John Cusack Filmography

Happy 45th Birthday, John Cusack! What's His Finest Onscreen Moment?

On this day back in 1966, a baby boy named John Cusack was born in Evanston, Ill. Within two decades, Cusack had moved to Hollywood and was building the foundation for his long-lasting career on a series of ’80s films like Better Off Dead , One Crazy Summer and Say Anything . Three decades later, Cusack remains one of our most beloved actors, capable of charming audiences as a lovelorn audiophile, a depressed puppeteer, a neurotic hitman, and a variety of onscreen personas in between. In celebration of the actor’s 45th birthday, why don’t you dust off your copy of Hey Soul Classics and join us below to decide which of Cusack’s cinematic moments is his best.

So many good moments to pick from, ranging from his breakthrough role in Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything (below) to last year’s Hot Tub Time Machine . no one is allowed to choose a moment from Hot Tub Time Machine or Must Love Dogs because we have standards at Movieline and we’d like to believe that you do too. But any scene from Eight Men Out , Grifters , Bullets Over Broadway , Grosse Pointe Blank , Being John Malkovich , High Fidelity (also below), and the rest of Cusack’s filmography is fair game.

(Thanks for playing, previous commenters; no true Cusack-originalist would consider THE JOURNEY OF NATTTY GANN as "forgotten" sooner than he would confuse Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes with Neneh Cherry's Buffalo Stance (or "Savage" Steve Holland's ONE CRAZY SUMMER with "Savage" Steve Holland's BETTER OFF DEAD).

Career-Defining Cusack Moment: Minnie Driver slaps him in the face (in GROSSE POINTE BLANK); he literally, briefly, puts his tongue in his cheek.

This moment for me in "High Fidelity." When he has been imagining the great sex his ex has been having with Ian every night, and he asks her when she comes to his apartment to pick some things up, "Is it better?" She is confused, and he explains he wants to know if the sex is better. "Is that what's bothering you?" she says, "I don't know. I haven't had sex with him yet. But the sleeping together is better."

I--and every other girl I know who's watched this--gasped! OUCH. Poor John Cusack! She likes cuddling with Ian better than her long-term boyfriend!

And then he nods his head, repeats what she's said--CLEARLY in agony and disbelief, right?

Happy 45th Birthday, John Cusack! What's His Finest Onscreen ...

On this day back in 1966, a baby boy named John Cusack was born in Evanston, Ill. Within two decades, Cusack had moved to Hollywood and was building the foundation for his long-lasting career on a series of ’80s films like Better Off Dead , One Crazy Summer and Say Anything . Three decades later, Cusack remains one of our most beloved actors, capable of charming audiences as a lovelorn audiophile, a depressed puppeteer, a neurotic hitman, and a variety of onscreen personas in between. In celebration of the actor’s 45th birthday, why don’t you dust off your copy of Hey Soul Classics and join us below to decide which of Cusack’s cinematic moments is his best.

So many good moments to pick from, ranging from his breakthrough role in Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything (below) to last year’s Hot Tub Time Machine . no one is allowed to choose a moment from Hot Tub Time Machine or Must Love Dogs because we have standards at Movieline and we’d like to believe that you do too. But any scene from Eight Men Out , Grifters , Bullets Over Broadway , Grosse Pointe Blank , Being John Malkovich , High Fidelity (also below), and the rest of Cusack’s filmography is fair game.

(Thanks for playing, previous commenters; no true Cusack-originalist would consider THE JOURNEY OF NATTTY GANN as "forgotten" sooner than he would confuse Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes with Neneh Cherry's Buffalo Stance (or "Savage" Steve Holland's ONE CRAZY SUMMER with "Savage" Steve Holland's BETTER OFF DEAD).

Career-Defining Cusack Moment: Minnie Driver slaps him in the face (in GROSSE POINTE BLANK); he literally, briefly, puts his tongue in his cheek.

This moment for me in "High Fidelity." When he has been imagining the great sex his ex has been having with Ian every night, and he asks her when she comes to his apartment to pick some things up, "Is it better?" She is confused, and he explains he wants to know if the sex is better. "Is that what's bothering you?" she says, "I don't know. I haven't had sex with him yet. But the sleeping together is better."

I--and every other girl I know who's watched this--gasped! OUCH. Poor John Cusack! She likes cuddling with Ian better than her long-term boyfriend!

And then he nods his head, repeats what she's said--CLEARLY in agony and disbelief, right?

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