The town of Big Whisky is full of normal people trying to lead quiet lives. Cowboys try to make a living. Sheriff ‘Little Bill’ tries to build a house and keep a heavy-handed order. The town whores just try to get by.Then a couple of cowboys cut up a whore. Unsatisfied with Bill’s justice, the prostitutes put a bounty on the cowboys. The bounty attracts a young gun billing himself as ‘The Schofield Kid’, and aging killer William Munny. Munny reformed for his young wife, and has been raising crops and two children in peace. But his wife is gone. Farm life is hard. And Munny is no good at it. So he calls his old partner Ned, saddles his ornery nag, and rides off to kill one more time, blurring the lines between heroism and villainy, man and myth. Written by Charlie Ness

Two young men are ineffectual individually, but when together become violent criminals. They break into a wealthy farmer’s home only to find that there is nearly no money at the home and murder the entire family to avoid identification. The first part of the film details the search for them, the second, their trial and execution. Taken from the actual events chronicled by Truman Capote in his book. Written by John Vogel {jlvogel@comcast.net}

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On November 16, 1959, Truman Capote reads about the murder of a Kansas family. There are no suspects. With Harper Lee, he visits the town: he wants to write about their response. First he must get locals to talk, then, after arrests, he must gain access to the prisoners. One talks constantly; the other, Perry Smith, says little. Capote is implacable, wanting the story, believing this book will establish a new form of reportage: he must figure out what Perry wants. Their relationship becomes something more than writer and character: Perry killed in cold blood, the state will execute him in cold blood; does Capote get his story through cold calculation, or is there a price for him to pay? Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}

oseph Gordon-Levitt gives the best performance of his career and Jeff Daniels is equally outstanding in writer/director Scott Frank’s The Lookout, an immensely entertaining and mesmerizing story about a guy with brain damage who becomes involved in a bank robbery. Frank’s rookie directorial effort (he wrote the screenplays for Out of Sight, Get Shorty, and The Interpreter) is an amazingly genuine and absorbing film that pulls you in from the get-go and doesn’t let up until the ending credits scroll by.

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If asked to sum up “The Ice Harvest” in just one word it would have to be ‘pointless’. Of course if all I was asked to give was a simple one-word summary, there would be no reason to write a full-length review. So to pad out the ‘pointless’ description, I’m adding mean-spirited, nonsensical, and a waste of time and talent.

There’s absolutely nothing appealing about “The Ice Harvest.” I realize this is a movie about a couple of bad apples surrounded by a basket-load of rotten fruit, however at the core of “The Ice Harvest” is a blackened pit that’s sure to leave an ugly aftertaste in your mouth. (Sometimes these descriptions just pop into my head and they won’t leaf…er, leave.)

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Lt. John Dunbar is dubbed a hero after he accidentally leads Union troops to a victory during the Civil War. He requests a position on the western frontier, but finds it deserted. He soon finds out he is not alone, but meets a wolf he dubs “Two-socks” and a curious Indian tribe. Dunbar quickly makes friends with the tribe, and discovers a white woman who was raised by the Indians. He gradually earns the respect of these native people, and sheds his white-man’s ways. Written by Greg Bole {bole@life.bio.sunysb.edu}

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