It’s a shame Alison Lohman has never done a lot of work for Hollywood over the years. While she has remained consistent through television and film roles, she hasn’t really ever broken out as a highly publicized cinematic artist. Like Sarah Polley and Vera Farmiga, she’s always remained on the fringe, but never quite broke out as someone overly saturated. Perhaps that’s a good thiing. Whenever Alison Lohman decides to commit to a film she’s a force to be reckoned with. One of the better dramatic suspense films of 2002 that came out at a time where other films were stealing its thunder was indeed “White Oleander.”
Tag Archives: Drama
Auto Focus (2002)
Based on the book “The Murder of Bob Crane” by Robert Graysmith, the film “Autofocus” chronicles the life of Bob Crane who had an early career as a radio DJ with a hit show and then made his foray into television with the hit series “Hogan’s Heroes” one of the most successful television series of all time. It’s by the life on the road where he formed an addiction to sex often luring women to his mansion and engaging in orgies, threesomes, and much more until his death at age 49 where his skull was crushed by a tripod by an unknown assailant.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Based on the record-breaking bestselling series of children’s books, Harry Potter lives with his annoying family once more and is visited by a house elf called Dobby (voiced by Toby Jones) who warns Harry not to return to Hogwarts because of ensuing danger; Harry does not heed his warnings and returns once more to discover a dark force sabotaging the beloved members of the school’s faculty and freezing its victims to stone. Now Harry and Ronald must discover the source before it’s too late.
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
Based on the book by Doris Pilkington, “Rabbit Proof Fence” follows the early nineteen hundreds when the government would take Aboriginal children from their villages and families supposedly for their own good where they would be placed in a concentration camp to be educated and trained to be civil. Three young girls are taken from their mother to be taken to the camp. After a while, the oldest daughter Molly decides to escape the camp with her sisters and trek over one-thousand miles to get back home to their mother and must dodge a skilled tracker who must take them back to the camp. What make this movie so heart-wrenching is the fact that these three children are willing to walk more than a thousand miles just to get back to their family.
Minority Report (2002)
In the movie it’s the future (2054) and we now see Washington D.C. where a system known as pre-crime is born. Pre-Crime is a new law system where people known as pre-cognitive are used as machines which can foretell the future and predict a major crime. Tom Cruise plays John Anderton, one of the best officers who bust the people who commit the pre-crimes. The system is perfect, flawless and it does the job… but what happens when the system turns on you? Now, accused of killing a man in thirty-six hours he doesn’t know, he is now on the run from his own task force and a Government official (Colin Farrell) who wants him at all costs.
Far From Heaven (2002)
Upon first glance of the opening scenes of the film, it somewhat resembles Rockwellian landscape where this family lives in a quiet and serene neighborhood with trivial problems that arise occasionally. But as the film progresses, director Todd Haynes slowly unfolds this world that resembles a painting and shows that no one ever has the perfect life. I really wanted to love this movie, but there were such drawbacks that inevitably kept me from truly appreciating the material.
Secretary (2002)
Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) just got out of a mental institution for cutting her self due to stress, and now comes home to even more stress including her overprotective mother (Leslie Anne Warren) and resorts back to her old habits. She soon decides to get a job in typing and instantly becomes skilled, looking for a job. She stumbles upon a small law firm run by a militant E. Edward Grey (James Spader) who is mostly professional and soon develops an odd fascination with her. They soon find they each have a fancy for the sadomasochistic. The aspect that makes this movie so unique is that both characters are so pathetic at times, and somehow become drawn to each other. Grey is a lawyer in a quiet and boring firm who quivers in his office, and Holloway is a nimble and meek girl who tends to hide behind her desk; self inflicted torture is what draws them together emotionally and sexually.