Robert Salerno Movies

Fashion designer Tom Ford makes his directorial debut with this dramatic outing starring Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, and Matthew Goode. Ford and David Scearce adapted the story from a book by Christopher Isherwood, which tells the tragic tale of a professor's loss of his longtime partner. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Writer/director Tom DiCillo's satire Delirious (2006) eviscerates Hollywood celebrity and celebrity types with a relentlessly dissecting gaze and take-no-prisoners humor. DiCillo mainstay Steve Buscemi stars as Les Galantine, a sleazy and merciless tabloid photographer from the Big Apple, whose most noteworthy accomplishments are an image of Goldie Hawn eating lunch and one of Elvis Costello sans any headwear. Les is hoping desperately for his ticket in -- which he perceives as a prize shot of pop sensation K'Harma Leeds (Alison Lohman) as she's departing from a local club. He finds that ticket -- sort-of -- in the form of Toby (Michael Pitt), a homeless young man with serious acting aspirations, who has a very brief exchange with K'Harma under his belt. Toby uses that exchange to finagle his way to an assistantship under Galantine, and the two team up for a stakeout, managing to swing 700 dollars for a photo of a celebrity who is recovering from penis surgery. While DiCillo cuts between the adventures of the two men and the vapid lifestyle of the untalented hack K'Harma, Toby begins his meteoric rise to the top of the Hollywood trash heap by attending a Soap Stars Against STD Convention, where he not only meets and impresses a big-shot casting director (Gina Gershon) but runs into K'Harma once again -- recently split from her beau -- and finds his way into her bed, setting the stage for his own ascent to superstardom. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu makes his first English-language feature with the downbeat drama 21 Grams. Set in an unnamed U.S. urban center, the film uses a nonlinear structure to piece together the intertwined lives of three very different people. Paul (Sean Penn) is a math teacher with a heart problem and a troubled marriage to British wife Mary (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Christine (Naomi Watts) is a former drug addict who lives with her husband, Michael (Danny Huston), and her daughters. Jack (Benicio del Toro) is a born-again Christian with a wife (Melissa Leo) who has stood by him since his days as a criminal. Following a tragic accident, the three main characters are thrown into each other's lives. 21 Grams was shown in competition at the 2003 Venice International Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed, and starred in this serio-comic look at the trials (literally and figuratively) of an eccentric Arkansas family. Struggling musician Claude (Thornton) and his wife Ruby (Laura Dern) get the news that Claude's uncle Hazel (Jim Varney) has been accused of murder and is in jail awaiting trial. Claude and Ruby head for the Alabama town where they grew up, and, before long, there's a friendly (and sometimes not-so-friendly) war of words among the factions of the family, including Claude's mother Jewel (Diane Ladd), father O.T. (Andy Griffith), and sister Rose (Kelly Preston). Daddy and Them's supporting cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis and Ben Affleck as a pair of married attorneys, Brenda Blethyn as Hazel's wife Julia, and Jeff Bailey, and John Prine as Claude's brothers. While Daddy and Them was shot in 1999 -- and would have been his first directorial effort after his breakthough hit Sling Blade -- the film stayed in the editing room for several years, and wasn't released until after his third feature, All The Pretty Horses. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Al Pacino made a rare return to the stage in 1994 when he starred in a Broadway production of Ira Lewis's play Chinese Coffee. In this film adaptation of the drama, Pacino recreates his performance and also directs. Harry Levine (Pacino) is a writer in his early fifties who has published two novels, but never enjoyed enough literary success to leave his job as a doorman. Harry has just finished a third book, and is waiting for his close friend Jake Manheim (Jerry Orbach) to read the manuscript and give him his opinion. Harry is already edgy as he awaits Jake's verdict, since his longtime girlfriend, artist Joanna (Susan Floyd), has just called an end to their relationship. Jake, on the other hand, broke up with his wife Mavis (Ellen McElduff) when he decided to abandon his 30-year career as a photographer in pursuit of a (thus far unsuccessful) career as an actor. At first Jake tells Harry he hasn't yet read his new book, but in time he confesses that he has and that, from a literary standpoint, he thinks Harry simply doesn't have the talent to be a success; he also feels hurt and betrayed as a friend that Harry used sensitive moments from Jake's private life as plot points in his novel. Chinese Coffee was Al Pacino's second effort as a film director, following Looking for Richard, his semi-documentary look at staging William Shakespeare's Richard III. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Music video director Hype Williams made his feature film debut with this visually inventive urban drama. Tommy Brown (DMX) and his friend Sincere (Nas) are gangsters who have learned how to make a good living by dealing drugs and pulling armed robberies. Tommy and Sincere have been able to move out of the ghetto in Queens where they were raised and relocate to an upscale section of Manhattan; they would seem to have it made, but both realize that their lives are headed toward a dead end. Sincere begins getting in touch with his African roots and tries to convince his girlfriend Tionne (Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins) that they should emigrate to the Motherland, while Tommy has a religious awakening and joins the Nation of Islam. Along with top-selling rappers DMX and Nas, hip-hop artist Method Man and R&B singer Taral Hicks also appear. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide