Justine Glenton Movies
- 1999
A teenager tries to find his memory in a hospital for the dying in this inspiring if downbeat drama. Barney Snow (Elijah Wood) is a young man suffering from amnesia; while he's able to summon up a few vague and disconnected memories of his past, most of it is extremely foggy at best, and he's somehow found his way into a hospital for terminally ill young people, where two of the doctors on staff (Janeane Garofalo and Roger Rees) try to work with him when they can spare time from their other patients. Barney gets to know some of the other patients at the clinic, including Billy the Kidney (George Gore III) and Mazzo (Joseph Perrino), who is battling cancer but not winning the fight. Barney also meets Mazzo's sister Cassie (Rachel Leigh Cook), who seems to be developing a crush on him. The Bumblebee Flies Anyway received enthusiastic notices for its younger cast when it was screened at France's Deauville Festival of American Cinema in 1999. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Elijah Wood, Janeane Garofalo, (more)
- 1992
- R
Anthony Perkins, in one of his last roles, is the sole highlight of this mundane, German-made psychological thriller, based on a novel by Ruth Rendell. Perkins plays Arthur, an obsessive-compulsive English bachelor with a history of far more destructive habits -- the worst of which include his reign of terror as the "Kenbourne Killer," who is responsible for the strangulation murders of several prostitutes. Like a certain legendary Perkins character of yore, Arthur has some Oedipal issues that need working out and fixates his mother fixation on the department-store mannequin he keeps in the secluded boarding house where he spends his "retirement." When this decidedly one-sided relationship is disrupted by the sudden loss of the dummy, poor Arthur goes 'round the bend again... but the blame for the new string of murders falls on one of his neighbors instead. Bogged down by pedestrian direction and a romantic subplot that serves little purpose, this attempt at a detailed portrayal of madness is kept aloft (barely) on the basis of Perkins' brooding, restrained performance. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- 1991
Made for British television, Alive and Kicking is the bleak but compelling story of two druggies. Smudgen (Lenny Henry) is not only a user but a dealer; his wife Marie (Annabelle Apsion) is in what seems to be a perpetually strung-out state. When Marie has a baby, the authorities take the child away from her because neither she nor Smudgeon show any signs of straightening out. Enter social worker Liam Kane, played by the formidable Robbie Coltrane. Kane's violent, abrasive "cold turkey" technique has a positive effect on the couple, though one wonders if it is truly going to last. In contrast to Smudgeon and Marie, Jane Horrocks appears as Gail, an addict who is perfectly satisfied with her life...or what's left of it. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
