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When Kevin Costner is good (i.e. DANCES WITH WOLVES, FIELD OF DREAMS) he can be great. But when he’s bad (i.e. THE POSTMAN), he’s awful. Costner proves himself with his film, making a solid Western in the classic sense. The film has something to say about the effects of violence, especially war, on a man’s psyche.

Costner plays Charley Waite, a quiet cowboy, who has been working for Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall, THE APOSTLE) for more than a decade. Boss Spearman is kind and wise, but he’s cautious about strangers. Working with them is the childlike big man Mose (Abraham Benrubi, TV’s ER) and the young Hispanic rookie Button (Diego Luna, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN). When Mose goes to town for supplies and is jumped by locals, Boss and Charley want to make their presence known to the men that threaten them, which include crocked Irish landowner Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon, GOSFORD PARK) and corrupt sheriff Poole (James Russo, THE NINTH GATE). In the meantime, they get Doc (Dean McDermott, A COOL, DRY PLACE) and Sue Barlow (Annette Bening, AMERICAN BEAUTY) to fix up Mose. Charley has an instant attraction to Sue. When tragedy strikes, Boss and Charley ride into town for their revenge.

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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.

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Two things have to come together to make a good documentary a great one — skilled and dedicated filmmakers that know what questions to ask and who to ask them to and serendipity. This film has both. The film chronicles the lives of the Friedman family, whose patriarch was convicted of child molestation along with his youngest son. It was one of the most famous such cases in American history. What the filmmakers lucked into with this documentary is that the oldest son, David, filmed and video recorded many family meetings even after Arnold, the father, and Jesse, the son, were arrested.

The film unblinkingly peers into the turmoil that this family went through. We get glimpses of Arnold as a funny, happy-go-lucky kind of guy, but after the charges were brought against him, he becomes a quiet, meek guilt-ridden lump. Elaine, Arnold’s wife, seemed to love her husband before the charges, but old buried issues boiled to the surface and she quickly wrote him off. This betrayal by his mother created great anger and resentment in David, who sees his father through rose-colored glasses and sees his mother through cloudy resentment. Seth, the middle child, didn’t even participate in the film, which adds to the story’s mystery and makes the reading of the affects on the family more complex. Jesse, the youngest son, seems the most resolved about the situation and the most honest about the way he views both his father and mother. The last family member interviewed is Arnold’s brother Howard, who is very emotionally scarred by the scandal. A revelation about Howard late in the movie adds a whole new wrinkle to him and his brother.

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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.
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This film from Japan was an international sensation. It was a controversial one as well. I saw it by getting an all-region DVD from Korea off e-Bay for Christmas. But I am now seeing it at some indie rental outlets for rent. I’ve been waiting two years to see this film and it was well worth it. Simply explaining the plot will explain the controversy.

It’s set in a near future Japan where adults have lost all faith in the morals of the teen generation. As a way to keep the youth as a whole in line, they have instituted a new act where one ninth-grade class a year is chosen to participate in Battle Royale. The 42 students must kill each other off one by one until only one teen survives. If you don’t kill, a collar around your neck will explode, killing you.
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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.
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