Stomy Bugsy Movies

Alfa (Stomy Bugsy) is a mixed-race drug dealer living in Paris. As The River opens, he brutally murders a local crime lord, then beats his henchman with a baseball bat. His older brother, a mysterious and distant figure, tells him cryptically, "Go toward the river." Alfa has to go on the run, reluctantly returning to his homeland, the place of his father's death, Guinea. On the way, he visits his mother, and runs into his beautiful young cousin, Marie (Auriéle Coulibay), who is immediately drawn to him. Disgusted with all things African, he sullenly spurns her advances. Eager to get to know Alfa, Marie steals her father's truck and offers him a ride to his destination in Guinea. As they have their road adventure and draw closer, we see in flashback the gruesome events that drove Alfa to commit murder. Alfa and Marie contend with thugs, thieves, and corrupt officials on their journey, and soon learn that the thug Alfa beat up before he fled Paris is still alive, and is hunting him down. The River was written and directed by Mama Keïta, from a story by his friend, the late David Achkar, a documentary filmmaker (Allah Tantou) who died of leukemia. The film had its North American premiere at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

When diminutive soccer player Tibor (Lorant Deutsch) is placed in a prison cell with dimwitted giant Manu (Samuel Le Bihan) the duo soon begin to forge a friendship based on their mutual love of soccer. Agreeing that upon their release Manu will serve as Tibor's manager, Manu attempts to use his newfound position to reap revenge on those who wronged him in the past. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director and screenwriter James Toback used his own experiences as a college student in the 1960s as the basis for this drama about a present-day student athlete who's bitten off more than he can chew. Alan Jensen (Adrian Grenier) is a college sophomore struggling to keep up with an unusually busy schedule -- while studying philosophy as a Harvard undergrad, he's also a point guard on the school's basketball team, and is juggling two girlfriends, cheerleader Cindy Bandolini (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Chesney (Joey Lauren Adams), a professor ten years his senior. As Alan tries to stay on top of his classes and keep his love life sorted out, he receives some bad news from his parents -- a tornado has devastated their home, and they need $100,000 to rebuild. Alan wants to help his parents, and as it happens, Cindy's father is a Mafia boss tied in with a number of powerful bookies. Cindy uses her family's connection to put Alan in touch with Teddy (Eric Stoltz), a bookie who's willing to give Alan $100,000 in exchange for throwing a few games and shaving some points. Cindy also uses her dad's bankroll to place a quarter-million dollar bet on the upcoming Harvard-Dartmouth game, certain Alan can ensure a predictable outcome. But when the games don't go quite the way Alan expected, despite his best worst effort, he finds himself in dutch with the Mafia, while also attracting the attention of FBI agents who've been investigating Teddy and his associates. Amidst this chaos, Alan hops a jet home to give his parents the ill-gotten $100,000, and on the flight back decides to relax mid-flight by dropping a heroic dose of LSD, which turns out not to be one of his better ideas. Harvard Man was originally intended to star Leonardo DiCaprio as Alan, but after the project was put on hold in 1994, DiCaprio rocketed to fame in Titanic, which priced himself out of the project by the time James Toback was able to return to it years later. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Gilles Paquet-Brenner's psychologically-tinged, French-language action thriller Les Jolies Choses (AKA Pretty Things, 2001) stars Marion Cotillard in a rare double role as identical twins Lucie and Marie. Lucie, who works as a white-hot fashion model, exhibits a dominant, often controlling, "Type A" personality, whereas Marie consistently projects a backward, reserved, laconic and unassuming attitude. When Lucie receives a covetable French recording contract, a significant problem stands in her way: the inability to sing. Marie possesses the voice of an angel, however, and quickly jets off to Paris to stand in for her sister, unannounced - little realizing the dangerous and even violent string of consequences that she is igniting. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi