Mitchell B. Robbins Movies
A man finds himself having to decide between one of two women -- not once, but twice -- in this independent drama. In 1993, Coles (Mark Ruffalo) is a film student at Sarah Lawrence where he meets two fellow undergrads, Thea (Kathleen Robertson) and Sam (Maya Stange). Coles and Sam come together and Thea fades out of the picture. In time, Sam tires of Coles' aimlessly hedonistic attitude, and they break up. Ten years later, Coles, after a failed career in feature films, is doing animation for an advertising agency and living with his girlfriend, Claire (Petra Wright); Thea helps run a successful restaurant with her husband, Miles (David Thornton); and Sam, smarting from a bad breakup, returns to New York after several years in London. Coles runs into Sam and discovers he still has strong feelings for her, but has to decide if they're strong enough to break off his relationship with Claire. XX/XY was the first feature film from writer/director Austin Chick. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Ruffalo, Kathleen Robertson, (more)
An independent romantic comedy, Next Stop, Wonderland (1998) made headlines at the Sundance Film Festival when it became the object of a bidding war, ultimately won by Miramax Pictures to the tune of $6 million. Hope Davis stars as Erin Castleton, a night-shift nurse who's cruelly dumped by her boyfriend Sean (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a political activist. When her mother Piper (Holland Taylor) places a wildly inaccurate personals ad in the local paper, Erin is at first enraged, but then becomes curious. After she dates a variety of men who are all wrong for her, she meets Andre (Jose Zuniga), a handsome Brazilian music expert who invites her to Sao Paulo. Although Erin likes Andre, her Mr. Right is actually Alan Monteiro (Alan Gelfant), a plumber she's never met, though the two keep crossing paths. Trying to break out of his working class existence, Alan is studying marine biology but is indebted to a local mob boss, who wants him to kidnap a star blowfish from the local aquarium. Actress Taylor, the real-life aunt of co-writer, editor and director Brad Anderson, also appeared in his next film, Happy Accidents (1999). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hope Davis, Alan Gelfant, (more)
A real-life inner city Boston youth shelter yielded the plot, characters, actors, and director of this urban drama about three ghetto youths trying to make something better of their lives while surviving on the streets. Tyson (Tyrone Burton), Hector (Eddie Cutanda), and Bao (Phuong Duong) are a trio of 14-year-old friends attempting to figure out which direction they'll go in life. As they work at a legitimate job sweeping up at a gas station and attending a youth center with the facility's adult leader J.J. (Geoffrey Rhue), they also run drugs for the local gangsters that mock and taunt their efforts at self-improvement. When one of the boys' mother kills herself, the ensuing crisis leads the three friends to choose different paths. Director Robert Patton-Spruill, a drama teacher at Boston's Dorchester Youth Collaborative, cast the three star pupils from his workshop in Squeeze (1996) and based the film on their real-life stories, bringing a palpable sense of realism to the proceedings. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyrone Burton, Eddie Cutanda, (more)
