Thursday Movie Picks - Crime Family

Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Come join our lovely little TMP family by picking three movies that fit the week's theme and telling everyone a bit about them!

So, I know there's one crime family that rules them all, but.... I haven't seen those movies. I KNOW I KNOW BAD DANIEL! But, I mean... there ARE other cinematic crime families, right?

...right?

Let's find out!

Animal Kingdom (David Michôd, 2010) J's mother just died from a drug overdose. So he calls the only family he has left, his aunt Janine. In staying with her and her brood of boys, he comes to learn there was a reason for his mother's estrangement from them: They're criminals, and Janine is the Don. Jacki Weaver got a WELL-deserved Oscar nomination for her sublimely pitched performance, but the entire cast (which includes Sullivan Stapleton, Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, and Guy Pearce) is fantastic. Director Michôd takes the tension up past the breaking point nearly the whole way through, making for one intense, thrilling movie. Recently adapted into a TV show with Ellen Barkin as Janine.

Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, 2007) Anna, a British-Russian nurse delivers a baby from a 14 year-old girl who then dies, leaving behind only a diary written in Russian. Through translating the diary, Anna comes to learn that the young woman was part of a sex-trafficking ring organized by a Russian mafia family. Unfortunately for her, said Russian mafia family knows that she knows, and is now threatening her life in the form of Nikolai (smokin' hot and Oscar-nominated Viggo Mortensen), the family's "cleaner" and pseudo-babysitter for the don's unstable son. Cronenberg takes to the mafia genre shockingly well, orchestrating some terrifically tense stand-offs between characters and winding a slightly sprawling story tight around his finger.

Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) Based on the real-life story of Henry Hill, Martin Scorsese's magnum opus tracks Hill's life from his youth under the wing of local mafia don Paulie Cicero to his cocaine-fueled descent to the witness protection program three decades later. There's not a single false note in the whole thing, not one bad beat or wonky line reading. Every single scene sings. It's a classic - and one of my All-Time Favorites - for good reason.

Thurssday Movie Picks: Movies based on a Graphic Novel/Comic (Non-Superhero)

Written as part of the blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. You can play along, too - just pick three movies that fit the weekly theme and tell us about them!

I must admit, I don't think I've ever read a graphic novel. Nothing against them, I've just never read one. Although there have been some that have been on my radar for a while that I really do want to read some day (Maus is at the top of that list). However, I have seen plenty of movies based on graphic novels, and I'm pretty sure I've enjoyed all of them. Here are three of my favorites.

A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2004) Cronenberg's masterpiece about the seedy underbelly of the American Family features career-best performances from Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello, as small-town diner owner Tom Stall and his wife Edie. When two thugs attempt to rob his diner and threaten a waitress, quiet, unassuming Tom turns into a bad-ass, killing them with a bit too much ease. His actions make him a local celebrity, and his life is turned upside-down. Is he who he says he is? Or is there something more to this man? Incredible performances all around and a killer editing job make this lean and mean thriller a psychological tour de force. The last scene is absolute PERFECTION. And also: one of the hottest sex scenes ever put on film.

Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001) This movie is so dead-on about so many things - being a teenager, cynicism, selling out, art - that I find myself quoting it all the time. The magnificent Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson are Enid and Rebecca, best friends who have just graduated from high school. The two social outcasts find another in Steve Buscemi's lonely Seymour, whom they initially make fun of. But Enid starts to feel sympathy for him, and becomes friends with him. As they grow closer, Enid and Rebecca's lives start to diverge and they drift apart. Cuttingly funny and sad in equal measure, the killer screenplay was rightly nominated for an Oscar. And also: Thora Birch gives one of the greatest song-and-dance routines ever outside of a musical. AND ALSO: "Mirror, Father, Mirror". BRILLIANT.

Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2014) We all knew Chris Evans was a good action hero, thanks to Marvel and the Captain America movies, but who knew he could get this gritty with it? A near-perfect match of director to material, Bong Joon-ho's film should have been a box office smash (and very well might have been if Harvey Weinstein hadn't demoted it to his boutique division because the director RIGHTLY insisted on not making any cuts to the film). The film takes place in a grim future where the entire world has been covered in snow and ice. All the surviving members of the human race live on a perpetual motion train, divided into class sections. As the human race is wont to do. The peasants at the rear of the train rise up one day, and fight their way through all the different cars to the front of the train, where the mysterious engine and its creator are located. Bursting with originality and featuring some killer editing and cinematography, Snowpiercer is one of the best action films in years. And also: a flat-out BRILLIANT performance from Tilda Swinton as the twisted Minister Mason.