the A- Z of cOoL
"ice cool in the afternoon."
A - D
Adam & Joe, After Hours, Alias, Pedro Almodovar, American Psycho, Paul Thomas Anderson, Angel, Judd Apatow, Assault on Precinct 13, Back to the Future, Bad Santa, Christian Bale, Battle Royale, Before Sunrise/Before Sunset, Maria Bello, The Big Empty, The Big Lebowski, Shane Black, Boogie Nights, Emily Booth, Bound, Braindead, Breakestra, Jeff Bridges, Bubba Ho-Tep, Jeff Buckley, Buffalo 66, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Steve Buscemi, Bruce Campbell, Carnivale, Casino, Chasing Amy, A Chinese Ghost Story, Chow Yun-Fat, Chungking Express, City of God, Clerks, Closer, The Coen Brothers, The Cooler, Cruel Intentions, Cupid, Rosario Dawson, Dazed & Confused, Dead Man's Curve, Deadwood, Benicio Del Toro, Diner, Dinner For Five, Dinner Rush, DJ Shadow, The Donnas, Donnie Darko, Do The Right Thing, The Dreamstone
* = latest entries are highlighted
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ADAM & JOE http://www.adamandjoe.co.uk/
Click here for a biography.
AFTER HOURS (1985)
starring: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Tommy Chong, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, John Heard, Cheech Marin, Catherine O' Hara, Will Patton
director: Martin Scorsese genre: black comedy
ALIAS (2001 - ?) http://abc.go.com/primetime/alias/intro/indexmain.html
starring: Jennifer Garner (Sydney Bristow), Ron Rifkin (Arvin Sloane), Michael Vartan (Michael Vaughn), Bradley Cooper (Will Tippin) (2001 - 03), Merrin Dungey (Francie Calfo) (2001 - 03), Carl Lumbly (Marcus Dixon), Kevin Weisman (Marshall Flinkman), Victor Garber (Jack Bristow), Lena Olin (Irina Derevko/Laura Bristow) (2002 - 03), David Anders (2002 - 04), Melissa George (Lauren Reed) (2003 - 04), Greg Grunberg (Eric Weiss) (2001 - 05), Mia Maestro (2005 - ?), Rachel Nichols (2005 - ?)
creator: J.J. Abrams genre: spy action drama
why it's cool: Since its debut in 2001, this CIA drama has consistently proven itself to be the most exciting and unpredictable show on US television. As so much happens in each episode, it is often quite difficult to keep up with everything that is going on. But whether you understand whats going on or not, one cannot deny that this is about as entertaining as US network television gets. Jennifer Garner is perfect as are heroine, Ron Rifkin is a deliciously nasty (but occasionally sympathetic) villain, Kevin Weisman's bumbling techno-geek Marshall is an absolute hoot and Michael Vartan is one of the few young actors who actually lives up to the hype. Gripping, fast-paced and action-packed, 'Alias' is pure entertainment.
number of series: 5 (110 episodes) (so far) shown on: Sky One, Channel 5, Bravo availability: Series 1 - 3 are available on dvd
PEDRO ALMODOVAR http://www.clubcultura.com/clubcine/clubcineastas/almodovar/
Splashing his colorful films across the dour post-Franco Spanish landscape with the irreverent glee of a prostitute arriving late to church after a long night, Pedro Almodóvar has been called the most influential Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel . Beginning in the 1980s, Almodóvar started serving up provocative, candy-colored visions fraught with postmodernist insight into everything from sex and violence to religion and the dangers of good gazpacho. Sometimes shocking, sometimes controversial, Almodóvar 's films have always managed to present a new and intriguing view of his native country, shaping the attitudes of both his compatriots and a larger international audience.
Born September 25, 1951, in Calzada de Calatrava, an impoverished hamlet of La Mancha, Almodóvar was raised in a traditional Spanish household. He studied with Salesian monks, sang in the choir, and generally felt like a misfit: he was later to remark that, for him, growing up in such an environment was tantamount to being an astronaut in King Arthur 's court. At the age of 12, on seeing Richard Brooks ' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , Almodóvar decided to give purpose to his alienation, marking himself down for "a life of sin and degeneracy." As a teenager, Almodóvar was influenced by the films of such directors as Billy Wilder , Douglas Sirk , Alfred Hitchcock , Luis Buñuel , Blake Edwards , and neo-realists Marco Ferreri and Fernando Fernán-Gómez ; deciding to pursue a career as a filmmaker, he got out of La Mancha and headed to Madrid in 1969. Working at a phone company by day, he wrote short stories, mock newsreels, and spoof commercials at night, as he also made Super-8 shorts and one Super-8 feature. One of Almodóvar 's stories, a dirty photo-novel he was commissioned to write for a fanzine in 1978, became his first feature film, the 1980 Pepi, Luci, Bom... . An outrageous sexual satire, the film delivered a happy slap to the face of Spanish society, which at the time still wallowed in Franco-style social intolerance. The film's campy, pop-art-colored hedonism and sexual vulgarity were mirrored two years later in Almodóvar 's second effort, Labyrinth of Passion . Many Spanish critics, who had a bias toward the more "quality" films of the Spanish cinema establishment, reacted negatively to Almodóvar 's work, labeling him too modern and superficial.
The director reacted to such criticisms with Dark Habits (1983) and What Have I Done to Deserve This?! (1984). Although both films were comedies , they delved into more serious, complex subjects: Dark Habits presented a criticism of the Catholic Church through the story of a woman forced to hide out with a group of outrageous nuns, while What Have I Done to Deserve This?! was the tale of a housewife struggling to cope with the travails of everyday life. This latter theme of the downtrodden housewife would arise repeatedly in the director's work, as would other issues of female independence and solidarity. Almodóvar 's subsequent films deepened his exploration of sexual desire and the sometimes brutal laws governing it. Matador (1986) offered up desire as a bridge between sexual attraction and death, presenting the viewer with a cornucopia of sexual options, including fetishism, gay and straight voyeurism, necrophilia, and female penetration. This variety was further explored in the aptly named Law of Desire (1987), which offered up similarly overt sexuality, as well as Antonio Banderas in his first starring role. Banderas also starred in Almodóvar 's subsequent feature, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), which took a sharp and unfailingly amusing look at female sexuality and desire, and further established Almodóvar as a "women's director." It also earned its director international acclaim and 7.8 million dollars domestically, remaining the highest-grossing film in Spanish history for a decade.
Following the success of Women , Almodóvar took a turn toward controversy with his next film. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989) was the subject of heated stateside debate, thanks to its premise of a famous actress ( Almodóvar muse Victoria Abril ) falling in love with the man who kidnaps her and holds her hostage. Decried by feminists and women's advocacy groups, the film also received a negative reception among certain Spanish critics, who declared that Almodóvar had lost his sense of direction. Similar criticism was leveled at his two subsequent films, the family melodrama High Heels (1991) and Kika (1993). Like Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! , Kika incurred a certain amount of controversy in the States, thanks to a rape scene that was perceived as both misogynistic and exploitative.
The director changed gears with his next effort, 1995's The Flower of My Secret . Starring Almodóvar regular Marisa Paredes as a pulp romance writer, the film was a psychological drama hailed by many as his most mature film to date. It also heralded a change in Almodóvar 's portrayal of his male characters: rather than fashion the kind of clueless male protagonist often featured in his earlier films, Almodóvar created a more positive image of a "new man." Similar male characterization followed in his next film, Live Flesh (1997). Loosely based on a Ruth Rendell novel of the same name, the film explored love, loss, and suffering with a sober restraint only briefly glimpsed in the director's earlier work. Almodóvar then continued to work in more serious dramatic confines, directing All About My Mother in 1999. The story of a woman's search for her dead son's father, it revisited Almodóvar 's familiar themes of the inherent force of sisterhood and the power of family, no matter how unconventional that family may be. Dedicated to Bette Davis , Romy Schneider , and Gena Rowlands , the film premiered to great acclaim at the 1999 Cannes Festival , where it won Almodóvar a Best Director prize. He enjoyed further success at the 2000 Golden Globes and Academy Awards ceremonies, both of which saw All About My Mother garner honors for Best Foreign Language Film.
Two years later, Almodóvar hit another career high with Talk to Her , a melodrama as notable for its complex sexual politics as it was for its stylistic flourishes. The film, which revolved around two comatose women and the men who love them, was hailed by critics and embraced by art house audiences. However, certain plot points also revived charges of misogyny that had been leveled at the director for some of his earlier films (specifically Kika and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! ). Despite such controversy, Almodóvar won numerous honors across the world for his film, including a French Cesar for Best Film and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Filmography
Pepi, Luci, Bom (80), Dark Habits (83), What Have I Done To Deserve This (84), Matador (86), Law of Desire (87), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (88), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (90), The Flower of My Secret (95), Live Flesh (97), All About My Mother (99), Talk To Her (02), Bad Education (04), Volver (06)
AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000) http://homevideo.universalstudios.com/americanpsycho/
starring: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Reese Witherspoon, Chloe Sevigny, Samantha Mathis, Jared Leto, Guinevere Turner, Josh Lucas, Justin Theroux
director: Mary Harron genre: black comedy horror drama
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON
With his 1997 film Boogie Nights , then-27-year-old director Paul Thomas Anderson took his place on the list of Hollywood wunderkinds. A brash, ensemble-driven epic made as a tribute to the Los Angeles porn industry of the 1970s, the film was both an exploration of the industry and the '70s version of the American dream. Combining sharp humor, indelible poignancy, and painstaking detail, Boogie Nights was hailed by one critic as the first great film about the '70s to come out since the '70s. The wide acclaim surrounding it -- as well as Anderson's Best Screenplay Oscar nomination -- put Anderson at the forefront of young American filmmakers, establishing him as one of the most exciting talents to come along in years.
The son of voice actor Ernie Anderson , he was born in Studio City, California, on January 1, 1970. Growing up in the Valley, where the porn industry thrived during the '70s, Anderson became obsessed with porn movies at a young age. He had a greater fascination with the medium than he did with school; by all accounts a poor student, he was kicked out of the sixth grade for bad behavior. Always interested in becoming a filmmaker, Anderson made his first movie in high school, a 30-minute mockumentary entitled Dirk Diggler . Inspired by an article he had read on porn star John Holmes, Anderson's short -- about a porn star and his 13-inch penis -- would later become the inspiration for Boogie Nights .
After a brief stint as an English major at Emerson College and an even shorter stint at the New York University Film School, Anderson began his career as a production assistant on various TV movies, videos, and game shows in Los Angeles and New York. In 1992, he made Cigarettes & Coffee, a short with five vignettes set in a diner. After it was screened at the 1993 Sundance Festival, Hollywood came calling, and Anderson made his first full-length feature, Sydney -- retitled Hard Eight . Released in 1996, the making of the film -- a crime drama set in the world of gambling and prostitution -- proved disastrous for the director, who was fired by the film's production company and not allowed to release his own version of the movie until it had been selected for competition at Cannes. Hard Eight ultimately earned a fair number of positive notices, but went virtually unheard of by audiences.
During the troubling production of Hard Eight in 1995, Anderson began writing Boogie Nights as a way to retain a hold on his sanity. The great success that surrounded the film's release all but ensured that the writer/director would be spared the kind of problems that had marred his previous effort. The recipient of numerous honors, including three Oscar and two Golden Globe nominations, Boogie Nights was widely hailed as one of the best films of the year, if not the decade.
Anderson remained mum on what he would do next, but in 1999 he resurfaced with Magnolia . Like Boogie Nights , it was an ensemble film of epic length, and featured performances by such Anderson regulars as Philip Seymour Hoffman , John C. Reilly , Philip Baker Hall , William H. Macy , and Julianne Moore . Centered around themes of love, death, abandonment, and familial estrangement, it served up a lavish helping of the sort of sweeping narrative, visual flair, and off-kilter insight that Anderson had made his trademark. Critics responded in kind, once again praising Anderson 's touch with actors, particularly his ability to evince a full-fledged supporting performance from the usually-plastic Tom Cruise . Though it turned up on a slew of 10-best lists and secured Oscar nods for Cruise , Aimee Mann 's original song "Save Me" , and Anderson 's screenplay, Magnolia 's three-hour-and-twenty-minute running time scared off audiences, and the film failed to break even Boogie Nights ' $25 million tally.
Scaling back his worldview somewhat, Anderson spent part of the next year honing his comic skills in the most unlikely of places: on NBC 's venerable sketch show Saturday Night Live . Tagging along for an episode that featured then-girlfriend Fiona Apple as musical guest, Anderson was tapped for his writing talents as well as for a couple of pre-filmed mock-documentary segments. The comedy bug took hold, and it wasn't long before the auteur would team up with SNL alum Adam Sandler for a high-concept, low-budget (by Sandler standards, at least) romantic comedy. An off-kilter fusion of '50s Technicolor musical, extortion thriller, and the real-life tale of one man's pudding compulsion, Punch-Drunk Love premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, nabbing its creator a tie for the Best Director prize (shared with the legendary South Korean filmmaker Im Kwon-Taek ). Though its fall release in the States was accompanied by ecstatic reviews and careful marketing, Punch-Drunk failed to connect with audiences -- who were perhaps expecting a conventional Sandler comedy -- and petered out at the box office after a promising limited-release run.
Filmography
Hard Eight (96), Boogie Nights (97), Magnolia (99), Punch-Drunk Love (02), Oil (06)
ANGEL (1999 - 2004) http://www.thewb.com/
starring: David Boreanaz (Angel), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase) (1999-2003), Glenn Quinn (Doyle) (1999), Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndham-Pryce) (2000-2004), J. August Richards (Charles Gunn) (2000-2004), Amy Acker (Fred) (2001-2004), Andy Hallett (Lorne) (2000-2004), Vincent Kartheiser (Connor) (2002-2003) James Marsters (Spike) (2003-2004), Mercedes McNab (Harmony) (2003-2004)
creators: Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt genre: supernatural drama
why it's cool: "Cool" spin-off to 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' as the caped crusader relocates to LA. Arguably much darker than it's source material. Season One may have been very inconsistent but it did have the guts to kill off one of it's main characters (in shocking circumstances) after only nine episodes. Since then it's featured guest appearances by Buffy stars including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Seth Green, Tom Lenk (Andrew), Eliza Dushku (Faith), Julie Benz (Darla) and Juliet Landau (Drusilla). Its the bleak but beautiful season 3, which took 'Angel' into its own though (with the introduction of Angel's newborn son). Dark, unpredictable, intelligent and emotional (the performances of Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker are particularly strong), if you don't think Angel's as good as Buffy and you've only seen a few episodes, do yourself a favour, watch season three. The show took a slight decrease in quality during season four as the focus switched to Angel's annoying (now teenage) son Connor. Season Five was a welcome return to form (Connor is only in two episodes) and also features both the best episode of Angel and the worst episode of Angel. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled midway through the season and so the series went out with a spectacular cliffhanger ending. Lets just hope those rumours about tv movies are true.
number of series: 5 (120 episodes) shown on: Sky One, Channel 4, Channel 5 availability: Seasons 1-5 are available on DVD
JUDD APATOW http://www.freaksandgeeks.com/ http://www.undeclaredonline.com/
A talented screenwriter/producer whose television work is often critically praised before being prematurely canceled, Judd Apatow has a dedicated fan base that has nevertheless continued to grow thanks to such winning efforts as The Ben Stiller Show and Freaks and Geeks . Work on a high-school radio show offered the showbiz hopeful his first taste of success, and in the years following his high-school graduation, the quick-witted aspiring standup comedian hit the comedy circuit to generally positive notice. Apatow 's act eventually became a staple of FOX 's Comic Strip Live , and when the series was canceled in 1994, he opted to shift his focus toward writing and producing. Though he had already achieved some amount of notoriety as a result of his involvement with such efforts as The Larry Sanders Show and The Ben Stiller Show , Apatow began to move into feature territory as the writer and executive producer of Heavyweights and Celtic Pride . Though neither film proved a hit at the box office, they did find a healthy second wind on home video, and Apatow 's next endeavor as a producer was the widely panned Jim Carrey film The Cable Guy . Directed by friend and frequent collaborator Ben Stiller , The Cable Guy offered a pointed satire on media influence with Carrey 's dark, disturbing performance deviating about as far from the antics of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective as one could get. Once again, Apatow 's vision was simply ahead of its time, and it wasn't until The Cable Guy hit home video that the filmgoing masses were truly able to digest the warped masterpiece. When Freaks and Geeks hit the air in 1999, it appeared as if Apatow finally had a hit on his hands. A funny, touching, and endearingly realistic take on high-school life among the less popular set, the show was quickly canceled and never afforded the chance to find an audience thanks to overzealous network executives. Apatow 's next series, Undeclared (essentially Freaks and Geeks goes to college), fared only moderately better, with 16 episodes aired before the plug was pulled. In 2003, Apatow served as producer for the made-for-television feature Life on Parole, and shortly thereafter, he returned to feature-film territory as the producer of the throwback Will Ferrell comedy Anchorman (2004).
Filmography
The Larry Sanders Show (tv: 92 -98), The Ben Stiller Show (tv: 92 -93), The Critic (tv: 94 -95), The Cable Guy (96), Freaks & Geeks (tv: 99 - 00), Undeclared (tv: 01 - 02), Anchorman (04), Kicking & Screaming (05), The 40 Year Old Virgin (05), The Shaggy Dog (06), Fun with Dick & Jane (06)
ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (2005) http://www.ap13movie.com/
starring: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Maria Bello, Drea De Matteo, John Leguizamo, Ja Rule, Brian Dennehy, Gabriel Byrne
director: Jean-Francois Richet genre: action thriller
BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) http://www.bttf.com/ http://www.bttfmovie.com/
starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson
director: Robert Zemeckis genre: sci-fi adventure comedy
BAD SANTA (2003) http://www.badsantamovie.com/
starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, Lauren Graham, Lauren Tom, Bernie Mac, John Ritter
director: Terry Zwigoff genre: crime comedy
CHRISTIAN BALE http://www.christianbale.net/
Christian Bale is one of the few actors in Hollywood whose child stardom has successfully translated to steady and respectable adult employment. With a wistful handsomeness to complement his impressive, sometimes underrated talent, Bale has become something of a quiet sensation, netting choice roles in a number of unconventional, critically acclaimed films.
Born January 30, 1974, in Pembrokeshire, Wales, Bale was raised in England, Portugal, and the U.S. The product of a creative family (his mother was a dancer and both of his grandfathers were part-time actors), Bale made his stage debut at the age of ten, playing opposite British comedian Rowan Atkinson in The Nerd . In 1986, he debuted on television as Alexis in the miniseries Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna . His film debut came the following year with the lead role in Steven Spielberg 's adaptation of J.G. Ballard 's Empire of the Sun . Although the film met with very mixed reviews, Bale received almost ubiquitous praise for his portrayal of a young boy interned in a Japanese prison camp during World War II. Following a starring role in a Swedish film, Mio min Mio , Bale next appeared in Kenneth Branagh 's celebrated 1988 adaptation of Henry V and in 1990, starred opposite Charlton Heston in a highly-regarded cable adaptation of Treasure Island .
In 1992, Bale appeared in his first adult role in the musical Newsies , in which he could be seen singing, dancing, and sporting a fairly convincing American accent. His next film, Swing Kids (1993), also featured him dancing, this time alongside Robert Sean Leonard in wartime Germany. Although the film failed to impress most critics, it succeeded in making a favorable impact on teenage girls and swing afficionados everywhere. The following year, Bale appeared as Laurie in Gillian Armstrong 's acclaimed adaptation of Little Women and then went on to lend his voice to Disney 's animated film Pocahontas , which proved to be one of 1995's biggest box-office draws. The actor next appeared in The Secret Agent (1996), which, despite a strong cast including Gérard Depardieu , Bob Hoskins , and Patricia Arquette , was widely unseen in the U.S. After a tragically small role in the same year's The Portrait of a Lady , Bale was finally given the opportunity to step into the limelight with the 1997 film Metroland , an adaptation of Julian Barnes ' novel. Starring alongside Emily Watson , Bale played a young husband and father wallowing in discontented nostalgia and received overwhelmingly positive notices for his thoughtful, complex portrayal. The film was not released in the U.S. until the following year, when he also had lead roles in Todd Haynes ' eagerly anticipated Velvet Goldmine and All the Little Animals , which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to strong reviews. The following year, Bale starred alongside Kevin Kline , Michelle Pfeiffer , and Rupert Everett in a lavish adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream . In addition to the exposure he (literally) received in his role as Demetrius , Bale got a different kind of recognition for his part in the well-documented controversy surrounding the casting of Mary Harron 's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis ' American Psycho . After winning and then losing the film's lead role to Leonardo DiCaprio , Bale then won it back, prompting a wave of media coverage and at least one publication's decision to describe him as everyone's favorite underdog. It was a title that, deserved or not, seemed to fit an actor who, beneath all of the hyperbole and hype, was one of Hollywood's most engaging and underrated treasures. As if to stay in keeping with his below-radar persona, the prolific and kinetic advertising campaign for the humans versus dragons opus Reign of Fire (2002) found Bale curiously overshadowed by a chrome-domed Matthew McConaughey despite being first billed as the film's star. And though his forst foray into sci-fi action proved only a moderate success at the box office after receiving mixed critical reception, Bale followed-up with the dystopian /thriller Equilibrium before returning to the present day with the low-key sexual /comedy drama Laurel Canyon (2002). Though that film too would quickly disappear from the theaters, audiences could rest assured that they would be seeing plenty more of the handsome star in Memento director Christopher Nolan 's latest entry in the Batman film series.
Filmography
Empire of the Sun (87), Little Women (94), Pocahontas (95), The Portrait of a Lady (96), Metroland (97), Velvet Goldmine (98), All The Little Animals (98), A Midsummer's Night Dream (99), American Psycho (00), Shaft (00), Captain Corelli's Mandolin (01), Laurel Canyon (02), Reign of Fire (02), Equilibrium (02), The Machinist (04), Batman Begins (05), The New World (05), Harsh Times (06)
BATTLE ROYALE (2000) http://www.battleroyalefilm.net/
starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto, Masanobu Ando, Kou Shibasaki, Chiaki Kuriyama, Beat Takeshi
director: Kinji Fukasaku genre: satrical black comedy thriller
BEFORE SUNRISE/BEFORE SUNSET (1995/2004) http://wip.warnerbros.com/beforesunset/
starring: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
director: Richard Linklater genre: romantic comedy drama
MARIA BELLO http://mariabello.tripod.com/
Pennsylvania-born Maria Bello went to Villanova University to be a political science major, but a drama class altered her career plans. Following college, Bello honed her acting skills in a number of New York theater productions before she was cast as the co-lead in the short-lived TV spy comedy Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1996). Bello gained major primetime exposure, however, playing Dr. Anna Del Amico on NBC 's top hit ER during the 1997 season and soon jumped to movies with her performance as recovering junkie Ben Stiller 's confidante in Permanent Midnight (1998). While Permanent Midnight was not popular, Bello scored her first hit as Mel Gibson 's beautiful cohort in the harsh crime drama Payback (1999). Poised to potentially become one of the select group of actors who have made the transition from TV to film smoothly, Bello co-starred as one of the bottle-tossing, bar-stomping babes in charge of the titular drinking establishment in the Jerry Bruckheimer -produced Coyote Ugly (2000).
Active in the arts off-screen as well, Bello co-founded the Harlem not-for-profit arts and education program, Dream Yard Drama Project for Kids. After Coyote Ugly failed to live up to box office hopes, Bello starred as Ruth Harkness in the IMAX feature based on her experiences with the eponymous creatures, China: The Panda Adventure (2001). Bello finally scored a bona fide critical, if not financial, hit with Paul Schrader 's biopic about murdered Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane , Auto Focus (2002). As Crane 's co-star and second wife Patricia, Bello held her own opposite Greg Kinnear 's bravura performance as the sex addicted Crane , evoking the complex emotions of a spouse who accepts yet ultimately cannot live with her husband's demons.
A year after Auto Focus , Bello would score even bigger with the critics with a starring role alongside William H. Macy in the gritty Vegas romance The Cooler . As the cocktail waitress who falls for Macy 's sadsack ne'er-do-well, Bello was rewarded for the extreme realism she brought to her character and the film with a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Screen Actors Guild and a runner-up prize from The National Society of Film Critics.
Early in 2004, Bello could be seen with Johnny Depp and John Turturro in the Stephen King adaptation The Secret Window. Contrasting that film's luke-warm reviews, Bello next showed up in director John Sayles ' well-received political thriller Silver City.
In 2005, she featured in the excellent Assault on Precinct 13 remake. She'll next be seen with Sean Bean in horror film The Dark and alongside Adam Brody, Katie Holmes, William H. Macy, Robert Duvall and Rob Lowe in the comedy Thank You For Smoking.
Filmography
Mr & Mrs Smith (tv: 96), ER (tv: 97 - 98), Permanent Midnight (98), Payback (99), Coyote Ugly (00), Duets (00), Auto-Focus (02), 100 Mile Rule (02), The Cooler (03), Secret Window (04), Silver City (04), Assault on Precinct 13 (05), The Sisters (05), The Dark (05), Thank You For Smoking (05), A History of Violence (05), Aftershock (05), Untitled Oliver Stone/September 11 Project (06)
THE BIG EMPTY (2003)
starring: Jon Favreau, Rachael Leigh Cook, Sean Bean, Joey Lauren Adams, Daryl Hannah, Jon Gries, Kelsey Grammer, Adam Beach, Bud Cort, Brent Briscoe, Melora Walters, Gary Farmer
director: Steve Anderson genre: comic mystery noir
THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/~hulme/lebowski.html
starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tara Reid, John Turturro, Peter Stormare, Flea
director: Joel Coen genre: crime comedy thriller
SHANE BLACK
Known to eschew Hollywood power restaurants, preferring a dinner of pizza followed by ice cream bars, Shane Black has nevertheless become one of the highest-paid screenwriters in motion picture history, particularly specializing in the action-adventure genre. Originally intending to become an actor while at UCLA, Black was encouraged to try his hand at scriptwriting by a long-time friend, director Fred Dekker. At age 24, he wrote a screenplay which won him an agent and several meetings at studios, but instead of purchasing his script, the moguls wanted to give him assignments instead. Determined to see his original work produced, Black wrote "Lethal Weapon", a cop-buddy story about the partnering of a cop about to short his last fuse and a cop on the brink of retirement. Black was paid $250,000 for his script. When it was released in 1987, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, "Lethal Weapon" grossed more than $100 million. Black wrote a script for "Lethal Weapon II" in which he had Gibson's character die. When Warner Brothers insisted Gibson live (for additional sequels), Black departed the project, but still shared screenplay credit. He was not involved with "Lethal Weapon III", although it was based on his characters.
In 1990, Black sold his screenplay for "The Last Boy Scout" for a then precedent-setting $1.75 million. The film was released the next year and was a disappointment at the box office, but did not harm Black's reputation. He received more than $1 million for his rewrites on "The Last Action Hero" (1993), and shared screenplay credit. Black again rocked the halls of the Writers Guild in July 1994 when he received $4 million for his spec script, "The Long Kiss Goodnight". Another action-adventure, "The Long Kiss Goodnight" was a departure for Black in that its central character is an amnesiac woman who learns she once worked as an assassin.
In addition to his prolific screenwriting--Black is much sought after for rewriting assignments--he has occasionally been able to play bit parts in movies, satisfying his original goal. He talked producer Joel Silver into giving him a small part in "Predator" (1987) as part of the "Lethal Weapon" deal, and has also appeared in his brother Terry Black's "Dead Heat" (1988), and "Robocop 3" (1993).
Filmography
Lethal Weapon (87), The Monster Squad (87), The Last Boy Scout (91), The Last Action Hero (93), The Long Kiss Goodnight (96), A.W.O.L (99), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (05)
BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997)
starring: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, Heather Graham, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman, Philip Baker Hall, Thomas Jane, Melora Walters, Alfred Molina, Ricky Jay
director: Paul Thomas Anderson genre: drama
EMILY BOOTH http://www.bouff.tv/
Emily Booth first bounced onto our screens when she landed the leading role in 'Pervirella' - the madcap '60s-esque love-fest! This crazy film romp is already turning into something of a cult-classic with around 400 copies of the movie being shipped on DVD and VHS from this site alone! Emily then made various memorable appearances on the L!VE TV cable channel, her work there included co-presenting the saucy film review show 'Blue Review'.
Her early film & TV exploits were noticed by producers at Channel 4 and she was recruited to help write and co-present the popular computer game review show 'Bits' with Aleks Krotoski and Emily Newton Dunn. Emily appeared on Bits for four series right up until the show ended in 2001.
More presenting work followed and noteable appearances after Bits include the oft repeated paintball challenge show 'Mission:Paintball', the carnage-filled series 'Demolition' (filmed in Australia) and she even presented some segments on the late great Channel 4 morning flagship show 'The Big Breakfast'.
Emily's versatility, energetic enthusiasm and ability to jump at any project means she can go from presenting to acting and vice-versa. She demonstrated this when she teamed back up with Pervirella director Alex Chandon in 2000 for her gory scene in his excellent UK horror movie 'Cradle of Fear'. She also starred as the Princess in the visually stunning and CGI fx laden short film 'Inferno' which won critical acclaim (including a BAFTA nomination for the best short film in 2001). All this was done between her normal TV presenting work!
Her love of B-movies landed her the role of 'Eden' presenting the cult movie clip show 'outTHERE' for Bravo & Channel 5. She then presented a spin-off from this series, 'Shock Movie Massacre', again for Bravo. For this amazing series Emily not only presented and interviewed celebrities from the insane world of B-Movies but also got personally involved with their projects. This involved firing weapons, doing stunts, acting out scenes in horror movies, jumping from a moving car and much more madness!
Other recent TV appearances include Emily being a guest cult critic on the show 'Pure Taken' - which discussed the Steven Spielberg series 'Taken'. She also featured in a sketch on the bizarre betting gameshow 'Banzai' for E4. Emily can also be seen in a documentary on the new 'Evil Dead' DVD box set which is available in shops now. As well as being a presenter and actress Emily has also done voice-over work.
Recently, Emily has been involved with a self-funded trip to Cambodia where she assisted with the production of a documentary about the changing face of Cambodia. She has also just finished working on the Jake West horror comedy 'Evil Aliens', where she played one of the lead roles. The film will get a cinema release in 2005. Emily also recently appeared as a guest speaker on the '100 Greatest Scary Moments' for Channel 4.
Filmography
Pervirella (97), Event Horizon (97), Sacred Flesh (99), Bits (tv: 99 - 01), Cradle of Fear (00), Inferno (01), Demolition (tv: 02), outTHERE (tv: 02), Shock Movie Massacre (tv: 03), Bruce Campbell: Geek or God? (03), The Living Love The Dead (03), Evil Aliens (05)
BOUND (1996)
starring: Gina Gershon, Jennifer Tilly, Joe Pantoliano
directors: The Wachowski Brothers genre: black comedy noir thriller
BRAINDEAD (1992) http://members.tripod.com/peter_jackson_online/braindead/brainframes.htm
starring: Timothy Balme, Diana Penalver, Elizabeth Moody, Ian Watkin
director: Peter Jackson genre: horror comedy
BREAKESTRA
Formed by breaks fanatic Miles Tackett , Breakestra is a ten-piece hip-hop orchestra based in Los Angeles. The group came together in 1997-1997 around Tackett 's DJ gigs at a coffeehouse. A multi-instrumentalist whose work on upright cello has appeared on recordings by B.B. King , Macy Gray , and Black Eyed Peas , Tackett was a funk fan who got into hip-hop during the late '80s -- courtesy of the Ultramagnetic classic Critical Beatdown -- when he realized it was keeping the funk flame alive. A wish to play instrumental hip-hop in a band context brought the group together, with Tackett alongside drummer Josh "Wallet" Cohen , reed player Geoff "Double G" Gallegos, trumpeters Todd Simon and Paul Vargas , trombone player Dan Osterman, keyboard player Carlos Guaico , percussionist Davy Chegwidden , guitarist Dan Ubick , and vocalists Sol Sista DeMya and Mixmaster Wolf (aka Stones Throw honcho Peanut Butter Wolf ). Their club night Root Down brought in crowds, along with the cream of the rap underground ( Jurassic 5 , Dilated Peoples , Company Flow , DJ Shadow, Freestyle Fellowship ), and their first single, "Getcho Soul Togetha," appeared on Stones Throw in 1999. That year also brought an intriguing demo called The Live Mix Tape -- including Breakestra covers of a host of deep funk classics -- but an official release (as The Live Mix, Pt. 1) waited until 2001 and only appeared in Japan. The second volume followed later that year, and was released on Stones Throw. They return in 2005 with a new album of originals entitled Hit The Floor.
JEFF BRIDGES http://www.jeffbridges.com/
The son of actor Lloyd Bridges , Jeff Bridges made his screen bow as a petulant infant in the arms of his real-life mother, Dorothy , in the 1950 Jane Greer melodrama The Company She Keeps ; his troublesome older brother in that film was played by his real older brother Beau . The younger Bridges made a more formal debut before the cameras at age eight, in an episode of his dad's TV series Sea Hunt .
After serving in the Coast Guard reserve, the budding actor studied acting at the Herbert Berghof school. While older brother Beau was developing into a character player, Bridges , thanks in equal parts to his ability and ruggedly handsome looks, became a bona fide leading man. He had his first major success with a leading role in Peter Bogdanovich 's The Last Picture Show (1971), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. Two years later, he won yet another Oscar nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actor in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974). Bridges worked steadily throughout the rest of the 1970s, starring in a number of films, including Hearts of the West (1975) and Stay Hungry (1976). The 1980s brought further triumph, despite starting out inauspiciously with a part in the notoriously ill-fated Heaven's Gate (1981). In 1984, Bridges won yet another Oscar nomination for his leading role in Starman and continued to find acclaim for his work, in such movies as The Morning After (1986) and The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989). The latter featured Bridges and brother Beau as struggling musicians, as well as Michelle Pfeiffer in a performance marked by both the actress' own talent and her ability to roll around on a piano wearing a figure-hugging red velvet dress.
Bridges began the 1990s with Texasville , the desultory sequel to The Last Picture Show . Things began to improve with acclaimed performances in Fearless (1993) and American Heart (1995) (the latter marked his producing debut), and the actor found commercial, if not critical, success with the bomb thriller Blown Away in 1994. More success followed, with a lead role in the Barbra Streisand vehicle The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), and as a hapless and perpetually stoned bowling aficionado in the Coen brothers' The Big Lebowski (1998). In 1999, Bridges returned to the thriller genre with Arlington Road , playing the concerned neighbor of urban terrorist Tim Robbins , and then switched gears with Albert Brooks ' comedy drama The Muse .
In addition to his acting achievements, Bridges has also written some 200 songs, a talent which he memorably incorporated in The Fabulous Baker Boys .
Bridges delivered a typically strong performance in 1999's Simpatico , which featured the actor as a horse-breeder embroiled in a complicated scam orchestrated by a once good friend, while The Contender (2000) found him playing a happy-go-lucky U.S. President suddenly forced to decide if his Vice Presidential candidate's rumored sexual escapades will affect his ultimate decision. Though K-Pax (2001) fared badly in theaters, Jeff 's performance as Kevin Spacey 's character's psychiatrist was solid, as was his role of a soft-spoken kidnapping victim in director Dominique Forma 's Scenes of the Crime . 2003 was a polarizing year in terms of critical success -- despite an A-list cast including Bridges himself, Penelope Cruz , and Jessica Lange , Masked and Anonymous went unseen by most, and disliked by the rest. Luckily, Seabiscuit catapulted Bridges back into elite Hollywood's spotlight; as audience and critics alike praised Jeff 's performance as a grieving salesman with an ability to sell almost anything to anybody. In 2004, Bridges is expected to star in director Tod Wiliams ' Door in the Floor , which is based on Jon Irving 's novel A Widow For One Year.
Filmography
The Last Picture Show (71), Bad Company (72), Thunderbolt & Lightfoot (74), Hearts of the West (75), Stay Hungry (76), Tron (82), Starman (84), Jagged Edge (85), The Fabulous Baker Boys (89), The Fisher King (91), American Heart (92), The Vanishing (93), Fearless (93), Blown Away (94), White Squall, (96), The Mirror Has Two Faces (96), The Big Lebowski (98), Arlington Road (99), The Muse (99), The Contender (00), K-Pax (01), Seabiscuit (03), The Door in the Floor (04), The Moguls (05), Tideland (05), Surf's Up (07)
BUBBA HO-TEP (2003) http://www.bubbahotep.com/
starring: Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Ella Joyce, Heidi Marnhout, Bob Ivy
director: Don Coscarelli genre: horror comedy drama
JEFF BUCKLEY
http://www.jeffbuckley.com/
Here's what they say about Jeff Buckley: "He died too young". Here's why they say it: Grace is simply one of the most amazing things you can do with your ears and a little digitally-encoded disc. He inherited the voice of his father, the legendary Tim Buckley--seven octaves, each of them only just enough to cram his big feverish dreams into--but his music was all his own. Think Van Morrison's Astral Weeks on drugs--but then drugs could give some kind of comfort, and there's no comfort in Grace; just constant flux between crippling despair and an almost violent joy. When "Last Goodbye" unfolds it's third different middle-eight of Bollywood strings and Buckley's ecstatic scatting, it's hard to believe an ordinary human could have had a hand in something so extraordinary.
Click here to read his biography.
BUFFALO 66 (1996)
starring: Vincent Gallo, Christina Ricci, Anjelica Huston, Ben Gazzara, Mickey Rourke, Rosanna Arquette
director: Vincent Gallo genre: comedy drama
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (1997 - 2003) http://www.buffy.com/
starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase) (1997-1999), David Boreanaz (Angel) (1997-1999), Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles) (1997-2001), Seth Green (Oz) (1998- 2000), James Marsters (Spike) (1998, 2000-2003), Marc Blucas (Riley Finn) (2000- 2001), Emma Caulfield (Anya) (1999- 2003), Amber Benson (Tara) (2000- 2002), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers) (2001- 2003)
creator: Joss Whedon genre: supernatural drama
why it's cool: Seven series on and Buffy has died (and been resurrected) twice; had three big relationships with: Angel (vampire- not gonna work out), Riley (unstable military man- not gonna work out) and Spike (vampire- doesn't she ever learn?); saved the world umpteen times; gained a sister; lost a mother and generally had a pretty eventful and painful life. Based on a terrible 1992 movie (starring Donald Sutherland and Kristy Swanson), the series rapidly gained cult status with it's mix of teen relationships, supernatural storylines, witty dialogue, terrific acting, pop culture references, cheesy effects and excellent eye candy and although towards the end, the series arguably wasn't quite as good as it had been (bar a fantastic final episode), it was still always a hell of a lot more entertaining than The (increasingly boring and thankfully defunct) X-files. A cult classic.
number of series: 7 (144 episodes) shown on: Sky One, BBC 2 availability: Series 1-7 are available on DVD.
STEVE BUSCEMI http://www.indieking.com/
One of the most important character actors of the 1990s, Steve Buscemi is unmatched in his ability to combine lowlife posturing with weasely charisma. Although active in the cinema since the mid-'80s, it was not until Quentin Tarantino cast Buscemi as Mr. Pink in the 1992 Reservoir Dogs that the actor became known to most audience members. He would subsequently appear to great effect in other Tarantino films, as well as those of the Coen Brothers, where his attributes blended perfectly into the off-kilter landscape.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 13, 1957, Buscemi was raised on Long Island. He gained an interest in acting while a senior in high school, but he had no idea of how to pursue a professional career in the field. Working as a fireman for four years, he began to perform stand-up comedy, but he eventually realized that he wanted to do more dramatic theatrical work. After moving to Manhattan's East Village, he studied drama at the Lee Strasberg Institute, and he also began writing and performing skits in various parts of the city. His talents were eventually noticed by filmmaker Bill Sherwood , who was casting his film Parting Glances . The 1986 drama was one of the first feature films to be made about AIDS (Sherwood himself died from AIDS in 1990), and it starred Buscemi as Nick, a sardonic rock singer suffering from the disease. The film, which was a critical success on the independent circuit, essentially began Buscemi 's career as a respected independent actor.
Buscemi 's resume was given a further boost that same year by his recurring role as a serial killer on the popular TV drama L.A. Law ; he subsequently began finding steady work in such films as New York Stories and Mystery Train (both 1989). In 1990, he had another career breakthrough with his role in Miller's Crossing , which began his longtime collaboration with the Coen brothers. The Coens went on to cast Buscemi in nearly all of their films, featuring him to particularly memorable effect in Barton Fink (1991), in which he played a bell boy; Fargo (1996), which featured him as an ill-fated kidnapper; and The Big Lebowski (1998), which saw him portray a laid-back ex-surfer.
Although Buscemi has done his best work outside of the mainstream, turning in other sterling performances in Alexandre Rockwell 's In the Soup (1992) and Tom Di Cillo 's Living in Oblivion (1995), he has occasionally appeared in such Hollywood megaplex fare as Con Air (1997), Armageddon (1998), Big Daddy (1999), and 28 Days (2000), the last of which cast him against type as Sandra Bullock 's rehab counselor. Back in indieville, Buscemi would next utilize his homely persona in a more sympathetic manner as a soulful loner with a penchant for collecting old records in director Terry Zwigoff 's ( Crumb ) Ghost World . Despite all indicators pointing to mainstream prolifieration in the new millennium, Buscemi continued to display his dedication to independent film projects with roles in such efforts as Alaxandre Rockwell 's 13 Moons and Peter Mattei 's Love in the Time of Money (both 2002). Of course there are exceptions to every rule, and Buscemi 's memorable appearances in such big budget efforts as Mr Deeds and both Spy Kids 2 and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over served to remind audiences that Buscemi was still indeed at the top of his game, perhaps now more than ever.
In 1996, Buscemi made his screenwriting and directorial debut with Trees Lounge , a well-received comedy drama in which he played a down-on-his-luck auto mechanic shuffling through life on Long Island. He followed up his directorial debut in 2000 with Animal Factory , a subdued prison drama starring Edward Furlong as a young inmate who finds protection from his fellow prisoners in the form of an older convict ( Willem Dafoe ). Moving to the small screen, Buscemi would next helm an episode of the acclaimed HBO mob drama The Sopranos . Called Pine Barrens , the episode instantly became a fan-favorite.
In 2004, Buscemi moved out from behind the camera to join the cast of The Sopranos , costarring as Tony Blundetto , a recently paroled mafioso struggling to stay straight in the face of temptation to revert back to his old ways.
Filmography
Miller's Crossing (90), Barton Fink (91), Reservoir Dogs (92), Airheads (94), Pulp Fiction (94), Living in Oblivion (95), Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (95), Desperado (95), Fargo (96), Trees Lounge (dir: 96), Con Air (97), The Wedding Singer (98), The Big Lebowski (98), Armageddon (98), The Sopranos: Pine Barrens (tv, dir: 01), Animal Factory (00), Ghost World (00), Monsters Inc (01), Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (02), Coffee & Cigarettes (03), Big Fish (03), The Sopranos (tv: 04), The Island (05), Romance & Cigarettes (05)
BRUCE CAMPBELL http://www.bruce-campbell.com/
Cult film stars usually manage to maintain a small following throughout their somewhat laughable career, but self-proclaimed B-movie star Bruce Campbell has not only sustained a respectable resume, but has steadily become the most famous "Joe Shmoe" in Hollywood today. Thanks mostly to his infamous role as Ash in the "Evil Dead Series," Bruce is a household name, but try and mention the film and he'll turn sour (Bruce signs his autographs "Bruce 'Don't Call Me Ash' Campbell"). Born in Royal Oak, Michigan at the same hospital as film pal Sam Raimi, his interest in acting began early on after watching his dad perform in a local community theater and received his first role in a production of the "King and I" at age fourteen. Bruce's real filmmaking days began in high school when he met fellow goofball Sam Raimi in drama class and began making super-8 films together. After briefly attending Western Michigan University as a theater major, Bruce dropped out and decided that gaining experience was more important, working as a PA (production assistant) for a company producing commercials in Detroit. In 1979, Bruce and Sam teamed up with Rob Tapert to raise money for their first serious film, "Within the Woods," a super-8 horror film that helped raise $350,000 to make what would be "Evil Dead," a bigger budget version of "Woods" that garnered critical praise from horror mastermind Stephen King. After an equally successful sequel/remake to "Evil Dead," Universal Studios offered to bankroll the third part of the popular series, "Army of Darkness." With his newly gained notoriety, Bruce was offered a starring role on the Fox cowboy series "Brisco County Jr.," an obvious hit with audiences that was abruptly canceled to much disagreement. Bruce continued to star in low-budget films but he gathered most of his stardom from his guest-starring spots on "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" and the mythological companion shows "Hercules" and "Xena." More recently, Bruce has broadened his horizons once again as a frequent special guest at horror and fan conventions, a touring lecturer on Hollywood's demise and a best-selling author ("If Chins Could Kill"). He has also become the engine behind a number of new films and TV projects that wouldn't have ever happened without his help, including Bubba Ho-Tep, an earnest independent that put Bruce back on the map once again as a fantastic character actor. If you don't know who Bruce Campbell is yet, you will soon enough. Inappropriately used in the romantic comedy Serving Sara in 2002, hopefully Hollywood will soon understand how to use Bruce's talent to their advantage, before he forgets how to work his magic on screen.
Filmography
Evil Dead (81), Crimewave (85), Evil Dead 2 (87), Army of Darkness (93), The Hudsucker Proxy (94), The New Adventures of Superman (95), Hercules (tv: 95 - 99), Xena: Warrior Princess (96 - 99), Escape from LA (96), From Dusk Till Dawn 2 (99), The Majestic (01), Spider-Man (02), Bubba Ho-Tep (02), Spider-Man 2 (04), The Woods (05), Sky High (05), Man with the Screaming Brain (dir: 05), Evil Dead IV (06), Bubba Nosferatu (06), Spider-Man 3 (07)
CARNIVALE (2003 - 05) http://www.hbo.com/carnivale/ http://www.themidway.org/ http://www.carnivale.org/
starring: Nick Stahl (Ben Krohn Hawkins), Michael J. Anderson (Samson), Adrienne Barbeau (Ruthie), Patrick Bauchau (Professor Lodz), Clancy Brown (Brother Justin Grove), Debra Christofferson (Lila), Tim DeKay (Clayton Jones), Clea DuVall (Sophie), Cynthia Ettinger (Rita Sue), John Fleck (Gecko), Carla Gallo (Libby Dreifuss), Toby Huss (Felix Dreifuss), Amy Madigan (Iris Crowe), Diane Salinger (Apollonia), Karyne Steben (Alexandria), Sarah Steben (Caladonia), Brian Turk (Gabriel), Ralph Waite (Rev. Norman Balthus)
creator: Daniel Knauf genre: fantasy mystery drama thriller
why it's cool: See for yourself. In a time of titanic sandstorms, vile plagues, drought and pestilence - signs of God's fury and harbingers of the Apocalypse - the final conflict between good and evil is about to begin. The battle will take place in the heartland of an empire called America as a travelling carnival, harbouring Ben Hawkins, a troubled healer, will clash with an Evangelical ministry lead by Brother Justin Crowe. And when it is over, man will forever trade away wonder for reason.
number of series: 2 (24 episodes) shown on: FX availablity: Season One is available on dvd
CASINO (1995) http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Bayou/3385/Casino.html
starring: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone, James Woods, Don Rickles, Kevin Pollak
director: Martin Scorsese genre: crime drama
CHASING AMY (1997) http://www.viewaskew.com/chasingamy
starring: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith
director: Kevin Smith genre: romantic comedy drama
A CHINESE GHOST STORY (1987)
starring: Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong, Ma Wu
director: Siu-Tung Ching genre: horror action fantasy
CHOW YUN-FAT http://www.templeofchow.com/
One of the most instantly recognizable faces in Asia, Chow Yun-Fat is an actor of phenomenal renown and popularity. An icon of the action genre thanks to his numerous collaborations with Hong Kong directors John Woo and Ringo Lam , Chow gained fame playing the killer with a soul (and two large guns) in such films as Woo 's classic A Better Tomorrow , and in doing so, inspired new trends in action filmmaking. However, although he is best-known on the international level for his work in action films, Chow has also acted in films of almost every conceivable genre, proving himself equally adept in melodramas , romances , and comedies alike.
Born on May 18, 1955, on Lamma, a small island off of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor, Chow moved with his family to Hong Kong proper in 1965. Influenced early on by the Cantonese Opera, the yearly Goddess of the Sea festivals, and American movies, he got his start as a professional actor while still in his teens. Chow 's first break came in 1973, when he answered a newspaper ad for young actors by the TVB , a Hong Kong TV station. He enrolled in the station's training program for young actors, training in the company of friend and future director Ringo Lam . While working for the TVB , Chow performed in a number of soap operas . In the early '80s, he would star in the station's popular series Shanghai Beach , earning lasting fame as the ultra-cool gangster Hui Man-Keung .
Chow broke into films in the mid-'70s, winning a lead role in the forgettable Massage Girls in 1976. He had his first critical success five years later as the star of Ann Hui 's The Story of Wu Viet ; unfortunately, the acclaim he earned for his portrayal of a South Vietnamese soldier was subsequently overshadowed by a period of personal and professional problems marked by a string of largely unimpressive films and a short-lived marriage with fellow TV star Candice Yu On-On .
Chow 's luck began to change in the mid-'80s, when he won a Best Actor award from the Asian Pacific Film Festival and Taiwan's prestigious Golden Horse for his performance in Leung Po-Chi 's Hong Kong 1941 (1984), a romantic drama set against the backdrop of World War II. Two years later, he had his true breakthrough when then-obscure director John Woo cast him as hitman Mark Gor in A Better Tomorrow , a hugely influential movie responsible for the birth of the Hong Kong gangster film genre. The character of Gor has remained one of Chow 's most popular to date, and made him -- to say nothing of Woo -- an instant star in Asia. The actor's portrayal won him a prestigious Hong Kong Film Award, and Gor became something of an icon in the action genre, influencing such international directors as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez .
Chow would star in the two Better Tomorrow sequels, which followed in 1988 and 1989, but in the meantime he continued to prove his dramatic and comedic abilities in a number of other films. The same year that he starred in A Better Tomorrow , he played an orchestra conductor caught up in a seemingly eternal love affair in Dream Lovers , a fantasy romance directed by Tony Au . The following year, he won another Golden Horse as the romantic lead in An Autumn's Tale and further turned on the charm in the romantic comedy My Will, I Will . However, 1987 proved that Chow 's greatest claim to fame on an international level was his status as an action star. That year, he caused a sensation in Hong Kong with his portrayal of a prison inmate in old friend Ringo Lam 's Prison on Fire . The film astonished audiences with both its excessive violence and bloodshed and the strength of the fraternal bond between Chow and Tony Leung Kar-Fai , who played a young inmate under Chow 's tutelage. Chow earned a Hong Kong Film Award nomination for his work in the film, and that same year he won the same award for his portrayal of an undercover cop in Lam 's City on Fire . A hugely influential film that was the inspiration for Tarantino 's Reservoir Dogs , City widened Chow 's American fan base and further cemented his status as one of Asia's most bankable stars.
Further screen immortality was granted to Chow when he played a hitman trying to make good in Woo 's The Killer (1989). The film was a huge success and is widely viewed as the director's stylistic masterpiece, a tribute to such directors as Kubrick , Peckinpah , and Scorsese and an inspiration to any number of international filmmakers. The following year, Chow was able to combine his prowess as an action star with his talent for comedy and romance in Woo 's Once a Thief , in which he, Leslie Cheung , and Cherie Chung played a trio of orphans who have grown up to be art thieves. The film was not nearly as violent as most of Woo 's movies tended to be, but Chow was back in full hard-man regalia for his next major outing, Lam 's Full Contact (1992). An extremely stylish action film, it starred the actor as a nightclub bouncer bent on revenge. As such, it was packed with the type of well-choreographed violence that had endeared him to audiences everywhere: one of the film's highlights featured Chow single-handedly fighting off three machete-wielding gangsters with a three-inch butterfly knife.
The same year he starred in Full Contact , Chow also had one of his most celebrated collaborations with Woo , Hard-Boiled . Cast as a tough cop with a heart of gold who teams up with a precariously unstable undercover agent ( Tony Leung Chiu-Wai ), Chow did his part to help amass one of the highest body counts in cinematic history, and in doing so, he further exhibited the kind of graceful will to destruction that had become his trademark. The film was Woo 's last before he departed for Hollywood, and was the inspiration for his terrifically successful Face/Off , starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage in variants of the Chow / Leung roles.
Having attained such unparalleled popularity in Asia, it was almost inevitable that Chow would make the crossover to American films. He did so in 1998 as the star of Antoine Fuqua 's The Replacement Killers . Unfortunately, the film -- which cast Chow as an assassin alongside Mira Sorvino -- received largely negative reviews, and sank at the box office. The following year, Chow played a man on the other side of the law in The Corruptor , starring as an NYPD officer in charge of keeping peace in Chinatown. Like Chow 's previous film, The Corruptor didn't do as well as expected, though it allowed the actor to continue to demonstrate his action prowess. That same year, he showed his softer side in Anna and the King , playing the titular King of Siam (Thailand) opposite Jodie Foster as a strong-willed governess. It was Chow 's first mainstream, non- action Hollywood film, something that further signaled recognition of the actor as one of the cinema's true international stars.
Perhaps ironically, Chow would find his biggest crossover success with a film steeped in Chinese folklore, director Ang Lee 's martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon . Released to standing ovations at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival , the picture -- which cast Chow as a warrior haunted by the unavenged death of a friend -- enjoyed a long and healthy life at the North American box office, eventually becoming the most successful foreign-language picture ever released in the States up to that point. Better yet, Chow 's work was universally cited by critics as one of the actor's most soulful, compassionate turns. Although Tiger would garner an impressive ten Academy Award nominations, Chow and his equally deserving co-stars Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi were denied nods in a year that was admittedly over-crowded with Oscar-caliber performances.
Filmography
Hong Kong 1941 (83), A Better Tomorrow (86), City on Fire (87), A Better Tomorrow 2 (87), The Killer (89), A Better Tomorrow 3 (89), Once A Thief (91), Hard-Boiled (92), The Replacement Killers (98), The Corruptor (99), Anna & the King (99), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (00), Bulletproof Monk (03), The Wretched (06)
CHUNGKING EXPRESS (1994)
starring: Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro
director: Wong Kar-Wai genre: comedy comedy drama
CITY OF GOD (2002) http://www.lhp.com.sg/cityofgod/#
directors: Katia Lund, Fernando Meirelles genre: crime drama
CLERKS (1994) http://www.viewaskew.com/clerks/
starring: Brian O' Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Jason Mewes, Lisa Spoonhauer, Kevin Smith
director: Kevin Smith genre: comedy drama
CLOSER (2004) http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/closer/index.html
starring: Jude Law, Clive Owen, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts
director: Mike Nichols genre: romantic drama
THE COEN BROTHERS http://www.youknowforkids.co.uk/
For everything you could possibly want to know about The Coen Brothers click here
Filmography
Blood Simple (84), Crimewave (85), Raising Arizona (87), Miller's Crossing (90), Barton Fink (91), The Hudsucker Proxy (94), Fargo (96), The Big Lebowki (98), Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (00), The Man Who Wasn't There (01), Intolerable Cruelty (03), The Ladykillers (04), Paris, je t'aime (05)
THE COOLER (2003) http://www.thecoolermovie.com/
starring: William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, Maria Bello, Ron Livingston, Shawn Hatosy, Estella Warren, Paul Sorvino
director: Wayne Kramer genre: romantic drama
CRUEL INTENTIONS (1999)
starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, Louise Fletcher, Joshua Jackson, Eric Mabius, Sean Patrick Thomas, Swoosie Kurtz, Christine Baranski, Tara Reid
director: Roger Kumble genre: black comedy drama
CUPID (1998 - 99) http://talie.underground.net/cupid/
starring: Jeremy Piven (Cupid/Trevor Hale), Paula Marshall (Dr. Claire Allen), Jeffrey D. Sams (Champ)
creator: Rob Thomas genre: romantic comedy drama
why it's cool: More intelligent than 90% of the garbage currently being spewed out on American Television (the shows which make up the other 10% can - largely - be found scattered around these here pages), this is another one of those so brilliant it was cancelled shows (e.g. Firefly, Freaks & Geeks etc). Lead by a truly remarkable performance by character actor extraordinaire Jeremy Piven (as a regular guy convinced that he is actually the God of love), an equally plaudible supporting cast (Paula Marshall we love you) and created by "Veronica Mars" helmer Rob Thomas (no, not the guy from Matchbox 20), "Cupid" is a true original in every sense of the word. Not least because (to the best of my knowledge) there has never been a show quite like it. The sparkly dialogue bounces from character-to-character, the performances sizzle and the story compels you from the opening frame (plus the wonderfully poignant - and totally unpredictable - "Heart of the Matter" is one of the best written hours of television I've yet to encounter). Tragically cancelled after just 14 episodes, we will unfortunately never learn the truth about Trevor Hale. But with this mind, watching the show as a whole (as funny as it frequently is) actually lends the series a tragic feel of its own. Not dissimilar to some of the great works of classic fiction, tragedy and comedy are once again intrinsically linked.
number of series: 1 (15 episodes) shown on: Channel 4
ROSARIO DAWSON http://www.rosario-dawson.net/
New York-born and bred actress Rosario Dawson made her screen debut in Larry Clark 's controversial Kids (1995). Literally picked off the street to play Ruby, one of the film's titular teens, Dawson -- who is of Puerto Rican, Cuban, Black, Irish, and Native American heritage -- had never acted before being cast in the film. Following Kids, she next appeared in Spike Lee 's He Got Game (1998) and that same year starred in Side Streets , a series of vignettes about life in New York's five boroughs. Faithful to her New York roots through and through, Dawson has continued to star in films set in her hometown, including Light It Up (1999), a drama that cast the actress as an honors student caught up in a hostage situation, and Down to You (2000), a romantic comedy in which she played a freewheeling stoner. After jamming with Josie and the Pussycats (2001) and landing on the Sidewalks of New York as a teacher dealing with a failed marriage, Dawson went the sci-fi comedy route in 2002 with roles in both Men in Black 2 and The Adventures of Pluto Nash. 2005 sees Dawson appearing in three more high-profile movies, Oliver Stone's Alexander, Frank Miller's Sin City and the big-screen adaptation of the musical rent.
Filmography
Kids (95), He Got Game (98), Down To You (00), Josie & the Pussycats (01), Sidewalks of New York (01), Men in Black 2 (02), 25th Hour (02), Shattered Glass (03), The Rundown (03), Alexander (04), This Revolution (05), Sin City (05), Rent (05), Vinyl (05)
DAZED & CONFUSED (1993) http://www.dazed-and-confused.net/
starring: Jason London, Rory Cochrane, Adam Goldberg, Matthew McConaughey, Cole Hauser, Milla Jovovich, Joey Lauren Adams, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Nicky Katt
director: Richard Linklater genre: comedy drama
DEAD MAN'S CURVE (1998) http://www.deadmanscurve.com/
starring: Matthew Lillard, Michael Vartan, Randall Batinkoff, Keri Russell, Tamara Craig Thomas, Dana Delany
director: Dan Rosen genre: black comedy thriller
DEADWOOD (2004 - ?) http://www.hbo.com/deadwood/
starring: Timothy Olyphant (Seth Bullock), Ian McShane (Al Swearengen), Molly Parker (Alma Garret), Jim Beaver (Ellsworth), W. Earl Brown (Dan Dority), Kim Dickens (Joannie Stubbs), Brad Dourif (Doc Cochran), Anna Bullock (2005 - ?), John Hawkes (Sol Star), Jeffrey Jones (A. W. Merrick), Robin Weigert (Calamity Jane), Paula Malcomson (Trixie), Leon Rippy (Tom Nuttall), William Sanderson (E. B. Farnum), Dayton Callie (Charlie Utter), Powers Boothe (Cy Tolliver)
creator: David Milch genre: western drama
why it's cool: (The Wild Bunch aside) I'm not usually a big fan of the wild frontier but "Deadwood" goes to a much darker place than any western I've encountered before and has more in common with "The Sopranos" (another HBO favourite) than it does with your typical tale of cowboys and indians. Like all the best shows on the box, it doesn't rush into things storywise, instead focusing mainly on the development of its characters. And what a colourful lot they are too. Along with two brilliant star performances from Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane, I should also give a shout out to Powers Boothe's sleazy Cy Tolliver, Molly Parker's seductive Alma Garret and Brad Dourif's Doc Cochran among others. And despite the uncomfortable sex scenes, often eye-watering violence and more swearing (per episode) than a night out with a drunken redneck (the writers don't skimp on the c**ksu**ing motherf***ers), "Deadwood" is as must-see as television gets.
number of series: 2 (24 episodes) (so far) shown on: Sky One availablity: Season One is available on dvd
BENICIO DEL TORO http://www.beniciodeltoro.com/
Known for his dark intensity and idiosyncratic performances, Benicio Del Toro became one of Hollywood's more unique actors. His looks suggesting a hidden background as Wednesday Addams ' hunky older brother, he first became known to film audiences in 1995 with his breakthrough performance in The Usual Suspects . Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, in 1967, Del Toro was the son of lawyers. His mother died when he was nine, and, four years later, his father moved the family to Mercersberg, PA, where they lived on a farm. While attending the University of California at San Diego, where he was working toward a business degree, Del Toro took an acting class and was soon hooked. He appeared in a number of student productions, one of which led to a stint performing at a drama festival at New York's Lafayette Theatre . Del Toro decided to remain in New York to study acting at the Circle in the Square Acting School and won a scholarship to the Stella Adler Conservatory.
A move to Los Angeles, where he studied at the Actors Circle Theatre , led to Del Toro 's first television roles, which included a guest spot on Miami Vice and an appearance as a drug dealer on the miniseries Drug Wars: The Camarena Story (1990). The actor also began showing up in feature films, perhaps most notably as Duke the Dog-Faced Boy in Big Top Pee-Wee (1988). Despite fairly steady work, Del Toro was still virtually unknown when he was cast as the eccentric criminal Fenster in Bryan Singer 's The Usual Suspects . His slurred, otherworldly performance earned widespread praise, an Independent Spirit Award, and, coupled with the film's great success, Del Toro was soon thrust into the limelight that had hitherto eluded him. The actor followed up The Usual Suspects with a supporting role as the titular artist's best friend in Julian Schnabel 's Basquiat (1996). Despite intriguing subject matter and a stellar cast, the film was something of a critical and commercial disappointment, although Del Toro 's work did earn him a second Independent Spirit Award. Having thus put his trademark on offbeat character acting -- something that was also helped by his role as a gangster in Abel Ferrara 's The Funeral (1996) -- Del Toro played a romantic lead opposite Alicia Silverstone in Excess Baggage (1997). A botched caper comedy that cast the actor as a bumbling car thief, the film, unfortunately, turned out to be an indisputable turkey.
Not nearly as disastrous, though courting an intensely mixed critical reception, was Del Toro 's next film, Terry Gilliam 's much anticipated 1998 adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson 's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . A drug-addled, hallucinatory odyssey, it starred Del Toro as Dr. Gonzo , protagonist Raoul Duke 's ( Johnny Depp basically playing Thompson ) partner in crime. Del Toro earned strong notices for his portrayal of the portly, freewheeling, Samoan lawyer (based on real-life Thompson cohort Oscar Acosta), and his performance was widely touted as one of the best aspects of the film. Del Toro gained further notice when he won several awards -- including the Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe and Oscar -- for his role as a Mexican cop entangled in the international drug-trade war in Steven Soderbergh 's Traffic (2000). The next year, Del Toro played a retarded man wrongly accused of murder in director Sean Penn 's sad tale of obsession, The Pledge , and earned his second Academy Award nomination for his performance in 21 Grams in 2003. Del Toro will make his directorial debut in 2005, reuniting with Depp for an adaptation of another Hunter Thompson book, The Rum Diaries. He has also been cast to star in Che, Terrence Malick 's biopic about Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, the production of which was postponed in 2004.
Filmography
Licence to Kill (89), Fearless (93), Swimming with Sharks (94), The Usual Suspects (95), The Fan (96), Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (98), Snatch (00), The Way of the Gun (00), Traffic (00), The Pledge (01), The Hunted (03), 21 Grams (03), Sin City (05), Che (05), The Rum Diary (05)
DINER (1982)
starring: Steve Guttenburg, Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Timothy Daly, Paul Reiser, Ellen Barkin
director: Barry Levinson genre: comedy drama
DINNER FOR FIVE (2001 - ?) http://www.dinnerforfive.com/
guests: Joey Lauren Adams, Peter Berg, Kevin James, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Vince Vaughn, Garry Shandling, Cheri Oteri, Peter Falk, Christian Slater, Illeana Douglas, Jeff Goldblum, Fred Willard, Ron Livingston, Kevin Pollak, Sarah Silverman, Rod Steiger, Andy Dick, Daryl Hannah, Marilyn Manson, Sean Astin, Bonnie Hunt, Ray Romano, Saffron Burrows, Faizon Love, Michael Rapaport, Jennifer Beals, Adam Goldberg, Seth Green, Dwight Yoakum, David Cross, Famke Janssen, Denis Leary, Martha Plimpton, Juliette Lewis, John Leguizamo, Sean Combs, Vincent Pastore, Ben Affleck, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Garner, Kevin Smith, Dom Deluise, Peter Bogdanovich, Penelope Ann Miller, Liev Schreiber, Ed Begley, Jr., Carrie Fisher, David Byrne, Janeane Garofalo, Joe Pantoliano, Will Ferrell, Eddie Izzard, Cole Hauser, Rory Cochrane, Brian Cox, John Landis, Leland Orser, Beverly D'Angelo, Rosie Perez, Cathy Moriarty, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Zooey Deschanel, Judd Apatow, Paul Rudd, Lili Taylor, Maggie Gyllenhaal, John Sayles, Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Sean Hayes, Oliver Platt, Michael McKean, Joe Mantegna, Bob Odenkirk, Jeff Garlin, Tony Shalhoub, Burt Reynolds, Ted Danson, Laura Dern, Ernie Hudson, Barry Pepper, Stephen Dorff, Luis Guzman, Jennifer Esposito, Dennis Farina, Gina Gershon, Alec Baldwin, Carrie Fisher, Peter Dinklage, Tracey Ullman, George Carlin, Jason Biggs, Stephen Root, Danny Aiello, John Waters, Delroy Lindo, Alan Cumming, Molly Shannon, Phillip Baker Hall, Michael Madsen, Richard Donner, Charles Durning, Charles Nelson Reilly, Martin Scorsese, Neve Campbell, Dave Foley, Henry Winkler, Roger Corman, Billy Bob Thornton, Jay Mohr, Timothy Olyphant, Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, Bruce Campbell, Rob Zombie, Michael Chiklis, Michael De Luca, Henry Rollins, David Duchovny, Tony Hawk, Jon Heder, Seth MacFarlane, Rosanna Arquette, Alanis Morissette, Frank Darabont, Harry Shearer, J.J. Abrams, Mark Hamill, Jason Lee, Stan Lee, Giovanni Ribisi, Christina Ricci
creator/host: Jon Favreau genre: talk show
why it's cool: Hosted by Jon Favreau, each episode features four guests who are invited to join him for dinner. The show format is a spontaneous, open forum for people in the entertainment community to let their hair down, chat about life on and off the set and swap stories about projects past and present. The entire dinner is filmed for 3 hours and then edited down to around 30 minutes an episode. The idea, originally conceived by Favreau, was loosely based on the famed Algonquin Roundtable and intended to create a new kind of talk show. Unscripted, uncensored and unpredictable; funny, fascinating and anecdotal, the show feels like a real dinner party because it is a real dinner party. The best talk show ever made.
number of series: 4 (48 episodes) (so far) shown on: Independent Film Channel availability: Series 1 available on Region 1 dvd
DINNER RUSH (2000) http://www.dinnerrush.com/
starring: Danny Aiello, Edoardo Ballerini, Kirk Acevedo, John Corbett, Sandra Bernhard, Mark McGlone, Summer Phoenix, Mark Margolis, Vivian Wu, Jamie Harris
director: Bob Giraldi genre: drama
DJ SHADOW http://www.djshadow.com/ http://www.solesides.com/
DJ Shadow aka Josh Davis is widely credited as a key figure in developing the experimental instrumental hip-hop style associated with the London-based Mo' Wax label. His early singles for the label, including "In/Flux" and "Lost and Found (S.F.L.)," were all-over-the-map mini-masterpieces combining elements of funk, rock, hip-hop, ambient, jazz, soul, and used-bin incidentalia. Although he'd already done a scattering of original and production work (during 1991-1992 for Hollywood Records) by the time Mo' Wax's James Lavelle contacted him about releasing "In/Flux" on the fledgling imprint, it wasn't until his association with Mo' Wax that his sound began to mature and cohere. Mo'Wax released a longer work in 1995 -- the 40-minute single in four movements, "What Does Your Soul Look Like," which topped the British indie charts -- and Davis went on to co-write, remix, and produce tracks for labelmates DJ Krush and Doctor Octagon plus the Mo' trip-hop supergroup U.N.K.L.E. Josh Davis grew up in Hayward, CA, a predominantly lower-middle-class suburb of San Francisco. The odd White suburban hip-hop fan in the hard rock-dominated early '80s, Davis gravitated toward the turntable/mixer setup of the hip-hop DJ over the guitars, bass, and drums of his peers. He worked his way through hip-hop's early years into the heyday of crews like Eric B. & Rakim, Ultramagnetic, and Public Enemy; groups which prominently featured DJs in their ranks. Davis had already been fiddling around with making beats and breaks on a four-track while he was in high school, but it was his move to the NorCal cow-town of Davis to attend university that led to the establishment of his own Solesides label as an outlet for his original tracks. Hooking up with Davis' few b-boys (including eventual Solesides artists Blackalicious and Lyrics Born) through the college radio station, Shadow began releasing the Reconstructed From the Ground Up mix tapes in 1991 and pressed his 17-minute hip-hop symphony "Entropy" in 1993. His tracks spread widely through the DJ-strong hip-hop underground, eventually catching the attention of Mo' Wax. Shadow's first full-length, Endtroducing..., was released in late 1996 to immense critical acclaim in Britain and America. Preemptive Strike, a compilation of early singles, followed in early 1998. Later that year, Shadow produced tracks for the debut album by U.N.K.L.E., a long-time Mo' Wax production team that gained superstar guests including Thom Yorke (of Radiohead), Richard Ashcroft (of the Verve), Mike D (of the Beastie Boys), and others. His next project came in 1999, with the transformation of Solesides into a new label, Quannum Projects. Nearly six years after his debut production album, the proper follow-up, The Private Press, was released in June 2002.
Discography
Entroducing (96), Preemptive Strike (98), UNKLE. - Psyence Fiction (98), DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist - Brainfreeze (00), Quannum Spectrum (00), Dark Days Score (00), DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist - Product Placement (01), The Private Press (02), The Private Repress (03), Diminishing Returns (03), Product Placement dvd (04), In Tune & On Time dvd (04)
THE DONNAS http://www.thedonnas.com/
Aspiring to nothing more than a good old-fashioned rock & roll party, the Donnas won a cult following and considerable media attention in the late '90s after scoring a record deal. Early on, they were invariably described as " the Ramones meet the Runaways ," with a definite emphasis on the former (they'd even adopted identical first names as a tribute). But their bratty high-school-delinquent image was clearly indebted to the latter, as their songs concerned themselves mostly with boys, booze, drugs, and hated classmates. As the Donnas grew up and polished their technical abilities, their music evolved into a distinctly female take on cock-rock metal, drawing more from AC/DC , Kiss , and Mötley Crüe than from punk. Some critics praised their cheerfully crude adoption of male sexual bravado; others complained that the band's music never transcended its vintage influences, and remained suspicious that their naughty-girl packaging was a bigger part of their appeal.
The Donnas were originally formed in May 1993, when all four members (all born in 1979) were still in the eighth grade together in Palo Alto, CA. Calling themselves Ragady Anne at first, they played covers of groups like R.E.M. , L7 , the Muffs , and Shonen Knife , and entered a junior-high battle of the bands just one month after forming. During high school, they kept practicing virtually every afternoon, and soon moved into riot grrrl territory with inspiration from bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile (though it was more musical than political). In early 1995, Ragady Anne released a 7" EP on the local Radio Trash label, but soon changed their name to the Electrocutes and adopted a trashy jailbait image and a loud-fast-rules aesthetic. They gigged around the Bay Area that year and were spotted by Darin Raffaelli, a onetime member of trash-punkers Supercharger and head of the small Radio X label. Raffaelli had written a cache of Ramones -style songs for a hypothetical girl band, and approached the Electrocutes about recording them.
Deciding that the songs didn't fit the Electrocutes ' metal-queen style, the girls created Ramones -worshipping alter egos known as the Donnas , even going so far as to mock them in Electrocutes interviews as though they were different people. Thus, vocalist Brett Anderson, guitarist Allison Robertson, bassist Maya Ford, and drummer Torry Castellano became Donna A., Donna R., Donna F., and Donna C. Before 1995 was out, they played their first gig as the Donnas , and released their first single under that name on Radio X. Two more followed in 1996, the last one on Raffaelli's new imprint, Super*teem. Meanwhile, they hadn't yet abandoned their identity as the Electrocutes , and in fact recorded an album called Steal Yer Lunch Money during 1996; however, it wasn't released until three years later, when Sympathy for the Record Industry acquired the rights in the wake of the Donnas ' eventual success.
In 1997, the Donnas recorded a self-titled debut album for Super*teem, using songs ghostwritten by Raffaelli. Critics charged that Raffaelli was acting as the band's Svengali, likening their relationship to that of Kim Fowley and the Runaways ; both sides vehemently denied that that was the case, and eventually severed their professional relationship to avoid fueling more speculation. Following the release of The Donnas, the group took a week off from its senior year of high school to tour Japan. After graduation, they postponed plans for college and accepted an offer to sign with Bay Area indie Lookout, the original home of Green Day . Their label debut, American Teenage Rock 'n' Roll Machine, was released in early 1998, and did feature some uncredited songwriting input from Raffaelli. The Donnas quickly became underground punk favorites, and even landed some attention from mainstream media like MTV.
The Donnas ' third album, Get Skintight, appeared in 1999 and marked the first time the band composed its material with no outside assistance. A distinct hard rock influence began to creep into their compositions, underlined by their cover of Mötley Crüe 's "Too Fast for Love"; they even opened a show for Cinderella . That year, they also appeared in the teen comedies Jawbreaker and Drive Me Crazy, the latter as the Electrocutes . In early 2001, the band issued The Donnas Turn 21, which continued their move away from punk and toward the hard rock mainstream of 15-20 years previous (this time the cover was Judas Priest 's "Living After Midnight"). The album received some of their weakest reviews to date, generally from critics who felt that their party-hardy subject matter was starting to feel forced.
Nonetheless, the Donnas caught the attention of major label Atlantic, who signed them up in late 2001. Launched with a new wave of publicity, the Donnas ' label debut, Spend the Night, arrived in 2002 and became their first album to break into the Top 100 of the pop charts. It also earned them their biggest radio hit to date in the single "Take It Off," whose video also got some MTV airplay. In the summer of 2003, the Donnas played the main stage on the revived Lollapalooza tour.
Discography
Donnas (98), American Teenage And Rock 'n' Roll Machine (98), Get Skintight (99), Turn 21 (01), Spend The Night (02), Gold Medal (04)
DONNIE DARKO (2001) http://www.donniedarko.com/
starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, Katharine Ross, Holmes Osborne, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle, James Duvall
director: Richard Kelly genre: sci-fi drama
DO THE RIGHT THING (1989)
starring: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Nunn, Rosie Perez, John Turturro, Frankie Faison, Frank Vincent, John Savage
director: Spike Lee genre: comedy drama
THE DREAMSTONE (1990 - 1995) http://www.nyanko.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/dreamstone/
starring: John Franklyn-Robbins, Melvyn Hayes, Anthony Jackson, Stuart Lock, Gary Martin
creator: Michael Jupp genre: animated fantasy
why it's cool: The Dreamstone was first broadcast on ITV and was one of the biggest successes in the U.K. It was created by Mike Jupp who had previously worked on cartoons such as "No Man's Valley",and "The Bluffers", and produced by Martin Gates The Dreamstone is set in the Land of Dreams, where all dreams are created. The Dreamstone itself is a beautiful, mystical gem which is used by it's guardian, the wise old Dream Maker, to give the inhabitants of the world sweet, peaceful dreams. He is assisted in this by two Noops, Rufus and Amberley, as well as his faithful Watchdog fish Albert (A hybrid of a fish and a dog) But beyond the land of dreams, lies the Mists of Limbo, within the Mists of limbo, lies the Land of Nightmares, ruled over by the evil tyrant Zordrack , who schemes to infect the world's population with never-ending nightmares... The one force that stands in his way is the power of the Dreamstone, which can repel bad dreams, and so he makes plans to steal it from the Dreammaker and destroy it. With the aid of his squad of bungling Urpneys (commanded by Sergent Blob), Zordrack tries time and time again to aqquire the Dreamstone, but fails each time due to the courage and resolve of Rufus, Amberly and the rest of the Noops, who will never let the dreams die! The series' music was provided by Mike Batt, (in) famously known worldwide for writing the song "Bright Eyes" for the Watership Down soundtrack. Arguably the greatest children's show of all time.
number of series: 5 (52 episodes) shown on: ITV availablity: series 1 & 2 are available on video