Mark Pellington Movies

Given a grim diagnosis during a routine doctor's checkup, a man who once had it all finds his attempt to disappear into a working-class suburb and spend his remaining days subsisting on vodka and junk food hopelessly disrupted when he falls for the beautiful divorcée next door and a busybody neighbor notices a miraculous stain on his stucco wall. Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) had a comfortable life and a beautiful fiancée. But just when it seemed that the future couldn't look any brighter for Henry, a visit to the doctor's office casts a dark cloud over his sunny outlook. Shattered, Henry wants nothing more in life than to simply vanish into his surroundings, and what better way to accomplish that feat than to purchase a cookie-cutter house in a working-class suburb and spend his final days awaiting the inevitable in peaceful solitude. Unfortunately for Henry, his new neighbors aren't about to let the handsome neighborhood newcomer spend his days sulking. The first to stop by and welcome Henry to his new home is local yenta Esperanza (Adriana Barraza), who comes knocking on his door with a fresh plate of homemade tamales and laundry list of questions.

Later, after taking notice of sad-eyed divorcée Dawn (Radha Mitchell) and her taciturn eight-year-old daughter, Millie (Morgan Lily), who hasn't spoken a work since her father left, Henry finds his self-imposed exile shattered when Esperanza notices a stain on his stucco wall that seems to possess miraculous powers. Before Henry can say "Hail Mary," Esperanza is leading pilgrimages to the "holy site" in his backyard and inviting Father Salizar (George Lopez) to give his blessings to the sacrosanct blemish. As skeptical as Henry may be about the healing powers of the curious apparition, however, his growing friendship with young Millie not only brings him closer to Dawn, but also proves to him that there's no escaping the power of hope. Cheryl Hines, Richard Benjamin, and Jessica Walter co-star in a wry existential comedy drama penned by first-time feature film screenwriter Albert Torres, and directed by Mark Pellington (Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In the tradition of such psychologically-charged sci-fi outings as The Next One (1982) and K-PAX (2001) comes the cerebral science fiction opus The Man From Earth (2007). The story concerns Professor John Oldman, a scientist who summons a group of associates to a cabin one freezing night, and strikes them with a fantastic revelation: he is not a traditional human, but a 14,000 year-old immortal, who has survived centuries of evolution from the Cro-Magnon Era to the present. In the hours to follow, Professor Oldman's earth-shaking assertion about himself challenges the men on spiritual, scientific and historical levels. But the most incredible is yet to come - an even more astonishing truth in which the men's discussions culminate. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

The Los Angeles community of Compton has become infamous thanks to news reports and rap music lyrics that have portrayed it as an African-American neighborhood brought to the edge of destruction by corruption and black-on-black crime. In 2003, a handful of students and teachers at Compton's Dominguez High School decided to do something that hadn't happened at the school in more than 20 years -- put on a play. When it became obvious that the financially strapped school (which had recently canceled its football program) couldn't provide a budget for sets or costumes, the students did what money-conscious high-school theater departments have been doing for decades -- they staged Thornton Wilder's Our Town, a drama commonly performed without the use of sets or large props. But what would Wilder's allegorical story of life in a small turn-of-the-century Midwestern hamlet mean to kids in Compton? And would the inexperienced students and faculty be able to bring it off? OT: Our Town is a documentary which looks at Dominguez High's brave experiment and the people who struggled to make it happen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this tense thriller, a man begins to suspect his neighbors are not what they appear to be -- and their secrets could be deadly. Michael Faraday (played by Jeff Bridges) is a college professor whose wife, an FBI agent, was killed in the line of duty by members of an extremist right-wing terrorist group, leaving him to raise their nine-year-old son by himself. One day, he saves the life of a boy he sees on the street. The child turns out to be the son of his new neighbors, Oliver and Cheryl Lang (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack). Michael soon becomes friendly with the grateful Langs, who seem as cheerfully bland as anyone could hope from denizens of suburbia. But the better Michael gets to know Oliver, the more he becomes convinced that something isn't quite right; Oliver seems almost too clean and perfect, and Michael begins to notice that small details in Oliver's stories don't quite add up. The question is whether Michael's well-founded paranoia about the radical right is getting the better of him, or are the Langs up to something a lot more sinister than their cheerful smiles and manicured lawn would suggest? Ehren Kruger's screenplay for Arlington Road won the Motion Picture Academy's Nicholl Fellowship prize in 1996; the film was the second directorial effort for Mark Pellington, who debuted with Going All the Way. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This film captures the essence of Jon Bon Jovi, the lead singer of one of the prime players in the legion of pop-metal bands that took '80s radio by storm. Most of the film is a short narrative loosely based on the songs from his 1997solo album Destination Anywhere, and features Jon Bon Jovi and Demi Moore as a young couple struggling with alcoholism and the death of their young child. Also included are three Jon Bon Jovi music videos: "Midnight in Chelsea", "Queen of New Orleans", and "Destination Anywhere". ~ Rob Ferrier, All Movie Guide

Combining drama, comedy, and romance, Jerry Maguire was a critical and commercial success built on an original script by writer/director Cameron Crowe and an Oscar-nominated performance by Tom Cruise. Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is an agent with a major sports management firm. He's enthusiastic, successful, a great negotiator and people like him. But it begins to dawn on Jerry that there's something wrong with what he's doing, and not long after a troubling encounter with the son of an injured athlete he represents, Jerry has a serious crisis of conscience. In the midst of a sleepless night, Jerry writes a memo calling on himself and his colleagues to think more about the long-term welfare of the clients they represent and less about immediate profits. While everyone around him applauds the sentiment, Jerry's superiors think his ideas are bad for business; Jerry is fired, and, rather than standing in solidarity with him, his "friends" in the firm scramble like sharks to claim Jerry's clients. At the end of his last day, the only people willing to join Jerry as he strikes out on his own are staff accountant Dorothy (Renee Zellweger), a single mother secretly in love with him, and Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a football player whose pride and arrogance have gotten in the way of his reaching his potential. Jerry Maguire earned an Academy Award for Cuba Gooding Jr.'s performance as Tidwell and provided a breakthrough role for Renee Zellweger; it also made "Show me the money!" an unavoidable catchphrase for several months. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide