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Brett Barsky Movies

2002  
 
This animated feature serves as the coda to the MTV series Daria, which spawned 65 half-hour episodes and one previous movie (Daria: Is It Fall Yet?) during its five-year run. It is wry teen misfit Daria Morgendorffer's senior year at Lawndale High -- time to figure out what university to attend. Her first choice is Bromwell, which is also the first choice of her blue-blooded boyfriend, Tom, whose illustrious ancestors are all alumni. When Daria, Tom, and Tom's mother head off for a campus visit, things don't go as planned. Daria almost bombs her interview; even worse, traffic, bad weather, and the need for Tom to suck up to the alumni keep Daria from getting more than a drive-by look at her second-choice school, Raft. Ironically, though, she gets into Raft and not Bromwell. Tom, of course, does, and the resulting friction leaves a question mark hanging over their relationship. College questions also plague Daria's friends: Jane frets over whether even to apply to art school in Boston, while Jodie must convince her status-obsessed father to let her attend a primarily African-American university where she can finally fit in. Big questions face even Lawndale's younger students as Daria's fashion-plate sister, Quinn, is forced to take a restaurant job to pay off the credit-card bills she's rung up on clothes; hanging out with college kids and helping a new friend through a drinking problem help give Quinn a new outlook on her previously shallow life; can the end of the Fashion Club be far behind? Daria: Is It College Yet? premiered on MTV on Monday, January 21, 2002; nearly commercial-free, the original presentation included the world premiere of the video for "Breaking Up the Girl" by pop band Garbage, alongside clips from all five seasons of the show. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

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1997  
 
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The second outing in the Boys Life series collects another set of gay-themed shorts. Must Be the Music follows a group of Los Angeles teens, three gay and one straight, through a night of romantic misadventures at a hip dance club. In Nunzio's Second Cousin, police Sgt. Tony Randozzy (Vincent D'Onofrio) turns the tables on a group of homophobes (one of them played by Seth Green) and forces one of them, Jimmy (Miles Perlich), to have dinner with him and his mother (Eileen Brennan). Alkali, Iowa uses the backdrop of a Midwestern agricultural community to tell the story of Jack (J.D. Cerna), a gay teen who discovers tantalizing glimpses of his dead father's life buried on the family farm; Mary Beth Hurt plays the boy's distant, defeated mother. The Academy award-winning Trevor relates the tale of a chunky, effete youngster (Brett Barsky) whose love of Diana Ross is matched only by his obsession with Pinky (Jonah Rooney), a handsome classmate. For Boys Life 2's video and DVD release, The DadShuttle replaced Trevor, which had received a video release of its own. An almost plotless tale that takes place during a single car ride to the airport, The DadShuttle focuses on the emotional distance and between a city-dwelling gay man and his suburban father. Alkali, Iowa director Mark Christopher would go on to direct the Hollywood feature 54, while Nickolas Perry, director of Must Be the Music, would go on to helm the Gus Van Sant-produced Speedway Junky. Before directing Trevor, Peggy Rajski was known primarily as a producer; her credits include the Jodie Foster directorial efforts Little Man Tate and Home for the Holidays. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

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1996  
R  
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A woman serving on the jury of an anti-Mafia trial must protect herself and her young son from a psychopathic gangster in this thriller. Demi Moore stars as Annie Laird, a single mother and artist who readily agrees to do her civic duty on the jury in the trial of a major organized crime figure. She quickly comes to regret this decision when a mysterious and eccentric Mafia associate known as The Teacher (Alec Baldwin) threatens to kidnap her son and harm her friends unless she promises to vote not guilty. Fearing for their lives, she plays along, but unfortunately the Teacher shows no sign of backing away from his plans, having become personally obsessed with Annie. Unwilling to trust the authorities, Annie instead develops a plan to save her child by taking on the Teacher and the mob. Adapting a novel by George Dawes Green, the screenplay was written by Ted Tally (The Silence of the Lambs). ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

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Starring:
Demi MooreAlec Baldwin, (more)