Jonas Chernick Movies

Soon after his wife leaves him as a result of an impulsive extramarital fling, the life of a young psychotherapist comes crashing down around him in a series of bizarre incidents in this illusionary drama from Canadian director Sean Garrity. Ever since his wife disappeared from his life, Joel Rothman (Jonas Chernick) has had trouble sleeping. As the insomniac psychotherapist spends his nights drawing sheep on the wall and endlessly looping his wife's angry voice message, his relationship with his young daughter grows increasingly distant and his work begins to suffer. From the aggressive Victor (Callum Keith Rennie) to the deeply depressed Chandra (Michelle Nolden) and the nightmare-plagued, prescription drug-addicted Sophie (Lindy Booth), all of Joel's patients seems to be getting gradually worse on his watch. Now faced with the very real prospect of losing his job, Joel attempts to hold on to his slipping sanity long enough to make sense of his rapidly deteriorating mental state. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Based on Brian Cruver's first-person book, Anatomy of Greed, this strident TV movie chronicles the rise and fall of the notorious Houston-based Enron Corporation in the early years of the 21st century. The film is related from the perspective of Cruver himself (played by Christian Kane), here depicted as a brilliant but naïve young trader who, after being hired by Enron, was dazzled and seduced by the company's "get rich quick by whatever means necessary" credo. The obscenely extravagant "Enron Culture" (represented by endless office parties and nubile young ladies) was built upon the backs of the company's stockholders and lower-echelon employees -- and, when everything inevitably crashed and burned in the spring of 2002, it was the "little people" who suffered the most. Although several real-life personalities are portrayed in the film, among them Enron CEO Ken Lay (played Mike Farrell), executive Jeff Skilling (Jon Ted Wynne), and conscience-stricken whistleblower Sherron Watkins (Jan Skene), many of the characters are composites, chief among them the mysterious, sinister Enron higher-up "Mister Blue" (Brian Dennehy), whose primary function is to spout blatantly mercenary exposition. Due to budget restraints, The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron was filmed not in Houston but in Canada; and thanks to copyright restrictions, the company's famous "slanted E" logo is considerably altered onscreen. The film made its CBS debut on January 5, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Created by author/entertainer Kay Thompson in 1955, precocious six-year-old Eloise, who lived in the Plaza Hotel with her long-suffering nanny, her dog Weenie, and her turtle Skipperdee, was the heroine of several delightful children's books written by Thompson and whimsically illustrated by Hilary Knight. The charm of the "Eloise" books has proven elusive whenever the property is adapted for another media, as witness a disastrous musical version which aired live on Playhouse 90 in 1956. On this occasion, Eloise came off as a spoiled obstreperous brat, which was as much the fault of the child actress cast in the role (Evelyn Rudie) as the adapters. Disney decided to give little Eloise another chance 47 years later with the location-filmed Eloise at the Plaza, a two-hour movie presentation of ABC's The Wonderful World of Disney anthology. This time around, Sofia Vassilieva played the title role, with Julie Andrews as Eloise's nanny (something of a full-circle for Andrews, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of a rather different nanny in the 1964 Disney theatrical feature Mary Poppins). The plot finds Eloise insisting upon attending a debutante ball at the Plaza and further conniving to have a runaway foreign prince (Denis Akiyama) -- who isn't much older than she is -- as her escort. Our heroine also mends fences between a reluctant teenage deb and the girl's pushy mother. Jeffrey Tambor is typecast as the Plaza's supercilious concierge Mr. Salomone, whose dithering efforts to keep Eloise from nosing into other people's business avail him not one bit. Hilary Knight appears in a cameo role as himself. Eloise at the Plaza first aired April 27, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sean Garrity makes his feature-film debut with this wry comedy about the tangled romantic lives of the citizens of Winnipeg. Joseph (Jonas Chernick) is a chemist for the water department who cannot let go of his longtime girlfriend Laura (Sarah Constible). A teacher at an all girl's Catholic school, Laura, in turn, is hot for the formerly wild Bruce who has since become a computer consultant and the husband to a very attractive Japanese woman. Nonetheless, even if Bruce were inclined to a little romance on the side, it would be not with Laura but with a comely 19-year-old named Alex (Micheline Marchildon) who is cousin to Joseph. To complete this daisy chain of thwarted desire, Alex is, of course, madly in love with her cousin who she cons into letting her crash in his apartment. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide