Inspired in part by OGIC's request to name the first five movie quotes that pop into your head--which I was unable to do primarily because the only lines that the cinetrix carries in her head come exclusively from The Blues Brothers, Better Off Dead, and Pee-wee's Big Adventure [you think I'm kidding]--here's a little sumthin-sumthin on which to squander those first painful hours at work. [It's ripped off wholesale from Entertainment Weekly's Ask the Critic, if you must know.]
What movie character do you identify with the most?
Ooooh, that's a doozy. In my callow post-collegiate 1990s incarnation, I would have opted for some bratty Parker Posey role, no doubt. Now I really don't know, which may be reason enough to keep seeing movies. EW critic Owen Gleiberman's answer is, uh, a little unsettling:
For years, I would have said William Petersen's brooding former FBI agent in Manhunter.... It's a rare day on which I'm accused of being the most carefree person in the room.... Perhaps I'm growing lighter with the years, though, since my current answer to your question is Patrick Fugit's wide-eyed teenage journalist in Almost Famous.
So, who's your secret doppelganger in the movies? Who do you think mine is? And perhaps most important of all, how do you think some of our favorite critics might answer this same question? Have at it in the comments, s.v.p.
UPDATE: One candidate, I suppose, is the snarky bookstore owner who lets down her hair for Marlowe in The Big Sleep--she seemed to promise, er, a rich inner life.
MARLOWE: I'm a private dick on a case. Perhaps I'm asking too much. It doesn't seem too much to me, somehow.
PROPRIETESS: Well, Geiger is in his early forties, medium height, fattish, soft all over, a Charlie Chan moustache. Well dressed, wears a black hat, affects a knowledge of antiques and hasn't any. Oh, yes, I think his left eye is glass.
MARLOWE: You'd make a good cop.
PROPRIETESS: Thanks.