Tom Tucker Movies
A child's perspective on the Haight-Ashbury counterculture of the 1960s informs filmmaker Ralph Arlyck's film concerning the perceptive and precocious four-year-old and his unique perspective on the chaos that was sweeping a nation. A student at San Francisco State University at the time when police in riot gear flooded the campus and revolutionary-minded idealists waxed poetic in the streets, Ralph Arlyck was befriended by a young boy named Sean who would occasionally come down from his mother's top-floor apartment to chat with the various inhabitants of the come-one-come-all commune. When Arlyck one day decided to turn on his camera during one of young Sean's frequent visits, the images and thoughts Arlyck captured on film would perfectly encapsulate the dying innocence of the era. Now, 30 years later and generations removed from that tumultuous time, Arlyck returns to San Francisco to seek out Sean and find out just what became of the barefoot four-year-old whose strange mix of childlike wonder and worldly viewpoints gave curious birth to a new hope for the future of a country on the brink. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
The old man who lives across the street, Walter Ohlinger (Raymond J. Barry), invites his neighbor, Ron Kobeleski (Dylan Haggerty), over because he has a secret that he's never told anyone: He claims he was the grassy knoll assassin who shot John F. Kennedy and wants Haggerty to document his confession. He has the bullet casing which he saved and says there is one witness left alive who can prove his story. The two search for the man that hired Ohlinger, but are thwarted by mysterious forces who seemingly wish to keep Ohlinger's story suppressed. Interview With the Assassin is shot almost completely from the perspective of Haggerty's video camera and it ties in a number of well-known Kennedy-assassination-related conspiracy theories, though doesn't mix them all up like Oliver Stone's JFK. ~ Adam Bregman, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raymond J. Barry, Dylan Haggerty, (more)
A modernized retelling of William Shakespeare's Othello, O changes its setting to an elite private school in the American South. Odin (Mekhi Phifer) is the only black student at Palmetto Grove and also the star basketball player, with hopes of reaching the NBA. A popular student, he is dating Desi Brable (Julia Stiles), the daughter of the school's dean (John Heard), and they are deeply devoted to each other despite their different backgrounds. His best friend Hugo (Josh Hartnett) is a starter on the basketball team, and the son of the hard-driving coach Duke Goulding (Martin Sheen), who considers Odin as much his son as Hugo. Hugo is jealous of Odin's widespread popularity, so he hatches a scheme to ruin Odin's reputation with the help of Roger (Elden Henson), his rich roommate who will do anything to be popular and get Desi's attention. Through carefully planned revenge, he begins to make Odin believe that Desi is carrying out an affair with teammate Michael (Andrew Keegan). As Odin begins to receive merely coincidental signs to prove it, he begins to slowly lose his grounding and turns to Hugo for help, not knowing that he is being set up. As the basketball season comes to a close, Odin's jealousy begins to consume him, resulting in the loss of everything he cares about the most. O was sometime actor Tim Blake Nelson's directorial follow-up to his well-received debut Eye of God. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett, (more)
Tamara Jenkins wrote and directed this comedy-drama depicting the experience of growing up poor in the 90210 zip code, told from the point of view of Vivian Abramowitz (Natasha Lyonne), a teen who lives a nomadic existence in the outskirts of Beverly Hills with her single, divorced father, Murray (Alan Arkin) and her two young brothers (David Krumholtz, Eli Marienthal). As Murray tries to keep the family in the Beverly Hills school district, the family moves into a one-bedroom apartment in a shabby complex. When sexually liberated Rita (Marisa Tomei), daughter of Murray's brother Mickey (Carl Reiner), checks out of a drug rehab and moves into the apartment, she becomes a "role model" for the young Vivian. Jenkins's semi-autobiographical screenplay was developed and refined during Screenwriters and Filmmakers Labs sessions at the Sundance Institute. Produced by Robert Redford and Michael Nozik, this film was shown in the Directors Fortnight section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natasha Lyonne, Alan Arkin, (more)
- 1986
- R
This comedy makes fun of teen comedies as it chronicles a Midwestern town's feverish preparations for a big weekend party. Much of the story centers around the mad scramble for both youngsters and adults to find appropriate dates. The story was penned by Saturday Night Live alumni Al Franken and Tom Davis. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Davis, Al Franken, (more)
