Julie Hamilton Movies

Fresh Air, which focuses on ordinary moments of everyday life, is an original hybrid of urban comedy and kitchen-sink drama. It is also a realistic depiction of relationships among lovers, friends, and family in the multi-cultural environment of a big city. The protagonists are three thirty-something housemates with artistic aspirations. They have no career, no children, and no substantial income, but they enjoy life. The question is: for how long? Jack is a third-rate filmmaker who has just lost his job, but he does not care because he never enjoyed it anyway. He dreams of being a hero: a fireman, a football player, or perhaps a guitarist in a rock band. He loves racing through town on his motorcycle. On the other hand, his girlfriend Kit is a conscientious pedestrian and an enthusiastic user of public transport. Kit plays the accordion and works part-time in an Asian deli to pay for her painting. Jack and Kit share their house with Kit's best friend E., a part-time student and musician without a job or a band. Director Neil Mansfield, who took six years to write the film, takes a humorous yet sympathetic approach to the dreams, doubts, and pleasures of the so-called Generation X. The use of jump cuts, photographs, and film fragments gives the film the structure of a collage. Fresh Air had its world premiere at the 1999 International Film Festival in Rotterdam. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

It's said that sex and religion are two subjects that no one can discuss without arguing; writer/director Jane Campion tackles both head-on in this satiric comedy drama. On a trip to India, Australian Ruth (Kate Winslet) has a spiritual awakening and embraces the teachings of a guru named Baba. Back home in Sydney, Ruth's mother and father (Julie Hamilton and Tim Robertson) are appalled to learn that their daughter now answers to the name Nazni and has no intention of returning. Mother visits her daughter in India in hopes of convincing her to come home, but it's not until she suffers a life-threatening asthma attack that Ruth agrees to return for a visit. Mother pretends to arrange a meeting with Ruth's father, who has been ill, and this trick lands Ruth in the clutches of P.J. Waters (Harvey Keitel), an American exit counselor who deprograms members of religious cults. Waters begins to loosen Ruth's belief in Baba's teachings, but P.J. finds himself sexually attracted to Ruth, and in time she allows him to seduce her. Ruth soon turns the tables on P.J., as she discovers that sex allows her to make mincemeat of his long-held beliefs as a macho, misogynist male. Jane's sister Anna Campion, herself a director, co-authored the screenplay; Pam Grier appears in a supporting role as P.J.'s partner and girlfriend. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Quackser Fortune (Gene Wilder) is a carefree fertilizer merchant in Dublin. Something of a local "character," Quackser becomes the object of fascination for wealthy American visitor Zazel Pierce (Margot Kidder). At first, the radical differences in their stations in life make little difference to Quackser and Zazel, but before long she grows bored by his eccentricities. Humiliated by Zazel's rich friends at a fancy dress ball, Quackser retreats to his old vocation of following the horses to gather his "wares." When his cousin in the Bronx passes away and leaves him a small inheritance, Quackser leaves Dublin, holding out hopes that now he will be an acceptable mate for Zazel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi