Arden Myrin
- 2008
- R
- AddThe Lucky Onesto Queue
Director Neil Burger's road movie The Lucky Ones stars Tim Robbins, Rachel McAdams, and Michael Peña as three Iraq War veterans who take a road trip together. The trio meet on their way home from overseas with Fred Cheaver (Robbins) finishing his service once and for all, while the other two -- Colee Dunn (McAdams) and TK Poole (Peña) -- are about to enjoy 30 days of R and R. A blackout leads to the three renting a car together after their flight is indefinitely delayed, and driving from New York to Cheaver's home in St. Louis. Upon arrival, Cheaver learns that his wife wants a divorce, and his son needs 20,000 dollars in order to attend Stanford. Emotionally shaken, Cheaver tries to drop the other two off at the airport, but they refuse to go until they can help him through his troubles. The two of them, however, are going through their own issues. Poole suffered an injury while on duty that he worries will end his relationship with his girlfriend, and Dunn is trying to deliver a guitar to the parents of her deceased boyfriend, a fellow soldier who died overseas. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins, (more)
Heart of the Beholder tells the harrowing true-life tale of an entrepreneurial young couple who owned an operated St. Louis' first videocassette rental store, and the challenges faced by their growing family when religious zealots from Rev. Donald Wildmon's National Federation for Decency (later renamed the American Family Association) launched a frightening campaign designed to intimidate them into removing movies deemed by the group to be ". . .obscene or a detriment to the community and its children." When Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ was originally released on home video, the majority of St. Louis video stores buckled to pressures by religious groups not to offer the film for rental. Ken and Carol Tipton - owners of a videocassette rental store known as the Video Library - refused to give in to the demands of the group they saw as modern day book burners, and as a result their store was picketed, and the life of their young daughter threatened. When the Tiptons refused to give in to the demands of the NFD, the case went to court. Unfortunately for the Tiptons, the NFD used scandalous information about the Prosecuting Attorney's secret sex life to blackmail the prosecutor. Later, due to the misuse of RICO racketeering laws, multiple movies from the Tiptons' store were confiscated before the jury found even a single video obscene. After the prosecutor made vague and damning references indicating that the Tiptons had ties to organized crime, the family was shunned by the community. Yet while the Tiptons subsequently emerged victorious in two court cases, the damage had already been done: Negative publicity had caused the family to become fragmented, and mounting court fees forced their business to go bankrupt. Later divorced from his wife and stuck in a suicidal depression, Ken ultimately made an accidental discovery that would not only turn his life around, but also expose the corruption and hypocrisy that nearly destroyed him. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Letscher, Sarah Joy Brown, (more)
Alfred Kinsey was an entomologist who taught at Indiana University and had a keen interest in an area of human behavior that had seen little scholarly research -- human sexuality. While the courtship and reproductive patterns of animals had been carefully documented, Kinsey believed that most "established facts" about human sexual behavior were a matter of conjecture rather than research and that what most people said about their sex lives was not born out by the evidence (a subject that had personal resonance for him given the troubles he and his wife Clara Kinsey had in the early days of their marriage). After introducing a course in "Marriage" at Indiana University which offered frank and factual information on sex to students, Kinsey began an exhaustive series of interviews with a wide variety of people from all walks of life in order to find out the truth about sex practices in America. When he published Sexual Behavior and the Human Male in 1948, his findings were wildly controversial, indicating that most men had a wider variety of sexual experiences than most people imagined, including a number of practices commonly thought to be dangerous or perverted (including pre-marital sex, same-sex contacts, and masturbation). An even greater outcry greeted Kinsey's next volume, Sexual Behavior and the Human Female, which contradicted common notions than most women went into marriage sexually inexperienced. Kinsey is a film biography written and directed by Bill Condon which examines Kinsey's life and work from his strict childhood until his death in 1956. Liam Neeson plays Alfred Kinsey, and Laura Linney co-stars as Kinsey's wife and colleague Clara. John Lithgow highlights the supporting cast as Kinsey's repressed and moralistic father, while Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, and Timothy Hutton play members of Kinsey's research team and Tim Curry appears as an IU faculty member at odds with Kinsey's teachings. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, (more)
Based on John Grisham's novel Skipping Christmas, Christmas With the Kranks revolves around Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Luther Krank's (Tim Allen) decision to put their normally fanatical enthusiasm for the holidays aside for a tropical cruise. With their daughter in Peru with the Peace Corps, the Kranks believe it just isn't worth it; thus, no presents, Christmas trees, or decorations of any kind will adorn their house to the great consternation of their neighbor Vic (Dan Aykroyd). Just as it looks like Christmas will be successfully skipped, Blair (Julie Gonzalo) throws a major kink into her plans when she suddenly has a change of heart and announces she'll be coming home for Christmas after all. The film ran into troubles early on in production when Ben Affleck's similar sounding bomb Surviving Christmas won the race to the theaters, forcing the filmmakers to depart from the book title in favor of the catchy Kranks one. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, (more)
- 1999
Writer-director Aaron Harnick debuts with this quirky romantic comedy set in New York. Jordan (Ben Shenkman) works in his father's upscale liquor shop. Over the years, he has honed both his wine-tasting skills and a deep fear of commitment. One day, he goes on a blind date with Sarah (Arija Bareikis), a television casting director. Before he knows it, he is engaged to her, and she is introducing him to her parents. Meanwhile, Jordan's childhood buddies are themselves starting to settle down, especially Brad (Thomas McCarthy), who is marrying Sarah's friend Lauren (Catherine Kellner). As the wedding plans plod along, Jordan's panic mounts. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Shenkman, Arija Bareikis, (more)
