The only movie Don Cheadle watches at least once a year: “It makes me pee with laughter”
Don Cheadle is an actor who has appeared in several films with great rewatch value, but admittedly, that mainly falls in the MCU and Ocean’s Eleven department. But for the man himself, what movie would he rewatch as much as possible?
Well, as chance would have it, the Hotel Rwanda and Crash star shared his favourite movies with Rotten Tomatoes, naming a selection of hidden gems among his choices. For instance, he chose to include Man Facing Southeast among them, a fascinating 1986 Argentine sci-fi thriller about a patient in a psychiatric hospital who says he is an alien.
“It’s a great meditation on how we treat and mistreat ‘the other’,” says Cheadle. “A magical, thought-provoking film that I saw at a time in my life when I was questioning a lot of things about the nature of humanity and how we react when we come up against the unknown and unknowable.”
Alongside this film that had a profound effect on Cheadle is 2002’s City of God and 1964’s Dr Strangelove. Hardly anyone is going to extensively argue with Stanley Kubrick, though Cheadle comments, “Another perfect film showcasing the brilliance of the one and only, never-to-be-seen-again talents of Peter Sellers. What a beast. Kubrick actually wanted him to play another character. I can only imagine what he would have done with that.”
But the film he revisits regularly is a true comedy, The In-Laws (not the remake). “It makes me pee with laughter,” says Cheadle. “Peter Falk and Alan Arkin are a perfect combination and play off each other so well in this ridiculous movie. I watch it at least once a year.” The 1979 action buddy comedy by director Arthur Hiller follows two men, one a dentist and one an alleged rogue CIA agent, who go on a series of misadventures just before their two children are meant to be married, running into the Treasury Department and Central American dictators.
The In-Laws was written by Andrew Bergman and also stars Richard Libertini, Nancy Dussault,
Penny Peyser, Arlene Golonka, and Michael Lembeck. Somewhat surprisingly, the critics primarily praised the truly brilliant comedy fueled by the main cast. The 2003 remake, starring Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks, in contrast, was simply trash. As good an example as any of why some things should be left well enough alone.
Cheadle’s final favourite film, per this interview, is 1972’s Sounder. “Another film that I saw at an impressionable time in my life that served for me as a beautiful testament to the power of love in the face of absolute injustice and oppression,” says Cheadle.
He is an actor not exactly known for comedy, aside from the quips present in both the Ocean’s Eleven series and modern superhero fare. His list of favourites also suggests more dramatic tastes, but as Rosamund Pike’s favourite film list also shows, such surveys usually require one tonal standout.
Amid all the excellent dramas across cinematic history, we should all appreciate the few that exist for the comedy itself, such as underrated picks like The In-Laws.
