Libby Villari Movies

In this Disney comedy that bears a suspicious resemblance to The Mighty Ducks, the down-trodden cynical young misfits of a run-down Texas town, devastated by the closing of its one major industry, find renewed hope and spirit at the hands of a plucky British foreign-exchange teacher who introduces them to soccer. When British elementary school teacher Anna Montgomery arrives in the dusty town and first meets the depressed and frequently angry youths, she immediately knows she must do something to somehow make them feel better about themselves and so decides to enroll them into a soccer league. Naturally the kids are at first awful and are soundly pummeled during their first game. Fortunately, former high school football champ, Deputy Sheriff Tom Palmer decides to give the pretty and single Anna a helping hand, and between the two of them manage to whip the kids into shape so they can beat the arrogant state champion team, helmed by Palmer's old rival Jay Huffer. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Small-time Texas businessman Arlis Sweeney (Dennis Quaid) can never shake the memory of his father's (James Caan) wasted life. What particularly sticks in his craw is the murder committed years earlier by his father and a teenaged accomplice. While going through the by-rote motions of his job (he supplies vending machines), Arlis strikes up a friendship with hardcase hitchhiker Kay Davies (Meg Ryan). Slowly, Kay helps Arlis put his life in order. And then, Arlis suddenly realizes where he's seen Kay before. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom's follow-up to the underrated Once Around earned far more attention than its predecessor thanks to the judicious casting of perennial thinking woman's heartthrob Johnny Depp and a certain up-and-coming thespian by the name of Leonardo DiCaprio. A prisoner of his dysfunctional family's broken dreams in tiny Endora, IA, Gilbert (Depp) serves as breadwinner and caretaker for his mother and siblings following his father's suicide and his older brother's defection. Momma (Darlene Cates) is a morbidly obese shut-in who hasn't left the house in seven years; her children include retarded Arnie (DiCaprio), who's about to turn 18 despite a host of negative medical forecasts, and terminally embarrassed Ellen (Mary Kate Schellhardt), who's emerging from an awkward adolescence. When he's not taking care of the difficult but tender Arnie, Gilbert spends his time fixing up the family's tattered farmhouse, working at a failing mom-and-pop grocery store and hanging with local misfits Bobby (Crispin Glover), an overly ambitious junior undertaker, and Tucker (John C. Reilly), a handyman who hankers after a job at the new burger franchise. Into this complicated but essentially unchanging social universe steps Becky (Juliette Lewis), a thoughtful young woman who's been escorting her nomadic grandmother from state to state in a mobile-home caravan. As Becky teaches Gilbert to finally consider his own happiness for a change, she disrupts both his family obligations and his long-running affair with a lonely housewife (Mary Steenburgen). Adapted by Peter Hedges from his own novel of the same name, What's Eating Gilbert Grape was the first and only film role for non-actress Cates, whom the filmmakers discovered on an episode of the Sally Jesse Raphael Show titled "Too Heavy to Leave Their House." ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi