Loren Dean Movies

Arliss Howard plays a baby-faced undercover cop, posing as a high school student. Howard is investigating the murder of a teacher, a task made difficult when his own brother (Loren Dean) becomes the primary suspect. Meanwhile, the ersatz student falls in love with Alexandre Powers, the daughter of the school's gym instructor. Before long, Howard is having trouble separating his "real" self from his fictional persona: he event develops a crush on home-room teacher Suzy Amis! Director Martha Coolidge and scriptwriter A. Scott Frank seem to be having a lot of fun pushing the credibility envelope in the amusing but unnecessarily convoluted Plain Clothes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this film version of E. L. Doctorow's Billy Bathgate, Loren Dean plays the title character, a street-smart kid who inveigles his way into the confidence of 1930s gangster Dutch Schultz (Dustin Hoffman). Billy is ordered to look after Schultz' new moll, Drew Preston (Nicole Kidman), while Dutch fends off tax evasion charges and such up-and-coming rivals as Lucky Luciano (Stanley Tucci). Even though they know they're playing with dynamite, Billy and Drew fall in love. In attempting to escape Schultz' wrath, Billy succeeds only in putting himself in the thick of a gun battle between his boss and Luciano. When "Charley Lucky" emerges triumphant, Billy is forced once again to rely on his wits to escape being sent to the bottom of the briny in a cement overcoat. Bruce Willis shows up in an extended cameo as Dutch Schultz' former business associate. Billy Bathgate was adapted for the screen by British playwright Tom Stoppard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally aired as a two-part miniseries, this biography looks at the early years of America's most dashing president from his early childhood through his nomination for Congress. It's based on Nigel Hamilton's best-selling biography. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

For his second outing as a director, filmmaker Philip Ridley once again enlisted the talents of Viggo Mortensen, who starred in Ridley's debut, The Reflecting Skin, and co-stars here with Ashley Judd and Brendan Fraser. Fraser plays Darkley Noon, a disturbed young man who received a sheltered upbringing from his strict Christian parents. When the elder Noons pass on, Darkly wanders off aimlessly until he is picked up by a passing truck driver named Jude (Loren Dean). Jude leaves the physically worn Darkly with Callie (Judd) and Clay (Mortensen), a young married couple. As Callie cares for Darkly, he begins to develop romantic and sexual feelings for her, feelings that threaten to turn violent when Darkly is taunted by the love between Callie and Clay. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

A young woman at a crossroads in her life finds herself receiving plenty of advice from her older and wiser counterparts in this drama. Finn Dodd (Winona Ryder) is a graduate student trying to finish up her doctoral thesis on women's folk art while deciding if she should marry her fiancé Sam (Dermot Mulroney); she's not sure if she's ready to settle down, and suspects that Sam is unfaithful to her. Needing time to sort things out, Finn chooses to spend the summer with her grandmother Hy (Ellen Burstyn) and great aunt Gladys Jo (Anne Bancroft). Hy and Gladys Jo are avid quilters, and with a group of their friends, they work on a special quilt for Finn's wedding; as the women work together, they share stories of their lives, and Finn finds herself learning as much from hearing them talk as she does from her schoolwork. Finn also receives a visit from her free-spirited mom Sally (Kate Capshaw) and finds herself infatuated with a good looking young man who lives nearby. Maya Angelou plays one of the quilters, as do Kate Nelligan, Jean Simmons, and Alfre Woodard. How to Make an American Quilt was the directorial debut of Jocelyn Moorhouse, and was based on a novel by Whitney Otto that itself began as a doctoral thesis. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

New Zealand screenwriter Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show) made his feature directorial debut with this science fiction drama, set in a future when one's life is determined by genetic engineering rather than education or experience. The wealthy can choose the genetic makeup of their descendants. People are designed to fit into whatever role is decided before birth. But what happens when someone desires another way of life? Citizens in this impersonal future-world are fashioned as perfect specimens, so those in the natural-born minority are viewed as inferior to the pre-planned perfect specimens (aka "Valids") who dominate. One of the natural-borns (aka "In-Valids"), Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), has several defects (poor vision, emotional problems, and short 30-year life expectancy), but he also develops a different outlook on his pre-ordained fate. He yearns to break free from society's constraints, and he dreams of a journey into space as a Gattaca Corp. navigator. To accomplish his goal, he enlists the aid of DNA broker German (Tony Shalhoub) and makes contact with Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), who was paralyzed in an accident and is willing to sell his superior genetic materials. Vincent assumes Jerome's identity and is scheduled for a flying mission. However, a week before his flight, a Gattaca mission director is murdered, and all members of the program are the suspects. Meanwhile, he develops a romantic interest in a beautiful Valid, Irene (Uma Thurman), prevented from going into space because of her heart defect. Tracked by a relentless investigator who is methodically jigsawing all the pieces together, Jerome finds his aspirations dissolving into stardust. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Rosewood is the true story of an almost unknown incident in a small Florida town, (fictionalized, but faithful to the known facts, as documented in a 1994 report by the Florida Legislature). The town was inhabited almost entirely by quiet, "middle-class" African- Americans (most of them home and land owners and better off than average at the time.) On New Year's day, 1923, the town was wiped off the face of the earth by angry whites from a neighboring community. Based on palpably false testimony by a single white woman against one "Black" stranger, many of the men of Rosewood were hunted down and lynched, or shot, or burned. The rest of the town's residents fled into the swamps and never returned. At the time, official reports stated that two to six people from the black community were slain. Neither the perpetrators nor the victims spoke of the incident again, which was promptly forgotten until 1983 when a reporter stumbled across the old story and began investigating. Interviews with surviving victims indicated that the previous reports were wrong; in reality, between 70 and 250 people were killed in Rosewood during the four-day attack.

The film is a human story, about human envy, greed and lust, about the totally insane psychology of a mob, but also about the courage and decency of common folks facing an unbelievable onslaught of evil. The courage of the black residents is self evident, and the decency on the part of a few white neighbors is reluctant, until they realize that they can't live with themselves if they don't help the woman and children to escape. The most notable black heroes are Sylvester (Don Cheadle) -- a music teacher and the best-educated man in town -- and Mann (Ving Rhames) -- a stranger on horseback with Samson-like strength who becomes the focus of white hatred and black resistance. The penny-pinching, adulterous town grocer John Wright (John Voight), one of the few white residents, also plays a key role in saving lives, but before he does, he must resolve painful racial issues and make a difficult personal choice. Eventually, though, he sees enough of the mob's evil to know what he must do, and with the help of the reluctant owner-operators of the Gainesville railway, he does it. John Singleton's powerful epic film does not present a "comfortable" view of the circumstances of this grim, little-known page from American history. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide

A struggling filmmaker trying to climb the show business ladder befriends an actor who's heading down the same ladder at a furious pace in this dark comedy. George (Jamie Kennedy), an aspiring writer who does temp work to make ends meet, longs to break into show business where he can get to know his favorite stars. One night, George is invited to a party and he meets Kyle Carey (Loren Dean), one of his favorite actors. Kyle's star has fallen quite a bit in recent months, but George doesn't seem to be aware of this, and he's thrilled to be spending time with a genuine celebrity, even if Kyle only seems to call when he needs help with something. As George spends his evenings with Kyle and his girlfriend Iona (Carmen Electra), a model, he's convinced he's found the fast track to a career in Hollywood, until Kyle calls him one night asking a rather unexpected favor -- he's been fired from his latest picture and doesn't have a place to stay, so can he move in for a while? Starstruck, which was produced under the title Starf*cker, also stars Bridgette Wilson, Spencer Garrett, Clarence Williams III, and Marlo Thomas. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this adventure drama, four men passed over by the space program get one last chance to be heroes and live out their dreams. Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood), Hawk Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones), Jerry O'Neill (Donald Sutherland), and Tank Sullivan (James Garner) were top pilots within an elite Air Force squadron and on the fast track to becoming the first Americans in space in the early 1950s. However, when NASA was established, the pilots were cut out of the loop; Corvin went on to become an aerospace engineer, Hawkins continued on as a freelance pilot, O'Neill became an astrophysicist with a sideline in designing roller coasters, and Sullivan took up preaching as a Baptist minister. Years later, a Russian satellite's guidance system has started to malfunction, and it is expected to crash into the Earth within a matter of weeks. The system is identical to the one Corvin designed for Skylab, so NASA head Bob Gerson (James Cromwell) asks Corvin to help him with the emergency mission to repair the satellite. Corvin agrees under one condition -- that he be sent up to do the repairs himself, with Hawkins, O'Neill, and Sullivan as his crew. Clint Eastwood directed Space Cowboys while also starring as Frank Corvin; his supporting cast includes Marcia Gay Harden, Courtney B. Vance, Loren Dean, and William Devane. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

ER costar Ming-Na is cast as Li Mei Nu, an immigrant woman in search of her missing sister Jiao Wu. The authorities are also interested in catching up with Li Wu, who has apparently abandoned two of her daughters in a squalid apartment. As the SVU detectives pursue the case, it becomes clear that the missing woman was being persecuted by an alien-smuggling gang which uses its "customers" as sweatshop workers and sex slaves. Unfortunately, none of the gang's victims are willing to cooperate with the detectives--especially after Li Mei is savagely beaten on the orders of a corrupt customs attorney. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

The true story of acclaimed lawyer Betty Anne Waters comes to the screen in this docudrama directed by Tony Goldwyn, and starring Hilary Swank. Her brother convicted for a 1983 murder/robbery he didn't commit, unemployed, single mother of two Betty begins studying law in order to help prove his innocence. Over the course of the next decade, Betty continues studying to earn her law degree, eventually passing the bar in 1995 and actively taking up her brother's case. By challenging the conviction with DNA evidence, Betty is ultimately able to prove her brother's innocence and win back his freedom. Sam Rockwell and Minnie Driver co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide