Marcus Viscidi Movies
- 1992
A mysterious stranger has a surprising effect on three generations of women in this romantic comedy-drama. Ruth (Colleen Dewhurst) is a widow who runs a bed and breakfast in a small New England tourist community. Ruth shares her home with Claire (Talia Shire), who recently lost her husband, a well-known 1960s political activist, and Claire's daughter Cassie (Nina Siemaszko). Claire has to deal with the humiliation of a recent biography of her late husband that reveals the impressive degree of his infidelity, while Cassie is expected to follow in her father's political footsteps, even though she'd rather pursue a career in music. One day, the three women discover a gentleman who calls himself Adam (Roger Moore) has washed up on the shore. Adam is a con artist who was literally thrown off the yacht of someone he was trying to cheat, and now he fakes amnesia while he tries to get back on his feet and hide from his most recent victims. He does some odd jobs around the B&B to earn his keep and begins courting Claire, while he urges Ruth to take a chance with the lobster fisherman who has been after her for a date and encourages Cassie to follow her dream of making music. Bed and Breakfast was directed by Robert Ellis Miller, best known for his TV work and the feature Reuben, Reuben; the film was shot in 1989 but didn't receive its limited release until three years later. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roger Moore, Talia Shire, (more)
Directed by Jan Egleson, Big Time follows a frustrated model (Mia Sara) through the ups and downs of the hectic and drug-addled late '80s fashion scene. The made-for-television feature also stars Ron Silver, Dennis Boutsikaris, and Adrian Pasdar, and is based on a play written by Keith Reddin. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mia Sara, Dennis Boutsikaris, (more)
In this whimsically absurd comedy, Al Fountain (John Turturro) is an rigidly self-controlled electrical engineer who has discovered his first gray hair and has begun seeing things (bicycles running backwards, coffee pouring from the cup into the pot). To Al's shock, he's fired without notice from his job and told to go home. Instead, he rents a car and heads out in search of Splatchee Lake, a vacation spot he remembers visiting as a child (and one of the few places where he ever felt truly content). Al discovers that the lake is too polluted to swim in, but he finds The Kid (Sam Rockwell), a genial eccentric who wears a coonskin cap and lives in the woods with a large collection of junk scavenged from trash heaps. The Kid encourages Al to be spontaneous and take some chances in his life; an opportunity to do so presents itself when Dupree sisters Floatie (Catherine Keener) and Purlene (Lisa Blount) appear, and love (or a reasonable facsimile) is in the air. Writer/director Tom DiCillo had originally intended this project to follow his debut feature, the hipster comedy Johnny Suede, but problems with financing and production delays led him to make the indie film satire Living in Oblivion first. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Turturro, Sam Rockwell, (more)
A cop tries to sort out his personal life while a wave of odd behavior sweeps through his apartment building in this quirky comedy. Ray Pluto (Dennis Leary) is a New York City police detective who has been in an emotional slump since his wife and daughter died in an accident several years earlier. Ray's mood isn't lightened at all when he and his partner Jerry Cubbins (Steve Buscemi) stop into a fast food restaurant just as an armed robbery is taking place. Ray throws out his back while reaching for his gun and drops the weapon; a child who picks up the gun and kills the intruders is declared a hero in the press, while Ray is dubbed "the loser cop." Put on medical leave, Ray sinks deeper into a funk until he starts seeing a chiropractor for his bad back; the beautiful Dr. Ann Beamer (Elizabeth Hurley) begins kneading the kinks out of Ray's spine and starts him thinking about a new romance. Meanwhile, Juan Benitez (Luis Guzman) is the superintendent of Ray's apartment building, and he's not been getting along well with his teenage daughter Maribel (Melonie Diaz), who has a wild streak and refuses to obey her father's strict rules. Maribel is no happier with her father, and decides to do something about their relationship -- she hires two men to assassinate her dad. And elsewhere in the same building, a pair of would-be screenwriters (Donald Faison and Keith Knobbs) wants to ensure the realism of their cops-and-robbers story by going on a little crime spree of their own. Double Whammy had its world premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denis Leary, Elizabeth Hurley, (more)
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past -- the Mark S. Waters directed fusion of A Christmas Carol with a traditional romantic comedy -- stars Matthew McConaughey as Connor Mead, a famous photographer and confirmed womanizer. He takes a break from his playboy lifestyle to attend his brother's wedding, where he becomes reacquainted with Jenny Perotti (Jennifer Garner), the only girl who ever captured his heart. After Connor delivers a drunken speech at the rehearsal dinner where he says that love isn't real, he's met in the bathroom by the ghost of his Uncle Wayne (Michael Dogulas), a Hefner-esque horndog who taught Conner everything he knows about picking up chicks. Uncle Wayne informs Connor that, over the course of the evening, he'll be visited by three ghosts who will lead him through his romantic past, present, and future. Will Connor learn to get over himself and love the right woman, or will he remain an emotional Scrooge? ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, (more)
Originally written in 1970, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lanford Wilson's play Lemon Sky was brought to television by way of PBS' American Playhouse anthology. Based loosely on Wilson's own experiences, the story concerns a 17-year-old boy (Kevin Bacon) who hasn't seen his father in a dozen years. Utilizing a complex flashback-flash forward technique, the protagonist recalls his six-month stay with his dad (Tom Atkins) and dad's second wife (Lindsay Crouse). Featured in the cast is Bacon's actress wife Kyra Sedgwick, here playing his half-sister. Lemon Sky premiered February 10, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Bacon, Tom Atkins, (more)
Following up his debut, Johnny Suede, director Tom DiCillo presented this filmmaking comedy that allegedly draws much from DiCillo's experiences on the set of the 1991 Brad Pitt vehicle. Steve Buscemi stars as Nick Reve, the long-suffering director of a no-budget independent film. If he's not dealing with his heartbroken director of photography Wolf (Dermot Mulroney), Reve is trying to keep his leading lady Nicole (DiCillo mainstay Catherine Keener) happy or ignore the pseudo-auteur suggestions of Pitt-inspired name-actor Chad Palomino (James LeGros). All the while, the audience can't ever be sure if the scene they're watching is a dream or reality. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, (more)
A lonely teenager thinks that he's found love, but it turns out to be more than he bargained for. Matt Leland (Chris O'Donnell) is an intelligent but awkward high school student who is in the market for a girlfriend but not having much luck finding one. One night, while looking at the stars through his telescope, Matt accidentally trains his vision on Casey Roberts (Drew Barrymore), a high-spirited girl who lives on the other side of the lake near their home. Matt is smitten with her, and he maps out a scheme to meet her. He finds her brash and charming, and she seems just as fond of him. However, Matt doesn't know that Casey is manic depressive and has been in and out of mental institutions for most of her life. Her father Richard (Jude Ciccolella) wants to keep her in an institution, while her mother Margaret (Joan Allen) wants the best for her daughter but isn't sure what that is. Casey, however, wants to be with Matt, and she convinces him that her parents mean to harm her. They run away, planning to go to Mexico, but Matt begins to realize that Casey's mood swings are more serious than he imagined. Set in Seattle, Mad Love features an on-screen appearance by the Washington-based all-female hard rock band 7 Year Bitch; the soundtrack also features music by Nirvana, Luscious Jackson, Los Lobos, Cracker, and Grant Lee Buffalo. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris O'Donnell, Drew Barrymore, (more)
Director Gavin O'Connor collaborates with Narc director/screenwriter Joe Carnahan on this family-focused police drama concerning an honest homicide detective (Edward Norton) assigned to investigate the precinct run by his potentially crooked older brother (Noah Emmerich). As the investigation begins to reveal some troubling facts about the precinct, it gradually becomes apparent that the policeman who is also the older brother's best friend (Colin Farrell) may be the man orchestrating many of the suspected crimes. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, (more)
The director of the Academy Award-winning 2006 crime drama Tsotsi returns to the helm with this tale of a Middle East CIA operative who begins to have doubts about his latest assignment after witnessing the interrogation of a suspected suicide bomber by secret police. When Egyptian-born chemical engineer Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) mysteriously vanishes on a routine flight from South Africa to Washington, his wife, Isabella (Reese Witherspoon), embarks on a frantic international search for her missing husband. At the same time, a CIA analyst (Jake Gyllenhaal) arrives at a clandestine detention facility outside of United States. As the interrogation of El-Ibrahimi gets under way, the CIA analyst is profoundly shaken by the unorthodox methods used by the man's captors, and quickly begins to reevaluate his assignment. Peter Sarsgaard, Meryl Streep, and Alan Arkin co-star in this topical political thriller penned by Kelley Sane and produced by Steve Golin. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, (more)
On the occasion of wealthy patriarch Burt Lancaster's 77th birthday, his Long Island home is invaded by well-meaning family members. Lancaster is bored by the well-meaning interference of his grown children, but he thrives on the company of his grandchildren, especially 5-year-old Macaulay Culkin (in a terrific pre-star performance). To the kids, Lancaster reveals what he really wants as a birthday present: an old-fashioned Viking funeral! From this point on, the ending of Rocket Gibraltar is a "done deal", but getting there is all the fun. A superb, hand-picked cast--including Suzy Amis, Sinead Cusack, John Glover, Bill Pullman and Kevin Spacey -does full justice to Amos Poe's whimsical, often deeply touching script. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Suzy Amis, (more)
Steve Martin wrote the screenplay and served as co-producer for this screen adaptation of his short novel, which takes a witty but bittersweet look at a young woman and the two men involved with her. Mirabelle Buttersfield (Claire Danes) is an aspiring artist in her mid-twenties who, after graduating from college, moved to Los Angeles, where she works at the glove counter of an upscale department store. Mirabelle's job is simple and not demanding, but it doesn't pay especially well, and she finds herself struggling to get out from under a growing mountain of debt from student loans and credit cards. One night, while doing her laundry, Mirabelle meets Jeremy (Jason Schwartzman), a scruffy but likable would-be musician who makes ends meet selling guitar amps. While Jeremy is obviously infatuated with Mirabelle, she isn't sure how she feels about him, especially after she meets Ray Porter (Steve Martin), a man in his fifties whom she meets at the store. Ray is independently wealthy, intelligent, and charming, and after asking her out on a date he sweeps her off her feet. However, while Mirabelle quickly falls for Ray and he's generous to a fault with her, he refuses to commit exclusively to her and suggests they should both see other people, a prospect that no longer holds much appeal for her. Shopgirl received its world premiere at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Claire Danes, (more)
- 1989
Co-produced by the folks from PBS' American Playhouse series, Signs of Life (alternate title: One For Sorrow, Two For Joy) stars veteran actor Arthur Kennedy as a cranky, set-in-his-ways Maine shipbuilder. Unable to keep apace with the 1980s, Kennedy is forced to close up shop. The film probes the various effects this decision has on Kennedy's employees. Beau Bridges has a wife (Kathy Bates) and four kids to support, with a fifth on the way. Kevin J. O'Connor would like to take a salvage-diving job in another state, but must first break off his long-standing relationship with waitress Mary Louise Parker. And Vincent D'Onofrio, who'd managed to find a job for his retarded brother Michael Lewis at Kennedy's establishment, is forced to consider having Lewis institutionalized. Though screenwriter Mark Malone isn't completely successful in avoiding the Obvious, there is much to cherish in Signs of Life. The film represented Arthur Kennedy's return before the cameras after ten years' retirement; after one additional performance in the independently produced Grandpa, Kennedy died in 1990 at the age of 76. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Kennedy, Kevin J. O'Connor, (more)
A washed-up ballplayer is put in charge of a pack of kids scarcely more mature than himself in this remake of the 1976 comedy hit. Morris Buttermaker (Billy Bob Thornton) is a former major league baseball player whose career and life has hit the skids thanks to his overwhelming fondness for booze and women. Needing a break, his lawyer (Marcia Gay Harden) arranges for Buttermaker to take on coaching responsibilities for the Bears, a Little League baseball team comprised of a handful of hapless losers. As Buttermaker tries to groom his young charges into a winning team, he also gives them a glimpse of his hard-living lifestyle while they gear up to take on perennial rivals the Yankees and their arrogant Coach Bullock (Greg Kinnear. The 2005 version of The Bad News Bears was written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who previously scripted another Billy Bob Thornton vehicle, Bad Santa. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Bob Thornton, Greg Kinnear, (more)
A Latina eager to embrace America finds her tongue is a bit more eager to betray her culture than she is in this comedy-drama with elements of both romance and satire. Elena (Lisa Vidal) is an attractive Puerto Rican immigrant who is eager to make a career for herself in business. With that in mind, Elena strives to make herself seem more "American," to the annoyance of her mother, Meche (Miriam Colon). Elena has also landed herself an Anglo fiance (Jack Mulcahy), who makes a good living selling coffins, though Elena is still attracted to her former boyfriend Tito (Jose Yenque), an artist and fellow Puerto Rican. One day, Elena's attempts to assimilate into mainstream culture begin to manifest themselves physically and psychologically when she discovers she's lost the ability to speak Spanish, her primary language for most of her life. Can Elena tear herself away from the white-bread culture she's embraced and reconnect with her roots -- and with Tito? While shot in Boston by American independent filmmakers, much of La Fonda Azul's dialogue is delivered in Spanish by a multilingual cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lisa Vidal, Miriam Colon, (more)
A successful 30-year-old (Zach Braff) with a the perfect girlfriend (Jacinda Barrett) and a lucrative outlook on life struggles with the increasing pressures of adulthood as he weighs the merits of settling down with the woman who loves him against risking it all to be with a comely co-ed (Rachel Bilson) in director Tony Goldwyn's remake of Gabriele Muccino's 2001 comedy drama. Crash and Million Dollar Baby screenwriter Paul Haggis adapts a script originally penned by Italian filmmaker Muccino, and Casey Affleck, Blythe Danner, Eric Christian Olsen, and Tom Wilkinson co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zach Braff, Jacinda Barrett, (more)
Best buddies Abbie (Madonna), a heterosexual yoga instructor, and Robert (Rupert Everett), a gay landscaper, cope with failed relationships, the approach of middle age, and the AIDS-related death of a mutual friend by sticking together as a "family of choice." Drunk one night, they have sex, and when Abbie turns up pregnant, they decide to move in together and raise the child as decidedly unconventional co-parents. Flash forward several years and Abbie begins dating Ben (Benjamin Bratt), an investment banker. The new relationship causes tension between Abbie and Robert that ultimately leads to betrayal, courtroom confrontation, and a sudden denouement. Everett, a sometime writer of trashy comic novels such as Hello Darling, Are You Working?, reportedly supplied the film's concept and even additional dialogue, although Tom Ropelewski is the credited screenwriter. This was pop diva Madonna's first film role since the hoopla of Evita; she supplied a highly edited hit cover of Don McLean's "American Pie" and one other song for the soundtrack, which was released on her own Maverick imprint. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rupert Everett, Madonna, (more)
This romantic comedy from writer and director Tom DiCillo follows some New York City pals seeking authenticity with the real blonde, a symbol of amorous perfection. Joe (Matthew Modine) is an out-of-work actor struggling for even bit parts in Madonna music videos by groveling in front of a high-powered agent (Kathleen Turner), while his makeup artist girlfriend Mary (Catherine Keener) pays the bills. After six years of cohabitation, Joe's lack of success is wearing on their relationship. In the meantime, Joe's friend and fellow actor Bob (Maxwell Caulfield) has finally hit the jackpot with a role on a soap opera opposite the beautiful Kelly (Daryl Hannah), who just might be the real blonde of his dreams. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Modine, Catherine Keener, (more)
Directed by Paul McGuigan, Wicker Park follows Chicago businessman Matthew's (Josh Hartnett) return to Windy City life after having dedicated two years of his life to mourning his long lost love Lisa (Diane Kruger), who'd mysteriously vanished from his life. Things are finally looking up again for Matthew; his career is in full swing, and he's thinking of becoming engaged -- that is, until he thinks he's spotted his former lover in a restaurant. Almost immediately, Matthew puts the brakes on his marriage plans and his career in order to conduct an exhaustive search for his old flame. Obsessed, he barely notices the psychologically devastating trap his quest is leading him into -- a danger that only grows when he meets an enigmatic stranger (Rose Byrne). Wicker Park features Matthew Lillard and Jessica Paré in supporting roles. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josh Hartnett, Matthew Lillard, (more)
