Leslie Hope Movies

In this emotional roller coaster ride, Robert Harmon (John Cassavetes) is a street-wise, sometimes obnoxious writer currently working on a book about the seamier side of buying/selling love, and Sarah Lawson (Gena Rowlands) is an emotive wife and mother struggling through a divorce and custody battle. When Sarah lands on Robert's doorstep with her suitcases, it seems at first that she has returned to her husband. Robert has several women staying at his place (research sources!), but when his real ex-wife arrives with their young son, he sends the women packing. Sarah, it turns out, is Robert's sister. As the two work out their own live's hurdles -- Robert, the unaccustomed father with his 8-year-old son, and Sarah, trying to cope with her custody battle and its results -- their way of handling adversity and personal burdens becomes the real subtext of the film. This film won the Golden Bear Award at the 1984 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

When Ronald Moody (Paul Lieber), the man convicted of killing DeeDee McCall's husband Steve, is paroled, McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) reopens the case on which Steve had been working at the time of his death. She also defies orders and begins tailing Moody, hoping to find a connection between him and the case. With grim inevitability, Moody turns up dead, and McCall is the Number One suspect. It is up to Hunter (Fred Dwyer) to find out who placed the phone call which framed McCall--and who had earlier set up her husband for extermination in the same manner. Franc Luz appears as the late Sgt. Steve McCall in flashbacks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Monologist Eric Bogosian's one-man theatre piece Talk Radio, co-written by Bogosian and Ted Savinar, is searingly brought to the screen by Oliver Stone. Bogosian plays a provocateur radio talk-show host, whose constant espousal of his inflammatory views and ceaseless hectoring of his callers and listeners reaps equal parts love and hate. As his program rolls on, Bogosian is revealed to be just as screwed up as any of his fans, if not more. And then he pushes one caller just a bit too far. In co-adapting the play for the screen, Oliver Stone interweaves elements of Steven Singular's factual book Talked to Death, the story of a liberal Denver radio personality who was murdered at the behest of a militant right-wing hate group. One word of warning: if you're not a fan of the sort of radio depicted herein, chances are you won't warm up to this film. Talk Radio was the indirect inspiration for the 1990 TV series Night Caller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Written and directed by John Bradshaw, The Big Slice stars Casey Siemaszko and Justin Louis as a pair of aspiring mystery novelists. Knowing next to nothing about crime, the two writers decide to "live" their adventures. Venturing out into the Big Bad World, the boys pose as a cop and a criminal-and, not surprisingly, get in way over their heads. Heather Locklear makes a token "femme fatale" appearance in this frenetic farce. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Working Trash's ad copy consisted of a photo of a large threaded screw, with the caption "Tonight, two working stiffs are going to do to Wall Street what it's done to us." Wink wink, nudge nudge. The two stiff workers--er, working stiffs--are George Carlin and Ben Stiller, janitors in a large brokerage firm. By utilizing the inside information they've gleaned from their employers' wastebasket, Carlin and Stiller proceed to strike it rich on the market. Buddy Ebsen costars as the head broker, looking as confused as we are at finding him in this TV movie. Working Trash premiered on the Fox Network--as if there was any doubt. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an avaricious city boy leaves his LA home to meet his estranged father on the family homestead in Quebec. They have both inherited the land from a recently deceased uncle. The father has stayed close to his rural roots and cannot understand why his son is so indifferent to his inheritance that he wants to sell it and return to the city with his profits. A conflict ensues, and eventually, the young man begins to appreciate the land. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Lucy, a writer of erotic novels who is uninspired unless she gets some new sexual experience, plunges into a torrid affair with Sloan, an arrogant bisexual, who has written a novel about a serial killer and whom Lucy's husband, a publisher, has introduced to her. Lucy either fantasizes or recalls a sultry affair that she had once in Paris with a hood named Minter, who introduced her to the ultimate in sexual satisfaction. Lucy's husband discovers his latent homosexuality, guided by his business associate William, who also has an affair with the sexually indiscriminate Sloan. This pretentious, would-be artsy film combines black-and-white and color sequences but ultimately is derivative and boring. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide

Based on Agnes Hall's novel Qualthrough, this suspenseful crime drama chronicles the comeuppance of a murderous banker. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A grieving widower discovers that the kindness of his late wife's best friend is malevolently motivated in this thriller starring James McCaffrey, John Glover, and Leslie Hope. When his wife passed away he thought he had nothing more to live for. Though at first the comforting embrace of a close friend offered a shining light in his darkest hour, things soon turn pitch black when the shattered widower discovers that the woman isn't afraid to resort to murder in order to cash in on the late woman's lucrative insurance policy. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Bonnie (Alicia Witt) and Hillary (Renee Humphrey) are two seemingly average California teenagers who have some very heavy emotional baggage to lug around. Bonnie was abandoned by her mother years ago, and Hillary was sexually assaulted by her father, who is now behind bars. Bonnie and Hillary have enough in common that they strike up a fast friendship and head out one day in search of "fun." However, by the end of the day, their pursuit of happiness has taken them from typically meanspirited teenage pranks, such as dropping pennies onto cars from an overpass, to an abrupt and shocking extreme -- the murder of an elderly woman who has done them no harm. Jane (Leslie Hope), a social worker assigned to work with Bonnie and Hillary, finds it all but impossible to get through to them and is dealing with her own precarious emotional state (which she treats with alcohol), while tabloid journalist John (William R. Moses) tries to wring a juicy, sensational story out of the girls' crime spree. Meanwhile, Bonnie and Hillary wonder out loud about their sudden "celebrity" and who will play them in the inevitable TV movie about their crimes. Alicia Witt and Renee Humphrey both won awards for their performances at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, though the film didn't find a distributor until 1996, after the release of the thematically similar Heavenly Creatures. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Inspired by a true story, director John Patterson's made for television thriller stars ageing screen siren Ann-Margaret the titular black widow, a deeply-disturbed, part-time Wisconsin schoolteacher who manipulates her students into killing her husband under the false pretences that he is an abusive tyrant who is about to end their marriage and send her packing from their lavish suburban home. The truth, however, is that Diane's husband Ruben (Peter Coyote) is just a regular guy who realized that his marriage was a mistake when his irrationally jealous wife fails to prevent signs of her acute instability from bubbling to the surface. While Ruben staunchly opposes divorce, he is increasingly drawn to the beautiful Claire (Leslie Hope), a married woman who effectively signs his death warrant after luring him into an adulterous affair. Meanwhile, back in study hall, Diane plies impressionable sixteen year-old student Doug Vest (Christian Campbell) with elaborate yarns of abuse and mistreatment, eventually spurring him into action lest she lose everything in the impending divorce. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A son is left in a dangerous situation as he struggles to deal with his father's legacy, in this made-for-television drama. After his father dies, Chris King (Andrew Lowery) is left to figure out why some determined thugs are interested in getting their hands on a suspicious package that his father may have had. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide