John Cusack

THE PAPERBOY: TENNESEE WILLIAMS ON STEROIDS

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The audience walking out of a recent screening of Lee Daniels’ “The Paperboy” didn’t know WHAT to think. Some were repelled by the white trash vulgarity of the oversexed sweaty characters and others were mesmerized. Some seemed EMBARRASSED to admit they liked it! In the movie, it’s 1969 in Florida and Matthew McConaughey plays a reporter with a lurid dark side and Zac Efron is his sex-obsessed younger brother. John Cusack plays the most revolting character of all – a deranged prisoner who might be innocent of murder. Nicole Kidman is the desperate floozy who wants to marry her prison pen pal. Mix all this up with thick southern accents (especially Macy Gray the narrator) swamp dwellers, and racial tension, and you have a poisonous stew. But the movie is funny at times, surprisingly compelling, and you cannot take your eyes away. Some might call it lowbrow, but it’s entertaining.

JOHN CUSACK DOES NOT RESEMBLE HIS CHARACTER IN GRACE IS GONE

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It’s amazing how old and plain a tan windbreaker can make a cute guy look. In Grace is Gone, John Cusack,41, plays a middle aged father with a dead end job and a defeated attitude. The hunched actor looks much shorter than his 6’3″ height and he’s very convincing as a mature and pathetic character. People in the audience are startled by how much older Cusack seems to have gotten since his last movie. We’re happy to report that he hasn’t aged overnight – he’s ACTING. He made a personal appearance at a SAG screening of the movie last week, looking cool, dressed in black, and proved that he’s still an appealing, if unconventional, leading man. We think he’s doing a lot of these public appearances to show that he’s not as old as he looks in the movie.