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Filled with the best of life and the worst of life, this haunting drama deals with they way people view the world versus how it really is. Some have a rosy colored view out of naiveté and others use it out of survival. Director Alan J. Pakula (ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN) adapts William Styron’s novel, which is virtually a three-character story that unfolds with one unsettling discovery upon another, only increasing our captivation with the lives of the flawed characters. My memory of this film always focuses on Sophie “big shocking choice,” but upon another viewing I was gripped more with the smaller choices, even frivolous choices, that all the characters must make.

Stingo (Peter MacNicol, PORKY’S) is a young man who has left his Southern home to move to the Northern Sodom, as New York City is called by his father. He has saved a bit of money so that he can work on his great novel. At his apartment in Brooklyn, he meets the bohemian couple Sophie (Meryl Streep, ADAPTED) and Nathan (Kevin Kline, A FISH CALLED WANDA). Sophie is a survivor of Auschwitz and Nathan is her passionate lover, who saved her life when she was suffering from anemia. Their love is volatile; Stingo’s introduction to them is Nathan screaming at Sophie in the hall that he needs her like he needs anthrax. Stingo’s friendship with the duo will change the way he looks at the world, breaking down his naïve expectations.

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Despite it’s lofty title, IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH is actually a gripping murder mystery first and foremost. CRASH director Paul Haggis uses the investigation of this murder to comment on the demoralizing effects of war. It’s never a preachy tale, only a story of a father, who has seen the horrors of war himself, wanting to find out why his son returned from Iraq and ended up stabbed 40-plus times, dismembered and charred in a field in the United States of America.

Retired MP Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN) gets a call that his son Michael (Jonathan Tucker, HOSTAGE) has gone AWOL. Hank packs his bags and leaves his wife Joan (Susan Sarandon, DEAD MAN WALKING) to find their boy. Hank first goes to the military base where he finds his son’s cell phone, which contains distorted video and pictures from Iraq. As he follows leads, he asks Det. Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron, MONSTER) for help, but she explains that the military has jurisdiction over its missing soldiers. When Michael’s body is found, Emily is first on the case, but it is then turned over to military police, led by Lt. Kirklander (Jason Patric, LOST BOYS). Hank can’t help but wage his own investigation, which brings new light to the case at every turn.

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There’s something about vampires that’s fascinating. That’s why we get at least one vampire movie a year. Sadly, they’re often not that good. When I first heard about 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, which is based on Steven Niles and Ben Templesmith’s comic, it sounded like a promising premise — vampires attack a remote Alaskan town when it plunges into 30 days of night. When this premise clicks, the film is at its best, however the lack of character development undermines the film’s emotional pull to often.

Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett, SIN CITY) is the sheriff of Barrow, Alaska. When the town descends into 30 days of continuous night during the winter, 4/5th of the population leaves. On the evening of the last sunset, strange and bloody occurrences plague the town. Cell phones are stolen and burned, dogs are killed, helicopters are destroyed. While dealing with these events, Eben learns that his estranged wife, Stella (Melissa George, DERAILED), a fire marshal, is in town. She wants to keep her presence a secret, but a traffic accident forces her to ask Eben for help. Unwilling to talk, he sends a deputy to pick her up so that she can make the last plane back to Anchorage. Well, she doesn’t make the plane (as I’m sure you guessed), and ends up helping Eben deal with a stranger (Ben Foster, 3:10 TO YUMA), who is causing trouble in the dinner. As they lock up the haggard-looking man, he warns them that death is coming. With the promise of eternal life, he has set up the scenario to allow a tribe of vampires, lead by Marlow (Danny Huston, THE CONSTANT GARDENER), to feed freely on the helpless and isolated town for the next month.

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Martin McDonagh’s 2005 Oscar-winning live-action short was a dark comedy filled with biting dialogue. His 2008 feature film debut is a dark comedy filled with biting dialogue. The former playwright, now screenwriter, has followed the old adage — write what you know. And he knows black humor. This witty crime comedy mixes dark laughs with real drama. McDonagh flips and twists the story, keeping the audience gripped. But he does so with ingenious moral conundrums that build one on the other. Hitmen may be killers, but it doesn’t mean they don’t have consciences.

After a job gone wrong, hitmen Ray (Colin Farrell, ALEXANDER) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson, GANGS OF NEW YORK) are sent away to Bruges, Belgium to hang low until their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes, THE ENGLISH PATIENT) calls. Ken embraces the opportunity to sightsee in the most well preserved medieval city in Europe. However, Ray couldn’t be more displeased with the boring tourist trap. A film being shot in town piques Ray’s interest, because it features a dwarf named Jimmy (Jordan Prentice, HOWARD THE DUCK) and brings him in contact with the beautiful Chloe (Clemence Poesy, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE), a local drug dealer. The botched job weighs heavy on Ray’s soul and Ken’s faith will be shaken along the way as well.

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This Weekend’s Film Festival tackles life and death. To be or not to be that’s the question. The inspiration for this week’s lineup is Oscar-winning Best Picture NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, which also topped by Top 25 for 2007. Now this ponderous topic doesn’t have to be painful, and the five films in this week’s lineup are as captivating as they are thoughtful. From what lies for us after death to the death of a loved one to the randomness of the Grim Reaper’s visit, these films tackle the age-old topic that dwells in both art and entertainment.

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As legend has it, James Cameron sold the script for THE TERMINATOR to producer Gale Anne Hurd for $1 with the promise the fledgling filmmaker would be able to direct the film. With a modest budget, funder Orion left the production virtually alone outside of making two requests — add a robot dog and improve the relationship between the main characters. Cameron took one of the two suggestions. When it was all done, Cameron established himself as a top-tier director and body-builder-turned-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was launched into superstardom.

Traveling back to 1984 from a future ruled by savage machines, human rebel Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn, THE ABYSS) is assigned the task of protecting waitress Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton, TV’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST) from a nearly-unstoppable killing machine called the T-101 (Schwarzenegger). Sarah is first brought aware of the danger she is in when two Sarah Connors are reported murdered in one night. The Terminator is killing them in the order of the phonebook listing. Lt. Ed Traxler (Paul Winfield, THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW) and Det. Hal Vukovich (Lance Henriksen, ALIENS) think they have a new twisted spree killer on the loose, but they have a hard time believing that a robot has come from the future to murder the mother of the unborn leader of the human resistance against the ruling computers.

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HORTON HEARS A WHO! was animation legend Chuck Jones’ second collaboration with Ted Geisel aka Dr. Seuss, following 1966’s animated classic HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! HORTON isn’t as successful as the GRINCH, but this Seussian fable is still entertaining and as relevant as ever.

One day, Horton the elephant (Hans Conried aka Snidely Whiplash) hears a voice coming from a speck of dust. Discovering a whole society of Whos living on the white piece of fluff, Horton dedicates himself to protecting his new tiny friend Dr. Hoovey (Confried). However, the folks of Horton’s world, especially Jane Kangaroo (animation legend June Foray aka Rocky J. Squirrel), think he’s a little nuts, as do the Whos of Dr. Hoovey when he claims their world lies on the trunk of a peaceful pachyderm. Fearing that his radical way of thinking will destroy their way of life, Jane enlists three devious monkeys, the Wickersham Brothers, to steal Horton’s Who haven.

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This film is featured as bonus material on the deluxe-edition of HORTON HEARS A WHO!

As part of Warner Bros.’ Merrie Melodies, animation legend Bob Clampett took a crack at putting his spin to Dr. Seuss. The result is a mash-up of Clampett’s craziness and the Seussian rhyme and style. At 10 minutes, this short is brisk and alive, which isn’t always the case with some of the longer animated TV specials of Dr. Seuss’ books.

In this fable, dedicated elephant Horton kindly takes over sitting on an egg for the lazy bird Maisie. With a sucker in place, Maisie grabs her bags and heads to the beach. No matter what happens, Horton is determined to sit until the job is complete. Even when three hunters show up, the firm pachyderm takes a stand to protect the egg.

The short uses the poetry of Seuss, but Warner story man Michael Maltese embellishes with classic Looney Tunes style gags, puns and pop culture references. A Peter Lorre-look-alike fish shooting himself with a pistol is not Seuss. These sly winks give the short a Looney Tunes tone, while retaining the Seuss story. Clampett’s timing, pacing and direction makes the characters real characters, not cut-outs from the picture books moving across the screen. Additionally, the theatrical short gets the full production values that it deserves. The simple palette of the Seuss books is expanded with lush watercolor backgrounds. It might not be the most faithful Seuss adaptation, but it’s one of the most successful.

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This film is featured as bonus material on the deluxe-edition of HORTON HEARS A WHO!

Ralph Bakshi is best known for his adult animation FRITZ THE CAT. But in 1989 for Turner TV, he mixed his sensibilities with those of pre-school icon Ted Geisel aka Dr. Seuss. The result is one of the best Seuss adaptations ever made, and sadly one of the most overlooked. Even Seuss himself felt this was the most faithful adaptation of his work. Considering he adapted the script, he of course had a big part in that.

A grandfather (Charles Durning, TOOTSIE) tells his grandson a tale of the Zooks, who live on the other side of the wall and butter their bread butter side down. Yikes! So as a patriotic Yook, the grandfather in his younger years patrolled the wall keeping an eye out for any upside down buttering behavior. During a patrol, a Zook uses a slingshot to break the grandfather’s tough-tufted prickly snick-berry switch. This begins a race for bigger and bigger weapons to threaten the other race with.

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This film is featured as bonus material on the deluxe-edition of HORTON HEARS A WHO!

This 1995’s adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ book is a fairly straightforward rendition of the story. The brightly colored Emmy-nominated Hanna-Barbera production takes the color palette and design right from the books. It doesn’t have the energy of some of the other Dr. Seuss adaptations, but it also avoids some of their mistakes.

The Cat in the Hat (Henry Gibson, THE ‘BURBS) narrates the tale of Mayzie McGrew, who one day sprouts a daisy from the top of her head. At first her fellow students ridicule her. Her teacher, principal, parents and various other townsfolk are baffled by what has occurred. But when agent Finagle (Tim Curry, ANNIE) shows up, he lures Mayzie to sign a contract, promising fame and fortune. But as these kinds of tales often go, fame and fortune aren’t always fun and fancy-free.

Like other Seuss TV specials, this one includes songs. But the lyrics are based on the words from the book, which combine the music from Philip Appleby well. Many of the tunes are solos introducing supporting characters, which works by not being too intrusive. To stretch the story to a half hour, some uninspired slapstick was added, which is better than disruptive songs any day.

As a faithful adaptation of the book, the special captures the themes of tolerance and proper priorities well. The production doesn’t have any individual flare, relying on the Seussian poetry. For some this will be enough and for me it’s certainly enough to recommend.