My Collection: "The Brody Shelf": Part One

Shelf one, first half:

• Home At Last - His first film (1988). A very family-friendly story about an orphan from New York City (Adrien), adopted by a family of Swedish immigrant farmers.


• Annie McGuire (also 1988)- Three episodes someone burned for me. It was a short-lived (8 aired episodes) Mary Tyler Moore sitcom on which Adrien played her stepson, Lenny. There are some episodes on YouTube, also.


• New York Stories Blu-Ray. - He's in shadow in the background during one of the segments (LIfe Without Zoe), but it's on my shelf anyway.


• A burned DVD, transferred from a VHS of The Boy Who Cried Bitch (1991), with Dutch subtitles. The quality isn't great, but at least I have it. ha ha.


• King of the Hill: Criterion Edition - A charming depression-era story where Adrien plays the lead character's mentor. DVD/Blu-Ray set with lots of features.


• Angels in the Outfield - Adrien plays Danny Hemmerling (a fictional player for the Anaheim Angels baseball team).


• Rebel Highway: Jailbreakers - An absolutely awful movie, but Adrien was charming in it (and even did a Marlon Brando impression in one scene). He was a supporting character known only as "Skinny."


• Ten Benny - I jokingly call this, "Adrien Brody Smoking: The Movie." If you look at the captures in the gallery, you'll see why.


• SOLO - Adrien plays Dr. Bill Stewart, the scientist who designed and built SOLO (Mario Van Peebles). It also features movie mainstays Barry Corbin, and William Sadler.


• Bullet (contains R and unrated versions). A movie from 1996, starring Mickey Rourke and Tupac Shakur. Adrien plays Rourke's Banksy-like artist little brother, Ruby. They also have an elder brother played by the remarkable Ted Levine.


• The Last Time I Committed Suicide - Adrien plays Benji, a gay friend of beat poet Neal Cassady (played here by Thomas Jane), with whom he is playfully flirtatious. They don't share a ton of screen time, but it comes across as a very sweet friendship.


• Six Ways to Sunday - A disturbing movie starring Norman Reedus, and Deborah Harry (of Blondie). Adrien plays a family friend named Arnie, the sort of guy who acts "gangster," but can't fight his way out of a paper bag.


• Restaurant - Regular, edited/censored version, and CD soundtrack. This is one of my very favorites. The soundtrack CD is relatively rare, so I'm lucky to have that. Adrien produced and did beats for a rap track on it (ironically called, "This Ain't a Movie"), so that's a nice bonus. *I'm actually considering buying yet another version of the DVD, just because the cover is different (and it's inexpensive). ha ha. I'm slightly obsessed with this movie.


• The Undertaker's Wedding - A slapstick comedy where Adrien plays an undertaker who caters to the mob. It has its moments.


• The Thin Red Line, and The Thin Red Line: Criterion Edition - I'm still bitter about this movie, on Adrien's behalf. His character (Walter Fife) is the lead in both the novel and the script, but the finished product cut him down to (I think) three lines, and about 10 minutes total screentime. It seems the director decided to throw the narrative out the window, and make the movie into a series of vignettes. Thankfully, the Criterion Edition contains a deleted scene of Fife being sent home, due to an ankle injury that requires surgery. He gets to speak a couple more words in the scene, and everything. Wowww.


• Summer of Sam - Another instance where Adrien's character (Ritchie) was the lead in the script. Due to John Leguizamo's camera hogging/ad-libbing (and Spike Lee's decision to keep it in), Ritchie ended up second banana. Speaking of footage kept in, Adrien got his nose broken (yes, as in for real) during a fight scene at the end of the film, and it was left in!


• Oxygen (official DVD), followed by a burned copy of an HD version someone sent me. The official DVD contains one of the best. commentary. tracks. ever. It features Adrien, Maura Tierney, and Richard Shepard (the director). It is just so interesting and funny to listen to.

Shelf one, second half:

• Liberty Heights - Love, school integration, gangsters, burlesque, race relations, antisemitism, alcoholism/mental illness... this movie covers quite a few topics. Adrien plays Van, the elder brother of main character Ben Kurtzman (Ben Foster).


• Bread & Roses - A touching story about (mostly immigrant) janitors fighting to form a union. Adrien plays Sam Shapiro, a labor leader who comes in to convince the workers to fight for their rights. Sam is one of Adrien's most lovable characters: caring, brave, and adorably awkward.


• Harrison's Flowers - This movie also features two of my other favorite actors: David Strathairn, and Brendon Gleeson. And they each share scenes with Adrien. It's glorious. It makes me forget the lead actor is Andie MacDowell (not a big fan).


• Love the Hard Way - This movie is the source of the infamous gif (to the right) that's been going around for years. Now you know where it's from. Anyway, it's one of Adrien's best performances, so check it out if you get a chance. It's a performance within a performance, really, as Jack does a lot of pretending.


• The Affair of the Necklace is a period piece set in France, but of course, everyone sounds vaguely British. Isn't that always the way? This movie isn't exactly Citizen Kane, but it has its good points. Not the least of which is a sword fight between Adrien, and Simon Baker (also his nemesis in Restaurant). The choreography of said fight is impressive. Nicolas (Adrien) throws a vase against a wall, and pulls out his sword in one fluid motion. It's cool.


• Dummy is a movie that I adored initially. Subsequent watchings have made me a bit more critical of it. Adrien, however, gave a wonderful performance (albeit a little creepy). His character was a granted wish, so I can't complain too much.


• The Pianist, and The Pianist Steelbook from (I assume South) Korea (plays just fine in the U.S., on a gaming console). Said Steelbook is a limited edition (numbered and everything), so it's a prized possession, to be sure. I've already told my husband, if we're ever evacuating for a natural disaster, it's coming with us. Since he spent a lot of money to gift it to me, I'm sure he doesn't mind.


• Tori Amos: A Sorta Fairytale - A surreal music video Adrien co-starred in. They released a DVD of it, so I got it for my shelf. That's about it. :)


• The Singing Detective is the most confusing blend of fun and disturbing I think I have ever seen. But I like it. Most of it, anyway. Adrien plays "First Hood," one of two 20s mobster types (along with Jon Polito as "Second Hood") who stalk our main character (Robert Downey Jr.) throughout his life. They're metaphorical/imagined, but just go with it.


• The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan, with The Village. The Buried Secret... is a faux documentary of sorts, where Adrien is one of the people providing clues (he and Johnny Depp say the same thing, actually). It was essentially a promotional stunt for The Village, in which Adrien was one of the main characters.


• The Jacket. An absolute favorite of mine. It's kind of a hard movie to explain, and people seem to either love or hate it. It's about amnesia, psychological experiments, and time travel of the mind (possibly).


• King Kong: Steelbook Edition - The King Kong Extended Edition, and Peter Jackson's Production Diaries are kept on a shelf by the LOTR/Hobbit films. A Peter Jackson section, I suppose. Anyway, you're probably familiar with this one.


• Hollywoodland was the second Brody movie I ever saw (The Pianist was first). Good times. He plays Louis Simo, a shady, but good, detective trying to find out what happened to George Reeves (Ben Affleck). While Simo and his investigation are fictional, many of the surrounding characters and events are real.


• The Tehuacan Project is a documentary about children in Mexico who have gone deaf due to (mostly preventable) illness. And an organization that helps them. Adrien narrates the English version (Esai Morales does the Spanish version). This was one of the hardest to find items in my collection.