Antonia Dauphin Movies
An overly critical father gets a unique opportunity to reconnect with his estranged son, if he can only embrace the music that once divided them in this uplifting family drama inspired by Dr. Oliver Sacks' case study "The Last Hippie." Forbidden by his conservative engineer father, Henry (J.K. Simmons), from attending a Grateful Dead concert back in 1967, Gabriel Sawyer (Lou Taylor Pucci) packs his bags and runs away from home. Twenty years later, Henry and his wife, Helen (Cara Seymour), receive word that Gabriel has been diagnosed with a benign brain tumor that requires delicate surgery to remove. Though the operation is successful, Henry and Helen soon learn that the part of their son's brain responsible for creating memories has been damaged by the long-neglected tumor, and that as a result, Gabriel will find it difficult to distinguish the past from the present. As communication grows increasingly difficult, frustrated father Henry becomes staunchly determined to make up for lost time by forming a solid father-son bond with Gabriel, and begins researching treatment for brain injuries. It isn't long before Henry's inquiries lead him to music therapist Dr. Dianne Daly (Julia Ormond), whose innovative methods have yielded impressive results in the past. When Dr. Daily exposes Gabriel to the rock & roll music that he loved as a youth, something incredible begins to happen: Gabriel finally finds the words to express himself, and he regains the ability to have meaningful conversations. As his own health begins to take a turn for the worse, Henry determines to let go of his loathing for the music that has awakened his son's consciousness, and embrace the joy of loving the child he once drove away. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- J.K. Simmons, Lou Taylor Pucci, (more)
Two women whose peoples are often at odds find they're more alike than anyone expects in this drama from directors Stefan C. Schaefer and Diane Crespo. Rochel (Zoe Lister-Jones) and Nasira (Francis Benhamou) are two young women who have begun teaching at a public grade school in Brooklyn, NY. Rochel is an Orthodox Jew and Nasira is a Muslim of Pakistani descent, and the students and the administrators at the school are concerned there might be friction between the two teachers. However, over the course of their first year of teaching, Rochel and Nasira discover they have far more in common than they imagined -- both sometimes find themselves culturally out of place in 21st century New York, and both are trying to live within the traditions of their faith while struggling with their own feelings. In particular, Rochel and Nasira bond over the fact both are expected to enter into arranged marriages, Nasira with a wary optimism and Rochel with a great deal of trepidation. Arranged was screened in competition at the 2007 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Zoe Lister-Jones, Francis Benhamou, (more)
A small-town beauty queen and an unlicensed mortician set out across the Texas plains on a journey of self-discovery in director Will Geiger's meditative road movie. Annabelle has never known what life is like outside the fiercely competitive world of beauty pageants; her mother's constant demands of physical perfection a never-ending stream of acute, soul-crushing criticism. Elvis doesn't have his mortician's license, but that doesn't stop his eccentric father from putting him to work in the family mortuary. When the sting of her mother's words becomes too painful to endure, Annabelle flees to the town mortuary knowing that is the last place her mother would come looking for her. When Elvis discovers the beautiful Annabelle cowering among the corpses, he sweeps her away on an impromptu road trip so that the pair may free themselves from their daily drudgery long enough to discover their own identities and realize what they really want out of life. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Max Minghella, Blake Lively, (more)
A man and a woman are faced with an unusual "fifth wheel" in their relationship -- his analyst -- in this offbeat independent comedy. Jake Singer (Chris Eigeman) is a schoolteacher working at a respected private school for boys. Jake recently parted ways with his longtime girlfriend and isn't especially happy about being single again. Jake begins seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Morales (Ian Holm), whose advise often seems to cause more harm than good. Jake meets Allegra (Famke Janssen), a woman whose adopted son attends his school; Allegra is still getting over the death of her husband, but Jake is strongly attracted to her and she seems to feel the same way. Morales is convinced Allegra is simply using Jake (there are questions about her ability to care for her son that may cause her to lose custody if she remains single), and he advises Jake that if he must go on dating her, he should seduce Allegra without becoming emotionally involved. This is more easily said than done, but as Jake and Allegra spend more time together, he begins seeing and hearing Morales at the most inopportune moments, with the doctor offering un-called-for tips on their relationship. The Treatment received the award for best "Made In New York" feature at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Christopher Eigeman, Famke Janssen, (more)
In the expatriate-littered Paris of the 1920s, painter Nick Hart (Keith Carradine) mingles with Ernest Hemingway (Kevin O'Connor) and other leading lights of the Lost Generation while palling around with gossip columnist Oiseau (Wallace Shawn), whose reportage has helped establish the international reputation of the writers and artists who fled America for France after WWI. Older and less successful than many of his fellow painters, Hart relies on gallery owner Libby Valentin (Genevieve Bujold) to sell what she can of his work while he supports himself drawing cartoons for Oiseau's weekly column. In a café one day, Hart spies Rachel Stone (Linda Fiorentino) on the arm of her husband, Bertram (John Lone), a condom magnate and art patron who's trying to buy his way into society. It seems Hart and Rachel share a romantic past of which Stone is completely unaware. At the salon of writers Gertrude Stein (Elsa Raven) and Alice B. Tolkas (Ali Giron), Hart suffers a nasty run-in with the Stones and meets Nathalie de Ville (Geraldine Chaplin), a rich socialite who wants to steal three paintings from her estranged husband. Nathalie plies Hart with sexual favors and the promise of cash in exchange for his help in forging copies of the paintings. Although he's loath to follow in the footsteps of his father, a gifted forger, Hart acquiesces, and soon his rivalry with Stone and his involvement with the forgeries leads to death, destruction, and scandal in the art world. Bujold, Shawn, Chaplin, and Carradine are all regular collaborators of iconoclastic director Alan Rudolph, who filmed The Moderns in Montréal and would go on to lens the similarly intellectual Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Keith Carradine, Linda Fiorentino, (more)
This crime drama tells the story of the man behind the terrible Kansas City massacre, Verne Miller. Miller started out as a South Dakota sheriff and during the 1920s became a notorious gangster hit man. He started out doing jobs for Al Capone in Chicago and was so good at his job that Capone appointed him head of his Kansas City operation. The trouble begins when Miller thinks he has more power than he actually does and defies his boss to save two captured gangsters. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Scott Glenn, Barbara Stock, (more)
The time is The Future; the place is Rain City, formerly Seattle. The city is a police state, while the citizens have adopted the manner and dress of 1940s gangsters. Recently released from prison, ex-cop Kris Kristofferson tries to touch base with his ex-girlfriend Genevieve Bujold, who runs a 1950s-style cafe. Hoping to make up for past sins, thereby redeeming himself in Bujold's eyes, Kristofferson endeavors to save innocent, newly arrived couple Keith Carradine and Lori Singer from the evil designs of crooked Joe Morton. Trouble in Mind strives mightily for a film noir ambience, right down to the presence of a sinister, Greenstreetesque "fat man," played in male drag (for a change) by Divine. The title tune for Trouble in Mind is sung over the credits by Marianne Faithful. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kris Kristofferson, Keith Carradine, (more)
Anyone interested in why UFOs might be stealing our lettuce deserves to sit through this film. The plot, not a regular garden-variety, involves an earthling experimenting with the explosive potential of lettuce. This singularly dedicated biologist runs into interference by the police, finds his mother who has been missing for years, and begins a love affair with the daughter of a baker. Involved in this mix of characters is the U.S and Russian armies, and a film crew working on a movie about Hitler. None of these elements make sense in the long run, or short run either. These oddities are being observed from the UFO, which is perched out in space like a hawk, waiting for one of the little lettuces to blossom into a full-blown explosive device before it swoops down to steal the organic weapon of mass destruction. This film was distinguished at the 1984 Vienna Film Festival as being one of the entries in the "Cinema Nobody Likes" category. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ursula Monn










