CINEMA: BILLY BOB...OLIVIER?

NO, THORNTON. BUT WITH SLING BLADE, THE GENIAL ARKANSAS ACTOR SHOWS HIS OSCAR-WORTHY CHOPS

The movies' most memorable new face doesn't belong to a gorgeous thing named Gwyneth or Liv. It isn't all that pretty or even that new, seeing as its possessor, actor-auteur Billy Bob Thornton, is 41 and has been kicking around films for a decade. But those who have seen Thornton as Karl Childers in Sling Blade can't get that face out of their bad dreams. The skin is celibate smooth, the eyes clamped shut to keep the demons out, or in. And when the pursed mouth opens, it speaks, in a barrelly bass, of dreadful sins and Old Testament vengeance. Karl...

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