Unforgiven: a 1992 Western film which was produced and directed by Clint
Eastwood. The film tells the story of William Munny, an aging and retired
gunslinger who takes on one more job years after he had hung up his guns and
turned to farming. A dark Western that deals frankly with the uglier aspects of
violence and the myth of the Old West, it stars Eastwood in the lead role,
along with Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett, Saul
Rubineck, and Frances Fisher.
Pulp Fiction: Jules
Winnfield and Vincent Vega are two hitmen who are out to retrieve a suitcase
stolen from their employer, mob boss Marsellus Wallace. Wallace has also asked
Vincent to take his wife Mia out a few days later when Wallace himself will be
out of town. Butch Coolidge is an aging boxer who is paid by Wallace to lose
his next fight. The lives of these seemingly unrelated people are woven
together comprising of a series of funny, bizarre and uncalled-for incidents.
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Starring John Travolta, Samuel L.
Jackson, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman.
No Country
for Old Men: Directed by Ethan and Joel Coen, this film was adapted from the
novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. When a man stumbles on a bloody
crime scene, a pickup truck loaded with heroin, and two million dollars in
irresistible cash, his decision to take the money sets off an unstoppable chain
reaction of violence. Not even West Texas law can contain it. This gritty game
of cat and mouse will take you to the edge of your seat and beyond—right up to
its heart-stopping final moment. The cast includes: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier
Bardem, and Josh Brolin.
American
Beauty:
Lester Burnham is suffering a mid-life crisis that affects the lives of his
family, which is made up of his bitch-on-wheels wife, Carolyn, and rebelling
daughter, Jane, who hates him. Carolyn is a real estate agent, a little too
wrapped up in her job, who takes on an affair with business rival, Buddy Kane.
Meanwhile Jane seems to fall in love with Ricky Fitts, the strange boy next
door, who is a drug dealer/documentarian and lives under a roof governed by a
very strict marine father and a speechless mother. Lester's mid-life crisis
causes him to drastically change his life when he quits his job and works at a
fast food restaurant. He starts working out to gain the attention of Angela, a
friend of Jane's, who brags about her sexual exploits every weekend. Lives
change by the end, and not for the better. Directed by Sam Mendes. Starring:
Kevin Spacey, Annette Benning, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper.
Do the Right
Thing:
Director Spike Lee dives head-first into a maelstrom of racial and social ills,
using as his springboard the hottest day of the year on one block in Brooklyn,
NY. Three businesses dominate the block: a storefront radio station, where a
smooth-talkin' deejay (Samuel L. Jackson) spins the platters that matter; a
convenience store owned by a Korean couple; and Sal's Famous Pizzeria, the only
white-operated business in the neighborhood. Sal (Danny Aiello) serves up
slices with his two sons, genial Vito (Richard Edson) and angry, racist Pino
(John Turturro). Sal has one black employee, Mookie (Spike Lee), who wants to
"get paid" but lacks ambition. His sister Jade (Joie Lee, Spike's
sister), who has a greater sense of purpose and a "real" job, wants
Mookie to start dealing with his responsibilities, most notably his son with
girlfriend Tina (Rosie Perez). Two of Mookie's best friends are Radio Raheem
(Bill Nunn), a monolith of a man who rarely speaks, preferring to blast Public
Enemy's rap song Fight The Power on his massive boom box; and Buggin'
Out (Giancarlo Esposito), nicknamed for his coke-bottle glasses and habit of
losing his cool. When Buggin' Out notes that Sal's "Wall of Fame," a
photo gallery of famous Italian-Americans, includes no people of color, he
eventually demands a neighborhood boycott, on a day when tensions are already
running high, that incurs tragic consequences.
Goodfellas: The lowly, blue-collar side of New York's Italian mafia is
explored in this crime biopic of wiseguy Henry Hill. As he makes his way from
strapping young petty criminal, to big-time thief, to middle-aged cocaine addict
and dealer, the film explores in detail the rules and traditions of organized
crime. Watching the rise and fall of Hill and his two counterparts, the slick
jack-of-all-trades criminal Jimmy Conway and the brutish, intimidating Tommy
DeVito, this true story realistically explores the core, blue-collar part of
the mob. Directed by Martin Scorcese. Starring: Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro, Joe
Pesci, Lorraine Bracco
The Royal
Tenenbaums: Director Wes
Anderson and his longtime friend
and writing partner Owen
Wilson follow up Bottle Rocket (1996) and Rushmore (1998) with this similarly offbeat comedy about a dysfunctional
family reunion. Royal Tenenbaum was a successful attorney who had three
children with his wife Etheline, an archaeologist. Each of the Tenenbaum kids
was a precocious genius: Chas made a killing as a child investor. Richie was a
junior tennis champ and three-time U.S. Nationals winner. The adopted Margot
was a playwright who won a 50,000-dollar Braverman Grant in the ninth grade.
When Royal abruptly left his family, however, it was the beginning of two
decades of betrayal and failure that would scar the Tenenbaums for life. Their
past resentments are bitterly held against Royal when he suddenly reappears,
claiming to have six weeks to live and a desire to reconnect with his family. Starring:
Gene Hackman, Angelica Houston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen
Wilson, Bill Murray
The Shining: Opening with spectacular aerial shots of a beautiful, mountainous
landscape, Stanley Kubrick's horror classic THE SHINING sucks the viewer into
his frightening tale with quiet, relaxing visuals--but the ominous soundtrack
warns that all is not right at the gorgeous Overlook Hotel. Based on Stephen
King's best-selling novel, the film stars Jack Nicholson at his eyebrow-raising
best in his portrayal of Jack Torrance, a Vermont schoolteacher working at the
Overlook as a winter caretaker. The glorious early-20th century resort only
operates in warm weather because the snowy roads deny access in the colder
months, so Jack brings his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), with him, as well as
his young son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), who possesses some unique psychic powers. As
the Torrances settle in for the long, lonely months ahead, strange,
unexplainable things start occurring in the hotel--and in every scene Jack
seems to be growing a little more evil and dangerous....
Casablanca: World War II Morocco springs to life in Michael Curtiz's (THE
ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, YANKEE DOODLE DANDY) classic love story. Colorful
characters abound in Casablanca, a waiting room for Europeans trying to escape
Hitler's war-torn Europe. Humphrey Bogart plays Richard "Rick"
Blaine, a cynical but good-hearted American whose café is the gathering place
for everyone from the French Police to the black market to the Nazis. When his
long-lost love, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), surfaces in Casablanca with her
Resistance leader husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), Rick is pulled into
both a love triangle and a web of political intrigue. Ilsa and Victor need to
escape from Casablanca, and Rick may be the only one who can help them. The
question is, will he?
Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: ETERNAL SUNSHINE
OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is an unconventional romance told in the abstract,
inventive, and comedic storytelling style of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Like
his scripts for ADAPTATION and BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, this plot works off of a
relatively complex idea that is more easily explained through the language of
film than through words. In its most basic description, Joel (Jim Carrey) is
undergoing a medical procedure to erase the memory of his ex-girlfriend,
Clementine (Kate Winslet). However, while he is unconscious and the procedure
is underway, he takes a journey through his mind, reliving moments with
Clementine for fear of losing her forever. Using disjointed sound and action,
foggy periods indicating Joel's confusion, and flashbacks to childhood where objects
appear much bigger than they are to adult eyes, the cinematography communicates
Joel's dilemma with visual hilarity. Only occasionally is the film
laugh-out-loud funny; instead it is much more deeply and darkly amusing as the
absurdity of the situation grows.
