Kimberly Brooks Movies

Up until the day that a 15-year-old patient committed suicide right in the middle of his office, prosperous L.A. psychiatrist Dr. Craig "Huff" Huffstodt (Hank Azaria) had been sublimely confident that his was the most secure and well-ordered of lives. But as he finds out in the course of Huff's first season on Showtime, our hero is the central figure in a bizarre, often incomprehensible real-life scenario festooned with hitherto untapped neuroses, sexual hang-ups, dysfunctional family members, and jaw-dropping plot convolutions. Just your typical, everyday midlife crisis. Inasmuch as the parents of his unfortunate teenage patient hold Huff responsible for the suicide, Huff's attorney, Russell Tupper (Oliver Platt), would seem to be the "go-to guy" whenever the going gets too rough. Unfortunately, despite his sympathy toward Huff's plight and his pithy words of wisdom, Tupper himself is an angst-ridden mess, as he proves via his weird behavior during a Medical Board hearing. There's worse in store for Tupper when his latest client turns out to be the hooker (Nichole Mercedes Robinson) with whom he'd previously enjoyed a spontaneous one-night orgy. As for Huff's self-absorbed mother, Izzy (Blythe Danner), she had never been a pillar of moral support before, and is even less of one now as she prepares to divorce Huff's long-estranged father, Ben (Robert Forster). Izzy's other son, Teddy (Andy Comeau), wouldn't have been of any help even if he hadn't gotten himself lost in the middle of a field trip. And Huff's own son, Byrd (Anton Yelchin), has begun messing around with illegal substances, much to the dismay of Huff's wife, Beth (Paget Brewster), who already has a big-time cross to bear in the form of the grave illness that is sapping the life from her mother, Madeleine (Swoosie Kurtz). And believe it or not, this litany of misfortune is often played for laughs -- successfully! Adding to Huff's burdens are the ravings of his bipolar patient Melody Coatar (Lara Flynn Boyle), and his brief flirtation with infidelity as he dallies with a sexy pharmaceutical rep. It's not for nothing that the series' holiday offering is titled "Christmas Is Ruined" -- just as the season finale, "Crazy Nuts & All Fucked Up" bears an appropriate moniker, given Huff's anguished response to his mom Izzy's post-menopausal love affair with...well, let's not give away the entire plot! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The first TV cartoon series to employ the "flash" animation style popularized on the Internet, Mucha Lucha was aimed primarily at a Latino audience, though there was enough "generic" humor to satisfy everyone. The three protagonists -- Rikochet, Buena Girl, and the Flea -- were loyal fans of those mysterious masked wrestlers so popular in Mexico. Strict disciples of "Lucha Libre," the code of the Masked Mexican Wrestlers, the heroes and heroine set about to right wrongs in their own bizarre-looking neighborhood, having a lot of fun and learning all sorts of life lessons in the process. Each half-hour episode featured two self-contained 11-minute adventures, backed up by a title song performed by Chicos De Barrio. Created by Eddie Mort and Lili Chin, Mucha Lucha joined the WB network's Saturday-morning kiddie show lineup on August 17, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Having resigned from "FYI" in the wake of his controversial confrontation with Big Tobacco, Jim (Charles Kimbrough) accepts the position of news-division head at the upstart ICN network. Much to dismay of the "FYI" staffers, dimbulb Miller Redfield (Christopher Rich) is chosen as Jim's replacement. It finally falls to Murphy (Candice Bergen) to try to coax Jim back into the fold--a job which she thinks will be easy considering the cacophonous chaos within ICN headquarters. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

R&B star Janet Jackson made an impressive film debut in Poetic Justice as Justice, a hairdresser at a small salon in South Central Los Angeles. Justice uses her poetry to deal with her grief after her boyfriend is killed in a shooting incident at a drive-in. Hired to work at a hair stylists' event in Oakland, Justice is stranded when her car breaks down, until she remembers that her friend Ieasha (Regina King) was going to hop a ride down to Oakland with her boyfriend Chicago (Joe Torry), a postal worker who is heading there with a truck full of mail. Justice tags along to discover that Chicago's driving partner is Lucky (Tupac Shakur), the postman who delivers mail to her shop and keeps asking her out. Ieasha and Chicago have to deal with their own rocky relationship while Justice has to decide if she's ready for a new love -- and if Lucky is the man she's waiting for. Along with strong work from Jackson, Poetic Justice features a surprising turn from Shakur, whose nuanced performance as Lucky is in strong contrast to his "Thug Life" public persona. Justice's poems were written by Maya Angelou, who also appears in a small role. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Filmed in just four weeks one fine autumn in 1984, this amateur teen sex romp, with not a lot of sex but a lot of trying, was released a few years later as Screwballs II. A melange of young men and women with only physical contact on their minds have been put together in the same boarding school by their trusting parents. Some inkling of the level of the comedy involved is revealed by the names of these erstwhile students: Steve Hardman, Hugh G. Rection, and Marvin Eatmore. Enough said. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi