Harry Nelken Movies
- 2005
- PG13
A handful of oddballs and misfits cross paths at a motel overlooking one of Canada's more recognizable landmarks in this independent comedy. Phillie (Craig Ferguson) is the alcoholic and deeply depressed manager of the Niagara Motel, a shabby inn a stone's throw from the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls. Phillie's guests at the moment include Michael (Kevin Pollak), a sleazy director and producer of porn videos who is attempting to persuade Loretta (Caroline Dhavernas), a pretty young waitress at a nearby diner, to star in his latest series of adult movies; Denise (Anna Friel) and R.J. (Kristen Holden- Reid), a drug-addled couple struggling to regain custody of their child; Henry (Peter Keleghan) and Lily (Wendy Crewson), whose marriage is already starting to crumble before temptation presents itself to Lily; and Boris (Damir Andrei), the Niagara's short-tempered owner. Over the course of their stays, the folks staying at the Niagara will witness an unplanned kidnapping, meet the motel's in-house prostitute, encounter a down-on-his-luck staple salesman, and get uncalled-for advice from a born-again social worker. Niagara Motel received its world premiere at the 2005 New Montreal Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Ferguson, Anna Friel, (more)
The creation of one of the most memorable books of the 1960s -- and the impact the writing and research would have on its author -- is explored in this drama based on a true story. In 1959, Truman Capote (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) was a critically acclaimed novelist who had earned a small degree of celebrity for his work when he read a short newspaper item about a multiple murder in a small Kansas town. For some reason, the story fascinated Capote, and he asked William Shawn (Bob Balaban), his editor at The New Yorker, to let him write a piece about the case. Capote had long believed that in the right hands, a true story could be molded into a tale as compelling as any fiction, and he believed this event, in which the brutal and unimaginable was visited upon a community where it was least expected, could be just the right material. Capote traveled to Kansas with his close friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), herself becoming a major literary figure with the success of To Kill a Mockingbird, and while Capote's effete and mannered personal style stuck out like a sore thumb in Kansas, in time he gained the trust of Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper), the Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent investigating the murder of the Clutter family, and with his help Capote's magazine piece grew into a full-length book. Capote also became familiar with the petty criminals who killed the Clutter family, Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) and Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.), and in Smith he found a troubling kindred spirit more like himself than he wanted to admit. After attaining a sort of friendship with Smith under the assumption that the man would be executed before the book was ever published, Capote finds himself forced to directly confront the moral implications of his actions with regards to both his role in the man's death, and the way that he would be remembered. Capote also co-stars Bruce Greenwood as Capote's longtime companion Jack Dunphy, and Amy Ryan as Mary Dewey, Alvin's wife who became a confidante of Capote's. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, (more)
A travel agent in deep debt attempts to swindle a by-the-books insurance agent by claiming the corpse of a gangland hit as his long-missing brother in director Mark Mylod's dark crime comedy. Paul Barnell (Robin Williams) is in trouble. Saddled with a cantankerous wife (Holly Hunter) and unable to convince ambitious insurance company agent Ted (Giovanni Ribisi) to pay off the one-million-dollar claim on his brother, who has been missing for five years, Paul's debts are mounting as fast as his life is crumbling. When Paul discovers the corpse of a nameless man who ended up on the wrong side of the mob, desperation drives him to stage a grizzly death scene and make it look as if his brother has suffered a horrible fate. Though the local police force is easily taken by Paul's elaborate ruse, it's going to take a little more convincing before Ted is willing to sign off on the hefty insurance payment. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, (more)
A comedy detailing the war of the sexes with some new twists, this film stars Angus MacFadyen as Houston Blackett, a men's magazine owner whose mother suddenly dies in the Rocky Mountains. His mother has evidently left the estate not to her estranged son, but to her lover, a local girl named Zane (Penelope Ann Miller). Houston is aghast at the news, and his machismo is put to the test in the form of Zane, who takes no guff, especially from an objectifying type, as well as the people near him, who also begin to turn on him, including a reporter (Kathryn Harrold) and her tough assistant (Mary Kay Place). The film also features Ann-Margret as Houston's unforgiving, harsh mother-in-law, veteran actress Millie Perkins as his housekeeper, and writer/director Karen Leigh Hopkins as a single mother caught up in Houston's dilemma. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angus MacFadyen, Penelope Ann Miller, (more)
