Jarleth Conroy Movies
- 1982
This TV adaptation of Bernard Pomerance's play The Elephant Man differs radically from the 1980 theatrical film of the same name. Both are based upon the same true story: that of John Merrick (1863-1890), an unfortunate citizen of Victorian England who suffered from neurofibromatosis, a hideously deforming disease that all but condemned him to a lifetime of circus sideshows. Though he remained trapped in his misshapen body, Merrick was intellectually and emotionally liberated by London physician Frederick Treves, whose sensitive treatment of the "Elephant Man" unlocked the soul beneath his horrific appearance. But whereas the film was graphically realistic in its use of makeup, the TV version follows the precedent set by Pomerance's play: John Merrick's deformity is conveyed purely through the vocal and physical contortions of actor Philip Anglim, repeating his Broadway role. Also carried over from the stage version is Kevin Conway as Dr. Treves. The TV version of The Elephant Man was telecast as an ABC Theatre of the Month special on January 4, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Day of the Dead, the third and concluding chapter in George Romero's zombie trilogy is the most distinctly 1950s-style science fiction version of the lot. Set in Florida, as the film begins the dead have taken over the world, outnumbering humans 400,000 to one. The handful of surviving humans have taken refuge in an underground missile silo and argue and yell at each other like players in a Rod Serling Twilight Zone episode. Among the survivors are Sarah (Lori Cardille) -- a scientist who is trying to reverse the process whereby the dead turn into flesh-eating, irrational zombies -- and Dr. Logan (Richard Liberty) -- an out-of-his-mind psychologist who wants to capture the zombies and turn them into domestic help. Things heat up when the military tries to take over the scientific experiments. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, (more)
- 1994
It's an evening of togetherness as Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) and Sylvia Costas (Sharon Lawrence) move in together, and Donna Abandando's sister Dana (future Will & Grace star Debra Messing) moves in with Donna (Gail O'Grady) and Greg Medavoy (Gordon Clapp) -- whereupon Dana starts putting her on moves on Greg. In other developments, Simone (Jimmy Smits) has trouble believing the confession of his friend's son (Adam Hann-Byrd) regarding a school shooting. And while Martinez (Nicholas Turturro) and Lesniak (Justine Miceli) prepare to file charges against a man who knowingly transmitted HIV to his girlfriends, one of the man's victims grimly prepares her own brand of justice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2000
The detectives scour the streets for clues after the murder of a schizophrenic woman. Their search results in the arrest of a homeless man who likewise has severe mental problems. The suspect's defense hinges upon his right to refuse his antidepressant medication -- which, according to attorney Danielle Melnick (Tovah Feldshuh), will render her client mentally incompetent and thus unable to stand trial for murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2001
A well-publicized murder case involving a former TV detective-show star was the blatant inspiration for this episode. It all begins when the wife of has-been singer Tommy Vega (Gary Busey) is shot to death a few blocks from the couple's favorite restaurant. Early suspects include Tommy's manager and his estranged, embittered son. But several credibility gaps lead the detectives and the D.A.'s office directly back to Vega himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Alfred Kinsey was an entomologist who taught at Indiana University and had a keen interest in an area of human behavior that had seen little scholarly research -- human sexuality. While the courtship and reproductive patterns of animals had been carefully documented, Kinsey believed that most "established facts" about human sexual behavior were a matter of conjecture rather than research and that what most people said about their sex lives was not born out by the evidence (a subject that had personal resonance for him given the troubles he and his wife Clara Kinsey had in the early days of their marriage). After introducing a course in "Marriage" at Indiana University which offered frank and factual information on sex to students, Kinsey began an exhaustive series of interviews with a wide variety of people from all walks of life in order to find out the truth about sex practices in America. When he published Sexual Behavior and the Human Male in 1948, his findings were wildly controversial, indicating that most men had a wider variety of sexual experiences than most people imagined, including a number of practices commonly thought to be dangerous or perverted (including pre-marital sex, same-sex contacts, and masturbation). An even greater outcry greeted Kinsey's next volume, Sexual Behavior and the Human Female, which contradicted common notions than most women went into marriage sexually inexperienced. Kinsey is a film biography written and directed by Bill Condon which examines Kinsey's life and work from his strict childhood until his death in 1956. Liam Neeson plays Alfred Kinsey, and Laura Linney co-stars as Kinsey's wife and colleague Clara. John Lithgow highlights the supporting cast as Kinsey's repressed and moralistic father, while Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, and Timothy Hutton play members of Kinsey's research team and Tim Curry appears as an IU faculty member at odds with Kinsey's teachings. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, (more)
A man struggling to save the life of another finds himself drawn into a strange netherworld he didn't know existed in this stylish thriller. Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) is a psychiatrist living in New York City with his girlfriend, Lila Culpepper (Naomi Watts), who was once one of his patients. However, it's another one of his patients who becomes the focus of his obsessions when Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling), a disturbed young man whom Foster took over from a colleague, announces during a session that he intends to commit suicide in three days, on his 21st birthday. Sam takes the threat quite seriously and tries to track down Henry, who seems to have disappeared. Sam speaks to a number of Henry's friends and acquaintances -- his mother (Kate Burton), the man he claimed was his father, Dr. Leon Patterson (Bob Hoskins), a waitress who regularly served Henry at the coffee shop where she works (Elizabeth Reaser), and his former therapist Dr. Beth Levy (Janeane Garofalo). As Sam talks to people in Henry's circle, he finds he's learning more about himself than the man he's supposed to save, and he begins to drift into an emotional netherworld where the supposedly dead and the living cross paths. Stay was directed by Marc Forster, who had previously enjoyed breakthrough hits with two very different films, Monster's Ball and Finding Neverland. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, (more)
Set against the anti-war protests, rock & roll revolution, and mind-expanding psychedelia of the 1960s, Julie Taymor's hallucinogenic musical follows the arduous journey of star-crossed lovers Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) as they and a small group of musicians are swept up in the raging waters of the volatile counterculture movement. Guided through their journey by a pair known only as Dr. Robert (Bono) and Mr. Kite (Eddie Izzard), Jude and Lucy are eventually forced to find their way back to one another after being split apart by powerful forces beyond their control. The music in the film consists exclusively of songs made popular by the Beatles during the time period depicted in the movie. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, (more)
