Sharon Corder Movies
- 1998
Toronto TV scripter and stage director Jack Blum made his feature directorial debut with this Canadian family psychological drama. Blond 13-year-old Lisa (Elisabeth Rosen), who flirts with the school busdriver, lives with the sister of her mother Margaret (Lenore Zann), a boozing, man-chasing laundromat worker. Margaret begins an affair with quiet Jim (James Gallanders) about the time Lisa moves back into the house. After Jim makes out with Lisa, he tries but fails to dump Margaret, and the triangle soon turns explosive. Shown in the Directors Fortnight section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lenore Zann, Elisabeth Rosen, (more)
"In my films, you're always encouraged to remember that you're watching a collection of designed images." Thus spake Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan in describing his calculatedly non-realistic style. In keeping with his earlier works, Egoyan's Speaking Parts, though grounded in reality, could never be confused with the facts of life. Arsinee Khanjian plays a near-somnambulistic maid who carries a torch for aspiring actor Michael McManus. She obsesses on McManus by renting tapes of the films in which he's appeared as a non-speaking extra. As McManus ignores Khanjian while wooing would-be filmmaker Gabrielle Rose (he wants to star in a film based on Rose's life-saving organ donation), Khanjian develops a sort of rapport with video store manager Tony Nardi, who also harbors dreams of becoming a filmmaker. The most curious (and, to some, maddening) aspect of Speaking Parts is that all the characters physically resemble one another. What this has to do with Egoyan's "message"--if any--is unclear, but it sure works towards the director's goal of assuring that the viewers are constantly aware that they're watching a movie and not Real Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael McManus, Arsinée Khanjian, (more)
- 1988
Young Noam Zylberman, a well-known Canadian child actor (and cartoon voiceover veteran), stars in The Outside Chance of Maximillian Glick. Growing up in a Jewish household during the 1960s, Zylberman would like to escape the confines of tradition and chart his own course. He finally gets the opportunity break free and pursue his ambitions. A have-it-both-ways finale marks this otherwise refreshing youth-oriented Canadian film. Outside Chance of Maximillian Glick was released in the US in 1991, two years after its Canadian premiere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Noam Zylberman, Fairuza Balk, (more)
- 1989
- R
In this convoluted drama, a CIA agent is finally released after spending the past thirteen years imprisoned in the Soviet Union. The joy of his homecoming is shattered when he discovers his wife married to another and that his daughter has grown up. When he learns that his wife's new husband is busy battling the corrupt family who controls the town, and that this has endangered his former family, he takes action to protect them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Ontkean, Joanna Kerns, (more)
