Combs Cameos - “Caught Up”
Mar 24th, 2008
SMALL UPDATE
Jeff’s film Wizard of Gore which recently had two screenings at the Boston Underground Film Festival, is slated to be released on DVD this summer! The film also just won an honorable mention in the Best Feature category at the Boston Underground Film Festival!
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Caught Up
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“I just think Combs is, by far, one of the best, most interesting character actors that’s out there–period.” - Darin Scott, writer/director of Caught Up
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This is one of my favorite of Jeff’s cameos. Even though he is onscreen for less than three minutes, Jeff gives his all to this amazingly powerful performance. He plays an unnamed ex-security guard (introduced in a small scene earlier on in the film), who has held a very personal grudge against the main character, Daryl (Bokeem Woodbine who is also in another of Jeff’s cameo films, Edmond) and his friend for over seven years. These scenes enact the guard’s final confrontation with Daryl, a sort of showdown between the two.
At first, upon watching the scene, you find it almost amusing. The security guard is a kind of jester, hopping about in anger and cursing a blue streak. Then you start to look more closely. The guard is a jester, yes, but in Shakespeare’s plays, jesters usually are the most melancholy members of the court, hiding their sadness behind jokes and overly eloquent speeches. Jeff’s jester-figure, although he is angered to the point of hilarity, has tears forming in his eyes. His portrayal of this duality has such amazing depth and sincerity, it blows me away every time. Every single minute onscreen Jeff pushes himself and his audience so close to the brink of intense despair that you feel emotionally drained afterwards. He makes the performance look so effortless, so real, that you forget you’re watching a film, and instead feel like a voyeur looking in on a very private situation. Just incredible.
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I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that this is also a rather “revealing” role for Jeff, which makes his portrayal of the guard all the more human and vulnerable. One feels such pathos for the character and his situation, we can’t help but side with him. The commentary over Jeff’s scenes notes that he was the one who thought up the idea for the guard to quote Shakespeare as a way to show his character’s growing madness and utter agony at his lot in life. It is an absolutely perfect touch that gives the scene that much more depth. No matter how many times I watch this, I am always in awe of the amount of intense emotion Jeff brings to the role.
This is a must-see cameo of Jeff’s and the film itself is brilliant.