Lynn Cohen Movies

A lonely writer quits his job at a Princeton prep school and sets his sights on New York, where he forges an unlikely bond with an eccentric playwright who now earns his living as an escort for wealthy Manhattan widows. Upon arriving in New York City, Louis Ives (Paul Dano) quickly lands a job at an environmental magazine and leases a room from Henry Harrison (Kevin Kline), a celebrated playwright without a penny to his name. Later, as Louis attempts to strike up a relationship with his environmentally conscious co-worker Mary (Katie Holmes), his urban education gets a sizable jump-start thanks to Henry, who spends his evenings with high-society widows hanging off both arms. As the bond between Henry and Louis strengthens, the young protégé realizes he isn't the only one gaining something from their unusual friendship. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Three stories of unlikely relationships come together in this independent comedy drama from writer and director Adam Reid. Bill Soap (Harry Chase) does commercial voice-overs for a living, but has been stuck in a funk since his wife left him and his daughter stopped speaking to him. One of the only people who still sees him on a regular basis is Omar (Kamel Boutros), the deliver driver who stops by his house nearly every day, and Bill reaches out to him for friendship. Eleanor (Lynn Cohen) is an elderly widow who has lost her license to drive. Eleanor turns to her neighbor Gary (James Urbaniak) for help running her errands, but as they grow closer she looks to him for more intimate comfort. And Gordon (Nate Smith) meets Debby (Sabrina Lloyd) through an on-line dating site and immediately falls in love. However, while Gordon is thoroughly committed to the relationship, they have to navigate more than their share of pitfalls along the way. Hello Lonesome marked the first on-screen role for noted voice actor Harry Chase; the film won the prize for Best Ensemble Performance at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Widower Frank Goode has had to make plenty of adjustments since losing his wife about a year ago, but maybe the hardest one has been maintaining his relationships with his four adult children. It would seem that Frank's wife was the glue who held the family together, and when all of the kids bug out on a planned visit home, he decides to set out on a trip around the country, dropping in on each of their lives in order to help put things right. But their relationships aren't as simple as they once seemed, and Frank's paternal intuition is telling him that his sons and daughters are hiding something from him - and if the Goodes want to become the family they once were, the truth will have to come out before Frank returns home. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

A disconnected accountant finds his mundane life injected with a new sense of urgency after striking up a friendship with a charismatic attorney in director Marcel Langenegger's sexually charged action thriller. Jonathan (Ewan McGregor) is an accountant who has lost his passion in life. When his powerful new lawyer friend, Wyatt (Hugh Jackman), introduces Jonathan to a salacious underground sex club called The List, the dejected accountant soon believes he has found the woman of his dreams (Michelle Williams). His newfound happiness takes a turn for the worse, however, when Jonathan is named the prime suspect in the woman's disappearance as well as the theft of 20 million dollars. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Based on author Laura Kasischke's novel The Life Before Her Eyes, House of Sand and Fog director Vadim Perelman's provocative study of memory, morality, and conscience stars Uma Thurman as the guilt-ridden survivor of a harrowing, Columbine-like high-school shooting. To any outsider, Diana (played as a young girl by actress Evan Rachel Wood) and Maureen (Eva Amurri) were polar opposites; Diana was always questioning authority, while Maureen quietly went about fulfilling the expectations of her devoutly religious family. Yet it was precisely theses differences that drew the two girls to one another and found them gradually growing to become best friends. As with any anxious high-school student, Diana and Maureen both existed in that strange grey zone between childhood and adulthood that found them constantly pondering the endless possibilities that awaited them in the outside world. Flash forward years later, and Diana's (played as an adult by Thurman) life isn't anything like she imagined it would be as a young girl. As Diana's traumatic past gradually comes into focus, it soon becomes obvious that she was profoundly affected by a pivotal event that occurred just prior to her high-school graduation. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Academy Award-winning actress Helen Hunt makes her feature directorial debut with this adaptation of Elinor Lipman's best-selling novel about a Philadelphia schoolteacher (Hunt) whose long-lost birth mother (Bette Midler) reappears at the very moment her daughter is careening into a midlife crisis. Abandoned by her husband (Matthew Broderick) and still grieving the death of her adoptive mother, the emotionally fragile teacher enters into a relationship with the father of one of her students just as her biological mother, an eccentric talk-show host, appears on her doorstep attempting a reconciliation. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Set against the anti-war protests, rock & roll revolution, and mind-expanding psychedelia of the 1960s, Julie Taymor's hallucinogenic musical follows the arduous journey of star-crossed lovers Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) as they and a small group of musicians are swept up in the raging waters of the volatile counterculture movement. Guided through their journey by a pair known only as Dr. Robert (Bono) and Mr. Kite (Eddie Izzard), Jude and Lucy are eventually forced to find their way back to one another after being split apart by powerful forces beyond their control. The music in the film consists exclusively of songs made popular by the Beatles during the time period depicted in the movie. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Much as Steven Spielberg followed 1993's special-effects blockbuster Jurassic Park with a far more downbeat and personal project later the same year, Schindler's List, in 2005 after tearing up the box office with War of the Worlds the director closed out the year with a powerful and thoughtful drama about the human costs of international terrorism. The 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, were supposed to be a peaceful gathering of outstanding athletes from around the world, but on September 5, the games took a sinister turn when eight masked Palestinian terrorists invaded the Olympic village, killing two Israeli athletes and abducting nine others. The kidnappers demanded safe passage out of Germany in addition to the release of Arab prisoners in Israeli and German prisons, but when they arrived at the Munich airport they were met by German police and military forces, and in the melee that followed, all nine hostages were killed. In the wake of the killings, the Israeli government gave Mossad, the nation's intelligence agency, a special assignment -- to track down and eliminate the Palestinians responsible for the death of the Israeli athletes. A young and idealistic Mossad agent (Eric Bana) is assigned to the four-man unit created to wipe out the Olympic terrorists, but while he believes in serving his country, as their bloody work goes on he begins to buckle under the weight of his work and wonders if he can morally justify his nation's acts of revenge. Munich also stars Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig, Mathieu Kassovitz, and Ciarán Hinds. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Charissa Chamorro guest stars as defense attorney Kay Hartley, the former classmate and bitter rival of ADA Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Rohm). Hartley is defending the schizophrenic suspect in a particularly callous hit-and-run killing. Relishing the opportunity to settle old scores with Hartley, Southerlyn veers dangerously close to overplaying her hand in court. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Writer/director Enid Zentelis makes her feature-length debut with the coming-of-age drama Evergreen, shot on-location in Seattle, WA. Teenager Henri (Addie Land) and her single mother Kate (Cara Seymour) move in with Henri's grandmother (Lynn Cohen) in a crumbling old house. Kate works at a factory but the working-poor household just barely gets by. Henri goes to a new school and meets Chat Turly (Noah Fleiss), a wealthy boy from an upscale family. Welcomed with open arms, Henri falls in love with the Turly family (Mary Kay Place and Bruce Davidson) and all the material comfort that their lifestyle affords. Envy of this new family causes her to have shame for her own roots. John Stirratt from Wilco and Uncle Tupelo contributes to the musical score with his band the Autumn Defense. Evergreen premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 as part of the dramatic competition. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

An extremely likely suspect is arrested after a woman is found murdered in a subway car. Unfortunately, he may be able to beat the rap if it is proven that, due to budget cutbacks, he wasn't provided proper medication in prison. This Law & Order episode provides an interesting contrast to earlier plot lines in which the right of mentally disturbed people not to submit to treatment was the crux of the case. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Dani Levy directed and co-stars in this German-Austrian political thriller. Lena Katz (Maria Schrader), living in New York, is the granddaughter of Jewish chocolate-factory owner Eliah Goldberg (Lukas Ammann), whose factory in Germany has been recently set on fire by some anti-Semitic thugs. In NYC, German émigrée Mrs. Fish (Lynn Cohen) reads about the fire and recognizes Goldberg as her father, who she thought was long dead, a victim of the Holocaust. Mrs. Fish phones her son David (Dani Levy), who hires Jewish activist attorney Charles Kaminski (David Strathairn) to contact Goldberg. At the same time, Lena's mom (Nicole Heesters) is visiting New York, and when Lena goes to see her at her hotel, she finds Mrs. Fish near death in the hallway, the victim of an attempted murder. She's taken to the hospital -- where David and Lena meet and begin to learn about their mysterious shared backgrounds and past history. Made with English and German dialogue, this film was shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

A teenager tries to do the right thing with heavy odds stacked against him in this hard-hitting independent drama. Marcus (Brendan Sexton III) is a 14-year-old growing up in a tough section of New York City. Marcus' father is dead, and his mother is in prison; while she told him that it was for helping to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States, he later discovers that she was actually convicted of the murder of his dad. Living with his grandmother, who works as a bartender, Marcus doesn't get much in the way of guidance, and he soon falls in with a group of kids who ride bikes, hang out, and engage in small-time theft for fun and profit. Marcus and his new friends shoplift CDs and sneakers and then sell them in the schoolyard; however, before long, some of the other kids bring up the idea of pulling bigger thefts for bigger profits, and while Marcus is resistant to the idea at first, the decision isn't entirely his to make. One of Marcus' few friends who wants to see him straighten up is Melena (Isidra Vega), who is growing up with a strong set of principles despite being raised in an abusive home. Hurricane (also released under the title Hurricane Streets) won both the Audience Award and the Director's Award at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival; it was the first feature for director Morgan J. Freeman (not to be confused with actor Morgan Freeman). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi