Lukas Haas

A drug dealer moves on to bigger crimes in an effort to settle a score with disastrous results in this drama inspired by actual events. Though barely out of his teens, Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch) has already built a lucrative career for himself selling drugs -- he has his own home, a luxury car, and posse of friends who do double duty as his crew, including Elvis (Shawn Hatosy), Frankie (Justin Timberlake), and Tiko (Fernando Vargas). While life at Johnny's house is usually a constant party interrupted by occasional dope deals, Johnny has lost all of his patience with Jake Mazursky (Ben Foster), a regular customer who has run up a large tab that he can't pay. Determined to clear Jake's account, Johnny and his boys plan to kidnap Jake and hold him for ransom, but when they happen upon his 15-year-old stepbrother, Zack (Anton Yelchin), they impulsively decide to take the youngster instead. Jake's father, Butch (David Thornton), and his stepmother, Olivia (Sharon Stone), are already furious with their junkie son when they learn about Zack's disappearance, and aren't sure what they should do. Meanwhile at Johnny's place, Frankie takes a liking to young Zack, who already admires his brother's high-flying lifestyle, and introduces the kid to the joys of grown-up partying, which he takes to with dangerous zeal. Also featuring Bruce Willis as Johnny's father, Alpha Dog was based on the real-life story of Jesse James Hollywood, who at the age of 21 became one of the youngest people to ever appear on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When a San Francisco homicide detective with a keen eye for criminal profiling is fired for botching the arrest of a notorious serial killer, his subsequent effort to reinvent himself as an insurance claims case-investigator leads him to study a series of perplexing wrongful deaths in this comedy starring Joseph Fiennes, Winona Ryder, Tim Blake Nelson, and Wilmer Valderrama. Michael Burrows (Fiennes) isn't your typical detective. Though Detective Burrows is a paranoid obsessive-compulsive who faints at the sight of blood, his remarkable insight into the criminal mindset has nevertheless made him a valuable asset to the San Francisco Police Department. When Detective Burrows' idiosyncrasies allow the feared "North Beach Killer" to elude capture, however, he is fired by his superiors. Upon offering his unique skills to a doubting insurance company, Burrows is given 30 days in which to prove he can sort out the legitimate claims from the false ones. Now, as Burrows makes for the Midwest in the company of hard-nosed field agent Siri Tyler (Ryder), the film student (Valderrama) who has been following the former detective for his thesis follows the pair as they investigate a series of forehead-slapping deaths, including that of a powerful executive who attempts to prove that his high-rise window is unbreakable and a pair of English tourists who fatally misinterpret the "cruise control" function on their rented RV. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Stripped of their wealth and forced to fend for themselves when the multi-million-dollar cosmetics company inherited from their father suffers due to controversy, two sisters who have never known the simple life must finally find out how the other half lives in a high-fashion comedy about hard times starring Hilary and Haylie Duff. Ava (Haylie) and Tanza (Hilary) are teen heiresses whose charmed lives consist of little more than showing up at all the hottest celebrity parties and putting in the occasional cameo at their company's board meetings while letting the responsible adults in charge handle all of the complicated details. All of that changes, however, when an unforeseen scandal robs the privileged "celebutantes" of their car, their cash, and even their lavish home; but what's a poor little rich girl to do when everything she's ever known is suddenly made null and void? In the case of Ava and Tanza, the only answer is to use their substantial setback as a means of realizing their true potential, and put the wisdom imparted to them by their father to use in clearing the family name and proving that there's much more to life than the almighty dollar. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker Gus Van Sant wrote and directed this meditation on stardom and its costs, inspired in part by the life and death of rock musician Kurt Cobain. Blake (Michael Pitt) is the leader of an influential alternative rock band who has unexpectedly won a large degree of fame and fortune. Depressed and unsure of what to do with himself or his success, Blake wanders about the run-down mansion he calls home and the visits the woods nearby. While a handful of friends live with Blake, he prefers to avoid them, as they often seem more interested in money or help with their music than in his friendship; meanwhile, Blake is also confronted by a handful of fans, his agent, and a gentleman who sells advertising space in a telephone directory and has no idea who Blake is. As Blake goes through the motions of his day, he tries to decide what he should do next, and what might finally free him from his ennui. Shot and edited in the same languid, low-key manner as his films Elephant and Gerry, Last Days also stars Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, Scott Green, Ricky Jay, and Harmony Korine. Kim Gordon of the band Sonic Youth also appears in the film, while her husband and bandmate Thurston Moore was a consultant for the musical score; both were friends of Kurt Cobain and toured in tandem with Nirvana on several occasions. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Lathe of Heaven was a made-for-cable remake of the 1980 TV movie of the same name, both based upon the futuristic novel by Ursula K. LeGuin. Former child star Lukas Haas is effectively cast as George Orr, an otherwise ordinary man who experiences extraordinary dreams. When the visions in his head begin coming true -- and even seem to be altering reality -- the anguished Orr consults psychiatrist Walter Haber (James Caan), which is the first of many miscalculations on the part of the protagonist. Dr. Haber intends to harness George's "talent" to bring his own peculiar notion of Utopia to full fruition. Will the fabric of the space-time continuum unravel as Haber plots and plans and Orr's dreams become more and more frightening? And how does Orr's extremely skeptical (and ravishingly beautiful) lawyer Heather LaLache (Lisa Bonet) figure into all this? Lathe of Heaven made its A&E cable network bow on September 8, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In a small American town called Midland City, Dwayne Hoover (Bruce Willis) -- a loyal father, a successful car dealer, and a respected member of the community --lives with his wife Celia (Barbara Hershey), who's addicted to pills and TV shows, and his son Bunny (Lukas Haas), who is a weakling. What's more, his best friend and employee Harry Le Sabre (Nick Nolte) is a paranoid red-lace-lingerie fetishist. Dwayne finds short-term consolation in the arms of his secretary and mistress, Francine (Glenne Headley). As the American Dream slowly becomes his nightmare, Hoover begins to retreat into a fantasy world, filled with strange voices and fearful visions. It takes only the arrival of third-rate science-fiction writer Kilgore Trout (Albert Finney) -- whose novels are turned into fourth-rate porno comics -- at the Midland City Art Festival for things to explode. Hoover's only hope is Kilgore, whom he has raised to the status of a guru in his fantasies. However, the two men meet when time, space, and reality have already lost their meaning. Now it is only nonsense that makes sense and madness that reigns; the American dream has turned into lunacy. Breakfast of Champions, which had its world premiere during the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999, is the outcome of a project in the making for over twenty years. Director Alan Rudolph wrote the script when the novel by Kurt Vonnegut was first published. However, it took all this time (and perhaps the casting of someone like Bruce Willis in order to get it financed) for the project to be realized. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Oprah Winfrey co-produced this psychological drama, a TV movie remake of the acclaimed black-and-white low-budget ($180,000) 1962 David and Lisa. The original earned $1 million in its first run and also earned Oscar nominations for director Frank Perry and screenwriter Eleanor Perry, who adapted the story from the case history by Theodore Isaac Rubin. The script for the remake is credited to director Lloyd Kramer, Eleanor Perry, and Rubin. Emotionally disturbed teenager David (Lukas Haas), a genius with a fear of being touched, is taken by his mother to an institution where he encounters compassionate psychiatrist, Dr. Jack Miller (Sidney Poitier) and free-spirited teen Lisa (Brittany Murphy), who speaks in rhyme. Although Miller makes a supreme effort with David, it's Lisa who succeeds in reaching out to David and making contact with him, quelling his demons with love. The remake relocates the story from the East Coast to the West Coast, where it was filmed in Los Angeles locations (Venice, Los Feliz). The telepic premiered November 1, 1998 on ABC. When this remake was filmed, Rubin was still a practicing psychiatrist in New York at the age of 75. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Featuring a soundtrack filled with beloved "standard" songs such as "Just You, Just Me" and "My Baby Just Cares for Me," this musical comedy by Woody Allen concerns a polite and comfortably well-off group of people and their romantic difficulties. DJ (Natasha Lyonne), who narrates the picture, is the daughter of divorced couple Steffi (Goldie Hawn) and Joe (Woody Allen). Since the break-up, Steffi has married Bob (Alan Alda); their children, DJ's half-sister and half-brother, are Skyler (Drew Barrymore) and Scott (Lukas Haas). Skyler is about to be married to a likeable chap named Holden (Edward Norton). However, her mother Steffi, a wealthy liberal, cultivates people as "projects." Her latest project is ex-con Charles (Tim Roth), an extremely rude and crude customer. At family gatherings, everyone politely ignores his lapses in manners and good taste until Skyler postpones her wedding to have an affair with him. In a parallel storyline, we see that DJ is convinced that her unremarried dad would find a perfect mate in Von (Julia Roberts), and she contrives an elaborate (and successful) scheme to bring them together. In a fashion typical of '30s musicals, this movie completely transcends its fluffy story, using a cavalcade of ballads to send the characters on a chaotic, romantic merry-go-round from New York to Paris. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this low-budget screwball-mystery, the death of an L.A. woman leads to a surreal murder investigation on the outer fringes of la-la land. When Molly McMannis (Justine Bateman) turns up dead, still impaled with the murder weapon -- a carrot -- the police launch a probe into the colorful world Molly inhabited. The suspects range from her ex-con brother to her roommate to her high-strung friend (Heather Graham). But a more likely culprit lurks among the ranks of a therapy group full of off-the-wall serial killers and the shrinks who coddle them. The fetishistic police detectives -- including sadistic interrogator Angela Pierce (Jill Hennessy) -- prove as disturbing as the people they're investigating. In fact, their unorthodox procedures leave the door open for the killer to strike again. Written, produced, and directed by Jordan Alan, who previously helmed the similarly offbeat Love and Happiness, Kiss and Tell features a who's who of obscure and indie Hollywood talent, including veteran actor Lewis Arquette and his three famous sons. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide