Critic’s Choice: Willem Dafoe emerges from the shadows with ‘Florida Project,’ ‘Vampire’
“The Florida Project” may not be getting the love it deserves in the various year-end awards derbies, but the one field where Sean Baker’s masterful drama has rightly dominated has been the supporting actor race, where most of the prizes have gone to Willem Dafoe for his wonderfully lived-in performance as a harried motel manager. Meshing perfectly with an ensemble of mostly first-time actors, he does the kind of acting that can make you fall in love with a veteran actor anew.
If Dafoe has never been better than he is here, he came awfully close with his Oscar-nominated performance as a real-life bloodsucker in “Shadow of the Vampire,” Elias Merhige’s playful 2000 fantasia about the making of F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu.” Both “The Florida Project” and “Shadow of the Vampire” screen Friday at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, with Dafoe in attendance for a discussion between films.
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Where: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Price: $15 ($13 with membership)
Info: www.americancinemathequecalendar.com
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