Norbert Leo Butz Movies

Actress Vera Farmiga makes her feature directorial debut with this adaptation of Carolyn S. Briggs' autobiography, This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost. Haunted by a low sense of self-worth ever since her childhood in the 1960s, Corrine finds her happy family falling apart by the time she reaches high school, and seeks comfort in the arms of talented young guitarist Ethan. Later compelled to join a tight-knit fundamentalist community that offers both security and spiritual nourishment, Corrine and Ethan discover a sense of peace that ultimately proves short-lived once the more conservative tenets of the congregation start to take priority. Her illusions of the ideal faith-based community shattered, Corrine begins to question her entire belief system as her life starts to unravel once again. Joshua Leonard and John Hawkes co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman teams with screenwriters Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth to streamline Joseph Wilson's and Valerie Plame's books detailing the explosive outing of undercover CIA agent Plame into a tense docudrama thriller starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. At the time her cover was blown by the George W. Bush administration, Plame (Watts) was combing Iraq for evidence of weapons of mass destruction as part of the CIA's Counter-Proliferation Division. Her husband, American diplomat Joe Wilson was attempting to verify a claim that the Iraqis had recently purchased enriched uranium from Niger when the White House began beating the war drums before any solid evidence had been gathered. When Joe penned an editorial in The New York Times decrying the hasty call to war, a prolific Washington, D.C. journalist took the opportunity to reveal Plame's identity as a CIA operative, an act that not only put her career in jeopardy, but also left her various contacts overseas in a precarious position. Years later, a jobless and publicly disgraced Plame wages a vicious fight to clear her name, set the record straight, and keep her family from falling apart. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

West of Here, the directorial debut of filmmaker Peter Masterson's son Peter C.B. Masterson, centers around the aftermath of the death of songwriter Gil Blackwell's (Josh Hamilton) cousin and collaborator, Josiah (Norbert Leo Butz). After Josiah's death, Gil starts off on a cross-country trek from Boston to San Francisco in order to settle his cousin's affairs. Once there, he meets Josiah's ex-girlfriend (Mary Stuart Masterson). West of Here also features Tate Donovan, Elisabeth Moss, Guillermo Diaz, John Elsen, Kevin Cooney, and Carlin Glynn. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi