John Cusack
Actor
- Sixteen Candles (1984)
- Dir. John Hughes
Feat. Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Michael Schoeffling…
- Molly Ringwald became a star in this first of John Hughes' hip and eminently enjoyable movies about adolescence in the 1980s.
- Sure Thing, The (1985)
- Dir. Rob Reiner
Feat. John Cusack, Daphne Zuniga, Tim Robbins…
- Early John Cusack film puts an agreeable spin on the plot of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, where he and female–nemesis Daphne Zuniga uncomfortably…
- Better Off Dead (1985)
- Dir. Savage Steve Holland
Feat. John Cusack, Amanda Wyss, Donald Ogden Stewart…
- Skewed version of the 80s teenage comedy which follows the plight of likeable John Cusack after he is dumped by his girlfriend. After many original…
- Journey of Natty Gann, The (1985)
- Dir. Jeremy Kagan
Feat. John Cusack, Meredith Salenger, Ray Wise…
- Lowkey and rich in atmosphere, this superior Disney feature crosses Depression–era America with a young runaway, who forms an unlikely bond…
- Tapeheads (1988)
- Dir. Bill Fishman
Feat. John Cusack, Tim Robbins
- Eager to succeed in the L.A. as music–vid directors, John Cusack and Tim Robbins “do what they gotta do, so they can do what they wanna”.…
- Say Anything (1989)
- Dir. Cameron Crowe
Feat. John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney
- Fresh light is cast on the East–end boy meets West–end girl scenario. Satisfying teen fare.
- Eight Men Out (1989)
- Dir. John Sayles
Feat. John Cusack, Michael Rooker, Christopher Lloyd…
- True story of the Chicago White Sox baseball team who conspired with gamblers to lose the World Series in 1919. Finely detailed topical drama with an…
- Shadow Makers (Fat Man and Little Boy) (1989)
- Dir. Roland Joffe
Feat. Paul Newman, Dwight Schultz, Bonnie Bedelia…
- An informative (if only really adequate) dramatisation of the Manhattan Project, which produced the A–Bomb in the New Mexico desert during WW2.…
- Grifters, The (1990)
- Dir. Stephen Frears
Feat. Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, Annette Bening
- Small time con–artists Anjelica Huston, John Cusack and Annette Bening cross paths but come to discover little honour among thieves. A quirky,…
- Shadows and Fog (1991)
- Dir. Woody Allen
Feat. Woody Allen, John Malkovich, Kathy Bates…
- Woody, John Malkovich, Kathy Bates, John Cusack, Jodie Foster and Madonna cast their prominent shadows for his droll tale of mystery stranglers,…
- True Colours (1991)
- Dir. Herbert Ross
Feat. John Cusack, James Spader, Imogen Stubbs…
- Political drama in which John Cusack and James Spader's law school friendship turns to sour grapes when they graduate to Washington's corridors of…
- Map of the Human Heart (1992)
- Dir. Vincent Ward
Feat. Jason Scott Lee, Patrick Bergin, Anne Parillaud…
- Worldly romantic adventure spanning the life of an orphaned Eskimo. A majestic achievement for local boy Vincent Ward, as much for its unique slant…
- Money for Nothing (1993)
- Dir. Ramon Menendez
Feat. John Cusack, Debi Mazar, Michael Madsen…
- Fact–based account of an unemployed Philadelphia dockworker who scooped up US$1.2 million that fell out the back of an armoured car and decided…
- Road to Wellville (1994)
- Dir. Alan Parker
Feat. Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Broderick, Bridget Fonda…
- Much eccentricity transpires at the health farm of J. Harvey Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins), inventor of the corn flake. Matthew Broderick, Bridget Fonda,…
- Bullets Over Broadway (1995)
- Dir. Woody Allen
Feat. John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri…
- Woody takes a welcome acting reprieve here and the result should win him back lapsed fans. A much younger Cusack assumes the Woody persona – a…
- City Hall (1996)
- Dir. Harold Becker
Feat. Al Pacino, John Cusack, Bridget Fonda
- Good old–fashioned ethics melodrama with fine perfs from Al Pacino and John Cusack lending the required lustre to plot intricacies involving…
- Con Air (1997)
- Dir. Simon West
Feat. Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich…
- The prison genre meets the airborne thriller(!) but invigorated no end by super–slick production and direction and the ever–dependable…
- Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
- Dir. George Armitage
Feat. John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd…
- Sporting a sideways sense of humour, this sardonic comedy has likeable, babbling hitman John Cusack shyly fronting up to his 10–year highschool…
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
- Dir. Clint Eastwood
Feat. John Cusack, Kevin Spacey
- John Cusack and Kevin Spacey convene for Clint Eastwood's moody adaptation of John Berendt's fact–based novel – a complex, atmospheric…
- This Is My Father (1998)
- Dir. Paul Quinn
Feat. James Caan, Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea…
- The discovery of an old family photo triggers a trip to Ireland and into the past for Irish–American James Caan and his nephew. Inevitably…
- Chicago Cab (Hellcab) (1998)
- Dir. Mary Cybulski, John Tintori
Feat. John Cusack, Gillian Anderson, Julianne Moore…
- Bleak black comedy based around a day in the life of a Chicago cab–driver (Dillon) in the lead up to Christmas, who becomes confessor to his…
- Pushing Tin (1999)
- Dir. Mike Newell
Feat. John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett…
- The title is Air Traffic Controller jargon for getting all the jumbo–jets landing on time, and typifies the haywire humour of this workplace…
- Being John Malkovich (1999)
- Dir. Spike Jonze
Feat. John Cusack, John Malkovich, Cameron Diaz…
- Surrealist comic marvel distinguished by the most bizarre of plots – washed–up puppeteer John Cusack's new position as a filing clerk…
- Cradle Will Rock (1999)
- Dir. Tim Robbins
Feat. John Cusack, Bill Murray, John Turturro…
- Caught between government paranoia and unionist principles in depression–era New York, a theatre troupe voice their dissent by attempting to…
- High Fidelity (2000)
- Dir. Stephen Frears
Feat. John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Jack Black…
- American adaptation of Nick Hornby's beloved English novel about pop music obsession and the vagaries of romance loses surprisingly little in the…
- America's Sweethearts (2001)
- Dir. Joe Roth
Feat. John Cusack, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Julia Roberts…
- Self–satirising amusement wherein Hollywood “golden–couple–who–actually–hate–each–other”, Catherine…
- Serendipity (2001)
- Dir. Peter Chelsom
Feat. John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale
- Light romance–by–fate comedy, where, on their first meeting John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, decide to test their ‘rightness’…
- Max (2002)
- Dir. Menno Meyjes
Feat. John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski
- Recommendable though flawed drama, concerns a fictional friendship in 1918 Munich between budding–artist Adolf Hitler and a Jewish…
- Identity (2003)
- Dir. James Mangold
Feat. John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet…
- File this teasing, shamelessly manipulative thriller under “guilty pleasure” for its gimmick premise can either be enjoyed as a cheeky…
- Runaway Jury (2003)
- Dir. Gary Fleder
Feat. John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman…
- It's back to court with John Grisham, in a well–cast, entertaining tale of gun–control issues, jury–manipulation, big business and…
- Must Love Dogs (2005)
- Dir. Gary David Goldberg
Feat. Diane Lane, John Cusack, Elizabeth Perkins…
- Candyfloss romcom sees a forty–something teacher (Lane) recover from a broken marriage with the help of her large Irish–American family,…
- Ice Harvest, The (2005)
- Dir. Harold Ramis
Feat. John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen…
- A chilled–out study in sleaze and crime with partners John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton contriving a way to lift $2 million from a Mob client…
- Contract, The (2006)
- Dir. Bruce Beresford
Feat. John Cusack, Morgan Freeman
- An elusive contract killer is apprehended by a camping father and son, giving way to a remote wilderness thriller of cat and mouse.
Though…
- Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride (2006)
- Dir. Tom Thurman
Feat. Gary Busey, John Cusack, Benicio Del Toro…
- Definitive documentary about the life and death of the late, great gonzo himself, Hunter S. Thompson.
Visuals draw heavily on clips, including…
- 1408 (2007)
- Dir. Mikael Håfström
Feat. John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson
- This good, old–fashioned horror adapts a latter–day Steven King story of the same name.
True to genre, it's about a sceptical,…
- Martian Child (2007)
- Dir. Menno Meyjes
Feat. John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Amanda Peet
- Nicely judged performances from a quality cast lend weight to this rather feathery, maudlin tale of a lonely sci–fi author who adopts an…
- Igor (2008)
- Dir. Anthony Leondis
Feat. John Cusack, John Cleese, Steve Buscemi…
- Gothic animated outing about a hunchbacked lab assistant who wants to become a mad scientist in his own right and win first place at the annual Evil…
- War, Inc. (War Inc.) (2008)
- Dir. Joshua Seftel
Feat. John Cusack, Hilary Duff, Marisa Tomei…
- Hit–and–miss satire with Cusack as a weary hitman sent to assassinate an oil minister in a Middle Eastern country occupied by an American…
- 2012 (2009)
- Dir. Roland Emmerich
Feat. John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Thandiwe Newton…
- Oh the humanity! Doomsday specialist Roland Emmerich renders the disaster movie redundant with this senseless, all–or–nothing…
- Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
- Dir. Steve Pink
Feat. John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke…
- Obnoxious man–child malarkey with a middle–aged John Cusack and his drop–out friends transported back to the past (the…
- Shanghai (2010)
- Dir. Mikael Håfström
Feat. John Cusack, Gong Li, Chow Yun-Fat…
- Lavish Sino–Japanese prestige picture with John Cusack as an American expat ensconced in 40s Shanghai on the eve of the Pearl Harbour attacks.…
- Raven, The (2012)
- Dir. James McTeigue
Feat. John Cusack, Alice Eve, Luke Evans…
- Edgar Allan Poe spends his last days chasing a serial killer inspired by his writing in this hokey, but watchable thriller.
- Paperboy, The (2012)
- Dir. Lee Daniels
Feat. Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman…
- Sweaty Southern melodrama concerns a pair of journalists recruited by a brassy blonde to fight for a death row inmate she has fallen in love with.
- Butler, The (2013)
- Dir. Lee Daniels
Feat. Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey…
- A stagy but sincere history of post–war Black America from the point of view of a White House servant (played by Forest Whitaker). It works as…
- Adult World (2013)
- Dir. Scott Coffey
Feat. Emma Roberts, John Cusack, Evan Peters…
- A struggling college graduate with aspirations of becoming a poet slums it at a small town sex shop in this dry indie comedy.
- Grand Piano (2013)
- Dir. Eugenio Mira
Feat. Elijah Wood, John Cusack, Dee Wallace Stone
- This tantalizing Grand Guignol, styled in the spirit of Italian Giallo and Brian De Palma, finds concert pianist Elijah Wood stalked by an unseen…
- Maps to the Stars (2014)
- Dir. David Cronenberg
Feat. Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack…
- Director David Cronenberg’s gaudy, lacerating satire of Hollywood vanities, featuring Julianne Moore in a richly–deserved…
- Love & Mercy (Love and Mercy) (2014)
- Dir. Bill Pohlad
Feat. John Cusack, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks…
- Finely attuned portrait of Brian Wilson, the mercurial singer, songwriter and leader of The Beach Boys, and his struggles with his emerging psychosis…
- Chi-Raq (2015)
- Dir. Spike Lee
Feat. Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Teyonah Parris…
- Brilliant Spike Lee musical transposing the classical Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes into the setting of a Chicago neighbourhood beset by gang…