Heidi Levitt Movies

A team of ecology students led by a famous environmental advocate discovers that some secrets are better left buried when they unearth the perfectly preserved remains of a frozen wooly mammoth and discover that an ancient parasite has been incubating inside the beast for centuries. Dr. David Krupien (Val Kilmer) is examining a melting ice cap in the Arctic when he unearths a prehistoric specimen the likes of which researchers have never seen. Elated by the possibilities of such a remarkable find, Dr. Krupien hastily summons four of his brightest students to the base to take part in the excavation. But something isn't right; soon after extracting the massive prehistoric creature from the ice, the students are besieged by a swarm of unidentified insects that burrow deep into the flesh, and lay eggs in their host to reproduce. With each new infection, the prospect of containing the parasitic bane decreases. Now, stranded in the Arctic with their numbers quickly dwindling, the desperate students realize that their only hope of preventing the parasite from reaching the general population is to quarantine the base, even if it costs them their lives. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A charming elderly Jewish writer who lives in a state of "permanent confusion" finds his vivid imagination becoming the bane of his existence in director Jan Schütte's adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer's richly textured short stories. Max Kohn (Otto Tausig) is an Australian émigré whose mind is constantly spinning. He's an accomplished author of short stories who lives in New York City and is so steeped in tradition that he still uses a typewriter. Despite the fact that confirmed bachelor Max has a virtual harem of female admirers, he spends the majority of his free time with worrisome kindred soul Reisele (Rhea Perlman). It's during a trip to speak in nearby Hanover that Max begins editing his latest story -- a mischievous tale of a Miami retiree who embarks on a series of misadventures. Of course, it doesn't take Max long to lose himself in his own creation, and before he knows it, he's mixed up in two feverish romances and an unsolved murder. Upon snapping back to reality, Max begins to feel as if his own written word has begun to manifest itself. A meeting with world-weary former student Rosalie (Barbara Hershey), with whom he shares a mutual attraction, follows, and later while heading to Springfield for yet another speaking engagement Max discovers that he has misplaced his prepared speech. In the aftermath of that and various other mix-ups, Max decides to start writing a new story based on his recent adventures and featuring a protagonist named Harry -- a thinly veiled stand-in for the author himself. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The controversial satire The LA Riot Spectacular plays for mordent laughs the events that consumed L.A. in 1992, after the police officers on trial for beating motorist Rodney King were found innocent. The city was engulfed by a massive riot, but the film plays these moments for laughs. In addition to recreating some of the images seen on television, the film skewers a variety of figures including the police, the media, and the citizens of the city. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Seven internationally respected filmmakers offer different perspectives on time and fate -- some witty, some somber -- in this omnibus film, with the stories linked by performances from jazz great Hugh Masekela. Dogs Have No Hell by Aki Kaurismaki follows one man's unusual journey as he celebrates getting out of jail by travelling to Siberia in search of a wife. Victor Erice directed the impressionistic Lifeline, in which a family of Spanish farmers try to help an infant who has fallen ill. Werner Herzog visits the Uru Eus tribe of South America -- believed to have been the last unknown indigenous people on earth prior to their discover in 1981 -- and explores the often sad toll their discovery has taken upon them in Ten Thousand Years Older. Chloe Sevigny plays an film actress waiting out a ten-minute break in her trailer in Int. Trailer. Night, directed by Jim Jarmusch. Wim Wedners contributes Twelve Miles to Trona, in which a young man, dazed and ill, tries to drive himself to a doctor through a barren desert. Spike Lee looks into the Florida vote-counting scandal, and how Al Gore's assistants and supporters reacted to it, in the short documentary We Wuz Robbed. And in 100 Flowers Hidden Deep, directed by Chen Kaige, a delusional elderly man is convinced his furniture still stands in the vacant lot where his home used to be, and he persuades workers to help him move it away to safety. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this period drama laced with music and romance, Keith Carradine plays Dan "Magic Legs" Scott, a tap dancer who has enjoyed great success on the vaudeville circuit and the Broadway stage. However, Scott's tremendous ego, coupled with his compulsive skirt-chasing and bottomless thirst for alcohol, cripple his career, and by the late 1930s, he's convinced that his career as a hoofer is over. However, Scott's mother was originally from Estonia, and his manager Axelrod (Judd Hirsch) discovers that Scott is considered a hero in his mother's homeland. Axelrod arranges a tour of Estonia, where Scott is a tremendous success. Scott also finds romance overseas when he meets Deborah (Mia Kirschner), the daughter of a prosperous Jewish businessman; Deborah asks for private dancing lessons, and Scott, more than happy to oblige, soon begins instructing her in the ways of love, much to the chagrin of Deborah's fiancé, Max (Bronson Pinchot). But Scott is ignorant of Hitler's rise to power in Europe, and his new career in Estonia comes to a halt when he offends a Nazi official. The country is soon occupied by Russian forces, and Deborah, now carrying Scott's child, escapes to the United States. However, when Scott's passport is destroyed, he's unable to prove his identity or American citizenship; he's sent to a labor camp in Siberia, and while he's able to escape to Moscow, by the late 1950s he's still looking for a way to get back to America. This film debut of noted Russian stage director Sasha Buravsky also features Brian Dennehy, Kim Hunter, and Mercedes Ruehl. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This two-part TV miniseries, adapted from Dorothy West's novel The Wedding, takes a look at mid-century issues of race and class in well-to-do black society. On Martha's Vineyard in 1953, debutante Shelby Coles (Halle Berry) stirs discord in her social-climbing family when she chooses to marry impoverished white musician Meade Howell (Eric Thal). At the Shelby family estate, weeks prior to the wedding, Meade informs her parents, Corinne and Clark Coles (Lynn Whitfield, Michael Warren), that his family won't be attending the wedding, and the irony of upper-crust blacks being rejected by poor whites hangs heavy. In a later plot twist, the single black father (Carl Lumbly) of three mixed-race daughters takes a very strong interest in Shelby that quickly turns into an overly persistent pursuit. Filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, the miniseries premiered February 22-23, 1998 on ABC. Also known as Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Johnny Depp was nominated for a Golden Globe for his astonishing performance in Benny & Joon, though the entire cast is equally impressive. Benny (Aidan Quinn) runs a small car repair shop. He must also take care of his mentally ill sister Juniper, better known as Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson). After losing a bet, Benny is forced to bring another eccentric into his house: Sam (Johnny Depp), the cousin of a friend. Not inclined to conversation, Sam expresses himself by performing Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton routines (and brilliantly!) Not surprisingly, he immediately hits it off with Joon. As Sam and Joon fall deeper in love, Benny for the first time in life experiences the pangs of jealousy. As can be gathered by this synopsis, Benny and Joon may not strike responsive chord with everyone; those who like the film, however, are almost militant in their devotion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tilda Swinton stars in director Erick Zonca's drama about a 40-year-old alcoholic who, in a rare moment of sobriety, sees where her life is headed and makes one last-ditch attempt to steer herself away from the disastrous path that she has been locked on for as far back as she can remember. Julia may be manipulative, notoriously untrustworthy, and completely incapable of uttering any word that isn't an outright lie, but somehow -- perhaps due to sheer charisma -- this statuesque deceiver has always managed to get by. But Julia has been hardened by too many vodkas and too many one-night stands, and lately the lonely life of drifting from job to job in her 1979 Chrysler New Yorker has left her wanting something more. While her old boyfriend Mitch occasionally tries to break through Julia's haze, lately she has surrendered herself to the fact that she is simply one of life's losers. As her finances begin to run short and panic begins to set in, a desperate Julia turns to crime but is forced to go on the run with a young boy named Tom after her plan falls hopelessly apart. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Korean filmmaker Gina Kim directed this erotic drama about a woman's dangerous response to her husband's fertility issues. The Departed's Vera Farmiga stars as Sophie, an American woman married to Korean-American Andrew (David McInnis). When Andrew's inability to impregnate Sophie leads him to attempt suicide, Sophie seeks the help of a fertility clinic, but is turned away. Desperate to save her marriage, she begins paying Korean immigrant Jihah (Ha Jung-woo) for sex, in hopes that she'll become pregnant and Andrew will be none the wiser. As on might expect, though, the relationship between Sophie and Jihah evolves into something more than either bargained for. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Director Wim Wenders and writer Sam Shepard, who collaborated on the award-winning film Paris, Texas, once again join forces for this dark drama of a man trying to turn over a new leaf late in life. Howard Spence (Sam Shepard) is a veteran actor who has been a popular Western star since the mid-'70s. Spence's onscreen image as a strong, principled lawman is a severe contrast to his life off the set, which has been dominated by drinking, drugs, and promiscuous womanizing. However, Spence has begun to find his hedonistic life a shallow existence, and one day, in the midst of filming his latest movie, he simply hops on his horse and rides away, eventually making his way to the small Nevada town where his mother lives. Mother (Eva Marie Saint) has little interest in seeing her wayward son after so many years, but she does share a recently discovered bit of information with him -- one of Spence's former girlfriends stopped by with word that she had given birth to his son years before. Spence borrows his father's old car and drives to Butte, MT, where he finds Doreen (Jessica Lange), the woman who was his lover years ago. Doreen runs a tavern where her son, Earl (Gabriel Mann), plays for the locals with his rock band; Spence is in fact Earl's father, but the young man has no interest in meeting his biological father, and shuts out Spence as the actor tries to get to know him. As Spence struggles to find some sort of familial connection in Butte, he makes friends with a young woman named Sky (Sarah Polley), only to discover she was also fathered by him during his rowdy younger days. Don't Come Knocking's distinguished supporting cast includes Tim Roth, George Kennedy, Fairuza Balk, Julia Sweeney, and Tim Matheson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Legendary filmmaker Wim Wenders returns to the screen with this loosely structured murder mystery. The Million Dollar Hotel unites Wender's obsession with cool music, lost souls, and American trash culture. Set in 2001, the film opens with Tom Tom (Jeremy Davies) taking a flying leap off the roof of the Million Dollar Hotel, an ironically titled dive in the seedy section of L.A. Told in an extended flashback, Tom Tom recounts the murder investigation of a down-and-out artist and son of a media mogul, Izzy Goldkiss (Tim Roth), who also fell off the hotel. FBI special agent Skinner (none other than Mel Gibson), sporting a neck brace, looks into the death only to discover that the building is teeming with weirdos and losers. There is Vivien (Amanda Plummer), who claims to be the fiancée of the rock star; Geronimo (Jimmy Smits), a huckster trying to make a buck by selling Izzy's abstract painting; Eloise (Milla Jovovich), a burned out prostitute with a passion for intellectual literature; and Dixie (Peter Stormare), who swears up and down that he is the fifth Beatle. As the film progresses, Skinner proves to be just as much of a freak as the hotel tenets -- he was born with a third arm that was surgically removed from his back. Just as in his Until the End of the World (1991), Wenders features a fantastic soundtrack including songs from Bono, Daniel Lanois, and Brian Eno. The Million Dollar Hotel opened the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Hong Kong emigrant Wayne Wang directed and co-wrote (with Paul Theroux, Jean-Claude Carriere and Larry Gross) this story set in "the Pearl of the Orient" as the British government prepared to hand over the city to China in 1997. John (Jeremy Irons) is an English journalist who has lived in the city for some time; while in some ways he still feels like an outsider, he's come to think of Hong Kong as a home and has close friends there. John is also in love with Vivian (Gong Li), a one-time prostitute who now runs a bar owned by her fiancé, Chang (Michael Hui). John is struggling with the realization that he can never have Vivian as his own, when he learns that he has leukemia; the British are to give the reigns of power back to the Chinese in six months, but John's doctors tell him he isn't likely to live long enough to see it happen. He quits his job and begins wandering the streets, recording his observations of the city on videotape when he meets Jean (Maggie Cheung), a young woman who makes her way selling whatever she can scavenge, and who hides a secret behind the scarves that obscure her face. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide