Noah Bean Movies
- 2008
One couple's stormy relationship is examined out of chronological order in this drama written and directed by Jay DiPietro, adapted from his play. Peter (Jason Ritter) and Vandy (Jess Weixler) meet when both are college students; they fall in love and live together for a while, but on a certain fundamental level they're never fully comfortable with one another, and eventually they go their separate ways. But rather than tell their story from beginning to end, Peter and Vandy jumps back and forth in time, with the couple midway through their romance before we've seen their first date. DiPietro allows us to see how the flaws in their relationship -- Peter's discomfort around Vandy and their habit of bickering about petty things -- were present at the beginning, lurking around the corner even in their happiest moments. Peter and Vandy received its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Ritter, Jess Weixler, (more)
Season 1 of this dense and time-tangled Glenn Close legal thriller begins with a flash-forward: %Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), a brilliant and, at that moment, very bedraggled Manhattan lawyer, has just discovered the bludgeoned body of her fiancé, medical resident David Connor (Noah Bean). An attempt on Ellen's life is made as well, and both attacks stem from her association with Patty Hewes (Close), a power litigator who uses devilish tactics to fight on the side of angels. Six months prior to David's death, Ellen joins Hewes & Associates to work on a class-action suit brought by former employees of Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson), a corporate shark whom they accuse of selling his company---and their pensions---out from under them. As it happens, David's sister Katie (Anastasia Griffith), a talented young chef, catered a Frobisher event in Florida the night before he dumped his company's stock. Katie also had a fling that night with waiter Gregory Malina (Peter Facinelli), who is later befriended by Frobisher's lawyer, Ray Fiske (Zeljko Ivanek), whose folksy Southern charm masks demons. As the Frobisher case plays out over the season, Ellen is arrested for David's murder; Patty's loyal No. 2 at the firm, Tom Shayes (Tate Donovan), struggles to emerge from under her shadow; and a number of characters emerge from the shadows, notably "Uncle Pete" McKee (Tom Aldredge), Patty's avuncular Mr. Fix-it (and her actual uncle), George Moore (Peter Riegert), a former SEC official with ties to Frobisher, and freelancing NYPD detective Rick Messer (David Costabile). ~ Paul Droesch, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, (more)
A man struggling to save the life of another finds himself drawn into a strange netherworld he didn't know existed in this stylish thriller. Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) is a psychiatrist living in New York City with his girlfriend, Lila Culpepper (Naomi Watts), who was once one of his patients. However, it's another one of his patients who becomes the focus of his obsessions when Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling), a disturbed young man whom Foster took over from a colleague, announces during a session that he intends to commit suicide in three days, on his 21st birthday. Sam takes the threat quite seriously and tries to track down Henry, who seems to have disappeared. Sam speaks to a number of Henry's friends and acquaintances -- his mother (Kate Burton), the man he claimed was his father, Dr. Leon Patterson (Bob Hoskins), a waitress who regularly served Henry at the coffee shop where she works (Elizabeth Reaser), and his former therapist Dr. Beth Levy (Janeane Garofalo). As Sam talks to people in Henry's circle, he finds he's learning more about himself than the man he's supposed to save, and he begins to drift into an emotional netherworld where the supposedly dead and the living cross paths. Stay was directed by Marc Forster, who had previously enjoyed breakthrough hits with two very different films, Monster's Ball and Finding Neverland. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, (more)
- 1998
An unusual British horror film that is almost entirely free of dialogue, this film is a modern update of silent cinema, with only a few dozen words spoken. Writer-director Richard Horian also appears in the film, which is set in the 19th century and centers around an annual haunting by Sarah McConaghy (Deni Delory). Sarah returns every year on the anniversary of her death, visiting her husband Jack (Horian) and her parents (Lynn Britt and Brian Heath). Neighbors in the small town are unsettled by the ghost's annual return, and they try to lay her soul to rest by praying around her grave site. The film's soundtrack is composed of music by Ralph Vaughan Williams. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deni Delory, Richard Horian, (more)
