Actor Sam Shepard (1943)

Ithaca (2015), an American drama directed by Meg Ryan and written by Erik Jendresen, is based on the 1943 novel The Human Comedy by William Saroyan. Set in a small fictional town of Ithaca, CA in the 1940s during World War II, the story follows 14-year-old Homer Macauley who is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger. His motivation comes from his desire to take care of his widowed mother Katie, his older sister Bess, and his youngest brother Ulysses. Unfortunately, Homer’s older ...

August: Osage County (2013), a film directed by John Wells, is a tragicomedy based on Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Set in the scorching month of August in rural Pawhuska, Oklahoma, the story centers around Beverly Weston, a once-famous poet struggling with alcoholism. He hires Johnna, a young Cheyenne woman, to work as a live-in cook and caregiver for his wife Violet. Violet is battling oral cancer and a narcotic addiction. After Beverly disappears, Violet turns to her sister and daughters for help. Along with her husband Charles Aiken, Violet’s ...

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 ...

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 ...

Safe House (2012), an American action thriller directed by Daniel Espinosa and written by David Guggenheim, tells the story of junior CIA officer Matt Weston in Cape Town, South Africa. His role as a ‘housekeeper’ involves maintaining a local CIA safe house for potential operations. Seeking to join his girlfriend Ana in Paris as she starts her residency, Matt contacts his mentor and superior David Barlow to inquire about a station there. However, Barlow dismisses the idea, claiming that Matt lacks the required qualifications. This only adds to Matt’s ...

Fair Game (2010) is a biographical political drama film directed by Doug Liman and starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. Valerie Plame, employed by the Central Intelligence Agency, keeps her job secret from everyone outside of her husband and parents. She is an intelligence officer involved in numerous sensitive and potentially hazardous undercover operations abroad. Her husband, Joseph C. Wilson, formerly served as the U.S. ambassador to Gabon with a previous diplomatic history in Niger. Plame’s colleagues at the CIA ...

The American epic revisionist Western film, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), is a retelling of the events leading up to the titular killing. Written and directed by Andrew Dominik and based on Ron Hansen’s novel of the same name, it portrays the relationship between Jesse James and Robert Ford. In 1881, a starstruck young man named Robert ‘Bob’ Ford seeks out Jesse James while the James Gang plans a train robbery in Blue Cut, Missouri. Despite his brother Charley being a member of the gang, Bob’s attempts to join are unsuccessful. The robbery is not as successful as hoped and Frank James leaves while Jesse ...

The fantasy comedy-drama film Charlotte’s Web (2006) is an adaptation of E. B. White’s novel of the same name. In the springtime on a farm in Somerset County, Maine, Fern Arable discovers her father John poised to kill a runt from a litter of newborn pigs. She pleads with him to spare the piglet’s life, naming him Wilbur and caring for him tenderly. The following day, Fern sneaks Wilbur into her school desk and when her teacher overhears his squeals, she demands to know what is inside. Fern lies and claims there is nothing in her desk, causing the teacher to angrily send them both to the ...

Nick Cassavetes directed a romantic drama film called The Notebook (2004). At a nursing home, an old man named Duke reads a love story from a notebook to a female patient. The story takes place in 1940 at a carnival on Seabrook Island in South Carolina. A lumber mill worker named Noah Calhoun meets 17-year-old heiress Allison ‘Allie’ Hamilton and they fall in love. Despite the initial approval from Noah’s father Frank Calhoun, Allie’s parents disapprove of their relationship. One night, Noah takes Allie to an abandoned plantation and promises to restore it for them to live in. However, their ...

Black Hawk Down (2001) is a war film directed and produced by Ridley Scott, co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and written by Ken Nolan. Based on journalist Mark Bowden’s 1999 book of the same name, it revolves around the events of 1992 when the United Nations Security Council authorized a military operation with a peacekeeping mandate in southern Somalia during the civil war and famine. However, tensions arise between UNOSOM II and Mogadishu’s militia loyal to ...

The American neo-noir psychological mystery drama film, The Pledge (2001), directed by Sean Penn, follows the story of Jerry Black, an aging Reno detective. On the night of his retirement party hosted by his department, Captain Pollack presents Jerry with tickets for a fishing trip in Mexico. However, their celebration is abruptly cut short when a murdered child, Ginny Larsen, is discovered. Jerry and Detective Stan Krolak quickly head to the crime scene. After breaking the tragic news to Ginny’s parents, Margaret Larsen makes Jerry promise on a cross made by their daughter that he will catch the killer. The next ...

All the Pretty Horses (2000), directed and produced by Billy Bob Thornton, is an American Western film based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name. After his family’s ranch is sold in 1949, cowboy John Grady Cole becomes homeless and implores his friend Lacey Rawlins to join him on a journey to Mexico for work. Along the way, they befriend a strange boy named Jimmy Blevins before parting ways. In their travels, they meet Alejandra Villarreal, an aristocrat’s daughter who captures Cole’s heart. The two become hired hands for Alejandra’s pleased father, but her wealthy aunt disapproves ...

The Good Old Boys (1995), an American Western television film, was helmed by Tommy Lee Jones and co-written by Jones and J.T. Allen. It was adapted from the novel of the same title by Elmer Kelton, published in 1978. The story centers on an older cowboy who is torn between his longing for independence and his duty to care for his family.

The American legal thriller film, The Pelican Brief (1993), is an adaptation of John Grisham’s 1992 novel. It was directed by Alan J. Pakula. In the film, two elder Supreme Court justices, Jensen and Rosenberg, are killed by an assassin named Khamel. Tulane University law student Darby Shaw writes a legal brief outlining her theory on the motive behind their murders. Her lover and former clerk of Rosenberg’s, Thomas Callahan, reads the brief and passes it on to Gavin Verheek, special counsel to the director of the FBI. Shortly after, Callahan is killed in a ...

Steel Magnolias (1989) is an American comedy-drama film directed by Herbert Ross. Annelle Dupuy, a shy beauty school graduate, moves to Chinquapin Parish in northwestern Louisiana, where Truvy Jones hires her to work in her home-based beauty salon. Meanwhile, M’Lynn Eatenton and her daughter, Shelby, prepare for Shelby’s wedding that is taking place later that day. M’Lynn’s husband Drum Eatenton uses a gun to scare away birds from interfering with the reception. Together with Clairee Belcher, the former mayor’s cheerful widow, they visit Truvy’s salon for hairstyling. During their ...

Days of Heaven (1978) is a romantic period drama film directed and written by Terrence Malick. Set in 1916, the story follows Bill, a laborer from Chicago who accidentally kills his boss at a steel mill and flees with his girlfriend Abby and sister Linda to the Texas Panhandle. In order to avoid gossip, Bill and Abby pretend to be siblings when they are hired by a shy wealthy farmer as seasonal workers. The farmer’s doctor reveals he only has one year left to live but doesn’t specify the illness. As the farmer falls for Abby, Bill convinces her to marry him so they can inherit his wealth. However, their ...