The Movie: The Vanishing (U.S.)
The Crush Object: Kiefer Sutherland
The Story: Barney Cousins (Jeff Bridges) rehearses an abduction using ether and a bunch of Ted Bundy-ish props, and is generally a creeper. Not coincidentally, Jeff (Kiefer) …

The Movie: Far From Heaven
The Crush Object: Dennis Quaid
The Story: Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) has the perfect late-’50s life — married to a TV-company exec (Quaid), admired by friends and society-page scribes for her flawlessly …

The Movie: Tex
The Crush Object: Jim Metzler
The Story: Tex McCormick (Matt Dillon, rocking the standard-issue lank-haired butt-cut of the era) is having the customary operatic S.E.-Hinton-verse adolescence: his mother died of pneumonia when he was …

…Because we’re stupid, that’s why.
Okay, seriously: Couch Baron and I decided each to write up one film for every day in December. For him, it’s a way to get a jump on Oscar season; for …

The Movie: Rounders
The Crush Object: Goran Visnjic
The Story: Law student Mike (Matt Damon) is also a savant poker player torn between his natural ability at — and affinity for — the card-playing life and a …

The Movie: Mystery, Alaska
The Crush Object: Ron Eldard
The Story: Co-written by David E. Kelley and directed by Jay Roach (Meet the Parents), Mystery, Alaska opens on the town awaiting the arrival of a Sports Illustrated …

The Movie: Taps
The Crush Object: Timothy Hutton
The Story: Brian Moreland (Hutton), a rising senior at Bunker Hill Military Academy, has just gotten a promotion to head cadet; he even got to sip brandy and shoot …

The Movie: Practical Magic
The Crush Object: Goran Visnjic
The Story: Sally and Gillian Owens (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, respectively) struggle with their family legacy. Not only do they come from a long line of witches, …

The Movie: Backdraft
The Crush Object: Kurt Russell
The Story: The Netflix plot summary pretty much covers it: “[Firefighter] brothers Brian and Stephen McCaffrey (William Baldwin and Kurt Russell) are battling each other over past slights while …

The Movie: Virtuosity
The Crush Object: William Fichtner, initially
The Story: LAPD is working with LETAC, a Halliburton-type software company, on developing a virtual-reality program that uses a composite virtual killer named SID 6.7 (Russell Crowe) to …