Movies starring Chris Cooper

There are a number of ways one can categorize October Sky. My preference is to call it Varsity Blues for those who don't like athletics. And, while such a facile description threatens to reduce this movie to a plateau far below its worth, it ...

Low, gray clouds scud across the sky while the grass of a seemingly-endless plain ripples in response to the prompting of a spring breeze. Thunder rumbles in the distance. On another day, a bright sun gazes down on those same fields while cattl...

In Lone Star, writer/director John Sayles (City of Hope, Passion Fish) cannily blends drama, romance, mystery, and social observation into a satisfying, if slightly overlong, whole. In the hands of a lesser film maker, this material could easi...

Over the years, many films have taken a dark look at the supposedly perfect ideal of a white picket fence, a little house, and a nuclear family. For many, the suburban life is the American dream. For others, however, it can turn into a twisted ni...

You may have to look long and hard to find a 2005 movie with as cynical an outlook on global politics as Syriana. Sadly, this is a situation when the cynicism is understandable. In addition to painting a bleak picture, Syriana makes no concessions...

Capote tells two stories, presenting both without hiccups. The first is an exposé of how the title author's In Cold Blood was written. The second shows the emotional and psychic dissolution of the man who starts out the film as a brilliant eccentr...

"Every war is different. Every war is the same." So says the voiceover narration in the closing moments of Sam Mendes' Jarhead. I might add: Every war movie is different. Every war movie is the same. This is Mendes' Gulf War answer to Apocalyp...

John Sayles has always made political films; they are his bread-and-butter. Yet none, not even Matewan or City of Hope, has been more openly partisan than Silver City, which rips into the anti-environmental policies of the current administration, ...

You have to give a film maker credit for exhibiting the necessary chutzpah to take one of the most beloved classics in the English language, Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, and transform it into a modern-day morality play/romance. Viewers...

After taking a break to become involved in the production of the small coming-of-age drama Outside Providence, the Farrelly Brothers are at it again. Their 1998 hit, There's Something About Mary, will forever be known for breaking the semen barrie...