Drama Movies 2005 List

With Jake Gyllenhaal • Jamie Foxx • Peter Sarsgaard • Jacob Vargas • Sam Mendes • William Broyles • Dennis Haysbert • Evan Jones • Doug Wick • Anthony Swofford • Lucas Black • Laz Alonso • Brian Geraghty • Chris Cooper • Lucy Fisher

"Jarhead" (the self-imposed moniker of the Marines) follows "Swoff" (Gyllenhaal), a third-generation enlistee, from a sobering stint in boot camp to active duty, sporting a sniper's rifle and a hundred-pound ruck on his back through Middle East deserts with no cover from intolerable heat or from Iraqi soldiers, always potentially just over the next horizon. Swoff and his fellow Marines sustain themselves with sardonic humanity and wicked comedy on blazing desert fields in a country they don't understand against an enemy they can't see for a cause they don't fully fathom.

Foxx portrays Sergeant Sykes, a Marine lifer who heads up Swofford's scout/sniper platoon, while Sarsgaard is Swoff's friend and mentor, Troy, a die-hard member of STA—their elite Marine Unit.

With Niki J. Crawford • W. Earl Brown • Rosemary Garris • Lucas Black • Clyde Edgerton • Tricia Brock

A musician who is supposed to mend his ways ends up changing the habits of a group of fellow inmates. Wesley Benfield is a guitar player with a habit of walking on the wrong side of the law. One night, Benfield gets into a fistfight in a Missouri honky-tonk, and when police discover the car he drove to the club is stolen, it's not long before he finds himself standing before a judge. Benfield is ordered to move into a half-way house near a small Baptist college, and as part of his therapy he joins in a small gospel combo made up of the house's residents. However, Benfield is a lot more interested in playing the blues. With a bit of persuading, he convinces his bandmates to pursue a new musical direction, and they start sneaking out at night to play shows at a local nightspot.

With Jack Nicholson • Michelangelo Antonioni • Maria Schneider • Carlo Ponti • Jenny Runacre • Ian Hendry • Steven Berkoff • Mark Peploe • Peter Wollen

A melancholy, depressed and jaded television reporter assumes the identity of a dead man while at a hotel in a north African country, not knowing that the man was a renowned arms smuggler. The newsman sees this switch as a last desperate chance to escape his old life and start anew. However, as he begins to take on the characteristics of his new persona and understand his shady involvements, the decision becomes a risky one, which leads to an inevitable showdown.

With Vince Vaughn • Shalom Harlow • Adrian Butchart • Christina Ricci • Judy Greer • Jared Harris • Jason Lee • Dan Bucatinsky • Haylie Duff • Lake Bell • Giovanni Ribisi • Franka Potente • Joshua Jackson • Adam Goldberg • Marisa Coughlan • Elvis Costello • Nicky Katt

In this dark psychological drama, as movie star Gray Evans (Ribisi) finds his marriage (Potente plays his actress wife) falling apart, and his mental condition wearing thin, he becomes obsessed with a young film student who reminds him of what his life was like before he became famous.

With Viola Davis • Stuart Parr • Terrence Howard • Daniel Lupi • Omar Benson Miller • 50 Cent • Jim Sheridan • Chris Lighty • David Gale • Paul Rosenberg • Joy Bryant • Bill Duke • Ashley Walters • Tory Kittles • Adewale Akinnuoye-Abaje • Heather Parry • Jimmy Lovine • Van Toffler • Arthur Lappin • Terence Winter • Gene Kirkwood

From acclaimed "In America" director Jim Sheridan comes the first film starring mega-hit rapper 50 Cent. This tale follows an inner city drug dealer who turns away from a life of dangerous crime to pursue his true passion, rap music. The road to change isn't easy however.

With Jennifer Aniston • Clive Owen • David Oyelowo • Stuart Beattie • Vincent Cassel • Brandon DeShazer • RZA • Melissa George • Joshua Brail • Mikael Hafstrom • Lorenzo di Bonaventura • James Siegel

Charles Schine is a New York businessman who meets a sexy woman on a train and ends up in a seedy hotel room with her. While there, he's beaten and she is raped by a man who also robs them. The robber then begins to blackmail Schine so that his wife and family don't find out about his infidelity with the woman. This drives Schine from his humdrum life into a world of fraud, betrayal, and murder.

With Robert De Niro • Chris Columbus • Rosario Dawson • Stephen Chbosky • Jesse L. Martin • Idina Menzel • Taye Diggs • Tracie Thoms • Wilson Jermaine Heredia • Adam Pascal • Anthony Rapp • Jane Rosenthal • Michael Barnathan • Mark Radcliffe • Julie Larson • Lata Ryan • Allan S. Gordon • Jeffrey Seller • Kevin McCollum

Based on Jonathan Larson's award-winning Broadway musical, "Rent" chronicles a group of New York village artists struggling with identity and artistic integrity in an HIV-positive world. Roommates Roger and Mark, a songwriter-recovering addict and a guerrilla filmmaker, respectively, must find a way to pay their former roommate-turned-landlord when he decides to reneg on his promise to provide them rent-free living.

With Max Minghella • Kate Bosworth • Richard Gere • Scott McGehee • Ron Yerxa • Flora Cross • Juliette Binoche • Albert Berger • Adam Robinson • Dana J. Reid • David Siegel (II)

Eliza Naumann (Flora Cross) has no reason to believe she is anything but ordinary. Her father Saul (Richard Gere), a beloved university professor, dotes on her talented elder brother Aaron (Max Minghella). Her scientist mother, Miriam (Juliette Binoche), seems consumed by her career. When a spelling bee threatens to reaffirm her mediocrity, Eliza amazes everyone: she wins. Her newfound gift garners an invitation not only to the national competition, but an entrée into the world of words and Jewish mysticism that have so long captivated her father's imagination. But Eliza's unexpected success hurls the Naumann family dynamic into a tailspin, long-held secrets emerge and she is forced to depend upon her own divination to hold the family together.

With Joaquin Phoenix • Reese Witherspoon • Robert Patrick • Ginnifer Goodwin • Lucas Till • Cathy Konrad • Dallas Roberts • Tyler Hilton • Shelby Lynne • Dan Beene • Larry Bagby • Ridge Canipe • Hailey Anne Nelson • Johnathan Rice • Brittany Shaw • Shooter Jennings • Waylon Payne • Katie Lindsey • James Keach • James Mangold • Gill Dennis

This biopic about Johnny Cash will star Joaquin Phoenix as the legendary country icon and focus on the singer's early career in Memphis, including his struggles with drug addiction. Reese Witherspoon is set to star as his wife and bandmate, June Carter Cash.

With Johnny Depp • Rosamund Pike • John Malkovich • Kelly Reilly • Samantha Morton • Laurence Dunmore • Jack Davenport • Richard Coyle • Johnny Vegas • Francesca Annis • Claire Higgins • Russell Smith • Lianne Halfon • Stephen Jeffreys

The story of "The Libertine" focuses on 17th-century womanizing poet John Wilmot (Johnny Depp), the Earl of Rochester, who befriended King Charles II (John Malkovich) and died at the young age of 33 after falling in love with aspiring actress Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton).

With Matt Damon • George Clooney • Max Minghella • Amanda Peet • Michelle Monaghan • Steven Soderbergh • Stephen Gaghan • Chris McDonald • Michael Nozik

Based on Robert Baer's memoir "See No Evil: The True Story of a Foot Soldier in the CIA's War on Terror." A drama showing how the CIA lost funding and let its guard down in the Middle East after the end of the Cold War.

With Ralph Fiennes • Hiroyuki Sanada • Vanessa Redgrave • Madeleine Potter • Kazuo Ishiguro • Lynn Redgrave • Natasha Richardson • John Wood • James Ivory • Andre Morgan • Ismail Merchant

Set in Shanghai in the late 1930s, it is the story of the relationship between a disillusioned former US diplomat and a refugee Russian countess reduced to a sordid life in the city's bars.

Todd Jackson (Ralph Feinnes), once an American diplomat filled with idealism, has become bitterly disillusioned by realpolitik and the seemingly unavoidable nature of war and conflict. Moreover, he is deeply bereaved by the deaths of his wife and children, who were victims of violent political events in 1930s China that also robbed Jackson of his sight.

Jackson is trying to retreat into a smaller, more controllable world by creating here, in one of the world's most licentious, glittering and sordid ports, the perfect bar. After countless hours spent critically examining dive after dive in the city's pleasure districts, Jackson has become a connoisseur of decadence. One day, after a chance meeting with Matsuda - a mysterious Japanese man who appears to share his refined eye for the beauty of low-life establishments - Jackson gambles his savings on a horse, wins, and sets about realizing his masterpiece: a bar that will achieve the exquisite balance of romance, tragedy, and political tension.

Matsuda is a decidedly shadowy figure, but that fails to worry Jackson, and they partner to create the perfect bar. When rumors circulate that Matsuda has come to Shanghai to oversee a Japanese invasion of the city, Jackson still willfully refuses to listen.

Sofia (Natasha Richardson) is a White Russian countess in her thirties who fled the Bolshevik Revolution as a child. Her immediate family have perished, and she now lives in a Shanghai slum with members of her late husband's aristocratic family and her ten-year-old daughter, Katya. The household's sole breadwinner, Sofia works as a taxi-dancer in dingy night spots, resorting to prostitution when times are hard. The rest of the household show their gratitude by endlessly ostracizing her for bringing disgrace to the family.

Jackson encounters Sofia one night working at her taxi-dance hall, decides she is the perfect blend of tragedy and sensuality and asks her to become the centerpiece of his perfect bar. Thus begins a relationship that will see Jackson - despite his best efforts - slowly coaxed out of his enclosed world. He gradually comes to concede that Sofia may be more than a beautiful picture, becomes drawn to the spirited young Katya, and ultimately, into the intrigues within the family to separate Sofia from her child.

The story ends as the Japanese invade Shanghai, with the entire world on the brink of World War II. Ironically, it is at this point that Jackson, in acknowledging his love for Sofia and her daughter, finds reawakened his own idealism for a world free from war.

With Kevin Hart • Matt Gerald • Emmanuelle Chriqui • Chazz Palminteri • Usher Raymond • Ron Underwood • Chanel Capra • Michael Paseronek • Robert Davi • Anthony Fazio • Isis Faust • John Sacchi • Holly Davis-Carter • John Dellaverson

When New York's hottest nightclub deejay Darrell (Usher) saves a mob boss's life (Chazz Palminteri), he is rewarded for his bravery with the responsibilty of watching over the don's beautiful daughter Dolly (Emmanuelle Chriqui). The sparks soon begin to fly between this attractive couple from very different worlds, against her formidable father's wishes. Meanwhile, the don has other things on his mind—quashing a potential war with an arch-rival and controlling a young, ruthless challenger to his throne. In the end, all's fair in love and gangster warfare in this hip, romantic comedy, "In the Mix".

With Anthony LaPaglia • Allison Janney • Aaron Stanford • Mark Webber • Josh Sternfeld

In this suburban drama, a widower (played by Anthony LaPaglia) confronts his older son's (played by Aaron Stanford) decision to leave home and his younger son's self-destructive behavior.