Created by Jack Orman, Pan Am was a television series that aired on the ABC Network from 2011 - 2012. Named after the famous airline, the plot follows pilots and stewardesses during the early days of the Jet Age in the 1960's. Christina Ricci is great in her role as a stewardess. The rest of the cast does a fine job as well.
Directed by Nick Gomez, Lizzie Borden Took an Ax (2014) was a made for TV movie that premiered on the Lifetime Network. The film takes a look at Lizzie Borden, a young woman tried and acquitted of brutally murdering her father and stepmother with a hatchet in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892. The period detail is good, but the overall feeling is ruined due to the annoying tendency of the director to insert out-of-place modern Rock music into the historical film. Christina Ricci delivers a fine performance as Lizzie Borden. The supporting cast is good as well, including Clea DuVall and Billy Campbell.
Written and directed by Woody Allen, Anything Else (2003) was the opening night selection at the Venice International Film Festival that year, had mixed reviews at the time, but has gradually found a receptive Cult audience. The comedic film centers on a young writer named Jerry, and his turbulent love affair with his high-maintenance girlfriend, Amanda. Woody Allen is fantastic as the older writer, giving sage advice to Jason Biggs (who also does a fine job). It is Christina Ricci, however, that steals the show with her role as the needy, unpredictable girlfriend. Jimmy Fallon, Stockard Channing and Danny DeVito co-star.
Loosely inspired by Washington Irving's 1820 short story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", Tim Burton and crew set about creating a turn-of-the-nineteenth-century horror film with Sleepy Hollow (1999). Set in 1799, New York City constable Ichabod Crane is sent upstate to Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of murders… in which the victims were decapitated by the ghost of a Hessian soldier called the Headless Horseman. Johnny Depp, naturally Burton's first choice, was picked for Ichabod Crane, though the character was changed to be an early homicide detective, giving the story a more methodical, crime thriller approach. Christina Ricci and Christopher Walken are excellent in their respective roles, and Burton regulars fill out the ensemble cast nicely... including Michael Gambon, Jeffrey Jones, Christopher Lee, Martin Landau and Michael Gough. The real "stars" of Sleepy Hollow, however, are the art and production teams. The visual look of the film is stunning, stylized, atmospheric, eery and enchanting... and the film deservedly took home the "Best Art Direction" Academy Award.
