James Le Gros

Three women striving to forge their own paths amidst the wide-open plains of the American Northwest: a lawyer (Dern) who finds herself contending with both office sexism and a hostage situation; a wife and mother (Williams) whose determination to build her dream home puts her at odds with the men in her life; and a young law student (Stewart) who forms an ambiguous bond with a lonely ranch hand (radiant newcomer Lily Gladstone). As their stories intersect in subtle but powerful ways, a portrait emerges of flawed, but strong-willed individuals in the process of defining themselves.

MAKE is a feature-length documentary for the modern creative, produced by the team at Musicbed. This film is a question. A conversation starter. It's an examination of the reasons we create and the things that drive us to make something new - passion or success. The film looks to examine the myth of creative success and what it means to live a healthy life as an artist.

The movie opens in a convenience store one late night, with a smalltime drug dealer named Nick (Aaron Eckhart) is trying to decide what coffee brand to buy. His ex-lover Dallas (Paulina Porizkova) and fellow hitman Billy Hill (James LeGros) are getting impatient and tell him to hurry up. Nick finally choose Chocolate Macadamia, but the dispenser is empty. He complains to the cashier. The next morning, Nick shows up on the doorstep of Casey Wells (Thomas Jane), an old partner from his days as a drug dealer in Los Angeles. Casey has cleaned up his life. He is now a married architect and is looking to adopt a child with his wife. Nick leaves a couple of suitcases in Casey's guest room before leaving to run some errands. After Nick leaves, Casey becomes suspicious of one of the suitcases and eventually opens it to find it filled with heroin. After calling Nick to yell at him for bringing drugs into his home, he disposes of all of it in the kitchen sink. Ice (Glenn Plummer), a Jamaican Rasta hitman, enters Casey's house and is about to kill him, but Casey manages to persuade him to have a last smoke of marijuana. After having smoked, Ice is about to kill Casey when Ice's cell phone rings. Ice begins to rap over the phone in an effort to clinch a record deal, and Casey seizes the moment and knocks him out. Casey then ties him up and leaves him in his garage. A representative from the adoption agency comes to interview Casey about his fitness to be a father. The representative is particularly curious to know what Casey did for several years when he lived in L.A. as there is no account of his time there. Casey tries his best to cover up his past as well as his recent encounter with the hitman. During the interview, Dallas, who wants the money that she believes Nick left with Casey along with the heroin, shows up. She scares away the representative from the adoption agency by telling a story about Casey's drug-dealing and murdering past. When left alone with Casey, Dallas questions him about the money's whereabouts. Angry that he cannot help her, she decides to kill him. But not before she ties him up to a chair, fellates him to force an erection, gets naked and proceeds to mount and rape him. She tells him she will not kill him until he orgasms and she plans to go on until she makes him get an orgasm. Delivering on her word, she reaches multiple orgasms, but gets no results from him. While Dallas reaches a third orgasm, Hill breaks in and shoots her, splattering her blood all over Casey, his walls and his floor. Billy believes Casey when told that he does not have the heroin, but plans on torturing him with a saw and a blow torch anyhow, while he brags about his prowess and technique of cauterization as he sets to work. Hill is interrupted by cops ironically raiding the house next door. As Billy checks on it Casey is able to loosen the tape around his wrists and grabs a frying pan and sits back down. Billy returns and tells Casey the cops got the wrong house. As he is about to proceed, he notices something is wrong. But catching Billy off guard, Casey overpowers him, and leaves him in the garage. Nick calls Casey from a pay phone, apologizes for everything and admits he had stolen the heroin and money from the police. After he hangs up, it is revealed to us that Nick has been shot, and is bleeding severely, seemingly about to die. Finally, a corrupt cop (Mickey Rourke) arrives with a bag which contains Nick's head. He gives Casey until 7 p.m. to find the money but tells him that he does not care about the heroin. The cop then sees the garage with Ice and Billy tied up and Dallas dead and unloads a magazine into Ice and Billy. He then tells Casey to throw them out as it is garbage day. In the end, Casey calls Ice's boss and tells him that the heroin is being auctioned off at 7 p.m. at his house. He recalls Nick's earlier words which promptly lead him to find the money and a wedding present in the spare tire of his car. He takes them, puts them in Dallas' Lamborghini Diablo car and goes to pick his wife up at the airport to presumably escape the country. The movie ends as we see the cops and the Jamaicans, both armed, about to meet each other at the house.

Elizabeth, a vet assistant, falls for Max, who brings in an abused dog. His jealousy burdens their relationship as does talk of marriage. Lena wants Max and she schemes. A story told from three angles. Max meets Elizabeth; they live together, but when she talks of marriage, he balks. He becomes extremely jealous, probably without cause, and thinks she's taken up with a friend of his, Jack. Elizabeth, stung by Max's refusal to marry, catches Jack's eye, but the friendship seems innocent. Lena, who works with Max, likes him and realizes she can manipulate his jealousy and maybe engineer his split from Elizabeth. When she's sure Elizabeth is with a man, she calls Max at work, sending him home to confront the lovers. Then, Lena feels guilty and takes off for Max's apartment. What's really going on? Who's with Elizabeth? —<jhailey@hotmail.com>

ultra-realistic, gritty, urban drama - following the highs & the lows of life on the street as a kid in L.A. become part of there family, follow them in there usual goings-on. Become a fly on the wall, take it easy & just go where the day takes you.

The story concerns a small group of 20-somethings who live and work in Seattle. Some of them are friends, even close friends, while others are acquaintances who inhabit the periphery of the plot. Linda Powell works for an organization that deals with environmental concerns. She meets a young U-Dub (Univ of Washington) student, Luiz, who is a foreigner. She's flattered by the attention and the two begin dating. Linda is quite happy, telling a friend that the relationship feels new and exciting and that she and Luiz don't seem to be hindered by the usual problems that couples faced or that she faced in the past. She goes so far as to give him the remote control for her garage parking space, saying he's always welcome. At a later point, Luiz tells her he's having problems with his student visa and has to leave the country for a few days to straighten it out. Linda goes out to a rock club with her friend and spots Luiz at the bar with another woman. Linda leaves upset, being consoled outside by her friend. We're introduced to Steve Dunne while he talks to the audience in his kitchen. Steve lives in an east side apartment building where several of the story's other characters live. Steve laments a recent breakup with a girlfriend and relates a few anecdotes about his own life like the time a doctor tried to explain how couples have children or how his father told him "Have fun, stay single", when Steve was only eight years old. Steve works for a firm that does city planning and hopes that one day his ambitious personal product of building a luxurious commuter train for the city's workforce may be a way to solve the problems of pollution and traffic problems created by drivers. By chance, Steve sees Linda in a rock club and approaches her. Over the din of the live band, Alice in Chains, he tries to convince her he's not a sleazy guy looking only for sex by saying that he doesn't have an "act". She counters, saying that "not having an act *is* [his] act." Steve walks away rejected. A few days later, while at a magazine rack with his friend Dave, Steve bumps into Linda again and the two have a conversation. They go on a date and seem to enjoy each other's company, however, Steve, feeling somewhat doubtful and insecure, doesn't call her back for four days. He still convinces her to give him one more chance and while talking at Steve's apartment, Steve tries to give her the remote to his garage parking space. Linda is immediately defensive, saying she has to leave, reminded of how she gave her remote to Luiz. She goes home and as she's settling in, Steve rings her doorbell. Overwhelmed, Linda jumps into his arms and kisses him, taking him upstairs to her place. The two have sex and become more serious about each other. After a few weeks, Linda drops a bomb: her period is late. Steve buys several home pregnancy tests and the results come back positive. Steve asks her to marry him. Linda has her doubts and leaves her answer ambiguous. While driving, Linda runs a red light and is violently broadsided by a pickup truck. She goes into shock after a few moments and wakes up in a hospital room with minor injuries, however she has lost the baby. Depressed, she decides to tell Steve she's going to Alaska for a few weeks for her job. The two don't acknowledge it right away, but they're breaking up. Steve becomes very depressed but still soldiers on with work. One of the mayor's aides gets him lunch with the mayor where Steve can pitch his commuter train. The mayor coldly rejects the proposal outright, saying he's seen such ideas before and that Seattlelites love their cars too much. Steve becomes more depressed than ever, quits his job and holes up in his apartment which soon becomes a nightmare of strewn trash and unopened mail. Janet, one of his neighbors and a good friend, visits him and tells him that he needs to snap out of his depression before it consumes him. She gives him a secret knock to let him know she'll be checking up on him in the future. Steve begins to clean up his place and look for another job. While waiting for a response to one of his applications, Janet's secret knock sounds at the door. He opens it to find Linda standing there. She's willing to give their relationship another try. Janet Livermore is a 23-yr-old who works in a downtown coffee shop. She has a boyfriend, Cliff Poncier, the lead singer of a local rock/punk band called Citizen Dick. Cliff works three jobs between gigs, is very dedicated to getting his band a recording contract (even though they're not very popular in the Seattle music scene and often receive negative reviews both for live performances & a recently recorded album) and isn't very attentive to Janet, who's crazy about him. Janet becomes somewhat obsessed with her breast size, especially since Cliff decorates the walls of his apartment with posters of big-breasted women. She asks Cliff if her breasts are too small & he gives her an honest "Sometimes." She makes an appointment with a plastic surgeon and the two work out a computer model of what size she'd like to be. When she goes for the procedure, Steve takes her and she tells him what she's looking for in a man; someone who has their own place, a steady job, is responsible and appreciates her and who'll say "God bless you" when she sneezes. Steve tells her it's a "tall order" and she says she's narrowed the list down considerably to someone who will say "God bless you" when she sneezes. She later puts Cliff to that test, issuing a fake sneeze while sitting next to him and he coldly hands her a box of tissues asking her not to get him sick before his next gig. The doctor surprises her with what he calls a first of his career: he tells her he thinks she doesn't need the surgery and that if Cliff can't appreciate her for who she is then he doesn't deserve her. He also tells her he's attracted to her but she very kindly turns him down, saying he's a doctor and handsome and should be able to attract lots of beautiful women. Janet decides to break up with Cliff and makes the best of her single life, regrouping and enjoying her solitude. Cliff tries to win her back by placing rose petals arranged in her name in her kitchen and putting a new stereo in her car. (When Cliff demonstrates how the remote works, he turns the volume up so loud that it shatters all the windows in the car.) Another of Steve's neighbors, Debbie, is also looking for love and romance and uses a gift certificate she'd gotten from her friends for a video dating service -- they originally got it for her as a gag gift. A budding socialite, Debbie has the video made (the director is played by Tim Burton in a cameo) and receives videos from several candidates, some of whom are desperate, others who are pretentious. She narrows the field to one guy, Jamie, who is a bike riding enthusiast and seems genuine. Debbie goes a overboard, buying an expensive bike, a gaudy riding outfit and makes a date with Jamie at a posh waterfront restaurant. On the big day, however, Debbie goes to the wrong location of the restaurant and misses Jamie entirely. She rides home to see if Jamie left any messages and finds him there talking happily with her roommate Pam, whom he knew from college. Debbie is immediately jealous and accuses Pam of stealing her date. Since Pam has never been very fond of Debbie, the two start a loud argument that Jamie overhears. Debbie demands that Pam pay her money equivalent to the cost of the video. Jamie decides to retreat from them both. Spurned, Debbie takes a vacation she'd been planning in Cabo San Lucas. On the flight down she sits next to a precocious pre-teen boy who hits on her. When the flight lands, she meets the boy's single father who compliments her gaudy earrings and Debbie is immediately floored. The two hit it off and begin a long distance relationship that seems promising. Cliff helps Debbie move out when she and Stu decide to move in together. Cliff eventually realizes that he can only win Janet back if he treats her better. He leaves a message on her answering machine, singing a new song he'd written for her. He meets her in the elevator of the building when they're both going out for the evening. He compliments her, sounding very sincere. When she suddenly sneezes, he says "Bless you". The two of them embrace passionately. The film ends with an overhead shot of the apartment building that zooms out to show the Seattle skyline with dozens of young voices chattering about love, relationships and complaints.

An F.B.I. Agent goes undercover to catch a gang of surfers who may be bank robbers. In Los Angeles, California, a gang of bank robbers call themselves The Ex-Presidents. commit their crimes while wearing masks of ex-Presidents Reagan, Carter, Nixon, and Johnson. The F.B.I. believes that the members of the gang could be surfers, and send young Agent Johnny Utah undercover at the beach to mix with the surfers and gather information. Utah meets surfer Bodhi, and gets drawn into the lifestyle of his new friend. —Sami Al-Taher <staher2000@yahoo.com> Johnny Utah is a Special Agent for the F.B.I. Utah gets partnered with Angelo Pappas, an experienced Agent, who is more than committed to his work. The two are asked to investigate the number of robberies committed by a group called The Ex-Presidents, who wear masks of former Presidents Reagan, Nixon, Carter, and Johnson for their robberies. Pappas has a theory that The Ex-Presidents are a group of surfers, and asks for Utah to go undercover as a surfer. The problem is, Utah couldn't surf to save his life. That, plus the two continuously being hassled by unpleasant and rough Agent Harp. With the help of Tyler a competent female surfer, Utah begins to gain the respect of local surfer Bodhi and his group. Utah forms a close bond with Bodhi, but the relationship between Utah and Bodhi becomes limited when Utah suspects that Bodhi and his group are The Ex-Presidents. —Jeremy Thomson Right under the nose of the police, The Ex-Presidents, rubber-masked criminals terrorising sunny Southern California, rob banks and escape without leaving a trace. After 27 robberies in three years, inexperienced FBI agent Johnny Utah infiltrates the local surfing community to gather information. As Johnny befriends Bodhi, the group's enigmatic leader, he soon discovers a new meaning in life by learning how to catch the perfect wave. But Johnny walks a thin line. How far can the uninitiated intruder go without blowing his cover? —Nick Riganas

A car thief and a punk rocker fall in love as they become embroiled in deaths attributed to an aphrodisiac.

A pharmacy-robbing dope fiend and his crew pop pills and evade the law. A group of drug users in the 1970's help finance their habit by robbing drug stores. Matt Dillon's character is very superstitious and eventually his luck runs out. —Jason Ihle <jrihl@conncoll.edu> 1971. Based in Portland, Oregon, Bob Hughes is a golf aficionado and is highly superstitious. He is also a junkie who, when he's not in prison for his crimes, leads a small group of like minded people robbing pharmaceutical dispensaries throughout the Pacific Northwest of what they hope will be prescription narcotics, both to use as their fixes as well as trade for other street drugs from other junkies, such as their lowlife neighbor, David. Bob's team includes: Dianne, his wife who he's known since they were kids; Rick, his slightly dim apprentice; and Nadine, Rick's very young girlfriend who they picked up along the way in one of their robberies, and who Bob treats as the junior partner and thus the expendable one of the group. PPD Narcotics Detective Gentry and his team know that Bob is committing these crimes and has to figure out how best to nab him. Bob, in return, knows that Gentry is watching them. A specific incident that occurs during the course of their illegal activities in combination with what looks to be the fates lining up against them makes Bob reevaluate his life and contemplate going clean and straight, with or without Dianne. If Bob does make the decision to do so, he may find that saying it will happen or wanting it to happen is different from it actually happening. He may also find that a past incident with Gentry and his men will factor into what happens. —Huggo In 1971, in Portland, Bob, his girlfriend Dianne and his friends Rick and his girlfriend Nadine are smalltime thieves of drugstores and hospitals. They spend their lives drugged and Bob is chased by the abusive police detective Gentry (James Remar). They decide to move to another city and soon Nadine has an OD, affecting Bob that decides to return to Portland and be clean. But he is haunted by his past. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch play a heroin-driven Bonnie and Clyde, knocking over drugstores in the Pacific Northwest. Ultimately, they must dispose of the body of one of their crew, sneaking it out from a motel where a sheriffs' convention is being held. —lwilliams <lwilliams@yankeegroup.com>