Happy Birthday, Rosario Dawson!

Chris here, showering love an underpraised actress. It's Rosario Dawson's birthday! Dawson is always everywhere and usually when you least expect her - this year alone she's popped up on your TV screens (various Netflix Marvel shows), in animation (The LEGO Batman Movie), and some good old schlock (Unforgettable). Those may be more populist fare, but she's always been something of an indie darling ever since her debut in the controversial Kids (1995), effortlessly charming no matter the genre or budget. By now after working with majors like Tarantino and Danny Boyle, you would think she would have some awards love somewhere to go with a tireless career. Nope, not even a Globe nomination for being the best part of Rent. I'd imagine once she lands in a major awards contender, that will quickly change.

Perhaps that omission is due to what a natural, unshowy presence Dawson is onscreen regardless of genre or degree of difficulty, or maybe that wretched fate of playing supportive girlfriends that befalls too many strong actresses? Quick: name another performer who can emerge unscathed from an occasional turkey with a solid performance (she's pretty solid in Unforgettable, guys). She's smart, unflappable, and dryly funny, always so real that you buy every word. And let's not forget, she's also pretty badass.

For her best work, I'd offer either Trance (which works precisely because of her watchability and believability despite being silly) or Top Five, one of our most underrated recent romantic comedies. What's your favorite Rosario Dawson performance?

Top Five's Top Five

Have you seen Chris Rock's Top Five  yet? I found it affable and intermittently funny but perhaps never more than mildly so. Here are five quick notes on it..

1. Maybe a little too navel-gazing on Chris Rock's part but we'll let it pass since most comedians turned actors play it like that from Woody Allen back in the day to every comic with a sitcom deal from the past thirty years.

2. True story: This movie has a super cast. It would have made a smarter SAG nomination than The Theory of Everything. (But then what wouldn't? Sorry Theory. I like ya but that nom is a big "D'oh!"). It's great to see a film about a guy actually give actresses fun things to do and Sherri Shepherd, Gabrielle Union, Rosario Dawson, and Leslie Jones all have good moments. I attended a Paramount party a few weeks ago that sort of morphed into a Top Five party because Interstellar left early. I am usually very social at these things but somehow I spent most of it off in a corner discussing Vanessa Redgrave and Faye Dunaway with another writer (appropriate!). I was going to talk to Gabrielle Union but I didn't want to be one of those people and bring up the East Compton Clovers, you know? The reaction would surely have been...

Brrrrrr. It's cold in here.

I did actually talk to Rosario Dawson, though... 

Three more bits including that "top five" after the jump... 

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