Legend has it that the esteemed writer-director Billy Wilder advised Billy Bob Thornton he would never make it as an actor. ‘You’re not ugly enough to be a character actor but you’re not a cover boy — you’re in-between,’ he told him. ‘Can you write?’
Well, turns out Billy Bob could write: a terrific, lean, violent thriller called One False Move. Naturally, it included a very juicy part for himself, as a criminal lowlife whose outbursts keep the entire movie on edge the whole time. He and his partners in crime (Michael Beach, and Cynda Williams as “Fantasia”) hightail it out of Los Angeles with a trunk-ful of dope, but drive into a world of trouble further down the road.
The movie doesn’t hit you over the head with its smarts like Tarantino would, but it keeps you on your toes and slips in plenty of insightful, resonant asides about the US of A. There’s choice work too from Bill Paxton as a good old boy sheriff. It’s a film that should be much better known today.
Content Considerations: Racist content; drug & alcohol abuse
It’s a film about storytelling, characters, and mood, and in its way, it goes on to say more about the tragedies and inequalities of life than an issue-driven film could.
Jeffery M Anderston, Combustible Celluloid
A whip-smart, crackerjack thriller that is driven entirely by its characters, One False Move is a rare gem that shines brighter each time it’s played. … A unique beauty that deserves your (renewed) attention.
Peter Martin, Screen Anarchy
Everything about this movie — the terse writing, the concise directing, the smart, unaffected acting — is eminently satisfying.
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Media Partner
Carl Franklin
Billy Bob Thornton, Cynda Williams, Bill Paxton, Michael Beach
USA
1992
English
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits
Executive Producer
Miles A. Copeland III, Paul Colichman, Harold Welb
Producer
Jesse Beaton, Ben Myron
Screenwriter
Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Epperson
Cinematography
James L. Carter
Editor
Carole Kravetz
Original Music
Peter Haycock, Derek Holt
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Crash
Sex drive, David Cronenberg-style. The car-crash fetishists who orbit Cronenberg's metrosexual Toronto (they include James Spader, Holly Hunter, and Deborah Unger) obsessively seek a fusion of metal and flesh... Fender bender as the ultimate orgasm.
Trainspotting
Danny Boyle's blistering movie was a sensation in 1996: a kick in the teeth of old school British kitchen sink realism, it fearlessly transformed the dire circumstances of Edinburgh heroin addicts into an experience by turns exhilarating and devastating.
Fargo
Have the Coen brothers ever made a more satisfying movie than Fargo? This grisly comedy pits one of cinema's most pure-hearted cops (Frances McDormand's pregnant cop, Marge Gunderson) against the machinations of weak and mercenary men.
Lone Star
John Sayles's modern day Western is a murder mystery which draws sheriff Chris Cooper to investigate two of his predecessors, the notoriously corrupt Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson), and his own father, Buddy (Matthew McConaughey).
90s Mystery Movie + Trivia Night
And now for a shot in the dark... We're not announcing the Mystery Movie in advance, so you'll have to take a leap of faith. We can say it was released between January 1990 and January 2000, and it's not already showing elsewhere in this series. As an added enticement we're going to throw in a 90s movie trivia night with your ticket — plus prizes!
Princess Mononoke
A mystical fight between humans and the Animal Gods of the forest. Ashitaka, the last prince of a dying race, struggles to find a way for both sides to co-exist. But the fighting only becomes more and more bloody and all hope seems to be lost…
Gummo
Harmony Korine was just 24 when he made Gummo. It's become a cult favourite as much for its singularity as anything else: it's a strange, misshapen beast, a slice of beat poetry translated into experimental film.
Jackie Brown
Take half a dozen characters who know they're in a fix, and give them half a million dollars to fight over. Tarantino's crime movie (his best) transcends genre in large part because in Pam Grier and Robert Forster it gives us people we truly care about.
The Big Lebowski
The Coens' whacky, warped slacker generation riff on Raymond Chandler, a shaggy dog story which delights in going sideways at every turn. Jeff Bridges is the Dude, and what he really wants is to get his rug back...
Out of Sight
Adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel about the mutual attraction between an escaped bank robber and the FBI agent on his tail, Out of Sight is sexy and romantic, cosmopolitan, and full of Soderbergh's sleight of hand, shuffling time like a card sharp.
Buffalo '66
Vincent Gallo's directorial debut is an eccentric, provocative comedy which laces a poignant love story with both a sombre, washed-out naturalism and surreal musical vignettes. This one is something different...
Run Lola Run
In the hyper intense world of pre-millennial Berlin, Lola has just 20 minutes to come up with a 100,000 Deutchmarks or her boyfriend cops it. He's asking the right woman: Lola won't stop til she's saved the day... It's Speed, in the multiverse...
Rushmore
Precocious Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is befriended by depressed industrialist Harold Blume (Bill Murray) until they both fall in love with first grade teacher Miss Cross (Olivia Williams). Anderson's second feature is an old favourite.
The Blair Witch Project
The rushes of a student-made documentary investigating the legend of the Blair Witch in Burkittsville, Maryland, a quest that led the three filmmakers deep into the Appallachian woods. Easy to get lost in there...