He was in "Twister", "Happiness", "Boogie Nights", "The Big Lebowski", "Almost Famous", and "The Talented Mr Ripley". Put him in a scene and it becomes memorable. He has a pudgy face and does awkwardness as well as De Niro. Each of his characters seem like they've been in a dark hole all their lives and, just as the camera rolled, they came out. You can feel their fear. And despite this fear, they present themselves with grace.
Surely we've seen enough of Hoffman now to say that he's as good as Charles Laughton ("Henry VIII", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame")? But Laughton got lead parts in many pictures and Hoffman usually doesn't. Is that how it should be? It's satisfying in a way for him to be off-centre, brilliant at the edges in the way that Eve Arden or Leo G Carroll were. But it seems reckless of the American film industry to squander such talent.
Shouldn't David Mamet or Paul Schrader write something for Hoffman? And shouldn't Scorsese direct it?
