Monster

Monster: Charlize Theron

Monster

Cast: Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern, Lee Tergesen, Annie Corley, Scott Wilson

A dark tale based on the true story of Aileen Wuornos, one of America's first female serial killers. Wuornos had a difficult and cruel childhood plagued by abuse and drug use in Michigan. She became a prostitute by the age of thirteen, the same year she became pregnant. She eventually moved to Florida where she began earning a living as a highway prostitute--servicing the desires of semi-truck drivers. The tale focuses on the nine month period between 1989 and 1990, during which Wuornos had a lesbian relationship with a woman named Selby. And during that very same time, she also began murdering her clientele in order to get money without using sex. This turned the tables on a rather common phenomena of female highway prostitutes being the victims of serial killers--instead Wuornos, herself, carried out the deeds of a cold-blooded killer

Choose

Choose: Katheryn Winnick

Choose

Cast: Katheryn Winnick, Nicholas Tucci, Kevin Pollak, Richard Short, Bruce Dern

The peace and tranquility of an idyllic, suburban city is suddenly broken. Behind a picket fence and manicured lawn, teenager Sara awakens, startled as a rush of cold air gently pushes he bedroom door open. Across the hall her parents’ bedroom door lies ajar and as her eyes adjust to the darkness she finds her parents gagged and tied to the bed. Knocked unconscious she is later awoken by a deranged killer and given sixty seconds to make a simple choice: who dies, her mother or her father?

Down in the Valley

Down in the Valley: Edward Norton and Evan Rachel Wood

Down in the Valley

Cast: Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, David Morse, Rory Culkin, Bruce Dern, John Diehl, Elizabeth Peña

I Siblings Lonnie and Tobe live at the edge of the bleeding sprawl of the San Fernando Valley. One day, a mysterious horseman strolls into their lives. With his folksy-naïve manner and cowboy garb, Harlan Fairfax Carruthers initially evokes a bemused "Are you for real?" from one of their friends. But to Lonnie and Tobe, Harlan's alien behavior seems to be exactly what they need. Director David Jacobson brings a fresh perspective to the city and the ways it functions as a locus of both hopeful reinvention and dark violence. Enrique Chediak's' anamorphic widescreen cinematography uses the striking juxtapositions of the San Fernando Valley, where the Interstate brushes up against what little is left of the Wild West, to both comic and poignant effect. Remarkable central performances from Edward Norton and a revelatory Evan Rachel Wood cement Down in the Valley as both a classic American movie and a thoroughly independent vision.