Get the latest gossip
Every Steve Martin Movie, Ranked
Martin’s filmography reveals a Renaissance man, from manic absurdist and menacing enigma to delightful dad and endearing love interest.
This box-office bomb, which costars Jack Black and Owen Wilson, has its share of sweet moments, and Martin is quite comfortable playing a rich Manhattan CEO who faces retirement by taking part in what’s known as a Big Year, finally pursuing a passion he was always too busy to fully enjoy. “Movies were social; stand-up was antisocial … It was fun to have lunches with cast and crew and to dream up material in the morning that could be shot seven different ways in the afternoon and evaluated — and possibly perfected — in the editing room months later.” That may sound rather highfalutin for a film as proudly juvenile as The Jerk, but there’s a clear intellect at work — a couple of ’em, actually, since it’s directed by co-conspirator Carl Reiner — that informs Martin’s spot-on performance as an overgrown man-child idiot who goes on an oddball journey to find himself. “I don’t want to be caricatured.”) It’s in keeping with Grand Canyon ’s touchy-feely, reactionary tone that, of course, one movie producer is meant to represent all that’s callous and obscene in our culture, but Martin’s trick was to make Davis a smart, funny guy who knows exactly what he’s doing and just doesn’t care.
Or read this on VULTURE