Have you seen everything in the new releases? Do you need suggestions for your queue? On Thursdays I pick non-new releases I like, and you might too. This week; how about a little something with a twist?

MATCHSTICK MEN (2003)
Director: Ridley Scott




I don’t remember why I thought I didn’t like Nicolas Cage, but I loved him in this movie. Cage is a quirky neurotic fellow with lots of tics that are really fun to watch, so he was perfect to play Roy, a quirky neurotic fellow with lots of tics....

Cage does a great job and so does Sam Rockwell as his protégé Frank. Roy and Frank love each other, not in a Brokeback Mountain way, but in more of a Sting way. Roy is the senior antiques dealer, aka con artist, and is teaching Frank the trade….or is it Frank doing the teaching?

Roy is obsessive, obsessive, obsessive and has a hard time with doors, but all that changes when his long lost daughter Angela shows up. Alison Lohman plays the teen to perfection; much like her character plays her father. Do all teenage girls have some sort of gene that allows them to reduce grown men to rubble with two tears and a pout? I wish I would have known about that back then because it sure as hell doesn’t work when you’re forty! Anywho, Angela has got Roy’s number and she talks Roy into teaching her some lesson’s too, (think Paper Moon.)

In this story of two men and a teenager, there is great acting, directing, writing and laughs. With three snaps up and a twist, I recommend checking out MATCHSTICK MEN this weekend, not taking calls from people who claim you’ve won something and keeping your dog out of the money, or vice versa.