Billy Hopkins Movies

Critically acclaimed director David Gordon Green takes a break from the brooding drama that defined such early efforts as George Washington and Undertow for this action-flavored buddy comedy concerning two pot-smoking friends (Seth Rogen and James Franco) who unwittingly become involved with a vicious gang of drug dealers. Judd Apatow and Shauna Robertson produce a script co-penned by star Rogen and Evan Goldberg. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location in New York and Connecticut, the ESPN miniseries The Bronx is Burning was a vivid (if not overly expensive) retelling of the New York Yankees' championship year of 1977. Heading the enormous cast of celebrity lookalikes were Oliver Platt as Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and John Turturro as team manager Billy Martin. The infamously volatile relationship between the two men was the heart of the series, with the prickly Martin curiously emerging as the hero of the piece. Setting the story in motion was the hiring of baseball superstar Reggie Jackson (Daniel Sunjata), the first of several measures taken by the Yanks to reclaim the World Series. To place the action at Yankee Stadium in proper historical context, much was made of the other events which kept the citizens of New YOrk on their collective toes in the summer of 1977, including the frantic search for the serial killer known as the "Son of Sam", the devastating power blackout, the fractious mayoral race, and the ongoing violence in the streets of the Bronx. The title of the series derived from the famous TV-news headline "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning", which was also the title of the Jonathan Mahler novel upon which the show was based. The Bronx is Burning first roared into flame on July 10, 2007. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fay Ann Lee's modern spin on the story of Cinderella, Falling For Grace, stars Fay Ann Lee as a Chinese-American who dreams of living among the social elites in New York City. One day she is mistaken for an heiress and is invited to a posh party where she falls in love with a lawyer. She hides her true identity from him, and he himself has a few secrets he keeps from the woman. Falling For Grace had its world premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival (where it screened under the title East Broadway). ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A forgotten one-night-stand from the 1980s sets the stage for romance fifteen years removed in director Craig Chester's urban romantic comedy starring Parker Posey, Craig Chester, Malcolm Gets, and Chris Kattan. Despite the fact that neither Adam (Chester) nor Steve (Gets) recall the one-night-stand they shared fifteen years ago, the compatible pair form a fast bond when they meet again far removed from the intoxicating effects of the party scene. When the loving couple realize that their pasts have previously intersected, it's up to their best friends Rhonda (Parker) and Michael (Kattan) to help their pals accept their past and use the foundation of their current relationship to forge ahead into a fulfilling future of kindness and commitment. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Award-winning short filmmaker Jessica Sharzer makes her feature debut with the teen drama Speak, based on the young-adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. Kristen Stewart stars as high school freshman Melinda, who has lost her ability to speak. Ever since a traumatic event that occurred at a party over the summer, she has chosen to remain silent. She's abandoned by her friends, while her mother Joyce (Elizabeth Perkins) is too wrapped up in her own problems to notice. By recalling the details of the past situation, it becomes clear that a date rape occurred. Yet no one has offered her support in order to deal with the psychological consequences. Eventually her art teacher Mr. Freeman (Steve Zahn) reaches out, helping her develop ways to express herself. Also starring Hallee Hirsh and Eric Lively. Speak premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 as part of the American Spectrum competition. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Lots of women get the feeling that their boyfriends become different people after they've married them, but one finds herself dealing with a much bigger problem than leaving socks around the house or not taking out the trash in this supernatural thriller. Kristie (Laura Harris) is a sweet but slightly naïve young woman who is soon to marry the man she loves, Marc St. Clair (Richard Lintern), a television reporter. On the night of their wedding, Marc leads Kristie away from the wedding reception and takes her virginity near a strange stone monument in the woods. Kristie is a bit surprised by this behavior and even more startled when she discovers she's pregnant. Nine months after her wedding day, Kristie's son, Dylan, is born and the new mother is thrilled, but as the child grows older, she begins to sense that things aren't right. Marc seems to take an obsessive interest in his son, while even more surprisingly, his boss, Elizabeth (Alice Krige), is nearly as interested as Marc. In time, when Dylan begins to display telekinetic powers and Kristie discovers Elizabeth has given him a book of Satanic prophesy, Kristie begins to wonder what sort of a person Marc really is -- and whose child did she really bear? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Producer-turned-director Lane Janger also stars in this sexual comedy of manners about a woman who turns her groom-to-be's sapphic fantasies back on him. Just a few weeks before he's due to be married, fireman Anthony (Janger) decides that it's now-or-never time for his fantasy of making love to his fiancée, Amy (Joelle Carter), and another woman at the same time. Although she has repeatedly rejected such a scenario, this time an angry Amy agrees -- as long as Anthony will make love with her and another man at the same time. Soon, the couple find themselves going on "dates" outside their relationship. Anthony grudgingly allows Victor (Guillermo Diaz), a closeted, inexperienced college student who's had a crush on him since high school, to hang out with him and his firehouse cronies, hoping all the while that Amy will call his bluff. Amy, meanwhile, befriends Victor's pal Michelle (Jennifer Esposito), a lesbian furniture maker recovering from a recent breakup. Anthony's fellow firefighters adjust surprisingly well to their colleague's new friend, but problems ensue when Amy's expatriate parents show up early for the wedding, interrupting their daughter's tentative experimentation. Just One Time began its life as an eight-minute short that premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival; it was screened with the feature Ma Vie En Rose during that film's Canadian theatrical run and was later included in the collection Boy's Life 3. Principals Esposito, Carter, and Diaz reprise their roles from the short, while Janger shares screenwriting duties with Columbia film school alumna Jennifer Vandever in a novel arrangement that allowed them to collaborate on the first act and then split up, with his scribing the second act and her the third. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Adam Coleman directed this psychological thriller that opens as attorney David (Alan Rickman) and Alexis Weinberg (Polly Walker), trying to catch the last ferry to their island home, spot a man (Norman Reedus) alongside the rainswept road. He's bleeding from a beating by unknown assailants and will only accept assistance from David and Alexis if they agree not to call the police. The delay keeps the Weinbergs from boarding the final ferry, so they rent a motel room. Later, the nameless, mysterious man becomes a stowaway on the ferry and arrives on the island. After he once again bumps into the Weinbergs, they invite him to stay at their cottage. Is the couple a target? Or has the stranger been hired by one spouse to eliminate the other? Shown at the 1998 Seattle Film Festival and the 1998 Hamptons Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Funded by the Ford Foundation, a one-act play by Wendy Kesselman about a teenage girl's coming of age was expanded to become the directorial debut of prominent casting director Billy Hopkins. Claire Danes stars as Daisy, a well-to-do but shy and bookish Manhattan teenager attending an exclusive prep school, keeping her Jewish identity a secret and harboring a secret crush on the school's star athlete Ethan Wells (Jude Law). The only person in Daisy's life that she feels comfortable opening up to is her grandmother, Nana (Jeanne Moreau), a Holocaust survivor who shares with her granddaughter an affinity for flowers. As Nana relates tragic stories of the horrors experienced in her youth (seen in flashbacks featuring Danes as the young Moreau), she becomes a guide of sorts for Daisy through her difficult adolescence. Ethan eventually notices Daisy's attention and begins courting her, but then Daisy's Jewish heritage is discovered by her snooty classmates, leading to a campaign of anti-Semitism and a truncated romance for the broken-hearted Daisy, who now needs Nana's compassion more than ever. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Airheads is a variation on Dog Day Afternoon, as well as a comic look at the trials and tribulations of both the music business and Generation X. A hapless rock trio consisting of Chazz (Brendan Fraser), Rex (Steve Buscemi), and Pip (Adam Sandler) hits a brick wall with their attempts to get their demo tape played by record label executives. Chazz, on the edge since being thrown out by his girlfriend (Amy Locane), decides it's time to take more serious action, and he leads his bandmates on a mission to invade the local "alternative" rock station, KPPX, and hold it hostage to get the band's tape played on the air. The station staffers don't realize that they're being held with a water gun, and when they finally agree to play the tape, it gets eaten up by a faulty machine. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

The second film from writer/director Whit Stillman, Barcelona is a smart, urbane comedy of manners set in Spain at the tail end of the Cold War. Taylor Nichols stars as Ted, an American salesman living in Barcelona. Out of the blue, he is visited by his acidic cousin Fred (Chris Eigeman), a U.S. Navy officer sent abroad to work damage control on rising anti-American sentiment. The textbook "Ugly American," Fred travels through the city in full military regalia, impervious to the constant taunts of "Fascist!" Like the similarly self-absorbed Ted, who has become involved with political activist Monsterrat (Tushka Bergen), Fred also finds romance, with a party girl played by Mira Sorvino. A brittle fish-out-of-water comedy, Barcelona is literate and sophisticated, a knowing essay on cultural identity and perception. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide