Don Riley Movies

2001  
R  
Home is where the kidnap victim is in this darkly comic farce. Scooter (Trace Fraim) and Junior (Michael Covert) are a pair of exceptionally dim-witted brothers from West Texas who are left high and dry when their mother passes away. The brothers aren't much good at taking care of themselves (and they know it), so they set out to find a woman who will take mom's place in their house. The hapless pair start by approaching a prostitute (Jennifer Tilly), who after taking $35 from the boys leaves them just where they started, and after a few similarly disastrous attempts at finding a new maternal figure, Scooter and Junior decide to take a more aggressive approach. They abduct a woman named DeDe (Tara Chocol) from the parking lot of the supermarket where she works, but as it turns out, DeDe doesn't really mind -- the dumb but good-natured brothers are actually a pleasant change of pace compared to her husband, a violent and ill-tempered Texas Ranger named Vincent (Patrick Warburton). DeDe agrees to be the brothers' new "mom," but on one condition -- they have to help retrieve her baby daughter. Scooter and Junior are willing, but Vincent isn't willing to let DeDe go, and the brothers soon find that Vincent is not a good man to have on one's bad side. Dirt was directed by Michael Covert and Trace Fraim, who also star as Junior and Scooter; it's the second feature as director for Covert, who also wrote the screenplay, and Fraim's debut behind the camera. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Michael CovertTracy Fraim, (more)
1979  
PG  
Director Stanley Kramer ended his career with this absorbing drama, adapted from the play by Milan Stitt and based on a real-life event from 1927. Dick Van Dyke stars as Father Rivard, an intellectual priest in a small, impoverished mining town in the state of Washington. A lonely man with low self-esteem, Rivard is depressed by the arduous and dreary lives of his flock, until the arrival of Sister Rita (Kathleen Quinlan), a bright, spirited young nun who joins his parish to teach at its school. Rita appreciates Rivard on a level that few others in the community can, and soon the priest falls in love with her. But when Sister Rita is murdered, Rivard's infatuation is revealed and the love-struck priest is put on trial. Only Rivard's housekeeper, Mrs. Shandig (Maureen Stapleton), knows the truth about Sister Rita's death. Kramer broke up the staginess of his source material by structuring The Runner Stumbles (1979) into three acts that unfold not sequentially but simultaneously, revealing Rivard's developing relationship with Rita, his prison stint, and his murder trial all at the same time. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Dick Van DykeKathleen Quinlan, (more)

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