New to the Movies You Might Not Know list: two movies written by Scott Frank.
First is “The Lookout,” with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a guy who was a big shot in his small town until a tragic car accident, which left him some mental problems and a job as a janitor in a bank. He gets drawn into a plot to rob that bank by some locals who know his history and take advantage of him. Jeff Daniels plays his blind roommate. Isla Fisher plays, well, the Isla Fisher redhead vixen role. With Bruce McGill as the kid’s father (this guy has had quite a career as a character actor since he was D-Day in “Animal House”).
Second is “Out of Sight,” based on an Elmore Leonard book, with George Clooney as an escaped con and Jennifer Lopez (before she was J-Lo, in a very solid performance) as US Marshall Karen Sisco, who is assigned to track down Clooney and falls for him in the process. The scene with the two of them locked in the trunk of a car is worth the whole movie. With the always-reliable Ving Rhames, plus Dennis Farina, Steve Zahn, and an almost unrecognizable Albert Brooks.
Scott Frank later went on to write the underrated “Karen Sisco” TV series, which had a too-brief run on ABC with the yummy Carla Gugino as the title character. He’s also responsible for the screenplays for “Get Shorty,” “Minority Report,” and “The Interpreter.”
Check out the entire Movies You Might Not Know list and let me know one of your favorites I’ve left off.