Lindsay Crystal Movies

The future of American politics may well be taking their first step towards leadership in this documentary from filmmaker Vanessa Roth. In the fall of 2004, as America was preparing to go to the polls in one of the most hotly contested presidential elections in history, Roth decided to take a look at the other end of the political spectrum, and followed student council elections at four middle schools across the United States, watching as hopeful thirteen-year-olds try to convince their classmates they should represent them. In San Francisco's Francisco Middle School, Jenny Wong campaigns on the hot-button issue that the school's textbooks and equipment need to be updated, while her opponent Mick Del Rosario just wants better food in the cafeteria. Hall Middle School in California's Marin County fields four candidates -- Beau Cowen, who wants to stamp out hate speech; Katie Kane, who wants more and better school dances and juice options in the lunchroom; Sam Arabian, who has dubbed himself "student action man;" and William Zolezzi, who believes he could make lunch more fun for everyone. St. Stephens Episcopal in Austin, Texas finds students choosing between Sam Brothers, a student council veteran who believes two terms are necessary to make real change, and Dustin Godevais, who runs on his regular guy appeal. And three close friends are all running for the same student council spot at Atlanta's Inman Middle School -- pro-diversity candidate Kayla Bacon, school newspaper editor Noelle Jones, and Teekia Cain, a cheerleader who wants to boost school spirit. Roth follows all eleven candidates, ranging from confident to gawky, as they campaign in any number of styles (ranging from delivering sincere speeches to performing acrobatic stunts) and offer their views on the larger political race occupying the minds of the nation. The Third Monday In October received the Audience Award at the 2006 Austin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal) returns in this sequel to the original City Slickers that attempts to recapture the first film's warmth and character comedy. Despite feeling re-invigorated when we last left him, Mitch again faces a few personal dilemmas: his radio station job is going nowhere and his schlep of a brother (Jon Lovitz, replacing Bruno Kirby as the third of Mitch's cowboy threesome) has come to stay for a while. Things get really strange when Mitch is haunted by the ghost of cowboy Curly (Jack Palance), who died while leading Mitch and friends on their first cattle-herding adventure. Mitch unexpectedly finds a treasure map in the band of Curly's hat and, together with his brother and his friend Phil (Daniel Stern), heads back to the West to find Curly's lost gold mine. Along the way, they hitch up with Curly's twin brother, again played by Palance. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

City Slickers blends sight gags, one-liners, and sincerity, with both humor and drama arising from the characters and their situations. Mitch (Billy Crystal) is a radio station sales executive who finds himself in the throes of a mid-life crisis; accompanied by two friends, Phil (Daniel Stern) and Ed (Bruno Kirby) in the grip of similar problems, he heads to New Mexico for his birthday to participate in a two-week "vacation" cattle drive to Colorado. The three friends and the rest of their group, including an attractive, newly single young woman and two African-American dentists, are all urbanites lost when it comes to herding cattle and surviving on the prairie; it's up to authentic, almost mythic cowboy Curly (Jack Palance, who won an Oscar for the role), to whip them into shape. As various adventures occur along the way, including run-ins with outlaw cattlehands, treacherous natural mishaps, and Mitch's delivery of a newborn calf, the three "city slickers" open up to each other, learn to appreciate Curly's Old West values, and begin to resolve their midlife dilemmas. When Curly dies, it's left to Mitch, Phil, and Ed to bring in the herd. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi