Alexis Arquette Movies

Down and Out in Beverly Hills is an updated remake of the 1932 Jean Renoir film Boudu Saved From Drowning. Philandering businessman Dave Whiteman (Richard Dreyfuss) rescues scraggly tramp Jerry Baskin (Nick Nolte) from drowning himself in Dave's swimming pool. Much against his will, Jerry is invited to enjoy the hospitality of Dave, his social-climbing wife Barbara Bette Midler, and their sexually ambivalent son Max (Evan Richards). The hapless hobo bonds only with the family dog Matisse, which fascinates Barbara to the point that she's willing to share her bed (and a few other things) with him. Dave is twice cuckolded when Jerry makes out with the maid (Elizabeth Pena), with whom he has been carrying on a torrid--and noisy--affair. He plans to wreak revenge on the tramp, but several plot twists result in Dave and Jerry becoming bosom companions. Little Richard appears as the family's easily irritated next door neighbor. Down and Out in Beverly Hills was the R-rated film which compelled the Disney Company to create its adult-oriented Touchstone Films division. The property was later cleaned up for TV consumption and converted into a short-lived Fox Network sitcom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two adolescent children of wealthy parents deal with the emotional travails of spoiled youth by indulging in self-serving and self-destructive behavior including but not limited to drugs, parties, and teen sex. Starring Luke Perry of television's hit-show, Beverly Hills 90210, as John and Timothy Owen as Alex, this drama's plot centers on the friendship and betrayal between them--especially after Alex's girl, Stevie (Estee Chandler) arrives on the scene. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

This bleak, provocative drama, the debut of filmmaker Jeff Stanzler, gives a haunting look at the effects of drug abuse upon those who care for the user. It tells the story of unemployed, depressed and just-divorced Bronx-resident Manny who hears burglars in his kitchen one morning and walks in to find his little brother Danny and Danny's girlfriend Jeanette rifling around for money to support their crack cocaine habits. Using the baseball bat he carries, Manny nearly beats his errant brother to death. He grabs their drugs and bundles them into his car for a long drive to the graveyard where their recently deceased father is buried. Thus begins a long, depressing journey between the disparate brothers as they try to make peace with their pasts and find redemption for their wasted lives amidst the ruins of their old neighborhood. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Alternating between urban affluence and rural squalor in its New Zealand setting, this contemporary update of the Brothers Grimm tells the story of a boy and his sister whose placement into very different adoptive homes can't destroy the psychic bond that connects them. An impressionistic opening scene suggests that Jack and Dora's mother has gone off her rocker; soon, the children are packed off to an orphanage, where Dora is adopted by the kindly Mr. and Mrs. Birch (Brenda Simmons and Gilbert Goldie) and Jack falls into the hands of grim farmer Clarrie (Tony Barry) and his bottled-up wife Bernice (Elizabeth Hawthorne). Years later, the teen-aged Jack (Alexis Arquette) suffers through continuing abuse from his proud, sardonic parents and their quartet of vacant-eyed, black-clad daughters. Using an invention that helps focus his nascent hypnotic powers, the lad unleashes his revenge on the family and sets off to find his real sister. Dora Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, meanwhile, has grown up within the comforts of a middle-class home but can't escape her outsider status -- or her special powers, which allow her to sense not only Jack's presence, but also the voices of the dead. With the help of Teddy (Bruno Lawrence), an older telepathic man who wants to bed her, Dora finally finds her way to Jack. But his unhappy childhood has already inflicted too much damage, poisoning the siblings' hopes of a joyful reunion with their birth parents and setting the stage for the savage vengeance of Jack's stepsisters. Garth Maxwell, who previously directed the award-winning gay short Beyond Gravity, made his feature debut with Jack Be Nimble. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Outrageously violent, time-twisting, and in love with language, Pulp Fiction was widely considered the most influential American movie of the 1990s. Director and co-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino synthesized such seemingly disparate traditions as the syncopated language of David Mamet; the serious violence of American gangster movies, crime movies, and films noirs mixed up with the wacky violence of cartoons, video games, and Japanese animation; and the fragmented story-telling structures of such experimental classics as Citizen Kane, Rashomon, and La jetée. The Oscar-winning script by Tarantino and Roger Avary intertwines three stories, featuring Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta, in the role that single-handedly reignited his career, as hit men who have philosophical interchanges on such topics as the French names for American fast food products; Bruce Willis as a boxer out of a 1940s B-movie; and such other stalwarts as Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Christopher Walken, Eric Stoltz, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman, whose dance sequence with Travolta proved an instant classic. ~ Leo Charney, All Movie Guide

Well-groomed junior transfer student Eddy (Josh Charles) forges an unlikely friendship with messy party animal Stuart (Stephen Baldwin) after the two room together in an all-male dorm at a large university. When Alex (Lara Flynn Boyle) ends up in the adjoining suite because of her mannish name, all three students fall into an overheated friendship that provides cover for no less than three unrequited loves. Alex, a sexpot who's turned on by big words, falls hard for intellectual Eddy, who's actually pining away for the ripped, oversexed Stuart, who's got the hots for Alex. As the three friends try unsuccessfully to alleviate their collective sexual and romantic tension, dorm-desk workers Dick (Alexis Arquette) and Renay (Martha Gehman) become convinced that there's something kinky going on -- and they may just be right. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

In this art-film, a famous multimedia artist abandons his former life for a new one in a hermetically sealed room filled with living portraits. His new space becomes a haven for the terminally dysfunctional. Trouble ensues when two strangers, the world-weary Col. Hardy and the handsome son of an aspiring presidential candidate, come to collect on a commissioned work of art. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Come to the land of a thousand Lizas (and Barbaras, Judys, and Marilyn Monroes) in this gay and colorful documentary that chronicles the great spectacle of New York's annual festival of drag queens. The event has been taking place every Labor day in Manhattan for thirty years. Over 20,000 people regularly attend. As the name implies, Wigstock features thousands of carefully coiffed wigs designed to resemble the hair of drag queen faves. Also included are many gorgeous costumes, and of course, performances. The camera also takes the viewer backstage to watch while performers rehearse their campy acts. Featured entertainers include Alexis Arquette, Jackie Beat, RuPaul, Mistress Formika and Lypsinka. Musical entertainment is provided by the group Deeelite, and Crystal Waters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this low-budget screwball-mystery, the death of an L.A. woman leads to a surreal murder investigation on the outer fringes of la-la land. When Molly McMannis (Justine Bateman) turns up dead, still impaled with the murder weapon -- a carrot -- the police launch a probe into the colorful world Molly inhabited. The suspects range from her ex-con brother to her roommate to her high-strung friend (Heather Graham). But a more likely culprit lurks among the ranks of a therapy group full of off-the-wall serial killers and the shrinks who coddle them. The fetishistic police detectives -- including sadistic interrogator Angela Pierce (Jill Hennessy) -- prove as disturbing as the people they're investigating. In fact, their unorthodox procedures leave the door open for the killer to strike again. Written, produced, and directed by Jordan Alan, who previously helmed the similarly offbeat Love and Happiness, Kiss and Tell features a who's who of obscure and indie Hollywood talent, including veteran actor Lewis Arquette and his three famous sons. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

This gay-oriented drama centers on the life and exploits of Andrew, an aspiring painter. Still living at home with his mother Genna, an avant garde actress, constantly rejected by art schools, and without a lover, Andrew decides to enter a contest in hopes of winning a six month stay in Kenya. Though things aren't great for Andrew, neither are they wonderful for his lesbian friend Lucy who constantly bickers with her lover Ingrid. Lucy complicates Andrew's life when she introduces him to the suspicious-looking, enigmatic Jerry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Different aspects of homosexual romance are explored in this compendium of short vignettes. The film is designed as sort of a gay version of 1994's 3,000 Scenarios to Combat a Virus, an anthology that was comprised of 30 short films -- made by some of France's best directors -- out of story ideas submitted by school children on ways to deal with the AIDS virus. In this film however, the selection committee had no age limit and received about a thousand potential stories. The ten selected vignettes (three of which do not deal with AIDS at all ) encompass a broad look at the subject and range for the tale of a lesbian teen trying to come out to her parents, to a gay man who shocks his lover by claiming to be pregnant, to another man's reminiscence of a brief affair with an HIV-positive man. The vignettes were originally shown individually on French television. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A group of old college friends work through their long-standing sexual tensions when they reunite for a wedding in this comedy-drama. Bob (Alexis Arquette), a student at George Washington University, has a mad crush on his buff, beautiful roommate, Brendan (Christian Maelen). Brendan senses the attraction, but rejects Bob violently during a play wrestling match that goes a little too far. A few years later, the young men's mutual friends -- Matt (Jamie Harrold) and Carol (Lauren Velez) -- decide to tie the knot, and the old gang reassembles. TV writer Bob brings along his conceited soap-star boyfriend, Sterling (Tuc Watkins). Brendan comes dateless, but old flame Sarah (Marianne Hagan) -- now a conservative senator's aide -- puts the moves on him. Meanwhile, their friend Eric (Guillermo Diaz) vacillates between hooking up with long-lost lady friend Beth (Maddie Corman) or with the nubile sister of the bride. During the wedding reception, Brendan corners Bob and confesses that he, too, is now gay -- and that he's in love with Bob. This doesn't sit well with the newly self-sufficient Bob, who's finally found a backbone and doesn't want to relive painful college memories. But with stick-in-the-mud Sterling around to remind him that his new life isn't exactly perfect, Bob soon finds himself alone in a hotel room with the object of his youthful affection. The debut feature from writer/director Brian Sloan, I Think I Do was produced by Lane Janger, a fellow participant in the Boys Life anthology series. Janger would go on to cast Guillermo Diaz in his own debut feature, Just One Time. Actress/singer Marni Nixon has a cameo as Carol's wise old Aunt Alice -- her first screen role since appearing in 1965's The Sound of Music. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

In this chapter of the horror saga, the murderous title children and their demonic leader terrorize a group of college kids visiting a ghost town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide