2000’s

[8] Don Cheadle stars as Paul Rusesabagina in the true story of a Rwandan man who saved over a thousand lives by harboring refugees in his hotel during the Hutu slaughtering of the Tutsi in 1994. Hotel Rwanda takes about ten or fifteen minutes to set itself up before it becomes a non-stop terrifying fight for life. Once the Hutu begin killing his friends and …

[6] Cillian Murphy stars a young trans-woman who leaves Ireland in the 1970s to find her birth mother in London. Along the way, she has flings with a singer (Gavin Friday) and a comic magician (Stephen Rea), rough encounters with the IRA and London police, and an unexpected reconciliation with her birth father. Breakfast on Pluto reunites director Neil Jordan with material involving sexuality and …

[5] Josh Hartnett stars as a guy so obsessed with his ex-girlfriend, that it haunts any attempt to start a new relationship. So he gives up sex for Lent — right before accidentally meeting Mrs. Right (Shannyn Sossamon). While his friends and co-workers lay bets on how soon he’ll break his vow of celibacy, Hartnett struggles to find a way to win over Sossamon when …

[5] Tilda Swinton stars as a mother trying to cover-up the accidental death of her son’s aggressive gay lover. But things get even more complicated when a strong-arm (Goran Visnjik) tries to extort the dead man’s debts from her. Tilda Swinton can make the best of a lot of roles, but this character’s timidity and fecklessness are hard for me to deal with. Since the …

[7] Director Jay Roach and cast return, adding Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Steisand to the mix, for this sequel to Meet the Parents. In preparation for their big wedding, Ben Stiller and Teri Polo need for their parents to meet each other. We got to know her parents — Robert DeNiro and Blythe Danner — in the previous movie. The sequel brings all the characters …

[7] Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro headline this ‘comedy of errors’ flick about a male nurse seeking permission from an ex-CIA agent to take his daughter’s hand in marriage. Formula comedies usually fail or succeed on the strength of casting. To that end, Stiller and DeNiro carry Meet the Parents over the finish line. The screenplay conjures up a handful of memorable moments — including …

[7] Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson star in playwright/director Jane Anderson’s story about a rural midwestern family weathering the father’s decision to undergo a sex change. Wilkinson portrays the father, who endures prejudice from his coworkers and family. Lange plays his shocked wife, who eventually becomes his strongest defender. Hayden Panettierie plays their progressive young daughter, while Joseph Sikora plays their adult son who has …

[7] A nice young dude with an obsession for Mad Max and the Apocalypse falls in love with a cool young chick. But when he catches her with another dude, he and his best bud consider going medieval on some people’s asses. Bellflower is a genuine love story that takes some dark turns, supported by an unknown cast who give surprisingly good performances. Writer/director Evan …

[7] Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives) serves up this meditative drama about a mute, one-eyed, pagan strong man (Hannibal‘s Mads Mikkelsen) who fights for the entertainment of his Norse captors way back around the year 1000 AD. He finally escapes and brings a young boy along with him. The two soon take up company with a small band of Crusaders looking for their …

[3] Maybe Alice Sebold’s novel is a different and more worthwhile experience. But not having read it, I’m pondering what the hell I’m supposed to take away from Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lovely Bones. The movie is about a dead 14-year-old (Saoirse Ronan) who is stuck in some sort of purgatory where she can look in on her grieving family, as well as …

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