Sharon Stone

Broken Flowers

by
Don in his car with a bunch of pink flowers

If you’re looking for peak Bill Murray, 2005’s Broken Flowers is a strong contender. Murray himself recently said, “that was a perfect movie… it really did happen”, (while eating spicy chicken wings on a YouTube show called First We Feast, in case you want to check that out too). It’s peak Murray because it’s a Jim Jarmusch movie, and Murray and Jarmusch are both masters of cool deadpan. But also because this is a Murray vehicle in a way even Groundhog Day cannot match. He is in every scene, the story is all about his character and though there’s obviously a gulf between the Murray we see on screen and the real one, what … Read more

Basic Instinct

by
Sharon Stone as Catherine Tramell

Everyone involved was having a bit of a moment when Basic Instinct was being made in 1991. Sharon Stone had just had her breakthrough in Total Recall. Michael Douglas was peaking as the go-to guy for reptilian charm – Fatal Attraction, Wall Street and The War of the Roses were in his recent past, Falling Down would follow shortly. Director Paul Verhoeven’s two most recent films were RoboCop and Total Recall, Showgirls was in the works. And Joe Eszterhas at this point was known as the man who’d written Flashdance and Jagged Edge. Basic Instinct‘s reputation precedes it, thanks to the bit where Sharon Stone in an interrogation room full of male cops … Read more