One For The Road

Three films about road trips:

Thelma & Louise tells the story of unhappily married housewife Thelma Dickinson (Geena Davis) and diner waitress Louise Sawyer (Susan Sarandon), two friends from Arkansas who set off in Louise's 1966 Thunderbird convertible for a carefree weekend away to escape their small-town lives. However, their trip takes an unexpected turn when Louise shoots a would-be rapist (Timothy Carhart) and, convinced no one will believe their story, they hit the road and head towards Mexico, embarking on an impromptu cross-country crime spree along the way.

Little Miss Sunshine tells the story of unsuccessful motivational speaker Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear), his overworked wife Sheryl (Toni Collette), their 7-year-old beauty pageant-obsessed daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) and 15-year-old mute-by-choice son Dwayne (Paul Dano) who, along with Richard's heroin-snorting father Edwin (Alan Arkin) and Sheryl's suicidal brother Frank (Steve Carell), set off in a Volkswagen van on a cross-country road trip from Albuquerque to California so Olive can fulfil her dream of competing in the "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant.

Transamerica follows Sabrina "Bree" Osbourne (Felicity Huffman), a pre-op male-to-female transsexual from Los Angeles who discovers she's the biological father of Toby Wilkins (Kevin Zegers), a 17-year-old street hustler who's the (unexpected) result of a sexual encounter Bree had in college when she was living as a man named Stanley Schupak. Bree's therapist Margaret (Elizabeth Peña) tells her she won’t sign off on her impending gender reassignment surgery until Bree confronts the issue, so she reluctantly flies to New York to meet Toby and as a result offers him a ride back to Los Angeles.

PostSecret Style Confessions: Misery

Five Word Film Review: Orphan

The twist will divide audiences.

Five Word Film Review: A Perfect Getaway

Entertaining and keeps you guessing.

Drink From Me And Live Forever

With the release of the (much-hyped) Twilight sequel New Moon approaching, here are five fantastic fangtastic vampire-themed films:

The Lost Boys follows Sam and Michael Emerson (Corey Haim and Jason Patric), two brothers who move to the small coastal town of Santa Carla with their mother Lucy (Dianne Wiest), only to discover that not only is the town a haven for the undead, but Michael has been turned into a "half-vampire" after inadvertently drinking the blood of vampire gang leader David (Kiefer Sutherland).

Adapted from the novel by Anne Rice (who also wrote the screenplay), Interview with the Vampire follows Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt), a 200-year-old vampire who, in modern-day San Francisco, tells his epic life story to journalist Daniel Malloy (Christian Slater), a story that begins just south of New Orleans in 1791 when Louis meets vampire Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise).

From Dusk Till Dawn follows Seth and Richard Gecko (George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino), two bank robbing brothers who kidnap a former minister, Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel), and his two children Kate and Scott Fuller (Juliette Lewis and Ernest Liu) while on their way to Mexico to meet their contact Carlos (Cheech Marin), only to discover their intended rendezvous point is a vampire-infested bar.

Based on the cult graphic novel of the same name, 30 Days of Night follows Eben Oleson (Josh Hartnett), a small-town sheriff who, along with his estranged wife Stella Oleson (Melissa George) and a small group of residents, must fight for survival against a gang of bloodthirsty vampires, led by Marlow (Danny Huston), as they attack the small Alaskan town of Barrow... a town which has just entered a period during winter when the sun doesn’t rise for a month.

Set in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1982 and based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist (who also wrote the screenplay), Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) tells the story of Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), a lonely, bullied 12-year-old who finds happiness in the form of his equally lonely new neighbour Eli (Lina Leandersson). Eli is the same age as Oskar, but has been so "for a very long time".

A Case Of The Mondays

The Narrator (Edward Norton) in Fight Club

Five Word Film Review: Broken Windows

Interesting slice of life drama.

Five Word Film Review: Moon

Beautifully shot and brilliantly scored.

The Kids Still Aren’t Alright

Following The Kids Aren't Alright, here are three other films about troubled teenagers (possible SPOILERS within):

Set in Christchurch, New Zealand in the 1950s and based on the real-life 1954 Parker-Hulme murder case, Heavenly Creatures tells the story of Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey) and Juliet Hulme (Kate Winslet), two teenage girls whose intense, fantasy-based relationship leads them to commit murder after they learn they’re to be separated by their concerned parents, who feel their close relationship has become unhealthy.

Adapted from the play by James Bosley (who also wrote the screenplay), Fun is about friendship, love and murder as two troubled teenagers, Hillary (Renée Humphrey) and Bonnie (Alicia Witt), relate to a magazine reporter (William R. Moses) and a counsellor (Leslie Hope) the details of how on the day they met, they felt an instant connection and murdered an elderly woman "just for fun".

Based on the real-life murder of Bobby Kent in Florida in 1993 and adapted from the book Bully: A True Story Of High School Revenge by Jim Schutze, Bully follows Marty Puccio (Brad Renfro), Lisa Connelly (Rachel Miner) and Ali Willis (Bijou Phillips), three teenagers who, with the help of their friends and an inept "hitman" (Leo Fitzpatrick), plan to violently murder their friend who constantly torments and abuses them.

Five Reasons To Watch Dazed And Confused

1. It's written and directed by Richard Linklater, whose other films include SubUrbia, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.
2. It has a great "before they were famous" cast (complete with 70s hairdos hairdon'ts).
3. The 70s soundtrack is also great.
4. It was ranked number 3 on Entertainment Weekly's list of The 50 Best High School Movies.
5. It'd be a lot cooler if you did (watch it).

A Case Of The Mondays

Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston), Michael Bolton (David Herman) and Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu) in Office Space

PostSecret Style Confessions: The Silence Of The Lambs

Punk'd

When pranks go wrong (possible SPOILERS within):
• A humiliating, pig's blood-themed prank played on Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) had deadly consequences for the students at the Bates High School prom in Carrie.
• High school jock Andrew Clark's (Emilio Estevez) prank involving tape and Larry Lester's "buns" not only left his victim with less hair... and skin; it also landed Andrew in Saturday detention in The Breakfast Club.
• A prank-filled weekend at Muffy St. John's (Deborah Foreman) parents' secluded island home turned deadly for a group of college friends in April Fool's Day... or did it?
• A group of friends found themselves facing an unexpected moral dilemma when a practical joke intended to humiliate bully George Tooney (Josh Peck) went horribly wrong in Mean Creek.

A Case Of The Mondays

Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley) in True Blood

Five Word Film Review: Brüno

Potentially offensive... but very funny.

The Kids Aren’t Alright

Three films about troubled teenagers:

Adapted from the novel by Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange tells the story of Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), a bowler-hatted, Beethoven-loving juvenile delinquent whose penchant for "a bit of the old ultra-violence" lands him in jail, where he volunteers for the Ludovico Technique, an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government to supposedly "cure" criminals.

Described as "Beverly Hills, 90210 on acid", Nowhere is the final instalment in writer-director Gregg Araki's Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy, following Totally Fucked Up and The Doom Generation. It chronicles a bizarre, drug fuelled day and night in the lives of a group of (strangely named) angst-ridden teenagers living in Los Angeles in the 90s and focuses in particular on Dark Smith (James Duval), a film student prone to witnessing alien abductions.

Based on the real-life experiences of Nikki Reed (who co-wrote the screenplay with writer-director Catherine Hardwicke), Thirteen follows Tracy Freeland (Evan Rachel Wood), a 13-year-old straight-A student whose life spirals out of control when she befriends Evie Zamora (Nikki Reed), a popular girl from school who introduces Tracy to a world of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll petty crime.

Dude Looks Like A Lady... Again

Following Dude Looks Like A Lady, here are four other characters from film and TV who've dressed in drag:

Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a sweet transvestite from the planet of Transsexual, in the galaxy of Transylvania made a man (with blond hair and a tan) in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Bill Haverchuck (Martin Starr) wore women's clothes, a long blonde wig and make-up to go trick-or-treating as Jaime Sommers from The Bionic Woman in Freaks and Geeks.

Hank Rossi (Clark Gregg) wore women’s clothes and became known as Henrietta when he decided to become a woman in The Adventures of Sebastian Cole.

Jerry Espenson (Christian Clemenson) donned a Little Bo Peep costume when he incorrectly thought it was Halloween already in Boston Legal, while his colleague Carl Sack (John Larroquette) dressed as a French maid in an effort to prove he could still behave like a kid sometimes.

A Case Of The Mondays

Iris Chapman (Toni Collette) in Clockwatchers

Five Ways To Make A Memorable, TV-Style Entrance

1. Fall down the stairs like Whitney Port did in The Hills when she tripped while modelling an Oscar gown on live TV.
2. Show up in drag like DEA agent Denise Bryson (David Duchovny) did in Twin Peaks when he she helped Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), a former colleague who previously knew Denise as Dennis.
3. Arrive in fancy dress as Jerry Espenson (Christian Clemenson) did in Boston Legal when he wore a Little Bo Peep costume to work, mistakenly believing it was Halloween already.
4. Dress to impress excess as Sam Weir (John Francis Daley) did when he wore a ridiculous Parisian night suit to school in an attempt to impress Cindy Sanders (Natasha Melnick) in Freaks and Geeks.
5. Gatecrash a party like Dawn Denbo (Elizabeth Keener) did in The L Word when she found out Shane McCutcheon (Katherine Moennig) slept with her lover Cindi (Alicia Leigh Willis) behind her back.

I See Dead People

Characters who have appeared prominently in TV shows, despite the fact that they're deceased (possible SPOILERS within):

Despite being found dead (wrapped in plastic) in the pilot episode of Twin Peaks, Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) appeared several times throughout the series, mainly during flashbacks as Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) tried to discover who killed her. Sheryl Lee also had a recurring role as Laura's dark haired, spectacle wearing (and ill-fated) cousin Madeleine "Maddy" Ferguson.

Although Desperate Housewives began with her suicide, Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) has featured continuously throughout the series, providing narration from beyond the grave for almost every episode, while also occasionally appearing in person during flashbacks and dream sequences.

Even though Dexter Morgan's (Michael C. Hall) adoptive father Harry Morgan (James Remar) died several years before the start of the first series, he has appeared in almost every episode of Dexter so far, first during flashbacks and later in Dexter's imagination offering him advice... which Dexter mostly ignored.