Devin Ratray makes bullying funny without making it harmless. Buzz remains the obvious reason to recognise him, but we also value the imposing presence and gravelly voice he brings to adult supporting roles.
Fi1m perspective
Buzz treats being the older brother as permission to be unpleasant. In Home Alone (1990), Devin Ratray makes the bullying funny through the timing of his lines, without asking us to like the boy. We laughed at his nastiness because the delivery makes being horrible seem so ordinary to him. He is a useful comic supporting actor, especially when a family film needs someone who is not trying to win our affection or make the household seem nicer than it is.
That part also made the move into adult casting difficult. He returned to Buzz in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), and the association persisted through Home Sweet Home Alone (2021). The more interesting change came in the 2010s, with independent films including Blue Ruin (2013) and Alexander Payne's Nebraska (2013). The imposing physical presence and gravelly voice of his adult work make the early casting understandable, but they need not confine him to bullies.
Steven Soderbergh provides the clearest reason to follow that later work, directing him as Nate Henry in Mosaic (2018) and Kevin in Kimi (2022). Mosaic belongs to the more intense dramatic side of his acting; Kimi places him in a thriller whose principal strength is Zoë Kravitz. We recommend the latter for its lean construction and tightly controlled first half, with reservations about the familiar chase that follows.
Columbus's encouragement of improvisation is worth noting: Ratray's comic usefulness is not simply a matter of looking like trouble. His line delivery in Home Alone does a good deal of the work, and suits the film's agreeably unkind humour. The sentiment gets more help from Columbus than it needs; we prefer the comedy when the family is allowed to be unpleasant. Start there for Ratray's timing, then try Kimi, with the understanding that Kravitz carries it.
Biography
Devin Ratray is an American actor. He was born on 11 January 1977 in New York City, the son of actors Ann Willis and Peter Ratray, and graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in 1994.
Ratray began acting as a child, with his film debut in Where Are the Children? (1986). He gained prominence as Buzz McCallister in Home Alone (1990) and reprised the role in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) and Home Sweet Home Alone (2021). His other film credits include Nebraska (2013), Hustlers (2019) and Kimi (2022), in which he played Kevin. On television he has appeared in Better Call Saul (2022) as Alfred Hawthorne Hill and in The Tick (2017–2019) as Tinfoil Kevin.
