Adulterers (2015) - free will ... and its consequences:

Adulterers

Adulterers is a cautionary tale, a powerful drama inspired by true events, and far more compelling than the contrived Fatal Attraction (1987) and Unfaithful (2002).

How you feel at the end of Adulterers may depend on your personal experience of the subject it deals with.

It’s right there in the title.

If you’ve ever been cheated on by your significant other – then this movie might sting.

If you have cheated on your significant other – then this movie should rightly sting if you have any conscience and sense of guilt about the choice you made.

Consequences for making the wrong choice is the theme unflinchingly examined in this movie, released in the United States on January 5, 2016, written, produced and directed by H.M. Coakley.

Lead actor, Sean Farris threw himself into this role of a betrayed husband.

We see the anguish of his character, his pain, regret, broken heart, broken life, and ultimately broken mind.

Sean Farris is Samuel, a store assistant, working extra hours during a sweltering New Orleans afternoon.

It’s his first wedding anniversary; a special day in any marriage.

Samuel is a proud and happy man, deeply in love with his wife, Ashley (Danielle Savre).

He regrets having to work so many hours and laments at their lack of money, but he plans on making it up to Ashley.

He swings by his home halfway through his day, carrying his wife’s favorite flowers and chocolates.

Besides their money troubles, all seems right with Samuel’s world until he catches Ashley and her lover, Damien (Mehcad Brooks), naked, having sex in the bedroom.

Devastated, Samuel shoots them both.

This is not a spoiler; it happens within the first twelve minutes.

Downstairs, he sits on the couch, and drinks whiskey straight from the bottle.

Suffering a psychological break, he rethinks the situation.

This time, in his imagination, he doesn’t pull the trigger.

What if I’d waited instead of acting on impulse?

What would I say to them?

How far would I go to punish them?

What would they say to justify their sin, or lie their way out of the situation? 

These questions are the basis for the imagined trial and torture he puts his wife and her lover through in that stifling room.

As Samuel struggles with the pain of betrayal and infidelity, the wedding ring, crucifix and Bible often the focus of the camera, he struggles with his faith.

Finally, as Samuel himself points out:

"You ain't sorry. You're just sorry that you got caught. It's time that you dealt with the consequences of your actions."

In forcing them to face the consequences of their actions, Samuel is then left to face the consequences of his own.

There are no winners in this story; everyone is destroyed.

Adultery … it’s all fun and games ... until you get caught!

Recommended reading - Into the Dark (2016):

Into the Dark

The Hidden World of Film Noir, 1941-1950

By Mark A. Vieira.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

Published by Running Press Adult.

Illustrated edition.

Published 2016.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0762455233

ISBN-13: 978-0762455232

Description:

Bursting with glossy stills and archival material, film historian and photographer Mark A. Vieira's Into The Dark: The Hidden World of Film Noir, 1941-1950 offers an unprecedented portal into Hollywood's golden era of cynicism. A systematic study of noir, this gorgeous coffee table tome fills a significant gap in scholarship on the genre.” – MovieMaker.

You know film noir when you see it: the shadowed setting; the cynical detective; the femme fatale; and the twist of fate. Into the Dark captures this alluring genre with a cavalcade of compelling photographs and a guide to 82 of its best films.

Into the Dark is the first book to tell the story of film noir in its own voice. Author Mark A. Vieira quotes the artists who made these movies and the journalists and critics who wrote about them, taking readers on a year-by-year tour of the exciting nights when movies like Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and Sunset Boulevard were sprung on an unsuspecting public. For the first time, we hear the voices of film noir artists speak from the sets and offices of the studios, explaining the dark genre, even before it had a name. Those voices tell how the genre was born and how it thrived in an industry devoted to sweetness and light.

Into the Dark is a ticket to a smoky, glamorous world. You enter a story conference with Raymond Chandler, visit the set of Laura, and watch Detour with a Midwest audience. This volume recreates the environment that spawned film noir. It also displays the wit and warmth of the genre's artists. Hedda Hopper reports on Citizen Kane, calling Orson Welles "Little Orson Annie." Lauren Bacall says she enjoys playing a bad girl in To Have and Have Not. Bosley Crowther calls Joan Crawford in Possessed a "ghost wailing for a demon lover beneath a waning moon." An Indiana exhibitor rates the classic Murder, My Sweet a "passable program picture." Illustrated by hundreds of rare still photographs, Into the Dark conveys the mystery, glamour, and irony that make film noir surpassingly popular.

About TCM:

Turner Classic Movies is the definitive resource for the greatest movies of all time. We entertain and enlighten to show how the entire spectrum of classic movies, movie history, and movie-making touches us all and influences how we think and live today.

Recommended reading - Film Noir Compendium (2016)

Film Noir Compendium

Key Selections from the Film Noir Reader Series

By Alain Silver and James Ursini.

Published 2016.

Published by Limelight.

Illustrated edition.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1495058980

ISBN-13: 978-1495058981

Description:

In this essential study of film noir, editors Alain Silver and James Ursini select the most significant and influential articles on the movement from their highly respected Film Noir Reader series and assemble them into a single, convenient, heavily illustrated volume. Still included, of course, are many rare early articles and such seminal essays as Borde and Chaumeton's “Towards a Definition of Film Noir” from Panorama du Film Noir Americain, Paul Schrader's “Notes on Film Noir ” and “Paint It Black: the Family Tree of the Film Noir” by Raymond Durgnat. With newer studies such as “Lounge Time” by Vivian Sobchack, “Manufacturing Heroines in Classic Noir Films” by Sheri Chinen Biesen, and “Voices from the Deep: Film Noir as Psychodrama” J. P. Telotte, this collection of over 30 articles probes this most influential American film movement from varying angles: formalist, feminist, structuralist, sociological, and stylistic; narrative-thematic historical, and even from the point of view of a pure aficionado. There is something in this volume for every student or devotee of film noir. Plus like the readers that have proven an invaluable tool for academics planning a syllabus, it can serve as the most complete core text for any of the myriad of film noir courses taught throughout the world.

On this day in movie history - Fences (2016):

Fences

directed by Denzel Washington,

written by August Wilson,

based on the play by August Wilson,

was released in the United States on December 25, 2016.
Music by Marcelo Zarvos.

Cast:

Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, Mykelti Williamson, Saniyya Sidney, Christopher Mele, Lesley Boone, Jason Silvis, Toussaint Raphael Abessolo, Gregory Bromfield, Hanibal Chancellor, Cara Clark, Tra’Waan Coles, Sean Cummings, Ellwood Davis, DieselDonlow, Mark Falvo, Joe Fishel, Kristie Galloway, Carlos Gonzalez, John W. Iwanonkiw, Floyd Jackson, Daniel James, Aristle Jones IV, Trudi Kennedy, Malik Abdul Khaaliq, Connie Kincer, Ashley Marie Lewis, Cecily Lewis, Wayne Leya, Frank McAleavey, Chris McCail, Terri Middleton, Kelly L. Moran, Mike Nardi, Phil Nardozzi, Frankie Palombi, Kameron Peters, Eric Rasmussen, Dillon Stark, Brian E. Stead, Will Tolliver Jr.

On this day in music history - My Piano Dolce Vita: A Journey Across Italian Soundtracks, by Olivia Belli (2016):

The album My Piano Dolce Vita: A Journey Across Italian Soundtracks,

by Olivia Belli,

was released on December 1, 2016.

On this day in movie history - Nocturnal Animals (2016):

Nocturnal Animals

directed and written by Tom Ford,

based on the novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright,

was released in the United States on November 23, 2016.
Music by Abel Korzeniowski.

Cast:

Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney, Andrea Riseborough, Michael Sheen, Bobbi Menuez, Zawe Ashton, Jena Malone, Neil Jackson, Kristin Bauer, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher, Ellie Bamber, Karl Glusman, Robert Aramayo, Graham Beckel.