Win Win (2011) NYT Critics' Pick

[lsanderson]

Paul Giamatti, left, with Alex Shaffer in “Win Win,” directed by Tom McCarthy from his screenplay.
Riding the Wave of Life’s Indignities
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: March 17, 2011

There are actors who suffer nobly, with tragic and stoical reserve. Then there is Paul Giamatti. Squirrel cheeked and beetle browed, with rounded shoulders and a scratchy voice, he is a virtuoso of exasperation, a maestro of disappointment, an intrepid navigator through squalls of frustration and failure. Who else could have played John Adams, the most misunderestimated of the founding fathers, a great man and also a petty one, possessed of an outsize sense of grievance? Or Harvey Pekar, the Cleveland file clerk who wrung deadpan, misanthropic comic-book masterpieces from the grind of daily existence? More