Something to watch tonight: Wednesday 14 January

Pete's Dragon (Lowery, 2016)

On 30 December the world lost one of the character acting greats. (No, not NZ producer, screenwriter and TV executive Steve Barr who is in the background of the above still from Pete’s Dragon.)

Isiah Whitlock Jr. was almost certainly best known for his recurring role as the corrupt state senator Clay Davis on The Wire but he enriched everything he came into contact with.

He was one of the standouts in David Lowery’s remake of Pete’s Dragon which was shot in New Zealand. Robert Redford, Bryce Dallas Howard and Wes Bentley were the big internationals in the cast.

I didn’t have a nostalgic attachment to the original Disney film but liked Lowery’s version very much. For a film about a big green hairy dragon it felt very grounded, recognisable, relatable. I don’t have a written review for it anywhere but it was the featured review in an episode of Rancho Notorious with special guest Phil Smith from RNZ.

Whitlock played another small town cop in another New Zealand (sort of) related film in 2022: The bear in Cocaine Bear was animated by Wētā in Wellington and performed for motion capture purposes on set by the gifted Allan Henry.

Another Whitlock performance that I remember fondly is in the comedy Cedar Rapids which I reviewed for Capital Times in September 2011:

Paramount Manager Kate sold Cedar Rapids to me as an “arthouse version of The Hangover” and, despite my misgivings she was absolutely right. It even stars that film’s Ed Helms playing a strikingly similar role – a straitlaced small town naïf who discovers his dark side thanks to some illicit substances and some major enablers (John C. Reilly and Anne Heche in this case).

Of course, The Hangover was almost perfect and Cedar Rapids is not so much and the cheap shots at the expense of flyover America and its values often seem like Hollywood mean-spiritedness. Best bit is for fans “of the HBO series The Wire” in which Isiah Whitlock Jr. (who played Clay Davis in that show) does a beautifully judged and awful impersonation of Omar.

Also covered in that column: Florian Habicht’s weird-but-charming pseudo-documentary Love Story; odd-couple (Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle) comedy The Guard; Crazy, Stupid, Love (“Troubling, but at the same time very, very funny.); gripping motorsport documentary TT3D: Closer to the Edge; and Paul Bettany in Priest 3D (“If the audience I was with is anything to go by Priest barely rates as a diversion – most of them didn’t even bother to put their 3D glasses on and just carried on talking.”).

Cedar Rapids can be found on Disney+ and Cocaine Bear is a digital rental (in New Zealand at least).

Bonus material

In 2021, Whitlock spoke to the AV Club about his career and told this story about how he got his first big gig — Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas.

IWJ: When I came to New York, I started hanging around The Actors Studio, and a woman came to me and she said, “You know, Paul Newman is doing a reading at his apartment. They’re trying to get some people together to read this script with Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise, and a few other people.” So I said, “Yeah, sure, I’ll go!” And I did; I read five or six different parts, or whatever. And then I wanted to get in the movie, which turned out to be The Color Of Money, and they cast Forest Whitaker, which, all hats off to him. But I didn’t get into that movie, and I desperately tried to.

Well, fast forward to Goodfellas. That was sort of like a feeding frenzy in New York City, and I got an audition for it. I went in and I auditioned for the guy who gets who owns the nightclub—he gets hit over the head with a bottle by Joe Pesci. And I thought, “Well, look, they’re not going to cast me as this guy.” I mean, it didn’t make sense, you know? But I got a callback! So I went back and I go into the room, and Martin Scorsese says, “What do I know you from? I know you from somewhere.” I said, “Well, I did those readings at Paul Newman’s for you, for The Color Of Money. He said, “Oh, that’s right, that’s right! Look, that part you auditioned for—obviously, you can’t do that part of. It just wouldn’t work. But I have this character!” He’s a doctor and it’s in the part of the movie where he’s like the only person that that Henry Hill trusts while he’s all coked out and everything like that. He said, “Do you think you could do that for me? I know it’s not much, but if you could do it for me, I would really appreciate it.” And I’m sitting there thinking, “Okay, act like you’ve been there before.” [Laughs.] I said, “Yeah, sure, Marty. I mean, you know, it’s not about the size of the part. It’s what we do!” So he says thanks, and that’s how I got cast! [Laughs.] I didn’t say, “Well, gee, Marty, I have never done a movie before hardly.” But I got cast in Goodfellas—that’s how all of that happened.

I do remember I went to my day job—I was a waiter at a place on 10th Avenue—and I said, “I just got a part in Goodfellas!” And they said, “No way! Get out!” I said, “No, I met with Martin Scorsese, and they’re going to cast me as this doctor.” And one of the guys said, “Oh, I’m going down there tomorrow, and I’m taking my stuff, because if you got a part, I know I’m going to get a part.” [Laughs.] He was like, “They must just be handing out parts—they must need tons of people if they cast you—you just got here!” So he went down there and he didn’t get a part. And here I am!

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Where to watch Pete’s Dragon

Worldwide (apart from India): Streaming on Disney+

India: Streaming on Hotstar