I'm surprised how deeply hearing the passing of Anton Yelchin has impacted me, but yet at the same time I'm not. He was insanely talented with a unique screen presence that will never be duplicated. He often exuded a presence of kindness and perhaps an unexpected tenderness to his roles. Yet, underneath that was a wild and infectious energy that equally defined many of his film roles. I frequently throw around that I'm a fan of someone on this blog and while that is still true, it's even truer in this case. I was really a fan of Anton Yelchin.
Anton Yelchin had been acting since he was a young kid. He was the son of two Russian figure skaters who immigrated to the US when he was six months old. After discovering he was rubbish on the ice and other athletic aspirations didn't pan out, he tried acting, which seemed to fit him better. I remember first seeing him in the Steven Spielberg Mini-series Taken, which aired in the Sci-Fi channel in 2002 and wondering who this kid was, just being completely taken by his performance in it. Shortly after that, I saw him starring opposite Anthony Hopkins in the Stephen King adaptation, Hearts in Atlantis. From there, his career started to flourish with strong turns in films such as House of D and Fierce People. He really made an impression in the crime drama Alpha Dog as a young man, Zack, who is kidnapped by a drug dealer and his cronies in an attempt to recover a debt from his junkie brother. Poor Zack is too naive that he doesn't even realize he's been kidnapped until it's far too late, instead enjoying the edgy, cool new people he was hanging out with. Anton gave a fantastic performance in the film, showing the kind of tenderness and vulnerability that he would become known for.
It was his starring role as the titular character in Charlie Bartlett that was the next role for Anton and probably one that he is best known for. Playing a rebellious kid of a wealthy family, Charlie is enrolled in a local public school after being expelled from his private school. In no time, he finds himself as the school's resident therapist, even going so far to give out medications he manages to scam from a series of therapists he sees courtesy of his depressed and eccentric mother (played by Hope Davis). Naturally, this catches the attention of the school Principal (played by Robert Downey Jr.) and the attention only increases when Charlie starts dating the Principal's daughter (played by Kat Dennings). It was a great performance by Anton in the lead role as he showed how good he was as both a comedic and dramatic actor in a film that played out like a John Hughes film by way of Hal Ashby.
From there, we move into what I at the time jokingly referred to as the summer of Anton Yelchin as he wound up co-starring in not one but two big budget blockbusters, Star Trek and Terminator Salvation. The first one to be released was Star Trek, a flashier and more action packed reboot of the classic series of films. Anton took over the role of Ensign Pavel Chekov. The role was a natural fit for the Russian born actor and was a high point of the film (as well as my personal favorite, with Simon Pegg's Scotty a close second). He would go on to reprise the role two more times in Star Trek Into Darkness and this summer's Star Trek Beyond. What made him so great in the role was that he made it wholly his own, taking small things from what Walter Koenig brought to the role from the Original series and films, but also created something new that frankly was nothing short of adorable. The second film that summer was Terminator Salvation, where he played a young Kyle Reese, the character originally played by Michael Biehn in the original film. He was one of the bright spots in a rather uneven film, wonderfully capturing both the strength and vulnerability that Biehn so memorably played in the first film.
2011 was a big year for Anton with several very different movies coming out, each one perfectly showing his versatility as an actor. First up was Like Crazy, where he played one half of a romantic couple trying to overcome some pretty big hurdles to stay together, the biggest being that his girlfriend in the film, Anna (played by Felicity Jones), is a British student in the U.S whose visa runs out and has to return to Great Britain. The film was largely improvised, following a basic outline of the plot which gave the film a very grounded and natural feeling that helped it resonate with audiences. The second film was the Jodie Foster directed The Beaver, a quirky drama starring Mel Gibson as a clinically depressed father who finds a unique way of expressing himself through the use of a beaver puppet. Yelchin played his son Porter in the film. The final big film for him in 2011 was the remake of Fright Night, which I have previously reviewed on this blog, where he plays a Las Vegas resident high school student turned vampire hunter when he discovers his new next door neighbor is a bloodsucker.
After that came his turn as the titular character in Odd Thomas. While the movie itself may be a little rough around the edges, I thoroughly enjoyed this one in a large part because of Anton's performance as Odd, a clairvoyant short order cook trying to save his town from evil forces. He gives the role just the right level of quirkiness but also plays the more heroic side of Odd quite well. It's an entertaining film that is well worth checking out.
The following year, Anton starred in the Joe Dante comedy-horror film Burying the Ex, playing a B-movie obsessed young man who works in a costume and horror themed shop who finds himself in a horror movie of his own when his ex-girlfriend returns from the dead thinking they're still a couple. Meanwhile, he has already moved on to a new girl whom he has far more in common with. The film itself wasn't perfect, but it's easy to see why it appealed to a cinephile like me, especially one with an interest in the horror and fantasy genres. Anton Yelchin had a lot in common with his character, a consummate film lover and this no doubt informed and strengthened his performance in the film. I also suspect he largely took on the film to work with the legendary Joe Dante and I could hardly blame him.
This brings us, more or less, to his most recent film, Green Room, a film I have reviewed on this blog as well. I know I skipped over a lot of films and they are ones that I somehow missed. Anton was quite prolific in his film roles from 2011 onward. So, I clearly have some backtracking and catching up to do. Anyway, Green Room was an incredibly well acted and directed horror/thriller from this past spring. One of the big reasons this film worked so well and was so intense was because the actors kept the film well grounded. Yelchin's character, Pat, finds himself trying to be the voice of reason in a very unreasonable standoff between his punk band and a group of Neo-Nazi's trying to get into the Green Room they have barricaded themselves into. He does a great job portraying Pat's panic and terror as he tries desperately to find a way out of the situation with his and his band's lives.
Throughout his career, Anton displayed incredible range as an actor as he turned in one memorable performance after another. Even if the film around him wasn't that great, he always was. I was devastated to find out that he had passed away yesterday in a freak automobile accident. But even beyond his acting, he always seemed like such a thoughtful, kind and soulful person. He brought such a unique presence to all his films that I always enjoyed seeing his latest one. Like I said before I was a big fan of his pretty much from the beginning. He left us with a large and diverse body of work and I would've loved to see what he did next as he continued to grow as an actor. My heart goes out to him, his family and his friends. He left us way, way too soon.
Rest in Peace, Anton.
1989-2016
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