Starring: Amanda Bynes, James Kirk, Channing Tatum, Laura Ramsey, Emily Perkins, Vinnie Jones
Viola Johnson (Amanda Bynes) is in a real jam. Complications threaten her scheme to pose as her twin brother, Sebastian, and take his place at a new boarding school. She falls in love with her handsome roommate, Duke, who loves beautiful Olivia, who has fallen for Sebastian! As if that were not enough, Viola’s twin returns from London ahead of schedule but has no idea that his sister has already replaced him on campus.
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Robert Sean Leonard, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, Michael Keaton
In this Shakespearean farce, Hero (Kate Beckinsale) and her groom-to-be, Claudio (Robert Sean Leonard), team up with Claudio’s commanding officer, Don Pedro (Denzel Washington), the week before their wedding to hatch a matchmaking scheme. Their targets are sharp-witted duo Benedick (Kenneth Branagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson) — a tough task indeed, considering their corresponding distaste for love and each other. Meanwhile, meddling Don John (Keanu Reeves) plots to ruin the wedding.
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino, Paul Rudd
Baz Luhrmann helped adapt this classic Shakespearean romantic tragedy for the screen, updating the setting to a post-modern city named Verona Beach. In this version, the Capulets and the Montagues are two rival gangs. Juliet (Claire Danes) is attending a costume ball thrown by her parents. Her father Fulgencio Capulet (Paul Sorvino) has arranged her marriage to the boorish Paris (Paul Rudd) as part of a strategic investment plan. Romeo attends the masked ball and he and Juliet fall in love.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne
B-Sides, Brad Pitt: The 90s were a prolific time for Brad Pitt, where as a start he averaged three films a year. Ralph Bakshi’s Cool World remains an interesting outlier as a comedy that pairs Pitt with animated characters.
After a bizarre incident, Frank Harris (Brad Pitt) is transported into the cartoon realm of Cool World, where he remains the only human among various animated characters for years. Eventually, artist Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne) also enters Cool World and sets his lustful sights on his own creation, a blond bombshell named Holli Would (Kim Basinger). However, excessive intermingling between cartoons and humans is said to lead to dire consequences, a risk Jack seems ready to take.
Starring: Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer, Jim Caviezel, Paula Patton, Adam Goldberg
B-Sides, Denzel Washington: Denzel Washington collaborated with director Tony Scott on several films, and Déjà Vu is often overlooked among the others. It is a powerfully emotional experience that makes for an effective sci-fi thriller.
The team of top-secret program brings ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) into its midst to capture the terrorist (Jim Caviezel) responsible for a ferry bombing that left hundreds dead. Its amazing technology lets the team fold time four days backward and see the madman’s movements as he plots to kill a woman who could give him away. Doug realizes that the technology could allow him to do what law-enforcement officers dream of — go back in time to prevent the crime.
Starring: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins
B-Sides, Tom Cruise: Although it is true that War of the Worlds boasts award nominations and a huge box office take, almost two decades later it has been overshadowed by other blockbusters of both Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. It stands as one of the more exciting sci-fi thrillers of the first decade of the 2000s.
Dockworker Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) struggles to build a positive relationship with his two children, Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin). When his ex-wife, Mary Ann (Miranda Otto), drops them off at Ferrier’s house, it seems as though it will be just another tension-filled weekend. However, when electromagnetic pulses of lightning strike the area, the strange event turns out to be the beginning of an alien invasion, and Ferrier must now protect his children as they seek refuge.
Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr., Samara Weaving, Lucy Boynton, Ronke Adekoluejo, Marton Csokas, Alex Fitzalan, Minnie Driver
Inspired by the incredible true story of composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. The illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Bologne (Kelvin Harrison Jr. in a tour de force performance) rises to improbable heights in French society as a celebrated violinist-composer and fencer, complete with an ill-fated love affair and a falling out with Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton) and her court.
Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, America Ferrera
After being expelled from Barbieland for being a less than perfect-looking doll, Barbie sets off for the human world to find true happiness.
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston
The itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention, organized to bring together students and parents from across the country for fellowship and scholarly competition, is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.
Nitehawk Recommends: “Do Not Detonate,” the new book edited by Wes Anderson and Jake Perlin. Writings on the people and places, theater and film of mid-century America (and beyond), in a portfolio of essays and photographs informing Wes Anderson’s film Asteroid City.
Available in Brooklyn at Greenlight, Books Are Magic and Spoonbill & Sugartown or online.
Starring: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro, Moon Seung-ah
Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance.
