Leni Parker Movies
An outwardly angelic little girl displays an unforeseen devilish streak upon moving into the home of her new adoptive parents in this shocker starring Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga. In the aftermath of a miscarriage, prospective parents Kate (Farmiga) and John (Sarsgaard) find their lives turned upside down; their marriage is falling apart, and the demons of Kate's past begin manifesting themselves in a series of horrifying nightmares. Deciding that the best means of achieving some semblance of normalcy is to simply adopt, the dejected couple visits a local orphanage. There, they are both drawn to a nine-year-old girl named Esther. But Esther isn't as sweet as first impressions suggest, and almost immediately after welcoming the young child into their home, Kate and John suspect that something is terribly wrong with their adoptive daughter. Kate can see right through Esther's seraphic charm, though her attempts to convince everyone else of the truth go unheeded by her skeptical family and friends. By the time anyone bothers to take Kate seriously, it may be too late to prevent a devastating tragedy from unfolding. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Sarsgaard, Vera Farmiga, (more)
As helmed by Gilles Bourdos, this supernatural thriller - a Franco-German-Canadian co-production - continues John Malkovich's career-long tradition of playing offbeat, enigmatic figures with a menacing air. Romain Duris stars as Nathan Del Amico, an attorney doubly haunted by his past, as the survivor of a near-death experience as a child and a witness of his own baby's death. As a product of these crises, Nathan has buried himself in his work and now suffers from a bad case of familial estrangement from his separated wife Evangeline Lilly and little girl. Then the mysterious Dr. Kay (Malkovich) turns up, claiming that he has clairvoyant visions informing him when someone is about to die - a gift as a "messenger" that enables him to make each person's transition out of life a smooth and easy one. Suddenly, upon hearing Kay's claims, Nathan feels his death-laden memories double in intensity - and grows increasingly convinced that either he now stands on the verge of death, or that he has the same messenger abilities as Kay. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Malkovich, Evangeline Lilly, (more)
A wife's affair turns deadly in this steamy entry from suspense specialist Jason Hreno. As a successful television news cameraman, Jeff Randal (Robert Seeliger)'s job finds him frequently out of town on assignment for days at a time, leaving his young wife Donna (Nicollette Sheridan) alone with the couple's young daughter. Bored by the lack of company and hungering for attention, Donna soon becomes romantically involved with her daughter's handsome teacher Alan (Andrew Jackson). When Alan's past begins to surface and the affair turns deadly, Donna must fight not only for her own life, but for the life of her family as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicollette Sheridan, Andrew Jackson, (more)
- 2000
A biographical drama about the life of great Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein), Eisenstein stars Simon McBurney as its eponymous protagonist. Beginning in 1922, when the young Eisenstein, a former Red Army engineer, became the protégé of avant-garde theatre director Meyerhold (Jonathan Hyde), the film covers Eisenstein's life, work, and political struggles through three decades, set in such disparate locales as the Ukraine and Mexico. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simon McBurney, Raymond Coulthard, (more)
In this drama, a naval officer named Annibal Ramirez (Aidan Quinn) is vacationing in Israel when he's arrested and questioned by Israeli agents, led by Amos (Ben Kingsley). Unknown to Annibal, he bears a striking resemblance to Carlos Sanchez (also played by Aidan Quinn), a famous and feared international terrorist wanted in several nations. Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland) is a CIA operative who witnessed one of Sanchez's most brutal attacks in the 1970s and is obsessed with bringing him to justice. Shaw persuades Ramirez to join his team and to pose as Sanchez, convincing the nations who work with him that he's an unreliable traitor. While this would give Ramirez a chance to serve his country, it would also take him away from his wife Maura (Claudia Ferri) and his children, not to mention putting his life in grave danger. Carlos Sanchez was the name of an infamous terrorist (also known as "The Jackal") who was active in the 1970s and 1980s; while the "Carlos Sanchez" character is based on his fearsome exploits, the rest of the story is fiction. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aidan Quinn, Donald Sutherland, (more)
A family of incestuous Dutch aristocrats emigrates to New England, and 300 years later, their long-lost descendent returns to the ancestral environs to research his rare blood disorder in this low-budget horror flick based on a mothballed Dan O'Bannon script. Orphan John (Roy Dupuis) yearns for more information about his family -- and the genetic disorder that threatens his life. Arriving on the Maine island to which he's traced his ancestry, just as its cemetary is being dug up and relocated due to health-code violations, he and his wife, Kathleen (Kristin Lehman) encounter a gin-soaked old M.D. (Rutger Hauer) who agrees to help them in their search for more information. Meanwhile, residents of the island begin to disappear one by one and it appears that a race of horrific mutants is to blame. Slowly realizing the links between John's family legacy and the attacks, the island's surviving residents band together to fend off the monstrous threat. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, Roy Dupuis, (more)
This action-packed sci-fi thriller is set upon the planet Sirius 6B in the year 2078. The planet has been decimated by a vast nuclear war. Many have survived, but their continued survival is threatened by the dreaded screamers, strange shape-changing mechanical creatures who use razor sharp knives to hack up any life-form in their way. They earned their name because when they kill, they make a horrible high pitched sound. The first screamer makes its appearance as a lone soldier approaches a bunker. He has come to deliver an important message from the NEB to its enemy the Alliance. Unfortunately, the low flying screamer gets to the soldier first, and quicker than Popeil's Vegamatic, slices and dices the fellow into tiny pieces. Later a jet crashes near the bunker. Aboard it is a nuclear reactor. One man survives the crash. The man, Ace, knows how to make a bomb with the reactor. Alliance-leader Col. Joseph Hendricksson takes Ace and they travel across the great irradiated desert to met with the NEB leaders. Along the way they find a small boy and though they don't want to, bring him along. Unfortunately, by the time they get to the NEB headquarters, the screamers have killed all but Becker, a tough soldier, Ross, who is nearly mad, and sexy smuggler Jessica. When Becker and Ross see the boy, they think he is a screamer and kill him. They are right and soon the little group find themselves surrounded by the hellish killing machines, all of which have taken the shapes of small boys. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1994
- R
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Jennifer Jason Leigh offers an acclaimed performance as humorist Dorothy Parker, who together with such 1920s luminaries as Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott and George S. Kaufman, was a charter member of the legendary Algonquin Round Table. The story is related in flashback form, as Mrs. Parker, in Hollywood to cowrite the 1937 feature A Star is Born with her second husband Alan Campbell (Peter Gallagher), recalls her glory days as an Algonquinite. A great deal of attention is afforded Parker's vituperative bon mots, her alcoholism, her self-destructiveness, her suicide attempts, and her affairs with such literary contemporaries as Charles MacArthur (an uncharacteristically unsympathetic Matthew Broderick) and Robert E. Sherwood (Nick Cassavetes). The one person Parker truly seems to care about is humorist Robert Benchley (Campbell Scott), who prefers to keep their friendship platonic. Director Alan Rudolph attempts to convey the ambience of the 1920s by having dozens of that decade's luminaries appear in fleeting cameos, from Will Rogers (Keith Carradine) to Harpo Marx. Also featured in Mrs. Parker are Tom McGowan as the waspish Alexander Woollcott and Andrew McCarthy as Dorothy's near-invisible first husband, Eddie Parker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Jason Leigh, Matthew Broderick, (more)
- 1992
- R
Director Alain Zaloum cowrote the screenplay of Canvas: The Fine Art of Crime with Brenda Newman. Gary Busey plays Ossie Decker, an aspiring artist with a genius for forgery. Decker goes to work for mob functionary John Rhys-Davies, the better to pay off a debt of honor owed by Decker's brother. He involves himself in a scheme to steal rare paintings, then palm off phonies as the genuine article. Eventually wearying of ripping off the art-loving public-and having nearly lost his life on at least one occasion--Decker wants out. But by now, he has painted himself into a dangerously tight corner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
True to the traditions of Canadian independent filmmaking, Horses in Winter is very much a one-person show. That person is Rick Raxlen, who produced, co-directed, wrote, co-edited and starred in this 90-minute remembrance of things past. From the vantage point of a crisis-ridden middle age, Raxlen thinks back to his eighth year, when, while on vacation with his parents, he nearly drowned. Jacob Tierney is seen in the flashback sequences as Raxlen's younger self. Lest anyone doubt the biographical nature or Horses in Winter, be advised that Rick Raxlen's character name is "Ben Waxman." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacob Tierney, Rick Raxlen, (more)
