Round 2: Tossup 15

This film’s screenplay is the best-known of those written by Joe Dante’s co-host on The Movies That Made Me podcast, Josh Olson. A TIFF press junket for this film ended abruptly (15[1])when the actor playing one of its antagonists repeatedly asked “what is that?” while bashing the conference table. This film is widely cited as the last mainstream movie to be released on VHS. In this film, a villain twice asks, “how do you fuck that up?” after watching his goons fail to strangle a man. The put-on innocence of this film’s first sex scene, in which the female lead (*) roleplays as a high school cheerleader, contrasts with its second, in which shots of the male lead restraining her on a staircase are set to its theme by Howard Shore. A graphic novel inspired this 2005 film, whose inciting incident is the killing of two robbers by small-town diner owner Tom Stall. For 10 points, what film about a mob assassin turned family man was the first time David Cronenberg directed Viggo Mortensen? ■END■

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