We can all think of actors who aren’t as appreciated as they should be, whether they are consistently stuck in roles that are beneath their talent, their screen persona is chronically misunderstood, or they have become a cultural meme that obscures the true beauty of what they create on that flickering screen.
In our opinion there is no filmic presence like that of Keanu Reeves. He’s unique, a gift to us all. We live here within the Keanu-as-actor timeline, and we are lucky to do so — imagine if we lived in some other part of the Keanu timeline, when we couldn’t rewatch his movies over and over again. What follows are our recommendations of the key texts that will allow you to discover, understand, and more fully appreciate the joy that is Keanu. These aren’t necessarily all great films, or even his best performances, but they do get to the core of why he needs to be more appropriately considered as one of our most singular and treasured actors.
Remember, there are no small Keanus, only small movies.
BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE (1989)
This movie is a sad indictment of America’s education system, where children are threatened with expulsion with no warning and history presentations take place in front of the whole school. The propensity of Bill and Ted to mispronounce and misunderstand words, at first by accident and later intentionally, is utterly charming and reflects us all — who amongst us hasn’t mispronounced a word we’ve only previously ever read? We all of us have something to learn. Bill and Ted are our every people, reminding us that history has different interpretations and that puns are timeless.
Keanu Rating: When he appears to Joan of Arc in a beam of light, answering her prayers, truly, we are all Joan of Arc.
PARENTHOOD (1989)
While one may be tempted to view Keanu’s role in Parenthood as an in-character pit stop between the two Bill & Ted films (there’s a lot of floppy hair and exclamations of “dude!”), the true glory of his Tod can be summed up in this one scene. Not only does he reassure Dianne Weiss that he has educated her son, Baby Joaquin Phoenix, on the topic that masturbation is nothing to be ashamed of, he then goes on to drop some serious truth bombs about sub-par fathers.
Keanu Rating: Staring into middle distance with a smile playing about your face while whispering “how could we not have foreseen what was to come, how were we so blind”.
POINT BREAK (1991)
This is it, the ultimate ride. The role that created and cemented so much of what the Keanu Reeves filmic presence represents. For the first time he is an above-the-title action hero, and if you are ever going to understand 1990s American cinema, you must understand Keanu during this decade.
’90s cinema is Keanu sass-talking Gary Busey, yet listening respectfully to Lori Petty as she begrudgingly teaches him to surf, unafraid to acknowledge a woman as the expert. It’s how he riffs on his own persona, drawling out “dudes” and “brahs” yet is razor-edge-focused on his pursuit of the surfer bandits, ever learning, ever evolving. And it’s in his charged interplay with Patrick Swayze’s Bodhi, who seduces Keanu with talk of love and peace — but like most white men who appropriate Eastern philosophies, it’s all a smokescreen to behave like a dickhole.
We’re all chasing and trying to catch a Patrick Swayze in our own lives, the inspirational figures who have turned sour and corrupt yet we cannot bring ourselves to aim our guns anywhere but at the sky. And it will bring us all undone.
Keanu Rating: “100% Utah, good job!”
MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (1991)
Ancient film lore has it that River Phoenix’s agent refused to send him the treatment for this film, so Keanu rode on his motorcycle from Canada to Florida to bring it to him in person, and if you aren’t on the floor from that information, we cannot help you.
At this point in his career, Keanu’s cynical, prodigal son hustler here is somewhat of a shock. It works, though. Keanu is so matter-of-fact, blunt but mostly true. He may only be on the streets as a rebellion against a world that he will return to as soon as he can control the wealth that comes with it, but he sees more clearly the lies and dead ends of hustling than anyone else, especially more than River and his shining innocent face. Poor River who is intensely feeling every feeling under the sun, and poor Keanu who doesn’t want to feel any feelings at all. They are beautiful and entwined and completely doomed, and when Keanu betrays River he does it with a selfishness that makes complete sense. That won’t stop us, or River, longing for that iciness to drop and for tenderness to creep through one last time. Please.
Keanu Rating: Everything in this is a GODDAMN MASTERPIECE why aren’t you watching it every day of your life.
BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA (1992)
There’s 20 years worth of spit and ridicule devoted to making you think Keanu is the worst thing in this movie, but it’s a fire trap of insidious lies. The thing about an actor like Keanu is that they are incapable of telling the audience falsehoods. The essence of a film is channelled through them, and we see its true heart. Keanu seems confused, out of step, out of time in this film because he, like us, knows that this film is the most bananas, out of control gothic shitshow to ever be committed to celluloid. He looks into our eyes, and cannot tell us that this film is anything but what it is. We are Keanu, he is the only means of escape.
Also according to Francis Ford Coppola on the DVD commentary, the marriage scene between Mina and Jonathan was an entire ceremony filmed at a real Greek Orthodox church in Los Angeles, with a real Orthodox minister, and no one realised until afterwards that Keanu and Winona Ryder had been MARRIED FOR REAL. [Ed. Note — WHAAAAT.] Do with that information what you will.
Keanu Rating: Anthony Hopkins was DRUNK all through this thing, you can’t convince us otherwise.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1993)
Everyone yells in Ken Branagh’s Shakespeare. Everyone yells and is very British except for Denzel Washington, whose smile is the sun. And then there’s Keanu, all properly villainous, filled with scowls and scheming. It’s not a Keanu we are used to seeing, and again this is a case where a lot of people want you to think that Keanu is a bad actor in this film, that he has no right to be uttering the Bard’s words. Quite frankly though, it is not the words that matter here — what matters are Keanu’s silences. For a film where everyone is competing to be the loudest, biggest presence, Keanu says more with a barked laugh and a walk down a deserted corridor than some actors express in whole careers.
Keanu Rating: This is the closest you’re going to get to Keanu’s Hamlet, which actually happened on stage in Winnipeg in 1995. A theatre critic at the time described his performance: “He is one of the top three Hamlets I have seen, for a simple reason: he is Hamlet.” We will NEVER recover from this.
SPEED (1994)
This movie was a big deal, and rightly so: Keanu getting the job done but not giving a big speech about it, when other, lesser heroes would. His brutal honesty and refusing to give you false hope (he would never — he will always tell it just like it is).
And again, his embodiment of early ’90s American cinema, and ’90s action movies. From Keanu on, we are gifted with more than the oiled-up, muscular super soldiers saving us in hails of gunfire; instead, we have a clever young expert, an ordinary person who’s decent and terrified and brave and gets the job done with compassion.
Keanu Rating: After Keanu says “Relationships that start under intense circumstances rarely last” and Sandy says “We’ll have to base it on sex, then,” turn to each other with looks of delight and shriek “This movie is AMAZING.”
JOHNNY MNEMONIC (1995)
A character yells across a dystopia at Keanu. “You Johnny? Sure hope so.” My friend, don’t we all.
In this dystopic future that once again uses Asia as the weapon of othering, Keanu reflects our modern apathy in a way we might not have expected from 1995. He asks, why should he help humanity if he’s dead? He yells about staying in his corner, looking after number one. This echoes back to the ’80s and the capitalism that has left us here in our actual techno future, five years before the movie’s 2021 setting, desperate not to be apathetic but full in our knowledge that our world has been doomed by our forebears.
Keanu Rating: With our changing world and a future that’s probably fucked, this movie was prescient in ways the UNBELIEVABLY TACKY VR couldn’t have predicted.
THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE (1997)
Kevin Lomax sits like a poorly fitted suit. It’s well-tailored, and sometimes the shirt underneath works; but it’s the suit on top you see, and it chafes against Keanu.
Keanu isn’t at his best here. He swaps between the smarmy, successful son of the Devil and the southern boy, and he’s unhappy about it. His ego is on show here in a way his other characters avoid; where his usual characters create room for others (often women) with respect, here it’s about Keanu. Keanu is at his best when he is true and straightforward and honest. A movie which puts him up against himself does us all a disservice.
Keanu Rating: He wants to be true, and this movie isn’t a truth. Watch for Charlize, and the moment when Keanu smiles in the courtroom’s bathroom, those first hints of the Devil’s smile, but know that this is a movie that doesn’t deserve Keanu.
THE MATRIX (1999)
What a glory! What a time! There’s no experience like that of watching Keanu for the first time, for the fiftieth time, in The Matrix. When Laurence Fishburne tells Keanu he is the one, when Carrie-Anne Moss tells Keanu he’s the one, we know it in our guts and in our hearts. Keanu IS the one, and for many people, this movie is the moment when they knew it.
The Matrix is not merely a vehicle for our love of Keanu. It’s a love letter to us from two amazing women, a lesson imparted to remind us of the shackles imposed upon us by the patriarchy and also that white men can’t be trusted (nearly 20 years later and Cypher’s betrayal is a wound that has never healed).
Keanu Rating: This rating applies ONLY for The Matrix. We have chosen not to include its sequels because it cheapens the gifts Keanu has brought us. Devote all your time to The Matrix.
CONSTANTINE (2005)
Keanu as John Constantine is steady, and implacable. When he holds Rachel Weisz under the water to help her become who she has asked to become, his arm is firm and his face is stern and he’s just a little annoyed when she tries to breathe and undo all the good work she has done. He’s doing what’s necessary! He just wants to do what is best for us all.
Keanu says, with his actions alone: take just as much shit as you need in this world — no less, and definitely no more. Listen to Satan’s shit to get what you need, but definitely flip the bird at Satan as you ascend into Heaven. Honourable mentions to biracial baby Keanu, and to Tilda Swinton, who isn’t wrong.
Keanu Rating: No, it’s not the comic book, but Keanu made Constantine his own and is worth every ridiculous minute.
THE LAKE HOUSE (2006)
It’s a sad indictment on Hollywood that there aren’t more films that are unrepentant tear-jerkers featuring Keanu as a romantic lead, but at least we have this, a monument not only to his suitability as a swoonworthy object, but also a reminder of his epic chemistry with Sandra Bullock. A magic mailbox unites Sandy and Keanu who have been cruelly separated by time and space. It’s all ridiculous, especially the thought of anyone communicating by letters anymore. But there’s Keanu rebelling against his family of architects and a dog shared across the space/time continuum, and Keanu plants trees for Sandy to find in the future and emotionally it is EVER SO MUCH.
Keanu Rating: By the time Sandy and Keanu are finally in the same timeline and she says to him “You waited”, and he scoops her up into the fevered kiss that shames all other end-of-romantic-film kisses into DUST, you’re gasping and ugly crying and willing to forgive this film everything, even the fact that in this epoch-defining final scene it chose to outfit Keanu in the most terrible turtleneck imaginable.
A SCANNER DARKLY (2006)
Keanu is introduced to us as an everyman, and this movie tells us true: we’re all Keanu. When he is despairing at the pointlessness of his life and his job and the war against Substance D, his despair is our despair. When he wants to strangle Robert Downey, Jr. for being RDJ, we also want to leap forward and murder RDJ. And his weariness at the end, when he has nothing left but rehab and the mysterious plant he’s harvesting in his drug-addled state (SPOILERS: it’s Substance D, Winona PLAYED HIM, this movie is A LOT), is our weariness. We’re just happy the movie is over, because it was intense and there were a lot of drugs and friends lost and Keanu’s bafflement and displacement is our own.
Keanu Rating: What if Keanu and Winona had stayed married after Bram Stoker’s Dracula? WHAT A WORLD. Keanu and Winona are totally great, but the animation means that when Keanu’s shirtless we can’t appreciate it. A+ great dystopic future, but now we’re a little queasy.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (2008)
Keanu himself is anti-remake; but there was something about this movie that drew him to it, and it was this: it is a blessing upon us that we can witness Keanu as alien. Alien Keanu is the perfection our hearts have cried out for; the film itself is terrible, but Alien Keanu is everything humanity needs yet doesn’t deserve.
He is here to judge us and he has found us wanting; but in his final moments, Keanu has found something in us to love after all, even though all he wants is what’s best for us and all we do is betray him and let Kathy Bates shoot missiles at him. He just wants us to protect the earth and refrain from killing it, even though he knows we can’t help ourselves!
Keanu Rating: Keanu’s perfect, from the snow in his beard to the bullet scar on his bare chest. Keanu is waiting for us to find him and realise our full potential, just as he waited in the station for Jennifer Connolly to find him and help him understand. The film is terrible, but you must see it. It has left our hearts full of nothing but love and grace.
47 RONIN (2013)
After decades playing characters with worryingly caucasian-sounding names often involving variations of ‘John’, it’s a relief to get to 47 Ronin and see Keanu play a character that is explicitly mixed race, as he himself is. Less fun is the fact he spends most of the film being called ‘Half-Breed’ and told he can’t be a samurai then getting beaten up while living in a dirt hovel. Did we need a Hollywood version of 47 Ronin that plays merry nonsense with the original story, adding in dragons and demons and Rinko Kikuchi as a fox witch and a part for a Western actor that means the rest of the cast, who are entirely Japanese, have to speak in English? No, we did not. Is it still, despite so much WTFuckery, ridiculously enjoyable, and do we cry when Keanu tells the samurai’s daughter that in a thousand worlds, in ten thousand lifetimes, he will always be looking for her? Yes, we do.
Keanu Rating: This is the true magic of Keanu, that something can be so wrong you spend the whole time yelling “How was this ALLOWED” and then you watch it over and over with heedless glee.
JOHN WICK (2014)
John Wick is a glorious return to pure Keanu, completely unsullied by any of the random (but excellent) business that happened after he left Sandy in The Lake House. He is an action hero (for the role he learnt forms he hadn’t learnt before, and was directed by former stunt doubles he worked with on The Matrix) who speaks Russian and uses a pickaxe to remove his weapons from the concrete foundation of the house he built when he retired, and people still in the game call him Baba Yaga.
All of this movie is the most Keanu, but the scene with the cop and the deadpan “You working again?” is the mostest Keanu.
Keanu Rating: Bring on John Wick 2: Electric Keanu. Welcome back, sir. WELCOME BACK.
Much Ado About Nothing is one of my favorite Shakespeare movie adaptations ever, and Keanu is pretty good in it! (I mean, he is playing across Denzel Washington, so he is obviously overshadowed, but still). Also Emma Thompson is a goddess, and Kenneth Branagh is hilarious as Benedick.
I wish I could agree! I love the Branagh version of Much Ado About Nothing (for entirely different reasons than I love the Whedon version), but for me Keanu botches his role entirely with his awful “I am a plain-dealing villain” speech. He just comes across as whiny, not evil, and since that’s the defining character moment for me, it taints the remainder of his performance.
God, I love the Whedon one too, and the choice to make Jon and Conrade a couple really made for some awesome scenes. Also, Nathan Fillion as Dogberry was amazing. _I like Keanu in the Branagh version, but YMMV, obviously 🙂
Oh, man, I love the Whedon one, but I find Fillion’s Dogberry unwatchable. But I think the fault there lies in the text, and not in the acting choices, because I found Dogberry cringe-worthy when I saw it on stage as well.
I loved Dogberry in the Tate/Tennant stage version! Slack-jawed perfection.
I actually find Keaton’s Dogberry unwatchable. Watching Fillion I was finally like, “Oh, I understand what’s going on with this character now.” I thought his interpretation was perfect and so much more comprehensible than any Dogberry I had seen previously. I liked a lot of the choices Whedon made, the whole move was really a pleasure to watch.
Also, I never had a problem with Keanu in Branaugh’s version. I thought he did well with the role. Denzel Washington and Emma Thompson were perfection. I really disliked Kate Beckinsale, though. I thought her Hero was pretty lame. Partially how the character is written, but partially the actress.
Keaton’s is also unwatchable for me. I really don’t think it’s either actor’s choices so much as I just really find that character intolerable.
Yes! I hate Keaton’s Dogberry so much, it almost ruins that version for me. Luckily, Thompson, Branagh, and Denzel are perfection.
I first saw this movie while home sick when I was 8. My parents had taped it from Masterpiece Theater several years earlier. I watched it 3 times in 2 days while sick, and it was hands-down my favorite movie for the next decade. I still love it. The Branaugh movie also made Much Ado my favorite Shakespeare play forever and always.
I agree with TheNobleRenard that Keanu seems whiny in that section, so I don’t like him as much as the villain.
I literally cannot watch Keaton’s Dogberry though. I can watch Fillion, but I cringe way too much for Keaton and must fast-forward.
But I do love the Jon and Conrad couple.
Now to go and stalk deal sites again for DVDs of both movies…. (I have the VHS of the Branaugh one, and the Wheedon one is on Netflix, but I really should get my own copies….)
It was the first Shakespeare film I ever saw and I never got why everyone said he was wrong for it.
That movie was filmed at my host mom’s house, and it was so cool to hear what she remembered from living there during the filming!
Wait, WHAT? I want more details.
Her family’s house is called Villa Vignamaggio in Chianti, Italy. It’s since been turned into a hotel, and I don’t think her family owns it any longer, but she is still involved in some form because she gets tons of olive oil from the orchards, still.
I hadn’t seen the movie when she talked about it, so a lot of what she said didn’t have much meaning for me and I forgot it, but I do remember her saying that of all the people who worked the movie, Keanu Reeves stood out and was an “absolutely wonderful gentleman”.
That’s just damned cool. Plus that HOUSE was AMAZING.
For all of the crap that gets thrown at Keanu for his acting skills, I have never heard anyone say that he is other than the nicest, kindest person alive.
!!!!!
Hayley you have DESTROYED me.
It’s 2006. I’m in an almost-empty theatre with my mom, watching The Lake House. We’re excited for a Sandy/Keanu reunion.
When suddenly, what’s this? Keanu sneezes. Keanu sneezes in the most incredible way possible. My mom and I turn to one another and dissolve into laughter. Rewatching it on Youtube isn’t the same as seeing a giant-ass Keanu winding up for a deliciously horribly fake sneeze.
Film writer @angelicabastien wrote a really lovely piece recently about how great Keanu is so I feel it is high time someone threw together a one-off film festival in his honor or something.
Man, Keanu movies are some highly rewatchable ish.
No kidding; out of all the Keanu movies I’ve seen, I don’t think I’ve ever watched one just once. Netflix just readded The Replacements, so I watched it last night for the 999th time. I will be watching it again shortly, because it just feels right to round it to 1000.
There are some Keanu movies that the first time I saw them I immediately watched them again.
One of the final straws in a friendship that led to a friendship breakup was said friend and her jerkwad boyfriend making me late to “Constantine.” (There was a whole big rigamarole)
I used to use “Speed” in class when I taught undergrads and I was the total nerd teacher that would begin post-screening discussions with “pop quiz, hotshots!”
You were right to break up with that friend, she didn’t deserve you or Keanu
THE REPLACEMENTS!!!
I am so excited for this.
It is a movie that is fully 1000000000x better than it has any right to be, and Keanu is perfection.
Also, Gene Hackman channeling his inner Knute Rockne (we all have an inner Knute, but Hackman’s is the best, natch) positively blowing up the scenery left and right as he launches every single sports movie cliche ever with pinpoint accuracy.
I watched THE REPLACEMENTS last night after reading these comments, and it was FAB. So, many thanks for the rec!
I hadn’t seen that–thanks for pointing it out! Here’s a link:
http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/bright-…
That piece is fantastic.
Angelica’s writing is so good. She does a series called “The Feminine Grotesque” forvaguevisages.com that is aces.
I am just SO HERE FOR THIS. THIS IS MY KIND OF CONTENT AND I AM JUST SO HAPPY. Thank you both for appreciating Keanu as he deserves. You are doing important things.
I maintain Bill and Ted was his finest hour.
Bogus Journey. BOGUS JOURNEY.
For real confession: I legit get teary during the ending credits musical montage in Bogus Journey. Every time. I am a ridiculous human.
Bogus Journey does have the better Dismayed Keanu Faces, by far. (Hello, I am a grown woman who has literally just watched both Bill and Teds for the first time. They were much more likable than I expected! Also I am 98% sure Bill and Ted are secretly in love and none of my friends agree with me for some reason!)
They definitely are.
Of course they are. I live in hope that this alleged third one will 1) actually happen and 2) have them married.
The Bill & Ted movies are excellent and contain many important life lessons.
He, regrettably, does not concur. I literally cannot be on board the Keanu train because he calls these films his “one thing that every actor regrets”.
I am SUPER behind “Keanu is a regular human who takes the subway”, tho. idk why, I cannot stand him as an actor, but that is just so… lovely.
Oh, that is disappointing.
I wonder if his regret is more because of the typecasting & the way everyone assumed he was as dim as the character, though. The Angelica Bastien piece mentioned above talks about how the biggest criticism of his acting is that “he always just plays himself”, and I can imagine how frustrating the aftermath of those movies would have been, if that assumption was affecting his professional life.
Aw, that’s too bad. I will choose to believe that what he means is “I recognize that they’re great movies, but I regret the effect they had on my image,” which would be a very fair complaint.
??? There’s no way that can be current—not when he’s been hard at work trying to get Bill and Ted 3 made for like, five years.
I’ve read about a million Keanu interviews and while I think he had some regrets early in his career about being typecast as that character for so long, my impression is that with real adulthood, he’s become tremendously appreciative of the Bill and Ted films. I think I’ve even seen him name them among his favorite things he’s done!
Chris Evans does the same thing about Not Another Teen Movie, and it unnecessarily enrages me. That movie is legitimately better than 90% of the movies of his filmography, show some respect!
Trufax: the very first time my boyfriend asked me over to watch a movie at his apartment it was 47 Robin. The man knows the dialogue for every Keanu movie we have ever watched. He has a John Wick ringtone. #soulmate
Matrix-era Keanu was my most recent celebrity crush before Tom Hiddleston came along and I think that’s all I need to say about my feelings toward the man.
Oh, this was a piece the world needed :
Favourite tidbit about Keanu’s 1995 Hamlet: the City of Winnipeg instituted an Official Keanu Hotline, that citizens could call where they spotted him around Winnipeg.
The production of Hamlet in the first season of Slings & Arrows is strongly based on Keanu’s turn as Canadian Hamlet!
This is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
KEANU IS IN BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA? *clears schedule for the night* *also makes note to self to finally watch John Wick*
The ending of Bill and Ted is the smartest, funniest use of time-travel that has ever been written. All time-travel related media should just steal that ending forever rather than try to come up with their own thing, since it won’t be better than Bill and Ted.
Tom Waits is Renfield and it’s awesome.
yessssssssssssss. It really, really is.
Yes to the point about time travel! From a purely intellectual point of view, it shows a far deeper understanding of time travel than *any* of the serious sci-fi dramas (excepting 12 Monkeys).
“People keep asking if I’m back, and I haven’t really had an answer. But now yeah, I’M THINKING I’M BACK”
“That ‘f*ckin’ nobody’… is John Wick.”
Hand to god I could watch this movie once a week for the rest of my life and probably never get tired of it.
I just bought it, thanks for the recc!
Yesssss
WATCH THIS MOVIE FOREVER AND EVER
John Wick is fucking amazing.
Also Bill & Ted.
I do not love The Matrix but I love the interpretation of it as a parable of how you should never trust white men (and love red-pill dumbasses having to deal with the fact that it was made by two transwomen)
I saw John Wick and it IS fucking amazing. Definitely was work paying the money to see.
Thank you for writing all this truth!! I have always and will always love Keanu. I would have read this article if it had consisted solely of the word Keanu repeated 1,000 times. The photos are good, too. Yes, very good. KEANU
Missing from this list: a stupid yet incredibly re-watchable football movie: The Replacements.
Agreed.
Watched it with a group of friends, and when John Madden and Pat Summeral start doing the play-by-play of him going in for the first kiss, one girl exclaimed, “that’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen.”
Agreed. Neither my dude nor I have any feelings about football (my grasp of even the most basic rules is still nonexistent) and yet, we could both probably watch this movie whenever we need cheering up for the rest of time.
It’s dumb, sure, but it’s so relentlessly delightful about it.
“It’s dumb, sure, but it’s so relentlessly delightful about it.”
PRECISELY.
THANK YOU. I see your “incredibly” re-watchable and raise you an “infinitely” re-watchable. I have an unholy love for this movie. And, inexplicably, it was the one movie in my DVD player through a bad breakup some years ago (life: go to class, go to gym, go home and press play, press play, press play, press play -sleeping intermittently through the plays- repeat for weeks). And I still watch this movie a few times a year.
When we first got cable it was on every few hours it seems. And once we started watching it we couldn’t stop.
Yes, I was just coming to say the same thing! The only enjoyable Football Thing in all of creation, if you ask me, and a lot of that is due to Keanu’s Keanuing.
well, this and also Friday Night Lights.
I did not know about this but it sounds amazing. I love football movies?? (And Keanu, of course.)
Ahem. It’s on Netflix.
glad I control-f’d before commenting cause I was about to post,
“Imma let you finish, but The Replacements is still my favorite Keanu movie and one of my favorite football movies of all time. And I say that as someone who is a union guy though and through.”
Surf safely. Always control-f.
— Librarian out
Damn now I’m reminded about how much I miss Gene Hackman. That’s a dumb movie you can’t help but root for.
Sadly, at 3000 words, we were ONLY ABLE TO REVIEW SO MANY KEANUS. (Uh also I couldn’t legally find a copy of The Replacements over the four weeks we watched as many Keanus as we could ALAS ALACK I WILL TRY HARDER)
Well, selfishly I am glad you left it off because it allowed me to create the most popular Toast thread I have ever created (soon I will dominate the WORLD).
But you really should see it. It is inexplicably delightful.
I feel like John Wick is probably the apotheosis of Keanu movies? He just kicks ass for the entire thing. Yeah, there’s a plot – sort of – but it’s secondary to the glorious ass kicking.
(1) Keanu is a much better actor than anyone gives him credit for;
(2) Keanu chooses his roles so, so well (he knew Speed 2 was a bad idea);
(3) there are a lot of stories of Keanu quietly doing good things for people http://www.theloop.ca/keanu-reeves-is-the-most-th… ; and
(4) he must be awesome to work with, because Rachel Weisz, Charlize Theron, and Sandra Bullock have each been in at least 2 films with him, years apart (RW: Chain Reaction, Constantine; CT: Devil’s Advocate, Sweet November; SB: Speed, The Lake House).
I wish he had been in Mad Max: Fury Road, which is the highest compliment I can pay an actor.
Clearly he takes “be excellent to each other” very seriously.
Well now I wish he’d been in MM:FR and this is a thing I’ll never get over
I’ve been watching Slings and Arrows for the first time and finding out that the storyline about Jack Crew as Hamlet was based on Keanu Reeves’ stint as Hamlet BLEW MY MIND. Just…wow.
Eeeee! I’ve been introducing my bf to S&A over the last weeks. 🙂 Are you loving it?
Constantine is genuinely one of my favourite movies. It’s just so much fun and Keanu has never been more handsome and I’ve never read Hellblazer so it exists completely on its own merits.
Yeah at first I was like “this is gonna be hokey” but IT IS SO GREAT.
Any time someone begins to gripe about Hellblazer things that Constantine “gets wrong” I just tune them out. I don’t care if it has fuckall to do with the comics. It is a totally excellent movie and everyone is excellent in it and I will rewatch it always.
Constantine is one of my favourite movies and I will fight anyone who says its not good. It hits all of my buttons; modern day good/evil, angels and demons as people, Keanue Reevs as a badass with a suit, Rachel Weizz. Tilda Swinton in all of her androgynous evil beauty. Lucifer as a sympathetic asshole. HERE FOR IT ALL. (Supernatural had the potential to push it off the top spot for a bit, but they pissed it away and Constantine shall remain forever.)
(I never read the comics and DGAF that its different. And the Constantine TV show that was apparently more ‘accurate’, kinda boring.)
MINE TOO. I legitimately shrieked TILDA!! when Gabriel turned around. I love so so much about this movie Rachel Weizz is amazing in it, and I watch it entirely too often.
…I might have written fanfic, I love it so much.
We have ALL written fanfic about Constantine, there’s no shame.
I have written fanfic. There is no shame, only glory. 😀
I love Keanu. It is not his fault he is sometimes miscast (I love “Much Ado” but I think he’s in over his head there) but he always seems to be trying really hard.
One notable exclusion here is “The Replacements,” which gives us gentle romantic comedy Keanu (my absolute favorite Keanu, tbh.)
I love his performance in Much Ado. It’s so terrible and so endearing.
I have a new appreciation for Keanu now, Hayley and Stephanie. YOU HAVE OPENED MY EYES
A tangent for all of my Keanu loving friends: I went and saw Key & Peele’s “Keanu” the other weekend, and while it was a very loving homage to a wonderful actor (really, what lengths wouldn’t any of us go to in order to protect such a treasure??) it was maybe not worth $12. The trailer covered all of the good bits imo.
O no, this was my weekend plan! Noooooo!
You might still like it! I just went it with *extremely* high expectations, which was probably my own fault.
We have, based on this + also expectations that it would be crap to begin with, moved it to a sleepover instead of theatre night 🙂
I loved Keanu (with Key and Peele). YMMV, but I have not laughed that hard in a movie theater in years. I was roaring.
POINT BREAK. That is all.
He’s just so pretty in that. And so earnest. And Gary Busey is good enough that I can forget what a nutbar he has become IRL. Plus Patrick Swayze. That movie is perfection.
I came here to defend the Matrix sequels, which are actually REALLY GOOD. WHO IS WITH ME???????
*dies alone*
I haven’t seen them since I was 13 maybe, so cannot confirm if they’re actually good? But I remember liking them fine at the time, so I’m always a little baffled by the level of hate.
Also I’m thinking maybe the first Matrix fooled people into thinking it had, like, depth? So I also wonder if the existence of Jupiter Ascending as a litmus test of pure Wachowski filmmaking might be cause for a reconsideration of the sequels.
That makes sense.
I think there was also this magic thing about the Matrix because it was one of those movies with stuff that viewers had NEVER seen before (like Star Wars and Avatar) and that’s a hard standard for sequels to live up to.
And the two sequels were a lot more ambitious in scope, so the wtf-ry was more obvious.
I pretty much love most of their movies, but I think they only work if you take them as kind fluffy parables or metaphors and don’t expect the plot to make much sense.
The Matrix certainly fooled my 10th grade humanities teacher into thinking it had depth! We spent at least two days talking about how it was the film version of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. NGL though, it was super fun to watch in class.
The Cave doesn’t have evil machine overlords, though! I might like it more if it did, tbh.
You don’t have to die alone. I’ll cradle your dying body, like Neo did with Trinity.
Seriously. I do love the whole trilogy.
I’ve rewatched the first one more, but “I don’t have time for this shit” is my favorite quote from the whole trilogy.
Thank you, and yes I agree, that’s pretty much at the top of the list of things about the trilogy to love. One day I will make a big list.
I can’t even see this post because I am certain that there is only one Matrix movie.
http://xkcd.com/566/
Although I don’t think he’s that great of an actor, I love Keanu because he’s just such a genuinely nice guy. Like how he became friends with his fight trainer from The Matrix and was like, “Yo, Tiger Chen, you’re so talented and yet so under-appreciated in the industry! I’m going to use my loads of money to fund a movie for you to star in.”
And that’s how we got Man of Tai Chi.
Oooh, I only recently watched Man of Tai Chi and had no idea that’s how it came about! In retrospect that makes me like it a bit more.
I’ve heard, second-hand, that he’s also very NICE. Like, very nice to everyone on set, both in front of the camera and behind. I’m told it’s part of why he gets cast in random things, because he’s a joy to work with.
I remember having no money and having to borrow money from the bank (aka my sister) to see Speed in the theater a total of 5 times. I might still owe her money from that.
So after watching that clip from Parenthood…is that where the Replacements got ‘Gary’s Got A Boner’ from? And is the Replacements also the name of a Keanu Reeves movie?? I’m a millennial 90’s baby and this is all new to me, but this has made me really excited to discover the power and the glory of Keanu
The album “Gary’s Got a Boner” is on was released in 1984 and Parenthood is from 1989, so if anything the song inspired the scene in the movie.
How did this reappreciation leave out his performance in the Cate Blanchett movie The Gift? He’s usually not very good at doing angry, but he is fantastic as an angry Southern dude. I’ll never forget him telling Cate Blanchett’s character to “burn in hell, witch!” in a ridiculously over-the-top Southern accent.
i love that movie!! how is cate blanchett believable as queen elizabeth and also as this poor southern lady?
I was gonna say! I remember watching this movie and thinking “whoa Keanu’s not charmingly confused in this and I believe it. This is… this is range!”
Yes! I thought he was genuinely menacing and it was so surprising and excellent!
This movie was good just for the terrifying fiddling jump scare.
Yes to all of this and that Tilda Swinton is *never* wrong.
A few months ago my husband and I made the extremely wise decision to finish off a box of wine because “there isn’t that much left” (spoiler: there was a lot more left than we thought) and watch Speed and John Constantine, neither of which I had seen before. Still ranks as one of the best weekends I’ve had this year.
I wish I could have enjoyed Johnny Mnemonic more though— I spent the entire film angry that they had axed the BEST character from the original short story and replaced her with a stock damsel-in-distress. Why would you make a sci-fi movie and take out a character with MIRROR EYES and KNIVES IN HER FINGERNAILS? Anyways, this article has solidified my interest in seeing John Wick 100%.
I also love him as Diane Keaton’s sexy doctor in Something’s Gotta Give. No way should she have ended up with Jack Nicholson in that movie.
I was just coming here to say this. He is great in that movie.
That movie is incredible all around. Diane Keaton’s performance of a lifetime. When she’s writing and having bursts of sobbing– genius and hilarious.
Thank you for saying this; I’ve been scrolling down waiting for someone to point this out.
YES. THANK YOU.
Just piling on with everyone. I love Keanu without shame or hesitation.
my love for Keanu _and this piece_ is pure and everlasting.
Dangerous Liaisons, y’all.
Dangerous. Liaisons.
The only book from my degree I 1) read at the time and 2) still read, in French. I always picture the cast when I do!
My most treasured gift from Keanu is Siddhartha in Little Buddha (1993). Incredibly beautiful Bertolucci film of Keanu becoming the Buddha and a parallel modern story featuring Bridget Fonda, Chris Isaak and Sogyal Rinpoche. Also has one of my favorite things, a payoff moment at the end of the credits. Stay with it.
Oh man. I had it bad for him all through junior high and high school. I endured a lot of mockery, but I’m so glad the world is starting to come back to its true course and recognize him for the gift he is ;).
i adore “the devil’s advocate.” it’s one of those movies that i just always want to watch whenever i see it’s on TV or streaming somewhere. it was charlize’s first big role, right? and she kills in it. and al pacino is hilarious.
plus, the name, do you get it? he is the lawyer for THE DEVIL. THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE. ah, so terrible, how i love it.
This, I non-ironically love this movie, it’s just insane, and even though it’s over 2 hours, it repeatedly plays on UK TV and I get suckered in and watch it every time.
Is there anything Charlize Theron does not kill in? (I assume we’re talking about the metaphorical use of “kill” here. I’m pretty sure her character didn’t kill anyone in Arrested Development, for example.)
Matrix Keanu definitely played a role in my blossoming adolescent sexuality. I used to sneak downstairs at night and rewatch that movie over and over (on VHS)!! Thank you for introducing the “don’t trust white men” interpretation, which I will ponder as I revisit this great piece of cinema.
No, but wait, what about River’s Edge? He plays off Crispin Glover, who is also one of the most underrated actors probably to ever exist, and he’s so sullen and angry through the whole thing. “Motherfucker! FOOD EATER!!!!”
I like how you found this article before I did.
i sneakily suspect that some of this is being satirical about its enthusiasm but I DON’T CARE THIS 100% EXPRESSES ALL THE FEELINGS I HAVE HAD ABOUT KEANU REEVES SINCE I SAW ‘SPEED’ FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIGH SCHOOL
keke4e all the time no exceptions no excuses
NONE OF THIS IS SATIRICAL. We were so worried about people thinking it satirical that we have SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL that is about to go up on my personal blog as soon as I get to work in an hour.
oh thank god ::heart eyes::
In fact, the supplementary material is up now, if you would like to avail yourself of it! *heart eyes* https://no-award.net/2016/05/11/the-light-of-kean…
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
Thanks for sharing, I jumped from there to the equally awesome ‘Civil War’ review, so you’ve got a new reader!
GUYS, KEANU REEVES HAS SEEN ME ACT. He’s the godfather of a girl I went to middle school with and came to our 8th grade arts final (where I performed a monologue from my terrible play about the British suffrage movement).
Also Señora Valazquez said very loudly that he looked better in movies and needed to wash behind his ears and WE THINK HE HEARD BUT WE HAVE NEVER BEEN SURE.
This is the greatest story ever told, thank you for sharing it.
How did she KNOW he needed to wash behind his ears?
The lady had eyes like a hawk! Thank God I never cheated on any of my Spanish exams.
(Just kidding! I bet she went up behind him super close to ~scrutinize~. She liked that kind of thing.)
WELL JELL!!!
Hasn’t Keanu also experienced a great deal of personal trauma? Upbringing, the loss of his child, and subsequent divorce? I remember reading that somewhere…
Might be unpopular… but, I’ve always been rather fond of Keanu’s role in Dangerous Liasons with Glen Close et al. That dual scene!
Okay, I need to watch 47 Ronin now.
And also all other Keanu movies again.
A Walk in the Clouds was a fave of mine when I get as coming up. Ah, Keanu! 😍
I am only here to complain that it wasn’t included. <3
I love this movie. They used to play it on ABC Family (which was maybe Fox Family still at the time?) all the time and preteen me would never not watch it. I think it contributed to my adult obsession with going to vineyards.
The scene in the vineyards when they are walking through with wings trying to keep the vines heated enough? OMG. so beautiful.
If you do an update please include Feeling Minnesota, The Gift and Hardball. In FM he’s scruffy, gorgeous and totally believable as Vincent D’O’s brother. One needs to see The Gift to understand how wonderful he is in it. Watch for the tiny smile of pride as he delivers Donnie’s last line. Hardball finds him working opposite a ball team of kids and not being upstaged at all and great chemistry with Diane Lane.
Um HELLLOOOOO where is A Walk in the Clouds?!?!?! I watched it as a teenager with a boy who was in love with me, with whom I was not in love, who is similarly rigidly and endearingly gentlemanly. I felt really bad about watching this romantic movie with this boy I did not love, who likely saw himself in Keanu. Also, it was literally five days ago today that I told my husband, who I do, in fact, love, “I will cry when [Keanu] dies.” So I am thrilled that he is immortal. <3 <3 <3 CONSTANTINE 4EVER
I CANNOT BELIEVE WE DIDN’T WATCH A WALK IN THE CLOUDS, we have betrayed you all, we have done you all so wrong!
I mean, you could liveblog it, if you really loved us.
Yeeeeeeesssssssssss doooooo iiiiiiiit
I came here to scold for this omission; thanks for handling that for me.
Keanu Reeves commissioned a desk/table from the artist Sebastian Errazuriz, who then suggested the desk/table be a life size dissecting table with a naked photographic representation of Keanu himself, looking dead, as a meditation on what fame and fortune mean after death, and Keanu agreed to it. You can see a bit of it in this press release: http://www.cristinagrajalesinc.com/images/upload/…
TELL ME someone else remembers the squip supercomputer in Be More Chill that talked in Keanu Reeve’s voice because ‘they couldn’t get the rights to Brad Pitt’?
Keanu has ruined every movie he has ever been in. There, I said it!
Incidentally friends, for anyone who wants to read MORE OF OUR KEANU LOVE, Hayley and I have composed 1500 words of supplementary reading materials at my personal blog: https://no-award.net/2016/05/11/the-light-of-kean…
I THOUGHT I WAS ALONE IN THE WORLD. Thank you so much for joining me in my adoration of Keanu. He is, and alway will be, number one on my laminated list of five. I don’t care that I’m mocked by everyone I know.
I feel like I should hate Constantine Keanu Reeves and yet I don’t? I never understood why and now I do and all is right again.
Also
“We’re all chasing and trying to catch a Patrick Swayze in our own lives, the inspirational figures who have turned sour and corrupt yet we cannot bring ourselves to aim our guns anywhere but at the sky. And it will bring us all undone.”
*Clutches heart with both hands and wheezes* fuuuuuuuuuuuck
I feel like a lot of Hot Fuzz is secretly a commentary on how awesome Keanu is in Point Break.
I love Speed. I saw it once when I was a child and it stayed with me and gave me an undying love for Sandra Bullock and I watched it maybe one more time after that but still have a perfect recollection of some scenes. Also every time I think about the movie now I am reminded of Eddie Izzard’s bit about how it should be called La Vitesse in France.
Until reading this post I had also forgotten how much I enjoyed Constantine! I should watch that again, clearly.
Also, I recently saw Man of Tai Chi, which has Keanu Reeves in it, at MMA movie night. It was…a movie. I liked the female detective? That’s about all I have to say about it.
i run a keanu fansite and have read more than 3000 articles on him, and this is the best one of the lot. I love you.
Late to this thread, but chiming in to say that I’ve admired Keanu since the ’90s because of an interview he did with Movieline magazine. At the time, there were rumors that he was having an affair with David Geffen. The magazine’s interviewer asked Keanu if he was gay. Keanu responded (paraphrasing from memory here): “I’m not going to say I’m not gay because that makes it sound like I think there’s something wrong with being gay, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.” This was early to mid 1990s, so I think it was a really neat way for him to answer the question. And, as far as I know, the rumors stopped after that.
Also:
“For a while people were saying that David Geffen and I had gotten married. That just blew me away. Not because they thought I was gay, but that they thought I could land a guy that hot.”
So here is my Point Break story. I was in Year 12 at high school, and because we were Year 12, we were allowed to go to bed whenever we wanted (this is boarding school) and I remember Point Break being on TV, so we decided to tape it… but we also watched it while taping it (as you do). Bearing in mind that it was exam time so we had other things we could have been doing.
Then I remember watching it another three times that same week. I loved that movie so much. Keanu is so awesome. I mean, Bill and Ted, of course. Brilliant. But he was so sexy in Point Break.
And damn, I loved John Wick. Also think I need to revisit The Matrix, I think.
“Keanu Rating: Everything in this is a GODDAMN MASTERPIECE why aren’t you watching it every day of your life.”
I adore “My Own Private Idaho.” I rewatch it at least three times a year, and every time I am rewarded. I can’t entirely explain the appeal of the film, to be honest, but it has a strange magnetism for me. And the story about Keanu motorcycling down to Florida to get River Phoenix on board for this film… Magical. I wish there were a hundred photographs of Keanu on a motorcycle with a Gus Van Sant script in his backpack. (I imagine him with just a backpack on that trip, for some reason. I often wonder what else was in there.)
Honestly, what ISN'T a retelling of Plato's Allegory of the Cave?
(YMMV, my husband teaches it in his English class as part of the Fahrenheit 451 unit and is forever finding other books/movies/series that fit the plot arc.)
Honorable mention, please, to Thumbsucker (2005), featuring Keanu as a spirtual dentist and Tilda Swinton (swoon) as a fierce mom.
Oh oh where did your man get the John Wick ringtone!?
I. must. have.
Where is Permanent Record? Keanu utterly broke my heart in that.
Ha! That's the first scene that flashed through my mind from that movie as well.
I saw Keanu Reeves play Hamlet, and I watched some of the rehearsals. Keanu knew all his lines before rehearsals even started. During rehearsals he listened carefully to the other actors and helped them with their scenes, modulating his interpretation so they made sense together as characters.
Onstage and off, he seems aware of every person in about a 50 foot radius, he’s aware of every person and doesn’t think one person is more valuable than another.
Onstage, he burns with a pure light, and speaks directly to you, and you understand completely.
He isn’t anything like the character on Slings and Arrows. He knows what he is doing, and he is thoughtful to every one.
And the “Keanu Watch” in Winnipeg fell through because all he did was work, constantly, consistently, as hard as he could.
THIS IS THE GREATEST STORY. Thank you for bringing it to us.
THIS IS THE GREATEST STORY. Thank you for bringing it to us.
In Los Angeles and most of the US you are not married with the ceremony. You are married with the marriage certificate. So no, they weren't married. Keanu's character in Much Ado wasn't a likable one, yet he played it perfectly. He wasn't over his head at all considering he's one of the nicest people on the planet yet you wanted to shower after each time he was on screen. His character's disgusting nature down to his indignant walk in irons at the end permeated each scene. As far as 47 Ronin goes, it was never a Keanu Reeves movie. They added more scenes with him to salvage the already troubled movie. As a mixed person, I can tell you it's horrible when anyone speaks about your background in a negative way. It's 2016 and a week doesn't go by that someone doesn't say to me, "What ARE you?"
Okay, but not only is he enjoyable as an actor, but he’s also a really great person irl??? Look up his life story, seriously, he’s super.
Latest comment ever, but this post has filled me with joy.
And to all those inquiring: yes, he is completely delightful as a human being. He was a regular at my old bookstore, and is super well-read and was always bouncing on his toes to talk books with me. Just… the most, most delightful. He is probably the thing I miss most about that job, quite frankly.
Oh my God, I am so jealous of you right now.
Re: Constantine:
I don’t remember the exact wording, but just before Keanu dunks Rachel in the tub, she asks whether she should take her clothes off; Keanu pauses and kind of tilts his head off to the side. “John?” she asks. “I’m thinking about it,” he replies, with a gentle yet surprisingly sexy smile. Hot!!
Also, A Walk in the Clouds – I haven’t watched it in about a decade, but I remember being a bit embarrassed by how much I enjoyed it. I’m kind of a sucker for movies where people pretend to be a couple and then end up really falling for each other.