Nice read. I've known the name Tom Waits for years but his music and acting careers were both off my radar. Never really encountered his work in the wild until my coworkers played some of his...
Nice read. I've known the name Tom Waits for years but his music and acting careers were both off my radar. Never really encountered his work in the wild until my coworkers played some of his songs in the office. I think the essay's description of his unique voice is apt. I was also surprised to see him in The Old Man and the Gun but he did great with the small role. I definitely need to go see the new Coen Bros. movie.
There’s an edge to Tom Waits’s voice—a rasp miraculously capable of carrying a melody—that makes it one of a kind. When he sings forcefully, it seems like he might start breathing flame through sheer will; when he tries his hand at sweetness, it’s disarming and enchanting in equal parts. Each song is a microcosm in which Waits, despite being the author, isn’t playing God so much as he is an emissary, providing a glimpse into another world.
That strange, singular quality carries over to his acting, and filmmakers have been capitalizing on it for years. Terry Gilliam, Francis Ford Coppola, Jim Jarmusch, Martin McDonagh—all of these directors, among others, have harnessed Waits’s talents with wildly varying characters in scenes that might as well play as monologues for how beguiling he invariably is. His talent as a singer-songwriter is matched by his acting; he steals any scene he’s in, no matter who’s got top billing.
Nice read. I've known the name Tom Waits for years but his music and acting careers were both off my radar. Never really encountered his work in the wild until my coworkers played some of his songs in the office. I think the essay's description of his unique voice is apt. I was also surprised to see him in The Old Man and the Gun but he did great with the small role. I definitely need to go see the new Coen Bros. movie.
It's on Netflix right now and is apparently less a movie and more a collection of stories. I hope to watch it soon.
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