I think he's very good, he could have been a lot better, except that he kept going for easy pay-offs in terms of work and audience reaction. I think it's sad and interesting that his best work comes out of a time when people usually do their worst work - when his back is up against the wall. When the guy had pretty much burnt up all his choices in terrible thrillers, he makes Breaking In. When he's run out of movie options, when even his TV shows are getting cancelled, he pulls off Boogie Nights. I think he's actually hilarious in Striptease, and that might have been a much better movie if it were made for a smaller budget in the 70s, when nudity wasn't such a big deal.

I think some actors when they hit it big love what they do, but they hate the whole system they're in, and they express contempt for it through their work. They do it by doing way too much and barely invest any time or care, and Reynolds falls prey to his worst instincts, giving people a sarcastic knowing wink that he really is in a pile of shit. He's on "The Johnny Carson Show" even when he's not on "The Johnny Carson Show"; in his best movies, the quality of the players and the tone of the movie he's appearing in - Deliverance, Breaking In, Boogie Nights - keep him from pulling this trick. Though Nights is ostensibly about the pr0no industry, I always thought of it as being about marginal, low-budget Hollywood, the kind of industry that was kept alive for so long because theaters and TV needed content to play. Boogie Nights isn't about pr0no but this unseen, near invisible part of the industry where people have the same dreams as in higher budget, more distinguished work, and there's a director convincing everybody that they're working on great art. The VCR reduces this industry, and the internet completely eliminates it. Reynolds playing the part invokes his past career, but this past decade of movie-making as well, since so many of his movies then weren't blockbuster star hits, but films made for casual viewing that could fill up a theater's slots.

Of the man outside the movies I know nothing, except for two details. That he spoke at the funeral of Ossie Davis, and a story he shared about bringing Charles Durning to meet his father at his home. The two men got to talking, and realized they'd both gone up Normandy at the same place. There was a noticeable pause in the conversation of the two men. "Go outside for a while," the elder Reynolds said to his son. "Why dad?" "Because you weren't there."