Chris Cooper Movies

Jonathan Hock, who co-directed Through the Fire, which dealt with the auspicious beginning of Sebastian Telfair's NBA career, returns to the sports documentary with The Lost Son of Havana. The movie showsdefector and former major league pitcher Luis Tiant as he returns to Cuba after over 46 years in exile, and flashes back to show highlights from his remarkable pro baseball career. It also deals with Tiant's relationship with his father, who was a star pitcher in Cuba and in the Negro Leagues before the revolution. Luis Tiant was playing in the States during the Bay of Pigs invasion, after which the Cuban government essentially told its baseball players, come home and play as amateurs, or stay out forever. At the age of twenty, urged on by a letter from his father, Tiant made the painful decision to pursue his professional baseball career and abandon his parents, his friends, and his home in Cuba. Aided by the filmmakers, Tiant gets permission to return to Cuba at age 67. There, he finds vast changes, but also many familiar sights and a surprising number of people who still remember him. The filmmakers intercut this voyage home with clips and interviews highlighting Tiant's career. Tiant was a fireballer for the Cleveland Indians in the 1960s, then he broke his shoulder in 1970 playing for the Twins. He reinvented himself as a wily junkballer with a uniquely distracting delivery, and achieved great success with the Boston Red Sox. The film also describes Tiant's efforts to get his parents out of Cuba so they could see him pitch. The Lost Son of Havana had its World Premiere at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, where it was shown in the Encounters section. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

A devoted Irish-American mother (Patricia Clarkson) wages a tenacious battle to get her two disabled twin daughters (Dakota and Elle Fanning) into the public school system in director Arvin Brown's heartfelt docudrama. William H. Macy, Chris Cooper, and Laura San Giacomo co-star in a film produced by Andrea Simon and written by Marianne Leone. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Primo Levi's harrowing memoir If This Is a Man appeared in the U.S. in 1959 as Survival in Auschwitz; historians now regard it as the most critically important written conveyance of the horrors within the Nazi concentration camps. But the account in that text only represents half of Levi's story. The other half began after his release from Auschwitz. Instead of simply returning to his native Turin, Levi and 600 others were forcibly shipped east -- thousands of miles away from their homes. Thus began a grueling, trans-national journey that Levi undertook, across war-ravaged Europe and back to Turin -- a journey that took all of 12 months to complete, and that filled him, alternately, with incredulity, anger, wonder, and astonishment -- as he reflected on the meaning of his own survival in the camps. Levi died in 1987; as a tribute to the belletrist and historian, acclaimed nonfiction filmmaker Davide Ferrario (Far from Rome, Borderline) retraces Levi's route with his cameras in his documentary Primo Levi's Journey. Ferrario travels through Ukraine, Belarus, Moldavia, Romania, Hungary, Germany, and south to his native country, evaluating, at each stop, the sociological climate and the various ways in which Eastern Europe has alternately evolved and remained static over the prior 60 years. Ferrario touches on numerous issues relevant to the contemporary sociopolitical landscape of Eastern Europe, as the Russian satellite countries struggle to develop national identities, and concurrently reflects on the experiences of Levi's original trip. Celebrated Polish filmmaker Andrezj Wajda appears early on and serves as a "tour guide" for one of the first legs of the voyage. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A lonely man receives some not entirely welcome attention from his children in this drama written by Horton Foote. John Webb (Hume Cronyn) is an aging farmer from Texas who recently lost his wife and is coming to terms with spending the rest of his days on his own. An oil company believes that there may be oil on John's property and is willing to pay him handsomely for drilling rights. However, John isn't certain he likes the idea, and he soon comes into conflict with his family, who thinks that John could be letting a fortune slip through his fingers. Produced for the Showtime premium cable network, Alone boasts a superb supporting cast, including James Earl Jones, Shelley Duvall, Chris Cooper, and Frederic Forrest. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Throughout her life, small-town schoolteacher Elaine Hodges (Mare Winningham) has been fiercely devoted to her infirm, alcoholic father Addison (Lloyd Bridges). Even her affection for a local cop (Ron Lea)--who happens to already have a wife--will not permit Elaine to even consider leaving her dad. But circumstances are altered in a radical and ultimately lethal fashion when an ex-convict named Charlie (Chris Cooper) arrives in town, carrying with him a dark and well-guarded secret concerning the past of the Hodges family. Made for the CBS TV network, The Deliverance of Elaine debuted April 10, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of a number of sequels to the highly successful western mini-series Lonesome Dove featured few of the same actors as the original, nor was it based on a novel by Larry McMurtry. In this outing, onetime Texas Ranger Call (Jon Voight, replacing Tommy Lee Jones) heads a group of cowboys leading horses from Texas north to Montana. Along the way, Call again meets Clara Allen (Barbara Hershey, taking over for Anjelica Huston), the love of his late partner McCrae's life. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

When a poor waitress shoots her abusive husband, she is forced to battle the courts for custody of her children while waiting for a verdict on her trial for murder of her husband. Based on a true story, it does a credible job in the depiction of the abusive relationship but some of the impact is diminished when the film moralizes that the husband's latent homosexuality was the cause or as culpable as the physical abuse he inflicted upon his wife. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

In this drama, based on a true story, desperate townsfolk take up arms to defeat the sociopathic town bully who has been terrorizing them for years. They then swear themselves to silence. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Some of the world's most-respected directors align forces to pay tribute to the city of the New York in this unconventional omnibus sister film to 2006's Paris, Je T'Aime. Broken into short segments, New York, I Love You is comprised of ten films, most choosing to take a down-to-earth approach to the stories of the countless lives lived in the city on a given day. The segments are as follows, chronologically:

Segment 1 -- Directed by Jiang Wen; written by Hu Hong and Meng Yao; starring Hayden Christensen, Andy Garcia, and Rachel Bilson.

Segment 2 -- Directed by Mira Nair; written by Suketu Mehta; starring Natalie Portman and Irfan Khan.

Segment 3 -- Written and directed by Shunji Iwai; adaptation by Israel Horovitz. Starring Orlando Bloom and Christina Ricci.

Segment 4 -- Directed by Yvan Attal; written by Olivier Lécot and Yvan Attal; starring Robin Wright Penn, Ethan Hawke, Maggie Q, and Chris Cooper.

Segment 5 -- Directed by Brett Ratner; written by Jeff Nathanson; starring Anton Yelchin, James Caan, Olivia Thirlby, and Blake Lively

Segment 6 -- Directed by Allen Hughes; written by Xan Cassavetes and Stephen Winter; starring Drea de Matteo and Bradley Cooper.

Segment 7 -- Directed by Shekhar Kapur; written by Anthony Minghella; starring Julie Christie, John Hurt, and Shia LaBeouf.

Segment 8 -- Written and directed by Natalie Portman; starring Taylor Geare, Carlos Acosta, and Jacinda Barrett.

Segment 9 -- Written and directed by Fatih Akin; starring Burt Young, Ugur Yucel, and Shu Qi.

Segment 10 -- Written and directed by Joshua Marston; starring Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman.

Transitions in between segments -- Directed by Randall Balsmeyer; written by Israel Horovitz, James Strouse, and Hall Powell; starring Emilie Ohana, Eva Amurri, and Justin Bartha. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Oil drives greed in Oscar-winning Traffic screenwriter Stephen Gaghan's labyrinthine sophomore directorial effort that traces the corruption of the global oil industry from the backrooms of Washington, D.C., to the petroleum-rich fields of the Middle East. Based in part on the writings of former CIA case officer Robert Baer, Syriana combines multiple storylines to explore the complexities that befall a proposed merger between two U.S. oil giants. Reform-minded Gulf country prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig) is in favor of making his nation more self-sufficient rather than U.S.-reliant, and his money-minded Western connections couldn't be less pleased. Before settling into a cushy desk job for the remainder of his career, CIA agent Bob Barnes (George Clooney) is sent on one last assignment -- to assassinate Prince Nasir and reinstate U.S. ties in the oil-rich region. Though his loyalty dictates that Barnes carry out his current mission despite lingering doubts of a previous blunder, his mission goes horribly awry when his field contact goes turncoat and Barnes becomes a CIA scapegoat. Meanwhile, up-and-coming Washington attorney Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) attempts to walk a fine line in overseeing a tenuous merger between two oil giants that's plagued with shady business dealings. Hotshot energy analyst Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon) is in talks to form a lucrative partnership with Prince Nasir, though the death of his son during a party at the prince's estate makes him question his loyalty to business over family. Back in Washington, D.C., Bennet's boss Dean Whiting attempts to undermine Prince Nasir's attempts to make his country less reliant on the U.S. dollar by planting the seeds of dissonance between the progressive prince and his money-minded younger brother Prince Meshal (Akbar Kurtha). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A young man gets a crash course in the madness of war in this fact-based drama from director Sam Mendes. Anthony "Swoff" Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) decides to join the Marines, just like his father and his father before him, and signs on just in time to be sent to Iraq to fight in the Gulf War in 1991. After experiencing the rigors of boot camp, Swofford and his pal Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) are trained to be snipers, and under the leadership of Sgt. Sykes (Jamie Foxx) and Lt. Col. Kazinski (Chris Cooper), the two land in the middle of a desert where they're up against an enemy they can't always see under a blazing sun with hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Swofford, Troy, and their fellow soldiers rely on the wits, their sense of humor, and their friendship of their brothers in arms to deal with a situation that doesn't much resemble what they saw on television at home. Jarhead was based on the memoirs of the real-life Anthony Swofford, who did serve as a sniper in the 1991 Gulf War; the title comes from military slang for a Marine enlistee. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The creative team behind Being John Malkovich -- director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman -- return with this equally offbeat comedy, in which Kaufman himself becomes the leading character. Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) is a gifted but profoundly neurotic screenwriter who, after the success of Being John Malkovich, has been hired to write a script adapted from the nonfiction book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. But while Charlie is obsessive about his work, he's also intensely paranoid, given to deep depression, socially inept, and terrified of talking to women, qualities which are making it difficult to get on with his work or hold on to his tenuous relationship with girlfriend Amelia (Cara Seymour). Meanwhile, Charlie's identical twin brother, Donald Kaufman (also played by Cage), has shown up to move in with his brother. Emotionally, Donald is Charlie's polar opposite -- a loudmouthed, over-confident, superficial party animal who has an easy way with the ladies. Donald has decided to follow his brother's footsteps and take up screenwriting as well, but embracing the dictates of screenwriting tutor Robert McKee (Brian Cox), he's cranking out a cliché-ridden serial-killer thriller when not busy making time with new girlfriend Caroline (Maggie Gyllenhaal). As Donald blazes through his screenplay, Charlie slowly picks away at his story, in which author Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) chronicles John Laroche (Chris Cooper), a scruffy but devoted plant enthusiast who tries to save rare species of orchids by stealing them from their natural home in the swamps of Florida. As John and Susan become better acquainted, they find themselves attracted to one another; similarly, Charlie finds himself increasingly fascinated with Susan, and finds himself falling in love with her, even though he's only seen her photo on the dust jacket of her book. Charlie arranges to meet Susan, but is too nervous to confront her face to face, so he sends Donald (who has just scored a seven-figure deal for his script) in his place, while he attends a screenwriting seminar held by McKee. Adaptation also features Tilda Swinton, Judy Greer, and Stephen Tobolowsky. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide