Elie Samaha Movies

Susanna Styron made her feature directorial debut with this family drama, an adaptation of a 1978 short story by her father, novelist William Styron (Sophie's Choice). Paul Whitehurst (voice of Martin Sheen) recalls Depression-era events in Tidewater, Virginia, when he was ten years old. In the summer of 1935, lonely young Paul (Scott Terra), with his strict father (Darrell Larson) and fatally ill mother (Deborah Hedwall), is raised in a boring, middle-class way of life, so mundane it leads him into a friendship with the lower-class Dabneys, once aristocratic but now reduced to poverty on the former Dabney plantation. Bootlegger Vernon (Harvey Keitel) is married to earthy beer-drinking Trixie (Andie MacDowell), and Paul enjoys the fun-loving lifestyle of this couple and their seven children. Shadrach (John Franklin Sawyer), a 99-year-old former slave, turns up one day at the Dabney house after walking barefoot from Alabama to Virginia, where he was born into slavery. Since Shadrach's wish to be buried on the Dabney's land violates Virginia law, the request sets a variety of racist attitudes and conflicts into motion. Shown at the 1998 LA Independent Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This crime drama takes place among Irish-American toughs in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood. Car-thief Bobby O'Grady (Denis Leary) belongs to a gang run by bully Jackie O'Hara (Colm Meaney). Bobby's cousin Seamus (Jason Barry) is a recent arrival from Dublin. When Teddy (Billy Crudup) gets gunned down, Jackie is behind the hit, and investigator Hanolon (Martin Sheen) finds a cover-up among gang members. Participating in the code of silence, Bobby takes out his anger on his girlfriend Katy (Famke Janssen). The pointless murder of Seamus, who had planned to return to Ireland, prompts Bobby to face some hard decisions. Will he remain silent yet again? Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

In this noir-influenced road movie, Jake (Robert Forster) is a criminal psychiatrist who has come to the conclusion that our lives are dictated primarily by chance, and has given himself over to this notion by making most of his decision by the flip of a coin. Sandra (Amanda Plummer) is a neurotic woman on her way to pick up her younger sister, a teenage delinquent named Alice (Fairuza Balk) when she's run off the road and left stranded by a madman named Santini (David Thewlis). When Jake happens by and Sandra asks him for help, Sandra is lucky at first: she wins the coin toss, and he elects to help her rather than kill her. When they have to make a stop, Sandra sees Santini's car parked by the side of the road; Santini catches Sandra as she tries to rip off some money that he's stashed in the car, and though she gets away, Santini isn't done with her yet. Director Paul Chart probably didn't have much trouble securing Amanda Plummer for the role of Alice: Chart and Plummer were married in 1994. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this tough contemporary noir drama, Frankie (Dennis Hopper) is a low-level "mechanic" working for second-rate mobster Sal (Michael Madsen). Frankie dreams of rising into the upper echelons of organized crime and commiting a series of bloody reprisals against those who have wronged him. He also has ambitions of starting a new career as a screenwriter, but he realizes that he's a nobody and likely to stay that way. Through Sal's connections with the porn industry, Frankie meets Joey (Kiefer Sutherland), a former film student who now cranks out by-the-numbers sex films, and becomes infatuated with Joey's leading lady, Margaret (Daryl Hannah), a drug-addicted "actress" who has seen better days. Joey, addicted to gambling, is deep in debt with Sal and is forbidden to visit the racetrack; Frankie is eager to get on Joey's good side and offers to place his bets for him while he searches for a way to rescue Margaret from the hell she's created for herself. Screenwriter Dayton Callie appears as Vic, one of Sal's strong-arm men. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this action drama, an American mining engineer is deceived into returning to a civil-war-torn East African nation and forced into finding a missing plutonium shipment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This direct descendant of Reservoir Dogs revolves around not one bungled heist, but several. A colorful band of criminals from differing walks of life are recruited to rip-off the local crime boss (Tony Curtis) in a series of robberies. They rendezvous at the nightclub owned by their ringleader, Jack (Eric Roberts), only to find, not surprisingly, that a double-cross awaits, and a bloody conclusion is soon to follow. The twisting plot is rather unique and somewhat satisfying, especially as the hidden meaning of the film's title is revealed. However, The Immortals has more success with its casting, which brings together many veteran performers (including Tia Carrere, William Forsythe, Joe Pantoliano, Chris Rock, and Clarence Williams III); all of them seem to migrate between "A-" and "B"-grade movie status, as does the film itself. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide