David Speck Movies
Comedy and drama take turns in this period piece based on a novel by Mark Childress. Peejoe (Lucas Black), short for Peter Joseph, lives in a small Alabama town in 1965, at the height of the Civil Rights movement. He becomes involved with a group of black students protesting the town's racially segregated municipal swimming pool, leading to a protest that explodes into deadly violence. But Peejoe has gotten a crash course in standing your ground and following your own path from his free-spirited Aunt Lucille (Melanie Griffith), who has killed her abusive husband and is headed for Hollywood, where she's convinced that television stardom awaits her. Crazy in Alabama marked the directorial debut of actor Antonio Banderas; his supporting cast includes Cathy Moriarty, Elizabeth Perkins, Rod Steiger, Fannie Flagg, and Meat Loaf Aday. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melanie Griffith, David Morse, (more)
A 13-year-old boy embarks upon a perilous quest to discover the enigma of his estranged father's illness in this dark drama that is based on a critically acclaimed 1948 novel by Truman Capote. Joel Sansom has just arrived to his father's ramshackle Deep South plantation. He hasn't seen his dad in nine years and wants to know why his father abandoned them. Unfortunately, the sour mistress of the home, Amy Skully refuses to let Joel see him. Meanwhile he meets his strange cousin Randolph. He also meets a Negro servant and they become close friends. Though anxious to see his father, Amy and Randolph continue to hedge, telling him the old man is too weak to entertain visitors. To fill his empty hours, Joel begins looking about the home for clues. He also has a few eye-opening meetings with Randolph who slowly tells him about his relationship with the ailing father. Randolph's tale is told via flashback. It began years ago when Randolph fell in love with a handsome Cuban prizefighter. Unrequited love became obsession and this in turn, caused a terrible accident involving Joel's father. As Joel's investigation continues, Randolph and Amy begin trying to coerce him to stay. Their insistence takes a darker turn when they start stealing his mail and trying to keep him isolated from the world outside the great house. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lothaire Bluteau, Anna Thomson, (more)
A sterling cast headed by Oscar-nominated Susan Sarandon makes this slick thriller one of the better adaptations of a John Grisham bestseller. Mark Sway (Brad Renfro) witnesses the suicide of a Mafia lawyer, who confesses that the Mob was behind the murder of a U.S. senator. Mark's brother is traumatized into a coma by the incident; gangster Barry Muldano (Anthony LaPaglia) is soon on Mark's trail, and in desperation, he arrives at the office of recovering alcoholic lawyer Reggie Love (Sarandon). With the Mob after them, and a ruthless federal attorney (Tommy Lee Jones) trying to force Mark to reveal what he knows, Love battles to guarantee the safety of her client and his family. The relationship between Reggie Love and Mark Sway is the center of the film, adding considerable character development to plot's routine elements. Director Joel Schumacher helmed another Grisham adaptation, A Time To Kill, in 1996. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
