There seem to be a lot of actors that tend to get into the industry even when their family thinks it’s not worth their time, and a lot of them tend to do quite well it would seem, at least those we hear about. Heather Graham is by and large one of those that’s done very well at times and at others has kind of faded into the background until she’s ready to step forward again. For a long while it was kind of evident that she was definitely a big star, but again, her reputation tends to rise and dip at times and she kind of fades off. Her acting is pretty sound since she’s been in quite a few movies either as a lead or as a supporting actor and has done well in both regards. But there are those movies where her part feels slightly overplayed and not quite as effective even if her role is still fairly well-received.
Here are the five best movies of her career.
5. License to Drive
File this under the section that seems to be reserved for ‘worst teenage decisions in movies’ and you’d be doing pretty good since the truth is that Les not only lies about failing his written test for his license, but he also takes his grandfather’s car without permission. Then the girl he’s with, Mercedes, gets so drunk she passes out and while she’s safely stowed in the trunk Les and two of his buddies go on a joyride that ends up leaving the car so totaled that it can only go in reverse. Once the car is totaled however his father jokingly tells him that he can have it, though the movie ends on a high note when his girlfriend, now sober, picks him up and they drive off as the credits roll. Yeah, this was the way it worked back in the day.
4. Sidewalks of New York
It’s funny how a circle of people can somehow meet and then simply discover that there’s a connection there but no one really knows about it even though it’s kind of blatant and could be traced if one had the time or inclination, or both. The funny thing is that Annie is just as dissatisfied with her marriage as her husband seems to be but she has the moral compass not to just go out and have an affair. Her husband on the other hand has been involved with another woman but doesn’t want the prospect of a failed marriage on his hands and decides to stick with her. Ironically it’s Annie that finally leaves Griffin because she’s not feeling the marriage.
3. Swingers
It’s funny how women are called emotional and yet guys seem to have the hardest time letting go sometimes when it comes to relationships. Maybe it has something to do with the idea that once we have a woman we like we don’t want to lose them, and when we do we feel lost. At any rate Mike kind of lets this go to his head as any possibility he has at connecting with another woman is kind of ruined since he can’t stop thinking about his ex and is just way too desperate to connect with anyone. After trying a few different times however he finally meets a woman that he connects with and finds that he no longer misses his ex.
2. Boogie Nights
The porn industry tends to chew people up and spit them out if they’re not careful and in this movie that’s shown quite prominently as it’s almost a different world in its own right. Rollergirl, or Brandy, seems to be one of those that’s been sucked up into it without really caring where it’s going to take her, but as with just about everyone in the movie she’s a different person by the time the credits roll. The 70s still stand as one of the oddest decades as it was almost seen to be akin to a hangover from the 60s but in denial that anything was going to change by the 80s. Obviously things worked out a lot differently than people expected.
1. The Hangover
We didn’t get to see a lot of Heather in this movie until the guys finally discovered where she lived and returned her baby to her, which is an odd statement to have to make. Odder still is how anyone would think to leave their kid in a suite with a bunch of hungover men, or even worse bring the kid in the first place. Obviously sitters in Las Vegas must run a pretty penny, or they’re not as available as people might think for the purposes of this movie. That being said this movie was a wild and laughable time if you didn’t get bogged down in the details as Ed Power from the Independent seemed to.
She’s a well-rounded actress, but there are times when it’s hard to find her.
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