John C. Reilly

Acclaimed filmmaker Robert Altman (Short Cuts, Nashville) brings National Public Radio stalwart Garrison Keillor's long-running radio program to vivid life on the big screen in a intricately woven backstage fable centering on the final performance of a fictionalized version of his variety show. As if the result of some strange mass-media fluke, the popular radio program A Prairie Home Companion somehow managed to survive the television age to entertain its audience every Saturday night from the stage of the historic Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, MN. Week after week, hangdog host Garrison Keillor serves as unflappable emcee to an amiable hodgepodge of radio-friendly acts that include the likes of popular country duo Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson (Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin) and singing cowboys the Old Trailhands (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly). This is one show where the under-the-line antics are nearly as entertaining as the program itself, though, and in between the efforts of down-on-his-luck private dick and backstage doorkeeper Guy Noir (Kevin Kline) to discover the true identity of a mysterious blonde (Virginia Madsen) and aspiring teen singer Lola (Lindsay Lohan) to find her true voice before a live audience, there's still plenty of fun and mystery to be had at the old Fitzgerald before the final curtain falls on A Prairie Home Companion. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

While set within the milieu of the Los Angeles adult film industry, Boogie Nights is less a film about pornography than the serio-comic story of a group of misfits, losers, and lost souls who are embraced by Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), a director who makes "adult films, exotic motion pictures." In 1977, while hanging out at a disco, Jack spots Eddie (Mark Wahlberg), the new busboy at the club, and tells him he's convinced "there's something wonderful inside those jeans waiting to get out." Jack knows his business well and his expert eye has not betrayed him; Eddie is a pornographer's dream -- good looking, remarkably endowed, and willing and able to do as many takes as might be needed. The product of a woefully dysfunctional upbringing, Eddie is not terribly bright but is very ambitious and eager to prove he has a "special something" to share with the world. Eddie changes his name to Dirk Diggler and quickly becomes the biggest star in hardcore. Working alongside "Dirk" in Jack's films are Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), a porn actress who applies her misplaced maternal instincts to anyone who needs nurturing; Rollergirl (Heather Graham), a cheerful but blank-faced high school drop-out who never removes her roller skates; Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly), a none-too-bright actor, aspiring magician, and failing songwriter; Buck (Don Cheadle), a black actor fascinated with cowboy iconography who wants to open a stereo shop; Scotty J (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a stocky and awkward soundman infatuated with Dirk; Little Bill (William H. Macy), Jack's assistant director, who has trouble dealing with his wife's brazen infidelity; and Colonel James (Robert Ridgely), Jack's backer, who has a weakness for young girls. In the brief, late-'70s moment when porn was chic and sex films seemed poised to break into the mainstream, Dirk becomes a star and Jack a respected name. But a few years later, drugs and pride have taken their toll on Dirk and many of his friends, while the advent of the VCR radically changes the adult movie business; Jack goes from being a "filmmaker" to manufacturing and wholesaling videocassettes, a wealthy but emotionally broken man. In his second film, wunderkind director Paul Thomas Anderson juggled a broad range of characters in a manner reminiscent of Robert Altman's ensemble films, making Boogie Nights a sad but funny story of a makeshift family of damaged people and what happens before and after their brief moment in the sun. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Casualties of War was based on a New Yorker article by Daniel Lang. This, in turn, was inspired by a true incident which illustrated the dehumanizing aspects of the Vietnam experience. Michael J. Fox plays Eriksson, a member of an American squadron stationed in the deepest jungles of Southeast Asia. Sean Penn co-stars as Meserve, the squadron sergeant, who vows revenge after his best friend is killed. He orders his men to invade a village and "requisition" a young Vietnamese girl (Thuy Thu Lee), who is repeatedly tied, gagged and gang-raped. The horrified Eriksson refuses to participate in these atrocities, and he does his best to console the girl and to attempt to free her. Before this can happen, however, Meserve orders another man to kill the girl. Once he returns to camp, Eriksson attempts to file a report on the tragedy and to bring Meserve and the others to justice, but he is stonewalled by the brass and threatened with death by his fellow soldiers. Eventually Meserve and his co-conspirators are jailed for their crimes, but Eriksson can never forget his "compliance" in the incident by failing to save the girl. The script is by well-known playwright David Rabe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Darren Shan's children's book comes to life under the direction of acclaimed writer/director Paul Weitz (About a Boy), with John C. Reilly starring as a vampire who recruits a young teen to aid him with an age-old undead feud in this Universal Pictures production. Salma Hayek co-stars as one of the film's freaks, namely Madame Truska, the bearded lady, with Ken Watanabe rounding out the supporting cast. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

This soul scorching film follows the ups and downs of the greatest rock band in history, Tenacious D, as they embark on a large-scale world tour. The documentary follows the band on the highs of playing to devoted crowds in an unprecedentedly involved stage show in which they splay the second half of their set from the bowels of hell. It also follows the guys through the lows of their feature film Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny falling flat at the box office, threatening the would-be triumph of these undisputed kings of rock. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

The Top Gun team of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, director Tony Scott, and superstar Tom Cruise reunite for this excursion into stock-car racing that incorporates the vroom and rumble of deafening car engines with a rehash of the same elements that worked so effectively in Cruise's Top Gun, The Color of Money, and Cocktail. Cruise plays stock-car driver Cole Trickle, a young fireball on the Southern stock-car circuit who has loads of talent but no conception of how to channel that talent in to racing success. When Tim Daland (Randy Quaid) commissions veteran stock-car racer Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall) to built a car and hires Cole to drive it, Harry must instill in Cole his philosophy of winning and teach him how to channel his raw talent into success -- or, as Harry puts it, "controlling something that's out of control." Cole immediately comes into conflict with the circuit's star driver, Rowdy Burns (Michael Rooker), and their hijinks on the track causes them to smash up their cars and lands them both in the hospital. Because of his injuries, Rowdy is forced to withdraw from the circuit competition. With no rival to torment, Rowdy becomes Cole's supporter and friend, while Cole revs up his motors for Dr. Claire Lewicki (Nicole Kidman), the attractive brain specialist who supervises Cole's recovery from the crackup. Cole's health is restored, and he begins to race again, chastened and hanging onto Harry's every word. Cole appears to have centered himself for success, but in an orgasmic grand finale, Cole must compete against Russ Wheeler (Cary Elwes), a dastardly driver who not only wants to see Cole defeated but permanently disabled. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This film noir style, made-for-TV movie contains three parts, each based on stories by three different authors (Jim Thompson, Cornell Woolrich, and James Elroy). It looks as if a con-artist (Peter Gallagher) has finally met someone who can pull the wool over his eyes in "The Frightening Frammis." In "Murder, Obliquely," a shifty man (Alan L. Rickman) manages to win the affections of a woman (Laura Dern). Little does she know that his former girlfriend might have been murdered by his own hands. The mobster Mickey Cohen (James Woods) and Howard Hughes (Tim Matheson) both have their eyes on the same woman and Buzz Meeks (Gary Busey) has been contracted to seek her out in "Since I Don't Have You." ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

The violent rise of gangland power in New York City at a time of massive political corruption and the city's evolution into a cultural melting pot set the stage for this lavish historical epic, which director Martin Scorsese finally brought to the screen almost 30 years after he first began to plan the project. In 1846, as waves of Irish immigrants poured into the New York neighborhood of Five Points, a number of citizens of British and Dutch heritage who were born in the United States began making an open display of their resentment toward the new arrivals. William Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), better known as "Bill the Butcher" for his deadly skill with a knife, bands his fellow "Native Americans" into a gang to take on the Irish immigrants; the immigrants in turn form a gang of their own, "The Dead Rabbits," organized by Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson). After an especially bloody clash between the Natives and the Rabbits leaves Vallon dead, his son goes missing; the boy ends up in a brutal reform school before returning to the Five Points in 1862 as Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio). Now a strapping adult who has learned how to fight, Amsterdam has come to seek vengeance against Bill the Butcher, whose underworld control of the Five Points through violence and intimidation dovetails with the open corruption of New York politician "Boss" Tweed (Jim Broadbent). Amsterdam gradually penetrates Bill the Butcher's inner circle, and he soon becomes his trusted assistant. Amsterdam also finds himself falling for Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz), a beautiful but street-smart thief who was once involved with Bill. Amsterdam is learning a great deal from Bill, but before he can turn the tables on the man who killed his father, Amsterdam's true identity is exposed, even though he has concealed it from nearly everyone, including Jenny. Gangs Of New York was the first film in two years from actor Leonardo DiCaprio; ironically, it was at one time scheduled to open on the same day as Catch Me if You Can, the Steven Spielberg project that DiCaprio began filming immediately after Gangs wrapped. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Before his commercial breakthrough with Boogie Nights (1997), writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson made this low-key drama. John (John C. Reilly), a half-bright loser stranded in Reno, is down to his last few bucks when Sydney (Phillip Baker Hall), taking pity on him, buys him breakfast and offers him a few tips on making money in the casinos. Two years later, John has become Sydney's partner, but his lack of common sense goes from problematic to dangerous when he falls in love with Clementine (Gwyneth Paltrow), a cocktail waitress who isn't above turning a few tricks when she needs to make money -- and isn't any brighter than John. Hall and Reilly, both first-rate character actors, are cast in rare leading roles, and Paltrow is cast strongly against type as a part-time prostitute with a serious lack of street smarts. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Danny DeVito tries hard to give his biopic Hoffa an epic scope, yet he just misses the mark. Starring Jack Nicholson as Jimmy Hoffa, the film traces the life, career and mysterious disappearance of the labor leader. Hoffa follows the rise of the controversial figure through his early work during the Great Depression as founder of the Teamsters Union, his later tenure as president of the Teamsters, his public fights with the Kennedys, and through the baffling mystery of his demise. The film may leave the question of what happened to Hoffa hanging, yet it dramatizes many of his most public battles --including his late '60s imprisonment and Presidential pardon by Richard Nixon--quite effectively. However, the film is brought down by a slightly convoluted narration by Bobby Ciaro (Danny DeVito), a composite character who is allegedly Hoffa's aid, and the fact that David Mamet's screenplay doesn't detail Hoffa's public life; fortunately, Nicholson's stunning performance brings depth to the movie. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Many people wish they could go back to high school, knowing what they know as an adult; Josie Geller gets the chance to do just that in the comedy Never Been Kissed. Josie (played by Drew Barrymore) is a 25-year-old copy editor at a newspaper in Chicago. But it's her youthful looks as much as her journalistic skills that finally win her a writing assignment: she's ordered to enroll in high school posing as a teenager for a story on the state of America's youth. Trouble is, Josie was a hopeless nerd in high school (called "Josie Grossie" by her classmates); she had no idea of how to fit in with the cool kids, and she's hardly gotten any better at it in the seven years since graduation. While Josie makes fast friends with a bookish girl named Aldys (Leelee Sobieski), and also takes notice of her good-looking English teacher Mr. Coulson (Michael Vartan), she realizes for the sake of her story she has to infiltrate the cool girls' clique, which will be impossible without someone to give her a crash course in hipness. Josie's brother Rob (David Arquette), obviously the more style-conscious sibling, offers to sign up for the same school to act as the cool-guy friend she'll need to fit in, but just when Josie starts making headway (and starts enjoying high school for a change), her editor changes the focus of the story -- he now wants a feature on improper relations between teachers and students, which will not be good for her deepening friendship with Mr. Coulson. Never Been Kissed also features supporting performances from John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon and Jordan Ladd (the latter in a much more wholesome vehicle than her last cinematic visit to cinematic teen-town, Gregg Araki's Nowhere). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A man trying to help out his sister finds himself chin-deep in hot water in this screwball comedy. Yuppie businessman Bill Campbell (Matthew Broderick) is close to sealing a $140 million business deal when he gets a phone call from his little sister Marci (Courtney Peldon), who is convinced that her new stepfather, Peter Van Der Haven (Jeffrey Jones), the mayor of the city of Buzzsaw, California, is up to no good. Though understandably wary, Bill heads to Buzzsaw, where he promptly loses his paperwork on the deal in progress and is confronted by the city's remarkable collection of eccentrics, including the crazed fugitive Sally (Heidi Kling), the subnormal Jim Jr. and Jim Sr. (John C. Reilly and Michael Monks), and Ann (Marian Mercer), the mayor's loopy wife. It turns out that Marci wasn't entirely wrong; year's ago, Peter's diabolical twin brother Matt (also played by Jones) was sent to jail in his brother's place on criminal charges, and now Matt has violent revenge on his mind. Out on a Limb features an original score by noted composer and arranger Van Dyke Parks. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide