The Massively Underused Allison Janney

Are you aware that Allison Janney rules the skool? Possibly not, cause she’s seldom seen. She’s in a couple of upcomings, but has been spending an awful lot of time on TV lately, (Whatever, West Wing) rarely gracing the Curator’s shelves with her co-starring phenomenon, a gushing, bubbly waterfall of reddish hair and sharp knifed laughter. Her parts may be sparse but she packs a punch.

We will look at: 10 Things I Hate About You, The Ice Storm, American Beauty

10 Things I Hate About You

Our Ms. Janney clocks a total of 4 minutes in this teeny-flick as guidance councilor “Ms. Perky,” but manages to do more in those couple minutes than the rest of the cast does in 97. Combined. Her accomplishments include writing a romance novel on the company dime whilst brushing the kiddies and their nonsense problems aside, and putting dopey little shits Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger in their places faster than you can say “I hope I get to play a gay cowboy someday to add some weight to my miserably fluffy resume.” Go Allison, Go!

The Ice Storm

Allison co-stars awesomely as Dot Halford, otherwise known as “the lady who has the key party.” Her part may be small, but she plays an ever important role: that of the woman who has the party. The party that forces everyone to confront their morality, sexuality, comfort zones, the ever valuable tool of peer pressure, and the limitations of screwing in an early-70’s model family sedan.

American Beauty

Here Janney darkens up the screen as Barbara Fitts, mother to our diamond-in-the-rough, filmmaker-in-training, non-traditional beauty loving Ricky Fitts, and wife to “shocking” homophobe/homosexual Col. Frank Fitts. She starkly sits in a room devoid of dust and soul, as if pushed to the corner of casting room of life, always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

Summary:

Short concise post, short concise woman. You are never invisible in our eye. Rock on Ms. Janney.