Ryan Gosling

Sherilyn Fenn

Michelle Williams

Michael Peña

As a detached kid spends time in juvenile hall for the unspeakable murder of a special needs kid, a writer and the people around him try to comprehend and cope with his reasoning for commiting this murder from the writings in a classroom book from his juvenile class, where he tries to let people know "the why".—gavin Johns

The United States of Leland

The United States of Leland (2003)

Emily Watson

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Robin Weigert

Theater director Caden Cotard is mounting a new play. Fresh off of a successful production of Death of a aa/2Salesman, he has traded in the suburban blue-hairs and regional theater of Schenectady for the cultured audiences and bright footlights of Broadway. Armed with a MacArthur grant and determined to create a piece of brutal realism and honesty, something into which he can put his whole self, he gathers an ensemble cast into a warehouse in Manhattan's theater district. He directs them in a celebration of the mundane, instructing each to live out their constructed lives in a small mock-up of the city outside. As the city inside the warehouse grows, Caden's own life veers wildly off the tracks. The shadow of his ex-wife Adele, a celebrated painter who left him years ago for Germany's art scene, sneers at him from every corner. Somewhere in Berlin, his daughter Olive is growing up under the questionable guidance of Adele's friend, Maria. He's helplessly driving his marriage to actress Claire into the ground. Sammy Barnathan, the actor Caden has hired to play himself within the play, is a bit too perfect for the part, and is making it difficult for Caden to revive his relationship with the alluringly candid Hazel. Meanwhile, his therapist, Madeline Gravis, is better at plugging her best-seller than she is at counselling him. His second daughter, Ariel, is disabled. And a mysterious condition is systematically shutting down each of his autonomic functions, one by one. As the years rapidly pass, Caden buries himself deeper into his masterpiece. Populating the cast and crew with doppelgangers, he steadily blurs the line between the world of the play and that of his own deteriorating reality. As he pushes the limits of his relationships, both personally and professionally, a change in creative direction arrives in Millicent Weems, a celebrated theater actress who may offer Caden the break he needs.

Synecdoche, New York

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Forest Whitaker

Ben Kingsley

Alfred Molina

In 1993, a search for extraterrestrial life, a transmission's received, detailing an alien DNA structure, along with instructions on how to splice it with human DNA. The result is Sil, a sensual but deadly creature who can change from a beautiful woman to an armor-plated killing machine in the blink of an eye. Government agent Xavier Fitch assembles a team of scientists and mercenaries to locate and destroy Sil before she manages to find a mate and breed.—Amazon

Species

Species (1995)

Leonardo DiCaprio

Mark Ruffalo

In 1954, up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he thinks he's been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. Teddy's shrewd investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals "escape" in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything - his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.—alfiehitchie

Shutter Island

Shutter Island (2010)

Mike Vogel

John Doman

Dean Pereira and Cindy Heller Pereira are a young working-class married couple with a young daughter, Frankie. Dean currently works as a painter and Cindy is a nurse at a medical clinic. Despite their relatively tender ages, they are both ravaged by the life they've eked out together and by the experiences they've had leading into their marriage. High-school dropout Dean comes from a broken home and never really had a mother figure; he never imagined getting married or having a family despite falling in love with Cindy at first sight. He has no professional ambition beyond his current work--which he enjoys since he feels he can down a beer at 8AM and it won't affect his work--although Cindy believes he has so much more potential in life. Cindy also comes from a dysfunctional family; her parents didn't set an example of a harmonious married or family life. One of her previous serious partners, Bobby Ontario, has had a profound effect on many aspects of her marriage to Dean. Dean and Cindy head off on an overnight getaway together without Frankie, seeking a clearer picture of whether their marriage can survive its many issues.—Huggo

Blue Valentine

Blue Valentine (2010)

6.9 / 10

Action
Crime

7.5 / 10

Action
Comedy

5.9 / 10

Action
Horror

8.2 / 10

Action
Drama

7.3 / 10

Action
Drama