Andrea Sperling Movies

A British exchange student disrupts the family dynamics of an American household in this domestic drama from director Drake Doremus (Douchebag, Like Crazy). Before he taught music, cellist Keith Reynolds was just another struggling musician trying to make it in New York City. Years later, Keith has settled down with his wife Megan. As their daughter Lauren prepares for her senior year of high school, Keith begins to grow increasingly nostalgic about his bohemian youth. Meanwhile, the occasional gig as a substitute cellist for an esteemed Manhattan symphony a much -welcomed reprieve from his predictable life as a family man. But when Megan decides to host British high school senior Sophie as an exchange student, the wistful musician finds the impulsive nature that he has so successfully repressed once again bubbling to the surface, where nothing is nearly as placid as it appears. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A married couple find their love affair with alcohol threatening to unravel their relationship when the time comes to confront their addiction head on. Charlie (Aaron Paul) and Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) are a fun-loving couple, but their heavy drinking is starting to become a problem. As Kate constructs a series of elaborate lies to conceal her addiction from her co-workers, her relationship with her mother begins to deteriorate. Realizing that she needs to get sober in order to pull out of her downward spiral, she finds that Charlie is reluctant to join her, and starts to see their relationship in a new light. Meanwhile, once she gathers the courage to set the bottle aside, the real fight begins. Octavia L. Spencer, Nick Offerman, and Megan Mullally co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Dean O'Dwyer (Christopher Thornton) DJs in L.A. using the stage name "Delicious D." He' on the verge of stardom when a motorcycle accident leaves him completely paralyzed, and his dreams go up in smoke. Subsequently sinking into a deep depression while living out of his car on Skid Row, Dean takes the plunge into the world of faith healing after a chance encounter with Father Joe Roselli (Mark Ruffalo). In what can only be described as a miracle, Dean soon learns that he possesses a healing touch. Strangely, despite this power, Dean still remains bound to his wheelchair -- a prisoner in his own body. Furious, Dean rejects religion in favor of fame, and instead uses his newfound power to make a fortune in a volatile rock band fronted by "The Stain" (Orlando Bloom). Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo makes his feature directorial debut with this inspirational drama co-starring Juliette Lewis and Laura Linney. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A secretary turns small-scale revolutionary in this satiric comedy drama from director Jamie Babbit. Anna (Melonie Diaz) is a woman in her early twenties who has recently graduated from college but is still figuring out what she wants to do with her life. Anna works as a receptionist for a plastic surgeon, but has mixed feelings about how he manipulates women's negative self-image for profit. Anna is also single and a lesbian, and is having a hard time meeting new women after breaking up with her latest girlfriend. One evening, Anna sees a woman spray painting graffiti on the side of the building where she works, encouraging women to not get breast enlargement surgery; Anna is intrigued and introduces herself. The vandal is Sadie (Nicole Vicius), the leader of a group of lesbian counter-cultural pranksters who call themselves "C*nts in Action," or the CIA. Sadie takes a liking to Anna and invites her to join fellow members Shulamith (Carly Pope), Aggie (Lauren Mollica), and Meat (Deak Evgenikos) as they deface billboards and put up homemade sculptures of feminist icons in public parks. Anna likes the CIA and their aggressive style, and she is strongly attracted to Sadie; eventually, they sleep together, but Anna soon learns Sadie already has a longtime companion, Courtney (Melanie Mayron), and she begins to wonder if she can support every position the CIA has embraced. Itty Bitty Titty Committee was voted Best Feature Film at the 2007 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

An unstable Gulf War veteran with a savior complex receives a shocking wake-up call upon returning stateside and accepting a position with the Department of Homeland Security in the directorial debut of Training Day screenwriter David Ayer. Jim (Christian Bale) is a Gulf War veteran who believes his sworn duty to protect his fellow Americans extends to the streets of Los Angeles, and he longs to fulfill his destiny by joining the LAPD. Rejected by the force and left to ponder his future with his impoverished Mexican paramour -- whom he had intended on bringing to the city after joining the police -- the dejected and unemployed veteran is offered a second shot at helping his country when he is subsequently approached by the Department of Homeland Security. As Jim and his unemployed best friend, Mike (Freddy Rodriguez), carve a swath of chaos through the streets of Los Angeles, the weight of their American dream soon comes crashing down in a devastating blow that threatens to dash their high hopes for a bright future. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Filmmaker Angela Robinson writes and directs the action comedy D.E.B.S., a feature-length adaptation of her award-winning short film produced by a grant from POWER UP (Professional Organization of Women in Entertainment Reaching Up). This 90-minute spy parody involves a secret crime-fighting unit made up of sexy schoolgirls Amy (Sara Foster), Dominique (Devon Aoki), Janet (Jill Ritchie), and Max (Meagan Good). A government agency recruited them for the team based on their standardized test scores, which assumed a propensity for lying and thieving. Their assignment is to take down major villain Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster). As it turns out, all she really wants to have an illicit affair with D.E.B.S. leader Amy. Michael Clarke Duncan plays the president of D.E.B.S. Academy. D.E.B.S. was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Following up his critically acclaimed debut Insomnia (1997), Norwegian director Erik Skjoldbjaerg makes his first English-language feature with this adaptation of the book by Elizabeth Wurtzel. Christina Ricci stars as Lizzie, a prize-winning student heading off to Harvard where she intends to study journalism and launch a career as a rock music critic. However, Elizabeth's fractured family situation including an errant father (Nicholas Campbell) and a neurotic, bitterly hypercritical mother (Jessica Lange) has led to a struggle with depression. When her all-night, drug-fueled writing binges and emotional instability alienate her roommate and best friend, Ruby (Michelle Williams), as well as both her first (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) and second (Jason Biggs) boyfriends, Lizzie seeks psychiatric counseling from Dr. Diana Sterling (Anne Heche), who prescribes the wonder drug Prozac. Despite success as a writer that includes a gig writing for Rolling Stone and some mellowing out thanks to her medication, Lizzie begins to feel that the pills are running her life and faces some tough choices about her future. Prozac Nation (2001) is a longtime dream project of star Ricci, who also serves as one of the film's co-producers. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

The doors are opened on a group of misfits living in a seedy motel on the edge of Los Angeles in the comedy No Vacancy. At the run-down Pink Motel, the owner (Joaquim de Almeida) is furious with his daughter when he finds out she's been sleeping with her boyfriend. This doesn't make her very different from most of the people staying at his establishment, where attractive young women wake up with men they don't recall meeting, sleazy guys cavort with hookers, and most of the tenants are ready to clobber each other. The cast includes Christina Ricci, Lolita Davidovich, Gabriel Mann, Steven Schub and Robert Wagner. No Vacancy was screened at the 1999 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Morgan J. Freeman directed this comedy-drama that takes place in the desert town of Baxter Beach, California, where the locals, lookers, visitors and slackers include dreamer Blue (Brendan Sexton III), pipe-bomb babe Ely (Christina Ricci), all-terrain-vehicle champ Pete (Casey Affleck), nerdy Sandy (Sara Gilbert), TV star Skye (Kate Hudson), and chubby Cale (Ethan Suplee). Blue's dad, who had hoped to bring water to the town, died mysteriously in a hotel fire, leaving an abandoned water slide, and Blue hopes to fulfill his father's dream by completing the water slide attraction. Actress Skye is just passing through with her father, a pop-culture prof. (John Heard), but they're forced to stay in town after a truck-spill leads to a quarantine and the presence of both an FBI agent (Michael Ironside) and an EPA agent (Aunjanue Ellis). Skye gets caught up in local fun and games (orange baseball, potato cannon salvos), while her dad reminisces about the '60s with UFO fanatic Caroline (Lucinda Jenney). Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Superb black-and-white photography highlights this independent drama. John Lee (Peter Alexander) is the son of a Chinese-American father and a French mother, living in California shortly after World War II. John's grandfather was a Chinese laborer brought to America to help lay tracks for the Continental railroad, and John has inherited an obsessive love of trains. When John discovers that the short-line railroad that runs from Merced, California, to the Yosemite Valley is soon to be shut down, he persuades his father to back him as he takes over the line and attempts to restore it. John hires two experienced railroad men to help him run his new railway: conductor Robinson (Henry Gibson and traffic manager Skeeter (Michael Stipe). As he tries to put the Yosemite Valley Railroad back on its feet, he becomes romantically involved with a beautiful park ranger (Jeri Arredondo) and exchanges subtle flirtations with both Skeeter and his sister Wendy (Diana Larkin). However, his all-consuming interest in the railroad prevents these relationships from going anywhere, and his family begins to lose patience with him as he digs himself deeper into a business that seems doomed. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A group of gay and lesbian teen characters addresses the camera directly in this pseudo-documentary about the travails of queer adolescence in early-'90s Los Angeles. Andy (James Duval), who hides his sensitive side beneath a nihilistic exterior, really yearns to find a nice boyfriend and settle down the way his pal Steven (Gilbert Luna), an aspiring filmmaker, has with boyfriend Deric (Lance May). Meanwhile, their sex-crazed friend Tommy (Roko Belic) has been kicked out by his parents for being homosexual. The only seemingly carefree members of this adoptive family are Michele (Susan Behshid) and Patricia (Jenee Gill), a lesbian couple whose desire to raise a child together leads the boys to participate in a group sperm donation during one of the film's many scenes of these characters just hanging out and rapping about AIDS, fag-bashing, homophobia, and alienation. In-between polemicizing and posing in front of Steven's camera for interviews, Andy meets college student Ian (Alan Boyce), who seems, at least for a while, to be Mr. Right. Just as Andy and Ian's relationship begins to blossom, Steven and Deric's starts to fall apart, but nothing's for certain in director Gregg Araki's angst-ridden world. Framed as 15 vignettes, each one introduced by an ironic intertitle and many of them interspersed with graphic sexual and commercial images, Totally F***ed Up marked the end of Araki's no-budget phase; the glossy, gaudy Doom Generation would follow two years later. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

A gentle film critic hooks up with a violent drifter in this HIV-positive road movie, which marked the emergence of writer/director Gregg Araki into the art house mainstream. Jon (Craig Gilmore) has just learned he has the virus that causes AIDS. Still in a state of shock, he stumbles through his usual routine -- until he meets Luke (Mike Dytri), a hunky, gun-toting hitchhiker who has just stolen a car from a pair of homicidal lesbians and shot a trio of would-be gay bashers. Against his better judgment, Jon lets Luke stay at his place and soon finds himself drawn into the nihilistic stranger's world; it doesn't hurt that Luke is also HIV-positive and hot to get inside Jon's pants. Things take a Bonnie and Clyde turn when Luke kills a policeman. The pair go on the lam, first to San Francisco, then all over the western United States. Jon keeps his best friend, Darcy (Darcy Marta), apprised of his situation via a series of ever more infrequent collect calls. But as the road trip continues, Jon becomes increasingly disillusioned with Luke's belief that since they're doomed to die, they should lead consequence-free lives. Like Araki's later movies, The Living End is peppered with pop culture detritus and features a soundtrack heavy on industrial and alternative music -- in this case Psychic TV, Coil, and Fred Gianelli. Marta is a veteran of Araki's earlier Three Bewildered People in the Night, while several other cast members, including Gilmore, would go on to appear in the director's Totally F***ed Up. The Living End's many cameos include performance artist Johanna Went, Eating Raoul director Paul Bartel, Warhol associate Mary Woronov, and Peter Grame, star of the obscure European film Das Gluck Beim Haendewaschen. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi