Calliope Thorne Movies
Stephen Kinsella directs this family comedy-drama about a single mom looking for a job and her son's slow slide to the streets. Rita Ronaldi (Callie Thorne) ekes out a living as a waitress until she is unceremoniously canned. Tough-minded but unskilled, she faces an uphill fight to find a job to support her and her teenaged son Matt (Rufus Read). Pudgy, bespectacled, and asthmatic, Matt is struggling himself, especially after he comes under the sway of local riff-raff Bret (Noah Fleiss), who loves sex, drugs, and leading helpless teens astray. Soon Matt worships Bret, and he descends into a life of criminality. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- P.J. Brown, Anthony de Sando, (more)
- 1999
- NR
Three women try to set aside their personal and romantic difficulties in order to help out a fourth -- though it isn't easy -- in the dramatic comedy Chocolate for Breakfast. Amy (Marin Hinkle) is a stockbroker whose career is on the upswing when one night, very much out of character, she goes a bit wild and has a one-night-stand. To her initial dismay, Amy soon discovers she's pregnant, but she decides to keep the baby, quit her job when it arrives, and raise it on her own. Amy shares an apartment with three friends who pitch in to help her when they're not dealing with their own problems. Jessica (Brooke Hailey) is a paralegal trying to get into law school, Nina (Callie Thorne) is juggling medical school and her first relationship that's actually working out, and K.C. (Isabel Gilles) is an artist whose most notable work currently adorns the wall of a bar's restroom. Chocolate for Breakfast was the debut feature for director Emily Baer; Baer also co-wrote the screenplay with Brooke Hailey, who plays Jessica. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabel Gillies, Brooke Hailey, (more)
Eric Schaeffer writes, directs, produces, and stars in this wacky sex comedy. Nine days away from his wedding, Spindell (Schaeffer) realizes that, though his future bride Tabitha (Callie Thorne) is both gorgeous and understanding, he no longer finds her sexually attractive. In flashbacks, we learn about the sexually precocious Spindell, including a time as a toddler when he tries to have oral sex with an electrical outlet. Later in college, he has a long passionate affair with Samantha, who is just as neurotic and sexually kinked as he is. Wirey Spindell was screened at the 1999 Boston Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Schaeffer, Eric Mabius, (more)
An independent romantic comedy, Next Stop, Wonderland (1998) made headlines at the Sundance Film Festival when it became the object of a bidding war, ultimately won by Miramax Pictures to the tune of $6 million. Hope Davis stars as Erin Castleton, a night-shift nurse who's cruelly dumped by her boyfriend Sean (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a political activist. When her mother Piper (Holland Taylor) places a wildly inaccurate personals ad in the local paper, Erin is at first enraged, but then becomes curious. After she dates a variety of men who are all wrong for her, she meets Andre (Jose Zuniga), a handsome Brazilian music expert who invites her to Sao Paulo. Although Erin likes Andre, her Mr. Right is actually Alan Monteiro (Alan Gelfant), a plumber she's never met, though the two keep crossing paths. Trying to break out of his working class existence, Alan is studying marine biology but is indebted to a local mob boss, who wants him to kidnap a star blowfish from the local aquarium. Actress Taylor, the real-life aunt of co-writer, editor and director Brad Anderson, also appeared in his next film, Happy Accidents (1999). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hope Davis, Alan Gelfant, (more)
- 1996
- R
Can a nerdy and hopelessly Midwestern man find happiness with a cynical bohemian gal in New York City? Eddie Brodsky (Matthew Ross) is a genetic scientist living in Wisconsin who is crossbreeding new strains of rice; he's the sort of person who is so rigidly ordered that he's already picked out and paid for his cemetery plot -- and he's not even 30 years old yet. After his girlfriend gives him his walking papers, Eddie decides he needs to change his life and takes a job in New York City, where his new roommate Ray (Kevin Caroll) encourages him to loosen up a bit and gives him advice on charming the ladies. After a few disastrous dates, Eddie meets Lee (Callie Thorn), short for Natalie, who plays violin in a post-modern folk-rock ensemble. While Eddie and Lee have almost nothing in common on the surface, he finds her lovely and charming, and by hook or by crook he's determined to make things work with her. Ed's Next Move was the debut feature from writer/director John Walsh; it was primarily financed with credit cards and made possible in part by the availability of a stash of leftover film stock from Wayne Wang's film Smoke. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Ross, Calliope Thorne, (more)
