Michael O. Gallant Movies

William Dear (Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann) helms the period baseball drama The Perfect Game, a cinematization of real-life events that transpired in 1957. Clifton Collins Jr. stars as Cesar Faz, a 1950s baseball player who immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. with the intent of making it as a Major League player. After encountering racism and hostility that stand squarely in the way of his success, Faz high-tails it south of the border and decides instead to coach a Little League team, ultimately guiding it all the way to the Little League World Series. The film co-stars Emilie de Ravin (Lost); W. William Winokur authored the script. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

First time filmmaker Eric Amadio offers a honest, sexy, and occasionally crude take on modern relationships in this comedy that uses the act of sex as a springboard to explore larger issues of intimacy and vulnerability. Beginning at the earliest stages of romance, following through to the final goodbyes, and tenderly exploring every area in between, the relationships shared by eight separate couples serve as the heart of this enlightening and entertaining take on human emotions and vulnerability. From Neil and Bob's conversations about who is the "femme" in their relationship and who is the "butch" to David and Jordy's quest to understand why their relationship failed, Kristy and Sam's first time, and Alana and Marco's struggle just to remember each other's names, this lively relationship comedy looks all kinds of relationships from a variety of unique perspectives. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

David Mamet wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of his play about a man who suddenly stumbles into a new and dangerous life. Edmond Burke (William H. Macy) is on his way home from work one evening when he impulsively stops to have his fortune read by a woman who informs him, "You are not where you belong." When he does arrive home, Edmond soon falls into an argument with his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon), and he storms out into the city, where he stops at a bar for a few drinks. There, Edmond finds himself talking with a man (Joe Mantegna) who freely shares his racist views about the role of African-Americans in society, and suddenly Edmond begins letting go of the sense of self-control that has always governed his actions. After a crawl through the city's underbelly of watering holes, strip clubs, gambling dens, and brothels, Edmond comes face to face with the violence of this world, and unexpectedly finds himself responding in kind. Edmond also stars Julia Stiles, Denise Richards, Mena Suvari, Bai Ling, and Dylan Walsh; it was directed by Stuart Gordon, who worked often with David Mamet during their early days at Chicago's Organic Theater Company. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This eerie cable-TV movie begins as married couple Jim and Patty (played by one-time L.A. Law costars Harry Hamlin and Susan Dey), accompanied by their children, drive through the Nevada desert in their SUV. Through an unfortunate set of circumstances, the family finds itself marooned in a deserted (and uncharted) town called Weaver. Or is it truly deserted? The spectral images encountered by Jim and Patty may be the spirits of Indians interred in a local burial mound, or they might be the hideously misshapen victims of a botched nuclear test. Whatever the case, it is what the audience doesn't see that induces the goose pimples. Filmed in Australia, Disappearance originally appeared over the TBS cable service on April 21, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in 1850s California (but actually filmed in Utah), this made-for-TV movie features Jena Malone as title character Lucy Whipple. The emphasis, however, is on Lucy's "mule-stubborn" mother Arvella Whipple (Glenn Close), who defies 19th century sexual stereotyping to try her luck as a gold prospector. Stuck in the ill-named California mining village of Lucky Diggins, Lucy is convinced that her maw is a bit "tetched" in the head. It takes a chance encounter in the nearby woods to show Lucy that perhaps Arvella is not as foolish as she seems, and that California is not the muddy hellhole that it appears to be at first glance. Adapted from a novel by Karen Cushman, Golden Dreams: The Ballad of Lucy Whipple was first broadcast by CBS on February 18, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A federal agent is demoted to a less challenging assignment, only to have it become the most dangerous mission of her life in this action-thriller. Alex McGregor (Mariel Hemingway) is a Secret Service agent who once guarded the President of the United States, Jonathan Hayes (Gregory Harrison). But after a series of misunderstandings following an attempt on the President's life, McGregor has been reassigned to oversee security for Hayes' teenaged daughter, Jess (Monica Keena). Jess has been chafing under the pressures of having a team of agents following her everywhere, so when she makes plans to go on a white-water rafting trip, the President requests a minimal compliment of Secret Service agents. This proves to be a mistake when Jess and her companions are kidnapped by a gang of right-wing terrorists. McGregor is forced to join forces with scruffy wilderness guide Grant Carlson (Doug Savant) in order to find Jess and return her to safety. Though set in the United States, First Daughter was shot in Australia, and had its premier on American television. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A single mother moves into a new neighborhood unaware that her new neighbors, a couple unable to have their own children, have designs on hers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though not quite as bad as it might have been, the 1994 "reunion" TV-movie I Spy Returns was some distance removed from great. Written by Michael Norell, this two-hour film is set some 25 years after the conclusion of the original I Spy weekly series. Former secret agent Alexander "Scotty" Scott (Bill Cosby), now a romance-language professor at a tweedy California college, is aghast to learn that his feisty daughter Nicole (Salli Richardson) has signed up as a spy with Special Services. Making a beeline to the organization's director Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp), who'd once been his partner in the espionage business, Scotty demands that Nicole be bounced from the program. Kelly merely chuckles and replies that the girl couldn't be in safer hands: Her partner is the organization's most gifted and resourceful young agent-Kelly's own son Ben (George Newbern). Realizing that he will never be able to win an argument with his old pal Kelly, Scotty agrees to join Robinson in surreptitiously supervising Nicole and Ben as they head to Vienna to tackle their first assignment: Providing protection for defecting Russian scientist Cherbakov (Nikalous Parlya) and his wife (Lynsey Baxter). When they discover that their former adversary Baroodi (Jonathan Hyde) is also in Vienna, Kelly and Scotty take an active hand in matters-and the results are, if not hilarious, certainly diverting. The film's high points include the lengthy "bickering banter" exchanges between old pros Culp and Cosby. I Spy Returns originally aired as a "CBS Movie Special" on February 3, 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, based on a true story, a New York educator has an affair with a manipulative peer and subsequently finds himself implicated in his wife's murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When a top secret naval mission leads to the torpedoing of the U.S.S. Indianapolis at the end of WWII, it began one of the most scandalous court-martials in the history of the military. For five days the surviving crew members were left in the shark-infested waters, with only half of them surviving to be rescued. Their well-respected Captain accepted the responsibility to keep the scandal to a minimum but his court-martial only served to show that justice is not always found in military proceedings but rather mere expediency. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide