Glen Powell, currently hailed as the next major male movie star, has tiny eyes and shouts WOOOOH! As a connoisseur of old Hollywood, I am fine with this being his signature, since Joan Crawford’s “thing” was staring, which is a pretty weird screen hallmark, and she’s a GREAT star. I have now seen three films where Powell shouts WOOOOH! First, in the Richard Linklater movie “Everybody Wants Some” where, in a large cast, I genuinely thought he had presence shouting “WOOOH!” at a college kegger party, so much so that I wrote down his name. His break out was shouting “WOOOH!” flying airplanes alongside Tom Cruise in “Top Gun Maverick”. And he has cemented his status, this weekend, shouting “WOOOH!” as he chases tornados in “Twisters”, a giant hit. It’s a strange and rare alchemy that allows a US audience to accept a new face as a screen star. Matt Smith, for example, is a wonderful actor but could never be a Hollywood leading man, because, though he also has tiny eyes, he does not ever shout “WOOOH!” So he can be a British lead, but in the U.S he has to do T.V or be a supporting film role.
My 11 year old and I both LOVED “Twisters”. Life is so hard and sad and scary, and it’s a unique relief to sit in the dark for two hours, watching characters overcome a monster that doesn’t even mean you any harm, as it is not sentient. Lee Isaac Chung (who made the lovely Pachinko on apple) has taken enormous care with his shots, suffusing the landscapes with detail and emotion in a way you never see in a popcorn disaster movie. And it’s undeniable that Glen Powell has been accepted by the audience as a real star: when he walked through the rain in a wet white T-shirt, I was reminded of how, in the 60’s, stars like Terence Stamp and Albert Finney were photographed as if they were the women, as if they were there for the audience’s viewing pleasure. In the Glen Powell rain sequence, the woman next to me shrieked out loud “OH MY GOD”.
All of this is to say: yawning, sighing, moaning, grunting are all somatic guttural noises that regulate the nervous system. These are terrifying times, and therefore precisely the right time to anoint as our next huge film star a man who cathartically shouts WOOOH!
I forgot him in Top Gun but liked his acting very much in Hitman (which he also co-wrote, allegedly?) - though I hated very much the dreadful female lead role. I kept thinking there'd be a giant ta-da! moment where she'd played him, but nope she was just like one-and-a-half dimensional, mooning about in a slipdress being helpless.
I saw Twister with my daughter at the weekend and he is insanely cute looking in it. He can also act so I think there’s more to him. When he smiles I’d say knicker elastic just snaps!!