Amber Tamblyn Movies

Colin Firth and Patricia Clarkson headline this ensemble drama from Academy Award-winning screenwriter Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird, Tender Mercies) concerning a small North Carolina community that is transformed by a most unusual visitor. When their town falls on hard times, the close-knit locals strive to get back on their feet to no avail. Things begin looking up, however, when a mysterious stranger makes a controversial proposal designed to put the town back on the map. Now it's up to the members of the community to make the personal changes that will transform the town from the inside out. Orlando Bloom, Amber Tamblyn, and Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Grounded drama and comic insanity merge in this detective show set in New York City, where every day on the beat could be your last. Overloaded with bullets and bodies after being transferred from Vice to NYPD's Homicide Unit, Detective Casey Shraeger (Amber Tamblyn) discovers that everyone in the force has their fair share of secrets. Her new partner is Detective John Walsh (Jeremy Renner), and her first assignment is to investigate the recent death of Walsh's former partner. Joining Detectives Shraeger and Walsh in solving New York City's most difficult crimes is Detective Eddie Adams (Kai Lennox), a social-climbing prank magnet taken to stealing cases he thinks will get him in the newspaper, and partners Eric Delahoy (Adam Goldberg) and Leo Banks (Harold Perrineau), the former determined to get himself killed on duty and the latter so cautious that he never sheds his bulletproof vest. Meanwhile, devoutly religious Detective Harry Cole (Josh Close) struggles to keep his past hidden from both his intuitive partner Allison Beaumont (Monique Gabriela Curnen), and crusading Sgt Brown (Terry Kinney), who refuses to rest until the 2nd precinct is free from corruption. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The 2008 sequel to the female buddy film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants constitutes an adaptation of Ann Brashares' novel Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood. Like the premier installment, this picture explores the seriocomic events that unfold one summer in the lives of four temporarily estranged friends as an extremely special pair of jeans works its way from one girl to the next. In one subplot, Lena (Alexis Bledel) travels to Providence, RI, and enrolls in a painting course; in another, Bridget (Blake Lively) embarks on an archaeological excavation in Greece; in a third, Carmen (America Ferrera) works on the backstage crew for a Vermont-based theater festival; and in the fourth, Tibby remains in New York and enrolls in summer courses. Sanaa Hamri, best known for her Prince and Mariah Carey music videos, directs; Elizabeth Chandler, who co-scripted the first film, adapts the Brashares book. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Hatchet director Adam Green teams with that film's star Joel David Moore to craft this simmering psychological thriller about a reclusive telemarketer and artist who finds the many layers of his complex psyche gradually peeled away by a vivacious co-worker. Asthmatic cubicle dweller Mason (Moore) doesn't have many friends, and the closest thing he has to an actual relationship is his awkward interaction with his swaggering boss. All of that begins to change, however, when soul-searching newcomer Amber (Amber Tamblyn) lands a job at the office where Mason works. Amber is friendly but lonely, and on her quest to find herself she begins to open up to Mason, and the two become fast friends. When Amber discovers that Mason is a gifted painter, she agrees to pose for a series of portraits. Recognizing the similarity between the portraits of herself and the portraits of a blonde waitress that Mason recently removed from his studio walls, Amber becomes curious about Mason's past and begins to look deeper into his personality. But Mason has his fair share of dark secrets, and as Amber begins to probe deeper, the familiar cycle of torment and destruction that Mason has kept from her begins spinning once again and soon threatens to consume them both. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

In am era when teen sexuality, excess, and alienation have all become hot button issues, screenwriter/director Beth Schacter follows high school teen Wendy (Amber Tamblyn) and her friends as they eschew the party scene and random hook-ups that define their generation to experiment with a more fluid form of sexual satisfaction. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A frightened and irresponsible girl and an emotionally conflicted woman are brought together under tragic circumstances in this independent drama. Stephanie Daley (Amber Tamblyn) is a 16-year-old girl who while on a school-sponsored ski trip collapses in a puddle of blood; a medical examination reveals that Stephanie has recently given birth, and in a nearby bathroom a newborn child is found dead, flushed down a toilet with its mouth stuffed with toilet paper. While Stephanie insists the child was stillborn and she had no idea she was pregnant, she is charged with killing the infant, and court-appointed psychologist Lydie Crane (Tilda Swinton) is assigned to interview the teenager. Lydie has her own issues with possible parenthood; she's been struggling to have a child after a recent stillbirth, and the matter is taking a toll on her marriage, with her husband, Paul (Timothy Hutton), seeking solace in the arms of another woman. As Stephanie shares with Lydie her feelings about her relationship with her parents, how she lost her virginity, and her growing conviction that God gave her a child as a form of punishment, Lydie finds herself dealing with her own feelings about the child she lost. Meanwhile, Right to Life and Pro-Choice groups threaten to turn Stephanie's trial into a media circus. Stephanie Daley premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Ann Brashares' best-selling novel for young adults comes to the big screen in this engaging comedy drama. Carmen (America Ferrera), Bridget (Blake Lively), Lena (Alexis Bledel), and Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) are four teenage girls who have been close friends since they were babies (and even before -- their mothers all knew each other from attending the same prenatal exercise class). However, fate has dictated that for the first time ever the young women will be spending their summer apart -- Carmen will be visiting her father, whom she hasn't seen in years, Lena will be visiting her grandparents in Greece, Bridget is attending a soccer camp in Mexico, while Tibby is stuck working at a discount store. A few days before Carmen, Lena, and Bridget leave, the four go shopping, and while at a thrift shop they discover an unusual pair of blue jeans that, despite the fact they're all of different height and weight, fits all four women perfectly. The girls buy the jeans and pledge to each look after them for a week at a time, hoping they'll bring one another good luck as the girls deal with a variety of new life experiences, both good and bad. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Being "the chosen one" isn't exactly a barrel of laughs for teenager Joan Girardi (Amber Tamblyn) during the first season of the critically acclaimed CBS drama series Joan of Arcadia. For one thing, poor Joan never knows when God will choose to have one of his many conversations with her -- nor is she ever quite certain in what guise God will appear (a little boy, a street person, the school lunch lady, etc.). Also, the things God asks Joan to do don't always make sense; sure, she understands his motives when he persuades her to volunteer to work with underprivileged, but why in his name does he want her to join the school debate team? Finally, Joan has a tough time keeping her celestial chit-chats a secret from her police-detective dad, Will (Joe Mantegna); her art-teacher mom, Helen (Mary Steenburgen); her nerdy brother Luke (Mike Welch); her paraplegic older brother Kevin (Jason Ritter); and her somewhat befuddled artist boyfriend, Adam (Christopher Marquette). In the course of season one, Joan tries to help her dad Will capture a serial killer; she is shamed by God into enrolling in an advanced-placement chem class; she learns to play chess, a move that is linked with her dad's investigation of a missing child case; her brother Kevin ever so gradually adjusts to life in a wheelchair, though mom Helen never gives up hope of a miracle (the one issue that God hasn't entirely broached yet!); Will later lands a newspaper job, possibly via divine intervention, possibly not; God sees to it that Joan comes out of her shell by prodding her to try out for the pom-pom squad; Joan becomes mighty uncomfortable (one might say hot under the collar) when certain parties draw comparisons between her and another Joan of "Arc" fame; an acquaintance of Joan's dies, leading to some very pointed queries during her next conversation with the almighty; a cryptic request leads Joan to believe that God wants "something more" from their relationship; and in the season finale, Joan's mood swings lead her parents to wonder just where she goes and whom she's with when she's not at home -- and in so doing, realign their own attitudes toward faith in a greater power. ~ Rovi

Seven internationally respected filmmakers offer different perspectives on time and fate -- some witty, some somber -- in this omnibus film, with the stories linked by performances from jazz great Hugh Masekela. Dogs Have No Hell by Aki Kaurismaki follows one man's unusual journey as he celebrates getting out of jail by travelling to Siberia in search of a wife. Victor Erice directed the impressionistic Lifeline, in which a family of Spanish farmers try to help an infant who has fallen ill. Werner Herzog visits the Uru Eus tribe of South America -- believed to have been the last unknown indigenous people on earth prior to their discover in 1981 -- and explores the often sad toll their discovery has taken upon them in Ten Thousand Years Older. Chloe Sevigny plays an film actress waiting out a ten-minute break in her trailer in Int. Trailer. Night, directed by Jim Jarmusch. Wim Wedners contributes Twelve Miles to Trona, in which a young man, dazed and ill, tries to drive himself to a doctor through a barren desert. Spike Lee looks into the Florida vote-counting scandal, and how Al Gore's assistants and supporters reacted to it, in the short documentary We Wuz Robbed. And in 100 Flowers Hidden Deep, directed by Chen Kaige, a delusional elderly man is convinced his furniture still stands in the vacant lot where his home used to be, and he persuades workers to help him move it away to safety. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this light-hearted fantasy, a talented young magician stumbles across an unusual ring and ends up in Camelot before King Arthur. It turns out the ring belongs to none other than Merlin. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi