2 Best Movies to Watch by Lew Temple

Staff & contributors

Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain, and Shia Laboeuf (the good Shia Laboeuf) all star in this true-story-based gangster tale. As a result, Lawless is cliché-free, fast, and violent - yet it doesn't take itself too seriously. Bootlegging Bondurant brothers live according to different rules, yet run a successful business during the prohibition era. When new authorities try to shut them down violently, each one of them has a way of dealing with it. The story runs very smoothly, and added to the perfect performances and great staging, Lawless becomes very entertaining, and a true pleasure to watch.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Western

Actor: Alex Van, Bill Camp, Bruce McKinnon, Chad Randall, Chris McGarry, Dane DeHaan, Eric Mendenhall, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce, Jason Clarke, Jessica Chastain, John Hillcoat, Lew Temple, Marcus Hester, Mark Ashworth, Mia Wasikowska, Noah Taylor, Ron Clinton Smith, Shia LaBeouf, Terry Keasler, Tim Tolin, Tom Hardy, Tom Proctor, Tom Turbiville, William J. Harrison

Director: John Hillcoat

Rating: R

Jenna is a young woman living a rather unhappy life in a town in the American South. The highlight of her days is inventing and baking pies at the diner where she works, giving them names like the “I Hate My Husband Pie”. Her life, however, seems to have hit an unpleasant dead-end: as her pie suggests, she no longer loves her chauvinistic pig of a husband and, as if that wasn’t enough, she’s pregnant with his child.

Waitress is about one woman’s determination to dig through the sourness of life in the hopes of finding a layer of sweetness underneath. Premiering only months after lead actress Adrienne Shelly’s tragic death at the age of 40, Waitress features wonderful performances that make for a delicious film, with the right ingredients to hold everything together.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Adrienne Shelly, Andy Griffith, Andy Ostroy, Caroline Fogarty, Cheryl Hines, Christy Taylor, Cindy Drummond, Darby Stanchfield, Eddie Jemison, Heidi Sulzman, Jeremy Sisto, Keri Russell, Lauri Johnson, Lew Temple, Nathan Dean, Nathan Fillion, Sarah Hunley

Director: Adrienne Shelly