Jeremy Davies Movies
Jeremy Davies has made a name for himself playing a series of damaged and offbeat characters that highlight the young actor's considerable talents. Born October 28, 1969, in Rockford, IA, the skinny, dark-haired Davies trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, CA. After making his television debut in a Suzuki commercial, he worked on various television shows. The actor made his film debut in the Drew Barrymore film Guncrazy (1992), but it was not until his turn as a young man being manipulated into an Oedipal relationship by his mother in David O. Russell's Spanking the Monkey (1994) that the actor began to garner wide respect and recognition. The film earned the actor considerable rave reviews, indie credibility, and an eventual role in the Jodie Foster movie Nell.In 1997, Davies went on to do The Locusts, co-starring Ashley Judd and Vince Vaughn. His role as Flyboy, the emotionally crippled son of an abusive mother, further added to the actor's reputation of playing victimized, internally conflicted young men. He next played a similarly conflicted character in the Mark Pellington adaptation of Dan Wakefield's coming-of-age novel Going All the Way, in which he co-starred with Ben Affleck. Davies' knack for choosing roles that allow him to go beyond Hollywood's conventions and mine the complexities of the human spirit was further reflected in his portrayal of the battle-shy Corporal Upham in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and his role as a despondent officer in Ravenous (1999). 2001 found Davies stepping in front of the camera as a director whose attempt at finishing a film with a troubled production history proves exceptionally grating in CQ, the directorial debut of the legendary Francis Ford Coppola's son Roman Coppola.
Davies two most memorable roles in 2002 saw him developing a twitchy eccentricity that would become a trademark in many of his films. The dark sexual comedy Secretary had him as a lovelorn suitor opposite a masochistic Maggie Gyllenhal and the sci-fi drama Solaris offered him the opportunity to work under the direction of Academy Award winner Steven Soderbergh.
Having proven time and again his ability to pull off quirky, Davies tried his hand at all-out madness in 2004 when he starred as the infamous Charles Manson in the made-for-television remake of Helter Skelter. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
David O. Russell burst onto the scene with this challenging and controversial film about an introverted college student and the incestuous disaster of a summer that follows his freshman year. Ray Aibelli (Jeremy Davies) returns home for what is supposed to be a short visit with his family prior to leaving for Washington D.C., where he will intern in the surgeon general's office. Ray's plans are quickly scuttled by his acerbic and controlling father (Benjamin Hendrickson), a salesman leaving on an extended business trip, who strong-arms Ray into caring for his depressed mother (Alberta Watson) while she recovers from torn ligaments in her leg. Gently prodding his mother to begin using crutches so he will no longer have to change her bedpans and carry her about the house, and so he can still arrive belatedly for the internship, Ray discovers that his mother is not only physically but emotionally dependent on his presence. She begins making inappropriately tender displays of her affection for him, which only become more complicated when he has to rub lotion underneath her cast to soothe her itches. As that relationship grows increasingly fuzzy, Ray must also deal with the sputtering advances of a neighborhood high school girl (Carla Gallo) and the overly aggressive chiding of his estranged group of friends. Russell both scripted and directed this critically acclaimed debut, which courted controversy by following the mother-son relationship into uncomfortably frank and off-limits territory. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Davies, Alberta Watson, (more)
A woman is brought to civilization after spending her life in the wilds in this drama. Dr. Jerome Lovell (Liam Neeson) happens upon a shack deep in the woods, where he discovers a strange woman who appears to be about 30, speaking an incomprehensible language. The woman, named Nell (Jodie Foster), was raised in the cabin by her late mother, who was incapacitated by strokes (Nell speaks English, but distorted -- as it was by her mother's infirmities); with the exception of her twin sister, who died as a child, Nell has had contact with no other human being. Lovell brings in a psychiatrist, Dr. Paula Olsen (Natasha Richardson) to help determine what, if anything, should be done for Nell; Olsen thinks that Nell should be committed to an institution, but Lovell demands a period of unobtrusive observation instead. When it becomes obvious that the courts will demand that Nell be hospitalized for psychiatric observation, Lovell and Olsen take it upon themselves to gently introduce Nell to the outside world. Jodie Foster's performance in Nell earned her an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress, and she won the Screen Actor's Guild award in that category. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jodie Foster, Liam Neeson, (more)
Not so much a remake of Joseph H. Lewis's 1949 film noir classic as a variation on its themes, Guncrazy stars Drew Barrymore as Anita, a teenage girl who was born in a trailer park on the wrong side of the tracks and has been fighting a losing battle with respectability ever since. Anita was abused sexually by her mother's boyfriend (played by onetime Warhol "superstar" Joe Dallesandro), is the subject of lewd advances by the school bullies, and is looked on as a slut and a loser by her peers. When Anita has to find a pen pal for a class assignment, she ends up corresponding with a prisoner named Howard (James LeGros), who's serving time for manslaughter. Howard is one of the first people to address Anita with tenderness and respect, so when he gets parole, Howard moves in with her. Howard's obsessive love of guns, however, once again leads to violence, and the couple hits the road hoping to escape their fates. The debut film from director Tamra Davis, Guncrazy was originally shown on cable television, but received enough critical acclaim to merit a later theatrical release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Drew Barrymore, James LeGros, (more)
- 1991
This police story chronicles the true story of two partners who started out as best friends and later became the bitterest of enemies when one of them becomes corrupted. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
