The new Toxic Avenger argues that Peter Dinklage should do more comedy
In keeping with the modern trend toward horror movies metaphorically exploring trauma, Macon Blair’s The Toxic Avenger leans into the buried serious side of the story, focusing on its aching humanity, particularly the emotional strain of single fatherhood and the trials of economic desperation.
Nah, just kidding.
The new Toxic Avenger, an update on Lloyd Kaufman’s infamous 1984 cult movie, is gnarly, messy, and packed with goofy visual gags and fight scenes where the combatants get melted or mutated, sometimes exploding into wall-splattering showers of vivid, chunky gore. But by casting Peter Dinklage in the title role, Blair — star of Jeremy Saulnier’s terrific revenge movie Blue Ruin and director of Netflix’s I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore — sets up the possibility that this is a more serious Toxic Avenger, one where the emotional layering matters more than the kills. And that’s because Peter Dinklage just doesn’t get as many comedy roles as he should.
Dinklage has always been a fairly serious actor. He’s best known these days for his run as Game of Thrones’ long-suffering Tyrion Lannister, a man thanklessly tasked with building a stable kingdom while being endlessly undermined by his hateful family. (And arguably, endlessly undermined by his hateful showrunners, too.) His career has mostly been a long run of serious dramatic roles, from his breakthrough in 2003’s The Station Agent as an isolated loner in a small town to his lovely singing role as the title character in 2022’s Cyrano. He isn’t the actor most people would think of for a role like the one in Blair’s Toxic Avenger, which ispart slapstick, part over-the-top emotion, part butt of the joke.
The Toxic Avenger makes a solid argument for him as a
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