3. Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)
While Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle doesn’t altogether succeed at capturing the energy and personas of the roaring 20’s and the Algonquin Roundtable, Leigh does succeed at playing one of the central creative personalities of that era and that group. Dorothy Parker was known her for caustic wit, her biting poetry and short fiction, and her desire for love and professional success. She battled depression and casual alcoholism while making time for all of these things, and established herself as a formidable fighter, and a far more important figure than she ever gave herself credit for. Capturing all of that in a biopic that is perhaps a little too obsessed with evoking the sights and sounds of an era would be challenging for any actress. Even when the rest of the movie falters, and it does this a little too often, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Parker is quite nearly perfect from start to finish. She succeeds at playing the character with alarming accuracy and sincerity, and never once slips into the easy trap of unintentional caricature. By far, the best scenes in the movie are the ones with Campbell Scott as Parker’s longtime friend and colleague Robert Benchley. While Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle plays fast and loose with the actual facts surrounding Parker’s life, there is nothing glossy or false about Leigh’s take on the iconic smartass. She keeps our attention focused firmly on her performance, even when the movie is suffering from an onslaught of stylistic choices and references.
4. eXistenZ (1999)
Simply in terms of subject matter and underlying themes, eXistenZ is one of the most ambitious projects David Cronenberg has attempted thus far. This nightmarish, fantastically bizarre commentary on the relationship between humanity and technology (a concept Cronenberg has frequently enjoyed exploring in his films) is far from perfect, but not even for a second are the proceedings ever dull. A good part of that involves a cast with plenty of individual experience with projects that tackle elaborate ideas. As the main female antagonist, Leigh certainly knows a thing or two about films like those. Other actresses would struggle to keep up with the rollercoaster mindset of how Cronenberg unravels this story. Leigh stays with every strange twist and turn that the movie throws at us. This is another noteworthy example of her ability to find something human in a project that seems as though it was constructed by an entirely different species.
5. The Anniversary Party
Leigh’s single turn as a director is an intriguing one. Splitting the task of writing, directing, producing, and starring in The Anniversary Party with Alan Cumming, Leigh manages a couple of impressive creative victories her. She keeps the film from becoming a bloated vanity project, and she is memorable in her role as the wife of a power couple celebrating their sixth wedding anniversary, but not at the expense of the ensemble vibe the movie strives for. The Anniversary Party is not perfect by a long shot, but Leigh’s deeply personalized take on an actress facing the cruel realities of how her industry treats older women is pitch-perfect. The voyeuristic quality of The Anniversary Party keeps things rolling along, and there are a number of solid performances from people like Kevin Kline, Cumming, John C. Reilly, Phoebe Cates, and Parker Posey. Easily, the best performance and best thing about The Anniversary Party is Leigh.
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