch too many movies. You also probably know that I love acting. A truly great performance feels, to me, like a magic trick. Of the movies I watched for the first time this year (excluding 2024 or 2023 releases), these are eleven of my favorite performances, in alphabetical order.

01. Ida Kamińska & Jozef Kroner, The Shop on Main Street (dir. Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, 1965)

Kamińska received one of the coolest Oscar nominations ever with her lovely performance in this shattering Czech drama as a nearly-deaf elderly widow, but Kroner, arguably the film's true lead, deserved equal recognition for his astounding performance as the shiftless man thrown into the cogs of fascism. They play off each other beautifully, and they are both perfectly keyed into the film's tonal tightrope act. Kroner is asked to carry much of the film, including much of its comedy, and he does so effortlessly, but it falls on Kamińska to sell the sharp pivot into despair at the end. The results are gutting.

02. Anders Danielsen Lie, Oslo, August 31st (dir. Joachim Trier, 2011)

Before he turned in a key supporting performance in Trier's The Worst Person in the World, Lie delivered one of the most essential performances of the 2010s in this film. Oslo rests entirely on his shoulders, and to say he delivers is an understatement: he commands the camera's full attention, giving the viewer a fully-realized portrait of a recovering addict with just his body language. This is a brutally sad film, but that Lie is able to find some semblance in joy in the buildup to its inevitable and crushing ending feels like a miracle.

03. Margo Martindale, Paris je t'aime (dir. Alexander Payne & others, 2006)

Paris je t'aime consists of eighteen short films, each with different directors, set in various arrondissements in Paris. Some of the shorts are stinkers, but the film is a charming experience overall. The final episode stands out above the rest: Payne gives Martindale free rein to shatter your heart into a million pieces. Playing an American woman on her first trip to Europe, she describes (in amateur French) what she loves about Paris. It's Payne at his very best -- funny, mature, human -- but it sings because of Martindale's soulful performance. If he had any sense, he'd give her a feature length movie.

04. Silvia Pinal, Simon of the Desert (dir. Luis Buñuel, 1965)

I went through a miniature obsession with the Sondheim musical Here We Are this year, which got me in the mood to scratch a Buñuel itch. While it's not one of the films the musical is adapted from, Simon of the Desert shares something with Here We Are: it exists largely as a fraction of what it was once intended to be, running only 45 minutes long. Still, it's a delightful film, and the star is the late, great Pinal, whose performance as (who else?) Satan is an entertaining, anarchic riot. I need to see more of her work ASAP.

05. Brad Pitt, Burn After Reading (dir. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, 2008)

I could throw a dozen superlatives at Pitt in Burn After Reading. It's the actor's career best. It's one of the funniest performances of the 2000s. It's the blueprint for Gosling's Ken. Every line is a perfectly orchestrated head-empty-no-thoughts symphony. The way he drinks water like a hamster? The way he laughs and says, "You think that's a Schwinn"? The way he does his victory dance? Deeply stupid. Extraordinarily funny.

06. Kurt Russell, Big Trouble in Little China (dir. John Carpenter, 1986)

Like Pitt, this is an exquisite comedic performance. Everything about Big Trouble in Little China is dialed up to eleven, from the pulpy dialogue to the over-the-top action, and it's Russell, as the over-confident himbo sidekick deeply, truly believes that he's the hero of the story, who holds the film together. Every line he says in his sorta-kinda John Wayne impression makes me scream. I had never given Russell a second thought as an actor, but this performance instantly made me a fan.

07. Chishū Ryū, An Autumn Afternoon (dir. Yasujirō Ozu, 1962)

Even among Ozu's body of work, An Autumn Afternoon stands out as painfully sad. The final fifteen minutes of this film in particular are brutal, and probably the most devastating sequence I've seen in any of his movies. It was his final film, and as they had so often before, Ozu used Ryū as his leading man. He had one of the all-time great faces in film history, capable of conveying a deep, visceral ache with just a polite smile. The sadness of the finale comes through largely because of the beauty and the simplicity of Ryū's performance.

08. Harry Dean Stanton, Paris, Texas (dir. Wim Wenders, 1984)

I'm not in the habit of ranking the performances on these lists, but if I was, Stanton would be at the top. His performance in Paris, Texas -- also one of my absolute favorite new-to-me films of the year -- filled me with that rare warmth, that feeling that I'm watching a truly singular achievement in acting. Just like Chishū Ryū, if there was a contest for best faces in film, Stanton would be a finalist. Those deep eyes, the craggy skin. His performance is a masterclass in stillness and silence (he doesn't say his first line until nearly half an hour into the movie), communicating years of regret, heartbreak, joy, and longing with just a look. His journey begins in an unbearably lonely place and ends with a bittersweet reconciliation. To describe this performance as moving is the ultimate understatement.

09. Mink Stole, Female Trouble (dir. John Waters, 1974)

It feels wrong not to highlight the legendary Divine here. Female Trouble largely operates as a star vehicle for him, and he is genuinely terrific. Amazingly, though, in the face of Divine's hurricane of a performance, Mink Stole manages to steal the film as the obnoxious Taffy Davenport. As one of the core members of Waters' Dreamlanders, her keen understanding of his tone should come as no surprise, but that doesn't make it any less thrilling to watch her embody the film's deranged camp sensibilities. It takes a great actor to find the right balance in a film like this. Make no mistake: Mink Stole is a great actor.

10. Alfre Woodard, Crooklyn (dir. Spike Lee, 1994)

It's clichéd to describe a performance as the heart of the film, especially if that performance comes from a woman playing the mother in a coming-of-age movie, but friends: I've never claimed to be above cliché. Woodard is an American treasure, and she is undeniably the heart of Crooklyn, Lee's gorgeous look back home. Going toe-to-toe with Delroy Lindo (who very nearly made this list with Woodard), Woodard does richly layered work here, by turns commanding, funny, warm, and moving. It's a nuanced, lived-in performance from one of our greatest living actors.

Other performances I loved, in alphabetical order: Jane Alexander (The Great White Hope, 1970); Taraneh Alidoosti (The Salesman, 2016); Jean Arthur (History is Made at Night, 1937); Warren Beatty (Heaven Can Wait, 1978); Humphrey Bogart (The Big Sleep, 1946); Charles Boyer (History is Made at Night, 1937); Lon Chaney (The Unknown, 1927); George Clooney (Out of Sight, 1998); Sean Connery (The Hunt for the Red October, 1990); Joan Crawford (Sudden Fear, 1952); Russell Crowe (The Insider, 1999); Robert De Niro (Midnight Run, 1988); Laura Dern (Blue Velvet, 1986); Divine (Female Trouble, 1974); Griffin Dunne (After Hours, 1985); Charles Durning (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, 1982); Shelley Duvall (Popeye, 1980); John Goodman (Barton Fink, 1991); Elliott Gould (The Long Goodbye, 1973); Charles Grodin (Midnight Run, 1988); Dolores Hart (Where the Boys Are, 1960); Philip Seymour Hoffman (Punch-Drunk Love, 2002); Dennis Hopper (Blue Velvet, 1986); Shahab Hosseini (The Salesman, 2016); Gusti Huber (The Diary of Anne Frank, 1959); Rock Hudson (Seconds, 1966); Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted, 1999); James Earl Jones (The Great White Hope, 1970); Daniel Kaluuya (Widows, 2018); Lila Kedrova (Zorba the Greek, 1964); Nicole Kidman (Eyes Wide Shut, 1999); Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast, 2000); Nastassja Kinski (Paris, Texas, 1984); Yaphet Kotto (Midnight Run, 1988); Margaret Leighton (The Go-Between, 1971); Delroy Lindo (Crooklyn, 1994); Jennifer Lopez (Out of Sight, 1998); Walter Matthau (The Bad News Bears, 1976); Sheila McCarthy (I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, 1987); Ethel Merman (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, 1963); Nobuko Miyamoto (The Funeral, 1984); Kati Outinen (The Match Factory Girl, 1990); Jack Palance (Sudden Fear, 1952); David Hyde Pierce (Wet Hot American Summer, 2001); Anthony Quinn (Zorba the Greek, 1964); John Randolph (Seconds, 1966); Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet, 1986); Isabella Rossellini (Green Porno, 2008); Hassan Sabzian (Close-Up, 1990); Adam Sandler (Punch-Drunk Love, 2002); Norma Shearer (Marie Antoinette, 1936); Ruth Sheen (High Hopes, 1988); Song Kang-ho (Memories of Murder, 2003); Kin Sugai (The Funeral, 1984); Haruko Sugimura (Morning for the Osone Family, 1946); Saïd Taghmaoui (La Haine, 1995); Gene Tierney (Leave Her to Heaven, 1945); John Turturro (Barton Fink, 1991); Charles Vanel (Wooden Crosses, 1932); Shelley Winters (The Diary of Anne Frank, 1959)

[feeling-through-film]

Uncle Frank (2020)

You gonna be the person you decide to be, or are you gonna be the person everyone else tells you you are?

[loveboatinsanity]

[dongslinger--420]

The no.1 rule of BoJack Horseman is that if anything has the potential to happen in a more stupid way than what you would initially expect, it will happen that way. Todd does NOT find the receipt under the chair, he sees a news story about Character Actress Margo Martindale and his ADHD does the rest of the work for him. Herb does NOT die of cancer, he dies of a peanut allergy he got after crashing into a peanut truck. Jessica Biel loses the election EXCLUSIVELY because she doesn't like avocados. BoJack loses all his money because the Xerox company sues him for negatively comparing himself to a Xerox because of COURSE that's how it happens.

[deadpoetsandlivinglegends]

Idk how to explain it coherently because both of these have a chokehold on me so much so that I cannot be sane about them so like if you don’t understand my vision don’t worry, I get it, I feel like a sweaty toothed madman rn, but Charlie after Neil’s death and his expulsion from Welton to bojack horseman type downfall and story would be so interesting like Charlie as Bojack (seeks attention as a way to try to fulfill longing to be loved and have close connections, reckless behavior, turns to addictive habits to indulge like cigarettes, this would be after welton when he is trying to distract himself from the tragedy and trauma from their upbringing that is causing depression of sorts, still reminiscing about past ‘good times’ at Welton ignoring problems because it was still better than now similar to how Bojack does with Horsin Around), Todd as Diane (shy introvert who will take a stand when something is wrong and will make their voice heard to maintain sense of justice), Meeks as Princess Caroline (Charlie constantly tells Meeks to do things and Meeks will just do them which is very princess Caroline and bojack coded, she is always solving problems like Meeks), Neil as Sarah Lynn (the one Bojack ‘failed’ who deserved better and who grew up not allowed to follow their dreams before dying a tragic death at their own hands that haunts Bojack to the very end), Knox as Mr. Peanutbutter (you know he would go through 3 wives and a girlfriend because he has bad relationship issues don’t even kid yourself), Cameron as Todd (they are roommates, Bojack hates on Todd all the time yet considers them friends, sounds like Charlie and Cameron), and Pitts would be character actor Margo Martindale (both are definitely there a significant amount of time but people either forget who they are or absolutely love them to bits and there is barely an inbetween; both teeter on main cast and side character)

[ltwharfy]

Character Actress Margo Martindale on "Homicide: Life on the Street"! What is this, a crossover episode?

Oh, nevermind. She's a just playing a character.

[smashorpassgilf]

Margo Martindale

Reblog for a bigger sample!

[heavenlycinema]

Uncle Frank 2020

Dir. Alan Ball

“Nice always hides something. What's hidden is what interests me.”

[drodysseyupdates]

via instagram: Margo Martindale was extra prepared to play the mother of the the bride 💍 Stream Doctor Odyssey on Hulu now!

[bojackhorsemanlvr]

[djkerr]

Kurt McVeigh with Madeline Starkey and Ruth Eastman 🥰

2014 Creative Arts Emmy Awards Governors Ball | Nokia Theatre L.A. Live, Los Angeles | August 16, 2014

📷 Frazer Harrison/Getty Images