Urban Drama

A young girl learns to believe in herself and value her intelligence in this critically-acclaimed, family-friendly drama. Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer) is an 11-year-old being raised by her mother, Tanya (Angela Bassett), who was left on her own after the death of her husband. While Akeelah is a very bright girl, she's hardly a star student and seems afraid of acting like a bookworm around her friends and classmates. However, Akeelah's teacher sees genuine potential in her student and encourages her to enter the school's spelling bee, convinced Akeelah has the brains and the talent to win. Akeelah applies herself and emerges victorious in the local competition, but discovers the going gets tougher when she goes to a statewide bee, studying for the regionals under the aegis of strict English teacher Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne), who consents to act as her coach A college professor who was a spelling-bee champ as a child, Larabee is a stubborn taskmaster who questions Akeelah's ability and commitment, but in time he develops a respect for his pupil and helps her prove her talent as she climbs the ladder to the National Spelling Bee. Meanwhile, Tanya feels intimidated when she finds the contests are dominated by children from wealthy families and privileged backgrounds, and argues that the competition may not be in Akeelah's best interest, believing instead that homework should be the one and only priority in Akeelah's life. It soon becomes apparent that if Akeelah has any intention of entering the national spelling bee championships in Washington, D.C., she will not do so with Tanya's permission or blessing. This marks the first onscreen reunion of Bassett and Fishburne since their Academy Award-nommed performances as Ike Turner and Tina Turner in Brian Gibson's 1993 biopic, What's Love Got to Do with It.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir by Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes is an alternately funny and heartbreaking look at growing up in Ireland. Born in Brooklyn, NY, young Frank (Joe Breen) moves at an early age to Limerick, Ireland, with his parents Angela (Emily Watson) and Malachy (Robert Carlyle), who have been unable to support their family in America and are hoping for better prospects in their home country. But things hardly improve once they settle in Limerick; as McCourt puts it, "Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood. Worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Illness and death are commonplace in Limerick, and Malachy's drinking and inability to hold a job make matters worse. Angela's Ashes was directed by Alan Parker, who previously looked at Irish life in The Commitments (1991); Laura Jones wrote the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Issues of race and gender cause a group of strangers in Los Angeles to physically and emotionally collide in this drama from director and screenwriter Paul Haggis. Graham (Don Cheadle) is a police detective whose brother is a street criminal, and it hurts him to know his mother cares more about his ne'er-do-well brother than him. Graham's partner is Ria (Jennifer Esposito), who is also his girlfriend, though she has begun to bristle at his emotional distance, as well as his occasional insensitivity over the fact he's African-American and she's Hispanic. Rick (Brendan Fraser) is an L.A. district attorney whose wife, Jean (Sandra Bullock), makes little secret of her fear and hatred of people unlike herself. Jean's worst imaginings about people of color are confirmed when her SUV is carjacked by two African-American men -- Anthony (Chris Bridges, aka Ludacris), who dislikes white people as much as Jean hates blacks, and Peter (Larenz Tate), who is more open minded. Cameron (Terrence Howard) is a well-to-do African-American television producer with a beautiful wife, Christine (Thandie Newton). While coming home from a party, Cameron and Christine are pulled over by Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon), who subjects them to a humiliating interrogation (and her to an inappropriate search) while his new partner, Officer Hansen (Ryan Phillippe), looks on. Daniel (Michael Pena) is a hard-working locksmith and dedicated father who discovers that his looks don't lead many of his customers to trust him. And Farhad (Shaun Toub) is a Middle Eastern shopkeeper who is so constantly threatened in the wake of the 9/11 attacks that he decided he needs a gun to defend his family. Crash was the first directorial project for award-winning television and film writer Haggis. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Joe Roth directs his adaptation of Richard Price's novel Freedomland from a script by the author. Samuel L. Jackson stars as a police detective who must investigate a distraught woman (Julianne Moore) who claims that her child was kidnapped by a black man. The accusation stirs up much racial animosity in the town. Edie Falco co-stars. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Actor David Duchovny made his debut as a director and screenwriter with this coming-of-age drama, in which a grown man looks back at his adolescence. It's 1973, and Tommy (Anton Yelchin) is a 13-year-old boy living in New York's Greenwich Village with his mother (Téa Leoni), who is still coming to terms with the death of her husband. Tommy's best friend is Pappass (Robin Williams), a mentally challenged man who is in his thirties, but is at the same emotional age as Tommy; Pappass delivers meat for a local butcher, and Tommy helps him out. Tommy has discovered women, and has a crush on Melissa (Zelda Williams), a cute girl in his class, but Pappass isn't much interested in the opposite sex, and can offer little advice on the subject. Tommy's lone confidante on this issue is Lady Bernadette (Erykah Badu), a woman locked up in the nearby Women's House of Detention who offers advice shouted from her window. When Pappass begins to realize that Tommy is falling for Melissa, he's convinced he's losing his best friend, and in a moment of anger he steals a bicycle. Tommy tries to protect Pappas by claiming he was the thief, leading to a series of serious repercussions. Years later, Tommy (now played by Duchovny) is a grown man who leaves his home in Paris, France, to pay a visit to the old neighborhood and come to terms with the life he left behind. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Rick (Vin Diesel) is a gang boss who deals drugs and commits petty crimes by day, and at night drowns himself in sex and drugs to wipe his daytime activities out of his mind. Rick longs for a quieter, more stable way of life, and when he meets the refined Heather (Susanne Lanza), he falls in love. Heather falls for Rick as well, but Rick finds that changing himself and getting out of the outlaw world are not as simple as he may have hoped. Strays also stars Joey Dedio, Darnell Williams, and Mike Epps. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In Deepa Mehta's poignant and heartbreaking romance, Emilia Fox plays Fay, a generally content, thirtysomething Torontoite suffering in a relationship of quiet desperation with her boyfriend; Bruce Greenwood is Tom Avery, a loser in the ways of romance with three broken-hearted marriages behind him, who hosts a late-night call-in radio program. The two meet and grow deeply smitten with one another, but must ultimately learn to accept one another unconditionally. Life seems just about perfect, until an unforeseen calamity challenges everything Fay has come to rely on as stable and solid. Mehta adapted the novel of the same title by Canadian author Carol Shields. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

The members of a British working-class family see their lives starting to come apart as the Nation prepares to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day (named for an anarchist who tried to blow up Parliament) in Michael Winterbottom's drama Wonderland. Eileen (Kika Markham) and Bill (Jack Shepherd) are a married couple with four grown children. Bill has lost his job and is drifting through life, unsure of what to do. He's also having sexual problems with Eileen, who is being driven insane by their noisy neighbors. Neither Bill nor Eileen have seen their son Darren (Enzo Cilenti) for a long time, and his birthday is a heartbreaking experience for them. (Darren, on the other hand, would prefer to celebrate his birthday by spending the night in a hotel with his girlfriend rather than seeing his parents.) Bill and Eileen also have three daughters, Nadia (Gina McKee), Debbie (Shirley Henderson) and Molly (Molly Parker). Nadia works in a cafe and has trouble meeting men; she's signed up with a dating agency, but has yet to meet anyone she likes. Debbie is suddenly a single mother after separating from her drunken lout of a husband. Debbie drowns her sorrows in a series of meaningless one-night-stands, while her husband flies into uncontrollable rages and their son is left with no one to turn to on either side. And while Molly's story seems happy on the surface -- she's soon to give birth to her first child and her husband has done well in kitchen sales -- she's suddenly thrown into instability when she finds her husband has quit his job, without telling her, to follow his dream of becoming a chef. Wonderland received enthusiastic reviews for its ensemble cast when shown at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this hard-edged urban drama, a drug dealer finds himself doing battle over control of the local dope trade with an ex-con who previously conspired against him. 2 G's and a Key stars Conroe Brooks, Kiki Watson, and Aaron D. Spears.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan, and John Stamos all return to reprise the roles they originally played on Broadway in this made for television take on Lorraine Hansbury's timeless play about a 1950s-era Chicago family longing for a better life. Walter Lee has died, and now his widow Lena Younger (Rashad) is about to receive a $10,000 check from her late-husband's insurance company. Everyone in the family dreams about the ways their lives will be changed with the arrival of the money, family matriarch Lena - who longs to retire from her job as a domestic servant for a wealthy white family - in particular. Having lived in a one room tenement apartment ever since she and her late husband originally married, Lena is eager to purchase a house of her own and provide her family with a real home. Lena's son Walter Lee, Jr. (Combs), currently employed as a chauffer, and has recently become taken with the idea of purchasing a liquor store as a means of solving his family's financial woes. Like her mother-in-law, Walter's wife Ruth (McDonald) is also a domestic servant for a white family, and dreams of the day she can walk away from her job. While Walter's sister Beneatha (Lathan) strives to become a medical professional, tuition is expensive and she is currently being pursued by two men - wealthy but superficial George Murchison (Sean Patrick Thomas) and intellectual classmate Joseph Asagai (David Oyelowo). Much to everyone's surprise, Lena uses the lion's share of the money to purchase a home in the all-white residential neighborhood of Cllaybourne, splitting the remainder between Walter (for his entrepreneurial endeavor) and Beneatha (for tuition). Around the same time Walter loses his share of the inheritance to a smooth talking con man who claimed he could help finance the liquor store, the Claybourne "home improvement" association makes the discovery that the Youngers are black and sends emissary Mr. Lindner (John Stamos) to try prevent their neighborhood from becoming integrated by buying the house back. Now faced with the prospect of losing it all, Walter considers making a deal with Mr. Lindner in order to recover his losses. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A notorious gangster must reconcile his past in order to make a future for his criminally-minded son in this crime-drama starring football superstar Jim Brown and Pulp Fiction star Ving Rhames. James "Animal" Allen (Rhames) reveled in a life of violent crime until he was placed behind bars. Upon meeting an ageing revolutionary during his stint in the slammer, Allen is guided toward the written word of Malcolm X and offered an illuminating historic document by Machiavellian slave owner Willy Lynch, leading him to conclude that his people are being manipulated into killing one another by a higher force. Soon released on a technicality, Allen returns home to find that his son Darius (Terrence Howard) has taken up a life of crime and seems bent on maintaining his father's legacy. Now imbued with a newfound sense of clarity and purpose, Allen must convince his son to break the cycle of violence while he still has the power to do so by his own will. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Leftist filmmaker Ken Loach directs this grim drama about the plight of seemingly invisible office cleaners in contemporary L.A. who often earn as little as $6 a day without benefits. The film opens as Maya (Pilar Padilla), a young Mexican lass, is reuniting with her older sister Rosa (Elpidia Carrilio) in L.A. after a harrowing cross-border journey. Rosa sets her sister up first with a job as a barmaid, which Maya soon quits after getting repeatedly groped -- and then as a janitor. When her boss demands one month's salary as "commission," Maya happens upon Sam Shapiro (Adrien Brody), a muckraking lawyer and union agitator. This film, which was screened in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, is remarkable for its prescience -- it was shown a month after a massive janitor's strike ground L.A.'s business community to a halt. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Fernando Meirelles' City of God is a sweeping tale of how crime affects the poor population of Rio de Janeiro. Though the narrative skips around in time, the main focus is on Cabeleira who formed a gang called the Tender Trio. He and his best friend, Bené (Phelipe Haagensen), become crime lords over the course of a decade. When Bené is killed before he can retire, Lil' Zé attempts to take out his arch enemy, Sandro Cenoura (Matheus Nachtergaele). But Sandro and a young gangster named Mane form an alliance and begin a gang war with Lil' Zé. Amateur photographer Buscape (Alexandre Rodrigues) takes pictures of the brutal crime war, making their story famous. City of God was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide