DCSIMG
 
 

Eric Watson Movies

2011  
 
A shock revelation deep in the desert tests the relationship between two friends whose lives are spiraling slowly out of control. Betrayed during a recent counterfeiting transaction and determined to recover his losses, Mickey Feathers learns where his former partners will be making a big drop, and convinces his best friend Jasper Fanning to join him under the guise of going on a meteor hunting excursion. Meanwhile Jasper learns that his job as a staff writer at the Los Angeles Chronicle is in jeopardy, and fears the thought of being unemployed when his pregnant girlfriend gives birth. When Mickey and Jasper venture out into the desert and make a discovery could change their lives forever, their only option is to run like the wind, and never look back. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

 Read More

 
2010  
R  
Add Virginia to Queue Add Virginia to top of Queue  
Academy Award-winning screenwriter and documentary filmmaker Dustin Lance Black takes the helm for this darkly comic drama about a small-town single mother whose affair with a married Mormon sheriff threatens to have dire repercussions. Virginia (Jennifer Connelly) is a devoted mother doing her best to raise her teenage son Emmett (Harrison Gilbertson) in a home with no male role model. She's also mistress to Sheriff Richard Tipton (Ed Harris), a Mormon family man eager to advance his career by running for public office. Sheriff Tipton knows that even the most minor scandal could sink his political ambitions, and when Virginia's troubled son begins dating his daughter (Emma Roberts) as well, it's only a matter of time before the affairs become the talk of their small town. Amy Madigan and Carrie Preston co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

 Read More

 
2009  
 
The Fountain director Darren Aranofsky takes the helm for this psychological thriller detailing the averse relationship between a veteran dancer and a fierce rival. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

 Read More

 
2009  
 
A young man working as an emergency medical technician in Harlem in order to gain experience for medical school hits the streets with a comfortably numb mentor whose current malaise causes him to make a critical mistake in the midst of a life-or-death situation. Screenwriter Todd Kessler adapts Shannon Burke's novel of the same name, and Darren Aronofsky directs. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

 Read More

 
2008  
 
Cynthia Lester's documentary My Mother's Garden traces how her mother's mental illness has affected her life. Her mother's illness manifests itself in the form of a hoarding disorder, and Lester shows how this obsessive behavior influences all of the interactions between the various family members. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

 Read More

 
2006  
PG13  
Add The Fountain to Queue Add The Fountain to top of Queue  
Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky switches gears from drug-induced urban malaise to abstract science fiction with this time-tripping symbolic tale of a man's thousand-year quest to save the woman he loves. Moving between representational stories and images, this meditation on life and death focuses on the concept of the mythical Tree of Life that is said to bestow immortality to all who drink of its sap. In one of the film's allegorical timelines, a 16th century Spanish conquistador played by Hugh Jackman sets out to find the tree in order to save his queen (Rachel Weisz) from the Inquisition. Another conceptual story finds Jackman centuries later, struggling with mortality as a modern-day scientist desperately searching for the medical breakthrough that will save the life of his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi. The third and most abstract concept finds Jackman as a different incarnation of the same character-idea, this time questing for eternal life within the confines of a floating sphere transporting the aged Tree of Life through the depths of space. Even more avant-garde than his breakthrough film Pi, The Fountain finds Aronofsky almost completely abandoning conventional story structure in favor of something more cinematically abstract. Though the film was originally slapped with an R by the MPAA, Aronofsky and co. re-edited it to conform to a PG-13 rating. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

 Read More

Starring:
Hugh JackmanRachel Weisz, (more)
 
2005  
R  
Add River Queen to Queue Add River Queen to top of Queue  
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, Rovi

 Read More

Starring:
Samantha Morton
 
 
2002  
R  
Add Below to Queue Add Below to top of Queue  
Reflecting studio executives' taste for material that crosses genres, this film from director David Twohy and co-screenwriter Darren Aronofsky mixes the war movie and supernatural thriller genres. After they rescue a trio of survivors that includes a nurse, Claire Page (Olivia Williams), from a British hospital ship sunk by the Nazis, the crew of the American submarine U.S.S. Tiger Shark comes to believe that their vessel is haunted. The unexpected death of their commander forces first officer Lt. Brice (Bruce Greenwood) to take command, trying to avoid a German destroyer on the hunt for his ship, while investigating the series of mysterious incidents that are terrifying his crew. Is the Tiger Shark haunted, or is there something otherworldly inhabiting the waters where the sailors are currently trapped? Originally entitled "Proteus," this project was slated to be Aronofsky's follow-up to Pi (1998), but the writer/director opted to helm Requiem for a Dream (2000) instead. Below co-stars Scott Foley, Zach Galifianakis, Dexter Fletcher, and Holt McCallany. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

 Read More

Starring:
Bruce GreenwoodOlivia Williams, (more)
 
2000  
NR  
Add Requiem for a Dream to Queue Add Requiem for a Dream to top of Queue  
Based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr., this gritty drama concerns four people trapped by their addictions. Harry (Jared Leto), and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) are impoverished heroin addicts living in Coney Island, NY, while Harry's girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) is a fellow addict trying to distance herself from her wealthy father. Harry dreams of scoring a pound of smack, from which he could make enough money to open a clothing boutique with Marion, but so far he and his friends can barely scrape by supporting their own habits. Meanwhile, Harry's mother Sara (Ellen Burstyn), who spends her days watching television, is told she has the opportunity to appear on her favorite game show; wanting to lose enough weight to fit into her favorite red dress, she visits a sleazy doctor who gives her a prescription for amphetamines. Soon Sara has a drug habit of her own that is spiraling out of control. Requiem for a Dream was directed by Darren Aronofsky, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Selby; it was Aronofsky's second feature, following his acclaimed independent film Pi. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

 Read More

Starring:
Ellen BurstynJared Leto, (more)
 
1999  
NR  
Add Speed of Life to Queue Add Speed of Life to top of Queue  
A young man is torn between responsibilities to his family, his intellectual and professional ambitions, and the temptations of easy money and casual pleasures in the downbeat drama Saturn. Drew (played by Scott Caan) is a college student trying to stay focused on his studies so he can realize his dream of becoming an engineer. But he's also been handed the responsibility of caring for his elderly father (Leo Burmester), who is suffering from an advanced case of Alzheimer's Syndrome. Drew must feed his father -- who can only speak with great difficulty -- bathe him, and change his diapers. The burden puts a great strain on Drew, who has a hard time resisting the offers from his old friend Arturo (Anthony Ruivivar) to join him in his profitable, if dangerous, life as a drug dealer. The temptations are only magnified by Drew's relationship with Sara (Mia Kirshner), a girl who lives for physical pleasure; Drew scores drugs from Arturo for her and, in exchange, she offers him kinky sex, but not love. Saturn was the debut feature from writer/director Rob Schmidt, and the dark, but compelling, story won a respectful response in its screening at the 1999 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

 Read More

Starring:
Scott CaanLeo Burmeister, (more)
 
1998  
R  
Add Pi to Queue Add Pi to top of Queue  
Darren Aronofsky scripted and made his directorial debut with this experimental feature with mathematical plot threads hinting at science-fictional elements. In NYC's Chinatown, recluse math genius Max (Sean Gullette) believes "everything can be understood in terms of numbers," and he looks for a pattern in the system as he suffers headaches, plays Go with former teacher Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis), and fools around with an advanced computer system he's built in his apartment. Both a Wall Street company and a Hasidic sect take an interest in his work, but he's distracted by blackout attacks, hallucinations, and paranoid delusions. Filmed in 16mm black-and-white, the Kafkaesque film features music by Clint Mansell (of the UK's Pop Will Eat Itself band). Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival where Aronofsky won the drama directing award. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

 Read More

Starring:
Sean GulletteMark Margolis, (more)