Inventing the Abbotts (1997)

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Narrator: "The end of my innocence began in 1957. It is remarkable to me now just how little I knew then about the people around me. It took me years to figure out exactly what the truth was, especially given my brother's knack at inventing himself."
When two brothers (Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Crudup) from the wrong side of the track court three aristocratic sisters (Jennifer Connelly, Liv Tyler, Joanna Going) in the 1950s, fireworks fly.

The boys' mother is played by Kathy Baker and Will Patton appears as the girls' father. Shawn Hatosy also has a small role.

Directed by Pat O'Connor.

Run time: 1 hour, 52 minutes

Rated R for sexuality and language.

My personal rating: B-

Factory Girl (2006)

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“She leaves only good wishes behind.”
Edie Sedgwick (Sienna Miller) came from a very prominent but deeply troubled New England family. Seeking to escape the punishing and uptight environment, moves to NYC and quickly becomes deeply enmeshed in the world of Andy Warhol’s (Guy Pearce) Factory – the studio where the artist developed his unmistakable style in the 1960s. The post-modern, deconstructionist artist surrounded himself with the most beautiful people, the quirky, outrageous people, artists, writers, musicians, dancers, models, busboys, and lots of drugs.

The ambitious starlet saw the opportunity to be noticed. Warhol, the legendary people user, saw the opportunity to live vicariously through Edie and to find art buyers from Edie’s high society background.

The film chronicles the beautiful but vulnerable young woman’s rise and tragic fall.

Also appearing are Hayden Christensen, the musician Edie falls in love with; Jack Huston as the artist Gerard Malanga; Jimmy Fallon as Edie’s college chum Chuck Wein; Armin Amiri as the artist Ondine; Tara Summers as Brigid Polk, another factory girl; Mena Suvari as Edie’s friend Richie Berlin; Shawn Hatosy as the musician’s friend Syd Pepperman; Beth Grant as the artist’s mother Julia; Edward Hermann as her trust fund banker James Townsend; Illeana Douglas as Diana Vreeland; and Don Novello as Mort Silvers.

Directed by George Hickenlooper.

Run time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

This film is not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.

My personal rating: B

11:14 (2005)

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Intense
Buzzy (Hilary Swank), Mark (Colin Hanks), Cheri (Rachael Leigh Cook), Jack (Henry Thomas), and Eddie (Ben Foster) are connected in most unusual ways. At precisely at 11:14 p.m. their lives intersect in explosive ways.

You could say that they’re just dying to run into each other.

Also appearing are Barbara Hershey, Shawn Hatosy, Clark Gregg, Patrick Swayze, and Jason Segel.

Music by The Ramones, Jesse Jaymes, Dramarama, Endo, The Extreme, Stargunn, Bodie in Motion, Angry Johnny and the Killbillies, and Bree Sharp. Haunting themes by Clint Mansell.

I swear, Henry Thomas must be Dorian Gray’s son.

Written and directed by Greg Marcks – who looks all of teenager himself.

Run time: 1 hour, 28 minutes

Rated R for violence, sexuality, and pervasive language. This one’s pretty gross, folks! And some pretty perverse humor, too.

My personal rating: B+

The Cooler (2003)

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Luck Be a Lady Tonight
Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy) is a perpetually unlucky man. He's so unlucky that he has to repay a big gambling debt to the operator of the Shangri-La Casino in Las Vegas, Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin), by becoming the house "cooler" -- the jinx called in to majorly ruin the good fortune of big gamblers who are winning at the Shangri-La.

Kaplow is an "old school" mobster -- he believes in keeping things the way Vegas was in the day when violence and intimidation was how the casinos stayed in business. He resists the pressure from the big mob to update, upgrade the Shangri-La, to modernize it, remodel, get rid of the old school methods in favor of mental manipulation and technology. Despite urging to get rid of the cooler, Kaplow feels he owns him. But with seven days left on his contract to Kaplow, Lootz tells Kaplow that in a week, he's gone.

Determined to not let Lootz go, Kaplow tries ways to retain him. But then Lady Luck comes Lootz's way in the form of a beautiful bar waitress, Natalie Belisario (Maria Bello) and Lootz becomes the luckiest man in town. He's no longer effective as a cooler as he brings good luck to every table he passes by in the casino. This does not, of course, please Kaplow.

Also appearing are Shawn Hatosy as Lootz's son Mikey; Estella Warren as Mikey's pregnant girlfriend; Paul Sorvino as the aging lounge lizard; Joey Fatone as the young lounge lizard; Arthur J. Nascarella as the mobster Nicky Fingers Bonnatto who wants Kaplow to change modernize the Shangri-La; Ron Livingston as Nicky's VP, Larry Sokolov; Richard Israel as Sokolov's numbers man Marty Goldfarb; Ellen Greene as the bartender; and MC Gainey as the highway patrolman.

Written and directed by Wayne Kramer.

Run time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Rated R for strong sexuality, violence, language and some drug use.

My personal rating: B

Nobel Son (2007)

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"Crazy's just a choice."
Eli Michaelson (Alan Rickman), an egotistical, obnoxious, uncaring chemistry professor, has just been named a Nobel Prize recipient. Notorious for his sexual activities with attractive undergrads in exchange for good grades, Eli's long-suffering wife Sarah (Mary Steenburgen), a noted forensics psychiatrist, is set to fly off to Sweden with him for the rounds of receptions and award ceremony. Their only child, Barkley (Bryan Greenberg), is set to travel with them but doesn't show up at the appointed time. Eli, disgusted with his son who has chosen to study anthropology much to his father's dismay, scoffs at the phone call demanding a ransom for his son by an apparent kidnapper. The ransom, curiously, is exactly the $2M award Eli is to receive from the Nobel committee.

But it isn't long before both Eli and Sarah know this is a real ransom demand when a thumb, believed to be Barkley's, arrives at the Swedish hotel.

Berkley has been having a flirtation with funky poetess City Hall (Eliza Dushku), and Max Mariner (Bill Pullman), a family friend and crafty detective, tries to find the kidnapper and the details of this incident.

After numerous twists, turns, rounds of jealousy, greed and backstabbing, the story is revealed.

Also appearing are Shawn Hatosy as the kidnapper, Ted Danson as one of Eli's associates, Danny DeVito in a small but pivotal role as a compulsive neighbor, and Ernie Hudson as a cop.

Written and directed by Randall Miller.

Run time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Rated R for some violent gruesome images, language and sexuality.

My personal rating: C+

Swimmers (2005)

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Will Tyler (Robert Knott) is a waterman -- a harvester of oysters and clams -- along Maryland's shore. Due to financial woes and his drinking problem, he and his wife Julia (Cherry Jones) are having trouble raising the money for expensive ear surgery for their 11-year-old daughter Emma (Tara Devon Gallagher).

Emma is wise beyond her years and yet still a child who blames herself for her family's dilemma. She watches as the stress digs into the family, including her adult brothers Clyde (Shawn Hatosy), who is a cop, and Mike (Michael Mosley), who is a waterman like his father.

Enter the melancholy young woman Merrill (Sarah Paulson) who has returned to the village to try to reclaim her late mother's house from her aunt Shellie (Kate Goehring). Sarah has dark secrets involving her mother's death and has spent time institutionalized as a result, but she befriends young Emma and becomes a balance point for the child.

Written and directed by Doug Sadler.

My personal rating: C