Grace Zabriskie Movies

Gus Van Sant's dreamtime riff on Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Parts I and II" features River Phoenix as Mike Waters, a narcoleptic male hustler who is first seen drifting on a stretch of highway in Idaho. Mike shifts from Seattle to Portland, where he has taken up with Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves), who is also a hustler. The difference between them is Mike's sleepy state betrays an uncertain future, while Scott is ready to inherit a fortune from his father within a week. Mike feels a real affection for Scott, but Scott does not believe men can really love each other. Besides, Scott is mostly hustling as a means of slumming and killing time before he inherits his money. Mike, however, delusionally thinks Scott will continue with his life as a drifter after receiving his inheritance. Mike's belief is shared by the dregs of Portland, who live out of an abandoned hotel with their spiritual leader Bob (film director William Richert). They're convinced Scott's fortune will benefit them all, when in reality Scott has other plans. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

A woman learns the value of friendship as she hears the story of two women and how their friendship shaped their lives in this warm comedy-drama. Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) is an emotionally repressed housewife with a habit of drowning her sorrows in candy bars. Her husband Ed (Gailard Sartain) barely acknowledges her existence, and while he visits his aunt at a nursing home every week, Evelyn is not permitted to come into the room because the old women doesn't like her. One week, while waiting out Ed's visit, Evelyn meets Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy), a frail but feisty old woman who lives at the same nursing home and loves to tell stories. Over the span of several weeks, she spins a whopper about one of her relatives, Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson). Back in the 1920s, Idgie was a sweet but fiercely independent woman with her own way of doing things who ran the town diner in Whistle Stop, Alabama. Idgie was very close to her brother Buddy (Chris O'Donnell), and when he died, she wouldn't talk to anyone except Buddy's girl, Ruth Jamison (Mary-Louise Parker). Idgie gave Ruth a job at the cafe after she left her abusive husband, Frank Bennett (Nick Searcy). Between her habit of standing up for herself, standing up to Frank, and serving food to Black people out the back of the diner, Idgie raised the ire of the less tolerant citizens of Whistle Stop, and when Frank mysteriously disappeared, many locals suspected that Idgie, Ruth, and their friends may have been responsible. Evelyn finds herself looking forward to her weekly visits with Ninny, and is inspired by her story to take a new pride in herself and assert her independence from Ed. Fried Green Tomatoes was based on the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by actress-turned-author Fannie Flagg, who makes a cameo appearance as the leader of a self-help group. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In a futuristic world, the U.S. is ruled by a repressive government that bans most forms of media. As part of the enforcement, a cop (Billy Zane) is sent to the rebel state of Megaville on an undercover mission to infiltrate an unlawful media organization. ~ John Bush, Rovi

Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern play a pair of lovers on the run in David Lynch's surrealist road movie Wild at Heart. Cage's Sailor Ripley is a violent ex-convict with an Elvis Presley fixation who falls in love with Dern's Lula Pace Fortune, the daughter of a rich, but mentally unstable, Southern belle named Marietta (Diane Ladd, Dern's real-life mother). Just after Sailor is released from prison, where he was jailed for brutally killing one of Marietta's thugs, he and Lula take off on a wild cross-country trip, pursued by his parole officer, her mother, criminals, bounty hunters, and detectives. Along the way, Sailor and Lula have a lot of sex, share their pasts, share their respective obsessions for Elvis and The Wizard of Oz, and meet a lot of bizarre characters, including a seedy ex-marine (Willem Dafoe) who persuades Sailor to participate in a bank robbery. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

The groundbreaking and influential Twin Peaks series originally ran on the ABC network for the short time between April 1990 and June 1991. Created by film director David Lynch (Blue Velvet) and writer Mark Frost (Hill Street Blues), it gained an enormous following of viewers while challenging genre conventions and changing the standard of television programming. The story begins with Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) of the FBI arriving in the small town of Twin Peaks, WA, to investigate the murder of a popular high school girl named Laura Palmer. When the first season ended without answering the pressing question of "Who killed Laura Palmer?", the loyal audience had to wait all summer until next season to find out. However, the series proved to be more than just an engaging soap opera or juicy murder mystery. The dark supernatural subject matter was offset by moments of absurd humor, and the haunting musical score from Angelo Badalamenti was well suited to the cinematically rendered images. The creators succeeded in blending a very human drama into a humorous and entertaining crime show against a small-town background of eccentric characters and places. Offering plenty of symbolism, the series became highly discussed for exposing the darkness underneath apple-pie America, among other issues. For a series that gains layers of meaning with repeated viewing, it was also accused of alienating casual viewers. Some of the audience just lost interest during the second season, after the central mystery was solved. Nevertheless, the eerie mood and unusual themes of Twin Peaks influenced numerous subsequent television series from Northern Exposure to The X-Files. A rebroadcast on the Bravo cable channel in the late '90s added the Log Lady opening introductions to each episode of the series. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

My Father, My Son was based on the wrenching autobiographical book by Admiral Elmo Zumwalt. This TV movie begins in 1968, when Secretary of the Navy Zumwalt orders the anti-personnel drug Agent Orange to be sprayed on enemy troops in Vietnam; the Admiral has been assured by his superiors that the drug is essentially harmless. Meanwhile, Zumwalt's son Elmo III (Keith Carradine), having survived numerous debilitating childhood diseases, is serving in Nam. Fifteen years pass: Elmo III has contacted cancer, and Admiral Zumwalt must come to grips with the likelihood that his son's illness was caused by Agent Orange. Though the film does not shy away from politicizing, the focal point of My Father, My Son is the ever-strengthening relationship between Admiral Zumwalt and his stricken son (who died shortly after this film was first telecast in May of 1988). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ryan White was the teenaged hemophiliac who contacted AIDS through a blood transfusion, then was barred from attending school in Kokomo, Indiana. All but ostracized by the community, Ryan's mother (Judith Light) engages the services of a high-powered attorney (George C. Scott) to win back her son's basic rights. While the film ends with Ryan triumphing over his human adversaries, no effort is made to sugarcoat the situation. Even after he has been welcomed by another school, we see how the boy is shunned by certain students and their parents; nor is there any glossing over the fact that Ryan's days are numbered, despite the boy's enthusiastic plans for the time he has left (young White died shortly after this TV movie was first telecast in 1989). Despite its inherent sadness, The Ryan White Story is a celebration of an exceptional young human being whose short life touched so many others in a positive, uplifting manner. While Lukas Haas portrays the title character, the real Ryan White appears in the small role of Chad, another hemophiliac AIDS victim. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

CIA director Snyderburn (Joe Don Baker) talks former agent Leonard (Bill Cosby) into returning to the job in this failed Bond-style spy comedy. Leonard's mission is to stop the evil Medusa (Gloria Foster) from taking over the planet by controlling the behavior of the world's animals. The highlight of the film is when lobsters, fish, and frogs begin to attack the humans in a reversal of the food chain. Jane Fonda makes a brief appearance as she talks to Leonard while filming one of her exercise videos. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A kept woman learns to live independently in this made-for-TV melodrama. Her troubles begin after her successful and much loved "sugar daddy" suddenly dies, leaving her with nothing but her own strong will and very few real job skills to survive. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A stellar cast distinguishes this chillingly cautionary ABC Afterschool Special about the perils of drunk driving. Told in flashback, this is the tale of two couples: sensible Beth (Mare Winningham) and Tim (Lance Guest), and footloose Annie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Eric (Val Kilmer). The latter duo drink champagne on their first date, and continue imbibing at a dangerous rate during their subsequent double dates with Beth and Tim. Finally, Beth confronts Eric about his liquor problem, but he angrily blows her off -- with tragic results. Filmed several years before its network-TV debut in 1985, One Too Many has since become a staple of driver's-education classes throughout America. ~ Rovi

In this adventure a professor of anthropology and a reporter join forces to look into a strange occurrence with supernatural implications. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Teen-aged waitress Heather Langekamp is impregnated by college student Patrick Cassidy. Heather's kindly "loser" boss Michael Cole provides aid and comfort for the lonely, confused girl. Her father Ed Lauter wants to finance an abortion, but Cole insists upon taking responsibility. He marries Langenkamp, even though she hasn't expressed any overt love for him. The reasons are slightly vicarious: Cole had once been the suitor of Heather's mother. A novel by John Gardner was the source for the take-its-time Nickel Mountain. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi