Katherine Dieckmann Movies
Writer, director, and occasional editor Katherine Dieckmann emerged as a creative force in filmmaking during the late '90s, and thereafter helmed a series of offbeat and finely observed character-driven seriocomedies on relatively low budgets, for production outfits such as Magnolia Pictures and Killer Films. In so doing, she rode the American "indie" filmmaking boom initially catalyzed by directors such as Ed Burns (to whom her work earned frequent comparisons in the press) and Paul Thomas Anderson. Dieckmann first began to attract attention for her 1999 melodrama A Good Baby, starring Henry Thomas, Cara Seymour, and David Strathairn. The film drew heavy and unanimous critical praise for its originality and bravura, which seemed to foreshadow prolific output for Dieckmann; unfortunately, for several years, this was not the case, and aside from directing occasional R.E.M. videos, she maintained a relatively low profile. She next emerged in 2006 with the feature Diggers -- a project that originated not with her, but with a script by actor Ken Marino (who also starred) about a group of clam diggers on Long Island, circa 1976. Shot and edited in a rapid 21 days, this feature also netted an extremely enthusiastic response from the public and press, and ran at both the South by Southwest Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. A third outing, the slice-of-life dramedy Motherhood (2008), stars Uma Thurman as a single mother undergoing preparations for her daughter's sixth birthday while attempting to juggle the challenges of life in a big city. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 2009
- PG13
- Add Motherhood to Queue
Uma Thurman, Minnie Driver, and Anthony Edwards star in writer/director Katherine Dieckmann's slice of life indie Motherhood, which follows a hapless mother of two as she attempts to prepare for her daughter's rapidly approaching sixth birthday party. Along the way, the harried mother is forced to contend with a monumental series of unexpected urban challenges. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards, (more)
In the years before the Hamptons became the ultimate Long Island destination, two generations of clam diggers work the land and struggle to make sense of the changes that threaten to forever transform their simple way of life. The year is 1976, and the future Long Island vacationing hotspot is little more than a tight-knit community of hard-living folks who make their living from the sea. While the impending presidential race between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter has the entire country swept up in the wind of change, the local Hamptons clam diggers begin waging a losing battle against the wealthy developers who are gradually encroaching on their waters. Hunt (Paul Rudd) is a restless and imaginative digger who comes from a long line of hardworking seafarers and has a keen eye for black-and-white photography. When Hunt's father suddenly dies, Hunt and his lifelong pals Frankie (Ken Marino), Jack (Ron Eldard), and Cons (Josh Hamilton) slowly begin to take stock of their modest lives. Meanwhile, as Hunt's recently divorced older sister, Gina (Maura Tierney), struggles to get by while working as a waitress at a local diner, Hunt himself enters into a playfully flirtatious relationship with vacationing Manhattanite Zoe (Lauren Ambrose). Constantly questioning why Hunt refuses to venture out of his dead-end town in favor of pursuing his artistic talents in the big city, Zoe serves as a persistent reminder that one is not always necessarily bound by his or her roots. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Rudd, Lauren Ambrose, (more)
A small town's secrets prove deeper and more mysterious than they initially seemed in A Good Baby. Toker (played by Henry Thomas) is a young man living in a small North Carolina community, where he prefers to keep to himself. One day, while taking a walk in the woods, Toker finds a baby, and ventures into town to find out to whom it belongs. However, no one seems to know who the child's parents are, and no one will claim it as their own. Toker soon draws the attention of an attractive woman named Roby (Cara Seymour), who is interested in him, but will have nothing to do with the baby. Toker, however, has grown to love the child and does not want to turn it away. The arrival of a mysterious salesman (David Strathairn) eventually leads to the discovery of the child's true parentage. The directorial debut for Katherine Dieckmann, A Good Baby was screened at the 1999 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Thomas, David Strathairn, (more)
