Lee Nelson Movies

Director Jennifer Lynch (Boxing Helena, Surveillance) details the bizarre relationship between a depraved serial killer and the young boy he attempts to forcefully shape into his protégé in this dark psychological thriller starring Vincent D'Onofrio. Sarah (Julia Ormond) and her eight year old son Tim (Even Bird) were returning home from the movies when they made the fateful mistake of stepping into a taxi driven by depraves psycho Bob (D'Onofrio), who brutally murders the terrified mother before chain the young boy in his basement, and making him an unwitting accomplice to murder. Each time Bob kills, Evan is forced to clean up every last trace of evidence. When Evan repeatedly tried to escape, Bob renames him Rabbit, and locks him up with just enough chain that he can move through the house with no hope for escape. Over the course of the next few years, Bob shapes Rabbit (played as a teen by Eamon Farren) into the perfect killing machine. Later, when the time comes for Rabbit to embrace the life of a serial killer, he realizes that his may be his last chance to strike back at the madman who made his life a living hell. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A temperamental musician is forced to learn a few things about family and responsibility in this comedy-drama from director David M. Rosenthal. Ethan Brand (Alessandro Nivola) is a veteran indie rock musician whose career is stuck in neutral, and his troubles with alcohol and bursts of anger aren't helping one bit. Before taking the stage one evening, Ethan gets an unexpected visitor -- his former girlfriend Mary Ann (Elisabeth Shue), who has brought along with her a 13-year-old girl, Janie (Abigail Breslin), who she claims is Ethan's daughter. Ethan is dubious about Mary Ann's claims, but Mary Ann takes off for a stay in rehab and leaves Janie with Ethan, forcing him to take the girl on the road with him. Ethan's manager Sloan (Peter Stormare) and his band are no happier than he is to have a young teen girl staying with them on the tour bus, and Ethan's initial relationship with the girl is chilly. But Ethan discovers the girl seems to have inherited some of his musical talent and has a real gift as a singer and songwriter. After an onstage tantrum causes Ethan to lose both his band and his record deal, he tries to salvage his concert tour by turning it into a father and daughter act, with Janie joining him on stage. Janie Jones includes original songs written for the character of Ethan by Eef Barzelay of the band Clem Snide, while Irish tunesmith Gemma Hayes wrote the songs for Janie. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The disappearance of a military leader and the death of four of his men leads two investigators to wade through a morass of deceptions and half-truths in search of the facts in this thriller. Sgt. Nathan West (Samuel L. Jackson) is the leader of an elite team of U.S. Army Special Forces operatives known as the Army Rangers; West is known as a highly effective officer, but one with a short temper and aggressive attitude who is not well liked by his soldiers. During a seemingly routine training exercise in Panama, a hurricane sweeps in, and four of West's six men are dead, while West himself seems to have vanished. Eager to get the facts behind what happened, Col. Bill Styles (Tim Daly) assigns Capt. Julia Osborne (Connie Nielsen) to investigate. However, Osborne is having a hard time getting the two survivors to talk, so Styles brings in Tom Hardy (John Travolta), a former Army Ranger who served under West and became a first-class interrogator; Hardy later became a DEA agent, but left law enforcement after allegations of corruption. Hardy interviews Dunbar (Brian Van Holt), who claims that the four soldiers had been murdered, and West was killed in retaliation. Kendall (Giovanni Ribisi), the other survivor (whose father is a powerful officer) has a very different story of how the five men turned up dead, and it's up to Hardy and Osborne to determine who is telling the truth -- or if anyone is saying exactly what happened. Basic marked the first time John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson appeared in the same film together since their breakthrough roles in Pulp Fiction. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi