Starring: Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway, Hector Elizondo, Heather Matarazzo, Mandy Moore
Shy San Francisco teenager Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) is thrown for a loop when, from out of the blue, she learns the astonishing news that she’s a real-life princess! As the heir apparent to the crown of the small European principality of Genovia, Mia begins a comical journey toward the throne when her strict and formidable grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews), shows up to give her “princess lessons.”
Starring: Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit, Heather Matarazzo, Chad Faust, Eva Amurri
Mary (Jena Malone) is a devout girl at a Christian high school, dating Dean (Chad Faust). But her perfect world begins to fall apart when Dean reveals that he’s gay. She receives a vision from Jesus and tries everything she can to help Dean, including offering her virginity. Unfortunately, Dean is sent to a treatment center to “cure” him, and Mary discovers she’s pregnant. When her friends turn on her, she finds solace with school misfits Roland (Macaulay Culkin) and Cassandra (Eva Amurri).
Starring: Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries, Aaron Ruell, Diedrich Bader, Tina Majorino, Sandy Martin, Haylie Duff, Trevor Snarr, Shondrella Avery
In small-town Preston, Idaho, awkward teen Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder) has trouble fitting in. After his grandmother is injured in an accident, his life is made even worse when his strangely nostalgic uncle, Rico (Jon Gries), shows up to keep an eye on him. With no safe haven at home or at school, Napoleon befriends the new kid, Pedro (Efren Ramirez), a morose Hispanic boy who speaks little English. Together the two launch a campaign to run for class president.
Starring: Dame Darcy
A haunted girl, Clara One-Arm, is tormented by ghosts, dolls, her nurse and raw meat.
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balaban, Sarita Choudhury, Cindy Cheung
Co-hosted by writer Edward Douglas
In 2005, M. Night Shyamalan was coming off a number of huge hits for Disney with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, but he decided to do something different, an original fairy tale he could show his young daughters.
In the movie, Paul Giamatti plays Cleveland Heep, caretaker of an apartment complex filled with eccentric characters, who discovers a mermaid named Story (played by a fairly new Bryce Dallas Howard) who needs his help protecting her from a number of fierce creatures. The movie was mostly panned by critics, not helped by the release of a tell-all book about the making of the movie, though it may still be one of Shyamalan’s more original concepts with many out-there ideas that people just didn’t get. It probably didn’t help that the filmmaker cast himself as a Messiah-like character either.
Starring: Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, Poorna Jagannathan, Richard Kind
Hired to cover up a high-profile crime, a fixer soon finds his night spiraling out of control when he’s forced to work with an unexpected counterpart.
Starring: Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, Lillian Roth, Roland Young, Elsa Peterson
Angela Brooks (Kay Johnson) is dismayed by her philandering husband Bob (Reginald Denny), a man who isn’t even good at hiding his dalliances. After he expresses that he finds her to be an icy scold, she heats things up by adopting a Satanic persona, presenting herself in disguise at a masquerade party aboard a Zeppelin.
Cecil B. DeMille expertly controls the chaos as it ramps up from bawdy boudoir comedy to costumed musical, and finally disaster drama in a pre-code filled with hilarious nuggets and plenty of inspiration for your Halloween regalia this year.
Starring: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice, Simon Callow, Christine Ebersole, Jeffrey Jones
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) is a remarkably talented young Viennese composer who unwittingly finds a fierce rival in the disciplined and determined Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham). Resenting Mozart for both his hedonistic lifestyle and his undeniable talent, the highly religious Salieri is gradually consumed by his jealousy and becomes obsessed with Mozart’s downfall, leading to a devious scheme that has dire consequences for both men.
Starring: Brad Davis, Franco Nero, Jeanne Moreau, Laurent Malet
Director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s final film is a deliriously stylized tale of hothouse lust and simmering violence. Set amid an expressionistic soundstage vision of a French sea port, this daring adaptation of a novel by Jean Genet recounts the tragedy of a handsome sailor (Brad Davis) as he is drawn into a vortex of sibling rivalry, murder, and explosive sexuality. Completed just before Fassbinder’s sudden death at age thirty-seven, Querelle finds the director pushing his embrace of artifice and taboo-shattering depiction of queer desire to new extremes.
