Affliction (1998) - Paul Schrader 

A bit of a downer that's for sure. I realized sometime that I don't think I had ever seen a film Paul Schrader directed. This one with an Oscar nominated performance from Nick Nolte and an Oscar winning supporting turn from James Coburn wound up being the unintentional first. Certainly a bleak film it had the air of being something of a mystery but took a sharp and painful turn deep into the picture. At times the film was almost unbearable and somehow I feel a little disgusted with it. However there is something deeper there. I couldn't however buy into Coburn's character, he was just too much of an #@@+%$+ to ever be believable. He was too caricature to make me think this was a real person. Nolte does a fine job in a role that lets him run the gamut of emotions. Although both Willem Dafoe and Sissy Spacek were great they did seem to be somewhat under utilized. 

*Affliction was nominated for best actor (Nolte) and won for best supporting actor (Coburn)