Anne Carey Movies

The tenants of the coveted Carnegie Hall work-live studio spaces have their leases abruptly terminated by the Carnegie Hall Corporation, effectively disbanding the artistic community that has flourished there for over 100 years, and filmmaker Josef "Birdman" Astor captures the entire incident on film. Though few people realized the flats above Carnegie Hall even existed, the tight-knit artist's community thrived there throughout the 20th century. Back in the day, artists such as Marlon Brando and Paddy Chayefsky were tenants. It was always Andrew Carnegie's intention that the studios were a place where creativity would thrive. When greed threatens to take priority over Carnegie's original vision, the tenants band together in a bid to fight back and preserve a cherished piece of New York City history. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Johnny Knoxville and Parker Posey star in John Waters' new comedy Fruitcake, a This Is That and Killer Films production about a runaway boy's adventures during the holidays. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

A pair of siblings are forced to set aside their discomfort with one another for the sake of their father in this low-key comedy drama from writer/director Tamara Jenkins. Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) is a struggling playwright living in New York City who works a day job to support herself and can't shake the feeling that she's failed as an artist. Wendy isn't especially happy about her love life either, gaining little self-esteem from her on-and-off affair with oversexed, married neighbor Larry (Peter Friedman). Wendy's anxieties about her writing career are intensified by the success of her brother, Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who teaches theater history at a college in Buffalo, NY, and has published a number of books. While Jon's life seems fine on the surface, a case of writer's block has stalled work on his latest project, and he's deeply upset that his girlfriend is soon to leave the United States to return to her native Poland. Wendy and Jon don't get along and prefer not to see one another, but an unfortunate circumstance brings them together -- their father, Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco). Elderly Lenny has began showing signs of dementia, and shortly after he takes to smearing his feces on the walls of his Arizona home, his ailing long-term girlfriend suddenly dies. Wendy and Jon have little choice but to fly to Arizona and see what can be done for Lenny, but their long-simmering animosity makes it hard for them to deal with the realities of Lenny's condition. The Savages received its world premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Six Feet Under creator and American Beauty screenwriter Alan Ball makes his feature directorial debut with this screen adaptation of author Alicia Erian's controversial novel Towelhead. Jasira (Summer Bishil) is a 13-year-old Arab-American who's contending with the pains of adolescence when her life takes a sudden and unexpected turn. Sent to live with her stern Lebanese father, Rifat (Peter Macdissi), by her self-absorbed mother (Maria Bello), Jasira finds herself struggling to adjust to life in the suburbs while contending with racism and hypocrisy at every turn. Rifat lives in a modest, suburban Houston home next to racist reservist Mr. Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart) and meddling expectant mother Melina (Toni Collette). Adjusting to life in the suburbs isn't easy for young Jasira, though she tries her hardest to adapt to the unfamiliar environment by striking up casual conversations with her curious new neighbors. In the process, Jasira finds herself increasingly attracted to hormone-driven African-American teen Thomas (Eugene Jones). When Rifat finds out that his daughter's new boyfriend is black, he vehemently condemns the relationship. As America launches its initial invasion of Iraq, Jasira finds herself caught up in a potentially explosive situation that is only compounded by her raging hormones and the snooping of her pregnant, busybody neighbor. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Acclaimed music-video director Jesse Peretz made his third feature with this comedy starring Zach Braff and Jason Bateman. Tom (Braff) is an aspiring chef whose wife Sofia (Amanda Peet) has just quit her high-paying job to stay home with their new baby. When it becomes abundantly clear that they can no longer maintain their New York City lifestyle, the family picks up and moves to Sofia's hometown in Ohio, where Tom is hired to work at her father's ad agency. It is there that Tom meets Chip (Bateman), the agency's wheelchair-bound golden boy, who also happened to have a one-night stand with Sofia while the two were cheerleaders in high school. Suddenly, Tom finds himself sabotaged by Chip at every step as the nefarious paraplegic schemes to steal Sofia from him and destroy any chance he might have of success at the agency. Released briefly in 2006 under the title Fast Track, the film was retitled The Ex before receiving a wide release in the Spring of 2007. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Tod Williams served as both director and screenwriter for this drama, adapted from a portion of John Irving's novel A Widow for One Year. Ted and Marion Cole (Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger) are a couple whose marriage is on the verge of collapse. After their two teenage sons died in an auto accident, Marion fell into a deep depression from which she has never fully emerged. Meanwhile, Ted has drifted into repeated infidelity, his most recent mistress being the sexually ravenous Mrs. Vaughn (Mimi Rogers), and neither Ted nor Marion are willing or able to devote their full attention to their surviving daughter, Ruth (Elle Fanning). Ted, a successful author of books for children, hires Eddie (Jon Foster), a bright 16-year-old prep-school student, to help him edit his latest manuscript. But Ted is fully aware that Eddie bears a striking resemblance to one of his late sons -- and that this would have a powerful effect on Marion. Eddie quickly develops a strong attraction to his employer's beautiful wife, and Marion, torn between grief and desire, draws him into a sexual relationship that brings the family's many emotional crises to the breaking point. The Door in the Floor also features Bijou Phillips and Louis Arcella. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A complex tale of uneasy alliances and hostilities along the Kansas/Missouri border during the Civil War, Ride with the Devil opens in 1862. The story concerns Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich), a proud son of the South ready to fight for the Confederate cause after his father is killed by Yankee troops. Chiles's friend, Jake Roedel (Tobey Maguire), joins the Bushwhackers, a group of renegade Southerners aligned with the Confederate Army, even though his family supports the Union cause - which sets him head-to-head with his father. The two young men, used to the slow pace and gracious lifestyle of the South's privileged class, become guerilla fighters and wander through the countryside together, encountering sudden, shocking and extreme acts of violence. Their comrades include valiant leader Black John (James Caviezel), paranoid madman Pitt (Jonathan Rhys Myers), gentleman George (Simon Baker), and Daniel (Jeffrey Wright), a laconic former slave who unexpectedly fighs for the south despite his race out of sheer loyalty to George - though the others regard him with suspicion. The Bushwhackers hide out in a shed near the home of Sue Lee Shelley (singer/songwriter/poet Jewel), a pregnant widow whose husband was killed three weeks after their marriage. Later, following a shocking and unexpected act of violence, a number of the men team up with the crazed Quantrill (John Ales) to stage an attack on an abolitionist stronghold, but Jake finds his moral conscience growing more acute, and takes the first steps toward romancing and starting a family with Sue Lee in what looks to be a very different post-Civil War future. Adapted from the novel Woe to Live On by Daniel Woodrell, Ride with the Devil was directed by Ang Lee, whose previous project was a very different look at America's past, the 1970s domestic drama The Ice Storm (1997). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi