Billy Anagnos Movies

A haunted New York City detective must delve into his dark past in order to stop a serial killer whose highly artistic modus operandi seems uncannily similar to that of a madman who stalked the city streets five years prior. When reclusive detective Stan Aubray (Willem Dafoe) gunned down the man suspected of being the "Uncle Eddie" murderer, he thought his nightmare had come to an end. But now a new crop of victims has begun to turn up, each bearing the distinctive mark of the maniac whom everyone had presumed to be dead. Much like the unfortunate victims of "Uncle Eddie," the bodies in this latest batch have been carefully arranged in a manner that reflects the artistic style known as anamorphosis -- where hidden meanings can be revealed by viewing the crime scenes from different perspectives. Could this be the work of a copycat killer, or is it possible that Detective Aubray and his men killed the wrong man on that fateful day five years ago? All signs indicate that the latest killings were carried out with Detective Aubray specifically in mind, prompting him to reexamine the painful questions that he had struggled all these years to suppress. On one side, Detective Aubray faces the scrutiny of a bright young detective (Scott Speedman) who has his own unique ideas about the killings, and on the other, a disturbed young woman (Clea Duvall) who proves a dangerous link to Detective Aubray's mystery-shrouded past. Only by confronting the possibility that he fears most will Detective Aubray finally be able to overcome his own stifling sense of guilt and finally uncover the truth about the most gruesome crimes ever committed in New York City. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Two people discover just how true the old adage "lucky in life, unlucky in love" can be in this romantic comedy. Ashley (Lindsay Lohan) has always been the sort of girl fortune smiles upon -- she's pretty, she has a great job, she had good friends, guys fall over themselves to ask her out, and she never has trouble getting a cab. Jake (Chris Pine), on the other hand, is not nearly so lucky -- he's clumsy and accident prone, things never seem to go his way, and he's just lost his job at a bowling alley. However, these two opposites meet one night at a ritzy masquerade ball, and Ashley and Jake exchange an impulsive kiss as two shooting stars cross in the sky. Suddenly, they both find their luck taking a one hundred and eighty degree turn; Jake is befriended by a wealthy musician and suddenly finds himself successful and flush with cash, while Ashley loses her job and her apartment after a major misunderstanding with the police. While Jake's luck with women has also taken a turn for the better, he's become deeply infatuated with Ashley, and tries to help her turn her life back around as he struggles to win her heart. Just My Luck also stars Samaire Armstrong, Faizon Love, and Tovah Feldshuh. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The second feature from director Michel Gondry (Human Nature) finds the filmmaker reteaming with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman for this off-the-wall romantic comedy. Jim Carrey stars as Joel Barish, a man who is informed that his ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had her memories of their relationship erased from her brain via an experimental procedure performed by Dr. Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson). Not to be outdone, Joel decides to have the same procedure done to himself. As Mierzwiak's bumbling underlings Stan (Mark Ruffalo) and Patrick (Elijah Wood) perform the operation on Joel -- over the course of an evening, in his apartment -- Joel struggles in his own mind to save the memories of Clementine from being deleted. Kirsten Dunst, David Cross, and Jane Adams also star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Not long after a wealthy gay man adopts an infant son, the man's partner is killed and the baby is kidnapped. At first, ransom is thought to be the motive, but then the homophobic biological father of the child becomes a prime suspect. The upshot of all this is the decision by the DA's office to prosecute the case as a hate crime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Documentary filmmaker Philip Haas made his dramatic feature film debut with The Music of Chance, adapted from Paul Auster's terse, existential novel. The film follows the plight of two hapless drifters -- Jim Nashe (Mandy Patinkin), who is escaping family and responsibility with an inheritance and a red BMW, and Jack Pozzi (James Spader), a down-on-his-luck gambler and world class manipulator. Pozzi convinces Nashe to shoot the works and put his remaining $10,000 into a high stakes poker game against two rich suckers -- reclusive lottery winners Willie Stone (Joel Grey) and Bill Flower (Charles Durning), who share a lavish but isolated country estate, using the remains of their lottery fortune to construct a self-contained world on the grounds of their mansion. Instead of bilking the two millionaires, however, Pozzi and Nashe lose their windfall and find themselves indebted to Stone and Flowers, who compel them to work off their losses by constructing a stone monument on their estate, a chore that results in deception, flight, and possibly murder. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In Race for Glory, a young motorcyclist takes his wrench-toting friend and his home-made bike to the big-time European Grand Prix races. Surely the underdog of underdogs, this fellow's up against all odds as he takes on big-name race teams from all over the world in his effort to grab the cup of glory. ~ All Movie Guide

Director Abel Ferrara liberally employs his blackjack intensity in this lunatic gang romance that comes across as a cross between Mean Streets and West Side Story. The New York City street gangs of Chinatown and Little Italy are rattling their sabers and they become drawn when a Chinese restaurant opens up on the Italian side of Canal Street. In the middle of all this tension and violence, beautiful Chinese teenager Tyan-Hwa (Sari Chang) falls in love with Tony (Richard Panebianco), a pizza delivery boy. Of course, continuing with in the West Side Story vein, the parents of the two lovebirds are against the match. Not only that, but the Mafia and the Chinese mob conspire to separate the lovers in order to maintain an uncertain peace in the community. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Combining influences from Tex Avery cartoons to Sam Raimi horror movies to 1940s B-movies, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen followed up the stylish film noir of their debut, Blood Simple (1984), with this frantic screwball comedy. H.I. "Hi" McDonnough (Nicholas Cage) is a philosophical but slightly dim career criminal who has been arrested so often that he gets to know "Ed," short for Edwina (Holly Hunter), the officer who takes his mug shots. Hi takes a shine to Ed and promises to go straight if she marries him. She accepts, and they move to the Arizona desert, where Hi holds down a factory job and blissfully watches the sunsets with Ed. Their serenity is shattered when the couple decides that they want a child and discover that, as Hi puts it, "Ed's womb was a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase." (One of the film's many delights is Hi's unexpectedly flowery dime-novel narration.) Ed goes into a severe depression until she sees an item in the news. Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), owner of a chain of unpainted furniture stores, has become the father of quintuplets, and he and his wife joke that they now have more children than they know what to do with. In what seems like a perfect "helps you, helps me" situation, Hi and Ed kidnap one of the Arizona infants, figuring that they'll have a baby and the Arizonas will have less of a burden. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This stylishly photographed drama is set in the Lower East Side area known as "Alphabet City." There 19-year-oldJohnny has become a drug lord in charge of the neighborhood gangs and pushers. Unfortunately, he too has a boss and when he asks Johnny to burn down the tenement building that houses his mother and sister, the boy refuses and decides to go straight for the sake of his wife and child. This doesn't set well with his boss who sends gangsters out to kill him. Of course, the gangsters have to catch Johnny first. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Jon Chardiet plays a Puerto Rican youth who targets subway walls for his graffiti renderings. For a while, it looks as though Chardiet's problems will carry the plotline, but before long the film's true raison d'etre comes to the surface. Rap-music deejay Guy Davis, in tandem with such like-minded individuals as music student Rae Dawn Chong, endeavor to stage a huge breakdancing presentation, featuring several musical artistes of the period. Harry Belafonte served as coproducer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Soviets steal a cache of plutonium leaving one rogue super CIA agent to steal it back and save the world. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Two runaway teens face life on the streets in New York City with a devil-may-care attitude and a punk-rock image. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

In this comic mystery, a department store clerk dreams of becoming a famous writer of children's books. He is also having an affair with a lovely patron of the store. The trouble begins when the lovers find that her husband, a pair of neighbors and a bogus detective have been murdered. The lovers decide to solve the case themselves. Mayhem ensues and the story's climax occurs at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide