[7] Charles Bronson headlines this above-average low-budget thriller about a cop of questionable morals (Bronson) in pursuit of a serial killer (Gene Davis) who kills in the nude. Early in the film, Bronson tells his boss (Wilford Brimley) that the killer’s “knife is his penis.” The killer is motivated to kill because women won’t give him attention otherwise, making 10 to Midnight all the more …
[4] Cher gives her first dramatic performance in Chastity, produced by then-husband and singing partner Sonny Bono. You could call the film experimental, an American hippie spin on the French New Wave of filmmaking. Or you could call it a largely plotless series of improvised vignettes and montages. Either way, the movie didn’t work for me. Cher plays Chastity, a young woman we first meet …
[7] Nancy Carroll stars as a young bank worker who loses her job and becomes the subject of gossip after she spends a night with a rich womanizer, played by Cary Grant. Even though Carroll never did anything improper, the town saw her arrive at a big party with one man (Edward Woods), and leave with another. Yet a third man (Randolph Scott) visits town …
[7] In this revenge drama from writer/director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Black Mass), Christian Bale seeks vigilante justice after Woody Harrelson murders his brother over gambling debt. Casey Affleck plays the brother, a young man suffering from post-traumatic stress after four tours of duty in Iraq. The rest of the esteemed cast includes Willem DaFoe, Forest Whitaker, Zoe Saldana, and Sam Shepard. Out of the …
[7] Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper co-star in director Frank Borzage’s adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. Cooper plays an American ambulance driver who falls in love with Hayes’ British nurse in Italy during the first World War. They are secretly married and have to keep their relationship hidden from their superiors. Eventually, they are separated and their letters to each other are …
[8] Jamie Bell (Billy Elliott) leads an all-star ensemble in this surreal, satiric look at the breakdown of suburban existence. The Chumscrubber is an ambitious conceptual piece, not unlike American Beauty in tone and style. But where American Beauty centered on one character’s shaky morality and lost me, The Chumscrubber stems more confidently from one of my favorite thematic tropes — human beings’ desperate need …
[7] Angelina Jolie stars as a transient teen who helps four other young ladies defend themselves against a predatory high school teacher. They form a bond, get expelled from school together, and take up residence in an abandoned home together. Their ‘gang’ gets a reputation and inspires other young women to stand up for themselves, but their rebellious recreational activities end up getting them in …
[6] Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone move their family from the hustle and bustle of the big city to an old mansion in the middle of rural nowhere. But before they’re settled in, a strange and spooky man (Stephen Dorff) comes knocking. As a series of unfortunate events unfold, the family discover the man has a connection to the property and he’s not about to …
[6] Director Lasse Hallström (The Shipping News, Chocolat) serves up a fluffy, romantic, period piece comedy centered around the antics of legendary lover Casanova in Venice. Heath Ledger plays the promiscuous hero, who early in the film receives a mandate from the ruler of Venice to get married or leave Venice forever. So Casanova goes in search of a wife, beginning a second act rife with mistaken …
[7] Marlene Dietrich re-teams with director Josef von Sternberg (The Blue Angel) to play a woman-on-the-run in Blonde Venus. After her husband falls ill from radium poisoning, Dietrich performs in a nightclub to make money for his treatment. But when Cary Grant shows up at the club offering a way to make more money faster, Dietrich takes him up on his offer. (Who wouldn’t prostitute …
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