Samantha Mathis

[6] What if a widowed U.S. president started dating again during an election year? This question is the premise for director Rob Reiner (Stand By Me, Misery) and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, Moneyball) in The American President. Michael Douglas stars as the leader of the free world, who begins seeing an environmental protection lobbyist played by Annette Bening. While the relationship is perfectly …

[6] Christian Bale (Empire of the Sun) plays a homicidal Wall Street playboy in this Bret Easton Ellis adaptation directed by Mary Harron. By day, Bale’s character, Patrick Bateman, engages in banal chit-chat with other yuppies. They compare dicks — I mean, business cards — and brag about elusive dinner reservations. But by night, Bateman one-ups them all in the contest to determine who’s the …

[9] I think the movies we see when we’re impressionable teenagers have the greatest impact on our lives. As a quiet kid who started finding his voice in high school, Pump Up the Volume influenced and inspired me. The movie is about a shy student (Christian Slater) who uses a shortwave radio to hold an anonymous late night program. Before long, the entire school is …