Danny Burstein Movies
A disconnected accountant finds his mundane life injected with a new sense of urgency after striking up a friendship with a charismatic attorney in director Marcel Langenegger's sexually charged action thriller. Jonathan (Ewan McGregor) is an accountant who has lost his passion in life. When his powerful new lawyer friend, Wyatt (Hugh Jackman), introduces Jonathan to a salacious underground sex club called The List, the dejected accountant soon believes he has found the woman of his dreams (Michelle Williams). His newfound happiness takes a turn for the worse, however, when Jonathan is named the prime suspect in the woman's disappearance as well as the theft of 20 million dollars. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman, (more)
The first film by Duncan Tucker, Transamerica stars Felicity Huffman as a pre-operative transsexual named Bree (whose given name was Stanley). One week before going under the knife, Bree learns that she fathered a boy who is now 17 and is in trouble with the law. Bree would like to ignore this information, but is forced to meet the young man, Toby (played by Kevin Zegers), by her analyst Margaret (Elizabeth Peña), who will not allow the surgery to happen unless Bree meets him and confronts this aspect of her past. Upon meeting, the son believes that Bree is simply a do-gooder. She buys a car and the two road-trip back to her home in Los Angeles, Bree all the while attempting to keep from Toby the truth of the situation. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Felicity Huffman, Kevin Zegers, (more)
While writer/director Hal Salwen won over critics and festival audiences with his low-key directorial debut, Denise Calls Up, his second feature, His and Hers, never made it past the festival circuit. Salwen next produced Duane Incarnate, a quirky romantic comedy. Gwen (Caroleen Feeney, who appeared in Salwen's earlier films) narrates the strange tale of her and her three friends, the statuesque Fran (Kristen Johnston), the lovely Connie (Cynthia Watros), and the dumpy, unemployed Wanda (Crystal Bock). Three of the four pals seem to be feeling particularly good about their lives. They're all in fulfilling relationships, and Gwen's trainer boyfriend (Jim Gaffigan) has them on an exercise and diet program. One day, Wanda, who has no luck with men, tells them that she's met the perfect guy, and fallen completely in love with him. As she describes him, with his good looks, fancy job, and incredible passion for her, he sounds too good to be true, and Gwen begins to suspect that Wanda has invented him. Challenged to produce her new beau, Wanda introduces the tall, handsome Duane (Peter Hermann) to the gang. Her friends are incredulous and soon grow extremely jealous. Their own relationships begin to self-destruct, and some unusual weather patterns have Gwen believing that Wanda has somehow conjured Duane through the force of her imagination, and thereby ruptured the very fabric of the universe. The three distraught women team together, determined to break up the happy couple at all costs. Shot on-location in New York City, Duane Incarnate had its world premiere at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Caroleen Feeney, Kristen Johnston, (more)
- 2002
At first glance, it is assumed that a murdered woman was a professional escort. But a clue found in the corpse's pocket leads the detectives to a "swingers party," where the victim had been in a fight with another woman. It is then revealed that the dead woman was a doctor who had been writing fraudulent prescriptions for the illegal painkiller Oxycodone. The outcome of the case is determined by an apparent betrayal within the ranks of a mob family. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2001
The owner of a Chinese restaurant is beaten to death. The detectives collar a teenaged suspect, which leads to the conclusion that the perpetrator and his friends killed simply for the thrill of it. The DA's office is faced with the decision to opt for a lesser penalty on the basis of the perpetrators' ages, or to go the distance and demand that the teenaged murderers be sentenced to death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
Could the death of a 12-year-old quadriplegic, who suffocated in his own home, have been deliberate? The suspects range from the dead boy's parents to his older sister. Once revealed, the perpetrator claims to have been an angel of mercy -- a statement which might actually be a smokescreen for a "thrill killing." Telecast April 24, 1998, "Burden" was one of the few Law & Order episodes to be seen on a Friday evening, rather than its customary mid-week time slot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
An autistic youth dies while in custody, leading Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Logan (Chris Noth) to investigate the clinic where the victim was being treated. The clinic's head, Dr. Alan Colter (Lawrence Pressman), has been known to use radical and possibly illegal therapies on his patients, most of these "treatments" involving electric shock. The D.A. office's efforts to tie Colter together with the victim's death are complicated by the lack of cooperation from the parents of Colter's patients. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
