Bovie Movie

A handful of desperate characters come together unexpectedly one winter evening in this comedy-drama. Lefty (Stephen Baldwin) is a luckless sad sack whose life has been in a tailspin since his wife Heather (Faline England) left him two years ago. Lefty has been struggling to win back the right to visit his daughter, but since losing his job and periodically stumbling in his efforts to give up drinking, he’s been so broke he can’t afford to pay his rent, let alone hire a lawyer, and after a meeting with Heather’s attorney goes badly, he decides he needs to get his hands on a gun. Meanwhile, Lefty’s aging mother Eva (K Callan) has fallen into a depression as her health has begun to fail her, and she’s decided that Christmas Eve would be as good a time as any to do herself in. Elsewhere, Mary (Mary Thornton) could use some help looking after her son Jacob (Dominic Scott Kay), after her husband Rick (Kevin Downes) suffered a severe head injury during a motorcycle accident a year before with his best friend and riding buddy, Mitch (Mitchell Jarvis). And Mark (Richard Fancy), the pastor at a local church, has been persuaded to take a group of kids out Christmas caroling — a task he does not relish. Somehow, the fates conspire to bring the principles together with Christmas just around the corner to give them the hope that’s been lacking in their lives. Midnight Clear was the first feature film from director Dallas Jenkins, adapted from a short film of the same title he made the previous year.

As World War I rages in Europe and Allied forces in France, Italy, and England find their resolve quickly diminishing due to the overwhelming force of the German juggernaut, a handful of brave American soldiers volunteer to join their French counterparts in learning to fly and fighting for freedom from above as the true story of the legendary Lafayette Escadrille comes to the screen in a breathtaking war adventure from Academy Award-winning director Tony Bill and famed producer Dean Devlin. They have come from all over the United States, ready and willing to put their lives on the line despite their country’s initial pledge to not get involved with the all-consuming war that rages throughout Europe. Few could have foreseen the challenges faced by the world’s first fighter pilots, however, and upon arriving at their aerodrome in France, the aspiring aviators are assigned to a new squadron under the command of war-ravaged Captain Thenault (Jean Reno) and battle-weary American pilot Reed Cassidy — the sole survivor of his devastated former air brigade. With little encouragement from their fellow aviators and nothing to drive but their unifying goal of taking to the skies and offering up their lives in the name of freedom, the determined airmen of the Lafayette Escadrille set out to make history by embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. James Franco, Martin Henderson, and David Ellison star in a script penned by Phil Sears, Blake T. Evans, and David S. Ward.

The second of three films by co-writer/director Oliver Stone to explore the effects of the Vietnam War (Platoon and Heaven and Earth are the others), Born On The Fourth Of July tells the true story of Ron Kovic (Tom Cruise), a patriotic, All-American small town athlete who shocks his family by enlisting with the Marines to fight in the Vietnam War. Once he is overseas, however, Kovic’s gung-ho enthusiasm turns to horror and confusion when he accidentally kills one of his own men in a firefight. His downfall is furthered by a bullet wound that leaves him paralyzed from the chest down. He returns home, spends an appalling, nightmarish stint in a veterans’ hospital, and follows an increasingly disillusioned and fragmented path that ultimately leaves him drunk and dissolute in Mexico. However, Kovic somehow turns himself around and pulls his life together, becoming an outspoken anti-war activist in the process. The film is long but emotionally powerful; many consider it Stone’s best work and Cruise’s best performance. Both were nominated for Oscars, as was the film itself, but only Stone, who co-wrote the film with Kovic from the latter’s book, won for Best Director.