Barry Poltermann Movies

Explore the life story of the Milwaukee serial killer whose ghoulish crimes shocked the entire world as filmmaker James Thompson takes viewers into the twisted world of Jeffrey Dahmer. In July of 1991, Dahmer was arrested after one of his intended victims made a daring escape. In the days and months that followed, newspapers around the world offered shocking accounts of necrophilia and cannibalism committed by a madman who had slowly succumbed to his darkest desires. When Dahmer's two-week trial came to an end, the court found him sane, and guilty on 15 counts of murder. In a state without capital punishment, his sentence was as stiff as many had expected: 15 life terms for a total of 957 years in prison. In this film, Thompson paints a vivid portrait of a monster in human skin as he contrasts depictions of Dahmer's everyday life against interviews with everyone from his former neighbor Pamela Bass to Police Detective Patrick Kennedy and Medical Examiner Jeffrey Jentzen. He result is a documentary with the power to get under the skin of even the most jaded true crime fanatic. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A spy hell-bent on revenge will do anything to find the men who took the life of the woman he loved in this 70s-style drama filled with action, stunts and nudity. Stanley Cashay (Randy Russell) was a top agent for the CIA until his psyche was shattered by a traumatic event -- a handful of enemy operatives raided his home while he was on assignment, and with Cashay missing, they killed his wife instead. Returning home to Milwaukee, Cashay sinks into an alcoholic haze and is contemplating suicide until he's called up for a new mission. Two suitcases belonging to presidential candidate Squire Parks (Michael Sottile) have gone missing, and the Agency wants their classified contents returned safe and sound; if Cashay can recover them, the CIA will give him the one thing he wants most -- the names and whereabouts of the men who murdered his wife. Cashay teams up with a handful of former allies, including Casey Thunderbird (Barry Poltermann) and Black Licorice (Nikki Johnson) for an adventure that takes them from Milwaukee to Tokyo, but Cashay discovers it's not easy to tell your friends from your enemies as he's subjected to betrayals and double-crosses en route to finding the stolen goods. Also featuring Danny Trejo and Mark Borchardt, Modus Operandi was shot over a period of four years by first-time director Frankie Latina. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Though notorious as a flamboyant TV game show staple, stage and screen icon Charles Nelson Reilly qualified early in the game as one of the most accomplished performers in all of show business. In addition to early dramatic training under the aegis of Uta Hagen (alongside Hal Holbrook and Jason Robards), Reilly received a Tony nomination for his 1997 direction of Julie Harris in a critically-acclaimed revival of The Gin Game and - as a dramatic coach - honed the acting chops of many a well-respected contemporary. Reilly also launched a critically praised one-man stage show, The Life of Reilly, that involved the actor-director relaying colorful monologues about his long life in show business before a live audience. That production forms the basis of the film of the same name by Barry Poltermann and Frank Anderson. The motion picture, shot as a "theater piece" without being opened up for the screen, (and thus, a film relatively free of visual gimmicks) finds Reilly expostulating, wittily, on such topics as: his homosexuality (and the early discrimination it wrought when he wanted to make it as an actor); his dysfunctional family and troubled childhood; his brush with death in a 1944 circus fire; his stint on the small screen; and his experiences on the Great White Way. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Director Chris Smith made this documentary about independent filmmaking which had its world premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. American Movie centers on a low-budget horror-film buff named Mark Borchardt, who grew up on such horror classics as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead. Now in his late twenties, he has decided to make the ultimate horror opus in the form of an indie feature entitled Northwestern, the scariest film ever made in his Wisconsin town. Filled with determination and passion (and very little else), this documentary follows Mark for a year and a half in the making of Northwestern. The audience sees Mark fending off creditors, including the IRS, and avoiding child support payments so he can make this direct-to-video flick. His efforts to round up cast and crew are disastrous, as there is nobody in his town who shares his knowledge and passion for moviemaking. Eventually he decides to star in his film and wears a dozen crew members' hats as writer, producer, director, cameraman, editor, and soundman. American Movie follows this man with a dream to his dying uncle's trailer park, where he raises three thousand dollars. Unable to make an entire feature for that price, he scraps the idea in exchange for completing one of his many abandoned short films, Coven, which also premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. The end is a world premiere as satisfying as getting accepted into Sundance. ~ Arthur Borman, Rovi

In this gory horror movie, a pregnant woman and her fiance travel to his ancestral home. There the hapless woman discovers that everyone in his family is a vampire, and that they feast on unborn babies. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi