Ira Deutchman Movies

A woman's tainted family history proves to be both a blessing and a curse in this drama from Chinese-American filmmaker Ann Hu. Fei (Zhou Xun) is a young woman who was born as a result of an extra-marital dalliance by her father, the wealthy Master Li. When Master Li dies while Fei is away at school, she returns home to pay her respects. At the reading of his will, Fei learns that Li's final wishes have specified she must continue her education at the same school as Ying (Vivian Wu), her half-sister, and that the two girls must share a home. Fei is not happy with this new arrangement; Ying makes no secret of her dislike of Fei, while many of Fei's new classmates regard her as a nuevo riche who has rejected her proletarian roots. Fei meets Huang (Wang Zhiwen), Ying's rich but rebellious boyfriend, and finds herself becoming deeply infatuated with him; Ying, aware of her half-sister's feelings, insists that Huang set a date and marry her as soon as possible to bring their budding romance to an end. Mei Ren Yi Jiu (aka Beauty Remains) received its North American premiere at the 2005 Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Writer/director Loren-Paul Caplin crafts this dark deconstruction on the contemporary obsession with fame and celebrity concerning a New York City tabloid journalist whose decadent lifestyle prompts a painful journey of self-discovery. Lorenzo is a C-level celebrity stalker whose sensationalistic stories serve as pop-culture fodder for the substance-starved masses. He works for FAME-TV, and lately his lifestyle has devolved into an unfulfilling cycle of decadent parties, casual sex, and fast-food spiritualism. Upon attempting to improve the quality of his work by exploring the relationships between chance, luck, and destiny, Lorenzo finds one of his older stories taking a sinister, and particularly sordid turn. As a result, Lorenzo's deep-rooted self-loathing is suddenly intensified, prompting a serious reevaluation of his own core values. But Lorenzo's soul has already been deeply corrupted, and by the time an unusual medical ritual unlocks both his strengths and his demons, the high cost of redemption may be more than he's willing to pay. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A slacker who's down on his luck takes a walking tour of New York City in this low-key independent comedy. Trevor Phelps (Jack Thyme) is a 26-year-old nobody with few appreciable skills and fewer prospects. Down to his last 20 bucks, Trevor wakes up one morning and suddenly remembers he has a job interview at 5:30 in the afternoon. With nothing else to do and a whole day ahead of him to fill, Trevor decides to walk to the other side of Manhattan for the interview, rather than take the train or grab a taxi. Along the way, Trevor meets a variety of friends and strangers, interacting and sharing his philosophies with everyone along the way. The first feature from director Anthony Jaswinski, Killing Time was shown at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this digitally shot feature from acclaimed director Wayne Wang) (The Joy Luck Club), the boundaries of sexual relations are put to the test by two individuals. Richard (Peter Sarsgaard) is a dot-com entrepreneur who, despite earning millions of dollars, feels little connection to the outside world. After frequenting a strip club, he offers Florence (Molly Parker), a sometime-stripper who also works as a drummer, $10,000 dollars to accompany him to Las Vegas for a short stay. She makes him a list of rules that must be followed: no kissing on the mouth, no penetration, and each will stay in separate bedrooms and only convene during the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Staying in adjoining rooms, they stick to the plan as laid out until they develop a fondness for each other -- still, Florence tries to maintain the order of their agreement. Despite Richard's declarations that he is in love with her, she is forced not to let herself get too involved, even when their sexual relationship begins to increase after the arrival of Florence's hooker friend Jerri (Carla Gugino), who after a brutal fight with a man, immerses herself in the sexual lives of Richard and Florence. The film also features Balthazar Getty and Shirley Knight in small supporting roles. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide

Mark Christopher wrote and directed this look back at the Disco Era when the popular Studio 54 was at its apogee in the late '70s. With obvious comparisons to Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997) and Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco (1998), the story introduces working-class 19-year-old Irish-American Shane O'Shea (Ryan Phillippe), who has lived with his father and siblings since the death of his mother when he was 12. Shane quickly rises from busboy to bartender at Studio 54, co-owned and managed in a paternal manner by entrepreneur Steve Rubell (Mike Myers). Busboy Greg Randazzo (Breckin Meyer) and Greg's wife, Anita (Salma Hayek), the club's coat check girl, become Shane's new friends, and he encounters the possibility of romance with soap star Julie Black (Neve Campbell). The story spans the summer of 1979 until the decline of Studio 54 a year later with IRS investigations, followed by the arrest and jailing of Rubell. Costumes by Ellen Lutter capture the glitter and glam-glitz of the period. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Can a homophobic tough guy and an out-of-the-closet gay man find happiness splitting the rent in Midtown Manhattan? This and other crucial questions are answered in this comedy. Frankie (Nick Scotti) is a macho and slightly thick-headed Italian-American from the Bronx who works in a pizzeria but dreams of becoming a successful actor, like his heroes Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. He's long had vague plans of someday moving to Manhattan and taking a serious shot at making his dream a reality, but it takes a personal crisis to put Frankie's plans into first gear -- namely, learning that his brother Pino (Anthony DeSando) has been sleeping with his girlfriend. This turn of events leaves Frankie with neither a significant other nor a place to live, so he starts hunting for affordable digs downtown. Looking in an alternative newspaper, Frankie spots an ad for a "GWM seeking same to share fully furnished apartment;" naive Frankie figures "GWM" means "Guy With Money," and since the price is right, he moves in right away. However, after spending several days with his new roommate Warren (Anthony Barrile) and his friends, Frankie slowly makes the discovery "GWM" actually means "Gay White Male," which is most certainly not what Frankie was looking for. However, he's in no financial position to go anywhere else, so both Frankie and Warren wind up confronting their fears and learning a lot about people different from themselves. As it turns out, Warren does a bit of acting, and when he hurts his leg shortly before the opening of an off-Broadway play in which he's to appear, Frankie arranges to take his place. There is, however, a catch -- Frankie will be playing a gay man, and he'll have to kiss another actor full on the lips in his big scene. Kiss Me Guido was the first feature film from writer and director Tony Vitale. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Ballad of Little Jo is based on a true story -- several true stories, in fact. Suzy Amis plays demure young Josephine Monagan, who in 1866 is run out of her home town after bearing an illegitimate child. Fleeing westward, Josephine is terrified by stories of how treacherous the frontier can be for a woman alone. As a result, upon arriving in the muddy burg of Ruby City, she disguises herself as a man, going so far as to scar her face to suggest that she's been in a few scrapes. In this guise, "Little Jo" does just fine by herself for nearly 30 years! Almost as good as Suzy Amis is Bo Hopkins as gunslinger Frank Badger, Little Jo's best buddy (if only he knew....) Written and directed by Maggie Greenwald, The Ballad of Little Jo does a marvelous job conveying the people and places of its period; and, unlike Bad Girls (which was released around the same time), we aren't bludgeoned to death by feminist revisionism. Unfortunately ignored when it went out to theatres in the fall of 1993, The Ballad of Little Jo has fared rather better on video. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Matty Rich's Straight out of Brooklyn is an unflinching portrait of an African-American family struggling to survive in a Brooklyn housing project. The family's oldest son (Lawrence Gilliard Jr.) decides that the easiest way to get his family out of the projects is by robbing a local drug dealer, but that plan turns disastrous when the pusher and his gang track the boy and his family down. Rich was only 19 years old at the time he wrote and directed Straight out of Brooklyn (he also appears as Larry in the film). ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Two brothers (Richard Gere, Kevin Anderson) have inherited a large farm (once voted "Farm of the Year") from their father, but cannot keep it afloat. When the farm goes bankrupt, the pair decide to torch the place and take off across the Midwest, fleeing the law to become folk heroes for many rural farmers in the area. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Independent filmmaker John Sayles creates one of his more artistic works with this period feature about a volatile 1920s labor dispute in the town of Matewan, West Virginia. Matewan is a coal town where the local miners' lives are controlled by the powerful Stone Mountain Coal Company. The company practically owns the town, reducing workers' wages while raising prices at the company-owned supply and grocery. The citizens' land and homes are not their own, and the future seems dim. When the coal company brings immigrants and minorities to Matewan as cheaper labor, union organizer Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) scours the town to unite all miners in a strike. As the crisis grows, strikers and their families are removed from their homes by two coal company mercenaries (Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp, both also featured in Sayles' Eight Men Out (1988)), and the situation heads toward a final shootout on Matewan's main street . Sayles' simple but telling screenplay brings to light the treatment of immigrants and minorities in the early 20th century South, and it draws sharp parallels between the Matewan labor battle and the Civil War some 50 years earlier. The visual feel of the film is real West Virginia backwoods, with much of the credit going to legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler, whose warm, rustic lighting belies the anxiety and terror felt by the oppressed townspeople. ~ Norm Schrager, All Movie Guide