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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Many true-story movies should have the word "based" in that famous five-word phrase capitalized and bolded, with big arrows pointing at it, because they will frequently take lots of liberty with the truth of the story being told. Of course, in the case of 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, taking liberty couldn't be helped. Based on the real-life tale of two law-evading bandits, the main characters in Butch Cassidy didn't have completely well-known and verified life stories.

Though the film, directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman, is well-known for its famous final scene, as Butch (Paul Newman) and Sundance (Robert Redford) face off the authorities in Bolivia in their likely doom, the real-life bandits may not have died so famously. In fact, their bodies haven't even been found. Despite this, what makes Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid a great film, an all-time winner, is its New Wave-style direction, its charm-filled lead performances from two actors who'd go on to star in the 1973 caper The Sting, and its memorable action and comedy. Though it likely took a few too many liberties with the leads, this is a fun, entertaining, fast-paced, and all around enjoyable movie with only one flaw: introducing the world to "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head." Still, I'm a forgiving man, so let's move on.

Monster

In makeup from head to toe and giving such a great performance that the famed critic Roger Ebert said he didn't realize she was the star until the end credits, Charlize Theron made the leap from being a well-respected, if moderately successful actress to being all of those things but also an Academy Award winner. As real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos, Theron was amazing in this 2003 indie film directed by Patty Jenkins and co-starring Christina Ricci as Wuornos' sometimes lover. Though it's hard not to sympathize with this film's portrayal of the violent and confused woman driven to kill after becoming frustrated with her small-town life as a prostitute, it's also difficult to feel too much for Wuornos, if only because...well, she was a serial killer.

Still, that Theron sells Wuornos as such a fully realized human being, that she's able to make even just one audience member feel bad for her in between her murders is really impressive. Though Monster ends on an inevitably dark note, the film is brave in its depiction of a down-on-her-luck woman's life as a hooker. Though Theron's not hit the spotlight as well since this film hit theatres, we can at least appreciate this new side we've seen of her and thank the TV gods for letting her guest-star on Arrested Development, post-Oscar. I'm just going to pretend that we've all seen that show and this great character study and move on.

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