Lisa Krueger Movies
Writer/director Lisa Krueger grew up in San Francisco before attending the University of California at Berkley. Admitted to the school's prestigious film program in Paris, she stayed in France for awhile making videos and teaching English at the American Center. Returning to the states, she relocated to New York City where she became the video curator at the Museum of Modern Art. To get into filmmaking, she worked in various crew positions, including production manager for Zbigniew Rybczynski, script supervisor for James Ivory, and assistant for Jim Jarmusch. She made her first short film in 1993, the coming-of-age story Best Offer, which won numerous awards at Sundance. In the Sundance Filmmakers Lab, she developed her first feature film, Manny & Lo, a humorous yet loving take on motherhood and family structure. Her second feature, the romantic comedy Committed, starred Heather Graham and opened to mixed reviews in 2000. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- 2000
- R
- Add Committed to Queue
Heather Graham stars in this indie exploration of love and marital commitment directed by Lisa Krueger. A hardcore believer in the sanctity of marriage, plucky Joline (Graham) is stunned when her husband Carl (Luke Wilson) abruptly dumps her, leaving only a vaguely-worded note to explain himself. Undaunted, Joline leaves New York to look for her man and discovers him in the wild west of El Paso, Texas, after meeting a bevy of ne'er-do-wells and weirdos along the way. She discovers that Carl is shacked up with a beautiful Hispanic woman named Carmen (Patricia Velasquez). Meanwhile, Joline's flirtatious brother Jay (Casey Affleck) shows up from the Big Apple to look after his sister. Later, two men enter Joline's life. One is Neil (Goran Visnjic), Carl's hunky, beguiling neighbor, who increasingly becomes the object of Joline's affection, and Grampy (Alfonso Arau), an aging Mexican medicine man who becomes Joline's spiritual guide. This film was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Heather Graham, Casey Affleck, (more)
The debut feature from writer/director Lisa Krueger stars Scarlett Johansson and Aleksa Palladino as the titular Manny and Lo, orphaned teenaged sisters who avoid foster homes by living on the run, stealing food, and sleeping in random model homes. Older sister Lo is the rude, bossy, incompetent leader, and younger sister Manny is her thoughtful, realistic, logical underling. It quickly becomes apparent that Lo is pregnant and they won't be able to continue their wandering lifestyle of "keep moving and you won't get nailed." After a significant stage of denial, Lo goes to a hospital for an abortion and is denied. Quickly running out of options, Lo comes up with plan that seems ridiculous to the observant narrator Manny. Since they don't know anything about birthing babies, they kidnap Elaine (Mary Kay Place), a middle-aged woman dressed as a nurse who works in a maternity store. Together, the three women squat in an abandoned house in the woods so the disgruntled Lo can have her baby. Eventually, the owner of the house comes home and the captive Elaine resorts to a strange solution to the problem. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Scarlett Johansson, Aleksa Palladino, (more)
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