Ethan Embry Movies

Following up on her crowd pleasing 1998 film Finding North, Tanya Wexler directs this tweaked coming-of-age drama about a troubled teen and his even more troubled family. Having just come out of detox for drugs and alcohol, JJ (Jonathan Tucker) returns home hoping for a little comfort and solace, but he finds little of both. Though his mother continues to dote on him, everyone else is out to get him -- his brutish step-father Bull who is still furious over the vintage car JJ wrecked while hopped up; his vampish step-aunt Dot (Jennifer Tilly); his effete uncle Ernie. Even his former dealer Bobby, his girlfriend, who dumped him for Bobby, and his high school guidance counselor Dr. Charlie (David Strathairn) has something against JJ. While JJ struggles to straighten out his life, he remembers fondly his stay in detox. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

After the Huntington Hills High graduation ceremony, the fun gets underway at the graduation party where an assortment of jocks, geeks, prom queens, bimbos, headbangers, and nerdy misfits unload four years' worth of emotional baggage at a house where the hostess (Michelle Brookhurst) loses control of her guests. Writer wannabe Preston Meyers (Ethan Embry) has been in love with Amanda (Jennifer Love Hewitt of Party of Five) since the first time he saw her during their freshman year. His tormented infatuation with Amanda has intensified throughout high school and culminates at the party, where Preston must now seize this final opportunity to proclaim his love for her before he leaves the next day for Boston. Preston decides to make his move at some point during the party, a particularly auspicious occasion since Amanda has just been dumped by her super-jock boyfriend, Mike Dexter (Peter Facinelli), who wanted freedom to pursue his testosterone-charged fantasies with college women. Cringing at this ludicrous love triangle is Preston's introverted pal and confidante, Denise Fleming (Lauren Ambrose). When Denise runs into her ex-childhood friend Kenny (Seth Green), the two begin sexual experimentation behind the closed bathroom door. Geeky science-fiction fan William Lichter (Charlie Korsmo) devises a plan to ruin Mike's stud reputation and publicly humiliate him and his meathead buddies -- sweet revenge for four years of agony. Former Huntington Hills graduate Trip McNieley (Jerry O'Connell) tells Mike about the terror awaiting in college where "Guys like us are a dime a dozen." Yearbook Girl (Melissa Joan Hart of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch) wants everyone to sign her cherished volume of memories as the partying teens attempt to move into the uncertain future. Party house exteriors were shot on Rubio Street in Altadena, California, and other California locations included Johnnie's Broiler in downtown Downey, Dutton's Book Store in Reseda, Marshall High School in Los Feliz, and Union Station in LA. With more than 70 speaking parts, this film is the directorial debut of the scriptwriting team of Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Small-town America is the key setting for this tale of four West Texas high-school pals who vowed to leave their tiny town after graduation and head for L.A. Keller (Breckin Meyer) is ready to walk, but his goals are formless. Wealthy Terrell Lee Lusk (Peter Facinelli) knows his parents (Patricia Wettig, Michael O'Neill) want him to work in their family oil business. Squirrel (Ethan Embry), who lives with his alcoholic father in a rundown trailer, should find escape easy, but he finds reasons to stay, as does John Hemphill (Eddie Mills), a young man more suited for life as a rancher. Leaving was something the quartet dreamed about since age 11, but the actual departure requires ripping up some roots. Will they do it? Director Tim McCanlies shot this film in 25 days at Fort Davis, Texas. Shown at the 1998 South by Southwest Film Festival (Austin, Texas). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

A teenager wins an interactive robot that plays shooting games. Soon it starts loading with real ammo and hunting down other kids. This film is a stupid thriller but still manages to be occasionally fun. ~ Sean D. MacLaggan, All Movie Guide

Directed by Danny Leiner, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle follows the life-changing (and mind-altering) journey of Korean-American investment banker Harold (John Cho) and Indian-American medical-school candidate Kumar (Kal Penn). Both underdogs, Harold and Kumar decide to spend what would have been an otherwise uneventful Friday night satisfying an oddly intense urge for White Castle hamburgers. However, finding a White Castle proves a highly difficult task, and the two friends wind up on an epic road trip of deep thoughts, deeper inhaling, and enough half-baked, politically incorrect philosophizing to outweigh a White Castle value meal. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

An altruistic divorcée learns that sometimes it takes a patient to heal the healer in a touching tale of forgiveness and compassion starring Annabeth Gish, Ethan Embry, and Ed Begley, Jr. Denise (Gish) has just been through an emotionally taxing divorce, and when the hospital she is employed at commits an unforgivable act of injustice, she inadvertently compounds her emotional woes by walking off the job in a defiant act of disapproval. After taking a temporary position at a rehabilitation facility for patients who have suffered brain injuries, Denise is assigned the task of looking after 25-year-old car-accident victim Rick (Embry). Now, as she begins a new life at a new job, Denise finds that love can blossom in the most unlikely of environments and finds that even the most competent of caregivers can learn a thing or two from those they so lovingly look after. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Mark Christopher - writer-director of the hit Miramax drama 54 (1998) - returns to the helmer's chair for the first occasion in eight years with the indie comedy Pizza, from IFC Films. An unofficial homage to mid-80s teen films, the picture concerns Cara-Ethyl (Kylie Sparks), an overweight high-schooler whose mom (screen vet Julie Hagerty) lost her sight in a baking accident. Despondent and lonely as her eighteenth birthday arrives and passes - not to mention embarrassed by her lack of friends - Cara attempts to save face by lying to her mother and pretending that she's expecting a whole host of guests. She then impersonates the "friends" one at a time in front of her mother. When thirty-something pizza delivery guy Matt turns up, Cara falls instantly in love; he then invites her to accompany him, into the night, on his pizza route. As Matt inducts Cara into the area's social realm - replete with bed-hopping flatmates, deadhead teenage addicts and obstinate employers - a friendship forms between the two. Joey Kern, Alexis Dziena and Judah Friedlander co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Four twentysomethings map out a bold but very risky plan to change their lives in this independent drama. Trevor Logan (Ethan Embry), Alec Nichols (Peter Facinelli), Casey Shepard (Scott Foley), and Samantha Parkes (Charlotte Ayanna) are four close friends who met while they were all attending college in Eugene, OR. Trevor is an aspiring musician and actor, Alec aspires to a career in finance and isn't above bending the rules to get what he wants, Casey is the son of bohemian parents who has a fondness for travel and a desire to teach kids, and Samantha has rejected her father's workaholic ways and hopes to make a career out of community service. After graduating, the four friends move to Los Angeles, but they discover that life in the real world is a good bit harder than they ever expected. As all four experience their own frustrations and setbacks as they try to make a place for themselves in the world of work, Alec comes up with a daring but dangerous plan to gain financial independence for life -- robbing a bank. Rennie's Landing was screened in competition at the 2001 Seattle Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An attempt to carry the nostalgic torch of such efforts as St. Elmo's Fire and Return of the Secaucus Seven into the new millennium, albeit with an unexpectedly criminal twist, former assistant to Steven Spielberg Marc Fusco makes his directorial debut with this ensemble drama. Bored and disillusioned by their professional lives after living it up in college, a group of friends reunite a year after their graduation and attempt to recapture the spontaneity of their more carefree days by staging a bank robbery. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Tom Hanks made his directorial debut in this bright comedy set in the mid-1960's about a rock group and their brief fling with fame. Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) works as a salesman at his father's appliance store and plays the drums in his spare time, fancying himself a jazz musician. One day, a buddy of Guy's tells him a local rock band, The One-Ders (it's pronounced "wonders"), are in need of a drummer -- they have Battle of the Bands coming up and their usual timekeeper has broken his arm. Guy agrees to sit in, but when it's time to play their best original, a love ballad called "That Thing You Do," Guy lays in a sharp, driving beat that turns the tune into an uptempo pop-rocker. Lead singer Jimmy (Johnathon Schaech) isn't happy at first, but guitarist Lenny (Steve Zahn) and the nameless Bass Player (Ethan Embry) think the song sounds better that way -- and they notice the girls like it just fine. Soon people are actually requesting the song at their shows, and the One-Ders scrape together some money to press a single of "That Thing You Do" to sell between sets. A DJ puts the song on the radio, and opportunity knocks in the form of Mr. White (Tom Hanks), who works for the very major Play-Tone Records label. Play-Tone buys the rights to "That Thing You Do" and puts the band on the road as their song makes it way to the top of the national charts. But what can The Wonders (as Play-Tone have re-named them) do for an encore? And what should Guy do about his infatuation with Jimmy's girlfriend, Faye (Liv Tyler)? Real-life 60's obsessed rocker Chris Isaak has a small part as a recording engineer, and fans of real 60's garage bands will appreciate the wealth of small, accurately observed details (for example, halfway through the film, when a few "That Thing You Do" royalty checks have presumably kicked in, the band's inexpensive Danelectro guitars disappear and the Wonders are suddenly playing on brand new Fender gear -- the height of rock style in 1965). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A college students discovers a horrifying truth behind the old saying "They only come out at night" in this thriller. Julia Lund (Laura Regan) is a college student studying psychology who, as a child, was haunted by "night terrors," hideous nightmares so vivid they seem real. As Julia's life becomes more stressful, her childhood nightmares begin coming back; what's more, her friend Billy (Jon Abrahams), who had similar dreams as a boy, also reports that his terrors have returned, complete with the same monsters he claims spirited him away for two days when he was little. Julia's boyfriend Paul (Marc Blucas) is certain they're both just imagining things thanks to too much studying and too little sleep, but when Billy turns up dead, an apparent suicide, Julia is convinced something really is out to get them. Certain there really are monsters which come out to get people when the lights go off, Julia is determined to find and harness these creatures of the dark, while Paul is convinced his girlfriend has descended into madness. While he's given possessive credit for the film in the United States, Wes Craven was not in fact a part of the creative team behind They. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide