Peter Friedman Movies

One man's identity makes for a difficult mystery to solve in this independent comedy drama from director Bradley Wigor. After a life-threatening accident, a man lies unconscious in a hospital bed, while police and doctors try to find out who he is. The mystery man's profile has been compared to a number of people recently reported missing and sought by the police. Things take a complicated turn when the injured man's particulars match up in different ways with six different men, leading to a number of people being eager to determine who he really is. Featuring Adam LeFevre, John Speredakos, Peter Friedman, and Jessica Almasy, Unconscious received its world premiere at the 2006 Palm Beach International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV miniseries recounts the muddled criminal investigation of the JonBenet Ramsey murder -- one of the most luridly publicized crimes in recent memory. As the crime unfolds, the Boulder police squad grow increasingly swamped by the elusive details of the crime and the unprecedented media attention. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

This episode was clearly inspired by the 1993 arrest of Vietnam-era activist Katherine Anne Power. While pursuing a routine robbery investigation, detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Logan (Chris Noth) follow the trail of clues to 1960s war protester Susan Forrest (Mary-Joan Negro), who has been in hiding ever since participating in a 1971 burglary in which a policeman was killed. As the dead man's widow (Marilyn Chris) presses for full retribution, Forrest enlists the services of none other than "Chicago Seven" defense lawyer William M. Kunstler -- played by Kunstler himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Another two-part TV movie from the pen of novelist Sidney Sheldon, Rage of Angels stars Jaclyn Smith as attractive lawyer Jennifer Parker. While working as assistant D.A., Parker is targeted for persecution by organized crime, but she perseveres and emerges as one of the most successful defense attorneys in America. She is, however, not quite so lucky in matters of the heart, becoming simultaneously entangled with charismatic mob lawyer Michael Moretti (Armand Assante) and married U.S. Senate aspirant Adam Warner (Ken Howard). Serving up everything but the kitchen sink in plot complications and sinister conspiracies, Rage of Angels was telecast on February 20 and 21, 1983, garnering excellent ratings and an Emmy award for musical composer Billy Goldenberg. The film spawned a two-part sequel in 1986, Rage of Angels: The Story Continues, again with Jaclyn Smith in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Synecdoche, New York marked the directorial debut of iconoclastic, cerebral screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as Caden Cotard, an eccentric playwright who lives with artist Adele Lack (Catherine Keener) and their daughter Olive in Schenectady, upstate New York. Prone to neuroses, misgivings and enormous self-doubt, Caden also begins suffering from accelerated physical deterioration - from blood in his stools to disfigured skin. Upon receiving a prestigious MacArthur grant, Caden decides to use the money to concoct one gigantic play as an analogue of his own life; he builds massive sets amid a New York City warehouse, casts others as his friends, family and acquaintances, and casts others to play the ones he’s casting. After Adele whisks Olive off to Europe but demonstrates no sign of returning soon, Caden drifts into a series of relationships with lovers - first with box office employee Hazel (Samantha Morton), who purchases and moves into a house that is perpetually on fire; then with Tammy (Emily Watson), an actress assigned to play Hazel in the theatrical project; and subsequently with others. Unfortunately, the play itself grows so big and unwieldy - and rehearsals go on for so long, taking literally decades - that it becomes unclear if the production itself will ever launch.

~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Beauty and Power tells the sordid tale of Judith Exner (Natasha Henstridge), who claimed to have dated Frank Sinatra (John Ralston) and to have been the mistress of Jack Kennedy (Kevin Anderson, who played also Bobby Kennedy in Hoffa). The story is told in flashback, from Exner's point of view. In voice-overs, Exner breaks her life down into three critical mistakes -- the three major romantic relationships in her life. The first, she explains, was marrying Billy Campbell (Grant Nickalls), who was more concerned with his acting career than with their marriage, and who cheated on her frequently. Her friendship with an L.A.-based mobster leads to an affair with Sinatra, which she breaks off after he tries to involve her in a ménage a trios. She remains friends with Sinatra, and then meets Kennedy while he's just beginning his primary campaign for the presidency, and she soon falls in love with him. At around the same time, she meets Chicago gangster Sam Giancana (Peter Friedman), who falls in love with her and is jealous of her romance with Kennedy. Eventually she becomes a liaison between the presidential candidate and the mob, carrying briefcases of Kennedy money to Giancana for his help with the election. Kennedy professes his love for her and tells her that his marriage is just for show, and that he'll get a divorce if he doesn't win the presidency. Of course, things don't work out the way Exner might have hoped. The FBI begins harassing her, and she grows frustrated with her arrangement with the president. Beauty and Power debuted on Showtime in July 2002. It was directed by Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan). ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Todd Haynes presents a revisionist take on the paranoia thriller with this story of a Southern California housewife who suddenly falls victim to an inexplicable, apparently incurable illness. Carol White (Julianne Moore) lives with her husband and son in suburban comfort until she collapses one day, for no apparent reason. Her condition worsens in the weeks that follow, as she suffers from coughing fits, exhaustion, and spontaneous nose bleeds, triggered by sources as disparate as car exhaust, cologne, and the sun. Failing to find any medical explanation for her maladies, her doctor refers her to a psychiatrist, who suggests that her physical ailments are psychosomatic -- a theory echoed by her callous and increasingly frustrated husband. At her wits' end, Carol withdraws to an expensive New Age retreat for sufferers of "20th century disease," where the community's guru (Peter Friedman) champions a dubious regimen of diet, climate control, introspection, and self-love. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Based on the stories by Tama Janowitz, this film follows the relationships and problems of a group of artists struggling to survive in New York City. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Sidney Lumet directed this film version of E.L. Doctorow's novel The Book of Daniel (scripted by Doctorow) that deals in a thinly veiled (although dispassionate way) with the Rosenberg spy case of the 1950s, as seen through the eyes of their children. The Rosenbergs are the Isaacsons here, and the first image of the film is a close-up of their son Daniel's (Timothy Hutton) eyes as he recites a dictionary definition of the word "electrocution." Daniel becomes a detective as he seeks out friends and relations of his parents -- Paul (Mandy Patinkin) and Rochelle (Lindsay Crouse) -- to discover some meaning from his parents' conviction as Russian spies and their execution in the electric chair during the communist paranoia of the 1950s. Daniel is prompted to investigate the past by the near-suicide of his hysterical sister Susan (Amanda Plummer). The film weaves back and forth in time, recalling the period from the 1930s to the 1950s. In a strangely uninvolving way, Lumet's film takes no point of view, the only emotion derived from the almost continuous sounds of Paul Robeson's singing on the soundtrack. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Based on Laura Zigman's 1998 novel Animal Husbandry, this romantic comedy centers on Jane Goodale (Ashley Judd), a talk-show producer who finds herself suddenly abandoned by her boyfriend (Greg Kinnear). After this untimely breakup, Jane begins to develop a thesis that male behavior is directly related to that of wildlife, with similar patterns existing in both. She studies the tendency for animals to be noncommittal and compares men to bulls, dogs, and other creatures. To prove her theories, she enlists the help of her roommate Eddie (Hugh Jackman), a womanizer who falls into all of the patterns of her research. When applying her studies to Eddie, she gains exposure and suddenly becomes a sensation as a pseudonymous sex columnist. This is the second directorial effort from actor Tony Goldwyn, after his 1999 feature A Walk on the Moon. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide