Paul Webster Movies

Jemma Redgrave is on the verge of marrying caddish Mark Greenstreet. Spending the night in her spooky old family mansion, Jemma stares into a mirror and begins experiencing terrifying dreams. She sees her past, present and future in a Bosch-like kaleidescope. And without knowing how or why, Jemma drags American tourist Kathleen Wilhoite, herself the victim of a troubled past, into her nightmarish visions. Its powerhouse opening sequence aside, Dream Demon tends to be rather slow going, despite some very convincing special effects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Phoebe Cates stars in this bizarre comedy that wants to be the kind of stylish comic fable the likes of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice and Pee-wee's Big Adventure but ends up looking like a shabby burlesque about schizophrenia. Cates is Elizabeth, who has recently separated from her philandering husband Charles (Tim Matheson) and moved back home with her harridan mother Polly (Marsha Mason). Back in her old little-girl haunts, she regresses into childhood and recalls her imaginary childhood friend Drop Dead Fred (Rik Mayall), a nasty, ill-tempered sociopath. As a child, Elizabeth created mayhem with her imaginary pal, but Polly locked him up tight in a jack-in-the-box. But now, Elizabeth mistakenly liberates him from the jack-in-the-box, and the newly freed Drop Dead Fred proceeds to wreak more havoc than the Id Monster from Forbidden Planet -- taking vengeance upon all the people who have made Elizabeth miserable -- and then some. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Rubin & Ed is Trent Harris' off-the-wall buddy movie about two mismatched geeks on a quest to bury a frozen cat. Rubin Farr (Crispin Glover) is a shy, reclusive loner who lives in his mother's hotel. He'd much rather sit in his bedroom listening to Mahler, playing with his squeaky-mouse, than go outside. His mother has other plans, however, and one afternoon she decides to pull the plug on Rubin's eccentric behavior. She demands that he go out and make at least one friend. Rubin capitulates, and after a somewhat half-hearted search, he finds Ed Tuttle (Howard Hesseman, in one of his best performances). Ed is a divorced, middle-aged loser enrolled in a self-help/ get-rich-quick organization called PPR: Positive Power through Real Estate. Ed agrees to have dinner with Rubin and his mother if Rubin agrees to attend a PPR training seminar. All goes as planned for both, until Ed opens the freezer and discovers Rubin's dead cat. The unlikely pair then embarks on an hallucinatory quest through the Utah desert in order to find the perfect spot to bury Rubin's cat. Though at first mutually disgusted by each other, Rubin and Ed eventually learn how to become friends. Karen Black is superb as Ed Tuttle's annoying ex-wife Rula, as is Michael Greene as PPR magnate Mr. Busta. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide

New York cop Jack Grimaldi (Gary Oldman) has a nice home, a stunning wife Natalie (Annabella Sciorra), and a sweet, if stupid mistress, Sheri (Juliette Lewis). Jack also earns extra money by betraying mob witnesses to Mafia-boss Don Falcone (Roy Scheider). Assigned to guard the viciously sexy Russian-born hit woman, Mona Demarkov (Lena Olin), Jack is almost instantly seduced and allows Mona to escape. Falcone orders Jack to find and kill Mona, and threatens to murder him if he fails. Mona offers to pay Jack to help her eliminate Falcone and fake her own death. Several plot twists and turns later, Jack is left with his life in shambles. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

This dark comedy is a clever homage to classic generation gap comedies such as The Graduate (1967), The Last Picture Show (1971) and The Big Chill (1983), filtered through an ironic Generation X lens. Tom Thompson (David Schwimmer) is unemployed and aimless, hovering between childhood and adult responsibilities. A year out of college, Tom can't land a decent job -- he still lives with his mother in Brooklyn. He receives a call from Ruth Abernathy (Barbara Hershey), who informs Tom that her son Bill, Tom's best friend in high school, has killed himself. She wants Tom to deliver the eulogy and serve as a pallbearer, and flustered, Tom agrees, though he has no recollection of Bill. After delivering a lackluster eulogy, Tom meets the grieving Ruth and begins an impulsive affair with her. He also encounters Julie DeMarco (Gwyneth Paltrow), a beautiful classmate for whom he's long carried a torch. Although Julie at first mistakes Tom for someone else, they begin dating, while he keeps his relationship with Ruth a secret. First-time writer-director Matt Reeves work-shopped the script for The Pallbearer with writing partner Jason Katims at the Sundance Institute. Reeves went on to create the TV series Felicity. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Based on Jim Cartright's play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, this screen adaptation directed by Mark Herman is an underdog film about an underdog girl named Little Voice (or LV for short). LV (Jane Horrocks from Mike Leigh's Life Is Sweet who does all her own singing) is a shy, mousy woman living with her mom Mari (Secrets and Lies' Brenda Blethyn). Little Voice doesn't leave her house. Instead she sings along to her record collection of Shirley Bassey, Judy Garland, and Marilyn Monroe. Her mother Mari, however, is an outspoken woman who is convinced her sex appeal (which is little) will land her a man, especially when she's drunk. One night while bar-hopping, Mari meets the suave yet sleazy talent agent Ray Say (Michael Caine), whom she takes home for a nightcap. There Ray hears the beautiful Little Voice singing a perfect rendition of Judy Garland's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz. He's stunned by its beauty and thinks he can make her a star. From there the story heads in complicated, romantic, and sweet-hearted directions that should not be given away. Also starring in this small independent film is Ewan McGregor. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a young man joins the family business without knowing that he's entering a world of danger and deceit. Hot-headed Leo Handler (Mark Wahlberg) has had some scrapes with the law and served time for a crime he didn't commit. Hoping to get his life back on track, he takes a job in the New York subway yards, secured by his Uncle Frank (James Caan), who has a high-ranking position in the New York Transit Authority. The longer Leo works in the yards, the more he realizes that his uncle controls a corrupt underworld where graft, violent reprisals, and even death are just part of the job. Will Leo turn against his family in the name of justice, or will he keep quiet and ignore the danger and lawlessness that surround him? The Yards also features Charlize Theron, Joaquin Phoenix, Ellen Burstyn, and Faye Dunaway. It was director James Gray's first film after his acclaimed debut with Little Odessa. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A lovelorn matchmaker tries to set up two people about to be married -- but not to each other -- in this independent romantic comedy. George (Tunde Adebimpe) is a Nigerian expatriate living in upstate New York, where he has pledged to marry a woman in a marriage arranged for him in childhood, though he's not especially enthusiastic about the idea. George goes to Buffalo to pick up his fiancée as she arrives in America, only to discover she's already moved on to Niagara Falls, where the wedding will be held in three days. On his way back home, an annoyed and downcast George meets Gerard (Hippolyte Girardot), a man from France who is wallowing in sorrow after being dumped by his girlfriend, and Alicia (Natalia Verbeke), a light-hearted Latin-American woman who is due to marry her fiancé Nathan (James Wilby) in less than a week. Alicia finds George amusing but thinks he needs to loosen up a bit, so she invites him to a party; George brings Gerard along, feeling he needs some cheering up, and Gerard notices an obvious attraction between Alicia and George. Gerard fancies himself an authority on matters of the heart, and is certain George and Alicia would rather be with each other than with the people they're engaged to marry, so joining George, Alicia, and Nathan for a trip to visit Alicia's parents en route to Niagara Falls, he hatches a plan to break Alicia and Nathan apart -- and bring Alicia and George together. Jump Tomorrow was shown in competition at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A woman edging into middle age finally finds the love of a lifetime; too bad she can't convince her best friends it's for real in this lively romantic comedy. Kate (Andie MacDowell), Molly (Anna Chancellor), and Janine (Imelda Staunton) are three close friends in their early forties who have been sharing a long run of bad luck in the field of romance. While all three are successful in their careers -- Kate has been named headmistress of an upscale private school, Molly is a doctor, and Janine's a police detective -- they've been striking out in the dating scene, and they get together on a regular basis to compare notes and drown their sorrows in cocktails and chocolate. One day, while attending the funeral of a colleague, Kate makes the acquaintance of Jed (Kenny Doughty), a good-looking man who remembers Kate as one of his teachers when he attended the school years ago. Despite the decade-and-a-half gap in their ages, there's a strong mutual attraction between Kate and Jed, and before the day is over the two are enjoying an affair. Molly and Janine are at once amused and appalled at Kate for dating a younger man, and while she tells them it's a short-lived fling that means little to either party, neither Kate nor Jed wants to walk away from their relationship; before long Kate and Jed decide they've fallen in love and plan to get married. The harder Molly and Janine try to convince Kate that she's making a mistake, the more Kate is determined to tie the knot with Jed, and eventually Molly and Janine decide to take drastic measures -- Molly hatches a plan to seduce Jed, while Janine captures their tryst on videotape. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on the best-selling novel by Sebastian Faulks, this drama, set in Europe during World War II, stars Cate Blanchett as Charlotte, a Scottish woman living in London. Charlotte falls in love with Peter (Rupert Penry-Jones), a handsome RAF pilot, and the two are soon caught up in a torrid affair. Before long, Peter is sent off on a mission over France, and Charlotte receives word that Peter has been reported missing in action. Fluent in French and desperate to find the man she loves, Charlotte volunteers for work with British intelligence and is soon smuggled into France where she is to work with French resistance forces, posing as a woman from Paris. As Charlotte goes about her duties and tries to find Peter, she finds herself drawn to Julien (Billy Crudup), a Communist working with resistance forces. Charlotte is assigned to pose as a domestic at the home of Julien's father, Levade (Michael Gambon), where he's hiding two Jewish boys whose parents have been captured by Nazi troops. In order to maintain her cover and protect Julien, Levade, and the boys, Charlotte finds herself drawn into a relationship with Renech (Anton Lesser), a busybody schoolteacher who is collaborationg with the occupation troops. Directed by Gillian Armstrong, Charlotte Gray also features James Fleet, Ron Cook, and Helen McCrory. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Four friends compare notes on their romantic problems -- which in time become quite interesting indeed -- in this sharp comedy from Great Britain. Sean (Luke De Woolfson), Lenny (Enzo Cilenti), Vincent (James Lance), and Jody (Kate Ashfield) are four pals who meet every evening for dinner at the same neighborhood restaurant. Sean works the night shift at a hospital, and one night he makes a date with Susie (Sienna Guillory), a woman who is visiting her unconscious boyfriend; Sean soon discovers the woman's sexual appetite exceeds his own, and they can't get out of the hospital before taking things to the horizontal level. Lenny is a directory assistance operator for the telephone company and is infatuated with one of his co-workers, Gail (Shauna MacDonald), though his attempts to set up a date end in disaster. Vincent, a supermarket stock clerk, is a notorious womanizer who has a personal policy of never sleeping with the same woman more than three times. And Jody works in computer assembly and offers sarcastic advice to her three mates, especially Sean, whose problems with women she finds especially amusing. Vincent makes the acquaintance of a lonely woman from abroad named Madeline Zozzocolovich (Heike Makatash), and romance soon rears its head, but after Vincent informs her of his three-strikes-and-you're-out rule, Madeline is crushed and disappears, and soon the foursome are scouring a small resort community, hoping to find her before she tries something drastic. Late Night Shopping was the first feature from director Saul Metzstein and screenwriter Jack Lothian; the film won the C.I.C.A.E. Award at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

First-time feature director Marc Munden's Miranda is a story about a man obsessed with an elusive woman. Frank (John Simm) is a librarian who falls hard for Miranda (Christina Ricci) the second he sees her in the library. She is secretly helping the nefarious Christian (John Hurt) in a real estate scam involving the library. Miranda, a master of disguise, soon travels to London where she goes to work on Nailor (Kyle McLachlan). She does not know that Frank is following her. Miranda was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide