Actor Richard Jenkins (1947)

Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022–2024) is the debut season of the true crime anthology series, Monster, produced by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan for Netflix. It premiered on September 21, 2022 with Murphy as showrunner and executive producer alongside Brennan. The series delves into the infamous life of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, while also featuring key characters such as Dahmer’s father Lionel, stepmother Shari, neighbor Glenda, and grandmother Catherine. Reviews for Dahmer were mixed, but it ...

Nightmare Alley (2021) is a neo-noir psychological thriller film co-written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. Based on William Lindsay Gresham’s novel of the same name from 1946, it is the second adaptation following the 1947 version. In 1939, Stan Carlisle sets ablaze a rundown house after hiding a corpse under its floorboards. Later that night, while attending a carnival, he witnesses a disturbed individual consuming a live chicken as part of the geek show. Meeting Bruno, the strongman of the carnival, Stan is offered a temporary job for the evening. After being ...

Bone Tomahawk (2015) is a Western movie written and directed by S. Craig Zahler in his directorial debut. Set in the 1890s, outlaws Purvis and Buddy come across a Native American burial ground. While escaping an ambush, Buddy is killed and Purvis manages to reach the nearby town of Bright Hope. He hides his stolen goods and is caught by Deputy Chicory. Sheriff Franklin Hunt shoots Purvis, who calls himself Buddy, in the leg when he tries to run away. The sheriff then sends skilled gunslinger John Brooder to get the town’s doctor, but instead Brooder finds Samantha O’Dwyer, the doctor’s daughter and ...

Based on Elizabeth Strout’s 2008 novel, Olive Kitteridge (2014) is an American TV miniseries set in Maine. Starring Frances McDormand as the title character and Richard Jenkins as her husband Henry Kitteridge, with Zoe Kazan as Denise Thibodeau and Bill Murray as Jack Kennison. The show is divided into four parts, each depicting a different point in the story. Premiering on HBO on November 2, 2014, the first two episodes ...

In the action-packed film White House Down (2013), directed by Roland Emmerich and written by James Vanderbilt, U.S. President James Sawyer stirs up controversy with his proposal to sign a peace agreement that would remove military forces from the Middle East. John Cale, a divorced Capitol Police officer, strives to impress his daughter Emily by interviewing for the Secret Service and getting them tickets for a White House tour. However, his college acquaintance and interviewer Deputy Special Agent-in-Charge Carol Finnerty deems him unfit for the job. As chaos erupts in Washington, D.C. with a bomb detonating at the United States Capitol, Finnerty takes Speaker of the ...

Killing Them Softly (2012) is an American neo-noir crime film written and directed by Andrew Dominik and starring Brad Pitt. It is based on George V. Higgins’ 1974 novel, Cogan’s Trade. Against the backdrop of the 2008 American financial crisis and presidential election, Johnny ‘Squirrel’ Amato devises a plan to rob a Mafia poker game. To help him carry out the heist, he turns to Frankie, a former colleague, and Russell, an Australian expatriate with a heroin addiction who makes money by ...

The movie Jack Reacher (2012) is an American action thriller written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. In Pittsburgh, a man drops a coin into a parking meter before driving his van into a garage near PNC Park. From the river’s North Shore Trail, he uses a rifle to fatally shoot five people from a distance before fleeing. Detectives from the Pittsburgh Police Department, led by Calvin Emerson, find the quarter used for parking and a shell casing at the scene. The fingerprint on the coin matches that of James Barr, a former US Army sniper. When investigators search his residence, they discover both the van and ...

The film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s 1998 novel, The Rum Diary (2011), was directed by Bruce Robinson. Paul Kemp is a struggling author who takes a job at a newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is quickly introduced to the ins and outs of the newspaper world by Sala, a staff photographer who predicts the newspaper’s eventual downfall. After settling into a hotel, Kemp crosses paths with Chenault, an alluring woman he meets while lounging on a boat in the ocean. Despite getting off on the wrong foot with his editor, E.J Lotterman, due to a night of ...

Friends with Benefits (2011) is a romantic comedy flick directed by Will Gluck and starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. Jamie Rellis, an executive headhunter in NYC, recruits Dylan Francis Harper Jr., an LA art director, for a position at GQ magazine. Despite initial doubts, he accepts the job after spending an adventurous evening in the city with her. Dylan moves to New York on a one-year contract that earns Jamie a commission, and they develop a strong platonic bond. One day, they mutually agree that sex should not ...

The movie Eat Pray Love (2010), based on the memoir of the same name by Elizabeth Gilbert, portrays a woman named Liz in her journey of self-discovery. Despite having a husband, house, and successful career, Liz feels lost and uncertain about her true desires. She asks for a divorce from her husband, Stephen, who struggles to accept it. During this time, she has a brief relationship with David, an actor. Newly divorced and unsure of where to go next, Liz takes a daring trip to Italy, India and Bali. In Italy, she indulges in the pleasures of eating pasta and gelato for four months and even learns Italian from a private ...

Let Me In (2010), a romantic horror film written and directed by Matt Reeves, is a remake of the 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In. The original was based on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel of the same name. The story takes place in March 1983, in Los Alamos, New Mexico. A disfigured man is brought to the hospital where he becomes a suspect in a recent murder case. As an unnamed detective tries to question him, the man escapes through a window leaving behind a note that reads: ‘I’M SORY ABBY’. Prior to this incident, Owen, an unhappy ...

Dear John (2010) is a romantic war drama film directed by Lasse Hallström, based on Nicholas Sparks’ novel of the same name. While serving in the United States Army Special Forces in 2003, Staff Sergeant John Tyree gets shot in Afghanistan. In a voice-over, he reflects on visiting the U.S. Mint as a child and compares himself to a coin in the military before remembering that his last thought before passing out was of someone special. Two years prior, during Spring of 2001, John takes leave in Charleston, South Carolina and meets Savannah Curtis. She is a college ...

Step Brothers (2008) is an American comedy film, directed by Adam McKay and produced by Jimmy Miller and Judd Apatow. The screenplay was co-written by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. The movie follows the story of Brennan Huff, a 39-year-old living with his divorced mother Nancy, and Dale Doback, a 40-year-old residing with his widowed father Robert. When Nancy and Robert get married, the two step brothers are forced to live ...

Burn After Reading (2008) is a black comedy film created by the Coen brothers. When Osbourne Cox gets demoted for drinking, he quits his job as a CIA analyst and decides to write a memoir. His wife Katie secretly files for divorce and resumes her affair with U.S. Marshal Harry Pfarrer, who is prone to paranoia. Katie gives her lawyer a copy of Osbourne’s digital records and other personal files, which include an early draft of his memoir. The lawyer’s assistant copies the files onto a CD-R and accidentally leaves it at Hardbodies gym. Personal trainer Chad Feldheimer and coworker Linda Litzke come across the ...

The American drama film, The Visitor (2007), was written and directed by Tom McCarthy and produced by Michael London and Mary Jane Skalski. Walter Vale, a widowed economics professor from Connecticut College, leads a mostly solitary life. He occupies his time by occasionally taking piano lessons in honor of his late wife, a renowned concert pianist, and rarely works on his latest book. Despite not being entirely enthusiastic about it, he is asked to present a paper at an academic conference at New York University as the ...

Rumor Has It (2005) is an American romantic comedy directed by Rob Reiner. In 1997, Sarah Huttinger, a writer for The New York Times, returns to her hometown of Pasadena, California for her sister Annie’s wedding with her fiancé Jeff Daly. While in town, Sarah confides in her grandmother Katharine Richelieu about her doubts regarding marriage. To Sarah’s surprise, Katharine reveals that Sarah’s mother Jocelyn also had cold feet and ran off to Cabo San Lucas a week before her own wedding. Seeking more information, Sarah seeks out her mother’s old friend Aunt Mitsy who confirms that Jocelyn spent ...

North Country (2005), directed by Niki Caro, is an American drama film. In 1989, Josey Aimes flees her abusive husband and returns to her hometown in northern Minnesota with her children Sammy and Karen. She moves in with her parents, Alice and Hank, where tensions rise due to Hank’s beliefs that Josey is promiscuous and disapproves of her having Sammy as a teenager. While working at a hair salon, Josey reconnects with an old acquaintance named Glory Dodge, who suggests she apply for a job at the local iron mine. Despite Hank’s disapproval of women working there, Josey takes the job due to its higher pay. ...

Intolerable Cruelty (2003), an American romantic comedy directed by the Coen brothers, follows Donovan Donaly, a TV soap opera producer who discovers his wife Bonnie with an ex-boyfriend. After filing for divorce, Bonnie hires Miles Massey, a renowned divorce attorney known for his ‘Massey pre-nup’ which guarantees airtight prenuptial agreements. As Donaly is left bankrupt from the settlement, private investigator Gus Petch captures wealthy and married Rex Rexroth in a drunken affair with a blonde. When Gus presents the video to Marylin Rexroth, a woman infamous for marrying for money, she demands a hefty ...

Directed by Jon Amiel, The Core (2003) is an American science fiction disaster film. A series of diverse incidents involving the Earth’s magnetic field prompts geophysicist Dr. Josh Keyes and his colleagues, Dr. Serge Leveque and Dr. Conrad Zimsky, to conclude that the rotation of the Earth’s molten core has ceased. If not reactivated, this would result in the collapse of the field within months, leaving the surface vulnerable to harmful solar radiation exposure. To address this crisis, the U.S. government initiates a covert project to construct a vessel capable of drilling into the core and deploying ...

Changing Lanes (2002) is an American drama thriller film directed by Roger Michell, featuring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson as the main characters. In New York City, two men find themselves in a rush to get to court for very different reasons. One is a recovering alcoholic named Doyle Gipson, who is fighting for joint custody of his sons after attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to maintain sobriety. The other is Gavin Banek, a successful Wall Street attorney, who needs to file an important document before ...