Where the Heart Is is a 2000 American romantic drama film directed by Matt Williams and starring Natalie Portman, Stockard Channing, Ashley Judd, and Joan Cusack with supporting roles done by James Frain, Dylan Bruno, Keith David, and Sally Field. The screenplay, written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, is based on the best-selling 1995 novel of the same name by Billie Letts. The film follows five years in the life of Novalee Nation, a pregnant 17-year-old who is abandoned by her boyfriend at a Walmart in a small Oklahoma town. She secretly moves into the store, where she eventually gives birth to her baby, which attracts media attention. With the help of friends, she makes a new life for herself in the town.
Charles Bronson was an American actor. Known for his "granite features and brawny physique," he gained international fame for his starring roles in action, western, and war films; initially as a supporting player and later a leading man. A quintessential cinematic "tough-guy", Bronson was cast in various roles where the plot line hinged on the authenticity of the character's toughness and brawn. At the height of his fame in the early 1970s, he was the world's No. 1 box office attraction, commanding $1 million per film.
Mona Simpson is an American novelist. She has written six novels and studied English at the University of California, Berkeley and Languages and Literature at Columbia University. She won a Whiting Award for her first novel, Anywhere but Here (1986). It was a popular success and adapted as a film by the same name, released in 1999. She wrote a sequel, The Lost Father (1992). Critical recognition has included the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and making the shortlist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for her novel Off Keck Road (2000).
Husbands and Wives is a 1992 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film stars Allen, Mia Farrow, Sydney Pollack, Judy Davis, Lysette Anthony, Juliette Lewis, Liam Neeson and Blythe Danner. The film debuted shortly after the end of Allen and Farrow's romantic and professional partnership, and was the last of their 13 films together. The movie is filmed by Carlo Di Palma with a handheld camera style and features documentary-like interviews with the characters interspersed with the story.
Jack Skellington is a character and the main protagonist of the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas. He is a Living Skeleton who is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, a fantasy world based solely on the Halloween holiday. Jack is voiced by Chris Sarandon. Danny Elfman provided Jack's singing voice in the original film and soundtrack album, with Sarandon providing Jack's speaking and singing voice in subsequent productions.
Bongwater is a 1998 American black comedy film directed by Richard Sears and starring Luke Wilson, Alicia Witt, Amy Locane, Brittany Murphy, Jack Black and Andy Dick. Based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Michael Hornburg, the film is set in Portland, Oregon, and follows an aspiring artist and marijuana dealer and his relationship with a tempestuous woman he meets through a client.
The Supernaturalist is a science fiction cyberpunk novel by Irish author Eoin Colfer. The book was influenced by film noir and other predecessors of the cyberpunk science fiction movement. Colfer has outlined plans for a sequel, The Supernaturalist 2.
Kevin Webster is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street. Portrayed by Michael Le Vell, the character first appeared on-screen during the episode airing on 19 October 1983. Le Vell was suspended from the soap in February 2013 due to allegations of sexual offences, with scenes he had already filmed cut from broadcast. Le Vell was found not guilty of all charges in September 2013, and briefly returned in early 2014, before taking another 3-month break from the show and returning once again.
Billy Kennedy is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by Jesse Spencer. He made his first appearance on 27 September 1994, arriving in Ramsay Street with his family. He departed on 5 April 2000, but made a small cameo for the show's 20th anniversary episode broadcast on 27 July 2005, and for the show's final episode on 28 July 2022.
Caitlin Atkins is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by Emily Milburn. The actress originally auditioned for the role of Anne Wilkinson and received the part of Caitlin six months later. She made her first appearance during the episode broadcast on 29 September 1997. Caitlin is introduced as the younger sister of series regular Ben Atkins. She is portrayed as being strong willed and manipulative, yet vulnerable. Milburn said Caitlin was very different from her, but she enjoyed cutting loose for the role. Caitlin is a talented swimmer and she falls for her training partner, Billy Kennedy, whom she pursues despite knowing he is in a relationship. Producers decided to write the character out of the show in April 1998. Caitlin departed alongside her older brother, Nicholas Atkins on 24 June 1998.
Death Wish is a 1974 American neo-noir vigilante action thriller film loosely based on the 1972 novel of the same title by Brian Garfield. Directed by Michael Winner, the film stars Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey, an architect who becomes a vigilante after his wife and daughter are attacked during a home invasion with his wife dying from her wounds. This was the first film in the Death Wish film series; it was followed eight years later with Death Wish II and other similar films.
The Hi-Lo Country is a 1998 American Western film directed by Stephen Frears, starring Billy Crudup, Penélope Cruz, Woody Harrelson, Cole Hauser, Sam Elliott, Patricia Arquette, Enrique Castillo, and Katy Jurado. It is set in post-World War II New Mexico and is based on the Western novel by Max Evans.
The Ogre Downstairs is a 1974 fantasy novel for children. It is British author Diana Wynne Jones' third published novel.
Don Carpenter was an American writer, best known as the author of Hard Rain Falling. He wrote numerous novels, novellas, short stories and screenplays over the course of a 22-year career that took him from a childhood in Berkeley, California and the Pacific Northwest to the corridors of power and ego in Hollywood. A close observer of human frailty, his writing depicted marginal characters like pool sharks, prisoners and drug dealers, as well as movie moguls and struggling actors.
Bronson is a 2008 British biographical film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, based on a script written by Refn and Brock Norman Brock. The film stars Tom Hardy as Michael Peterson, known from 1987 as Charles Bronson. The film follows the life of this prisoner, considered Britain's most violent criminal, who has been responsible for a dozen or so cases of hostage taking while incarcerated. He was given the name Charles Bronson by his fight promoter, for his bare-knuckle fighting years.
The Witch of Hebron is a dystopian novel by American writer James Howard Kunstler, published in 2010. It is a sequel to his 2008 novel World Made by Hand. Set in the fictional town of Union Grove, New York, the novel follows many of the same cast of characters from the previous novel as they navigate a world stripped of its modern comforts, ravaged by terrorism, epidemics, and the economic upheaval of peak oil.
The Skeleton Twins is a 2014 American comedy-drama film directed by Craig Johnson and starring Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig. The film premiered in competition at 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014. It won the Screenwriting Award: U.S. Dramatic at the festival. Wiig and Hader play twins in the film. The film received positive reviews; critics praised Johnson's direction and the performances of Hader and Wiig.
The Art of Racing in the Rain is a 2019 American comedy-drama film directed by Simon Curtis and written by Mark Bomback, based on the 2008 novel of the same name by author Garth Stein. The film stars Milo Ventimiglia, Amanda Seyfried, Kevin Costner as the voice of Enzo and Parker as Enzo, the golden retriever.
Olive, Again is a novel by the American author Elizabeth Strout. The book was published by Random House on October 15, 2019. It is a sequel to Olive Kitteridge (2008), which won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In November 2019, the novel was selected for the revival of Oprah's Book Club. Similar to the first novel, Olive, Again takes the form of 13 short stories that are interrelated but discontinuous in terms of narrative. It follows Olive Kitteridge from her seventies into her eighties.
