Mark Lanier Movies
An attorney fighting a corrupt system is battling his own demons as he tries to do right by others in this drama based on a true story. Vicky (Vinessa Shaw) is a nurse at a hospital in Houston whose life takes an unexpected turn when she accidentally jabs herself with a used syringe. The needle had been used on a patient who was HIV-positive, and Vicky contracts AIDS. Jeffrey Danfort (Marshall Bell) is a close friend of Vicky's who designs medical equipment, and he's inspired to invent a syringe with a safety point that would prevent such mistakes. However, as Jeffrey tries to sell his new invention to pharmaceutical manufacturers, he discovers how much they're governed by corruption and insider dealings. Jeffrey decides to take on the dishonest firms with a lawsuit, and he secures the services of Weiss & Danziger, a small law office eager for any kind of business. But while Paul Danziger (Mark Kassen) needs the work to support his wife and children, Mike Weiss (Chris Evans) is more concerned with supporting his cocaine habit, which is spiraling out of control. Even though Mike sees the case as a chance to prove himself, his hunger for drugs is a constant obstacle. Puncture received its world premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chris Evans, Mark Kassen, (more)
Writer-director Eric Chaikin's feature-length documentary A Lawyer Walks Into A Bar. . . offers a witty, seriocomic look at myriad aspects of the American legal process and judicial system. It hones in on six individuals, all prospective attorneys at the time of the film's production, and follows them through trials and travails as they approach and take the formidable bar. Chaikin then uses the subjects' stories as springboards to broader digressions on U.S. litigation. The film features a myriad of celebrity guest appearances, from both well-respected attorneys and entertainers. Participants include: attorneys Alan Dershowitz, Mark Lanier and Joe Jamail; comics Eddie Griffin and Michael Ian Black; TV commentators John Stossel and Nancy Grace, and many others. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- 2006
One man's identity makes for a difficult mystery to solve in this independent comedy drama from director Bradley Wigor. After a life-threatening accident, a man lies unconscious in a hospital bed, while police and doctors try to find out who he is. The mystery man's profile has been compared to a number of people recently reported missing and sought by the police. Things take a complicated turn when the injured man's particulars match up in different ways with six different men, leading to a number of people being eager to determine who he really is. Featuring Adam LeFevre, John Speredakos, Peter Friedman, and Jessica Almasy, Unconscious received its world premiere at the 2006 Palm Beach International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1999
- NR
A pair of outsiders in a small Southern town find themselves in unexpectedly hot water in the black comedy Rose's. Rose (Leslie France) was born to Italian-American parents in New Jersey before relocating to a small town in Georgia, where her husband sells cars and she runs a flower shop (named, appropriately enough, Rose's). However, Rose is too high strung and too much the New Jersey native to ever feel truly at home in the South. In addition, her business is not doing well and her husband isn't even trying to be discreet about his infidelity. One day, Rose's anger gets the better of her and she kills her husband, dragging the body to the walk-in cooler in her shop until she can figure out what to do with it. Just when she's desperately in need of some help, into her store strolls Willyum (Wayne DeHart), a sometime blues singer and ex-convict who has just gotten out of prison and is looking for work. Taking care of dead bodies when you're not busy with flowers is not the sort of occupation the average parolee is looking for, and Willyum is no exception, but he needs a job to get back in his wife's good graces, so he reluctantly agrees. Rose's also features supporting performances from Sylvia Miles as Rose's mother-in-law and Glenn Shadix as the town's rather unusual sheriff. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Leslie France, Wayne de Hart, (more)
