(Photo by Buena Vista/ courtesy Everett Collection)
All John Cusack Movies Ranked
John Cusack pulled off the tricky act of being one of those It kids of the ’80s without having that distinction become an albatross hanging across his career once the decade ended. Cusack found breakthrough roles in just about every permutation of the teen comedy in the spandex and big-hair era: the hormonal-driven (One Crazy Summer), the bizarro creations (Better Off Dead), the rom-com (The Sure Thing). But Cusack had an erudite quality that separated him from his contemporaries, drawing him to name directors like John Sayles (Eight Men Out) and Cameron Crowe, the latter of whom he worked with to close out the decade with perhaps the best romantic-comedy in a decade full of classics: 1989’s Say Anything….
Cusack of the 1990s represented a maturation that allowed him to fit into just about any mold: drama (The Thin Red Line), comedy (Bullets Over Broadway, The Grifters, Being John Malkovich), romance (Pushing Tin), and even action (Con Air). Some movies combined all the genres, like 1997’s Grosse Pointe Blank (in which he plays a hitman attending his high school reunion), one of those high-concept Hollywood movies that endures for decades after release.
2000’s High Fidelity may have been the last we’ve seen of Cusack in classic rom-com leading man form, as in the ensuing years he’s been putting more work into genre fare, and playing shadowy figures and villains. Highlights from this ongoing period include 1408, 2012, and Grand Piano. Meanwhile, 2015’s Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy is just about as good as anything he’s done in his career. And now we’re taking a look back with all John Cusack movies ranked by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
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