David Lancaster Movies

Ryan Gosling tries his hand at writing and directing with this fantasy thriller starring Christina Hendricks as a mother struggling to protect her kids in a dreamlike city. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

An FBI agent draws fire after being convicted of murdering an informant whom he had an affair with in this straight from the headlines crime thriller directed by Phillip Noyce from a script by Chris Gerolmo. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Genre legend Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins) delivers hair-raising 3D chills with this visually immersive shocker about a pair of young siblings who discover a mysterious bottomless pit in their typical suburban basement. Shortly after moving from New York City to the quiet community of Bensonville with their single mother (Teri Polo), 17-year-old Dane (Chris Massoglia) and his ten-year-old brother, Lucas (Nathan Gamble), stumble across a locked trap door on their basement floor. Together with their new neighbor Julie (Haley Bennett), the two curious boys conduct a sequence of experiments in hopes of finding out exactly how deep the hole is, and what lies at the bottom. Later, just as the three youngsters begin to suspect that the hole reaches directly into infinity, a series of bizarre occurrences leave them convinced that something in the darkness has been waiting to escape, and that in order to defeat it they will have to face their greatest fears. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A seventeen year old screw up enters into a profitable partnership with a serious minded girl whose fiscally irresponsible mother may have just destroyed her chances of becoming a doctor in this romantic comedy starring Anton Yelchin, Eva Amurri, and Susan Sarandon. Dorian (Yelchin) is a rebellious teen from a wealthy background. Tired of bailing their son out of trouble time and again, Dorian's parents have finally decided to ship him off to live with his uncle for the summer. Once there, Dorian lands a job at a local water park and strikes up a friendship with the slightly older Grace (Amurri). The complete opposite of Dorian in everyway imaginable, Grace is a straight-A student who aspires to become a doctor, and who's spent the majority of the past six years looking after her little sister Taylor (Willa Holland) following their father's suicide. Grace's mother Rhonda (Sarandon) is a haggard force of nature who sees herself as a martyr for the sacrifices she's made to keep her family together after an earth-shaking tragedy, though in reality may have just cost Grace a future in medicine by taking out credit cards in the young girl's name and neglecting to make payments. In order to go to college Grace will need financial aid, but with numerous maxed out credit cards to her name that's next to impossible. Upon learning that she'll need to raise $12,000 in twelve weeks in order to cover tuition, Grace prepares to kiss her dreams for the future goodbye. Fate soon intervenes, however, when Dorian informs Grace that he's decided to deal pot in order to become financially independent from his parents. In order to turn a profit Dorian needs to expand his territory, and in order to expand his territory he'll need a car: Enter Grace. Realizing that she'll never make the money she needs working at the water park, Grace agrees to enter into a temporary partnership with Dorian. But while their business endeavor proves wildly profitable at first, things quickly start to unravel for the ambitious pot-dealers when Grace and Taylor discover a secret about their father's suicide, and Dorian summons the courage to tie up some loose ends from his distant past. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Twenty-two people become unwitting participants in a tragic and defining moment of the 1960s in this period drama from actor and director Emilio Estevez. It's early June in 1968, and the California presidential primary elections are occupying the minds of many in the Golden State, with Robert F. Kennedy in a close race against Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey. The Kennedy campaign staff has set up camp at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, while the staff and guests become observers as the brother of fallen president John F. Kennedy sets out to pick up where his sibling left off. Paul (William H. Macy) is the manager of the Ambassador, and his wife, Miriam (Sharon Stone), is a hairdresser who runs' the hotel's beauty salon. Angela (Heather Graham) is a receptionist working the hotel's switchboard who has been sleeping with Paul behind Miriam's back. Timmons (Christian Slater) is in charge of the hotel's restaurant and catering department, and makes no secret of his dislike of the African-Americans and Latinos under his employ. Miguel (Jacob Vargas) and Jose (Freddy Rodriguez) are two young Chicanos on the kitchen staff who have it in for Timmons, while Robinson (Laurence Fishburne) is an older black man who counsels them on dealing with their rage. Virginia Fallon (Demi Moore) sings in the hotel's cocktail lounge and has a serious problem with alcohol; her husband, Tim (Emilio Estevez), is a Kennedy supporter and also her manager, and he's nearing the end of his rope in dealing with her problem. William (Elijah Wood) is a young man desperate to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam; Diane (Lindsay Lohan) is a pretty young woman dating William's brother who agrees to marry him so William can avoid being drafted, though William is clearly infatuated with her, while she considers this a marriage in name only. John Casey (Anthony Hopkins) is one of the owners of the Ambassador, and Nelson (Harry Belafonte) is an old friend who works at the hotel. And Jack (Martin Sheen) is a wealthy Kennedy campaign financier who is married to Samantha (Helen Hunt), an attractive but much younger woman. Bobby also features Joshua Jackson, Nick Cannon, and Shia LaBeouf as young Kennedy campaign volunteers, while Ashton Kutcher, Joy Bryant, Kip Pardue, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead also highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A young man who has flirted with death is forced to come to terms with mortality in this tale of terror based on a story by Stephen King. Alan Parker (Jonathan Jackson) is a college student studying art at the University of Maine in 1969. Cursed with an over-active imagination, Alan constantly obsesses over the worst outcome of any situation, and when he begins to suspect his girlfriend, Jessica (Erika Christensen), is thinking of leaving him, it drives him to the brink of suicide. Shortly after this brush with death, Alan receives word that his mother, Jean (Barbara Hershey), has suffered a severe stroke and may not pull through. Alan grabs his jacket and hits the road, hoping to hitchhike the one hundred miles to the hospital. As it happens, Alan is trying to catch a ride on Halloween night, and after he's picked up by one George Staub (David Arquette), he realizes that he's riding the highway with a creature not of this Earth. Riding the Bullet was directed by Mick Garris, marking the fourth time the filmmaker has brought one of King's stories to the cinema or television screen. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A woman endures the painful birth of her child. Two doctors argue about the ethics of saving the horribly malformed child's life. Years later, a nurse is found brutally tortured and murdered, hundreds of syringes plunged into her, and Buckley Clarke (Lauren Holly), a tough homicide cop, is assigned the case. The victim's brother, Sam Brown (Robert Patrick), is a reclusive wilderness tracker living in Alaska. He gets word of the crime and goes to San Francisco to undertake his own investigation. At first, Clarke is dismissive of Brown, but she's soon forced to acknowledge his skill at finding clues and tracking his prey; seeing that she can't get rid of him anyway, she allows him to participate in the investigation. Soon, other victims turn up in similar conditions, and the FBI becomes involved, convinced that there's a serial killer on the loose. But Clarke eventually realizes that the victims are not being chosen at random. They all share a terrifying connection. Despite their disparate backgrounds, Clarke and Brown grow increasingly attracted to one another as they combine their talents to determine the killer's identity. But the killer soon learns that the intrepid pair is closing in, and the hunters become the prey. Pavement was directed by Darrell James Roodt (Cry, the Beloved Country) from a script by Charles Hansen. The film was shot in Cape Town, South Africa. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

"Chop Chop" Frankie Carbone (Armand Assante) has made a career out of stealing cars for the mob in Chicago. An attempted assassination by a mob boss goes badly and Frankie retaliates, only to wind up in the hands of the Feds. Frankie agrees to testify against the mobsters and his life is suddenly worthless -- unless he submits to going into federal protection. The FBI gives him a new name -- Howard Akers -- and relocates him to a sleepy middle-class suburb in Little Rock, AR. Howard catches the attention of his lovely neighbor, Leigh (Angela Featherstone), a bored fund-raiser for a non-profit zoo whose husband, Dennis (David Lipper), is having an affair -- and she knows it, but she doesn't know it's with her hot-blooded sister, Bootsie (Dina Meyer). Leigh becomes friends with the enigmatic Howard, but Dennis and Bootsie see an opportunity to earn the million-dollar bounty the mob has put on his head by turning him in to the mob. ~ Buzz McClain, Rovi

This bittersweet comedy of modern romance is a filmed multimedia performance made up of 15 short acts depicting the many phases of a love affair from the first wooing, to blossoming love, to passion, to the heart-breaking end, as it describes the stream-of-consciousness musings of a middle-aged man searching for true love. To distinguish one episode from the next, different camerawork and different types of music are employed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

'Night. Mother was adapted by Marsha Norman from her own harrowing Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Outwardly normal Sissy Spacek calmly informs her mother Anne Bancroft that she's about to commit suicide. Thus the stage is set for a war of nerves between the determined Spacek and the distraught Bancroft, who uses every emotional and psychological device at her disposal to stave off the inevitable. The film's tension grows not from its plot development--we know from the outset how it's going to end--but from whether or not we're going to learn all the reasons for Spacek's decision. She's an epileptic, an alcoholic, and supremely miserable, but she always holds a little something back, prompting the viewer to lean closer to the screen in hopes of ferreting out more answers. In the original play, the outcome was never predictable; perhaps understandably, there are many who prefer the staged 'Night Mother to the screen version. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi