Claudia Katz Movies
Director Brian De Palma returns to the helm for the first time since 2002's Femme Fatale with this stylish screen adaptation of James Ellroy's novel detailing one of the most notorious unsolved murders in Hollywood history. Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) was a struggling actress looking to make a name for herself in 1940s-era Tinseltown. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, it was her grim fate that would ultimately overshadow anything she would accomplish during her short and tragic career. When police discover Elizabeth's body cut clean in half and with all of her organs missing, ex-pugilist detectives Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) are the men charged with cracking the case and apprehending the killer. This isn't your average murder case, however, and as Blanchard's marriage to Kay (Scarlett Johansson) begins to suffer due to his obsession with the sensational crime, his partner Bleichert discovers a troubling link between the victim and the mysterious Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), a prominent socialite and the daughter of one of the town's most connected key players. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, (more)
All those movies the snotty clerk at the video store keeps telling you to rent get raked over the coals in this over-the-top satiric comedy. Harvey (Eric Hoffman) and Sam (Neil Barton) are a pair of identically black-suited hitmen who have been assigned to take part in a conceptually disastrous robbery in Las Vegas. Harvey and Sam are supposed to pick the other members of their crew en route; however, by accident they end up with Johnny Vince (Darren Keefe), a would-be jazz musician with chronic woman problems, and try to compensate by taking a hostage, Julianne (Paget Brewster), a discount store drone who tells all within earshot about her a lousy marriage and dreams of a better life. As Harvey, Sam, and their unwilling companions hit the road to Sin City, they cross paths with an aggressively cheerful French girl named Anomalie (Ashley Head), a possible murderer with a really bad memory (Brian Krow), a German redhead who's always running somewhere (Regina Berger), a Mexican gunman with a guitar case and a poor command of English (Manolo Travieso), and an awful lot of sensitive and articulate lesbians. My Big Fat Independent Movie was scripted by Chris Gore, who helped document the rise of the independent movement in the 1980s and '90s as founder of the magazine Film Threat (feel free to read as much irony into that as you wish). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paget Brewster, Neil Barton, (more)
