Catherine Keener can make cruelty sound like tiredness, then let us see the person doing the damage. Her dry humour is worth seeking out, though studio films have not always given her enough to do.
Fi1m perspective
In Full Frontal (2002), Catherine Keener asks a frightened employee to name the countries of Africa before sacking him. As Lee, she makes the cruelty sound like another tedious task, and the flat delivery gets laughs the rest of the film struggles to earn. Steven Soderbergh lets his unhappy characters talk at length, but Keener makes us listen for what Lee can no longer be bothered to disguise. We were moved by her scene with Mary McCormack, two sisters talking on a bed, because the camera stays still long enough for the exhaustion to feel like something lived through. It is a brief reason to care in a film we otherwise find tiresome.
Her first lead came in Tom DiCillo’s Johnny Suede (1991), before the independent films of the 1990s made good use of her dry, understated delivery. Being John Malkovich (1999), in which she plays Maxine Lund, brought wider recognition. Moving between independent work and studio supporting parts has not always served her as well. Her five films with Nicole Holofcener and four with DiCillo suggest a better prospect: directors who keep finding something for her to do.
Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (1998) is a much better film than Full Frontal, but a smaller pleasure for anyone watching chiefly for Keener. Her Adele Delisi gets one good scene in a cast that has more capable actors than it has room for. We recommend the film warmly, with a caveat about its busier, less charming Detroit stretch. It leaves us wishing Soderbergh had given her more to do.
In Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), the limitation is harder to overlook. Keener’s Maryanne Stewart has a courtroom argument to deliver, and Jeff Groth’s unhurried cutting leaves the legal scenes sitting there in long two-shots. The material gives us little of the dry humour or complicated sympathy she can bring to an unhappy character. We do not need every part to be large, but we do need it to offer her more than explanation. Start with Out of Sight for the film; do not expect a generous helping of Keener.
Biography
Catherine Keener is an American actress. She was born on 26 March 1959 in Miami, Florida, and graduated from Wheaton College with a BA in English and history.
She has appeared in independent and studio films including Out of Sight (1998) as Adele Delisi, Being John Malkovich (1999) as Maxine Lund, Full Frontal (2002) as Lee, Get Out (2017) as Missy Armitage, and Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) as Maryanne Stewart. She received Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich and for her role as Harper Lee in Capote (2005).
Keener has collaborated repeatedly with directors Nicole Holofcener, Tom DiCillo and Spike Jonze. She starred as Deirdre in the Showtime series Kidding (2018–2020).
