Jeremy Davies Movies
Jeremy Davies has made a name for himself playing a series of damaged and offbeat characters that highlight the young actor's considerable talents. Born October 28, 1969, in Rockford, IA, the skinny, dark-haired Davies trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, CA. After making his television debut in a Suzuki commercial, he worked on various television shows. The actor made his film debut in the Drew Barrymore film Guncrazy (1992), but it was not until his turn as a young man being manipulated into an Oedipal relationship by his mother in David O. Russell's Spanking the Monkey (1994) that the actor began to garner wide respect and recognition. The film earned the actor considerable rave reviews, indie credibility, and an eventual role in the Jodie Foster movie Nell.In 1997, Davies went on to do The Locusts, co-starring Ashley Judd and Vince Vaughn. His role as Flyboy, the emotionally crippled son of an abusive mother, further added to the actor's reputation of playing victimized, internally conflicted young men. He next played a similarly conflicted character in the Mark Pellington adaptation of Dan Wakefield's coming-of-age novel Going All the Way, in which he co-starred with Ben Affleck. Davies' knack for choosing roles that allow him to go beyond Hollywood's conventions and mine the complexities of the human spirit was further reflected in his portrayal of the battle-shy Corporal Upham in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and his role as a despondent officer in Ravenous (1999). 2001 found Davies stepping in front of the camera as a director whose attempt at finishing a film with a troubled production history proves exceptionally grating in CQ, the directorial debut of the legendary Francis Ford Coppola's son Roman Coppola.
Davies two most memorable roles in 2002 saw him developing a twitchy eccentricity that would become a trademark in many of his films. The dark sexual comedy Secretary had him as a lovelorn suitor opposite a masochistic Maggie Gyllenhal and the sci-fi drama Solaris offered him the opportunity to work under the direction of Academy Award winner Steven Soderbergh.
Having proven time and again his ability to pull off quirky, Davies tried his hand at all-out madness in 2004 when he starred as the infamous Charles Manson in the made-for-television remake of Helter Skelter. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Leonardo Ricagni, director of the 1998 Uruguayan comedy El Chevrolé, helmed this straight-to-video ensemble crime thriller, in which the main character is a bag of money. Initially belonging to a casino on an Indian reservation, The Chief (Russell Means) hires The Hitman (Chris O'Donnell) to track the bag down when it turns up missing. As The Hitman gets closer and closer to finding it, the bag of dough passes through the hands of several other nameless characters, including The Waitress, played by Rachael Leigh Cook, The Drifter, played by Jeremy Davies, and The Sheriff, played by Keith David. Before hitting American video-store shelves in 2003, 29 Palms screened at the München Fantasy Filmfest and the Cologne Fantasy Film Festival, both in Germany. The film should not be confused with the 2004 Bruno Dumont picture of the same name. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris O'Donnell
The feature debut of Roman Coppola (son of Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola) centers around an international film crew making a low-budget, Barbarella-like feature in Paris in 1969. The film is called Dragonfly and is being directed by Andrzej (Gérard Depardieu), who wishes to make a revolutionary work rather than the tacky fluff it is becoming. He is soon fired by the film's Italian producer Enzo (Giancarlo Giannini) when he can't produce a satisfactory climactic scene. After briefly replacing Andrzej with an American horrormeister named Felix DeMarco (Jason Schwartzman), the film's editor and second-unit director, the job is finally handed to Paul (Jeremy Davies). Paul is pleased with the offer, but more devoted to his 16 mm filming of his diary of daily life. He eventually begins to fall for the leading lady (Angela Lindvall), but must retrieve footage of the feature stolen by Andrezej and try to keep the troubled production together. CQ features Billy Zane, Massimo Ghini, and Dean Stockwell in supporting roles. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Davies, Élodie Bouchez, (more)
Set in a small fictional town in the U.S. during the 1930s, Lars von Trier's Dogville was filmed in a studio with a minimal set and features narration by John Hurt. On the run from a group of gangsters, Grace (Nicole Kidman) arrives in the small mining town of Dogville. Town philosopher Tom Edison (Paul Bettany) takes her in and strikes a deal with her: She'll work for the townsfolk in exchange for a safe place to hide; after two weeks the people will vote for her to either stay or go. Grace agrees to the terms and ends up meeting the locals, including the town doctor (Philip Baker Hall), shopkeeper (Lauren Bacall), and apple farmer (Stellan Skarsgård). Eventually, Grace's standing in the town takes a downward shift as the search for her intensifies. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, John Hurt, (more)
- 1997
Two men return home from the Army to find that their attitudes on life, love, and the town where they grew up have changed in this bittersweet coming-of-age drama. Sonny Burns (Jeremy Davies) and Gunner Casselman (Ben Affleck) are two guys from Indianapolis who were drafted during the Korean War. In high school, Gunner was a football player and big man on campus, while Sonny was a social outcast who kept to himself. Sonny spent most of his hitch in the Army in Kansas City, while Gunner was stationed in Japan and found his perspectives changed by exposure to Asian philosophies. Gunner and Sonny run into each other on a troop train as they return to Indiana in 1954. While they were never close in school, Gunner finds himself reaching out to Sonny, believing that Sonny is a deep thinker, though Sonny spends a lot more time thinking about girls than his place in the universe. Sonny has a girlfriend, Buddy (Amy Locane), who would like to get married; Sonny's mother Alma (Jill Clayburgh) is almost as eager as Buddy to see her son head to the altar, but Sonny doesn't find Buddy very interesting, and he's not sure if he wants to settle in Indianapolis. He's far more attracted to Gail (Rose McGowan), an exotic looking brunette who appeals to his girly-magazine fantasies, but while he can make love to Buddy, he's struck with impotence when Gail offers to sleep with him. Meanwhile, Gunner has fallen in love with Marty Pilcher (Rachel Weisz), a sexy Jewish woman, but Gunner's mother Nina (Lesley Ann Warren), who seems inappropriately fond of her son, doesn't care for Marty and spouts anti-Semitic venom at her son in hopes of driving him away from his new girlfriend. Like Sonny, Gunner finds himself thinking that his destiny lies outside of his home town. Dan Wakefield wrote the screenplay for Going All the Way, based on his own novel. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Not so much a remake of Joseph H. Lewis's 1949 film noir classic as a variation on its themes, Guncrazy stars Drew Barrymore as Anita, a teenage girl who was born in a trailer park on the wrong side of the tracks and has been fighting a losing battle with respectability ever since. Anita was abused sexually by her mother's boyfriend (played by onetime Warhol "superstar" Joe Dallesandro), is the subject of lewd advances by the school bullies, and is looked on as a slut and a loser by her peers. When Anita has to find a pen pal for a class assignment, she ends up corresponding with a prisoner named Howard (James LeGros), who's serving time for manslaughter. Howard is one of the first people to address Anita with tenderness and respect, so when he gets parole, Howard moves in with her. Howard's obsessive love of guns, however, once again leads to violence, and the couple hits the road hoping to escape their fates. The debut film from director Tamra Davis, Guncrazy was originally shown on cable television, but received enough critical acclaim to merit a later theatrical release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Drew Barrymore, James LeGros, (more)
The most infamous multiple murders of the 1960s are brought back to life in this, the second made-for-television adaptation of Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry's best-selling account of Charles Manson and his "family." Linda Kasabian (Clea DuVall) is a young runaway with a baby who, while wandering the fringes of Los Angeles' hippie subculture, encounters Charles Manson (Jeremy Davies), a charismatic ex-convict and aspiring musician who travels with a group of young people, mostly women, whom he calls his "family." Kasabian soon falls into Manson's orbit and moves in with the group at a combination riding range and standing Western-movie set, where she and the other members of the family -- among them Patricia Krenwinkel (Allison Smith), Susan Atkins (Marguerite Moreau), Squeaky Fromme (Mary Lynn Rajskub), "Tex" Watson (Eric Dane), and Bobby Beausoleil (Michael Weston) -- subsist through petty crime, handouts, and rescuing food from trash bins and bond with their leader through drugs, group sex, and constant study of his apocalyptic philosophy. Like the other members of the group, Kasabian's life soon revolves around Manson, who is desperate to record his music and frustrated with the slow progress he's seeing from his patron Dennis Wilson, drummer with the Beach Boys. Certain that an international race war foretold in his songs will soon wipe out civilization, and that he and his family will ultimately persevere, Manson decides it's time to kick start events by staging a pair of spectacularly repellent murders, which are carried out by members of his family who have been taught not to question Manson's word. In time, Manson and his family are arrested in connection with the murders, and District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi (Bruno Kirby) is given the difficult task of untangling the mingled strands of the bizarre killings and making a case in court against the family. Helter Skelter was first aired on Sunday, May 16, 2004, by CBS; the film was subjected to last-minute cuts to tone down the violent content in the film's gruesome murder sequences. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Davies, Bruno Kirby, (more)
A single New York woman endures a series of blind dates in search of the perfect spouse in director Jon Sherman's romantic comedy I'm With Lucy. Looking back on her search as she prepares for her wedding, Lucy (Monica Potter ) recalls the physical chemistry of her and Gabriel (Gael García Bernal), the love of Walt Whitman that she shared with orthopedist Luke (David Boreanaz), her fling with former pro-basketball player Bobby (Anthony LaPaglia), her memorable connection with affectionate computer salesman Barry (Henry Thomas), and her mysterious relationship with the shifty Doug (John Hannah). One of these men will be waiting for Lucy at the alter, but one thing keeps nagging at our protagonist's conscience -- has she made the right choice when it comes to the man she'll spend the rest of her life with? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Monica Potter, Julianne Nicholson, (more)
A group of bohemian intellectuals struggle to have an intelligent discussion of perhaps the world's most emotional subject in this comedy-drama from director Alan Rudolph. Edgar (Dermot Mulroney) is an artist living in Paris during the 1920s who believes that sex is a subject of vital importance, but almost no one discusses it with the gravity it deserves. With this in mind, Edgar gathers together a panel of fellow creative types at the home of a wealthy tycoon (Nick Nolte) and his oddly accented spouse (Tuesday Weld) for an evening in which they will discuss their erotic lives without self-serving wit or exaggeration. Joining Edgar for this experiment is an artist from Germany (Til Schweiger), an arrogant film director (Jeremy Davies), a self-obsessed painter (Alan Cumming) whose fey personality may cross the boundaries of Edgar's prohibition of homosexuality as a topic of conversation, and a student from England (Terrence Dashon Howard) who has attracted the eye of a lovely French girl (Julie Delpy) with whom Edgar has fallen in love. Certain that a number of profound thoughts will be shared with the group, Edgar hires a pair of stenographers to record the proceedings, but the presence of the two young and beautiful secretaries -- innocent Alice (Neve Campbell) and provocative Zoe (Robin Tunney) -- has an unexpectedly strong effect on the group. Investigating Sex had its U.S. premiere as the closing night attraction of the 2001 Seattle Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dermot Mulroney, Alan Cumming, (more)
After Oceanic Air flight 815 tore apart in mid-air and crashed on a Pacific island, it s survivors were forced to find inner strength they never knew they had in order to survive. But they discovered that the island hold many secrets, including a mysterious smoke monster, polar bears, a strange French woman and another group of island residents known as The Others. The survivors have also found signs of those who came to the island before them, including a 19th century sailing ship called The Black Rock, the remains of an ancient statue, as well as bunkers belonging to the Dharma Initiative a group of scientific researchers who inhabited the island in the recent past.
- Starring:
- Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, (more)
"When am I?" John Locke's chronological confusion sums up Season 5, which hopscotches dizzyingly between the 1970s and 2008 as it charts the Oceanic Six's return to the island and reveals important island secrets. On the island, Locke (Terry O'Quinn) is the new leader of the Others. But in L.A., he's dead, and his death plays a key role in getting Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and Sun (Yunjin Kim) to return via Ajira Airways. Sayid (Naveen Andrews) refuses to join his fellow former castaways, but winds up being escorted onto the Guam-bound flight by a bounty hunter named Ilana (Zuleikha Robinson). Ben (Michael Emerson) must return, too, to face judgment for allowing his daughter Alex to die. Their flight -- with Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) at the controls -- is a bumpy one, but the final destination is indeed the island. Ben, Sun, Ilana and Frank remain fixed in time upon their return to the island, but Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid are flashed back in time to 1977, where they are reunited with Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell). After surviving a series of time-travel flashes, Sawyer and Juliet landed in the 1970s and forged a close relationship with each other and the Dharma Initiative, which also welcomes Miles Straume (Ken Leung). Meanwhile, Miles' colleague Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) embarks on a time-traveling mission that introduces him to a nuclear bomb named Jughead and a young woman named Ellie. Both play prominent roles as the season progresses. ~ Paul Droesch, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, (more)
The politics of slavery and the follies of nation-building highlight Danish director Lars von Trier's thought-provoking follow-up to the director's 2003 drama Dogville, featuring The Village's Bryce Dallas Howard in the role originally played by Nicole Kidman, and shot in the same stage-bound style as its predecessor. Shortly after leaving Dogville, Grace (Howard) and her father (Willem Dafoe) wander into a gated Alabama community still operating under the tenets of slavery. Appalled to stumble across a brutal scene in which a white master is viciously lashing his slave (Isaach de Bankolé), Grace hastily intercedes and pleads with the abusive man to treat his workers with respect and dignity. When merciless matriarchal plantation owner Mam (Lauren Bacall) dies shortly thereafter, the remaining slaves, who have never tasted freedom and only known life under "Mam's Law," implore the sympathetic Grace to help ease their turbulent transition toward democratic rule, with disastrous results. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bryce Dallas Howard, Isaach de Bankolé, (more)
A woman is brought to civilization after spending her life in the wilds in this drama. Dr. Jerome Lovell (Liam Neeson) happens upon a shack deep in the woods, where he discovers a strange woman who appears to be about 30, speaking an incomprehensible language. The woman, named Nell (Jodie Foster), was raised in the cabin by her late mother, who was incapacitated by strokes (Nell speaks English, but distorted -- as it was by her mother's infirmities); with the exception of her twin sister, who died as a child, Nell has had contact with no other human being. Lovell brings in a psychiatrist, Dr. Paula Olsen (Natasha Richardson) to help determine what, if anything, should be done for Nell; Olsen thinks that Nell should be committed to an institution, but Lovell demands a period of unobtrusive observation instead. When it becomes obvious that the courts will demand that Nell be hospitalized for psychiatric observation, Lovell and Olsen take it upon themselves to gently introduce Nell to the outside world. Jodie Foster's performance in Nell earned her an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress, and she won the Screen Actor's Guild award in that category. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jodie Foster, Liam Neeson, (more)
In 1847, many Americans made the journey across our continent in search of gold. Many failed to complete the journey or see their dreams come to light. Capt. John Boyd (Guy Pearce) found his way here thanks to an act of cowardice during the Mexican-American War; he has been banished to a desolate military outpost in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Upon his arrival, he is greeted by a rag-tag group of soldiers manning the fort: Hart (Jeffrey Jones), the despondent commanding officer; Toffler (Jeremy Davies), the company chaplain; Knox (Stephen Spinella), the drunken doctor; Reich (Neal McDonough), the only real soldier of the group; and Cleaves (David Arquette), the heavily medicated camp cook. One day, Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle) stumbles into their camp. The half-starved Scotsman had been traveling with a group of settlers until they were snowbound. Unable to move forward, they took refuge in a cave, where once they ran out of food, they were forced to resort to cannibalism. Colqhoun barely escaped the madness -- or did he? Boyd and the soldiers hear of the old Indian legend of the Wendigo, which states a man who tastes the flesh of another steals that man's strength, spirit and essence. His hunger, however, will become an unstoppable craving. Like a vampire, the more he eats, the more he wants, and the stronger he will become, with death the only escape from the madness. The soldiers are soon drawn into the frenzy and Boyd is soon left with the choice of eating or being eaten. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, (more)
Acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog returns to direct his first feature since 2001's Invincible with this dramatic action film inspired by his own 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly and detailing the escape efforts of a German-American pilot who was taken as a prisoner-of-war after being shot down over Laos during the Vietnam War. When U.S. fighter pilot Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) escaped death after being shot down over one of the most intense front lines in the Vietnam War, his troubles were only beginning. Subsequently taken captive by the enemy and forced to endure a harrowing stint in a Vietnamese prison camp, Dengler and his fellow captives stage a death-defying escape that would later inspire one of Germany's most accomplished directors to capture the remarkable tale on camera. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, (more)
Steven Spielberg directed this powerful, realistic re-creation of WWII's D-day invasion and the immediate aftermath. The story opens with a prologue in which a veteran brings his family to the American cemetery at Normandy, and a flashback then joins Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) and GIs in a landing craft making the June 6, 1944, approach to Omaha Beach to face devastating German artillery fire. This mass slaughter of American soldiers is depicted in a compelling, unforgettable 24-minute sequence. Miller's men slowly move forward to finally take a concrete pillbox. On the beach littered with bodies is one with the name "Ryan" stenciled on his backpack. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall (Harve Presnell), learning that three Ryan brothers from the same family have all been killed in a single week, requests that the surviving brother, Pvt. James Ryan (Matt Damon), be located and brought back to the United States. Capt. Miller gets the assignment, and he chooses a translator, Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davis), skilled in language but not in combat, to join his squad of right-hand man Sgt. Horvath (Tom Sizemore), plus privates Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), cynical Reiben (Edward Burns) from Brooklyn, Italian-American Caparzo (Vin Diesel), and religious Southerner Jackson (Barry Pepper), an ace sharpshooter who calls on the Lord while taking aim. Having previously experienced action in Italy and North Africa, the close-knit squad sets out through areas still thick with Nazis. After they lose one man in a skirmish at a bombed village, some in the group begin to question the logic of losing more lives to save a single soldier. The film's historical consultant is Stephen E. Ambrose, and the incident is based on a true occurance in Ambrose's 1994 bestseller D-Day: June 6, 1944. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, (more)
Gilda (Susan May Pratt of Center Stage) is a confused young woman, obsessed with iconoclastic actor Michael De Santis (Chris Noth). She repeatedly watches a tape of De Santis being interviewed by an unctuous, James Lipton-type talk show host (played by legendary indie producer's rep John Pierson). After the death of Gilda's beloved Italian papa (Michele Placido), she learns, much to her dismay, that he had a longtime mistress back in Italy. Using the excuse of her grandfather's (Josef Sommer) upcoming birthday, Gilda travels to New York City, planning to find a way to get close to De Santis. Video camera in hand, Gilda explores the city and runs into Adam (Jeremy Davies), a geology student. Sparks fly until Gilda's newfound cynicism turns Adam off. She decides to pose as a reporter for an Italian newspaper, and arranges to interview De Santis. She takes a bus down to Virginia and goes to the set. Everything goes according to plan, but De Santis quickly sees through her ruse. Intrigued by his pretty, spirited young fan, De Santis invites Gilda back to his hotel room, where neither of them finds what they expected. Searching for Paradise, written and directed by Myra Paci, was developed at the Sundance Institute. The film was a minor hit on the festival circuit and was eventually picked up for home video distribution under the Sundance imprint. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan May Pratt, Chris Noth, (more)
Sadomasochism provides the backdrop for a very unusual employer/employee relationship in this very offbeat romantic drama from filmmaker Steven Shainberg. Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a shy young woman, who, after a brief spell in a mental institution, is released in the care of her overprotective mother (Lesley Ann Warren) and hard-drinking father (Stephen McHattie). Hoping to make good on her own, Lee begins looking for a job, and in her free time indulges in her odd habit of inflicting pain upon herself in various ways. Lee is hired as a secretary by E. Edward Grey (James Spader), a grim and ruthlessly efficient attorney who warns her that her work will be both dull and demanding. Lee takes to the job with genuine enthusiasm, and while she's recently acquired a new boyfriend, Peter (Jeremy Davies), she's far more intrigued by Grey's coldly patrician demeanor. While Grey often criticizes Lee, she seems to thrive on his abuse, but one day he crosses a line when he insists upon spanking her after some minor mistake. Lee quite enjoys the treatment, and wants it to continue, but Grey can no longer take pleasure humiliating Lee when he knows that she likes it; he fires her, despite her pleas to be allowed to stay. Finally discovering the key to her sexual and emotional needs, Lee tries to persuade Peter to be rough with her, but he simply doesn't have the taste or talent for it, and Lee soon maps out a last-ditch effort to win back her position with Grey, whatever the cost. Secretary won a special award for "Originality" at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Spader, (more)
- 1991
This police story chronicles the true story of two partners who started out as best friends and later became the bitterest of enemies when one of them becomes corrupted. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A therapist travels to a distant space station to treat a group of astronauts traumatized by mysterious entities -- and ends up having to deal with an entity of his own -- in this second film version of Stanislaw Lem's philosophical sci-fi novel. Solaris stars George Clooney as Chris Kelvin, a psychologist still mourning the loss of his wife Rheya (Natascha McElhone) when he's implored by a colleague named Gibarian (Ulrich Tukur) to investigate the increasingly weird goings-on at the Prometheus space station. By the time Kelvin gets there, Gibarian has committed suicide, leaving only the cryptic, babbling Snow (Jeremy Davies) and the paranoid, guarded Gordon (Viola Davis), both of whom are holed up in their respective rooms. As Kelvin interrogates the skeleton crew, he learns that they've had unwanted "visitors," apparitions of long-dead friends, family, and loved ones who are apparently being generated by the interstellar energy source Solaris. The doctor is dubious of their claims until one night he, too, is greeted by his wife Rheya (Natascha McElhone), whose death still torments him. At first skeptical of the new Rheya, Kelvin gradually becomes obsessed with her -- and with the guilt that he feels over their troubled marriage -- to the point where the others begin to fear for his sanity. Produced by James Cameron, Solaris represented director Steven Soderbergh's first screenplay credit since the independently financed Schizopolis in 1996. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, (more)
David O. Russell burst onto the scene with this challenging and controversial film about an introverted college student and the incestuous disaster of a summer that follows his freshman year. Ray Aibelli (Jeremy Davies) returns home for what is supposed to be a short visit with his family prior to leaving for Washington D.C., where he will intern in the surgeon general's office. Ray's plans are quickly scuttled by his acerbic and controlling father (Benjamin Hendrickson), a salesman leaving on an extended business trip, who strong-arms Ray into caring for his depressed mother (Alberta Watson) while she recovers from torn ligaments in her leg. Gently prodding his mother to begin using crutches so he will no longer have to change her bedpans and carry her about the house, and so he can still arrive belatedly for the internship, Ray discovers that his mother is not only physically but emotionally dependent on his presence. She begins making inappropriately tender displays of her affection for him, which only become more complicated when he has to rub lotion underneath her cast to soothe her itches. As that relationship grows increasingly fuzzy, Ray must also deal with the sputtering advances of a neighborhood high school girl (Carla Gallo) and the overly aggressive chiding of his estranged group of friends. Russell both scripted and directed this critically acclaimed debut, which courted controversy by following the mother-son relationship into uncomfortably frank and off-limits territory. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Davies, Alberta Watson, (more)
In this offbeat sci-fi-drama, Rosetta Stone (Tilda Swinton) is a scientist specializing in biogenetics who has made a major breakthrough in artificial biological engineering. Rosetta has created a type of Self-Replicating Automaton, which looks like a human being, but is in fact part machine and part living organism. In order to survive and reproduce, Rosetta discovers her SRAs need certain human genetic compounds that are found only in male semen. Hoping to kill two birds with one stone, Rosetta programs one of her SRAs, Ruby (also played by Swinton) to seduce men Rosetta has found through a website offering paid "fantasy dates," which will provide both needed materials and ready cash. Ruby brings back used condoms, and shares the contents with her fellow SRAs Marine and Olive (both also played by Swinton). However, after their assignations with Ruby, the men find themselves with a strange illness that leaves them with skin outbreaks and the inability to perform sexually. Two health investigators (James Urbaniak and Karen Black) begin interviewing the men infected, which sends them on a trail leading back to Rosetta and her research lab. Meanwhile, the more Ruby comes in contact with humans, the more she finds herself falling under the sway of human emotions, and she finds herself falling in love with Sandy (Jeremy Davies), a shy man working at a photocopying center. Shot on digital video equipment by acclaimed cinematographer Hiro Narita, Teknolust was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tilda Swinton, Jeremy Davies, (more)
A casual gay pickup turns into a nightmare in Tony Piccirillo's adaptation of his play, The 24th Day. Tom (Scott Speedman of TV's Felicity) approaches Dan (James Marsden of X-Men) in a bar, and the two hit it off. Tom brings Dan home to his apartment, where, after some idle chatter, Dan tries to kiss Tom. Tom shies away, and begins asking Dan about his sexual history. Dan eventually realizes that he's been in Tom's apartment before. They had an encounter several years ago, and Tom has a much clearer memory of that night than Dan does. Eventually, things turn ugly, and Dan finds himself tied to a chair. Tom extracts a blood sample, explaining to Dan that he just recently learned that he's HIV-positive. Tom insists that he's not gay, and believes that the only way he could have gotten the virus is from Dan. Tom goes out to have the blood sample tested, and when he gets back, he tells Dan that when he gets the results back, if Dan is HIV-positive, Tom is going to kill him. As they wait for the results, the hours go by, and Dan tries to engage Tom in conversation, to engage his sympathy, and to find a way to escape. As the two men talk and battle for control, Piccirillo flashes back to the recent past, and Tom's motives become more clear. The 24th Day was shown at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Scott Speedman, James Marsden, (more)
The regulars at a shot-and-a-beer bar in a decaying working-class town are the focus of Nick Stagliano's drama The Florentine. Michael Madsen plays Whitey, who owns a bar called The Florentine where most of the guys he knows hang out. His sister Molly (Virginia Madsen, Michael's real life sister) is soon to be married, and Whitey has been saving up for a nice reception. But when her old boyfriend Teddy (Tom Sizemore) comes back into town, bets for the wedding would seem to be off, which may be just as well -- Whitey's buddy Frankie (Luke Perry) got hold of the wedding cash and lost it to Billy Munucci (James Belushi), a con artist with a far quicker turn of mind. Whitey has other money problems; the bar has been mortgaged to a low-level gangster named Joe (Burt Young), who has been leaning on Whitey's friend Bobbie (Chris Penn) to pay off his mounting gambling debts. Bobbie is trying to stay one step ahead of Joe, which doesn't leave him much time to patch up his ailing marriage to Vicki (Mary Stuart Masterson). The screenplay by Damien Gray and Tom Benson was adapted from the Off-Broadway drama penned by Gray. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, (more)
Laramie, WY, is a small town which became infamous overnight in the fall of 1998, when Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was found tied to a fence after being brutally beaten and left to die, setting off a nationwide debate about hate crimes and homophobia. A month after the crime, Moises Kaufman, a writer and director with the New York City theater troupe the Tectonic Theater Project, traveled to Laramie with a handful of actors to interview people who lived in and around Laramie in preparation for an upcoming production; Kaufman's goal was to create a play that focused not on the assault on Matthew Shepard, but on the community where such an attack could happen, and how many of the citizens reacted to the crime. The result was The Laramie Project, which was first performed in early 2000, and was performed in Laramie in the fall of that year, two years after Kaufman and his associates first arrived in the city. The Laramie Project is a film adaptation of Kaufman's play, in which the thoughts and opinions of Laramie residents from all points of the political spectrum are presented alongside re-enacted excerpts from the trials of the two men who attacked Matthew Shepard. Produced for the premium cable network HBO, The Laramie Project was adapted for the screen by Moises Kaufman, who served as both writer and director. The distinguished cast includes Dylan Baker, Steve Buscemi, Peter Fonda, Janeane Garofolo, Laura Linney, Amy Madigan, Camryn Manheim, Christina Ricci, and Frances Sternhagen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christina Ricci, Peter Fonda, (more)
