Mickey Cottrell Movies

So just how far would you go to make out with the dreamboat in high school who would never talk to you? That's the all-important question for the protagonist of this very dark independent comedy. Dale Spitler (Nathan Bexton) is a mild-mannered, slightly nerdy high school student who sometimes works as a babysitter for Darlene Murphy (Sherrie Rose), a single mother raising an annoying but cute eight-year-old daughter, Dustine (Jessica Stone). Darlene makes it very (but very) clear to Dale that she has the hots for him, but Dale is gay, and only has eyes for Raymond Haver (Jason Hall), the hunky but thick-headed (and extremely heterosexual) captain of the wrestling team. One day, while Dale is looking after Dustine (and trying to find Darlene's stash of Playgirl magazines), his best friend Violet Wertsema (Diva Zappa) arrives in a panic -- it seems she was involved in an accident with a pickup truck, which led to the truck bursting into flames. Dale and Violet arrive at the scene of the accident, where Dale discovers that the driver of the ruined truck was none other than Raymond. Raymond has not survived the wreck, but Dale wonders if this might provide the opportunity for a romantic encounter with Raymond that never could have occurred while the wrestler was alive. Play Dead was shown in competition at the 2001 Slamdance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A boy plays matchmaker for his mother with unfortunate results in this emotional drama. Katie (Nastassja Kinski) is a single mother with more than her share of problems; she drinks too much, smokes too much, and is involved with an abusive man named Curt (Jason Cairns). Katie's 9-year-old son James (Cody Morgan) doesn't get along with Curt, and with Katie usually either busy at work or hitting the bottle, she has little time for him. James becomes friendly with Henry (Robert Forster), a wealthy widower who is fixing up a boat for a trip around the world. James likes Henry, and when Katie finally breaks up with Curt, James tries to fix Henry up with his mother. However, Henry sees Katie's problems more clearly than her son can, and opts to keep his distance from her, which is a crushing blow to James -- especially when Curt comes back into Katie's life. The Magic of Marciano was warmly received in its screening at the 2000 L.A. Independent Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Tony Barbieri made his directorial debut with this psychological drama about two old friends. Garbage collector Nick (Kane Picoy) once had a promising baseball career until he hit his manager. Now he lives in a building owned by his father (Paul Herman), who can't forgive his son's failure. Nick drives to the state penitentiary where he picks up longtime pal Charlie (Jason Cairns), imprisoned on manslaughter charges for helping his grandfather take his life. Charlie's parole requires community service, so he delivers medical supplies to disabled children. His parole officer (Muhammed Hassan) warns him not to go near the children, and Charlie gets a warning because he helps a child who has fallen out of his wheelchair. Since Charlie spends time on his college studies and also takes a romantic interest in his supervisor Sara (Autumn Macintosh), he sees less of Nick, and their friendship collapses. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Clive Barker's horrific creation Pinhead (Doug Bradley) returns to the screen for the fourth (and purportedly final) time in this time-juggling horror opus. In 18th century France, Phillip Lemarchand (Bruce Ramsay) constructs a black puzzle box for the wizard Duc de L'Isle (Mickey Cottrell); however, the box has potentially deadly consequences when it's discovered that it can be used to open the gates of hell, freeing the demonic Pinhead. Two hundred years later, the box finds its way into the hands of John (also played by Bruce Ramsay), a New Yorker and distant descendant of Lemarchand who is being pursued by Pinhead and his minions, while another 200 years hence, Dr. Paul Merchant (Ramsay again) is trying to make his way aboard a space station in hopes of reclaiming the puzzle box, hoping to destroy it before it can be used to once again release the demons upon the world; Merchant is also attempting to build a second box that can close the gates that the first box opens. While makeup artist Kevin Yagher made his directorial debut with this film, the final cut was taken away from him and considerably shortened, which in his mind severely compromised the film's complex, time-traveling narrative. He opted to instead credit his work to Alan Smithee, which was the Directors Guild's official pseudonym for directors who feel their work has been tampered with. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Hollywood visionary Tim Burton pays homage to another Hollywood visionary, albeit a less successful one, in this unusual fictionalized biography. The film follows Wood (Johnny Depp) in his quest for film greatness as he writes and directs turkey after turkey, cross-dresses, and surrounds himself with a motley crew of Hollywood misfits, outcasts, has-beens, and never-weres. The real story, however, is his friendship with aging, morphine-addicted Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), whom he tries to help stage a comeback. Landau's unforgettable Oscar-winning performance must be seen to be believed, as must Rick Baker's Oscar-winning makeup. While it would have been easy to make a film simply ridiculing the bumbling director, Burton instead focuses on his driving passion for filmmaking and his unwavering persistence in the face of ridicule and failure. Possibly the most surprising aspect of the film is the genuine sentiment with which Burton treats the relationship between Wood and Lugosi; his devotion to Lugosi is touching, as is Lugosi's final soliloquy -- an inane bit of dialogue from the hilariously bad Bride of the Monster that grows into a poignant metaphor for the actor's life and ultimate triumph of his spirit. Even the look of the film is right; it manages to preserve the air of one of Wood's own films while retaining a sense of artistry in much of the composition on screen (note the scene at the drug rehab where Lugosi endures a horrifying night of detox). In all, Ed Wood is a unique film -- at times side-splittingly funny; at others, tragic or even frightening -- and a heartfelt tribute to the love of movies, good and bad alike. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

Fans of the Friends television series' co-star Matt LeBlanc may be particularly interested in this film, one of the amiable hunk's first cinematic efforts. In the story, he plays the nephew of Vinny Pallazzo (Jay Acovone), a man who has retired from the mob and changed coasts, from New York to L.A. Now his Vinny works as a clerk in a bookshop and spends a lot of time praying for his sins. When he's not doing that, he tries to give Anthony Manetti (LeBlanc) some advice which will keep him out of trouble with the gangs. Under the rubric of "you can run, but you can't hide," it becomes clear that both men will have to face Vinny's dark past before they can move ahead with their lives. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Rod McCall wrote and directed this slice-of-life melodrama about a woman in a mid-life crisis who struggles to preserve her home and family. Sally Kirkland stars as Jenny, who must deal with a serious problem involving her errant husband Henry (James Brolin) as she prepares for the wedding of her youngest daughter Kat (Renee Estevez). Henry has taken off for New Mexico with his most recent lover and business associate Patsy (Laura Johnson), where they plan to pay off Jenny's mortgage, sell the property and split the money. Meanwhile, Jenny's other daughter Samantha (Pamela Gidley) arrives at the wedding with her life in an uproar -- she is undecided whether to stay in New York City and pursue her classical music career or head back home and marry handsome cowboy Bill (Michael Moore). Henry arrives at the wedding only to be slapped by Jenny for his callousness. Afterwards, Patsy, tired of all the internecine family squabbles, denounces Henry for his cavalier ways and threatens to keep their proposed business deal (an auto dealership) all to herself. But heading in the same direction is Jenny and Samantha, with Jenny chaffing at the bit, preparing to let Henry have it in a final cathartic confrontation. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Temistocles Lopez's Chain of Desire, based on Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, plays like an AIDS-era version of The Yellow Rolls Royce, in which a series of unrelated amorous lovers are connected by a "chain of desire." The film begins as Alma D'Angeli (Linda Fiorentino) flees from a lover and runs into a church, where she finds solace and a young Latino worker, Jesus (Elias Koteas). They make love. Then Jesus comes home to his wife Isa (Angel Aviles) and gets intimate with her. The next morning, Isa goes off to see Dr. Jerald Buckley (Patrick Bauchau), with whom she is having an affair. After seeing Isa, Jerald heads off to visit Linda (Grace Zabriskie), a sexy dominatrix. Linda returns home to her husband, Hubert (Malcolm MacDowell), a harried television commentator. After an unsatisfactory interview with women who claim to have had affairs with John F. Kennedy, he relieves his tensions by seeking the arms of Keith (Jamie Harrold), a teenage hustler. And the trail continues on as gay social worker Ken (Tim Guinee) offers Ken a place for the night, followed by Ken's lover David Bango (Dewey Martin) and hot dancer Diana (Holly Marie Combs), who wants David to deflower her. Coming on the scene after that is famed artist Mel (Seymour Cassel), who has a tryst with Diana, but he finds that he has to answer to his vindictive wife, Cleo (Assumpta Serna). At the end, all the characters arrive at a hip nightclub, where Alma, the singer at the club, has learned that the lover she had spurned at the beginning of the film has been diagnosed with AIDS. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide