Vanessa Coifman Movies
A collection of Bret Easton Ellis' short stories are adapted for the screen by Ellis and Nicholas Jarecki and helmed by Gregor Jordan in The Informers, a Senator Entertainment ensemble film featuring Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, and Winona Ryder. The film observes the goings-on during a week in Los Angeles in 1983, with many intersecting characters including a kidnapper, movie executives, rock stars, and other freewheeling, morally loose individuals. Austin Nichols, Jon Foster, and Amber Heard co-star. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, (more)
An average American family suffers from a grave and unexpected loss that forces its members to confront past issues in this all-star ensemble drama from acclaimed director Dennis Lee (Jesus Henry Christ). Julia Roberts stars as Lisa Taylor, the wife of a college professor, Charlie (Willem Dafoe), living in the Midwest. As the tale opens, the aging couple are proud parents of two grown and reasonably successful children, Michael (Ryan Reynolds) and Ryne (Shannon Lucio). Then tragedy strikes: not long after Michael arrives in town (visiting from Manhattan), Lisa perishes in a fatal car accident, leaving the family bereft of its matriarch. As the devastated Taylors feebly attempt to cope with their loss, tensions resurface that have long boiled beneath the surface between Charlie and Michael; meanwhile, Michael's estranged wife, Kelly (Carrie-Anne Moss), turns up at the funeral to pay her respects to Lisa and gradually begins making amends with Michael. When Michael announces to the family that he's planning to publish a memoir about his childhood, Lisa's younger sister, Jane (Emily Watson), grows horrified that it will unearth devastating long-buried skeletons from the family's past; moreover, it seems that prior to her death, Lisa was guarding one major secret of her own that lingers just out of view and threatens to destroy everyone's sense of familial security when it finally comes to light. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds, (more)
- 2006
A young woman finds herself becoming obsessed with a violently disturbed man in this gruesome thriller inspired by actual events. Katie Armstrong (Keri Russell) is an American college student who is majoring in criminal psychology while studying abroad in Germany. Needing to explore a notorious murder case for a class project, Armstrong begins looking into the life and crimes of Oliver Hartwin (Thomas Kretschmann), who had been convicted of murder after killing and eating another man. Hartwin's crime was unusual in that he posted a message in an internet chat room asking for a male volunteer between the ages of 21 and 40 who would be willing to be murdered and cannibalized afterwards. While Hartwin did find a man willing to die and be eaten, this did not make matters safe or simple for the German cannibal. As Armstrong digs deeper into the horrible facts of Hartwin's crimes, she finds her reserve beginning to crack as she can no longer control her feelings about the killer. Also shown under the titles Grimm Love and Rohtenburg, Butterfly: A Grimm Love Story was inspired by the true story of Armin Meiwes, who was convicted of the 2001 death of a man he killed and partially ate who he met through a posting on the internet, in which he asked for a volunteer willing to be slaughtered. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Kretschmann, Keri Russell, (more)
