Drama Movies 2005 List

With Blake Lively • Bradley Whitford • America Ferrera • Denise Di Novi • Kira Davis • Amber Tamblyn • Ken Kwapis • Leslie Morgenstein • Ann Brashares • Nancy Travis • Alexis Bledel • Jenna Boyd • Broderick Johnson • Alison Greenspan • Debra Martin Chase • Delia Ephron • Andrew A. Kosove

Based on Ann Brashares' best-selling novel about a special 16th summer in the lives of four lifelong friends. The film stars Alexis Bledel, Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrara and Blake Lively as four 16-year-old best friends who are separated for the first time. On a last shopping trip together, the girls find a pair of thrift-shop jeans that fits each of them perfectly and they decide to use these "magic" pants as a way of keeping in touch over the months ahead, each girl wearing the jeans for a week to see what luck they bring her before sending them on to the next. Though miles apart, the four friends still experience life, love and loss together in a summer they'll never forget.

With Snoop Dogg • Lil Jon • Trina

Snoop Dogg stars as Corde, a young charismatic player who sees a better way of life and financial success in the street game. His mentor is Orange Juice, a veteran man of leisure, with all the street credibility to back it up. OJ teaches Corde the rules of the game and raises him up as his young prot.

With Russell Crowe • Brian Grazer • Paul Giamatti • Ron Howard • Paddy Considine • Renée Zellweger • Bruce McGill • Cliff Hollingsworth • Craig Bierko • Penny Marshall • Ron Canada • Akiva Goldsman • Todd Hallowell • C. Gaby Mitchell

Cinderella Man is inspired by the life of legendary athlete Jim Braddock (Russell Crowe), a once-promising light heavyweight boxer forced into retirement after a string of losses in the ring. As the nation enters the darkest years of the Great Depression, Braddock accepts a string of dead-end jobs to support his wife, Mae (Renée Zellweger), and their children, while never totally abandoning his dream of boxing again.

Thanks to a last minute cancellation, Braddock finds himself back in the ring against the second-ranked world contender -- and to everyone's amazement, Braddock wins in the third round. Despite being pounds lighter than his opponents and repeated injuries to his hands, Braddock continues to fight against challengers and win. Carrying on his shoulders the hopes and dreams of the disenfranchised masses, Braddock, dubbed the "Cinderella Man," faces his toughest challenger in Max Baer (Craig Bierko), the heavyweight champion of the world, renowned for having killed two men in the ring.

With Jeremy Renner • David Fincher • Emile Hirsch • Nikki Reed • Heath Ledger • Catherine Hardwicke • Michael Angarano • Stacy Peralta • Joe Drake • Art Linson • John Robinson • Victor Rasukv

In the 1970s, a group of teenage surfers from a tough neighborhood known as "Dogtown" in Venice, California pioneered a revolutionary new style of skateboarding. Riding the waves at the Pacific Ocean Park pier, the Z-Boyz, known for their aggressive style and hard street attitude, combined the death-defying moves of surfing with the art of skateboarding and became overnight sensations and local legends. With empty pools as their canvas, the Z-boyz paved the way to what is now referred to as "extreme sports," and created a lifestyle that spread infectiously to beomce a worldwide counterculture phenomenon. But all of this fame would take its toll on the friendships that they thought would last a lifetime as the sport that started out as an afternoon hobby turned into big business.

With Don Argott • Sheena M. Joyce

Rocks Stars. Guitar Gods. Kids. At some point in almost everyone's life, they dream of becoming a rock star: feeling the roar of the crowd; basking in the adoration of legions of fans; experiencing the adventures of life on the road. Now imagine fulfilling that fantasy as a child. Welcome to "Rock School". A meditation on talent and teaching, "Rock School" is a celebration of youthful promise and steadfast dreams. It is also a kick-ass music movie that should be played loud!

With Taylor Lautner • George Lopez • David Arquette • Robert Rodriguez • Cayden Boyd • Kristin Davis • Taylor Dooley • Elizabeth Avellan

A 10-year-old outcast is shunned by his classmates and forced to spend summer vacation alone. With his two imaginary friends, he goes on a mission to prove dreams can become reality.

With Elizabeth Banks • Glenn Close • James Marsden • Chris Terrio • Amy Fox • Jesse Bradford • Denis O'Hare • George Segal • Isabella Rossellini • Yolanda Ross • Michael Murphy • Rufus Wainwright • Eric Bogosian • Matt Davis • Andrew Howard • John Light

On a summer night in New York City, five lives intertwine and unravel. Isabel, a beautiful twenty-five year old photographer, wavers on her commitment to her upcoming wedding. Her mother Diana, a legendary actress, discovers her husband is cheating. Jonathan, Isabel's fiance, tries to protect a secret that will endanger his marriage. Peter, a young writer, faces his lover's past while researching a story for "Vanity Fair" and Alec, an actor, wonders if his affections will ever be returned. Set in the nightspots, theaters, rooftops, and streets of Manhattan over one night, Heights is a contemporary story of young people in New York City that sparkles with the wit that is a trademark of Merchant Ivory films. At the center of the story is Isabel, a young woman trying to decide between her life in the city and the prospect of a quiet existence as a suburban wife. In a script full of unique New York City settings and characters the story takes us from downtown bars, to upscale roof gardens, to gay bars in Chelsea, to the geriatric participants at a Jewish wedding. Isabel, much like a modern day Jane Austen heroine, a woman on the verge of adulthood must decide in the course of a single night what kind of life she is going to lead. In a small Prague apartment, Franta (Jiri Machacek) and Mila (Natasa Burger) dream of having a child, but Franta—on probation because of his soccer hooliganism past—is not allowed to adopt, and Mila is unable to conceive. After cashing in on her savings, Mila decides to buy a baby from a pawnshop that fronts a den of thieves and pickpockets. Meanwhile, an unusual family reunion is taking place: Academy professor Otto (Jan Triska) collapses while teaching, prompting his estranged son Martin (Petr Forman, son of director Milos) to return to Prague from Australia to see his father and his mother, Vera (Emilia Vasaryova), long separated from Otto whom she still pines for. Otto is now living with the beautiful and much younger Hana (Ingrid Timkova), who works in a refugee aid center helping immigrants to adjust to their new lives.

With Emily Blunt • Paddy Considine • Pawel Pawlikowski • Michael Wynne • Nathalie Press • Dean Andrews • Tanya Seghatchan • Chris Collins

In the Yorkshire countryside, working-class tomboy Mona (Nathalie Press) meets the exotic, pampered Tasmin (Emily Blunt). Over the summer season, the two young women discover they have much to teach one another, and much to explore together.

With Emily Barclay • Brad McGann • Matthew Macfadyen • Colin Moy • Jimmy Keen • Trevor Haysom • Dixie Linder • Maurice Gee

Paul, a prize-winning war journalist, returns to his remote New Zealand hometown due to the death of his father, battle-scarred and world-weary. For the discontented sixteen-year-old Celia he opens up a world she has only dreamed of. She actively pursues a friendship with him, fascinated by his cynicism and experience of the world beyond her small-town existence. But many, including the members of both their families, frown upon the friendship and when Celia goes missing, Paul becomes the increasingly loathed and persecuted prime suspect in her disappearance. As the violent and urgent truth gradually emerges, Paul is forced to confront the family tragedy and betrayal that he ran from as a youth, and to face the grievous consequences of silence and secrecy that has surrounded his entire adult life.

With Sam Neill • Shirley Henderson • Simon Abkarian • Joan Allen • Samantha Bond • Sally Potter

Suffocating in a failed marriage with Anthony, She, an Irish-American scientist, sparks an affair with He, a Lebanese surgeon exiled in London where he now works as a cook. As their passion ignites, each will find themselves on their own personal journey as they try to come to terms with their lives and losses. The bittersweet affair will bring them on a global ride from London to New York, Beirut and Havana and force them to reevaluate their faiths, beliefs, and ultimately, each other.