AWN Blogs

The Coen Brothers have displayed their unique sense of style in their films like RAISING ARIZONA, BLOOD SIMPLE and FARGO. They often skirt the line between black satire, film noir and screwball comedy. CRUELTY is probably their most accessible mainstream film and conjures up the best of Hollywood's Golden Age screwball laugh-fests.

Miles Massey (George Clooney, O' BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?) is L.A.'s top divorce lawyer. They teach a class on his pre-nup agreement at Harvard Law School. He's a conniver and a cheat; no case is too difficult to win. Rex Rexroth (Edward Herrmann, CAT'S MEOW) has been caught red-handed cheating on his wife, Marylin (Catherine Zeta-Jones, TRAFFIC), who wants to take him for everything he's got. She's a pro at this sort of thing, having her own go-to private eye named Gus Petch (Cedric the Entertainer, BARBERSHOP). However, she underestimated the skills of Miles Massey, who wins. But that's just a set back for Marylin. Next up for this seductress is naïve very-Texan, oil man Howard (Billy Bob Thorton, SLINGBLADE). The poor sap is just a tool for Marylin to get back at Miles. She doesn't like to lose.

This French thriller is a film that Alfred Hitchcock would have loved. Ordinary people thrust into extraordinary events. The frumpy Carla (Emmanuelle Devos, FORGET ME) is a secretary at a construction firm. She is partially deaf – able to read lips though. The men at the office ridicule her behind her back. They have a knack for always discarding their coffee cups on her desk. Overworked – one day her boss tells her to hire an assistant.

The employment agency sends over newly released convict, Paul (Vincent Cassel, IRREVERIBLE), who has no office skills whatsoever. At first repulsed, but strangely intrigued, Carla hires Paul and quickly gains a feeling of authority, finally having someone under her. In a way identifying with Paul's outcast persona, she helps Paul get a place to live. When a colleague steals a project she has been working on for three years, Carla asks Paul for some help. This "criminal" act starts Carla and Paul exchanging favors for favors, leading to Carla reading the lips of gangsters to find out when a bag of laundered money is coming in so Paul can steal it.

This may be the most underrated Bond movie of the series. It's easily the most realistic and one of the most thrilling. I can't yet say if it's Roger Moore's best, but it's a huge step up from his first outing in the miserable LIVE AND LET DIE. But we'll get back to Moore later.

The film starts off by acknowledging ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, which was the first non-Connery Bond film and the one where Bond gets married and his wife is murdered. In the beginning of this film, James Bond visits his wife's grave, which adds an emotional pull to the film that sometimes Bond films lack. The first sequence where Blofeld controls Bond's helicopter is humorous and a wonderful wink from the filmmakers that this entry in the series is killing off the silliness and excess that had been building up.

One of the best films of 2000, this is the kind of film that you love to watch over and over again. That's saying a lot for a subtitled film. Director Ang Lee (ICE STORM) brought to life a Chinese kung-fu move with heart and emotion. I had to twist my wife's arm to go see this in the theater. It's now one of her favorites and she let out an audible, "wow," in the theater when the first character effortlessly takes flight.

Veteran fighter Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat, ANNA AND THE KING) is about to retire and he has given his legendary sword, the Green Destiny, to Sir Te (Lung Sihung, EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN). It also allows him to reunited with his childhood friend, Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh, TOMORROW NEVER DIES), who is employed as a guardian. Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien have long loved each other, but have kept their feelings repressed. Jen Yu (Ziyi Zhang, RUSH HOUR 2) is the Governor's daughter, who is engaged to marry a man she does not love. Secretly, she is being trained in the Wudan martial arts by thief and murderer, Jade Fox (Pei-pei Cheng, THE LEGEND OF BLACK MASK), who killed Li Mu Bai's master.

The buzz for this film is electric. It's based on the true story of "America's first female serial killer" Aileen Wuornos. It is a low-budget independent film from a first time feature director Patty Jenkins. If you haven't heard of it yet, you will. The main reason for this is Charlize Theron (CIDER HOUSE RULES). She plays Wuornos in a performance that is mesmerizing and brutally real. If she does not win the Oscar, they should discontinue the award forever.

Many people say they didn't even know it was she. With make-up and adding some 20 pounds, the slim, blonde model transformed into a trailer trash female straight from central casting at THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW. A lot of people didn't think she had a performance like this in her from her past work as "the girlfriend" -- they just weren't paying attention. If you watch her performances as the "girlfriend," they are all different. She truly never gives the same performance twice. Check out her performance in THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE to see some of what she can do. Theron embodies Wuornos in everyway. Watch her eyes – she is the character.

This film perplexes me. The hype is high and it may not have lived up to my expectations. Every year there is a critical sensation that just doesn’t blow me away like all the reviews say it will. Maybe over time, this film will resonate more, once it’s distanced from the hype. But that's not to say I didn't like the film, which is fueled by powerful performances and a harrowing crime story.

The story deals with how tragedy often reaches from our pasts and taints our futures. Dave Boyle (Tim Robbins, SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) was abducted when he was an adolescent as his friends Sean (Kevin Bacon, FLATLINERS) and Jimmy (Sean Penn, DEAD MAN WALKING) watched. Over the years, the three friends grew apart. Jimmy went to prison and has been married twice. His daughter Katie (Emmy Rossum, SONGCATCHER), with his first wife, is the love of his life. His new wife, Annabeth (Laura Linney, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME), complains that he needs to remember that he has two other daughters. Dave is plagued by what happened to him, unable to reconcile it in his mind. Sean has become a homicide cop and is estranged from his wife who calls him but doesn’t speak.

Gurinder Chadha has followed up her wonderful film WHAT’S COOKING? with this delightful crowd pleaser about an Indian girl named Jess (Parminder K. Nagra, TV’s ER) who just wants to play soccer. The plot is standard “girl fights tradition to do what she wants” kind of story. What sets this film apart is that it has heart and real pathos. The characters are fleshed out and the action of the story occurs naturally.

Jess gets caught playing soccer and her father (Anupam Kher) and mother (Shaheen Khan, CAPTIVES) forbid her from playing. In a lesser film, this would be the big second act conflict that propels the film to an inevitable end. However, this film has Jess continue to defy her parents over and over again, much like a real teenager. She is spotted playing in the park by Jules (Keira Knightley, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN) who invites her to play for her female team, which is coached by ex-men’s player Joe (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, TITUS). Those three form an unusually believable love triangle.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez (DESPERADO) and written by Quentin Tarantino (PULP FICTION), this horror crime film bubbles over with cool. It plays out in two distinct parts — the first is a kidnap story and the second is a vampire yarn. Though completely different, Rodriguez brings a unifying style to the two halves and Tarantino writes the in a dramatic way where "good guys" and "bad guys" must come together to conquer a common enemy. Oh, and it's cool as hell… but I already mentioned that.

Seth (George Clooney, O' BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?) and Richard Gecko (Tarantino, DESPERADO) are escaped bank robbers trying to flee to Mexico. Bumps happen along the way mainly due to the extremely unpredictable and unstable behavior of Richard. The Gecko Brothers end up taking hostage the Fuller family, which includes ex-minister Jacob (Harvey Keitel, THE GREY ZONE), teenage daughter Kate (Juliette Lewis, CAPE FEAR) and his Chinese son Scott (Ernest Liu, THE WESTING GAME). They end up at the Titty Twister bar where the management turns out to be blood-sucking vampires.

This character study about a man with a severe gambling addiction continues to prove that Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the best actors working today. Based on a true story about a bank employee who took his employer for $10.2 million, Hoffman sinks into this role completely. He never goes for effect, because like any addict his highs are muted by his addiction. It takes a bigger and bigger risk to even get him to blink.

Hoffman's Dan Mahowny is determined that if he gambles long enough he will be able to pay back all his debts, which he has accrued from gambling. At the bank he is promoted to assistant manager in charge of loans, which he starts making out to himself. His unassuming appearance and nerdy charm allow him to cover up his deceptions. But his gambling has gotten so bad that his bookie Frank (Maury Chaykin, HOSTAGE) cuts him off, because Mahowny starts making impulsive bets just to place a bet. Even bookies have to draw a line on how much they'll take someone for their money. Mahowny has a girlfriend named Belinda (Minnie Driver, CIRCLE OF FRIENDS), who worries and really cares about him, but when he invites her to Vegas with him she finally can't overlook his erratic behavior.

Director Peter Bogdanovich (LAST PICTURE SHOW) set out to make an homage to ‘30s screwball comedies and succeeded with flare. In many ways, it stands with the best of the genre.

Howard Bannister (Ryan O’Neal, LOVE STORY) and his fiancée, Eunice Burns (Madeline Kahn, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN) travel to San Francisco for a musicology event where Howard is up for a $20,000 grant. Zany craziness ensues from the beginning to the end due to four identical plaid bags each containing Howard’s musical rocks, secret documents, stolen jewels and Judy Maxwell’s clothes. Maxwell (Barbra Streisand, MIRROR HAS TWO FACES) provides most of the wackiness as she wills herself upon Howard, even renaming him Steve.

Set in a modern Maori community in New Zealand, this powerful drama chronicles three generations of one family, which is headed by a strictly old-fashioned patriarch named Koro (Rawiri Paratane, 2000’s ACCIDENTS). Koro is disappointed that his son Porourangi (Cliff Curtis, THREE KINGS) has not had a son, but a daughter. Defiantly he named the little girl Paikea (Keisha Castle-Hughes, film debut) after the mythic leader of the tribe. Porourangi leaves the community and his mother Nancy Flowers (Vicky Haughton, JUBILEE) takes the child in.

Koro’s disappointment fades over time once the love for his granddaughter grows, however, he’s very staunch in his traditional beliefs that his family needs a male descendant from his first-born son to carry on the leadership and traditions of his people. As Porourangi tells Pai, he’s looking for a prophet. When I first heard the plot of this film, I thought that the film was just going to be one of those solid girl-proves-she can-hang-with-the-boys type of films. I just wasn’t prepared for the honest power of this particular story.

You could call this film the thinking man’s comic book movie. I personally didn’t find it as emotionally engaging as SPIDER-MAN, but it’s another great installment in the comic-turned-movie genre. Director Ang Lee (CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) takes a traditional parent and offspring conflict and wraps it into a classic monster movie like FRANKENSTEIN.

Bruce Banner (Eric Bana, BLACK HAWK DOWN) is a talented young scientist who has trouble expressing his buried feelings. He is working on a regeneration healing experiment with his ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly, A BEAUTIFUL MIND). An accident in the lab, which should have killed Bruce, only makes him feel better. His estranged father David (Nick Nolte, AFFLICTION) reemerges and sheds light on how his experiments have left his son “unique.” Betty’s distant father General Ross (Sam Elliot, TOMBSTONE) stopped David’s experiments and questions how Bruce could be traveling down the same road as his dad.