Paul Schrader

[7] George C. Scott stars as a pious midwestern father who searches Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco looking for his missing daughter after a private detective (Peter Boyle) reveals she’s been working in the porn industry. With the help of a young prostitute (Season Hubley), Scott zeroes in on the men who may have kidnapped his daughter — or did she go willingly? …

[4] Ten years before he picked up Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, Richard Gere played a ho himself in American Gigolo. As a male ‘chauffeur’, Gere’s plenty pretty to look at, aided by an array of Armani suits and moody cinematography by John Bailey. He even gives us a sustained full-frontal shot. But the fantasy fulfillment element of American Gigolo quickly dissolves into a tedious, …

[7] Nicolas Cage stars as a third shift New York ambulance paramedic haunted by ghosts and clinging to his sanity in this grim, sometimes darkly comic film from director Martin Scorsese and Taxi Driver scribe Paul Schrader. Cage’s character gets a natural high from saving people’s lives, but he hasn’t saved one in months — and he needs his fix. A cardiac arrest case leads him …

[6] Nastassja Kinski stars in this slow-moving tale of a woman who discovers her sexual urges transform her into a black leopard. Kinski learns her brother, played by Malcolm McDowell, shares the same curse and wants to forge a sexual (and incestuous) relationship with her so they can both experience sex without killing their partners. But Kinski ends up having the hots for a zoo-keeper …

[4] Director Renny Harlin’s cut of this film is more quickly-paced and energetic than Paul Schrader’s (both films feature the same story and most of the same cast), but it has the misfortune of stepping in a big pile of silly toward the end. Is that Beelzebub or Bugs Bunny we’re supposed to be cowering before? Stellan Skarsgard is great as a younger Father Merrin (Max …

[6] This documentary centers around the lasting influence of a week-long interview Francois Truffaut conducted with Alfred Hitchcock in 1962, and the book that encounter produced, 1966’s Cinema According to Hitchcock. Sprinkled throughout the run-time are snippets from interviews conducted with some of today’s top filmmakers about their affection for both the book and the work of Hitchcock, including Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, David Fincher, …

[10] Harrison Ford gives one of his best performances as Allie Fox, an obsessed inventor who moves his family to a Central American jungle to escape what he perceives to be the end of American civilization. Peter Weir (Witness, Dead Poets Society) directs from a screenplay by Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull), based on the novel by Paul Theroux. We experience the story through …