Laura Esterman Movies
The ghoulish cartoon family created by Charles Addams returns for a second big-screen outing darker and nastier than the first. When Morticia Addams (Anjelica Huston) gives birth to new baby boy Pubert, the other Addams children, Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) and Wednesday (Christina Ricci), devise any number of ways to kill off their new sibling. This leads Morticia and her husband, Gomez Raul Julia, to hire a nanny (Joan Cusack) to oversee all three children. But the nanny has an agenda of her own, packing the Addams children off to a horrid parody of summer camp and setting out to seduce Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd), all with the goal of getting her hands on the Addams family fortune. Of course, the Addams eventually triumph, with this blacker-than-most satire extolling the virtues of eccentricity and non-conformity above all. It was followed by 1999's direct-to-video Addams Family Reunion, with Darryl Hannah and Tim Curry replacing Huston and the late Julia. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, (more)
This is a very enjoyable tongue-in-cheek horror film about some homicidal maniacs who break out of an asylum and terrorize a psychiatrist's family on a dark and stormy night. Martin Landau and Jack Palance are particularly funny, but there are some genuine scares as well. One scene, in which a frightened woman is menaced on her bed by a maniac thrusting a butcher-knife up through the mattress, is a clever send-up that will nevertheless linger in the memory. The coda, in which the crazy Palance has a bizarre encounter with a spaced-out punk chick in a nightclub, is a real gem. Recommended. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence, (more)
Based on a true story as related by neurologist Oliver Sacks, Awakenings stars Robin Williams as the Sacks counterpart, here named Dr. Malcolm Sayer. Something of a klutz and naif, Dr. Sayer takes a job at a Bronx psychiatric hospital in 1969. Here he's put in charge of several seemingly catatonic patients who, under Sayer's painstaking guidance, begin responding to certain stimulati. Apprised of the efficacy of a new drug called L-DOPA in treating degenerative-disease victims, Sayer is given permission to test the drug on one of his patients: Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro), who has not communicated with anyone since lapsing into catatonia as a child. Gradually, Lowe comes out of his shell, encouraging Sayers to administer L-DOPA to the other patients under his care. Julie Kavner and John Heard also star. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Robert De Niro, (more)
- 1985
This drama chronicles the good deeds of a sociology student who, after doing research into women's crime, begins taking teen-age hookers into her home. Based on a true story. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
A despondent Brooklyn housewife whose life has become a boring and predictable routine finds her entire perception of the universe changed upon experiencing a close-encounter in her very own kitchen. Joanne Schwartzbaum (Cara Buono) has been sleepwalking her way through life for as far back as she can remember, but when an alien force reveals itself to her she is instantly snapped out of her complacent existence. Upon seeing a flier for a UFO support group during her weekly outing to the grocery store, Joanne determines to attend the meeting in hopes that it will provide her with a better understanding of her strange experience. When Joanne strikes up a friendly conversation with African immigrant Abraham Kanga (Isaach De Bankole) and realizes that they have both been branded by their extraterrestrial abductors, she enlists the aid of the amiable cab driver and market worker in solving the perplexing mystery. In the days that follow Joanne's frantic sleuthing activities become increasingly troubling to her incredulous husband Brain (David Lansbury), who soon begins to suspect that his wife is having an affair. Later, when Joanne sees a television news broadcast announcing the discovery of an unusual papyrus Egyptian scroll, she enlists the aid of her UFO support group to break into the Brooklyn Art Museum, snatch the curious artifact, and save the human race. Director Barry Strugatz helms a sci-fi spoof that gleefully pays homage to the B-movie hits of yesteryear while offering an absorbing tale of one woman's quest to stave off an impending alien invasion. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cara Buono, Isaach de Bankolé, (more)
Based on the William Kennedy novel of the same name Ironweed is set in the waning years of the Depression. Jack Nicholson plays Francis Phelan, a washed-up ballplayer (a onetime infielder for the Washington Senators) who deserted his family back in the 1910s when he accidentally killed his infant son by dropping him. Since that time, Phelan has been a shabby barfly, living from drink to drink; he spends his days palling around with Rudy (Tom Waits), with whom he works a motley series of jobs in exchange for a place to lay his head and an occasional jug of wine. Wandering into his hometown of Albany, New York, Phelan blearily seeks out his girlfriend and erstwhile drinking companion of nine years, Helen Archer (Meryl Streep), who has begun prostituting herself for drink and lodging. The two derelicts touch base in a mission managed by minister James Gammon, and later in Fred Gwynne's squalid gin mill. Over the next few days, Phelan takes a few minor jobs to support his habit, while his mind wavers between past and present. Eventually, a chance for a reconciliation with his wife (Carroll Baker) emerges. Directed by Hector Babenco following his enormous success with Kiss of the Spider Woman , Ironweed netted Oscar nominations for Nicholson and Streep. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, (more)
- 1999
When a taxi driver finds that he has a dead body in the back of his cab, detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Green (Jesse L. Martin) are forced to open up a 60-year-old mystery. At the center of the intrigue is an insurance racket, which may be preying upon survivors of the Holocaust. The D.A.'s office must first tackle the old case before solving the new one. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1995
After a coed is murdered, a detailed description of the crime appears online. Once again, detective Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) must rely upon the computer savvy of his partner Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) to track down the perp. Once the accused is in custody, Assistant D.A. McCoy (Sam Waterston) must deal with the stonewall tactics of the defense attorney. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1989
- R
Loosely based on the novel by Alberto Moravia, Me and Him concerns an architect (Griffin Dunne) whose penis begins giving him advice on business and love. It urges him to leave his wife and seduce a series of co-workers and acquaintances. ~ John Bush, Rovi
- Starring:
- Griffin Dunne, Ellen Greene, (more)
After an unnerving brush with death, a filmmaker finds that his ordeal isn't quite over in this modestly budgeted horror movie. Tom Kempton (Alex McArthur) is a successful animator who wants to get away from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood for a while. He joins several friends for a vacation in Northern Michigan, where they rent snowmobiles to make the most of the snowy winter weather. Kempton gets separated from his friends while exploring the slopes and soon finds himself lost; looking for shelter, he takes refuge in a small cabin, only to discover it's inhabited by Vanessa Boulette (Laura Esterman) and her sister Ann (Sage Allen), a pair of elderly siblings with a feeble hold on reality and a taste for human flesh. Captured and tortured by the Boulette sisters, Kempton is saved at the last minute, but the experience makes a deep impression on him and he uses his fearsome experience as the basis for his next project. Even though Kempton has been reassured that the Boulette sisters died in their showdown with the authorities, he's convinced the threat isn't gone, and it turns out he's right -- one of the sisters had a bastard daughter which was put up for adoption, and her son now displays many of the same psychotic tendencies as his grandmother. Suspended Animation marked a return to the horror genre for director John D. Hancock, who in 1971 made the cult favorite Let's Scare Jessica to Death. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Val Kilmer delivers what was considered one of 1991's best performances as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's hallucinatory bio-pic of the seminal 1960s rock group The Doors. Stone cuts a jagged swath through Morrison's life, starting with a childhood memory where Morrison sees an elderly Indian dying by the roadside. It picks up with Morrison's arrival in California and his assimilation into the Venice Beach culture, followed by his film school days at UCLA; his introduction to his girlfriend Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan); his first encounters with Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan); and the origin of The Doors -- made up of Manzarek, Robby Kreiger (Frank Whaley), and John Densmore (Kevin Dillon). As the fame of The Doors grows, Morrison's obsession with death increases. The band grows weary of Morrison's missed recording sessions and no-shows at concerts. Morrison, meanwhile, sinks deeper into a drug-induced haze, having mystical sexual encounters with Patricia Kennealy (Kathleen Quinlan), an older rock journalist involved with sadomasochism and witchcraft. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, (more)
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