Michael C. Maronna Movies

Mad Matthewz makes his feature debut as a writer/director with Men Without Jobs. Ish (Ishmael Butler, formerly of the jazz-influenced rap group Digable Planets) and Oz (Bonz Malone of Slam) are roommates scrounging by in Brooklyn, barely scraping the rent together each month, and ignoring their bills. They spend their days hanging out, smoking, drinking, and playing video games. Ish wants to make it in the music biz, while Oz watches daytime cooking shows and puts his culinary skills to work impressing the grandmother of his young daughter, in hopes that his little girl will eventually come to live with him. Occasionally they visit their favorite record store, where Ish plans to buy rare R&B records when he gets some money, and peppers the proprietor with potential band names. Their pal Junie (Andre Royo of HBO's The Wire) frequently pops by, begging to be in their as yet unformed band, bragging about his beats, and lying about meetings with famous producers. Ish makes regular visits to his parents' house, but only when they aren't home. He raids the fridge and borrows his dad's (Reg E. Cathey) old records. One day, Ish meets Veronica (Anita Kopacz), a pretty young woman who shares his interest in graffiti and music. Veronica encourages Ish's creative ambitions, but his reluctance to take the next step -- to actually follow through on his dreams -- threatens their relationship. Oz, meanwhile, gambles his way into trouble with some local thugs. When he goes on the run, Ish and Veronica decide to go with him. Men Without Jobs had its world premiere at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Three lifelong cheaters wise up in this gross-out college comedy, which marks the second feature role for Rushmore star Jason Schwartzman. It's the last semester of senior year for roomies Dave (Devon Sawa), Sam (Jason Segel), and Jeff (Michael C. Maronna), a trio of twenty-somethings whose enthusiasm for higher learning is matched only by their enthusiasm for root canals performed without the aid of anesthesia. As such, their entire collegiate existence has been an elaborate series of cons and scams designed to plagiarize essays, skip midterms, and covertly manipulate bell curves. When deranged geek Ethan (Schwartzman) -- who harbors a psychotic fixation for a flaxen-haired co-ed named Angela (James King) -- gets wind of their scheming, he blackmails Dave and the gang into contriving a date between him and his crush. But as Dave cozies up to Angela, he realizes that no amount of scheming can hide the fact that he's the one that's truly in love. Slackers went by a number of working titles while in production at the ill-fated upstart Destination Films; when Destination went belly-up, the film sat on the shelf for over a year before being picked up for release by Sony's Screen Gems division. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Thirteen progressively bizarre episodes are included in the portfolio of The Adventures of Pete & Pete's third season. As before, the titular siblings, Big Pete and Little Pete, are portrayed respectively by Michael Maronna and Danny Tamberelli, with Hardy Rawls as the boys' lawn-obsessed father and Judy Grafe as their mother, a human radio receiver (it makes sense once you see the show). The season opener "35 Hours" features none other than Patricia Hearst as the very nice Mrs. Kretchmar. In other episodes, "Dance Fever" affords viewers the only opportunity to see Iggy Pop and Luscious Jackson on the same episode; Adam West appears as seriously deranged school principal Kent Schwinger in "Last Laugh" and "Allnighter"; and the series finale, "Saturday," could just as easily have been titled "The Road to Wellville" were one in a perversely whimsical mood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After its introduction in one-minute comedy sketch form in 1990, the cheekily absurdist sitcom The Adventures of Pete & Pete was formalized as a weekly half-hour in December of 1993. Eight surreal episodes were churned out during the first season, beginning with "Day of the Dot," guest-starring comedienne Ellen Cleghorne as a bus driver in a lengthy spoof of the avant-garde short subject The Dot. In "Nightcrawlers," Little Pete (Danny Tamberelli) aspires to break the World Non-Sleeping Record. "King of the Road" finds the Wrigley family inadvertently providing a nudie show during their yearly visit to Hoover Dam. Jude Ciccolella appears as Big Pete's (Michael Maronna) psycho shop teacher Mr. Slum in "Join or Die." "Rangeboy" is highlighted by a guest appearance by Frank Gifford, cunningly cast as Frank Gifford. One week later, another sports icon, John McLaughlin, is on hand for "When Petes Collide." Troubles in gym and history class dictate the action in "Don't Tread on Pete." And "Hard Day's Pete" shines the spotlight on Polaris, the rock band that performs the series' theme song -- on the front lawn of Pete and Pete's house. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Home Alone is the highly successful and beloved family comedy about a young boy named Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) who is accidentally left behind when his family takes off for a vacation in France over the holiday season. Once he realizes they've left him "home alone," he learns to fend for himself and, eventually has to protect his house against two bumbling burglars (Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern) who are planning to rob every house in Kevin's suburban Chicago neighborhood. Though the film's slapstick ending may be somewhat violent, Culkin's charming presence helped the film become one of the most successful ever at the time of its release. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide