Alexis Alexanian Movies
Soon after relocating from Texas to New York in a bid to make the big time, a 21-year-old actor enters into a turbulent relationship with a struggling singer/songwriter in writer/director Ethan Hawke's screen adaptation of his own debut novel. William (Mark Webber) is an aspiring actor with dreams of making it big. Upon arriving in New York City, William soon enters into a tenuous romance with Sarah (Catalina Sandino Moreno), a talented musician with a winning voice and keen songwriting skills. Love is a fickle thing, though, and in the thriving world of young and talented artists, it isn't always enough to make a relationship last. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Webber, Catalina Sandino Moreno, (more)
The down-and-dirty side of building management in pre-gentrification Manhattan sets the stage for this dark comedy. It's 1981, and Joe Peltz (David Krumholtz) runs a newsstand in New York City, where he has recently married Annabelle (Clara Bellar), an exotic dancer from France who isn't in love with Joe but asked for his hand so she could get a Green Card. When Annabelle discovers she's pregnant, the couple decides they need a larger apartment, and Joe finds a flat in the East Village that's on the same block where his great-great-grandparents lived when they first came to America. However, the neighborhood is decaying and ridden with crime, and when Joe and Annabelle move into their new apartment, he's immediately drafted onto the building's co-op board, where he has to deal with a variety of eccentrics of various stripes and must often sleep in the lobby armed with a baseball bat to ward off junkies and burglars. But by far his biggest problem is Carlos DeJesus (Paul Calderon), a bully who has been squatting in the building for eight years with his roughneck teenage son, Segundo (Jon Budinoff). Carlos sees no reason why he should start paying rent, and he's made enemies with practically everyone who lives in the building, wasting no time in adding Joe and Annabelle to that list. So when a gasoline fire guts Carlos' apartment, the question is not who wanted him out, but who actually had the nerve to start the blaze. Based on a novel by Joel Rose, Kill the Poor was written for the screen by Daniel Handler, best known as the author of the popular "Lemony Snicket" books. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Krumholtz, Clara Bellar, (more)
Novelist and screenwriter Peter Hedges makes his directorial debut with the comedy drama Pieces of April. Family outcast April Burns (Katie Holmes) lives in a beat-up apartment in New York's Lower East Side with her boyfriend, Bobby (Derek Luke). In order to spend some time with her dying mother, Joy (Patricia Clarkson), April invites her conservative suburban family to her place for a Thanksgiving feast. She discovers that her oven is broken the morning of the big day, so she goes around her tenement building trying to find a sympathetic neighbor with a working oven. Though she doesn't know them, neighbors Eugene (Isiah Whitlock) and Evette (Lillias White) offer the use of their oven, but only for an hour. While she frantically tries to complete the meal, the family drives in from Pennsylvania sharing less-than-pleasant opinions about April's lifestyle. Dad Jim (Oliver Platt) tries to think positively, while daughter Beth (Alison Pill) flaunts her good-girl status and son Timmy (John Gallagher Jr.) captures it all on film. Shot with digital video, Pieces of April is a project of the Independent Film Channel's InDigEnt production company. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, (more)
Most 15-year-old boys are obsessed with the opposite sex, but this may be the only area in which Oscar Grubman (Aaron Stanford) could be called typical. An honor student at an exclusive prep school, Oscar is confident, keenly intelligent, speaks fluent French, and is well versed in the work of a number of French authors, particularly his favorite, Voltaire. Oscar seems to have gotten his fascination with French culture from his mother, who several years ago divorced his father Stanley (John Ritter), a college professor, and moved to Paris. Stanley has recently remarried, taking an attractive woman in her mid-forties, Eve (Sigourney Weaver), as his new wife. Oscar, however, senses that Eve isn't happy in their marriage; certain he can give Eve the affection (both physical and emotional) that she needs, Oscar begins waging a low-key but ardent campaign to seduce his step-mother over the course of Thanksgiving weekend, despite the fact a number of Oscar's female classmates have made no secret of their attraction to him. Oscar's efforts to bed Eve attract the attention of one of her close friends, Diane (Bebe Neuwirth), a smart and sexy chiropractor who also becomes the not-entirely-unwelcome focus of Oscar's romantic attentions. Shot using digital video equipment, Tadpole was enthusiastically received at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, where the film's director, Gary Winick, received the Director's Award. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sigourney Weaver, Aaron Stanford, (more)
Actor Ethan Hawke takes the director's chair for a test drive with this independent feature, based on a play by Nicole Burdette, in which a number of creative types living in New York's famed bohemian enclave the Chelsea Hotel struggle with their muses as well as their personal concerns. Middle-aged novelist Bud (Kris Kristofferson) is having problems with his latest project, as well as his appetite for alcohol, while he juggles two relationships -- with his wife Greta (Tuesday Weld) and his lover Mary (Natasha Richardson). Audrey (Rosario Dawson) is a poet who is attracted to Val (Mark Webber), but Val has a hard time staying away from drugs, and his pal Crutches (Kevin Corrigan) is doing nothing to help. Grace (Uma Thurman) is trying to make a name for herself as a poet, but in the meantime she supports herself waiting tables; she's developed a crush on her neighbor Frank (Vincent D'Onofrio), but she can't figure out how to get him to pay attention to her. And Ross (Steve Zahn) and Terry (Robert Sean Leonard) are a pair of would-be rock stars who have just arrived in New York from the Midwest, wondering how to get noticed as they try to pick up women. Jeff Tweedy from the acclaimed rock band Wilco composed the film's musical score, while legendary jazz vocalist Jimmy Scott appears in a nightclub scene. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Corrigan, Rosario Dawson, (more)
- 2001
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The writer and performer of such stinging monologues as Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, Eric Bogosian returns to the stage to skewer everything from pop culture to religion in this striking return to the stage. Portraying a series of characters that include a salesman who may just be Satan and a shockingly amoral Hollywood producer, it seems that any and everybody is fair game for the sharp-tongued satirist -- and in the post-9/11 era where paranoia runs rampant, Bogosian provides a brutally honest but shockingly entertaining alternative to the mainstream mindset. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2001
- R
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Three women whose lives have followed very different paths ponder their pasts and their futures in this omnibus film from second-time director Rebecca Miller, adapted from her acclaimed short story collection of the same name. Delia (Kyra Sedgwick) grew up in a fractured household; her mother abandoned the family when Delia was a child, and her father (Brian Tarantina) was a drug-addled loser who could barely be prodded off the couch. When she entered adolescence, Delia realized that she could use her body to get men to do as she pleased. While this gained her a feeling of power and self-sufficiency, it also earned her a reputation as the "class slut," and the end product was her marriage to Kurt (David Warshofsky). Greta (Parker Posey) is the daughter of a successful lawyer (Ron Leibman) who left her mother when she was young and offered Greta criticism rather than affection. Plagued with self-doubt, Greta is squandering her literary talents editing cookbooks and is married to Lee (Tim Guinee. When Thavi (Joel de la Fuente), a respected and successful young novelist, asks Greta to edit his next novel, it forces her to reassess herself on a number of levels. Finally, Paula (Fairuza Balk), yet another product of a fractured family, ran away from her mother and was homeless until she met Vincent (Seth Gilliam), who took her in and became her boyfriend. A year later, Paula is uncertain in her feelings about Vincent, unsettled to learn that she's pregnant, and startled after witnessing a murder while out clubbing with a friend; she hits the road again, and soon picks up a fellow alienated teen, Kevin (Lou Taylor Pucci), who bears the scars of a recent -- and very brutal -- beating. Personal Velocity: Three Portraits was honored with the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ventimiglia, Kyra Sedgwick, (more)
Novelist/filmmaker Bruce Wagner skews the classic George Cukor film The Women in this digital video effort adapted from a section of his novel I'm Losing You (which was also made into a feature film). Using a video diary format, the director focuses on three women desperate to become filmmakers. There is Phyllis (Beverly D'Angelo), an acid-tongued independent producer with a penchant for pharmaceutical drugs, who shops around her highly troubled new film project and decides to keep a journal to record its progress. Sara (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a casting director stuck in a failing marriage who writes personal letters to her blind baby boy and confides in friend Holly Hunter about her need to get back on her feet. And Gina ($Portia de Rossi) is a delusional actress/masseuse who steals the energies of her rich celebrity clientele and believes that TV producer Darren Star has stolen her ideas and is determined to seek retribution. Women in Film was shot by Russell Lee Fine, who transferred the video to a standard 35 mm format for release. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beverly D'Angelo, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, (more)
In the same year that filmmaker Richard Linklater explored the possibilities of image manipulation in digital filmmaking with Waking Life, he also embraced the new medium's potential for creating intimate character portraits under confined circumstances with this feature, based on the play by Stephen Belber. Johnny (Robert Sean Leonard) is a 30-year-old filmmaker who is enjoying a recent run of success and has returned to his old hometown of Lansing, MI, to show his latest project at a film festival. While in town, Johnny pays a visit to Vince (Ethan Hawke), an old friend from high school who is staying in a nearby hotel. Vince has never had a knack for responsibility and these days scrapes together a living as a low-level drug dealer. Johnny and Vince discuss their lives, with Johnny more than a bit judgmental about Vince's current situation, when the conversation turns to Amy (Uma Thurman), a girl who was Vince's girlfriend through much of high school and who Johnny dated for a brief spell afterward. Johnny confesses that he hasn't thought about Amy in ages, but Vince informs him that she's living nearby, then begins firing a series of increasingly pointed questions at him about his relationship with Amy, concluding with the shocking accusation that Johnny once raped Amy at a party. Like Waking Life, Tape was entirely shot using digital video equipment, and director Linklater remained true to the story's origins as a stage play, using only three actors and one set for the entire film. Both Tape and Waking Life premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, (more)
Based on Carl Hiaasen's satirical novel, Striptease tells the story of Erin (Demi Moore), who has just gotten a divorce from Darrell (Robert Patrick), the sleazy ex-con she foolishly married. However, the judge's memories of Darrell's days as a football hero win him custody of their daughter, and Erin, concerned for her child's safety, is determined to fight the decision. Erin has just lost her position as a secretary for the FBI, so, to cover her legal bills, she takes a job as an exotic dancer at a strip club called the Eager Beaver. While she has no experience taking off her clothes in front of an audience, Erin soon makes friends with the fellow dancers and finds a protector in the club's burly but good-hearted bouncer, Shad (Ving Rhames). She also makes a few fans among the regulars at the club, most notably David Dillbeck (Burt Reynolds), a drunken lout with a bottomless appetite for sleaze -- who also happens to be a conservative congressman with ties to right-wing religious groups. One of Erin's admirers snaps a photo of her with the congressman when a brawl breaks out at the club, and he suggests that it would make fine blackmail material. However, when the man with the photo turns up dead, Erin discovers that Dillbeck's people play a bit rougher than she expected. The home video version of Striptease contains two minutes of footage that was clipped from the theatrical release in order to win the film an R rating. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Demi Moore, Armand Assante, (more)
