Cheers! A salute to the past decade of Jake Gyllenhaal's movie triumphs

I am very ready to see out my birthday and see in the new decade in a heightened state of relaxation. This follows a wonderful couple of days in the Big Smoke spent in fine company discovering new muscles while clinging to the sides of the Natural History Museum ice rink. So, while I look for a dark man to cross my threshhold carrying coal - take that as your cue, Jake Gyllenhaal - time for the final survey of the decade. I hope you'll join me in raising a glass of the fizzy stuff to make a toast - to Jake for ten years of roles to make him proud and to us for cheering him along, from the sidelines, on his way to another decade of brave, triumphant and entertaining filmmaking. Cheers!


Here is my totally personal list of my top ten favourite moments from Jake's cinematic appearances over the Noughties. Brothers is in the fortunate position of straddling a couple of decades. These are in no particular order as a choice would be far too difficult.

1. Two scenes in Brothers - the bar scene between Tommy and Dave and the decorating scene - who could fail not to fall for Tommy's charm (except Grace)?



2. Jake's first appearance at the start of a new day in Rendition. When I see one of Jake's films, I'm always thrilled to see his first scene, but this reached whole new levels with Rendition.


3. Swoff making white footsteps in the blackened sand.


4. Robert Graysmith discovering that some houses in California do have basements after all. I wanted to push Jake through that door to safety. We've not seen Jake do horror often, but he'd be good at it.


5. Jimmy Livingston stealing beer in Bubble Boy. Jake can also do physical comedy. He's very good at it. One moment, Jake can make us laugh as Jimmy badly robs a store of a can of beer while, in the next, he can make us cry as Jimmy and his father dream of escaping to the moon.



6.The Dozy Embrace - the stillness of Jake here. Nothing more to say about this moment.


7. The courtscene in Moonlight Mile. Another example of how Jake can pull the heart out, even during a courtroom scene.


8. For me, one of the iconic moments of the last decade of cinema, is the sight of Donnie Darko racing down that hill to the sound of The Killing Moon.


9. Wet Sam leaping over the cars to rescue Laura from Certain Death. This was one of those defining steps on the path to Gyllenhaalism for me.


10. The blue eyes hiding under the hat of a young cowboy as he sees Ennis Del Mar for the first time. The first time we saw Jack Twist, too.


Who knows - we may even get Nailed in this coming decade! That's got to be worth celebrating.

Happy New Year to you all and to Jake! And thanks to each of you for keeping me company through the last year.

Includes pictures from IHJ.

Highlighting some of the best bits of the GyllenNoughties - Part 2

Time to get down to the nitty gritty in our review of the GyllenNoughties and our presentation of the Jake Gyllenhaal Awards. In today's post we look at the best (and some of the dodgy outfits) of the rapidly depleting decade. I'll start with a picture.


Let's get the difficult bit over with - I definitely think that Jake is in these pictures below solely because he was being polite. Without doubt, this top photograph is an offront to Gyllendom. The photographer is still on the run.





This photo slipped in...


As an antidote to the above, here are the candidates for best portrait of the decade.





This picture below was my first ever Jake computer wallpaper. The one above was my first avatar on the net.


Nothing - or very little - preoccupies Gyllenhaalics like Jake's hair. A haircut is a sure sign that filming has finished on the latest project while hair growing can be an indicator that filming is about to begin. Long, short - Gyllendom is divided.







And then there's the fluff, which, while never having reached the levels of bell- and bead-wearing Brad Pitt, can vary enormously. Note how I'm not mentioning moustaches.






One thing's for sure, no matter the length of hair or the extent of the facial scruff, Jake Gyllenhaal has a face that demands to be looked at. Here are just a few of the nominations for expression of the decade.








If you can't make up your mind, how about one of these?


This Thursday is my birthday. I've not yet chosen how old I'll be but I do know that Jake will be cooking me up a feast in his trailer. That's one option - the other option is that some good Jake friends are taking me out in London today to re-enact the ice-skating scenes from Brothers. Nevertheless, there is one more crucial element of this survey to come.

Includes pics from IHJ.

Jake Gyllenhaal and the Noughties - The Nominations Part One

The end of the year - nay, the decade - doth approach and you know what that means. It's time to dust off your frock, iron your dickie bow and stink out your home with shoe polish, but wait! Before you do all that, there is work to do in these last remaining Noughtie Days. Clearly, at WDW, there's not a huge amount of doubt concerning the identity of the Actor of the Decade, but there are a lot of other questions that need to be cleared up before we don our early medieval Persian accessories and get on with the Teenies. Time to vote for the Best of the GyllenNoughties. This is Part One, circling around the edges, before moving in for the most fiercely contested awards tomorrow.

Noughtie Hat

As we go in to the next decade, may we hope that we have Less Hat More Hair.








Noughtie Toy

Jake Gyllenhaal may be Jake Gyllenhaal but even he needs a furry friend. Whereas I have Pluto, there is a flurry of candidates for GyllenPlush of the Noughties - which has your vote?






Obviously, an ostrich will win next decade. In fact, the ostrich will win Best Animal of the Decade.

Noughtie Shoes

If anyone votes for the felt things there'll be trouble.








This photo combines two nominations - Best Shoes and Best Thing.


Noughtie Spandex

Please forgive me if I don't talk over this bit.







Noughtie Cute Moment

I realise how difficult it is to try and pin down the defining cute moment of the decade - there have been countless such moments. Here's a selection.





Noughtie Jeans

Tight, loose, long, short, buttoned, zipped, belted, hanging, distressed, new - noone wears jeans like Jake Gyllenhaal and possibly noone hangs on to them quite like he does. Sometimes, maybe, you have to let go.






Noughtie T-shirt

It is well known that Jake Gyllenhaal has at least a whole floor of his house dedicated to housing his unrivalled t-shirt collection. Here are some of them - the ones that were easiest to reach...










Noughtie Atti Moments

Never, ever, let Atticus near a white dog... unless you have a camera to hand, then put Atticus near a white dog.





Please put all voting papers in the box provided.

Includes pictures from IHJ.