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The film most famous for being shown on Showtime, once, eliminating it from Academy Award consideration. Much of the time that wouldn't be of much consequence, but in this case it eliminated a definite nomination for the film's star, Linda Fiorentino, who may very well have won. It's a small consolation prize, but thankfully, film critics in NY & London had their own awards and gave them to her. It is a sensational, knock-out performance in one of the more ruthless roles for a female since the dames of the 40's. The film itself doesn't quite deserve the superlatives she does, but it is mighty fine. The tale of a wife who convinces her husband to do a major drug deal only to have her immediately steal the $700,000 he collected and then disappear. She inadvertently ends up in a tiny town, which turns out to be a good hiding place, but far, far too mundane for this whipsaw, so she is looking for a profitable way to pass the time. She finds the biggest sap I can recall in a movie, who falls hard for her and ends up in what might be called more than a world of trouble. While all of this is going on, the husband is after her. This all sounds very heavy, but Fiorentino and Bill Pullman, the husband, play this with such devilish charm that despite how harsh some of it is, it's also a lot of fun to watch. Peter Berg plays the sap boyfriend and he does well, but if the writing has any major weakness, it would be with this character. It's a little hard to swallow what he swallows. Nevertheless, this is terrific entertainment from John Dahl who after making a few other commercially unsuccessful films that I liked seems to have given up film for TV. For anyone who appreciates great performances, this is a must. One cannot help but wonder had this made the splash it could have what would Fiorentino's career been like. She never did anything of consequence before this, though she was fun in Scorsese's After Hours, and she never did anything of significance afterwards despite being in a the major hit, Men In Black, and left the biz after a bunch of mediocre career choices. Perhaps she and this role were just lightning striking and that's all she wrote. Who knows, but in this role she's up there with the best femme fatales you will ever see.

This excellent film about the long search and ultimate death of Osama Bin Laden is too long. None of it is "filler", but there are scenes in the middle that aren't terribly necessary and it would make this fine film tighter. I haven't any idea as to the authenticity of all of this, but it is realistic, strong, intelligent, harsh, and at times, a brutal film. Torture is torturous to view regardless if they are the enemy or not and all of these scenes are before the Obama administration came into office and ended it. The principle person that we see suffering from these procedures is played extremely well by Reda Kateb, but everyone here is good including superior work done by Jason Clarke and Jennifer Ehle. Add in Joel Edgerton, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, Chris Pratt, Jeremy Strong & James Gandolfini and you have an impressive lineup. The one single thread through all of this is the character played by Jessica Chastain and she is perfect. Regardless where you stand on all of this politically, it's a very fine piece of filmmaking from Kathryn Bigelow who seems to excel with intense war films. It's a film with next to no personal storylines, which makes this all the more realistic. We do learn enough about Chastain to understand her sadness at the end. Highly recommended to serious film viewers.

As a lifelong single male I'm out of my comfort zone to discuss this one! It's a rather fascinating, insightful (I think) and somewhat ruthless and startling look at early motherhood. However, while I'm sure some do, I don't get the canine gimmick, for lack of a better word. Not only do I not get it, I think it undermines the really fine parts of this which includes the writing for this loving, harsh and humorous look at a woman on the brink not really understanding all that would change in her world and her being after giving birth to her first child. However, gotta blame the the same writing team of Marielle Heller & Rachel Yoder for the canine analogy. While I don't think it her finest hour, Amy Adams is her usual excellent self in a tricky role that she conquers and it was nice to see Jessica Harper for the first time in a while, though the talented Scoot McNairy is wasted in an underwritten role. For me, much of this was a learning experience.