“You can watch it over and over again”: the movie Sam Rockwell calls “perfect”
Although it’s not scientifically proven as of yet, there’s more than enough evidence to suggest that any movie can be drastically improved with the simple addition of Sam Rockwell to the ensemble.
It doesn’t matter how big or small the production is, either, with the actor waltzing in and stealing every scene he was in during Marvel’s turgid sequel Iron Man 2, while he was about the only aspect of Matthew Vaughn’s otherwise mind-numbingly dull Argylle to emerge deserving of any praise.
He’s been doing it for decades, too, whether it’s a small-but-memorable turn in Stephen King adaptation The Green Mile, doing his best to drag something out of Charlie’s Angels, sparring with Brad Pitt in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, or engaging in a period-set whodunit opposite Saoirse Ronan in See How They Run.
Rockwell doesn’t get top billing or play the lead role anywhere near as often as he should, given his immense talents and reputation for being a performer who makes the absolute best of every line of dialogue they’re given, but it’s hardly kept him on the outside looking in. If anything, it’s kept him in-demand, with the star widely recognised as being among the upper echelon of reliable character actors.
He’s got an Academy Award to show for it after Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri netted him a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ gong, but even though he’s been in plenty of great films during his career, it might be a stretch to suggest he’s been in anything that comes close to cinematic perfection.
Several of those aforementioned titles – in addition to the likes of Blaze, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Moon, Jojo Rabbit, and Seven Psychopaths – are very good but not perfect. There’s one movie Rockwell believes is entirely deserving of that accolade, though, even if he wasn’t in it.
Still, he’s hardly the first or last person, professional, or beloved thespian to salute Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future, and he won’t be the last either. “It’s just a perfect movie, you know?,” he rhetorically asked Rotten Tomatoes. “Everything about it, you just can’t… It’s just perfect. You can watch it over and over again.”
Almost 40 years on from its initial release, and the first time-travelling adventure for Marty McFly and Doc Brown has lost none of its ability to entertain, and it’s the type of ageless blockbuster that’s only going to continue winning over new fans with each passing generation.
Mainstream filmmaking has rarely been done any better, with Back to Future one of those movies that almost obligates a rewatch whenever it’s stumbled upon. Whether it’s the first, fifth, fiftieth, or five hundredth time, Rockwell is guaranteed to be just as engrossed as ever.
