Actor Christian Bale (1974)

An American superhero film, Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. In a barren desert, Gorr and his daughter, Love, struggle amidst their prayers to Rapu – their god. Despite their pleas, Love perishes and the Necrosword tempts Gorr with its power. In a fit of vengeance, he renounces Rapu and kills him with the sword before vowing to destroy all gods. However, this comes at a cost as Gorr becomes cursed by the sword’s influence with impending death and corruption. As he continues to eliminate more gods, Thor learns of Sif’s distress signal and leaves the Guardians of the Galaxy to aid her. Meanwhile, ...

The American sports drama film, Ford v Ferrari (2019), was directed by James Mangold and written by Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and Jason Keller. In an effort to increase their car sales, Ford Motor Company Vice President Lee Iacocca suggests purchasing the dominant Ferrari team participating in the 24 Hours of Le Mans to Henry Ford II. However, owner Enzo Ferrari uses this offer to secure a deal with Fiat that allows him to maintain ownership of Scuderia ...

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) is an adventure drama film, directed by Andy Serkis. The screenplay, written by Callie Kloves, is based on tales from All the Mowgli Stories by Rudyard Kipling. In the Indian jungle, the wise Indian python seer Kaa witnesses Shere Khan, a cruel Bengal tiger, breaking ‘jungle law’ by attacking a human family. After finding a surviving infant, Bagheera takes him to an Indian wolf family led by Nisha and Vihaan. However, their presence is noticed by Tabaqui, Shere ...

Vice (2018) is an American biographical political satire comedy-drama film that follows the career of Dick Cheney. Directed, written and produced by Adam McKay, the film is narrated by Kurt, a fictional veteran of the Afghan and Iraqi wars. In 1963, after dropping out of Yale University due to his struggles with alcoholism, Cheney works as a lineman in Wyoming. However, after being pulled over for driving while intoxicated, his wife Lynne gives him an ultimatum to get his life together or she will leave him. Six years later in 1969, Cheney lands a job as a White House intern during the Nixon Administration where he ...

Hostiles (2017) is an American western drama film written and directed by Scott Cooper, based on a story by Donald E. Stewart. Set in 1892, the movie follows the story of Rosalee Quaid, a settler who faces a brutal attack from a Comanche war group that results in the death of her husband and three children. In Fort Berringer, New Mexico, Captain Joseph Blocker receives orders from Colonel Abraham Biggs to escort Cheyenne war chief Yellow Hawk and his family back to their tribal lands in Montana. Despite his past with Yellow Hawk, which includes the loss of friends and ...

The Promise (2016) is an American epic historical war drama film directed by Terry George, co-written by Robin Swicord. It follows the story of Mikael, a young Armenian with aspirations to study medicine. While in Constantinople pursuing his dream, he meets Ana, another Armenian who captures his heart. However, she is involved with an American photographer named Chris who has been sent to document the Turkish genocide of the Armenians. Amidst the atrocities of war, a love triangle develops. Mikael, a pharmacist from the village Sirun in the Ottoman Empire’s ...

Knight of Cups (2015) is an American experimental drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick. It tells the story of a young prince, whose father, the king of the East, sends him on a mission to find a pearl in Egypt. However, upon arriving, he is offered a drink that causes him to forget his royal identity and fall into a deep slumber. The King sends out many messengers in search of his son, hoping to guide him back home. As a child, Rick would often hear this tale from his father. Now grown and working as a screenwriter in Santa Monica, he yearns for something more meaningful but doesn’t know where to ...

The American biographical crime comedy-drama film, The Big Short (2015), was directed and co-written by Adam McKay. It tells the story of the U.S mortgage housing crisis of 2005 through three separate but parallel perspectives. Michael Burry, an eccentric ex-physician now managing a hedge fund called Scion Capital, has a unique approach to business – sporting shorts, bare feet, and a Supercuts haircut. He is convinced that the US housing market is in a bubble that will inevitably burst within the next few years. With autonomy in his company, Burry takes action and bets against the housing market with banks who are eager ...

Filmmaker Ridley Scott brought the biblical story of Exodus to life through his epic film, Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014). At this time in history, Moses, a respected member of the Egyptian royal family and a skilled general, prepares for battle with the Hittites alongside his fellow prince Ramesses. A High Priestess delivers a prophecy to Ramesses’s father Seti I using animal entrails, foretelling that one of the two princes will save the other and become a great leader. During the intense battle, Moses risks his own life to save Ramesses, leaving both men unsettled. As events unfold, Moses takes on the ...

American Hustle (2013) is a black comedy crime film, helmed by director David O. Russell and written by Eric Warren Singer. The movie drew inspiration from the real-life FBI Abscam operation that took place during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Set in 1978, it follows the tale of con artists Irving Rosenfeld and Sydney Prosser, who have teamed up to pull off various scams. To improve their schemes, Sydney assumes the guise of ‘Lady Edith Greensly’, an English aristocrat. Despite their successful partnership, Irving is torn between his love for Sydney and his ...

Out of the Furnace (2013), an American crime drama film directed by Scott Cooper and written by Cooper and Brad Ingelsby, follows steel mill worker Russell Baze as he deals with his brother Rodney’s involvement in illegal gambling. After seeing Rodney at a horse racing simulcast, Russell learns that he borrowed money from John Petty, who runs unlawful games at his bar. Russell visits Petty, pays off part of the debt, and promises to cover the rest. However, after driving home drunk one night, Russell causes a fatal ...

The superhero film, The Dark Knight Rises (2012), was helmed by director Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan and the story with David S. Goyer. Bane, a former member of the League of Shadows, leads an attack on a CIA plane over Uzbekistan to abduct nuclear physicist Dr. Leonid Pavel and deceives observers by making it appear that Pavel died in the crash. Meanwhile, eight years have passed since district attorney Harvey Dent’s death in Gotham City. Thanks to the Dent Act, ...

Directed by Zhang Yimou, The Flowers of War (2011) is a Chinese-Hong Kong historical drama that takes place during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. With the invasion of Japan, China’s capital city Nanjing falls to the Imperial Japanese Army in December, resulting in the brutal Nanjing massacre. As the Chinese army is overtaken, a group of desperate schoolgirls seeks refuge at a Western-run Roman Catholic cathedral. In their midst is John Miller, an American mortician on a mission to bury the head priest. He befriends George, an orphan boy who was raised by the deceased priest and taught English. Soon after, a ...

Directed by David O. Russell, The Fighter (2010) is a biographical sports drama depicting the story of Micky Ward, an American welterweight boxer from Lowell, Massachusetts. Despite being managed by his mother, Alice Ward, and trained by his older half-brother, Dicky Eklund, Micky often finds himself being used as a ‘stepping stone’ for other boxers to defeat on their way up. Unfortunately, Dicky’s former success in the ring against Sugar Ray Leonard in 1978 has been overshadowed by his addiction to crack cocaine. Unaware that the documentary he is being filmed for is not about his ...

Terminator Salvation (2009) is an American military science fiction action film and the fourth installment of the popular Terminator franchise. It serves as a sequel to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), while also functioning as a soft reboot. In that same year, Dr. Serena Kogan, of Cyberdyne Systems, persuades death row inmate Marcus Wright to donate his body for medical research after his execution. Later on, Skynet – a highly advanced automated system – becomes self-aware and perceives humans as a threat to its existence, triggering a nuclear holocaust known as ‘Judgment Day’. In 2018, John Connor leads an assault ...

Public Enemies (2009), an American biographical crime drama film directed by Michael Mann, follows notorious criminal John Dillinger as he attempts to evade the law and continue his life of crime in 1933. With a screenplay co-written by Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman, the movie begins with Dillinger’s daring escape from the Indiana State Penitentiary alongside his crew. Tragically, his mentor Walter Dietrich is killed during the jailbreak. After changing their clothes and finding refuge at a safe house on Chicago’s east side, Dillinger and his accomplices carry out a series of bank robberies while FBI agent ...

The superhero film, The Dark Knight (2008), was directed by Christopher Nolan and co-written with his brother Jonathan. It serves as the sequel to Batman Begins (2005) and is the second installment in The Dark Knight Trilogy. In Gotham City, a group of masked criminals stages a robbery at a mafia-owned bank. Amid betrayals and killings, the mastermind behind the heist is revealed to be none other than the Joker, who escapes with the stolen money. To combat organized crime in Gotham, Batman teams up with district attorney Harvey Dent and police lieutenant ...

Directed by James Mangold, 3:10 to Yuma (2007) is an American Western action drama film. It is the second adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s 1953 short story Three-Ten to Yuma, following the 1957 film of the same name. Set in Arizona in 1884, it tells the story of Dan Evans, a poor rancher and Civil War veteran who is in debt to wealthy Glen Hollander. Following Hollander’s warning by burning down his barn and scattering his cattle, Evans and his two sons set out to find their lost herd. They come across Ben Wade and his gang robbing an armored stagecoach ...

Directed by Todd Haynes and co-written by Haynes and Oren Moverman, I’m Not There (2007) is a musical drama film that utilizes a nonlinear narrative, interweaving the stories of six characters who each represent a different aspect of Bob Dylan’s public persona. These personas include poet (Arthur Rimbaud), prophet (Jack Rollins/Father John), outlaw (Billy McCarty), fake (Woody Guthrie), ‘rock and roll martyr’ (Jude Quinn), and ‘star of electricity’ (Robbie Clark). According to production ...

Rescue Dawn (2006), an epic war drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog, is based on an adapted screenplay from his 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. In February 1966, Lt. Dieter Dengler, a German-born U.S. Navy pilot in squadron VA-145 on the USS Ranger, is shot down over Laos while on a combat mission. Despite surviving the crash, he is captured by the Pathet Lao and taken to a prisoner of war camp. There, he meets other prisoners such as American pilots Gene DeBruin and Duane W. Martin, Hong Kong Chinese radio operator Y.C. To, Procet and Thai Air America freight employee Pisidhi Indradat ...