Bovie Movie

Australian filmmaker known for such classics as The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Six Degrees of Separation, Fred Schepisi tells this story about a group of lifelong chums coming to terms with their friend’s death, based on a prize-winning novel by Graham Swift. When Jack Dodd (Michael Caine) passes on, his three best buddies (Tom Courtenay, Bob Hoskins, and David Hemmings) along with his son (Ray Winstone) carry out his last wish — to have his ashes cast off the pier of the seaside town of Margate, where he and his beloved wife honeymooned and where he hoped to retire. As the group venture to the coast in a large black Mercedes, they reminisce about their younger, wilder days. Eventually, they end up in a pub where, in a haze of beer and tears, secrets are unveiled. Meanwhile, Jack’s wife, Amy (Helen Mirren), visits the mentally disabled daughter that Jack refused to acknowledge. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival.

Terry Winsor directs this two-fisted tale of drug, guns, and murder based on a real-life gangland killing that left three dead in the snowy Essex backcountry. The film opens with cabby neophyte Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles) getting hired by suave drug baron John Dyke (Tom Wilkinson) to shuttle around recent ex-con Jason Locke (Sean Bean). Locke is a disaster waiting to happen; half-psychotic with a volcanic temper, he kills and disfigures without a second thought. Yet he takes a shine to his young driver and soon starts including him on his nefarious errands. Meanwhile, Locke arranges for his wife Lisa (Alex Kingston of ER fame) to call in a favor from Dyke and has the kingpin procure a shipment of ecstasy. Unfortunately, the E proves to be bad, hospitalizing scores of ravers and almost killing Locke. With his street rep trashed, the sociopath vows bloody revenge on his former partner, while Dyke and his lover Lisa plot Locke’s demise.