Christopher Landon
- 2009
Former music-video director Samuel Bayer (whose credits include the clip for Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit") steps onboard to direct this Platinum Dunes-produced remake of the 1987 Kathryn Bigelow vampire Western concerning a restless small-town innocent who falls in with a violent band of nomadic vampires. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Iron Jawed Angels director Katja von Garnier and the producers of Underworld team to adapt author Annette Curtis Klause's tale of a teenage werewolf who is forced to choose between love and loyalty to the pack when she falls for a handsome young human. Vivian Gandillon (Agnes Bruckner) is a 19-year-old girl living in modern-day Bucharest. After spending her entire life running from the truth, Vivian is forced to come to terms with her lycanthropic origins when her growing affections for a visiting American artist threaten to reveal her family's dark secret. For centuries, Vivian's family has been involved with an ancient secret society. Now, in order to be with the one she loves, Vivian will be forced to betray an age-old vow that could bring about the downfall of her entire race. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agnes Bruckner, Olivier Martinez, (more)
Salton Sea director D.J. Caruso travels from the shore to the suburbs for this suspenseful tale of a high-school senior who suspects that his neighbor is a notorious serial killer. Kale (Shia LaBeouf) is a high-school senior who has yet to come to terms with the fact that his father is gone, the tragic victim of a fatal accident. As Kale's mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) struggles to pay the bills by picking up extra shifts at work, her son's behavior grows increasingly erratic. When an altercation at school finds Kale placed under court-ordered house arrest, the homebound student teams with newly arrived girl-next-door Ashley (Sarah Roemer) to investigate the suspicious neighbor (David Morse) whom Kale believes to be an elusive and wanted serial killer. Their attentions focused intensely on the man they believe to be a murderous maniac hiding in broad daylight, Kale and Ashley trespass down a dangerous path while attempting to discern whether his suspicions are grounded in fact or just a combination of deep depression and suffocating cabin fever. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, (more)
- 2000
The third entry in the Boys Life series collects another set of gay-themed indie shorts. In Inside Out, writer/director/producer Jason Gould -- son of Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould -- plays Aaron, a slightly fictionalized version of himself. Over the course of 30 minutes, Aaron dodges paparazzi, dates a closet case, hangs out with his best friend (Alexis Arquette), and attends a celebrity child support group run by writer/guru Christina Crawford. Gould's father and his stepbrother, Sam Gould, appear as thinly veiled versions of themselves, while several other celeb offspring make cameos. Des Majorettes Dans L'Espace (Majorettes in Space), by French writer/director David Fourier, examines AIDS, religious values, and sexual freedom through a mixture of playful animation, tongue-in-cheek narration, and sometimes mournful live-action scenes. Hitch, directed by Bradley Rust Gray, maps out the sexual tension between two chain-smoking young men, one bisexual and one straight, as they travel the Southwest in a retro van. Writer/producer Christopher Landon's $30, directed by Gregory Cooke, portrays the unorthodox meeting between a matter-of-fact young hooker (Sara Gilbert) and a skittish teenaged virgin (Erik MacArthur) whose father has purchased the girl's services as a gift. And in the seven-minute Just One Time, triple-threat filmmaker Lane Janger plays a ménage à trois-obsessed man who begs his girlfriend (Joelle Carter) to have sex with him and another woman. Things heat up when their gay and lesbian neighbors (Guillermo Diaz and Jennifer Esposito) overhear the couple fighting. The entire cast of Just One Time reunited for Janger's feature of the same name, which appeared around the same time as Boys Life 3. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Following the acclaim for his 1995 Kids debut, Larry Clark directed this drug-crime drama, set in the Midwest of the '70s. Teen junkie Bobbie (Vincent Kartheiser) shares an apartment with his girlfriend Rosie (Natasha Gregson Wagner) and pal Danny (Branden Williams). Bobbie is injured during an encounter with a security guard but regains his health under the supervision of his dynamic drug-dealer uncle Mel (James Woods). After a successful robbery of speed from an out-of-town doctor's clinic, Bobby, Rosie, Mel, and Mel's melancholy gal Sid (Melanie Griffith) encounter gunplay in a drug deal gone sour. With Mel and Bobby both wounded, they retreat to the headquarters of a gun merchant known as the Reverend (James Otis). When Rosie loses her baby, she slips into a depression and more drug use. Mel recovers and begins planning another heist, but the group is beginning to unravel. Shown at 1998 film fests (Venice, Toronto). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Woods, Melanie Griffith, (more)
- 1958
The British Ice Cold in Alex was released in the US as Desert Attack. John Mills stars as Captain Anson, a grumbling alcoholic sent on a WW2 mission to Alexandria. Travelling to his destination by ambulance, Anson becomes acquainted with his fellow passengers, nurses Sister Diane Murdoch (Sylvia Syms) and Sister Denise Norton (Mary Clare) and South African officer Captain Van Der Poel (Anthony Quayle). One of these worthies is a German spy-and only two of the passengers will survive until the fade-out. For its American release, Ice Cold in Alex was not only given a new title, but was also trimmed from 132 minutes to 79. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Sylvia Syms, (more)
