My Top Ten Favorite Movies of 2023

These are my personal favorite movies released in the U.S. in 2023. They are not meant to reflect the box office or award-winners for the year. I suggest that if you like four or five of the movies on the list, you might share my taste and sensibilities, and it might give some credence to you checking out the other films on the list.  Or not, because it might just be a coincidence.

This list starts with a 2022 movie which I didn't get to see until after I had posted the 2022 Top Ten. I didn't want to bump any of the movies on the previous list so my favorite movie of 2023 is technically from 2022 and even more technically won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for movies released in 2022. Sue me! It's my own personal list.

Special Favorite movie of 2023:

Women Talking



Do nothing. Stay and fight. Or leave. In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith.

August (in a voiceover): When the women woke up feeling drowsy and in pain, their bodies bruised and bleeding, many believed they were being made to suffer as punishment for their sins. Many accused the women of lying for attention or to cover up adultery.

Some men, especially young unmarried men, had used animal tranquilizers to keep sleeping young women and some children from waking while they were assaulted.

Though based on true events in a colony in another country, this movie was not meant to be a documentary, but rather an examination of faith and how each person, male or female, can practice that faith. There are so many different variations, opinions, choices, and depths to that question, it builds the drama of the discussion and pending decision to a cathartic crescendo.

The movie grapples with the problem that many observers have with strict religious sects and communities. In effect, why would women join, remain, and attempt to thrive in such an environment. Such questions have always fascinated me about why anyone would make that choice, but especially a woman. Fear of being cast out, alone, in a world they feel ill-equipped to survive in. There is also the fear of not being allowed salvation or entrance into heaven. Subjugation based on the strictures of religion itself.

Claire Foy plays Salome, the woman who argues for revenge, never accepting the men back in the colony. Jesse Buckley is the woman who deosn't want to give up what she's built in the colony and the religion. Rooney Mara is Ona, the most circumspect, searching for answers, trying to hear all sides to formulate the best possible plan.  They are all magnificent in their portrayals of Sarah Polley's well-deserved Oscar-winning script.

It is telling and illuminating that Greta who tends to the horses and wagons often uses stories about her horses Ruth and Cheryl act when she is trying to make a point. At first, the parallel might seem demeaning that the women of the community are nothing more than beasts of burden, but it becomes obvious the old woman is suggesting that even horses make decisions based on what is good for them.

Agata: None of us have ever asked the men for anything. Not a single thing, not even for the salt to be passed, not even for a penny or a moment alone or to take the washing in or to open a curtain or to go easy on the small yearlings or to put your hand on the small of my back as I try, again, for the twelfth or thirteenth time, to push a baby out of my body. Isn’t it interesting, that the one and only request we women would have of the men would be to leave.

There is also the question of what the women might stay and fight for? What would a new colony look like?

Ona: Men and women will make all decisions for the colony collectively. Women will be allowed to think. Girls will be taught to read and write. The schoolhouse must display a map of the world so that we can begin to understand our place in it. A new religion, taken from the old but focused on love, will be created by the women of the colony.

The parallels to the history of American women is unavoidable. It leaves the viewer wondering if the women would find anything different wherever they went.

Ona: When we have liberated ourselves, we will have to ask ourselves who we are.

Even though the decision was intended to guide them as a group, the action itself must be carried out by each individual woman. There is a ticking clock. Most of the men, the ones who are not arrested and prosecuted for crimes, will be returning in a few days.

Agata: There is nothing worse than being a murderer. If you will become a murderer by staying in the colony, side by side with the men who are responsible for the attacks then you must, to protect your own soul and to qualify for entry to heaven, leave the colony.

It is a decision that will change the colony forever. One answer, one decision will not satisfy all.

Wicked Little Letters



Oh, look another Jessie Buckley movie. I don't know what it is exactly, but since Wild Rose and Judy, if she's in a movie there's a chance I'll see it. That's how I finally came around to Women Talking. And her fantastic performance in this movie does nothing to change the likelihood of that continuing.

In 1918, an Irish migrant Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley) settled into the small seaside town of Littlehampton and struck up an unlikely friendship with her neighbor: the sanctimonious and conservative Edith Swan (Olivia Colman). However, when Edith started receiving obscene letters, the blame was pinned on Rose, upending their friendship and rocking Littlehampton.

Timothy Spall plays Edith's father, Edward Swan, who attempts to get justice for Edith, but seems more intent on ridding his neighborhood of Rose, a pesky single mother who is co-habitating with a black musician (Malachi Kirby).

Edward Swan: That woman curses like a fish. She's got straggly hair all the time. And she marches around on the Sabbath with feet as bare as goose eggs!

Flashbacks show how a friendship developed between Rose and Edith. Rose explains how she lost her husband in the war. Edith divulges how she became something of a spinster.

Edith: Oh, no, Sidney didn't die. He just... went.

Edith's father doesn't like Rose's influence on his daughter and reports her to child protection service, but Rose thinks it was Edith. And the wicked letters started straight away.

Anjana Vasan is quite good underplaying the role of Woman Police Officer Gladys Moss who is not convinced Rose is the culprit. Though Woman Police Officer Gladys Moss has followed in her father's footsteps as he had been an officer for 22 year, she has enduured a lot to be taken seriously.

Edward Swan: A woman police officer? Oh, look, a flying pig!

Gladys interviews Edith to see how she is fairing in the aftermath of trauma, but finds her soaking up the attention and giving away copies of local newspapers with stories about her.

Edith: Just this outpouring of sympathy for me, it seems... and love. Waves and waves of love. It's quite a humbling experience. I think it's just an acknowledgement that, yes, I've been through hell, but I've survived with my head held high.

Eileen Atkins and Joanna Scanlan are both always worth the price of a ticket and they more than payoff here as concerned citizens who were friends to both Edith and Rose. They arrange bail for Rose, so she can care for her daughter, Nancy (wonderfully irreverent Alisha Weir). When Woman Police Officer Gladys Moss is suspended and becomes just Gladys Moss, they agree to help her catch the actual letter writer.

Edith: You don't like the idea of me leaving this house, do you? That's why you sent Sidney away, isn't it? I bet you called the CPS on Rose, and all. I liked him. I liked them both.

It's impressive that so much commentary on religious hypocrisy, gender, racial, and ethnic inequality, silly notions of class, social norms and decency are seamlessly and subtlely woven into a pleasant little, if slightly ribald, comedy.

Maggie Moore(s)



I was surprised by this one because of how much I found to like about it. There are a few things that could have been cleaned up, but overall a success.

The title could have been better, because it looks silly and might be confusing, but it does relay a big hunk of the premise which is that there are two women named Maggie Moore in the movie.  There isn't really a mixup of the two women. The right Maggie Moore is killed, but then the wrong Maggie Moore is killed to make it seem like she was the intended victim all along. One of the things I might have cleaned up is opening the movie with the wrong Maggie. But I could be wrong, that's why I have this movie on my list. I'm not convinced it would have fixed annything so let's just go with it,

So, the plot begins with a Castle Subs franchise owner Jay Moore (Micah Stock, so perfect as an ambitious screw-up) getting expired meat and cheese from a delivery driver Tommy T. (Derek Basco) who exchanges the products for child porn photos Jay as a middle man passes along to him. Jay's wife Maggie opens an envelope, sees the pictures, and throws Jay out, threatening to go to the police. Tommy T. knows a guy Michael Kosco (Happy Anderson who steals most of the movie), a large, deaf dude who can scare Maggie. Something goes wrong.

Jon Hamm plays Sheriff Jordan Sanders, a widower who spends his nights eating soup from a cup and watching Jeopardy. He takes adult education courses like creative writing at the local high school. Tina Fey plays Rita Grace, a neighbor to  Jay and Maggie Moore. When the Sheriff goes to ask Jay questions about Maggie, Rita tells him Jay was banished by Maggie. She tells him about the fight she overheard, something about filth. Rita ends up inviting him to share the dinner she was already eating.

Rita: I'm divorced if you were wondering why I drag strangers in to eat with me.

Sanders: Well, you must have friends.

Rita: Oh, god, no. They all chose him, and frankly, I can't make the effort. I've been trying to pal up to Maggie. We'll see where that goes. She seems nice. Her husband's a little off. I'm finding it takes courage to be happy, you know? I'm just not sure my ex left me with any.

Jay Moore finds out from the pharmacy that her wife's name and address is under the same phone number by mistake as the other Maggie Moore just a few miles away.

Jay (talking to Kosco): So I got a plan. You know my wife's name, Maggie, right? Maggie Moore. Well, there's another Maggie Moore, same exact fucking name, only a couple of miles away. So what I'm thinking is if we-- you-- remove the second Maggie Moore,  it'll make it look like the first removal, my Maggie, was just a mistake, like it was an accident.

Sheriff Sanders is helping Rita get her car fixed when he gets a call about the second Maggie.

Mechanic: So I changed the oil, and the tire pressure was low. And the dash sensor was the passenger side airbag. You need a new one.

Rita: How much?

Mechanic: 3,200 plus tax.

Rita: For a passenger airbag? I can't think of anyone that I like that much. Yeah, that's a pass.

There's some very nice twists involving the other Maggie Moore, a neo-nazi co-worker, her skirt-chasing husband. Rita and Sheriff Sanders dance around each other until they almost make it work. Then Sanders shows up unannounced at Rita's because he's ready to be more than friends. He finds her with her ex.

The Sheriff and his Deputy KB Ready (Nick Mohammad -- so good as a Jiminy Crickett to his boss) track the second Maggie Moore's insulin kit to the murderer. The Sheriff goes to round up Jay Moore and meets Rita outside.

Sanders: Did you end it with him, like you said you would?

Rita: That's not what I said. I said I would end it if you wanted me to.

Sanders: Rita, come on. Don't you have any say in your own life at all?

In the end, Rita resolves to have a say in her life.

Sheriff Sanders sums it up in a story he reads in his creative writing class:
So was that another heartbreak, or another part of the struggle? The truth is, he didn't know yet. He just knew it would take some courage to find out.

The tone is uneven at times, but I could be arong about that, too. I can't think of how to make it better so I'll like it the way it is. I will also mention there are two fine little songs by Lester Norton at the very end which I think are worth sitting through the final credits to hear.

American Fiction



Right from the opening scene, I didn't want to like this movie. I didn't like the character. I didn't like how he was clearly the cause of his own situation. Jeffrey Wright is one of the best actors working today, but I couldn't see how he was going to save this story.

I wasn't totally wrong, but just like the many viewpoints expressed in this movie, I wasn't exactly right either. Wright's character Thelonius "Monk" Ellison claims not to believe in race, but he does see issues in his life as black and white, intractable positions with no gray areas.

Monk: You mean they want me to write about a cop killing some teenager, or a single mom in Dorchester raising five kids.

Arthur: Dorchester's pretty white now. But yes.

Monk: Jesus Christ. Do you know that I don't even really believe in race?

Arthur: Yeah. The problem is that everyone else does.

The wry humor helped carry deep enough into the story to give this character a chance, especially when he is forced to spend time with what's left of his family.  Clearly, his attiudes and biases are the result of his rebellion against his upbringing. During his visit, his sister (Tracee Ellie Ross)  dies. His mother is showing advanced signs of dementia, and his brother has lost his wife and children because she caught him in bed with a man.

While at his parent's beach house, Monk meets a neighbor, Coraline (Erika Alexander).

Monk: It’s just--I don’t think anybody wants to buy what I write.

Coraline: That's not true. I--I didn’t want to say anything, but, uh, I actually read one of your books.

Monk: Huh. Which?

Caroline: "The Frogs."

Monk: Oh, so you're the one.

To pass time, Monk writes a new novel, My Pafology and sends it to Arthur, his agent.

Arthur: Are you serious?

Monk: You'll notice I didn't put my name to it.

Arthur: Yes, “Stagg R. Leigh.” I did notice that. Well done. But I still can’t send this out.

Monk: You said you wanted black stuff. What’s blacker than that? It's got deadbeat dads, rappers, crack -- and he's killed by the cops in the end. I mean, that’s black, right?

When the book written as a joke becomes a big success, it becomes apparent the story isn't about Monk having success as a writer, but rather can he have success as a good person. When he finds out Coraline has read the book and liked it, he lumps into all the white people and unintelligent blacks who had read it.

Monk: Well, um, you don’t understand my life, and you can’t, so just leave it at that.

Coraline: One day maybe you’ll learn that not being able to relate to other people isn’t a badge of honor. (then) I think you should leave.

The ending is that thing that movies can do where multiple endings are shown, and one or two stick, and the exercise itself makes everything perfect.

The movie got me to the point that I hope the real Coraline returns his calls.

Oppenheimer

A little long, maybe a bit bloated, but a monumental achievement. Certainly not the feelgood movie of the year, but an important portrayal of the most significant culmination of events that changed the world forever.

There's not much that hasn't already been said about this movie. It left a trail of well-deserved awards including Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), and Best supporting Actor (Robert Downey, Jr.). In addition the rest of the cast is astounding: Emily Blunt as Kitty Oppenheimer; Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, his communist-leaning lover who haunts the entire movie; David L. Hill (Rami Malek) who tells the truth about Strauss; Casey Affleck as Col. Pash who spied on Oppenheimer, and Edward Teller (Benny Safdie) the proponent of the H-bomb to name just a few. There's also Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, Alden Erhenreich, Gary Oldman as Truman, and Tom Conti as Einstein.

Groves: I’m starting to see how you got your reputation. My favorite response? 'Oppenheimer couldn’t run a hamburger stand.

Oppenheimer: I couldn’t. But I can run the Manhattan Project.

Oppenheimer works to get the best minds America and the free world can offer. There were natural and ethical obstacles.

Isidor Rabi (David Krumholtz): You drop a bomb and it falls on the just and the unjust. I don’t wish the culmination of three centuries of physics to be a weapon of mass destruction.

Oppenheimer: Izzy, I don’t know if we can be trusted with such a weapon, but I know the Nazis can’t. We have no choice.

Rabi: Well, the second thing you have to do is appoint Hans Bethe to head the Theoretical division.

Oppenheimer: Wait, what was the first?

Rabi: Take off that ridiculous uniform--you’re a scientist.

Oppenheimer: General Groves is insisting we join.

Rabi: Tell Groves to shit in his hat. They need us for who we are. So be yourself, only... better.

The movie bogs down a bit in concerns over spies at Los Alamos and whether the H-bomb was theoretically easier to make and a better weapon, but eventually the bomb gets made and tested in a harrowing scene where the cheering and celebration is difficult to watch from the our future perspective.

With Germany having surrendered, many scientists believe the bomb should not be used on people. The President and the military refuse to listen as was expected.

The movie jumps to post-war and the communist witch hunts which once again ensnared Oppenheimer. Ultimately, it is his attempt to get his security clearance renewed and Strauss's vendetta against him that provide the through line for the film.

Strauss had been certain Oppenheimer had said something to Einstein that turned the old genius against him.

Oppenheimer: Albert? When I came to you with those calculations? We were worried that we’d start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world...

Einstein: I remember it well. What of it?

Oppenheimer: I believe we did.

Guardians of  the Galaxy, Vol. 3

I have never been a big fan of the comic book super hero movies with the notable exceptions of the Deadpool movies and, as it happens, The Guardians of the Galaxy movies so far.

This one is Rocket Raccoon's story and beyond Bradley Cooper's voice work, the animation on Rocket is so amazing it not only brings the character to life but equips him with all the emotions necessary for this touching saga.

It turns out Rocket was an experiment carried out by OrgoCorps which was trying to improve animals by adding parts or in Rocket's case accentuating his brain. The scenes of the young Rocket in a dirty cage at the experimental facility are the most affecting, laying the groundwork for what is most effective later.

High Evolutionary: For some reason, these specimens are also over-producing the legobeta microsamino protein in their systems. Causing them to be, well...

Young Rocket: Violent. We don't like it.

High evolutionary: A utopia can't have its denizens murdering one another, can it?

Rocket figures out how to fix the problem with batch 90. The High Evolutionary can't figure out how Rocket knew, but it worked. Rocket is happy and excited to go to the new world, Counter-Earth.

High Evolutionary:  How could you be part of a perfect species? You're simply a... medley of mistakes we could learn from and apply to the creatures that truly mattered. Batch 89 ... was never meant for the new world, 89P13.  You could figure out the complex workings of cytoplasmic filtration systems, but you couldn't figure out that? But that brain... That, I'd like to study further. Prep it for surgery and removal in the morning.

Rocket has been contructing an electronic key card, stealing one component at a time and escapes, but his Batch 89 friends are killed. He was free until the High Evolutinary found out Rocket was still alive and sent Warlock (Will Poulter) to bring him back. The Guardians keep that from happening but Rocket is badly injured. They can''t operate on him because of a kill switch OrgoCorps implanted. They must find the pass key.

Nebula elicits the help of the Ravagers who now include Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to infiltrate OrgoCorps to find any records that might help save Rocket.

HOST: (ON SPEAKERS) Welcome to OrgoCorp headquarters. For over 300 years, OrgoCorp has been producing cybernetic implants and genetic upgrades across the universe under the watchful eye of the High Evolutionary.

Quill: The answer is, we used to be in love. Yeah, she was my girlfriend. Only she doesn't remember it because it wasn't her. Because her dad threw her off a magic cliff and she died. And then I lost my temper and nearly destroyed half the universe. Then she came back. Out of the past. There she is. Everyone else who died in the past stayed dead. Not her. Why? Was it the magic cliff? I don't know. I'm not some freakin' Infinity Stone scientist. Just some dumbass Earth dude who met a girl, fell in love. That girl died, and then came back a total dick.

They obtain the pass key, but the High Evolutionary has decided to destroy the new world and start over because it was flawed. He needs 89P13's brain so he can implant his ingenuity into his newly created race of children meant for the New, New World.

High Evolutionary:There is no God! That's why I stepped in!

They guard the galaxy. Rocket finds out he is a raccoon and proud of it.

High Evolutionary: Look what you did to me. For what? All I wanted to do... was to make things perfect.

Rocket: You didn't want to make things perfect. You just hated things the way they are.

Perfect Days



I have always had a fondness for Wim Wenders' movies. I don't always think they are the best, but they are always fascinating. I am drawn in by the setups, the tone, the reality of the characters. I rarely recommend them to anyone else unless they know his work or style. This movie is no exception.

It is an utterly immersive portrayal of a toilet cleaner who works for the a company that provides cleaning service to a new experimental Tokyo park system that created numerous parks across the city with state of the art facilities and service daily.

The movie follows Hirayama (Koji Yakusho), a dedicated toilet cleaner, who has a structured, ritualized lifestyle every day, starting at dawn. He dedicates his free time to his passion for music cassettes, which he listens to in his van to and from work, and to his books, which he reads every night before going to sleep. His pride in his work is thoroughness and effort.

It becomes clear that Hirayama was once a prosperous, but harried and unhappy man.

Keiko (Yumi Aso) comes to pick up Niko in a chauffeured car. Keiko tells him their father’s dementia has worsened and asks if Hirayama will visit him in nursing home. She says he doesn’t recognize anything anymore and will not behave the way he did before. Hirayama refuses but hugs his sister good-bye. she asks him if he really cleans toilets for a living, and he says yes. As they drive away, Hirayama begins to cry.

It is clear Wenders sees characters through the repetition of their daily lives and what happens in his stories are represented in the changes, permanent or temporary, in those routines. His films are often beautiful images of the human condition, but not always totally satisfying or profound.

However, they live in my head a long time in feeling, spirit, and reverie.

Fallen Leaves



This is a Finnish movie. I didn't know any of the performers. After seeing it, I will be seeking out the work of Alma Poysti who is most impressive in this quiet, little movie.

It is always a learning experience when I watch a foreign movie about the small, everyday lives of people in other countries, their daily routines, their work lives, their after work lives. The truly fascinating thing about these movies is how people are people no matter where they live, how relationships start, how people feel and care about each other, or how they don't. Especially, in the case of very good movies, what things are important, essential to a relationships, courage, committment, and a bit of honesty.

This is barely a wisp of a movie, but the seemingly tiny changes the characters make reverberate within their lives and their relationships. Small choices like rescuing a dog or sitting with a person in a coma have bigger impacts than could have been imagined. 

Nyad



I was aware of Diana Nyad as a former swimmer and TV swimming commentator, but I was not aware of the fact her final attempt to swim from  Cuba to Florida was after she was 60 years old. I learned a lot from this movie like she couldn't get out of the water at all during the swim which was 110+ miles. She could tread water, but couldn't sleep. Even though a boat accompanied her, she ate and took care of all bioligical functions in the water. She had attempted the same swim 30 years before, but had failed after taking bad advice about currents and weather conditions.

 She would not make that mistake again. In addition to getting the most up-to-date shark repellent  devices and a boat-attached lane marker, she hires the best navigator she can find in John Bartlett (Rhys Ifans).

Bartlett: The axis of the Stream has to be calculated by someone who knows what the hell they're dealing with so the Stream will work for you, not against you. That means accounting for wind speed and drift and eddies against a variable current, re-computing every fifteen minutes. If you're off a fraction of a degree to the East, you're headed for Turks and Caicos. A fraction of a degree West? Texas. Or worse, you're spun into an eddy. So, choose the wrong dude again? No biggie, just might cost you your life. Sorry if that hurts your feelings, lady, but if you want a yes man? It's not gonna be me.

Annette Bening is quite believable as Nyad. Jodie Foster is perhaps even better as Nyad's business partner who reluctantly agrees to be her coach.

Diana: I started with twenty minutes. Then twenty more. Just to see. I'm already up to four, five hours in the pool. I can do it, Bonnie.

Bonnie: I don't know what's happening... if you're having a mental breakdown...

Diana: My mind has never been clearer.Don't you get it? The mind. The mind! This is what I was missing when I was a kid. I have it now.

Bonnie: A mind does not swim a hundred miles across the ocean. A body does.

Though they were never really a romantic couple, Bonnie and Diana were the closest of friends. Time and again, when Diana needed Bonnie she stepped up even when she thought it wasn't optimum for either of them. If the movie is at all accurate, it could be argued that Diana would not have made it without Bonnie.

Diana: You have no idea. You're not the one who has to do it--

Bonnie: Hey. Cut the shit. All this me-me- me crap. I re-mortgaged my house.

Diana: And so did I.

Bonnie: Yeah, see, the correct response is thank you.

There is also a subplot about Diana being sexually-abused by her coach when she was 14. He was a Hall of Fame swimming coach and her allegations gained no traction, even when coorborated by other swimmers. In a few well-placed flashbacks this is used to great advantage.

Announcer: To put Nyad's swim into context: there are 16 million people who do open water swimming. There are 116 people who have actually swum over twenty-four hours straight. But to go over 48 hours? That's only twelve people in the history of the world. Of those twelve, Nyad's in a venue with jellyfish, sharks, and the largest, fastest moving body of water in the world. And she needs to go 52 hours plus.

Diana's daunting training and the impossible swim attempted at the age of 60 would have made for an interesting story, but the added fact that she had to make the attempt multiple times due to circumstances beyond her control. Medics gave her medicine she was allergic to. She swam into box jellyfish. Another time, a tropical storm.

Yet, she refuses to accept defeat, determined to try again.

Bonnie: You have no idea how utterly exhausting it is to be your friend.

In the end, she is asked by the press to speak, she says she wants to say three things: "One, never, ever give up. Two, you're never too old to chase your dreams. And three, it may look like a solitary sport…but it takes a team."

One Day as a Lion



This is one of those gritty, low budget movies by a director, John Swab, with a reputation for getting the most out of what he has to work with which attracts stellar talent like J.K. Simmons and Virginia Madsen to get on board for a couple weeks of filming.

It may not be in the running for anyone's favorite movies of all time status, but given the paucity of very good movies available in 2023, it makes my top ten.

Written by Scott Caan who also played the hard luck ex-boxer, Jackie Powers, who landed a lucky punch knocking out the opponent he was supposed to take a dive against, and has to work off the lost money by doing strong arm work for the bookmaker/gangster played by Steve Grillo, who is an actor made for such roles. Here, Grillo is mobbed up by birthrite only and has been shuttled off to Oklahoma because of some past ineptitude.

Caan, who may never be the actor his father was, seems built for this role. He knows the storyline inside and out. His son has gotten himself into juvenile detention for hanging out with some friends who decide to detain a boy from a wealthy family in a failed kidnapping.  To get enough money for a lawyer, Caan reluctantly agrees to kill J.K. Simmons' Walter Dobbs unless he can get the small-time rancher to pay a gambling debt which has risen to six-figures. Dom, Jackie's lifelong buddy whose life he saved when both were in an orphanage has set up the hit. George Carroll, another fine character actor who is perfect for mid-level heavies, plays Dom.
 
Jackie: You can't kill a guy on a horse.

Dom: Well, is he still on the horse?

Jackie: No, he just went inside the place.

Dom: Great. Problem solved. Think about your kid. Do what you gotta do, and call me when it's done.

Inside Clanton's Diner, the problem is not solved. Boggs gets away and Jackie accidently shoots Bob Clanton (Bruce Davis). He takes the new waitress Lola Brisky (Marienne Rendon) hostage.

Lola: You might be the worst criminal in the history of the sport.

Rendon is the real star of this wild, little story. She is the daughter of the Black Widow Valerie Brisky (Virginia Madsen) who has buried four husbands and inherited their wealth. Lola never got a dime, went to Costa Rico and started an acting school.  She would inherit money if she got married. Jackie could pretend to be her husband for a short time because Valerie is dying of cancer.

Lola: So, you just gonna sit there?

Jackie: I'm currently wanted for murder, or I'm gonna be murdered by the guys who hired me to murder the guy I did not murder. So, yes, sitting here seems like the move. You got better ideas, I'll take any suggestions.

Jackie's son, Billy is played by Dash Melrose and he may be the most talented actor in the film. He is a rarely-used young actor who doesn't live in Hollywood, but seems to have a real desire to pursue acting.

Lola: Your dad's working on it.

Billy: Oh, and that's supposed to make me feel better.

Lola: Hey, he really loves you.

Billy: I know he does. He's just always been such a fuck up.

Lola: I actually think your dad's pretty special, but don't tell him I said so.

At the hearing, Lola proves to be very persuasive as Billy's Mom with Jackie pretending to be the boy's attorney.

Billy: Are you guys gonna take me to my Mom's?

Jackie: Is that what you want?

Billy: Uh uh.

Lola: Costa Rica?

Meantime, Pauly and Dom keep trying to collect the gambling debt from Walter Boggs who explains that he believes that trying to have him killed should cancel the debt. That isn't going to end well.

Dom: (letting Jackie go) Heart of a lion, Jackie. Heart of a lion. Make sure I never see you again.

Honorable Mention:

Sharper

The Covenant

Pain Hustlers

Hypnotic