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Out of the Blue (1980)
If you polled cinephiles on the best actors with the fewest movies, you’d hear a lot of James Dean and John Cazale…Bruce Lee if you count only the martial arts films. But anyone who’s seen Linda Manz in Out of the Blue knows she deserves a place on that list. Four years after improvisationally narrating Terence Malick’s Days of Heaven, Manz starred as a punk music–obsessed teenager, Cebe, waiting on her volatile dad (Dennis Hopper) to get out of jail.
First, there’s Manz’s one-of-a-kind visage to contend with—like if you melded the scarred, angular mug of a 1940s prizefighter onto a teenage girl. Then, there’s Manz’s utter lack of self-consciousness, which blurs the line between a character protecting herself through bluster and the question of whether Manz is acting at all. She has the openness to appear awestruck when brought onstage to drum at a Vancouver punk show and the ferocity to battle with Dennis effin’ Hopper (of all madmen) to the film’s bottomless, dark ends.
In true New Hollywood fashion, Out of the Blue’s bleak human drama hits all the harder because it prioritizes naturalism. From the director’s chair, Hopper conveys so much story with so little exposition, while Manz etches her face into the audience’s memory. She died in 2020 after retiring from acting in her early 20s and then reappearing in 1997 for small roles in Harmony Korine’s Gummo and David Fincher’s The Game, her final two credits.
Out of the Blue plays Feb. 20–26 as part of the Academy Theater’s Deep Cut series.
Also Playing:
5th Avenue: La Ciénaga (2001), Feb. 20–22. Academy: Amélie (2001), Bride of Chucky (1998) and Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Feb. 18–19. In a Lonely Place (1950) and Malcolm X (1992), Feb. 20–26. Cinema 21: Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962), Feb. 21. Cinemagic: Stalker (1979), Feb. 18. Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996), Feb. 19. Solaris (1972), Feb. 22. Clinton: The Adventures of Buratino (1976), Feb. 18. The Best Man (1999), Feb. 19. A Dry White Season (1989), Feb. 21. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Feb. 21. Cult Classics: Tromeo and Juliet (1996), Feb. 22. Empirical: Porco Rosso (1992) and Spirited Away (2001), Feb. 20. Ponyo (2008), The Boy and the Heron (2023) and The Tales of the Princess Kaguya (2013), Feb. 21. Tales From Earthsea (2006) and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Feb. 22. Only Yesterday (1991) and The Wind Rises (2013), Feb. 24. Hollywood: Audition (1999), Feb. 18. Black Tea (2024), Feb. 20. Malcolm X (1992), Feb. 21 and 22. Bad Lieutenant (1992), Feb. 24. Tomorrow: Twice as Nice (1989), Feb. 21. Perfect Blue (1997), Feb. 22. Malcolm X (1992), Feb. 22.
