Chris Auty Movies

As the employees at a London restaurant prepare for the arrival of a high-profile Hollywood actor, it quickly becomes apparent that the five women working to make this important meal a success suffer form delusions of grandeur. In the eye of most customers they're three waitresses, a cook, and a dishwasher, but ask these dejected young workers to describe themselves and chances are you'll get an ear-full. Whether discussing weighty issues of love and art, attempting to capture a rat, or contending with a kitchen coup d'état, the workers at this restaurant are always up to something behind the scenes. Later tonight, a famous Hollywood movie star is set to dine at the restaurant, a revelation that sends each one of the imaginative workers into a tailspin of anticipation. Neve Campbell, Shirley Henderson, and Danny Huston star in a film from writer/director Oliver Parker (St. Trinians, An Ideal Husband). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An outlaw is goaded into taking on justice at its most brutal in this hard-edged Western set in rural Australia in the 1880s. Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) is a criminal living in the outback. He and his two brothers, Arthur (Danny Huston) and Mikey (Richard Wilson), are on the run from the law for rape and murder. Arthur is a violent and dangerous sociopath with a much longer rap sheet than his siblings and a reputation for hiding out in villages so lawless the police are afraid to visit them, while Mikey is a much younger and more impressionable chap.

The authorities capture Charlie and Mikey after a bloody shootout, and the brothers are handed over to Capt. Stanley (Ray Winstone), a British lawman sent to Australia to help bring order to the colonies. Stanley proposes a deal to Charlie, explaining that it's Arthur he really wants, and that he's willing to spare the childlike and terrified Mikey if Charlie can find Arthur and murder him. Charlie, realizing that this is his only hope to save his simpleton younger brother (who is scheduled to be hanged on Christmas Day), agrees and sets out to find and execute his other brother, who he believes has gone too far into the world of crime. As Charlie scours the backwaters of Australia, he encounters Jellon Lamb (John Hurt), an educated yet thoroughly menacing bounty hunter. In time, Charlie finds his brother, but isn't certain if he can carry out his mission. Meanwhile, Stanley struggles to bring a European sense of civility to the rough and tumble land he now calls home, while his wife Martha (Emily Watson) becomes the focus of the lustful appetites of the men in town. The Proposition was written by rock star and novelist Nick Cave; he previously collaborated with director John Hillcoat on the film Ghosts... of the Civil Dead. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A woman who has come to a strange land is torn between the life she knows and the new life around her in this epic-scale historical drama. In 1854, New Zealand's indigenous Maori tribes were engaged in an ongoing battle to drive away European settlers eager to establish colonies in the nation's wilderness, which the Maori saw as a threat to their way of life. However, some outsiders had made a home in New Zealand with the cooperation of the Maori, and an Irish settlement had been established, with Francis (Stephen Rea), the colony's doctor, bringing his daughter Sarah (Samantha Morton) with him to this new land. Sarah becomes acquainted with the son of one of the Maori leaders, and in time their friendship grows into something deeper. When Sarah discovers she's pregnant with the chief's son's child, the father has been called off to fight against the Europeans, and by the time her son is born, his father is dead. Sarah raises her child, whom she simply calls "Boy," but when Boy reaches the age of six, he's abducted by his father's family, who believes he should grow up among the Maori. Fearing further reprisals, Francis returns to Ireland, but Sarah stays behind to care for the sick and look for her son. Years later, while in search of Boy, Sarah encounters Wiremu (Cliff Curtis), a Maori warrior whose father Te Kai Po (Temuera Morrison) is ill. When Wiremu learns that Sarah is well versed in medicine, he makes an offer -- if she will treat Te Kai Po and return him to health, he will find Boy. Sarah is able to cure Te Kai Po's ailment, and Wiremu returns the now-teenaged Boy (David Rawiri Pene) to his mother. Boy is not eager to leave behind the Maori people who have become his family, and he and Sarah stay with Te Kai Po's tribe for a while, but in time she is drawn back to the Irish colony, where she finds herself torn between Doyle (Kiefer Sutherland), the soldier who loves her and wishes to protect her, and Wiremu, who she has grown to love. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The many emotional scars left by South Africa's history of institutionalized racism come under the microscope in this drama. As South Africa comes to terms with the legacy of apartheid, their government has created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in which the perpetrators of racial violence and injustice must come face to face with their victims if they are to be forgiven for their crimes. Langston Whitfield (Samuel L. Jackson) is an African-American journalist who is assigned to cover these hearings by The Washington Post; Whitfield doubts the efficacy of this process, and sets out to interview Col. De Jager (Brendan Gleeson), a notorious former officer of the South African police who was famous for his violence against blacks in order to put this method to the test. While in South Africa, Whitfield meets Anna Malan (Juliette Binoche), an Afrikaner poet who is covering the hearing for a radio station and is both appalled and disturbed by the details of the violence inflicted against her countrymen. After striking up a friendship, Whitfield and Malan become romantically involved as they try to come to terms with their feelings about what they've learned. Also screened under the title Country of My Skull, In My Country was adapted from a book by South African author Antjie Krog. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

British writer/actor Stephen Fry makes his feature-film debut with the witty, sophisticated comedy Bright Young Things, adapted from Evelyn Waugh's 1930 novel Vile Bodies. Set in London during the '30s, this stylish period film follows an ensemble cast of well-dressed and highly literate partygoers. Aspiring writer Adam Fenwick-Symes (stage actor Stephen Campbell Moore) loses the manuscript of his first novel when traveling through customs. He then sets out to raise enough money to marry his sweetheart, Nina Blount (Emily Mortimer), the daughter of a colonel (Peter O'Toole). All in the name of love, Adam seeks funding through a constant stream of parties, meetings, and conversations with eccentric acquaintances. Cameo appearances are made by the likes of Dan Aykroyd, Simon Callow, and Stockard Channing. Bright Young Things was shown at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Prolific British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom adds to his impressively diverse oeuvre with this harrowing account of two Afghan refugees' passage to the West in search of a better life. The movie opens at a refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, where Afghans have sought refuge in the wake of the U.S. military campaign in their country following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The story follows Jamal, an orphaned teenager, and Enayat, his older companion, as they make their way from Pakistan to London. Traveling in the back of trucks, by bus, and on foot, the two cross Central Asia in an arduous journey punctuated by encounters with hostile border guards and shady smugglers. Even more traumatic is the ocean voyage from Turkey to Italy, during which Jamal and Enayat are forced to hide in a shipping container with other asylum seekers, including a terrified infant. Winterbottom shot the movie vérité-style on digital video, and the smudgy look and quick cutting betray the movie's guerrilla roots. Enhancing its raw veneer is Winterbottom's reliance on improvised dialogue and non-actors. A stirring work of advocacy, this flawed but wrenching film won the Golden Bear at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide

British producer Jeremy Thomas made his directorial debut with this drama adapted from the novel by Walker Hamilton. Hindered by a childhood auto accident, teen Bobby (Christian Bale) is a misfit from a well-to-do family; he suffers yet another setback after the premature death of his mother. His stern stepfather, the evil De Winter (Daniel Benzali) labels Bobby "subnormal" and schemes to trick the youth into signing over the family department store. Bobby calls DeWinter "The Fat." To escape The Fat's clutches, Bobby takes off, hitchhiking to Cornwall. The trip ends when the teen causes an accident while trying to keep the driver from intentionally running over a fox. The driver is killed in the crash. Bobby then meets the antisocial Mr. Summers (John Hurt) who states, "People are of no value at all as far as I'm concerned." Summers allows Bobby to move into his shack, eventually revealing his past criminal life, and the two team to confront The Fat in London. Filmed in Cornwall and the Isle of Man. Shown in the Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

After surviving a brutal car wreck, commercial director James Ballard finds himself slowly drawn to a mysterious subculture of people who have transformed automobile accidents into erotic events. Like the J.G. Ballard novel that inspired it, David Cronenberg's study of the sexual dimension of man's relationship to technology was a magnet for controversy, drawing a NC-17 rating and criticism from several sources, including studio owner Ted Turner, who attempted to prevent the film's American release. But though some have leveled charges of pornography, James' descent into this fetishistic underworld is approached with cold, scientific detachment. Characters like Vaughn, the charismatic group leader who stages recreations of celebrity car crashes, seem more like driven researchers than sexual renegades, which is undoubtedly part of the film's point. This impression is reinforced by the pristine cinematography by Peter Suschitzsky, which proves particularly haunting during a crucial accident scene, and Howard Shore's superb score. Far from exploitative, Crash in fact proves less transgressive than the original novel, but is still undoubtedly not for all tastes. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

This beautiful if ponderous soufflé of a film from director Bernardo Bertolucci serves more as an Italian travelogue than a drama. Liv Tyler stars as Lucy Harmon, an American teenager arriving in the lush Tuscan countryside to visit family friends residing there. Lucy visited four years earlier and exchanged a kiss with a handsome boy with whom she hopes to become reacquainted. Lucy's mother has committed suicide since then, and the teenager also hopes to discover the identity of her father, whom her mother hinted was a resident of the villa. Once she arrives, Lucy meets a variety of eccentric visitors, including a dying gay playwright (Jeremy Irons), a sculptor (Donal McCann), an entertainment lawyer (D.W. Moffet), and several others. Lucy has decided to lose her virginity and becomes an object of intense interest to the men of the household, but the suitor she finally selects is not the initial object of her affection. Stealing Beauty boasted an intriguing parallel between actress Tyler's role and her real life. The daughter of a famed rock and roll star, she was brought up believing that her father was someone else, a fact that Bertolucci may have had in mind when writing the story. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide