John Heard Movies

Artist Jackson Pollock revolutionized American painting in the 1940's with his exciting abstract canvases that used dripped and splattered paint in a manner at once excitingly physical and structurally intelligent. While Pollock became a heroic figure in the art world, his private life was nothing to envy, and this biography looks at both his professional triumphs and personal tragedies. In 1941, Pollock (Ed Harris) was a bitter and struggling painter when he met Lee Krasner (Marcia Gay Harden), a fellow artist with whom he was appearing in a joint gallery show. Krasner was intrigued by Pollock, and immediately sensed the importance of his work; they quickly became lovers, and as Krasner realized his superior talent, she began devoting herself to promoting Pollock's work. When Peggy Guggenheim (Amy Madigan) agreed to present a show of Pollock's paintings at her Art of This Century gallery, his name was made, and a profile in Life magazine solidified his reputation as one of the art world's most important figures. But success did not bring Pollock peace of mind; while he long had a taste for alcohol, his new fame sent his drinking out of control, and his infidelity with numerous women (including Guggenheim) eventually destroyed his relationship with Krasner. Pollock was the first feature directed by actor Ed Harris, who also plays the title role; the cast also includes Val Kilmer as artist Willem de Kooning and Jennifer Connelly as Ruth Kligman, one of Pollock's lovers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Actor-turned-director Steve Buscemi follows up on his restrained 1996 directorial debut Trees Lounge (1996) with this gritty, understated prison drama. Twenty-one-year-old suburban kid Ron (Edward Furlong) got busted for dealing drugs and slapped with an especially severe jail sentence. Though he tries to keep a low profile at prison, he soon attracts unsavory attention of various sex-starved goons. Fearing rape, he appeals directly to Earl (Willem Dafoe), a fellow prisoner who runs the place like it was his own fiefdom. Though Ron's request is strictly against this rarified culture's baroque rules, Earl takes him under his wing, and soon he is a part of Earl's inner circle. Slowly Ron learns the breadth of Earl's power, ranging from the easy procurement of drugs to the violent dispatching of a prisoner who gets out of line. As Ron grows increasingly indebted to Earl, he wonders how he is expected to repay him. Yet Earl, who shows his fondness for the lad with fatherly tenderness counterbalanced with repressed yearning, never pushes his advantage. Other members of the cast include Tom Arnold as a salivating hill-billy and an almost unrecognizable Mickey Rourke as a cross-dressing prison queen. This film was highly praised at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Revelations mark this fourth episode of the series, involving a schoolyard fight brewing between Anthony Soprano Jr. (Robert Iler) and a bully who unexpectedly backs down. Anthony Jr. fails to understand the boy's fear, so his sister Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) explains that their father, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), is not really a "waste management consultant" but a New Jersey mob kingpin. After he begins having erotic dreams about his psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), Tony hires a crooked cop, Vin Makazian (John Heard) to investigate Melfi's background, and the detective accidentally ruins her romance with a lawyer. Frantic after the mock execution he suffered, Soprano soldier Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) believes that his cousin and boss, Tony, ordered the incident because he gave Tony's daughter, Meadow, some crystal methamphetamines; however, after Christopher and his girlfriend, Adriana (Drea de Matteo), discover the corpse of his murdered friend, Brendan Filone (Anthony de Sando), he realizes that his uncle, Junior (Dominic Chianese), ordered the slaying in retaliation for a botched truck hijacking. Exacerbated by Junior's bloodthirsty soldier, Mikey (Al Sapienza), tensions rise between Tony and Junior when their boss and head of the family, Jackie Aprile (Michael Rispoli), passes away from cancer. Tony is left to decide whether he will make a play for the top job in the family or concede control to his uncle. "Meadowlands" first aired on January 31, 1999. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Jacqueline McKenzie stars in this bleak, ambitious character portrait. Kicked out of her home by her loutish, abusive boyfriend, Penny (McKenzie) tries desperately to ingratiate herself back into his favor. In her pathetic efforts to debase herself, she makes all the wrong choices, including a half-hearted attempt to sacrifice her dog and kill her son. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Brian DePalma directed this taut thriller, set in Atlantic City, where a corrupt cop investigates a political assassination. Outside an Atlantic City arena-hotel-casino, a TV news reporter stands in a pre-hurricane storm to report on the heavyweight boxing match about to begin inside. A transition to the stadium interior focuses on Atlantic City homicide Detective Rick Santoro (Nicolas Cage), a father with a wife and son, yet also a dishonest cop who maintains a mistress and cheerfully accepts bribes. DePalma's Steadicam follows Santoro on a fast-paced tour of the stadium as the laughing, yelling detective travels stairs and hallways, talks to a gal with a between-rounds placard, visits the dressing room of champ Lincoln Tyler (Stan Shaw), rides down an escalator to squeeze money from a small-time hood, enters the arena of 14,000 fight fans, talks on his phone with his girlfriend and wife, and sits ringside next to his lifelong buddy, Navy Cmdr. Kevin Dunne (Gary Sinise). Behind Dunne, the U.S. Secretary of Defense Charles Kirkland (Joel Fabiani) is seated alongside billionaire casino owner Gilbert Powell (John Heard). As the fight gets underway, Dunne abandons his position protecting the defense chief to pursue a suspicious redhead. From his ringside vantage point, Santoro has a close view of the champ, curiously conscious despite taking a kayo punch. At that moment, an assassin fires at Kirkland. Santoro immediately concocts a good cover story for his pal (to explain why Dunne left his post protecting Kirkland). Just after the shooting, Dunne kills a Palestinian extremist, the apparent killer, and Santoro orders the stadium doors locked, hoping he can locate other suspects among the fleeing crowd. One such is Julia Costello (Carla Gugino), an injured woman in a blond wig who spoke with Kirkland seconds before the gunfire. After a video replay reveals the champ took a fall, going down to the floor from a punch that never touched him, Santoro becomes more curious and suspicious, comparing witness accounts, and he attempts to locate Julia, convinced she's the key to truth behind the assassination. As it all comes to a head, Santoro peels through successive layers of corruption, ultimately confronting himself in a self-examination of his own values. Filmed at Montreal's old Forum. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Morgan J. Freeman directed this comedy-drama that takes place in the desert town of Baxter Beach, California, where the locals, lookers, visitors and slackers include dreamer Blue (Brendan Sexton III), pipe-bomb babe Ely (Christina Ricci), all-terrain-vehicle champ Pete (Casey Affleck), nerdy Sandy (Sara Gilbert), TV star Skye (Kate Hudson), and chubby Cale (Ethan Suplee). Blue's dad, who had hoped to bring water to the town, died mysteriously in a hotel fire, leaving an abandoned water slide, and Blue hopes to fulfill his father's dream by completing the water slide attraction. Actress Skye is just passing through with her father, a pop-culture prof. (John Heard), but they're forced to stay in town after a truck-spill leads to a quarantine and the presence of both an FBI agent (Michael Ironside) and an EPA agent (Aunjanue Ellis). Skye gets caught up in local fun and games (orange baseball, potato cannon salvos), while her dad reminisces about the '60s with UFO fanatic Caroline (Lucinda Jenney). Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

A woman who enjoys playing the field begins to ponder the relative merits of long-term commitment in this witty look at love, sex, and relationships. Stella James (Sean Young) lives in New York and wants two things out of life: a career as a gourmet chef and a satisfying relationship with a man. Stella shares a flat with her wealthy friend Teo (Dylan Walsh), but while they're close, their relationship is more platonic than romantic -- thanks in part to Stella's willingness to take up with any man that strikes her fancy -- and neither Stella nor Teo is entirely happy. In hopes of prodding her into doing something with herself, Teo gives Stella a gift -- an airline ticket to Los Angeles. In California, Stella finds a job in an upscale restaurant and soon begins making her way through a new batch of men; while she still enjoys picking and choosing from the many romantic prospects who cross her path, Stella finds herself becoming emotionally involved with George (John Heard), the owner of the dining room where she works. But is she willing to settle into the same sort of consistency in her love life that she's enjoying in her professional life? The supporting cast includes Karen Black, who also contributed to the screenplay; Mark Mothersbaugh composed the original score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director Barbet Schroeder and screenwriter Ted Tally adapted the novel by Rosellen Brown into this intriguing drama that, while heavily criticized for a third-act revelation that is something of a cop-out, nevertheless features -- typically of Schroeder's work -- compelling performances, domestic discord, and a search for the truth. Meryl Streep stars as Carolyn Ryan, a rural Massachusetts pediatrician married to Ben (Liam Neeson), a handsome, rugged sculptor. Although theirs is not a picture-perfect marriage, the Ryans consider themselves happy, until police arrive at their home one morning to inform them that their son Jacob (Edward Furlong) was the last person seen the night before with a teenage girl who has been murdered. Jacob is missing, and the Ryans frantically search for him, but when the boy returns, it is obvious that he's not being completely truthful about the night's events. While Carolyn wants the truth, Ben is willing to go to whatever lengths are necessary to defend Jacob, hiring an expensive lawyer (Alfred Molina), destroying evidence, and encouraging Jacob to be deceitful. Carolyn and Ben's opposing views of their son's legal trouble cause serious turmoil in the Ryans' marriage, which may be irreparably harmed in spite of the 11th hour appearance of the truth. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

The sensitive topic of the working mother is the subject of this made-for-television movie. Anne Archer stars as Abby, the working, single mother of a 6-year-old. Abby shares her son with her husband by alternating custodial weekends with him. At first, she enjoys the freedom it affords her to advance her career. When her re-married ex-husband Ted (John Heard) gets pangs for more custodial rights, he decides to take her to court for full-time parental custody, and he has a fighting chance because of Abby's demanding career. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

The Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan affair is deftly fictionalized in this episode. Just before an important tournament, tennis player Korey Burke (Stacey Moseley) is attacked by a mysterious assailant and her wrist is broken. Not surprisingly, Burke's principal competitor Alison Hall (Allison Dunbar) ranks high on the list of suspects. But this is fiction, not fact, and events play themselves out in a most surprising fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cybill Shepherd stars in this heart-tugging drama as a mother whose baby was abducted out of his bed. Fifteen years pass and she is working as a middle-school teacher in a different town. One of her students is a defiant 15-year-old. Despite the trouble he gives, there is something about the boy that draws her to him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Gladiator is the kind of boxing movie that goes that extra mile -- a self-loathing boxing saga that relishes in bare-knuckled sucker punches, illegal eye-rubs, and gentlemen boxers who obey the Marquis of Queensbury rules by drop-kicking opponents when the are not only down but unconscious. James Marshall plays Tommy Riley, a Windy City high school student conned into participating in the illegal underground boxing arenas of the South Side of Chicago. In high school, Tommy was a prize boxer, and this skill comes in handy when his Father (John Heard) runs up a large gambling debt. When a sleazy boxing manager (Robert Loggia) spots Tommy defending himself during recess, he offers him quick money to box. Tommy, although he hates the sport, readily agrees, thinking his winnings will help his father pay off his debts. He quickly comes under the thumb of unscrupulous boxing promoter Horn (Brian Dennehy), who is involved in fight-fixing and dirty fighting. Manipulating the odds and exploiting his boxers make Horn rich and more venal. In the rancid environment, Tommy befriends another fighter, Lincoln (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a black fighter who sees fighting as his way out of poverty. Inevitably, Horn arranges for the two friends to duke it out in the ring together. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide