There's something about Ben Stiller

There's something about Ben Stiller. I have never talked to anybody who doesn't have a strong opinion of him one way or another. I think the guy is a borderline genius, yet I hear from people all the time who think he is a hack.\nYou know you are getting on people's nerves when notorious National Review critic John Simon went on for a page and a half talking about how physically ugly he thought Stiller was in "Keeping the Faith."\nIn a lot of ways, this is incredibly weird. Think about the most controversial people in Hollywood and the names Oliver Stone or Todd Solondz come up. In the acting set, one hears about Woody Harrelson or Susan Sarandon or even Marlon Brando to a lesser extent. Stiller is just about in that class, and at 37, the expansive network of Stiller and his comedic cronies make him hard to ignore.\nStiller's parents are Jerry Stiller (aka George Costanza's less-than-mild-mannered father on "Seinfeld") and Anne Meara, of the famous comedy team, but while his show business aptitude may have been genetic, his success was hard-earned, including a brief role at 22 in Steven Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun."\nNobody does a Tom Cruise impersonation like Stiller, and his short film "The Hustler of Money" got him a gig on "Saturday Night Live." Stiller outgrew SNL due to his behind-the-camera interests, and he finagled Fox into giving him a weekly sketch comedy half-hour in 1992 called "The Ben Stiller Show." The show lasted only 13 episodes, but nobody had such a run that fizzled so quickly but was also so funny. (Whether he was hosting a parody "Zoo TV" talk show as Bono interviewing "The Jeffersons'" Sherman Hemsley or "creating" Skank, a parody sitcom in which a misanthropic, familial sock puppet encouraged those around him to "shut your stinkin' trap!" [my description does it no justice], Stiller was making short films that reeked with pop culture hilarity.)\nHe also created something of a family of cohorts that are a tribute to Stiller's eye for talent. He found Andy Dick, whose spazzy oafishness later rocked "NewsRadio." The third best sitcom of the '90s after "The Simpsons" and "Seinfeld," "NewsRadio" was a tirelessly creative ensemble sitcom that served often as ad hoc "Ben Stiller Show" reunions. When Dick got his own sketch show on MTV, Stiller guested on that. In the Stiller vehicle "Zoolander," Dick had a hilarious cameo -- it was one of the film's few funny scenes unfortunately -- as a deranged masseuse.\nBob Odenkirk was a cast member on the Stiller show, and David Cross was a writer. As a duo, their "Mr. Show" on HBO was a zany sketch comedy meditation just about as fearless it was honest. Stiller guested in an episode entitled, "If You're Going to Write a Comedy Scene, You're Going to Have Some Rat Feces in There."\nThen, there's Janeane Garofalo, Stiller's female alter ego. Not even Julianne Moore has Garofalo's acting range. While I don't condone the flop "Mystery Men," her presence usually is the sign of quality. From the "Cyrano de Bergerac" interpretation "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" to the noirish and criminally underseen "Clay Pigeons" to the unashamedly wacko "Wet Hot American Summer," Garofalo is a hugely underrated actress. She is also a versatile TV actress. After all, who else has acted in "The Larry Sanders Show," "Law and Order" and the cult Comedy Central laugh riot "Strangers With Candy?" She even co-wrote a self-help parody with Stiller called "Feel This Book."\nAs an actor, Stiller has appeared in huge hits; "There's Something About Mary" and "Meet the Parents" and other good films like "Zero Effect" and "Flirting With Disaster" while avoiding typecasting in the artier "Your Friends and Neighbors" and "Permanent Midnight."\nSo why is Stiller so controversial? Two reasons: (1) He's aggressively ambitious with skills behind and in front of the camera and (2) He's an atypical celebrity who doesn't compare superficially to the Vin Diesels of the world but doesn't play it safe.\nIn Neil LaBute's "Your Friends and Neighbors," he plays a malicious college professor that makes the viewer want to reach into the screen and punch him in the face, oftentimes while simultaneously laughing at his self-absorption. In "Reality Bites," he's the humorless yuppie that makes you root for Ethan Hawke.\nStiller has yet to direct a first-rate film; that's really all that's left for him. Once he develops a softer, laid-back edge without giving up the off-the-wall creativity is the point when he will figure out what that something is.