Clint Eastwood Western "Pale Rider" (1985), the war films "Where Eagles Dare" (1968), "Kelly's Heroes" (1970), and "Heartbreak Ridge" (1986), the action thriller "In the Line of Fire" (1993), the romantic drama "The Bridges of Madison County" (1995), and the drama "Gran Torino" (2008). In addition to directing many of his own star vehicles, Eastwood has also directed films in which he did not appear, such as the mystery drama "Mystic River" (2003) and the war film "Letters from Iwo Jima" (2006), for which he received Academy Award nominations, the drama "Changeling" (2008), and the South African biographical political sports drama "Invictus"
Angelina Jolie critic Peter Stack wrote, "Jolie, working through an overwritten part, is a sensation as the desperate club crawler learning truths about what she's willing to gamble." She won the Breakthrough Performance Award from the National Board of Review. In 1999, Jolie starred in the comedy-drama "Pushing Tin", alongside John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. The film met with mixed reception from critics, and Jolie's character—Thornton's seductive wife—was particularly criticized; writing for "The Washington Post", Desson Howe dismissed her as "a completely ludicrous writer's creation of a free-spirited woman who weeps over hibiscus plants that die, wears lots of