• Rapaport’s career high watermark was Cop Land (1997). he hit his role perfectly and held his own surrounded by talented actors.

    if you haven’t given it a watch, it’s well worth it: a strange outlier somewhere between crime-noir and paradoxically urban western. it was a risky move by its lead (Sly Stallone)–who had been playing generally hard body action/comedy roles in that era–to put on 40 pounds at the gut and play a gentle, soft-spoken, and kind-hearted small town sheriff slowly realizing he’s been asleep his whole career, a guileless pawn guarding scumbag HQ, and waking up in the middle of something sinister trying not to trip any alarms.

    critically favored and despite praise for his acting, Stallone remarked later that though it was his best work and highly profitable, the film hurt his career, because it wasn’t a massive summer popcorn action comedy cash cow. this confused the hollywood star system, which hyped the movie inappropriately to audiences as something different than it was.