A.D. Oppenheim Movies
The competition heats up as a young man on the cusp of adulthood in Brentwood, CA, prepares for his upcoming bar mitzvah, and his father strives to outdo the gargantuan coming-of-age bash recently thrown by his number-one nemesis, in a madcap tale of Hebrew rivalry from actor-turned-director Scott Marshall. Benjamin Fiedler (Daryl Sabara) is about to become a man, though the prospect of reciting a language he doesn't even really know in front of a temple full of strangers is so daunting that it makes him wish he could just stay a boy and write the whole thing off. As if his personal peccadilloes weren't enough to rack Benjamin's nerves, his father, Adam (Jeremy Piven), and mother, Joanne (Jami Gertz), are determined to send Benjamin into the adult world in true style. Recently, Adam's rival agent, Arnie Stein (Larry Miller), threw down the gauntlet for his own son's bar mitzvah by hosting a no-holds-barred bash that made New Year's Eve in Times Square look like cake-and-coffee day at the retirement community, and ultra-competitive Adam is determined to prove that he can top that now-legendary party. When Adam's aging, hippy-dippy father, Irwin (Garry Marshall), rolls into town in a broken-down RV with his dizzy young girlfriend, Sandy (Daryl Hannah), however, it appears as if all of his plans to out-class Arnie Stein may have been for naught. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Piven, Jami Gertz, (more)
- 2002
The tragically short life of one of TV's favorite funny ladies is the subject of the network-movie biopic It's Always Something: The Gilda Radner Story. The story begins in Gilda's native Canada, where as a child she develops her comic skills to overcome her shyness and feelings of inadequacy. Gravitating to show business, Gilda (played as an adult by Jami Gertz) becomes a topnotch sketch performer with the famed Second City Troupe, leading to an even more prestigious stint as one of the original "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on the irreverent American variety series Saturday Night Live. Earning the love and devotion of TV viewers throughout the nation with such ditsy comic characters as Emily Latella and Roseanne Roseanadana, Gilda nonetheless has trouble settling down in a satisfactory romantic relationship in her private life. But after a few go-nowhere affairs and an in-name-only marriage to musician G.E. Smith, Gilda at last finds happiness as the sweetheart -- and later the wife -- of actor Gene Wilder (played by Tom Rooney), her costar in the 1982 movie Hanky Panky. Just when it seems that Gilda's life is on the right course with all cylinders clicking, she is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Based on her 1989 autobiography (published the same year as her death), It's Always Something: The Gilda Radner Story debuted April 29, 2002, as part of an evening-long ABC network tribute to Radner and her career. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jami Gertz, Tom Rooney, (more)
