From The Playlist’s review of last year’s “Corner Office”:
Because it’s so drab and one-note, “Corner Office” leaves the viewer with lots of time to contemplate the Hamm Conundrum. To wit: in Jon Hamm, we have an actor who seems genetically engineered for movie stardom, a chiseled slab of masculinity who wears a suit like he was born to it, and is a magnificent actor, plus possesses an admirable refusal to take himself too seriously. He seems born of another era, a time when icons like Mitchum and Wayne and Brando filled our screens, which is part of why he was so perfect for “Mad Men.” And perhaps that’s why he has yet to find a single feature film that suits his skills; as my friend, the film critic Sean Burns told me, he’s a man, and now they make movies about boys.
So perhaps that’s why, its many other virtues notwithstanding, it’s so depressing to see Hamm as the sputtering bureaucrat, a role that any one of a hundred other actors could’ve played, in “Top Gun: Maverick,” a movie about a (59-year-old) boy, and that’s certainly why it’s so depressing to see him succumbing to the temptation of actorly dowdiness in “Corner Office.”
I love Jon Hamm and I hope to see him in some big roles, but
he’s a man, and now they make movies about boys
jesus christ dude I think I sprained something rolling my eyes this hard. I’m going to the urgent care and sending you the bill for it
Yeah. They call Maverick a boy but then relate John fucking Wayne as a man?! The guy who spent his horrid life pretending to be a cowboy. A profession that never existed? Pathetically out of touch.
If John Wayne is the standard for being a “man,” I’ll stay a “boy” thanks.
I think my wife who I don’t abuse won’t mind it either.
Go watch Tag, Baby Driver and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Whoever wrote that is wrong
And 30 Rock !
Honestly, he strikes me more like someone whose true passion is comedy, but he’s stuck in a leading man’s body. He seems to have spent a fair bit of time post Mad Men doing plenty of comedic (or less serious) roles or bits. I’m just happy that he’s still getting opportunities and wasn’t so typecast after Mad Men that he wasn’t getting a shot at much else.
I wonder if that comment would be different if the show was Severance instead of Corner Office. Adam Scott is great in that role, but a big part of it’s success is also the team around the show. And that’s not easy to come by.
It’s not wrong, I love Hamm for his work in Mad Men but I’ve yet to see him in anything else where he didn’t feel extremely out of place.
Good Omens.
White Christmas
Baby Driver
Great movie. But I think this movie shows both sides of the coin with Jon. Dialog heavy scenes where Jon gets a chance to be level headed and really deliver his lines with potency always work in his favor. Like the cafe scene with Baby and the female lead is outstanding from his part. But practically every scene of him just being the “villain” feel off to me. It might just be that my expectations of him onscreen are too high after Mad Men. I don’t blame Jon at all though, he clearly works incredibly hard in his career. I just feel like the roles he’s played have not given him much of a chance to shine. Like give the guy another leading role for christsakes.
It really does work when they lean into the dichotomy. The aesthetic towards uncanny, there has to be something lurking.
Two I haven’t seen yet!
I thought this was gonna be about his fratboy antics when he was younger. That aside, maybe he just needs that one leading man role that will push him to mainstream stardom. That or maybe he’s a character actor stuck in a leading man’s body. Actors like Colin Farrell and Ryan Gosling are at their best as character actors instead of playing dashing leading men.
I enjoyed his performance in Fletch. Hope there will be more Hamm/Fletch movies
He was the reason I gave that movie a chance. I wasn’t interested because I thought it was just a remake of the Chevy Chase films.
I’m glad I did, Fletch was surprisingly good!
I don’t like this “boys vs. men” rhetoric. It sounds to me like old people complaining that masculinity doesn’t mean the same thing to many millennials and gen z as it did to boomers. It is deliberately diminutive, engineered to be divisive.
I last saw Hamm in Maggie Moore(s) - he and Tina Fey seem to be doing John Slattery a favour by starring in it. Nick Mohammed also appears (inexplicitly in the American police, although so was Chris O’Dowd in Bridesmaids to be fair). I only have two types of movie reviews: “I watched to the end” or “I didn’t” and Maggie Moore(s) is a Type 2 Review.
Edit: Hey, you can’t downvote my comment on my own post. That’s not fair (I was planning on using those upvotes for something). Am I not contributing to the discussion? I made the flippin’ discussion! Where’s all your posts, huh?
I don’t like this “boys vs. men” rhetoric. It sounds to me like old people complaining that masculinity doesn’t mean the same thing to millennials and gen z as it did to boomers.
