Dylan Baker Movies

In this drama, a king and his family navigate the challenges of a modern-day monarchy fraught with power struggles and conflict, while a young soldier rises quickly through the ranks and becomes entrenched in a new and strange world. ~ Brie Hearn, All Movie Guide

Three friends are reunited as their lives become increasingly desperate and dysfunctional in this independent drama. Bill (Dylan Baker) is a lonely middle-aged man who works as a night janitor in a large office building; he keeps himself company at work by listening to opera, and as he tries to sleep through the day he obsessively listens to a self-help tape that teaches "lucid dreaming." One of the men working Bill's building is Gary (Timothy Hutton), who has a habit of falling asleep at his desk rather than go home to deal with his loveless marriage to Karen (Sharon Stone), who is convinced she's losing her looks and turns to shoplifting for comfort. Even though Gary bullied Bill when they were in high school together, when they meet by chance at the office one night Gary is thrilled to see him, and suggests they get together with another fellow classmate, Travis (Pruitt Taylor Vince). However, as they spend time together, the three men are only reminded of their emotional isolation, and how their lives have not turned out as they dreamed. When A Man Falls In The Forest was produced in part by co-star Sharon Stone; the film received its American premiere at the 2007 South By Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Country music mainstay Reba McEntire steps into the role previously made famous by Mary Martin in this filmed version of a special, one-night-only Carnegie Hall benefit engagement of South Pacific also starring Brian Stokes Mitchell and Alec Baldwin. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The most controversial -- and one of the shortest-lived -- series of the 2005-2006 network season, The Book of Daniel concerned the troubled family of an Episcopalian priest. Aidan Quinn starred as Reverend Daniel Webster, who dealt with most crises by popping prescription pills and brooding over his inability to "reach" his parishioners. Daniel's wife, Judith (Susanna Thompson), spent much of her time drinking martinis and complaining about lost opportunities; his 23-year-old son, Peter (Christian Campbell), was a neurotic homosexual, still plagued by guilt over the death of his twin brother; 16-year-old daughter Grace (Alison Pill) was a would-be manga artist who sold marijuana on the side; and the Websters' adopted Chinese son, Adam (Ivan Shaw), was more concerned about scoring with chicks than anything else. Adding to Rev. Webster's burden was the remonstrative input of no-nonsense Bishop Beatrice Congreve (Ellen Burstyn) and rule-bound senior parish warden Roger Paxton (Dylan Baker). Whenever things became too much to bear for Rev. Webster, he would solicit the advice of his "best friend," Jesus Christ (Garret Dillahunt) -- yes, that Jesus Christ, beard, white robes, and all. It was the calculatedly irreverent portrayal of the Son of God (who trafficked in wisecracks rather than parables) that stirred up the bulk of the controversy surrounding the series. While many big-city critics liked the show, general audiences could not warm up to it at all. Debuting January 6, 2006, on NBC, The Book of Daniel had been slated for a six-week trial run before going to full series; slaughtered in the ratings and roundly condemned by conservative media commentators, it lasted only four episodes before cancellation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The hectic early days of live television are spoofed in this irreverent made-for-cable movie. The story is told from the viewpoint of Audrey Drummond (Christina Hendricks), a naïve young script girl hired by the newly formed Empire Television Network in 1948. Among Audrey's colleagues are the network's owner, eccentric scientist Doc Powers (Christopher Lloyd); Doc's blonde, pneumatic young "trophy wife" Marion (Molly Ringwald); the Colonel (Dylan Baker), Empire's visionary programming chief; and Walt Kaplan (Michael B. Silver), a studio floor manager who aspires to be a director. The story revolves around Empire's efforts to stage the first live TV production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, while trying desperately to adhere to Doc Powers' cast-in-stone broadcast edicts: "No profanity, no suicide, no cleavage." Amidst a flurry of missed cues, fainting actors, collapsing scenery, and malfunctioning equipment, the network also manages to outrage its sponsors by allowing a black musician (Sharif Atkins) to actually (gasp! egad!) speak directly into the camera. Co-executive produced by The West Wing's John Wells and ER's Carol Flint (who also wrote the script), The Big Time debuted October 21, 2002 on the TNT network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A boy learns more than he expects when he tries to improve his golf game in this drama. Timmy Price (Mason Gamble) is a 12-year-old boy who has begun to display a precocious talent for golf. Hoping to hone his son's interest in the game, Timmy's father, Mr. Price (Dylan Baker), arranges for his son to have a summer job as a caddy at a nearby country club. Timmy gets a crash course in the nature of class when he becomes aware of the sharp divide between the wealthy people who patronize the club and the working-class men and women who are there to quietly fulfill their desires. Charlie Logan (Philip Baker Hall) is one of the leading members of the club who is very much impressed when he sees Timmy practicing, and suggests to Mr. Price that Timmy would do well to study with an accomplished player. Mr. Price arranges for Timmy to train with Foster Pearse (Gary Sinise), a local golfer who once displayed tremendous promise, but dropped out of the professional circuit after winning his first tournament. As Timmy gets to know Foster, he learns a lot about golf, but even more about life, and discovers there's a secret behind Foster's decision to leave to pro tour. A Gentleman's Game was the first directorial credit for producer J. Mills Goodloe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Laramie, WY, is a small town which became infamous overnight in the fall of 1998, when Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was found tied to a fence after being brutally beaten and left to die, setting off a nationwide debate about hate crimes and homophobia. A month after the crime, Moises Kaufman, a writer and director with the New York City theater troupe the Tectonic Theater Project, traveled to Laramie with a handful of actors to interview people who lived in and around Laramie in preparation for an upcoming production; Kaufman's goal was to create a play that focused not on the assault on Matthew Shepard, but on the community where such an attack could happen, and how many of the citizens reacted to the crime. The result was The Laramie Project, which was first performed in early 2000, and was performed in Laramie in the fall of that year, two years after Kaufman and his associates first arrived in the city. The Laramie Project is a film adaptation of Kaufman's play, in which the thoughts and opinions of Laramie residents from all points of the political spectrum are presented alongside re-enacted excerpts from the trials of the two men who attacked Matthew Shepard. Produced for the premium cable network HBO, The Laramie Project was adapted for the screen by Moises Kaufman, who served as both writer and director. The distinguished cast includes Dylan Baker, Steve Buscemi, Peter Fonda, Janeane Garofolo, Laura Linney, Amy Madigan, Camryn Manheim, Christina Ricci, and Frances Sternhagen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

During its first year on the air, the weekly, hour-long ABC series Murder One was unique among legal dramas, in that it dealt with only a single murder case per season. Debuting September 19, 1995, the series spent all of season one focusing on the murder of a young substance-abusing woman, with her lover, obnoxious movie star Neil Avedon (Jason Gedrick), as prime suspect. Handling Avedon's defense were Chris Docknovich (Michael Hayden), Arnold Spivak (J.C. MacKenzie), Justine Appleton (Mary McCormick), and Lisa Gillespie (Grace Phillips), all ambitious young attorneys working for celebrated, controversial, and not entirely ethical criminal lawyer Theodore Hoffman (Daniel Benzali). Appearing for the prosecution were ruthless Assistant DA Miriam Grasso (Barbara Bosson), who worked for the even more ruthless DA Roger Garfield (Gregory Itzin). The Grasso-Garfield team included police detective Arthur Poulson (Dylan Baker) and investigator David Blalock (Kevin Tighe). Among the other first-season regulars were Patricia Clarkson as Theodore Hoffman's long-suffering wife, Ann; John Fleck as Hoffman's office manager, Louis; and Grace Phillips as his receptionist, Lila. While the "one case per year" gimmick attracted a lot of publicity, and -- for a while, anyway -- a lot of viewers, the ratings for Murder One fell precipitously as season one wore on. Thus, when the series returned for its second season, several changes had been imposed, the first being that three cases would be dramatized, rather than merely one. On the docket for season two were a political assassination in which DA Garfield was implicated, an O.J.-like celebrity murder case involving an arrogant basketball star, and a case involving a serial killer who preyed only on professional criminals. Series co-star Daniel Benzali was gone, replaced by younger but no less crafty and cunning defense attorney James "Jimmy" Wyler (Anthony LaPaglia). Also missing was Grace Phillips as Lisa Gillespie, whose replacement, hotheaded junior attorney Aaron Mosely, was played by David Bryan Woodside. Concluding its weekly run on January 23, 1997, Murder One briefly returned five months later in a miniseries format, remaining on the air from May 25 to 29, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A frozen corpse, dressed in a tuxedo, is found in a dumpster. It soon develops that the dead man was killed five years earlier, and that he was a prominent Broadway producer. The detectives and the DA's office move quickly to prosecute the most likely suspect, the victim's hated show-biz rival. Frank Converse, star of the 1967 "cult" TV series Coronet Blue, appears as Gary Wallace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Titanic shipmates Kathy Bates, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Kate Winslet step onboard for director Sam Mendes' tale of suburban malaise in 1950s-era Connecticut. Adapted from the classic 1961 novel by author Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road tells the tale of a young Connecticut couple whose once-idealistic relationship steadily deteriorates into a ceaseless cycle of petty jealousy and bickering as they strive to retain their independence in the conformity-obsessed world of picket fences and perfectly manicured lawns. Ever since they first met, Frank (DiCaprio) and April (Winslet) saw themselves as special and different. They strive to form their relationship around higher ideals, though upon moving into their new home on Revolutionary Road, the defiant couple pledges never to be confined by the social conventions of the era. As time passes, however, Frank and April gradually become the very thing that they both feared most -- a typical suburban family complete with abandoned dreams and faded hopes. Frank loses his nerve after taking a comfortable job with a reliable salary, and April morphs into an unsatisfied homemaker desperate for passion and excitement. But April's independent spirit hasn't been suffocated just yet, and when she hatches a plan to head for Paris, her need to escape at all costs stands in direct contrast to Frank's desire to hold on to what they already have. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An emerging journalist (Jesse Eisenberg), an experienced cameraman (Terrence Howard), and a discredited reporter (Richard Gere) find their bold plan to capture Bosnia's top war criminal quickly spiraling out of control when a UN representative mistakes them for a CIA hit squad in a light-hearted thriller inspired by Scott Anderson's popular Esquire article. The Weinstein Company provides stateside distribution for a film written and directed by Richard Shepard (The Matador). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Director Kari Skogland takes the reins for a Buffalo Gals Pictures production starring Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn as author Margaret Laurence's much-lauded heroine Hagar Shipley. Hagar may by 90, but she not ready to lie down and die just yet. Her decisions stem straight from her heart, and that often alienates her family and friends. When Hagar's son, Marvin (Dylan Baker), takes his mother to look at a nursing home, she takes it as her cue to leave her family behind and set out on one great last journey. Her mission is to locate the seaside home she remembers from her youth, but Hagar's memory is quickly fading, making it difficult for her to distinguish the past from the present. As a young girl, Hagar was set to inherit her father's mercantile empire until she was disowned for marrying a bold young man named Bram Shipley (Cole Hauser). Later, when Hagar's romantic illusions fade and she begins to view her husband with contempt, her decision to deny her children the kind of parental approval that she so badly longed for from her own father provokes a deep hereditary flaw. As she makes her way toward the seashore, Hagar realizes her time is running far too short to make up for a lifetime of unacknowledged mistakes. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In a 1950s-era alternate universe where domesticated zombies play a functional role in society by delivering the milk, carrying the mail, and even helping out with household chores, one boy is about to find out just how big of a personal responsibility "pet" ownership truly is. When the Earth passed through a cloud of space dust and the dead arose from their graves to devour the flesh of the living, it first seemed that all hope for humanity was lost. Society's rapid slide into chaos, however, was soon halted when scientists at a company called ZomCom created a special collar that turned the rampaging animated corpses docile. Now, thanks to ZomCom, everything is under control -- or is it? Timmy Robinson (K'Sun Ray) isn't quite convinced. Quiet and withdrawn, the skeptical young boy spends so much time locked away in his room that he's almost become invisible around the household. His mother Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss) has recently purchased a zombie to help keep things tidy around the house though, and when the creature attempts to engage the curious youngster in a game of catch, a friendship is forged between boy and zombie that finds the amiable gut-muncher nicknamed Fido (Billy Connolly) practically becoming a part of the family. Things take a turn for the worse however, when Fido's collar malfunctions and Timmy's neighbors begin dying in droves. When ZomCom's top zombie control specialist Mr. Bottoms (Henry Czerny) moves in across the street from Timmy, the increasingly complicated situation threatens to place a serious stumbling block in the path of human-zombie relations. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide