Jeff Daniels

The Squid and the Whale draws the archive's fullest look at Jeff Daniels. That text counts the performance superior: bearded, in rumpled tweed and T-shirts, he works Bernard's pedantry for all the comedy in it. The same text sets a limit, though: rich as the comic dimension is, Daniels never lets the character tip into caricature. Our not knowing who is telling the truth in that film is, by that writer, the work of his and Laura Linney's nuanced playing. Kim Newman records the reverse in another film, where Daniels was pushed into one of his rare misjudged performances.