Those pointy teeth. Those googley eyes. Every time I see Steve Buscemi’s name in the opening credits of a film, I say “Yes! Steve Buscemi’s in this!”
Brooklyn-born Buscemi has typically been cast in quirky and wickedly humorous supporting roles. Its apparent his strength is his delivery of clever dialogue, and he’s ticked up a number of iconic monologue moments over the years – such as his anti-tipping rant in Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) and his one-sided car conversation with a certain blonde criminal in Fargo (1996).
While Buscemi finally got to stretch his leading role wings in the TV show Boardwalk Empire (2010 – 2014), to me Buscemi’s genius will always be in his captivating supporting performances where he perfectly delivers perceptive dialogue, causing the viewer to laugh and marvel in the sarcastic truth in his words.
Below are my top 3 film picks starring Steve Buscemi – instead of the usual film trailers, short clips of his fantastic scenes are cited for your viewing pleasure, so you can really appreciate the genius that is Steve Buscemi!
THE WEDDING SINGER (1998)
Directed by Frank Coraci and starring Steve Buscemi, Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore
67% Rotten Tomatoes rating
“Yeah, sounds good? That’s cause I’m the best guitar player in the woooorld! Yeaah! Self taught, no lessons. Thank you very much, Pop!”
In The Wedding Singer, Buscemi plays the drunken and bitter best man Dave, who’s long suffered a sense of inadequacy and inferiority in the shadow of his high achieving brother Harold. And what better place to express his festered frustration than during the best man speech at poor Harold’s wedding!
I remember seeing The Wedding Singer when I was 10, and is my first memory of seeing Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler on the big screen. At the naive age of 10, Buscemi’s hilarious passive aggressive rant as Dave went straight over my head.
The Wedding Singer is an absolute classic, and at the ripe age of 25, I now see that Buscemi nails this cringe-worthy and hilarious moment.
BEST VIEWED WITH: A friend who’s engaged, so they know just how bad wedding speeches can be.
ARMAGEDDON (1998)
Directed by Michael Bay and starring Steve Buscemi, Bruce Willis, William Fichtner and Ben Affleck
39% Rotten Tomatoes rating
“Get off. The nuclear. Warhead”- “I was doing that guy from that movie, you know, Slim Pickens, where he rides it all the way in, the nuclear warhead”.
It recently occurred to me that I was one of the only 3 people in the country that hadn’t seen Armageddon. A big fan of disaster/apocalypse genre, I approached with enthusiasm.
It quickly became apparent that the film was terrible, and there were only two things good about it – Ben Affleck (Good Will Hunting) in a white tank top and Steve Buscemi in every scene his appears in.
Armageddon is such a left field film for Buscemi, but only he could’ve pulled off the hilariously immature character Rockhound. This role in fact inspired this blog post.
In the final moments of opportunity to save Earth from imminent destruction, he mounts the nuclear warhead about to blow up the huge comet hurtling toward Earth and sings “Dunna dun dunna dun dunna dun dun dun”, before being scolded by the very serious Colonel William Sharp (Fichtner – The Dark Knight) and Harry Stamper (Willis – Hie Hard).
He’s then put in astronaut ‘timeout’ and ignored for the rest of the film while the big boys get the job done. My devoted fandom of Buscemi was then cemented.
Armageddon is an amazingly bad film but a bit of fun and obviously worth watching if only for the comedic prowess of Buscemi’s Rockhound and Affleck’s chiseled features.
BEST WATCHED WITH: A good sense of humor and a tolerance for dated special effects.
THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)
Directed by The Coen Brothers and starring Steve Buscemi, Jeff Bridges and John Goodman
80% Rotten Tomatoes rating
“What tied the room together Dude?”
This slacker classic features a bunch of quirky characters and situations, but what really steals the screen is the ridiculous banter between Dude (Bridges – Tron) and Walter (Goodman – Monsters INC), with the occasional input from Donny (Buscemi). Dude and Walter have no time for the space cadet Donny, only really addressing him to tell him to “Shut the fuck up!”
Poor Donny – he just puts up with it, tries to keep up with the lads, sympathizes with Dude about his rug and occasionally puts his two cents in with lines like “I am the walrus”. It’s nothing short of magical.
The Big Lebowski is a cracker of the flick and while Buscemi’s role is minor it really..ties the film together.
BEST WATCHED WITH: A White Russian or three.
What’s your favorite Buscemi moment?
THEMES ON SCREENS 