Adam Goldberg Movies
Actor and filmmaker Adam Goldberg first made an impression on film critics and audiences alike as the cynical Private Mellish in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. In 1998, the same year that Ryan was released, Goldberg made his feature directorial, screenwriting, and executive-producing debut with Scotch and Milk, a neo-noir drama centering around a group of L.A. friends burdened by love (or lack thereof) and a fixation with the 1950s. The film, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, helped to establish Goldberg as a talent worth watching.Born in Santa Monica on October 25, 1970, Goldberg was raised in Hollywood. He began performing at a young age, studying with Tracy Roberts when he was 14 and enrolling at Los Angeles' Lee Strasberg Institute a year later. He continued to act on stage while attending Sarah Lawrence College, and he subsequently returned to L.A. to pursue his career. Goldberg made his film debut in 1992 alongside Billy Crystal in Mr. Saturday Night, and the following year he could be seen in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, which cast him as a neurotic high school junior. He continued to act in supporting roles in a number of varied films, earning little notice until Spielberg cast him in the award-winning Saving Private Ryan. Coupled with the critical success of his own Scotch and Milk, Goldberg's future looked quite promising indeed. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Grounded drama and comic insanity merge in this detective show set in New York City, where every day on the beat could be your last. Overloaded with bullets and bodies after being transferred from Vice to NYPD's Homicide Unit, Detective Casey Shraeger (Amber Tamblyn) discovers that everyone in the force has their fair share of secrets. Her new partner is Detective John Walsh (Jeremy Renner), and her first assignment is to investigate the recent death of Walsh's former partner. Joining Detectives Shraeger and Walsh in solving New York City's most difficult crimes is Detective Eddie Adams (Kai Lennox), a social-climbing prank magnet taken to stealing cases he thinks will get him in the newspaper, and partners Eric Delahoy (Adam Goldberg) and Leo Banks (Harold Perrineau), the former determined to get himself killed on duty and the latter so cautious that he never sheds his bulletproof vest. Meanwhile, devoutly religious Detective Harry Cole (Josh Close) struggles to keep his past hidden from both his intuitive partner Allison Beaumont (Monique Gabriela Curnen), and crusading Sgt Brown (Terry Kinney), who refuses to rest until the 2nd precinct is free from corruption. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amber Tamblyn, Jeremy Renner, (more)
The uncomfortable merger of art and commerce leads to an unstable romantic triangle in this satiric comedy from director Jonathan Parker. Madeleine (Marley Shelton) is a beautiful young woman who runs an upscale art gallery in New York City. While Madeleine prides herself on exhibiting the most daring and cutting-edge work on the East Coast, her dirty little secret is that she's able to keep the place open by selling the bland but accessible work of her boyfriend (Eion Bailey), whose paintings are quite popular with corporate clients. However, Madeleine is drawn to moody creative types, and her boyfriend makes the mistake of introducing her to his bother (Adam Goldberg), an avant-garde composer whose music is built around breaking glass and the clatter of metal objects. Before long, Madeleine has fallen for the pretentious composer and has to choose between him and the man who can keep her gallery in the black. Also starring Vinnie Jones and Zak Orth, (Untitled) received its world premiere at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adam Goldberg, Marley Shelton, (more)
Universal Pictures presents this supernatural comedy that follows a slacker whose self-centeredness gets in the way of him using his newfound magical powers for good. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
Ingenue Julie Delpy does triple duty as writer, director, and star of this romantic comedy. French photographer Marion (Delpy) and American interior designer Jack (Adam Goldberg) are returning from a vacation in Venice. Despite the fact that it was supposed to be the ultimate romantic getaway, disagreements and misunderstandings seemed to drive them farther apart rather than bringing them closer together. Before they return to the United States, Marion and Jack have a quick two-day stop in Paris to visit Marion's parents and pick up the cat that they had been pet-setting for their daughter. Unfortunately for Jack, Paris proves to be quite a culture shock. Not only are Marion's parents a pair of eccentric former "revolutionaries" who make no qualms about having knock-down-drag-out arguments regardless of who's present, but they also appear to have a particular distaste for Americans. Add to this the fact that Marion's friends hold nothing back when it comes to discussing their sexual lives, seem fixated on food rituals, and that Marion seems to run into former lovers on every street corner, and Jack quickly begins to suspect that he doesn't know his girlfriend half as well as he thought he did when they were living the simple life back in New York. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg, (more)
The producers of Wedding Crashers are back with the comedy The Comebacks. Spoofing countless inspirational sports movies, the film stars David Koechner (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy) as Lambeau Fields, a football coach who suffers from a streak of bad luck that has become the stuff of legend. As a last resort, he takes a job coaching a college football team populated with some of the least desirable players imaginable. He must pull this ragtag crew together in order to salvage his career. Carl Weathers plays rival coach Freddie Wiseman. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Koechner, Carl Weathers, (more)
The true story behind the murders that many crime scholars believe to be the most perplexing series of unsolved crimes in modern history comes to the screen in chilling detail as Fight Club and Seven director David Fincher steps behind the camera to tell the mysterious tale of the infamous Zodiac killer. A relentless serial killer is stalking the streets of the San Francisco Bay Area, leaving citizens locked into a constant state of panic, and baffled authorities scrambling for clues. Though the killer sadistically mocks the detectives by leaving a series of perplexing ciphers and menacing letters at the crime scenes, the investigation quickly flatlines when none of the evidence yields any solid leads. As two detectives remain steadfast in their devotion to bringing the elusive killer to justice, they soon find that the madman has control not only over their careers, but their very lives as well. Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr. star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal, (more)
A resourceful teenage super-sleuth finds her investigative skills put to the ultimate test as director Andrew Fleming and screenwriter Tiffany Paulsen revive the character originally made famous by author Carolyn Keene. Upon leaving her quaint hometown of River Heights and arriving in Los Angeles with her father, Carson (Tate Donovan), precocious small-town teen Nancy Drew (Emma Roberts) enrolls in Hollywood High and discovers just how different life on the West Coast really is. A true original in the land where Rodeo Drive dictates what's "in" at any given moment, Nancy stands apart from the pack as much for her penny loafers as for her sincere, non-acerbic attitude and keen study skills -- all of which make the non-ironic goody two-shoes an object of scorn for fashion-conscious mean girls Inga (Daniella Monet) and Trish (Kelly Vitz). Concerns about how to fit in soon take a back seat to more pressing issues, however, when Nancy, having previously promised her worried father that she would give up sleuthing, stumbles across a series of clues that may lead her to find out what caused the death of beautiful Hollywood movie star Dehlia Draycott -- who perished years ago under particularly mysterious circumstances. Upon discovering that she and her father are currently residing in the very same mansion that Draycott once called home, the prospect of solving one of Hollywood's biggest mysteries simply proves too tantalizing for the brilliant young detective to resist. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emma Roberts, Josh Flitter, (more)
A group of teens discover that the next generation of survival horror games are more realistic than they thought when they begin dying in the same manner as their pixilated counterparts in director William Brent Bell's bloody tale of video games gone bad. In the days following the mysterious death of an old friend, a young group of gaming enthusiasts comes into possession of a chillingly realistic game based on the exploits of a 17th century noblewoman who earned the name "The Blood Countess" for her murderous exploits. Their curiosity piqued by the fact that they were obviously not supposed to come into possession of the grisly game, the teens soon give in to temptation and begin doing battle for high score. When the chilling events of the game begin to bleed over into the real world and the real-life deaths of the players begin to mirror the deaths of their in-game characters, the race is on to defeat the murderous Blood Countess and ensure that other curious gamers don't fall into the same deadly trap that they did. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, (more)
Adrenaline loving director Tony Scott teams with iconic action producer Jerry Bruckheimer for this high flung sci-fi action thriller concerning a New Orleans based maverick ATF agent named Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) who is brought in on a top secret government program to catch the terrorist (Jim Caviezel) responsible for a ferry bombing that kills hundreds. Able to do what most law enforcement officers only dream of, Carlin is now able to look back in time at the perpetrator's movements, and at the life of the innocent woman whose death would set the events into motion. Carlin's instincts tell him that something is amiss, however, and while the government agent who tapped him for the job (Val Kilmer) and the team of ultra-cool scientists who run the project (Adam Goldberg, Erika Alexander) tell him one story about the quantum physics behind this marvel of technology, the hotshot agent suspects that there is a greater power at their fingertips--one that might not just solve the crime at hand, but prevent it. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, (more)
The apocalyptic sci-fi thriller Day Watch (aka Dvevnoy Dozor, 2006) constitutes the second installment in a planned supernatural trilogy by Russian director Timur Bekmambetov. As preceded by 2004's blockbuster Night Watch and followed by Twilight Watch, this sophomore film picks up on the byzantine tale of a world where, centuries ago, the powers of light (representing goodness) and the powers of darkness (representing evil) called a truce. Each side set up a law-enforcement team to guard and monitor the other's activities -- the powers of darkness established and controlled the Day Watch, while the powers of light established and controlled the Night Watch. Day Watch opens in the 14th century, when Tamerlane, a Mongol warrior, acquires an implement called "The Chalk of Destiny," that can be used to guide the course of history. Eons later (in the present day), the Day Watch and the Night Watch are ongoing. Two Warriors of Light, Anton Gorodetsky (Konstantin Khabensky) and his protégé/partner-in-training, Svetlana (Maria Poroshina), quietly develop feelings for one another as they patrol the Night Watch together. As the story progresses, the pair must respond to a distress call from an octogenarian victim of a vampiric attack -- an attack committed (as it turns out) by Anton's 12-year-old son, Yegor (Dima Martynov) -- now a Warrior of Darkness. Anton must suddenly wrestle with two conflicting desires -- the need to protect his offspring by destroying incriminating evidence, and his own desire to remain loyal to the Night Watch. Several additional subplots then unfold concurrently, including that of Yegor learning to practice evil from his mentor, Zavulon (Viktor Verzhbitsky), that of Anton "body swapping" with associate Olga (Galina Tyunina), and that of the relationship between a vampiric child, Kostya (Aleksei Chadov), and his dad (Valery Zolotukhin), who works as a butcher. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Konstantin Khabensky, Maria Poroshina, (more)
An unscrupulous Hollywood agent seeks to balance the success of his professional status with the abysmal reality of his personal life in director Miek Binder's existential comedy drama. When it comes to playing the Hollywood game, no one does it better than Jack Giamoro (Ben Affleck). Yet despite having a high-powered job, money to spare, and a beautiful wife, Jack slowly begins to suspect that something is missing from his glitz and glamour life. After enrolling in a journal-writing class in hopes of gaining a deeper understanding of his feelings, the man who has it all is shocked to learn that his wife Nina (Rebecca Romijn) has entered into a heated affair with his biggest client. Though at first Jack takes solace in the fact that he is able to express his inner pain through his writing, his entire future is brought into question when ambitious journalist Barbi (Bai Ling) steals his diary in hopes of landing the year's biggest scoop. Not only does the diary contain sensitive personal information, but crucial information about his high-profile clients as well. Now, as Jack fights against insurmountable odds just to hold his life together, the man who once placed priority on power and material possessions realizes that the only path to true happiness is by spending precious time with family. John Cleese, Kal Penn, Jerry O'Connell, and Adam Goldberg star in a soul-searching comedy that explores the relationship between career success and personal fulfillment. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Affleck, Rebecca Romijn, (more)
Formerly titled Crazy Lawyers, the weekly, 60-minute comedy drama series Head Cases got under way as Jason Payne (Chris O'Donnell), a former hotshot corporate attorney, emerged from three months' treatment at a wellness center after suffering a nervous breakdown, exacerbated by a bitter divorce. With no job prospects, the still-panicky Jason started up all over again in a private law practice, specializing in "underdog" cases. His new partner was another wellness-center "graduate," low-rent lawyer Russell Shultz (Adam Goldberg), who suffered from an embarrassing rage disorder that compelled him to punch out people without warning (and not much provocation!). In the pilot episode, Rachael Leigh Cook was introduced as Kate, another recovering neurotic whom Jason hoped to assist in readjusting to the outside world, but by the time the series proper premiered over the Fox network on September 14, 2005, Kate had been written out of the show. In her place, more or less, was Richard Kind as Lou Albertini, a mercurial paralegal who'd formerly been "employed" as a bank robber. Others in the cast were Krista Allen as Jason's ex-wife, Laurie; Jake Cherry as his eight-year-old son, Ryan; and Rockmond Dunbar as Jason and Russell's therapist, Dr. Robinson. Head Cases was created by Bill Chais, a real-life former attorney whose previous TV credits included The Practice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris O'Donnell, Adam Goldberg, (more)
Tagged as a "fairy tale for adults," Nicola Scott's byzantine spiritual fantasy Fated opens in Liverpool on New Year's Eve of 1992, when Tatty (Michael Angelis), a middle-aged artist, is suddenly and unexpectedly abandoned by his much younger French paramour, Amy (Katrine De Candole). As she flees from him, she is struck dead by a passing car - the incident quietly observed by a local boy (James Harris. Torn asunder with grief, Tatty erects a statue of his beloved and mounts it in the crumbling church of St. Luke's; he then bows to the monument and begs the deceased woman to revisit him in the flesh. Exactly thirteen years later, on New Year's 2005, Tatty's life is now a wreck; the incident has reduced him to an impoverished, ragged hobo who resides in St. Luke's, still hovering over his statue. Fleeing aggressors, a local boy, Cal (Brendan Mackey), opts to evade harm by stowing away in the church for one night. He encounters Tatty, and - when the head of the statue is accidentally knocked off - Amy is resurrected. Tatty informs Amy that her only hope of staying alive resides in kissing Cal (the first man she spotted after her resurrection) before dawn. But he fails to anticipate Amy's continued rejection of himself and her inclination to fall in love with Cal. As the night progresses, events unfurl in surprising and completely unexpected ways.
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brendan Mackey, Michael Angelis, (more)
A hot young celebrity discovers fame can be a toxic substance in this independent drama. Gray Evans (Giovanni Ribisi) is a successful actor in his late twenties who would seem to have it made. Gray is married to an attractive actress with a solid career of her own, Mia Lang (Franka Potente), he's got several projects in the works, he gets lots of fan mail, and he gets to hang out at ritzy parties with his heroes. But Gray is far from happy; his marriage to Mia is starting to fall apart, and he's being driven to distraction by his obsessive belief that a fan is stalking him. As Gray struggles to separate his delusions from reality, he finds himself indulging in a bit of stalking of his own, as he begins following John (Joshua Jackson), a clerk at a video store who is a big fan of his movies. The way Gray sees it, John is happier than he is, John's pretty wife, Jane (Marisa Coughlan), loves him while Mia doesn't care for him any more, and all in all he'd just as soon trade lives with the guy. In the midst of all this, Gray has recently run into Shana (Christina Ricci), a former flame he'd like to reconnect with. Directed by actor Adam Goldberg, I Love Your Work features a number of major stars in cameo roles, including Vince Vaughn, Jason Lee, and Elvis Costello. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giovanni Ribisi, Franka Potente, (more)
This made-for-cable Frankenstein was originally intended as the pilot for a weekly series based on Frankenstein: The Prodigal Son, a novel by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson. The story is set in modern-day New Orleans, the home of demented scientist Dr. Victor Helios (Thomas Kretschmann). Helios is in fact the original Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who has kept himself alive these past 200 years by a series of diabolical genetic experiments. During the same two centuries, Frankenstein has managed to keep alive the original Frankenstein's monster, and has also created dozens of other synthetic humans capable of reinvigorating themselves whenever they are "killed." Of course, the doctor's experiments require that a number of innocent people unwillingly give up their own lives -- and when the bodies start piling up in the Big Easy, detective Carson O'Connor (Parker Posey) and Michael Sloane (Adam Goldberg) start putting the clues together. Ironically, in this story it is Frankenstein who is the villain (in standard serial-killer fashion he tantalizes the cops by planting cryptic clues), while the doctor's main monster is the nominal hero, and a good-looking one at that. Dissatisfied with the finished product, Koontz and Anderson took their names off Frankenstein, as did the project's original executive producer, Martin Scorsese. The unsold pilot film made its USA network bow on October 10, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Parker Posey, Vincent Perez, (more)
Two New Yorkers fight the battle of the sexes to a standstill (without entirely realizing it) in this romantic comedy. Andie (Kate Hudson) is a young journalist who longs to cover political stories, but in the meantime she finds herself writing for a women's magazine called Composure, where her editor Lana Jong (Bebe Neuwirth) has her writing a fluffy advice column. After hearing of the latest dating laments of her relationship-challenged friend Michelle (Kathryn Hahn), Andie sells Lana on the idea of writing a piece on the things women do to alienate the men they love, which she'll demonstrate by winning and then driving away a man in a mere ten days. Meanwhile, Ben (Matthew McConaughey) is an advertising man who wants to land a prestige diamond account at his firm. Ben is competing with his pals, Spears (Michael Michele) and Green (Shalom Harlow), for the assignment, so Ben tells his boss Phillip Warren (Robert Klein) that he's the man for the job because he understands the fair sex so well he can make any woman fall for him in less than two weeks. As fate would have it, Andie and Ben end up choosing one another for their mutual assignments, with neither knowing about each other's secret agenda as Ben strives to hold on to Andie while she does everything in her power to annoy him. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days was loosely based on the self-help book of the same name (subtitled The Universal Don't of Dating) written by Michele Alexander and Jeannie Long. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, (more)
He's hip, he's fly, and he never mixes meat with dairy -- he's the world's first Jewish private eye, and he's out to save the world in this satiric comedy. Mordechai Jefferson Carver (Adam Goldberg) is a super-cool Jewish detective who takes no mess and is always ready to do the right thing for his Torah-reading brothers. But Carver is a lone wolf, and he isn't so sure he's interested in taking an assignment from Chief Bloomenbergansteinthal (Peter Coyote) of the Jewish Justice League -- or at least not until he meets the Chief's gorgeous daughter, Esther (Judy Greer). It seems a mysterious stranger named Damien (Andy Dick) has made it his business to persuade Jewish children to abandon their faith in favor of celebrating Christmas, and it's Carver's job to put an end to Damien's campaign while urging kids to be proud of their Semitic heritage. The Hebrew Hammer also features Nora Dunn as Carver's kvetching mother, and a cameo appearance by Melvin Van Peebles as outlaw blaxploitation icon Sweetback. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adam Goldberg, Judy Greer, (more)
The feature film debut of producer and TV director D.J. Caruso, this pulpy noir mystery is a dark tale of redemption set among southern California crystal methamphetamine "tweakers." Val Kilmer stars as Danny Parker, a former trumpet player who has become a tattooed speed freak living in a cesspool of murderous dealers and hardcore addicts near the desert lake of the title. Danny's fall from grace is the result of a hidden agenda, however -- he's seeking answers about the murder of his beloved wife. He's also working undercover for a pair of brutal narcotics cops (Anthony Lapaglia and Doug Hutchison), while trying to rescue his beautiful neighbor Colette (Deborah Kara Unger) from an abusive situation and her own demons. As he and his slacker buddy Jimmy the Fin (Peter Sarsgaard) are antagonized by the sadistic, noseless dealer Pooh Bear (Vincent D'Onofrio) and his henchman, Danny draws closer to the truth about his wife's death, but the crime's solution isn't quite what he expected. Produced by Frank Darabont, The Salton Sea co-stars Adam Goldberg, Meat Loaf, Luis Guzman, and Azura Skye. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer
Based on a novel by Bruce Craven, this road picture follows a dope fiend named Rick (Jake Busey), who believes his goal in life is to track down Ginger (Jennifer Tilly), a famous porn star who is currently staying in her Beverly Hills hideaway. Rick is obsessed with Ginger, watches her movies obsessively, and deals drugs on the side, all to the chagrin of his lover, Tamara (Natasha Lyonne). He decides to seek out Ginger via the road, and along the way picks up Jules (Crispin Glover), a neurotic, virginal type. On the way to meet Ginger, he finds an unwelcome surprise in the form of Ginger's very jealous husband (Eric Roberts). Fast Sofa also features Bijou Phillips and Adam Goldberg in small supporting roles. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jake Busey, Crispin Glover, (more)
The true story of prominent mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. is the subject of this biographical drama from director Ron Howard. Russell Crowe stars as the brilliant but arrogant and conceited professor Nash. The prof seems guaranteed a rosy future in the early '50s after he marries beautiful student Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) and makes a remarkable advancement in the foundations of "game theory," which carries him to the brink of international acclaim. Soon after, John is visited by Agent William Parcher (Ed Harris), from the CIA, who wants to recruit him for code-breaking activities. But evidence suggests that Nash's perceptions of reality are cloudy at best; he is struggling to maintain his tenuous hold on sanity, and Alicia suspects a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Battling decades of illness with the loyal Alicia by his side, Nash is ultimately able to gain some control over his mental state, and eventually goes on to triumphantly win the Nobel Prize. Based loosely on the book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind (2001) co-stars Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, Christopher Plummer, and Judd Hirsch. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, (more)
Actor and playwright Dan Bucatinsky wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of his play I Know You Are, But What Am I?, though for the big-screen version, his slightly fractured love story was given a same-sex twist. Eli (Dan Bucatinsky) is a journalist working with a major L.A. newspaper who is single and not loving it. Eli is also gay, and makes no secret of the fact that he's looking for a nice guy that he can settle down with. Eli's best friend Brett (Adam Goldberg) knows a woman named Jackie (Sasha Alexander), who says she has a friend who would be perfect for Eli. Thus Eli is introduced to Tom (Richard Ruccolo), a special education instructor and devoted nightlife enthusiast. Eli and Tom's first date turns out to be just short of a disaster; Tom indulges in his overweening enthusiasm for alcohol and tobacco, and Eli is disgusted to learn Tom has never seen Gone With the Wind. Things appear to be over for Eli and Tom before they even started, until they meet by chance while shopping a few days later; this time, a conversation rather than an argument develops, and the two end up spending the night together. Eli begins to think love may have finally found him, until Tom dashes off the next morning, leaving Eli to wonder if Tom has any interest at all in a long-term commitment. All Over the Guy also features small cameo roles by Lisa Kudrow, as an actress not skilled in voice-over work, and Christina Ricci as Eli's cynical sister. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Bucatinsky, Richard R. Ruccolo, (more)
A young man moves to Los Angeles to make something of himself -- but finds that such a task might take a little more work than he thought -- in this romantic comedy. According to Spencer stars Jesse Bradford as the titular Spencer, an ad agency mail room clerk just-arrived in L.A. and eager to make his presence felt. Renting a room in a run-down mansion, Spencer crosses paths with shady eccentrics Ezra (David Krumholtz) and Feldy (Adam Goldberg), aspiring porn filmmakers who convince him to make inroads as a commercial director -- with little success. But when Spencer serendipitously meets his childhood sweetheart Melora (Mia Kirshner), who's currently stuck in a go-nowhere relationship with the smarmy Craig (Brad Rowe), things begin to look up. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jesse Bradford, Mia Kirshner, (more)
Richard Linklater returned to the semi-improvised approach and philosophical themes of his debut feature Slacker while embracing a new and groundbreaking visual technology in his sixth feature film, Waking Life. Linklater and cameraman Tommy Pallotta shot the film on location in Austin, TX, using digital video equipment. Linklater and digital animator Bob Sabiston then used newly developed computer software to transform the images through a process called "interpolated rotoscoping"; the result merges the naturalism of live action with a stylized look that resembles a cartoon or a painting in motion. Waking Life's flexible, non-narrative approach follows a young man (Wiley Wiggins) who arrives in Austin and hitches a ride with a stranger, who engages him in a conversation about rarely considered facets of existentialism. As the visitor drifts through the city, he encounters a variety of people and finds himself absorbing their views on art, philosophy, society, and numerous other issues of contemporary life. Linklater's cast is dotted with well-known actors (Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg, Nicky Katt) and pop-culture notables (filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, Martin Scorsese associate Steven Prince, comic Louis Black), alongside a large number of relatively little-known players. Waking Life received its world premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival; Linklater's next film, Tape, was also screened at the same festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wiley Wiggins
- Starring:
- Tom Everett Scott, Nina Garbiras, (more)
The days when glam rock at its shaggiest ruled L.A.'s Sunset Strip come alive in this comedy set in 1972. On one day, a number of young artists, musicians, and seekers of fame and fortune find their lives intersecting in the sometimes sleazy heart of California's hipster community, including struggling fashion designer Tammy (Anna Friel), pretentious photographer Michael (Simon Baker), sensitive songwriter Felix (Rory Cochrane), and his dashiki-clad manager Green (Adam Goldberg). Sunset Strip was co-written by Randall Jahnson, who previously examined the rock scene in his scripts for The Doors and Dudes; Adam Collis made his directorial debut with this film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Friel, Simon Baker, (more)

































