Samia Shoaib Movies

P.J. Posner directs the romantic comedy The Next Big Thing. Struggling painter Gus Bishop (Chris Eigeman) gets involved in a scam to make it into the cutthroat New York art world. Con man Deech Scumble (Jamie Harris) dreams up the identity of Geoff Buonardi (inspired by the name of Chef Boyardee), an outsider war veteran artist. The fictitious Buonardi becomes Gus' alter ego personality, and soon his paintings become an overnight success. This scam leads Gus toward a romance with art critic Kate (Connie Britton), who, of course, does not realize that Geoff is really Gus. Soon, Gus is being pursued by a private eye (Mike Starr) and a rich art vixen (Janet Zarish), who both desperately want to meet the mysterious artist. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Michael Lange directs this wacky comedy about Jocelyn (Dominique Swain), a young underpaid intern at an ultra-hip fashion mag, Skirt, who miraculously rises from the mailroom to the boardroom. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

David (Mark Rosenthal) is standing on the roof ledge of a building in lower Manhattan, threatening to jump. Several of his friends try to convince him to safely get down from the ledge, that suicide is not the answer. But as they speak to him, the audience sees moments from the friends' lives in flashback. It becomes obvious that David's friends have lives every bit as sad and desperate as David's; with people like this as your support group, why shouldn't a man jump? Jump features a strong supporting cast, including James LeGros, Richard Belzer, Harvey Fierstein, and Hal Linden, and was shown at the 1999 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Nicholas Hytner (The Crucible) directed this Wendy Wasserstein screenplay, adapted from Stephen McCauley's novel, about the romantic mismatch of a gay man and a young pregnant woman. When literary agent Sidney Miller (Alan Alda) and his wife Constance (Allison Janney) have a dinner party, Constance's social-worker stepsister Nina Borowski (Jennifer Aniston) attends without her lawyer boyfriend Vince McBride (John Pankow). Also present are gay schoolteacher George Hanson (Paul Rudd) and his lover, Dr. Robert Joley (Tim Daly). George learns from Nina that he's being dumped by Robert, a scene ensues, and Nina then invites George to stay in the spare room of her Brooklyn apartment. Nina still has sex with boyfriend Vince, but during late-night talks, she begins to bond with her gay roommate. Nina and George take dance lessons at the local senior citizen's community center, and Gershwin's "You Were Meant for Me" sets the tone for romance as the two become soul mates. Unfortunately, shortly after their love blooms, Nina learns she's pregnant by Vince, who is no longer the object of her affections. Instead of telling the unwanted Vince right away, Nina asks George to join her in raising the child. George stays on, but in the months that follow, he also begins to see men again. Robert takes him along to a Connecticut conference where drama critic Rodney Fraser (Nigel Hawthorne) has Paul James (Amo Gulinello) in tow. George and Paul have an instant attraction, and this prompts everyone involved to reassess their emotional commitments. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Director Richard Linklater and writer/actor Eric Bogosian collaborated on this adaptation of Bogosian's play about a handful of people edging into their 20's who seem like the poor relations of the genial eccentrics in Linklater's Slacker. While the Texas bohemians in Slacker has their myriad obsessions to keep them occupied (even if they didn't do much about them), SubUrbia's protagonists have few if any clear goals and hang out not as a means of killing time, but as a way of life. Jeff (Giovanni Ribisi) talks about going back to college some day while he lives in a tent in his parents' garage. His girlfriend Sooze (Amie Carey) imagines herself a performance artist; most of her "work" is displayed in he parking lot of a convenience store, though she often talks about moving to New York. Tim (Nicky Katt) was bounced from the Air Force and spends his evenings soaking up alcohol and bitterness. Buff (Steve Zahn) is obsessed with pizza and is content with his reputation as the wacky guy who will do anything. And Bee-Bee (Dina Spybey) is Sooze's best friend, just out of rehab, with her willpower hanging by a thread. It's a big night in front of the convenience store; Pony (Jayce Bartok), who used to play guitar at school dances, has become a rock star, and promises to stop by after his show at the local hockey arena (none of his friends have the money to see him play). Meanwhile, the American work ethic is represented by Nazeer (Ajay Naidu), an immigrant from Pakistan who runs the store where the kids hang out; he's sick to death of them, and lives for the day when he gets his engineering degree and never has to see their faces again. Bogosian has said this play (and in particular the character of Jeff) was freely drawn from his own post-teenage years. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi