Critical Appreciation: Ray Liotta was more than a wise guy on another magnetic screen

Ray Liotta was terrible.

Sure, he played a nice guy at times during his prolific but very short career; After his death on Wednesday night, former colleagues confirmed his off-screen warmth. But the dark energies that defined his personality existed from the beginning, in Jonathan Demi in 1986. something wild. (He previously worked in television for several years, then made his debut in the 1983 Harold Robbins adaptation. lonely lady.)

There, while playing a criminal who was determined to win back his wife (Melanie Griffith) from the milkman (Jeff Daniels) he currently plays, Liota figured out how to give enough real false consent to convince a naive character. of the film see the danger that lies below. Pretending to be an old classmate who just wants to have fun meeting up at school, Liota Ray Sinclair goes on his way trying new girlfriends and doesn’t give up until the good guys prove they’re the same… So a liar… With a bottle of whiskey on a cheap motel bed, he looks quietly, genuinely happy.

In the photo of Steven Soderbergh’s crime last year no sudden movementAnother Liota character experiences the same bitter satisfaction when he claims that his other wife (Julia Fox) kissed him with a much less innocent man (Benicio del Toro). Playing the cheat again, Liota’s gaze narrowed. His red eyes don’t look as wide as they did when he approached Daniels, which is a good thing: this man isn’t a hungry predator, but a mid-level gangster who’s less interested in betrayal than an underworld game. Energy.

But Senior Liota didn’t need physical violence to embody the horror. At Noah Baumbach’s house wedding storyHe’s a top-notch divorce attorney who intimidates us by mercilessly making clear the many ways the legal system will ruin a young father’s (Adam Driver) life. The threats here are in all areas, but Liota’s delivery makes them visceral: not sentimental for a customer who doesn’t understand what’s going wrong, Liota doesn’t expect your speed, but speaks. As if she’s addressing an upset and compromised man, he will be after months of fighting over custody.

Liota even took advantage of the films destined to melt the hearts of the audience. Inside the kingdom of dreamsHe played embarrassed baseball star Shawl Joe Jackson, who miraculously returns from the dead in an Iowa cornfield so a farmer (Kevin Costner) can rediscover the magic of baseball. Lean, sober, and adventurous-looking, Liota reminds us that ghosts don’t hug, even when they give a man a chance to play ball with his long-dead father.

Liota excelled in crime films of varying degrees, specializing in unrepentant moral ambiguity, even when playing men who appeared to be on the right side of the law. He was a brutal cop in Joe Carnahan Friedkinsk medication; Part of James Mangold’s Contaminated Community police land; It’s ridiculous to pay for a Grand Guinness cannibalRidley Scott’s ill-born sequel Silence of the innocents. Among them, he worked in harmless family films, low-key comedies, and indie dramas that enjoyed his presence, whether he deserved it or not.

But of course it will always be the best. good friends, where his task was to turn the other actors into the scariest people on the screen. He was a surrogate spectator here, making us feel the seductive power of Mafia life for kids who weren’t born into a family. Scorsese’s true crime epic was ideal, of course, for the most myriad roles the actor has ever had, and Liota’s narrative was so charismatic that it spawned a generation of savant copycats, most of whom were despicable. Your “Did you have fun?” The scene with Joe Pesch is a tense master class, but he’s immortal with the maniacal laughter that gets in the way -Liota shows Henry Hill admiring the older man’s psychopathic violence, convincing him it won’t work. And relief from him that he wasn’t a victim of it. Later, it’s our turn to laugh as sophisticated Henry sweats through his final days as an outlaw, and Liota hints at comedic potential the films will never be able to fully exploit.

How, after critical and commercial success good friendsHas the industry failed to make Liota a successful leader? In interviews, he seems to have hinted that, in a peculiar way, he landed some good roles with an understandable effort to avoid writing. And while she was incredibly beautiful, she didn’t have the overall beauty to look like a Hollywood leading lady (especially during the Liota generation).

But in recent years he’s noticed that he’s getting older and playing roles that suit him very well, at least Many Newark Saints, Various roles in a movie. His talent was often wasted, but there were promising reasons for fans; Perhaps another gem is hidden in the few projects that died at age 67. Whether it was or not, Liota was right, noting that few actors are lucky enough to be in a movie or two that people really love. Playing your biggest role in a meticulous masterpiece is even rarer.