Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we have a conversation about what it means to be underappreciated. Not underrated necessarily. But underappreciated. And boy is Don Cheadle underappreciated. The Oscar-nominated actor has been elevating films in supporting roles since the late ‘80s.

Our guest today is Mitchell Beaupre, senior editor at Letterboxd.

Our B-Sides today include: The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Traitor, The Guard, and No Sudden Move. There is also a brief-but-worthwhile tangent on the Scott Caan-directed (!) indie The Dog Problem. Also the Sundance darling Manic from the early 2000s.

We discuss Cheadle’s incredible ability to listen as an actor. There may not be a better active listener working today. We offer some context into legend Steve Martin (who has a story credit on Traitor) and all of the different things he’s done over his illustrious career (and how BIG he was in the ‘70s).

There’s also the under-usage of Cheadle in The Assassination of Richard Nixon, that half-baked Bourne Identity-inspired score in Traitor, the unfortunate lack of chemistry between Brendan Gleeson and Cheadle in The Guard, and how No Sudden Move is basically perfect and the culmination of so much of what makes Don Cheadle great.

And finally, we definitely mention those hysterical Captain Planet bits and how exactly they shot No Sudden Move to get that extreme anamorphic look that makes out the main aesthetic of the film.

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