Steve Carell

2010 · Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud · 95 min · Animation / Comedy

Despicable Me introduced Gru, the minions, and the adoption plot that softens a supervillain one bedtime story at a time, and launched the most commercially unstoppable franchise in animation from a studio nobody had heard of. Steve Carell's accent-forward villain works because the film commits to the emotional arc underneath the gadgetry, three orphan girls dismantling a bad man's defenses with ballet recitals and goodnight kisses. Viewed before minion fatigue set in, the yellow henchmen are inspired slapstick seasoning rather than the entree. The villain plot is scaffolding and the sentiment is engineered. The engineering works.

2019 · 3 Seasons · Apple TV+ · Drama

A starry, expensive Apple TV+ flagship that swings between genuinely compelling workplace drama and overwrought prestige television, carried by performances that consistently outperform the writing.

2003 · Tom Shadyac · 101 min · Comedy / Fantasy

Bruce Almighty hands a whining Buffalo news reporter the office of God for a trial period, and the premise delivers exactly the ledger expected, Jim Carrey parting tomato soup and lassoing the moon for date night while Morgan Freeman's white-suited Almighty invented cinema's default image of God for a generation. Steve Carell's sabotaged newscast remains the film's stolen crown jewel, and the prayer-inbox sequences find real comedy in omnipotence's paperwork. The theology stays shallow by design, the girlfriend arc runs on genre autopilot, and the moon stunt's consequences get one news ticker. As high-concept comfort, it still answers prayers on cable schedules.