The 5 Spot: The Great Crossover: Musicians Turned Actors

We all love a good crossover (collectively). If we didn't then Shania Twain and Ja Rule wouldn't dominate the pop charts every now and again (or at one point), Ronald Reagan wouldn't have been president, or Ole Blue Eyes never would have mixed around with Gene Kelly. The crazy thing about crossover artists or figures or whatever is that its so easy for it to go very wrong (read: Michael Jordan's baseball career). I really admire when someone makes the leap successfully. And by successfully I'm not talking financially, but on the basis of artistic merit. And, of course, I judge it by my own criteria. That's how opinions work. Here's a few musicians that I think did a fine job making the jump to movies whether it was a brief stint or still going to this day:


#1: Art Garfunkel in Carnal Knowledge: Everybody knows this goldilocks for having the sweetest vocal chords anyone's ever heard. Half of Simon and Garfunkel, he was the high-register love that came lilting out of your headphones. What a natural choice for a Mike Nichols film, right?! When this film came out about a handful of sexually confused and frustrated co-eds (namely Jack Nicholson, Art, Candice Bergen, and Ann-Margaret), nobody knew what to do with it because everyone wants Garfunkel to be this cherubic figure. It's a classic! Of course it wasn't the first time that Nichols and Garfunkel had collaborated...
Rating: B+
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#2: Meat Loaf in Fight Club: These days, he's a really nice dad that's going to get that cool new phone for his kid, but back in the day, he used to be totally hardcore!! This bat outta hell, has sold millions and millions of records and happens to have been a part of spawning backyard battle clubs and obsessive midnight movie revues. In this fisticuff festivus, he is a man with an unfortunate problem. Also, you might remember that his name was Robert Paulson.
Rating: B+



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#3: David Bowie in The Prestige: The easy route here would be to talk about Labyrinth, but we all know about that one and Bowie isn't exactly a man that needs an introduction. I did enjoy his subtle, yet creepy portrayal of Tesla in this Christian Bale vehicle. A fairly phenomenal movie from someone who knows what he's doing, and its a lot of fun with a pretty great twist!
Rating: B





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#4: Tom Waits in Down By Law: Tom Waits is another one of those dudes whose career needs no embellishing, glossing over, or paraphrasing. It's depth and breadth suggest that canonization is inevitable, but I particularly love this turn of his in this crazy, depressing, and fun film of indie darling Jim Jarmusch.
Rating: A





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#5: Mark Wahlberg in I Heart Huckabees: He's just a squirrel trying to get a nut, and there's nothing wrong with that. His film career is not lacking good flicks, but I really like this pop-culture pscho-analytic freakout. Q: How is he not himself? A: When he's Marky Mark.
Rating: A-








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