Bovie Movie

Directed by Michael Mayer and based on The Hours author Michael Cunningham’s novel of the same name, A Home at the End of the World chronicles the 1980s reunion of childhood best friends Bobby (Colin Farrell) and Jonathan (Dallas Roberts). Where they were once best pals — and teenage lovers — in the suburbs of Cleveland, Bobby has become a charismatic but go-nowhere heterosexual slacker, and Jonathan is now living as an openly gay man in New York City, hoping to serve as father to his eccentric roommate Clare’s (Robin Wright Penn) child. When Bobby impulsively moves to the city to be closer to his former friend, their bonds are tested sooner than anyone would have thought. Bobby falls for Clare, and in doing so, effectively eliminates what would have been Jonathan’s position in the baby’s life. Jonathan temporarily takes off; when his father dies, and he attends the Arizona funeral, Bobby and Clare unexpectedly turn up with the news that she’s expecting. Despite the still-existent tensions, the trio becomes a family unit among themselves, ultimately buying a house in Woodstock, Upstate New York, where they all move together, challenging traditional notions of family, commitment, love, and devotion.

Combining drama, comedy, and romance, Jerry Maguire was a critical and commercial success built on an original script by writer/director Cameron Crowe and an Oscar-nominated performance by Tom Cruise. Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is an agent with a major sports management firm. He’s enthusiastic, successful, a great negotiator and people like him. But it begins to dawn on Jerry that there’s something wrong with what he’s doing, and not long after a troubling encounter with the son of an injured athlete he represents, Jerry has a serious crisis of conscience. In the midst of a sleepless night, Jerry writes a memo calling on himself and his colleagues to think more about the long-term welfare of the clients they represent and less about immediate profits. While everyone around him applauds the sentiment, Jerry’s superiors think his ideas are bad for business; Jerry is fired, and, rather than standing in solidarity with him, his “friends” in the firm scramble like sharks to claim Jerry’s clients. At the end of his last day, the only people willing to join Jerry as he strikes out on his own are staff accountant Dorothy (Renee Zellweger), a single mother secretly in love with him, and Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a football player whose pride and arrogance have gotten in the way of his reaching his potential. Jerry Maguire earned an Academy Award for Cuba Gooding Jr.’s performance as Tidwell and provided a breakthrough role for Renee Zellweger; it also made “Show me the money!” an unavoidable catchphrase for several months.

Noted theater director Sam Mendes, who was responsible for the acclaimed 1998 revival of Cabaret and Nicole Kidman’s turn in The Blue Room, made his motion picture debut with this film about the dark side of an American family, and about the nature and price of beauty in a culture obsessed with outward appearances. Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a man in his mid-40s going through an intense midlife crisis; he’s grown cynical and is convinced that he has no reason to go on. Lester’s relationship with his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) is not a warm one; while on the surface Carolyn strives to present the image that she’s in full control of her life, inside she feels empty and desperate. Their teenage daughter Jane (Thora Birch) is constantly depressed, lacking in self-esteem, and convinced that she’s unattractive. Her problems aren’t helped by her best friend Angela (Mena Suvari), an aspiring model who is quite beautiful and believes that that alone makes her a worthwhile person. Jane isn’t the only one who has noticed that Angela is attractive: Lester has fallen into uncontrollable lust for her, and she becomes part of his drastic plan to change his body and change his life. Meanwhile, next door, Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper) has spent a lifetime in the Marine Corps and can understand and tolerate no other way of life, which makes life difficult for his son Ricky (Wes Bentley), an aspiring filmmaker and part-time drug dealer who is obsessed with beauty, wherever and whatever it may be. American Beauty was also the screen debut for screenwriter Alan Ball.

A teenage girl learns that reaching for your dreams isn’t always easy in this heartfelt drama with music. Terri Fletcher (Hilary Duff) is a small-town girl with a great love of music and a fine singing voice. Already one of the lead vocalists in her church choir, Terri has also appeared at local nightspots with some help from her older brother. When he tragically dies in an auto accident, Terri becomes all the more determined to make the most of her talent, and she’s elated when she’s accepted as part of a summer study program at one of California’s most prestigious music schools; however, Terri attends over the stern objections of her father. As she tries to hold together her relationship with her family, she finds herself falling for one of her fellow students, Jay (Oliver James), and competing for attention against dozens of kids whose talent rivals her own. Raise Your Voice also features Jason Ritter, Rebecca De Mornay, Rita Wilson, David Keith, and John Corbett.

The spirit of the mega-hit Ghostbusters (1984) is intentionally recalled with this effects-heavy sci-fi comedy from the same director, Ivan Reitman, co-starring Dan Aykroyd and debuting on the 17th anniversary of the earlier film’s release. When a meteor bearing single-celled organisms crashes to the Earth, the life forms are initially confined to a cave. Before long the creatures are evolving at an exponentially rapid rate, resulting in fearsome aliens running amok and possibly spelling mankind’s doom, or at least the end of man’s domination over life on Earth. Investigating the phenomenon is a community college professor, Ira Kane (David Duchovny), his geologist friend Harry Block (Orlando Jones), wannabe fireman Wayne Green (Seann William Scott), and government scientist Allison Reed (Julianne Moore). Evolution also stars Ted Levine, Ethan Suplee, and Katharine Towne.

A man having trouble with women suddenly finds himself surrounded by them in this independent comedy drama. Carter Webb (Adam Brody) is a successful writer who has fallen into an emotional tailspin after his girlfriend, well-known actress Sophia (Elena Anaya), breaks up with him. When Carter learns that his grandmother (Olympia Dukakis) is in failing health, he decides to leave California and return to his hometown of Detroit to help take care of her and beginning work on his long-planned novel. As Carter spends time with his grandmother, he becomes friendly with her neighbors — single mother Sarah Hardwicke (Meg Ryan) and her two daughters, angst-ridden teen Lucy (Kristen Stewart) and precocious 11-year-old Paige (Makenzie Vega). As Sarah attempts to deal with a pressing personal crisis and Carter begins sorting out his relationship issues, he discovers that sometimes what feels like the end is actually just a new beginning. In the Land of Women was the first directorial project for actor and screenwriter Jon Kasdan, the son of writer and director Lawrence Kasdan.

A workaholic architect, frustrated in his job but determined to make a better life for his family, is bestowed with a powerful universal remote that allows him more control over his life than he ever knew possible in director Frank Coraci’s high-concept fantasy comedy. On the surface, Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) seems to have it all, yet with all the demands forced upon him by his ungrateful boss (David Hasselhoff), Michael finds that setting aside time to spend with his loving wife, Donna (Kate Beckinsale), and two picture-perfect children, Ben (Joseph Castanon) and Samantha (Tatum McCann), has grown increasingly difficult. When a frustrating bout with the television remote leads the overworked husband and father to a nearby Bed, Bath & Beyond in search of a universal remote with the power to control all of his electronic devices, a curious peek into the back room leads Michael into the company of eccentric employee and talented inventor Morty (Christopher Walken). It seems that Morty has created a device that will not only allow Michael complete control over his television and stereo, but his entire life as well. As Michael discovers that the remarkable device has the power to muffle the barks of the family dog, zoom himself past an irritating quarrel with his wife, and even allow him to travel back and forth through time to different points in his life, the rush of being able to skip straight to the good parts in life soon leaves him feeling as if he’s missing out on the total experience. Only when Michael begins to realize that the he has lost control of his life and the remote is now programming him does he finally learn that life is as much about the moments he’d rather forget as it is the moments he will always remember.

Steve Martin wrote the screenplay and served as co-producer for this screen adaptation of his short novel, which takes a witty but bittersweet look at a young woman and the two men involved with her. Mirabelle Buttersfield (Claire Danes) is an aspiring artist in her mid-twenties who, after graduating from college, moved to Los Angeles, where she works at the glove counter of an upscale department store. Mirabelle’s job is simple and not demanding, but it doesn’t pay especially well, and she finds herself struggling to get out from under a growing mountain of debt from student loans and credit cards. One night, while doing her laundry, Mirabelle meets Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), a scruffy but likable would-be musician who makes ends meet selling guitar amps. While Jeremy is obviously infatuated with Mirabelle, she isn’t sure how she feels about him, especially after she meets Ray Porter (Steve Martin), a man in his fifties whom she meets at the store. Ray is independently wealthy, intelligent, and charming, and after asking her out on a date he sweeps her off her feet. However, while Mirabelle quickly falls for Ray and he’s generous to a fault with her, he refuses to commit exclusively to her and suggests they should both see other people, a prospect that no longer holds much appeal for her. Shopgirl received its world premiere at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival.