Richard Abramowitz Movies

Filmmaker Ted Schillinger turns his attentions toward a most unusual friendship with this documentary focusing on the warm bond shared between outspoken capital punishment proponent Robert Blecker and Tennessee Death Row inmate Daryl Holton. A mass murderer who strongly believes that the death penalty is a just and necessary punishment, Holton knows that his time will soon come, and spends a good deal of time discussing such topics as mercy, courage, and morality with the New York Law School professor whose efforts played a key part in ensuring his death. The result is a film that gravitates between humorous and deeply disturbing as it focuses in on one of the most controversial moral dilemmas of the modern era. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Andre (Andre Keuck) and Cal (Calvin Robertson) seem like fairly ordinary high school students. Andre is a quiet loner, and he's a bit obsessed with munitions. Cal, Andre's only friend, is slightly more adept socially. He even has a friend, Rachel (Rachel Benichak), who's a girl. But Andre and Cal have big plans. They're going to be famous one day. And they're going to teach what they see as a valuable lesson to everyone at their hated high school. Zero Day, the feature debut of Benjamin Coccio, is presented as a collection of videotaped moments leading up to Cal and Andre's planned murderous assault on their school. Cal and Andre are creating a video diary of sorts, which they keep in a safe deposit box, to be opened after their horrific deed is done. The film follows Andre and Cal as they explain their plan -- both the logistics of it and, to some extent, the motivations behind it -- and prepare for their violent act. In the interest of verisimilitude, the lead actors' families play themselves, and cast members, for the most part, were not told the larger context of their roles. Zero Day was a controversial hit on the festival circuit before being picked up for distribution. It won Best Feature at the 2003 Slamdunk Film Festival and the Audience Award at the 2003 Rhode Island International Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Writer/director Mo Ogrodnik's debut feature is a low-budget independent drama about the dangerous budding sexuality of two teen sisters. Fourteen-year-old fraternal twins Violet (Monica Keena) and Rosie (Daisy Eagan) barely escape from a fiery car wreck that claims the lives of their parents. Because their father was abusive, they are happy to be free, and they strike out for Kentucky. Instead, the girls end up on a run-down Army base, where they befriend the hirsute civilian groundskeeper, Pete (Gordon Currie). Pete, who supplements his income by selling contraband porn magazines and junk food to the soldiers, lies to the base commander and claims that the girls are his nieces. The runaway sisters move into Pete's quarters and Violet begins a flirtatious relationship with him, while the tomboy Rosie learns how to shoot a gun from a kindly military police officer, Ken (Ron Brice). After charged episodes playing "spin the bottle" and a base dance, the relationship between Violet and Pete turns sexual. Dismayed, Rosie retaliates by having her own sexual encounter with a soldier. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

In this independent drama, Vivian Saunders (Elizabeth Pena) comes home one day to an unusual surprise: her boyfriend Reggie (Andrew McCarthy) is lying on the kitchen table with a large sword sticking out of his body. At first Vivian thinks this must be some sort of joke, but she discovers that Reggie is indeed dead, and as she calls her best friend Louise (Paige Turco) to figure out what might have happened and what to do, it occurs to her that she blacked out after too much wine the night before and isn't sure what she did before she passed out. After a few phone calls, Vivian's women's support group arrives, and what to do about Reggie soon takes second place to what Vivian should do for herself. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi