John Hoyt Movies
Fresh off the success of his award-winning senior thesis film The Underdogs, Tisch School of the Arts graduate Jim Mickle returns with this tale of a mysterious virus that causes mass chaos as it sweeps through a terrified Manhattan neighborhood. It's another sweltering summer day in downtown New York City, and as the residents of 51 Mulberry Street lament their crumbling building, higher rent prices, the rising cost of gas, and the ongoing war in Iraq the heat continues to climb as tempers begin to flare. The city is changing, but it's an unseen transformation that won't be noticed until it has evolved into an unstoppable force. A rat has attacked a passenger on the city subway, and just downtown another unsuspecting victim is bitten by a ravenous rodent. As darkness falls over the city, emergency response teams struggle to contain what appears to be a rapidly-spreading virus that is metamorphosing the helpless denizens into a bizarre new species. The streets are quickly filling with these malevolent new creatures, and as a retired boxer named Clutch awaits the return of his daughter from the battlefields of Iraq, the fearless fighter and seven other evicted tenants from 51 Mulberry Street will be forced to bolt the doors, secure the windows, and take one last stand against the mindless, frenzied masses who will stop at nothing to ensure total assimilation. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nick Damici, Antone Pagan, (more)
Character actor Victor Argo made one of his last screen appearances -- and landed one of his few leading roles -- in this independent drama. Hugo (Argo) is a loan shark who spends his days pounding the pavement in New York City, shaking down cheapskates who owe him money. Hugo believes in his job, and subscribes to the philosophy that everyone has to pay in one way or another to get through this life. But Hugo's great passion is New York City, and as he makes his rounds, he philosophizes about the city he loves and what has happened to it in the name of gentrification; he's also a fan of what he calls "real New Yorkers," and loves their open-hearted toughness as much as he loathes the weak-willed yuppies who now dominate the city. As he wanders the city sharing his views with anyone who will listen, Hugo is occasionally visited by the ghost of Archie (Jordan Lage), his onetime running buddy who is no longer among the living. Lustre was screened in competition at the 2004 Avignon Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Cult figure Abel Ferrara directed this dark, emotional tale of life among the criminal underworld, set in the late 1930s. The Tempio Brothers -- Ray (Christopher Walken), Chez (Chris Penn), and Johnny (Vincent Gallo) -- work with the mob; Ray is the cool and methodical type, Chez is an angry man who tends to fly off the handle, and Johnny is the odd man out, whose work with labor unions has given him a strong interest in socialism. When Johnny is murdered by rival mobster Gaspare (Benicio del Toro), it has a profound effect on his brothers. Ray is determined to seek revenge, even though his wife Jeanette (Anabella Sciorra), realizing a reprisal will only lead to more violence, begs him to reconsider, while Chez begins losing his tenuous grip on reality, causing no small discomfort for his wife Clara (Isabella Rossellini). In time, both brothers are forced to deal with the ugly repercussions of their family's long-standing criminal lifestyle. Chris Penn's performance as Chez earned him the "Best Actor" trophy at the 1996 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Walken, Chris Penn, (more)
Very loosely based on the memoir of the same name, The Basketball Diaries transposes the late '60s adolescence of writer/artist Jim Carroll to some unspecified time period at least 15 years later, further confusing the timeframe with three decades of rock music, some by Carroll himself. Jim (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his Catholic school chums are on the hottest basketball team in New York, but their friend Bobby (Michael Imperioli) languishes in the hospital with leukemia. In-between typically boyish adventures, Jim scribbles in his notebook and experiments with sex and drugs. His group of friends begins to disintegrate after coach Swifty (Bruno Kirby) not only makes a pass at Jim, but also catches him and his pals using drugs on the court and kicks them off the team. Out of school and on the streets, Jim turns tricks, betrays friends, robs stores, and deals drugs to feed his heroin addiction. Not even the efforts of former addict Reggie (Ernie Hudson) can cure Jim. Mark Wahlberg appears as one of Jim's basketball and drug buddies, while Carroll himself makes a memorable cameo as an addict who describes the almost Catholic rituals of shooting heroin. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jimmy Papiris, Leonardo DiCaprio, (more)
Carlito's Way is a tale of a former hood trying to escape his former life. Al Pacino is Carlito Brigante, a high-level Puerto Rican drug dealer sprung from a three-decade jail sentence after only five years, thanks to a technicality and his sleazy, cocaine-addled lawyer, Dave Kleinfeld (Sean Penn). Carlito renounces his previous ways and takes a job as the manager of a club that Kleinfeld has invested in, planning to save enough money so that he can eventually move to the Caribbean. But no sooner is Carlito back on the streets of New York than his old life claws at him in the form of both old partners (Luis Guzman) and vicious up-and-comers (John Leguizamo). Nevertheless, Carlito stays clean and even restarts his relationship with a dancer named Gail (Penelope Ann Miller), until he is finally led astray by Kleinfeld, who manipulates Carlito into participating in the murder of a Mafia don from whom Kleinfeld has stolen a million dollars. At that point, the race is on to see whether Carlito and Gail can escape his world for good. The film is based on two novels about Carlito written by New York State judge Edwin Torres. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
