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Reservoir Dogs

It's ironic that Steve Buscemi winds up playing one of the more memorable characters in Quentin Tarantino's first film, Reservoir Dogs" while he ends up with a nearly blink-and-you-miss-it performance as a Buddy Holly look-alike waiter in Tarantino's next picture, Pulp Fiction. What kind of way is this to pay back Buscemi, especially after he steals Reservoir Dogs as the always-chatty Mr. Pink, one of several men hired to rob a jewelry store, and one of only a few who survives the disastrous robbery. In fact, while most everyone in Reservoir Dogs dies bloodily on-screen, Mr. Pink actually makes it out alive. Okay, he doesn't really make it out alive, but Buscemi's the only actor who doesn't die...onscreen. That aside, his many lengthy - whether arguing against tipping waiters and waitresses in the opening scene (adding to the irony of his next role with Tarantino) or wondering exactly how safe the warehouse is with a potential snitch inside, or even expressing his unnerving fear of Mr. Blonde (and who wouldn't be scared of Michael Madsen? - Buscemi brings a hefty amount of humor to his performance, and solidified his status as a staple of independent film.

Airheads

Yeah, you read that right. We're talking about Michael Lehmann's Airheads. It's not a classic comedy at all (I don't care how many times it shows up on Comedy Central, folks), but it is one that's worth watching for many reasons, including Buscemi's performance as Rex, part of a band called The Lone Rangers. This heavy-metal band never gets played on the radio, so they decide to hold the local radio station hostage until the DJ or the uptight radio station manager put their tape on the air. Mayhem and, presumably, comedy ensue. This movie's more fun to watch if you don't expect great laughs, but a lot of actors who you'd normally never see in a movie together, including Buscemi, Brendan Fraser, Joe Mantegna, and Michael Richards (remember when he had something like a career?). Buscemi's maybe not the best comic foil in the world, but his being in this movie makes it all the more palatable, as unmemorable as it may sound.

Paris, je t'aime

The Coen Brothers have said, previously, that with each film Steve Buscemi appears in - past Fargo - he says less and less and gets killed in such gruesome ways that less and less of his body remains after his death. In one of the short pieces making up the compilation film Paris, je t'aime," the Coens direct Buscemi, as he plays a nameless tourist who doesn't say a single word. Unfortunately, while waiting for the next Metro train, he does make the mistake of making eye contact with two strangers on opposite sides of the platform. Buscemi appears to make it out alive of this one, but he does end up quite badly beaten up. The amazing thing is, the whole scene - one of more than 15 in the entire film - is quite funny. The humor's heightened thanks to Buscemi's expressive face, going from blank to confused to scared to blustery to angry in a snap. I can only hope that it won't take eight more years for the Coens and Buscemi to reunite once again.

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