Who's in It: Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte, Beatrice Dalle, Don McKellar
The Basics: Interesting French director Olivier Assayas takes on the Lifetime addiction/recovery TV movie genre and peels the dumbness off it. His ex-wife and screen muse Cheung (Hero) plays the Courtney Love role, an almost-famous junkie wife of an OD'd rock star.
What's the Deal: If you want to see a no-nonsense, almost documentary-like movie about recovering drug addicts, then check out last year's really great but barely released Down to the Bone. But this is an Olivier Assayas movie. And that means — to movie nerds who know who Assayas is, anyway — that we're inside his vision, the art-film approach to whatever he's decided to make a movie about. That's why, against all logic, Cheung remains radiant and beautiful instead of all busted up like an actual junkie. Because she's supposed to be a marginally famous one, see.
What's Great About This: Well, Cheung for starters. She's never not good. Check her out in In the Mood for Love and try to pretend she's not suddenly your favorite actress of all time. Nick Nolte, in an odd moment of casting, is as warm and sympathetic and moving as his famous arrest photo is disturbing.
Super-Important Awards Stuff: Cheung was given the best actress prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for this one.
You'll Never Be This Civilized or Sophisticated: Cheung and Assayas signed their divorce papers on the set during production.