Selected May and June Releases on Video/DVD
May 1
All the Pretty Horses
It’s 1949 and there’s no good reason for adventurous young John Grady Cole (Matt Damon) to stay in his native Texas, so he gets on his horse and rides into Mexico in search of new experiences. Eventually, John Grady gets a job on a huge ranch, where he becomes romantically involved with the owner’s beautiful daughter Alejandra (Penelope Cruz). But soon John Grady is thrown into a grim Mexican prison from which he will never be released unless someone pays off the jailer.
The Emperor’s New Groove
This animated comedy is set long ago in a remote South American kingdom whose emperor is the selfish young Kuzco (voice of David Spade). Kuzco is so hated by an old woman named Yzma (voice of Eartha Kitt) that she has him poisoned, but the potion intended to kill Kuzco doesn’t work as expected and turns him into a talking llama. However, Kuzco (in llama form) enlists the aid of a peasant named Pacha (voice of John Goodman), who helps him in getting back to his human form and regaining his position as emperor.
Miss Congeniality
Sandra Bullock stars in this comedy about a tomboyish, unglamorous woman who must transform herself into someone with all the traditional feminine graces. When a terrorist makes a threat against a beauty pageant, F.B.I. agent Gracie Hart (Bullock) is given the undercover assignment of posing as a pageant contestant. While Hart has the right figure for the job, her appearance, movements, and manners are all wrong, so a veteran beauty consultant (Michael Caine) is brought in to coach her.
May 8
Duets
Directed by Bruce Paltrow, Duets is an unconventional musical about the world of competitive karaoke. The movie intertwines the stories of three unlikely twosomes as they make their way to Omaha to compete in a karaoke contest for a $5,000 prize. The twosomes are: (1) a white sales executive and a black ex-convict; (2) a hustler and his showgirl daughter (played by Gwyneth Paltrow, daughter of the film’s director); and (3) a taxi driver and a sexually promiscuous young woman.
Quills
Starring Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Michael Caine, and Joaquin Phoenix, Quills chronicles the last years in the life of the Marquis de Sade (Rush), which he spent in a mental institution. At first, the priest (Phoenix) who runs the institution permits Sade to continue writing, and his manuscripts are smuggled out by a laundress (Winslet) and published. But eventually Napoleon feels threatened by Sade’s work and sends in Dr. Royer-Collard (Caine) to take charge of the situation and keep Sade under control.
Sunshine
Ralph Fiennes plays three roles (father, son, grandson) in this drama that traces the lives of three generations of a family of Hungarian Jews under three forms of government: emperor, fascist, and communist. Ignatz Sonnenschein, whose father made the family wealthy by marketing a health tonic called Sunshine, changes the family name to Sors. Ignatz’ son Adam converts to Christianity and leads the Hungarian fencing team to the 1936 Olympics. Adam’s son Ivan becomes a police agent of the communist government.
What Women Want
This entertaining lightweight romantic comedy stars Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. Male chauvinist Nick Marshall (Gibson) expects a promotion at the ad agency where he works, but the job goes to a woman named Darcy Maguire (Hunt). Then Marshall receives an electrical shock that enables him to read the mind of any woman he encounters, and his ideas for ads for women’s products are suddenly better than those proposed by Maguire. But things get complicated when Marshall and Maguire start to fall in love.
May 15
Antitrust
In this suspense thriller, Milo Hoffman (Ryan Phillippe) is a young computer nerd who goes to work in the Pacific Northwest for a large software company, where he makes some unsettling discoveries. His new employer, which is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for antitrust violations, is headed up by personable billionaire Gary Winston (Tim Robbins). Soon Milo realizes that Gary is willing to kill to assure the dominance of his company, and the young man finds himself struggling just to stay alive.
Best in Show
Directed and coscripted by Christopher Guest, Best in Show is a hilarious comedy about the owners of five dogs who compete in the Mayflower Kennel Club’s show in Philadelphia. The owners include (1) a contentious yuppie married couple from Illinois ; (2) a middle-class Florida married couple; (3) a gay couple from New York; (4) the owner of a fly fishing shop in North Carolina; and (5) a wealthy old man and his young wife. But the funniest character in the movie is the wacky announcer (Fred Willard) who acts as color man during the broadcast of the dog show.
Pay It Forward
When Las Vegas social studies teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) challenges his class to come up with an idea that will change the world, young Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) proposes the following: One person should help three other people improve their lives, and each of those three should help three more, and so on. Trevor also tries to arrange a romantic relationship between his mother (Helen Hunt) and Mr. Simonet, and the film traces the progress of Trevor’s scheme to make the world better and the results of his efforts as matchmaker.
May 22
Before Night Falls
Julian Schnabel directed this visually stunning biopic about Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas (Javier Bardem). The film shows Arenas as a young adult enjoying life in various homoerotic situations, particularly at the beach, and the combination of his open homosexuality and his writings eventually gets Arenas in trouble with the Castro government. Arenas is thrown in jail, where he spends several years before being deported as an undesirable. Ultimately, an embittered Arenas makes his way to New York, where he contracts AIDS and commits suicide.
Dungeons & Dragons
Inspired by the game of the same name, the action/adventure movie Dungeons & Dragons takes place in a mythical land where all the work is done by commoners for a privileged class called the Mages. The young Empress Savina (Thora Birch) seeks equality for all segments of society, but she is opposed by the elitist Profion (Jeremy Irons), who intends to seize power and maintain the Mages’ favored status. Control of the kingdom is determined by the possession of a large gem and a magic scepter, and Savina’s supporters must secure these items before they fall into the hands of Profion’s followers.
Requiem for a Dream
In this downbeat drama, writer-director Darren Aronofsky captures the psychological outlook of the drug addict. Ellen Burstyn gives a brilliant performance as Sara Goldfarb, a middle-aged woman who becomes hooked on amphetamines by way of diet pills. Sara’s son (Jared Leto), his girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly), and his buddy (Marlon Wayons) are young people who are addicted to drugs like heroin and cocaine. The film is unrelenting in showing the appalling prices paid by these four dreamers for the brief highs the drugs give them.
Vertical Limit
Three climbers are trapped in the Himalayan mountains near the top of K2, second highest peak in the world. Among those stranded are experienced mountaineer Annie Garrett (Robin Tunney) and wealthy businessman Elliot Vaughn (Bill Paxton). When Annie’s brother Peter (Chris O’Donnell) learns of his sister’s plight, he heads up a team of six people, including seasoned climber Montgomery Wick (Scott Glenn), on a rescue mission. The members of the rescue team encounter a series of perilous situations as they struggle to reach the trapped climbers before it’s too late.
May 29
The House of Mirth
Writer-director Terence Davies’ adaptation of Edith Wharton’s classic novel is set among New York City’s upper social strata in 1905 . The bleak story centers around the attractive Lily Bart (Gillian Anderson), a woman approaching age 30 who has not found a suitable husband. However, her prospects remain fairly good until she runs afoul of the scheming Bertha Dorset (Laura Linney), who manages to destroy Lily’s hopes. The film is a fascinating study of a society that makes almost no provision for a woman to be economically independent of men.
Shadow of the Vampire
In the early 1920s, legendary German director F.W. Murnau made the classic vampire movie Nosferatu with actor Max Schreck in the role of the vampire. Shadow of the Vampire is a fictionalized account of the making of Nosferatu which postulates that Schreck was not a human playing a vampire--he really was a vampire! Schreck’s strange behavior is attributed to the fact that he never breaks character, and Murnau is indifferent to the fates of cast and crew as long as his film gets made. Shadow of the Vampire stars John Malkovich as Murnau and Willem Dafoe as Schreck.
Traffic
Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Traffic is a hard-hitting drama about the illegal drug traffic from Mexico into the U.S. The movie, which stars Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, chronicles the stories of law enforcement personnel and drug dealers on both sides of the Mexican-American border. Also, the film tells the tale of newly appointed U.S. drug czar Robert Wakefield (Douglas), who, even as he tries to spearhead the "war on drugs," discovers that his own teenage daughter is a junkie.
June 5
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
A big hit with audiences and critics alike, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won four Oscars: Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction - Set Direction, and Best Original Score. Directed by Ang Lee and starring Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, Crouching Tiger is a martial arts movie set in China long ago. The complicated plot involves a warrior out to avenge his master’s death, a pair of romances, and a struggle over the fate of a beautiful, aristocratic young woman. The film is visually stunning and features haunting cello music by Yo-Yo Ma.
June 12
Cast Away
Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a busy, globetrotting FedEx employee who is obsessed with the efficient use of time. Noland is enjoying spending a Christmas holiday with his girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt) when he is notified that he must immediately fly to yet another overseas work assignment. But during Noland’s flight, the plane crashes, and he winds up marooned alone on a tropical island for years. Noland must use every bit of ingenuity he has just to stay alive, and the film shows him becoming lonely, emaciated, and unkempt before it goes on to reveal what eventually happens to him.
Hard Core Logo
This documentary-like film follows a fictional punk-rock band named Hard Core Logo as they play cities in western Canada. The raw, spontaneous feel of the movie often successfully captures the punk sensibility. The band’s tour is fraught with problems as the lead singer and the lead guitarist continually clash. Also, the bassist is unable to stay on his lithium medication, and at one point the band takes a harrowing LSD trip. After a promising beginning, things gradually get worse and worse on the tour until it comes to a calamitous end in Edmonton.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Based loosely on Homer’s The Odyssey, Joel and Ethan Coen’s comedy follows the adventures of three escaped convicts as they travel around the American South during the Great Depression. On their journey, Ulysses (George Clooney), Pete (John Turturro), and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) encounter a soothsayer, three seductive women washing clothes, and a one-eyed Bible salesman, not to mention "Baby Face" Nelson, a blues singer, and a Ku Klux Klan rally. When Ulysses finally reaches his wife Penny (Holly Hunter), she is preparing to wed another. The film’s soundtrack features enjoyable bluegrass music.
June 19
The Pledge
Jack Nicholson stars in this unconventional crime drama directed by Sean Penn. On his last day working for the Reno, Nevada, police department, Jerry Black (Nicholson) investigates the rape and murder of a young girl and pledges to the victim’s mother that he will bring the killer to justice. In retirement, Black becomes so obsessed with fulfilling his promise that he is unable to resist using his girlfriend’s young daughter as bait to catch the murderer. Although the film seems at first to be a conventional thriller, it eventually turns out to be an involving, but gloomy, character study.
Proof of Life
Proof of Life is a political thriller that stars Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan. Peter Bowman (David Morse) is working in Latin America when he is kidnapped and held for ransom. Although Peter and his wife Alice (Ryan) are not getting along at the time of the kidnapping, she is nevertheless quite concerned about him. Soon Terry Thorne (Crowe), an expert in kidnapping and ransom, is brought in to free Bowman. But as Thorne works on the case, he and Alice start to fall in love. The movie then goes on to show what happens to Bowman and how the budding romance works out.
Save the Last Dance
Sara (Julia Stiles) is a white teenager who lives in the suburbs and studies ballet. When Sara’s mother is killed, she must move in with her estranged father and attend a predominantly black inner-city high school. Sara has trouble adjusting at first, but things improve for her when she meets Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas). Sara and Derek share an interest in dance, and soon they become romantically involved. But some are not happy with their interracial relationship, and Sara and Derek face important decisions about where they want their lives to go.
State & Main
Written and directed by David Mamet, State & Main is a comedy about what happens when a Hollywood movie called The Old Mill is shot in a Vermont town. The production is plagued with problems: The male lead (Alec Baldwin) gets romantically entangled with a local teenage girl (Julia Stiles); the female lead (Sarah Jessica Parker) unexpectedly refuses to do a topless scene; and the writer (Philip Seymour Hoffman) must write around the fact that the town’s old mill no longer exists. Meantime, the harried director (William H. Macy) must struggle to get his movie made any way he can.
June 26
Dude, Where’s My Car?
This sophomoric comedy centers around the adventures of Jesse (Ashton Kutcher) and Chester (Seann William Scott), two dudes who overindulge in consciousness-altering substances. One morning Jesse and Chester wake up to find their car missing and a huge supply of pudding in their kitchen. As they look for the car, they encounter a pot-smoking dog and a transsexual who demands they return the suitcase full of money she gave them. They also discover they are being pursued by extraterrestrials who believe they possess a device called a continuum transfunctioner.
Unbreakable
Starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, Unbreakable is writer-director M. Night Shyamalan’s follow-up to The Sixth Sense. Willis plays David Dunn, a security guard who is never ill and has never been injured, while Jackson portrays Elijah Price, a dealer in comic book art who suffers from a genetic bone disorder. Dunn and Price meet because Price, whose bones break easily, is seeking his opposite, that is, someone who is unbreakable. It eventually begins to seem as though Dunn may really be unbreakable and that he may possess extrasensory powers as well, and the film goes on to make some intriguing revelations.
You Can Count on Me
Set in a small town in upstate New York, this character-driven drama explores the relationship between a woman and her adult brother. Sammy (Laura Linney), a loan officer at the local bank, is a single mom with an 8-year-old son. Sammy’s brother Terry (Mark Ruffalo) is a well-meaning, irresponsible drifter who left town years ago. Then Terry unexpectedly comes to visit Sammy just as she gets a new and difficult boss at the bank, and Sammy suddenly finds herself reeling from the resulting events. The charm of this film lies in the way it evokes emotional highs and lows as it examines the everyday lives of ordinary people.