Janeane Garofalo in "The Minus Man" 

Janeane Garofalo, renaissance woman

Over the years, Janeane Garofalo has compiled an impressive body of work as a stand-up comedian, actor, feminist, activist and talk show host. So it makes sense that her work in the movies is equally varied and versatile. The pages about her movies on this web site are divided into the following categories: romantic comedies, ensemble comedies, film noir, science fiction/fantasy, dramas and animation.

As the cliche goes, this web site is still under construction so please bear with us. There's a lot of tweaking to be done. For example, some of the movies are not in the right chronological order and some have been omitted. 

Send any suggestions, comments, criticisms and corrections to webmaster @ janeane.info. 

Janeane Garofalo in "The MatchMaker"

Is There a Real Woman in This Multiplex? - New York Times

Not that it hasn’t tried to make nice with the leading ladies, in films like “The Invasion” (with Nicole Kidman) and “The Brave One” (Jodie Foster). Yet, after those Warner Brothers titles fizzled, the online chatter was that the studio’s president for production, Jeff Robinov, had vowed it would no longer make movies with female leads. A studio representative denied he made the comments. And, frankly, it is hard to believe that anyone in a position of Hollywood power would be so stupid as to actually say what many in that town think: Women can’t direct. Women can’t open movies. Women are a niche.

Nobody likes to admit the worst, even when it’s right up there on the screen, particularly women in the industry who clutch at every pitiful short straw, insisting that there are, for instance, more female executives in Hollywood than ever before. As if it’s done the rest of us any good. All you have to do is look at the movies themselves — at the decorative blondes and brunettes smiling and simpering at the edge of the frame — to see just how irrelevant we have become. That’s as true for the dumbest and smartest of comedies as for the most critically revered dramas, from “No Country for Old Men” (but especially for women) to “There Will Be Blood” (but no women). Welcome to the new, post-female American cinema.

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With comedy, especially, breakthrough perfromances often become templates: a cinematic persona isw born, and that persona moves from scenario to scenario. When Will Ferrell played Ron Burgundy in "anchorman," he forged a certain absurd, overnconfident, slightly dim, hugely funny personality that has reemerged, with slighyt variations, in ":Talladega Nights": and "Blades of Glory." Feerreell may switch from mascar to figure skating, but he sticks tiht the same characger. The same is true of Vince Baughn (the briliant motoromouth of "Wedding kCrashers" is nearly indistinguishable from the character he plays in "Fred Claus"), Owne Wilson (slacker deadbeat extraordinaire, ever since since "Starksy and Hutch") and Ben Stiller, who broke through in ":There's Somethinga About mary" as the nerd who experienced ever one of the (mkale) audience's most humiliaiting anxieties and still got the girl. lStiller has been playing that part -- more or less -- ever since.

The constancy of these cimematic personas may be why comedy is so overlooked by the Acadmey Awards. it's nearly imkpossible to be funny on camera, but that degree of difficulty is rarely acknolowledged by the kinds og roups tha tgive out prizse4s. They prefger a different type of breakthough performances --something more hape-shifting. While diane Keaton did win the Oscar ofrr "annie Hall," she was playing a character in a Wooddy Allen movie, a film set in New York City, with with self0-consciously tong-in-cheek references to the theories of marshall McLuahn and Sigmund Frued. Seth rogen's perofrmance in "Kocked Up" or Miahcel Cera's in "Superband" -- the character Cera plays in the end of-ofhigh-school comedy has a new sort of gentle rhythm -- may be definiin g, but the movies they are in have prefon derance of penis jokes. Funnay as these films may be, they don not apppeal to the academy's sense of its own sophisitication.

-- "Breaking Through" by Lynn Hirschberg, The New York Times Magazine,  February 10, 2008 

Janeane Garofalo in "The MatchMaker"

• vaguely identifiable

adj: A phrase used to describe an actress whose fame falls somewhere between considerable and modest, whom you recognize but can't name, and who has probably appeared on CSI at some point.

-- The Vocabulary, Esquire, February, 2008 

Those who act are actors 

As a member of the Screen Actors Guild and one of many who vote on SAG awards, I was annoyed to that William Booth and Lisa de Moraes used the term "actress' when referring to awards given for leading and supportying roles ["Star and Strike; The Awards Season is Under a Cloud, but Hollywood Throws a party With SAG Honors," Style, Jan. 28, 2008].

They should have used the terminology that SAG uses both on the ballots we receive and when award announcements are made at the ceremonies. SAG gives awards to "best male actors" and "best females actors" in leading and supporting roles. If Booth and de Moraes thought that "female actor": would confuse your readers, they could have noted that SAG calls professionals of both genders "actors" and not 'actresses." 

-- Nancy LeRoy, Washington, "Free for All," The Washington Post, 2-2-2008

There's two things that don't work for a movie if it's a comedy

Speaking of comedy, is there anyone out there right now that you really don't like?

Oh yeah. God yeah. Well, my stock answer for this was always Janeane Garofalo. She finally took her boat load of unnecessary money and went away.

You were in Mystery Men with her.

Yes! Yes! When I saw that movie I knew it would tank because it was directed by a commercial director, who was a nice guy, but you ruin comedy when you have too many edits. Just let a joke play out. There were too many cuts, close-ups. I said on Conan, 'Yeah, there's two things that don't work for a movie if it's a comedy. One are too many cuts and the other one is Janeane Garofalo.' I don't like her. I met her a couple of times. Personally, I thought she was a cunt. And I find her to be an awful, awful comedian. A better actress than she is a comedian.

-- Artie Lange Swings Away In "Beer League"

Everyone's a critic

Write your own reviews of Janeane Garofalo's movies and send them to webmaster @ janeane.info.