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Holly Wiersma Movies

2013  
 
A smitten writer creates an alternate online identity in order to charm a pretty barista, and realizes that maintaining his elaborate ruse is easier said than done in this quirky romantic comedy starring and co-written by Justin Long. Every day when Sam (Long) ventures down to the local coffee shop, his gaze seems to linger on Birdie just a little bit longer. Hopelessly dejected after being shot down by the pretty barista, Sam creates an online alter ego who's dashing, athletic, and adventurous. Before long Birdie is completely swept off her feet, but the harder she falls for her internet dream guy, the further she seems to slip out of Sam's reach. Now in order to keep her Sam must become something he is not, but what good is love when you can't even be yourself? Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage, Brenden Fraser, Sienna Miller, and Vince Vaughn co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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2012  
R  
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A rehabilitated addict (Ryan Phillippe) falls off the wagon and heads back home at the urging of his mother's ghost, only to fall back in with his brother's wife (played by Anna Paquin), who happens to be his first love in this Nu Image/Millenium Films romantic comedy. Wonderland's James Cox directs from a screenplay by David Cole. Luke Wilson co-stars as the brother. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

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2010  
R  
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In this police thriller, a young officer (Channing Tatum) is assigned to the Queens precinct he grew up in. But when an unsolved murder threatens to reveal dark secrets from his past, he is forced to break his own moral code to keep himself, his family, and his fellow cops safe. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Starring:
Al PacinoChanning Tatum, (more)
 
2010  
R  
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A convicted arsonist schemes to get out of prison by convincing his debauched wife to seduce his retirement-ready parole officer in director John J. Curran's adaptation of a play by Angus MacLachlan (who also authored the screenplay). His career as a parole officer winding down after years of service, Jack Mabry (Robert De Niro) reluctantly accepts an assignment to reassess inmate Gerald "Stone" Creeson's (Edward Norton) case for an upcoming parole hearing. Convicted of setting a fire to make the murder of his grandparents look like an accidental death, Stone will do anything to get out from behind bars, and his wife, Lucetta (Milla Jovovich), is willing to do whatever it takes to help secure her husband's freedom -- including seducing Jack. Meanwhile, Jack's devoted wife, Madylyn (Frances Conroy), has suffered with the emotional weight of her husband's demanding job for far too long. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Starring:
Milla Jovovich
 
2008  
PG13  
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A funeral gets sticky when a group of former wives bicker over the burial arrangements in the indie comedy The Six Wives of Henry Lefay. Tim Allen stars in the title role, a salesman whose disappearance after a skydiving trip leads his current and former families to believe that his time has passed. Elisha Cuthbert co-stars as the daughter who has to pick up the pieces as the ex-wives and current wife squabble over how to put Henry in the ground. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

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Starring:
Tim AllenElisha Cuthbert, (more)
 
2007  
 
Jimmy Fallon and Sharon Stone star in first time director Patrick Sisam's independent drama scripted with Rick Velleu and based on the writings of author Ethan Canin. When a unrepentant workaholic (Fallon) who just can't seem to commit to anything other than his job returns to his hometown to visit his ailing father, who has recently suffered a stroke, his dysfunctional past soon comes back to haunt him in the form of his unstable mother (Stone). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Starring:
Jimmy FallonSharon Stone, (more)
 
2007  
R  
Add The Year of Getting to Know Us to Queue Add The Year of Getting to Know Us to top of Queue  
A workaholic with a fear of commitment struggles to reconcile his dysfunctional past during a trip back home to visit his ailing father in this comedy starring Jimmy Fallon. Christopher Rocket (Fallon) is a nice enough guy, but thanks to his troubled family history, he isn't much for making commitments. Just as his smoldering girlfriend Anne (Lucy Liu) begins hinting that she's ready for him to pop the big question, Christopher's self-absorbed father (Tom Arnold) suffers a major stroke. But the stroke may actually be a blessing in disguise, because once Christopher returns to Florida and begins building bridges with his free-spirited mother Jane (Sharon Stone), his priorities finally start coming into focus. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Starring:
Jimmy FallonSharon Stone, (more)
 
2006  
R  
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Todd Robinson's Lonely Hearts features John Travolta and James Gandolfini as Elmer C. Robinson and Charles Hildebrandt, a pair of homicide detectives who are on the trail of lovers on a crime spree. The evil duo of Ray Fernandez (Jared Leto) and Martha Beck (Salma Hayek) take advantage of elderly widows, stealing as much money as they can after gaining the victim's confidence, and then murdering their mark. Robinson becomes drawn into the case too deeply in order to help him confront his feelings, as his wife has recently killed herself. The story is based on the real life "Lonely Hearts" killers of the late '40s, the infamous couple whom the director's grandfather played a large part in bringing to justice. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

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Starring:
John TravoltaJames Gandolfini, (more)
 
2006  
R  
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The true story of one woman's brief and ultimately tragic flirtation with fame in the 1960s provides the basis for this biographical drama. In 1943, Edie Sedgwick (Sienna Miller) was born to a wealthy and socially prominent family, and she grew up with beauty and money, but also a history of mental illness; she was hospitalized with an eating disorder in her late teens, and by the time she was 21, two of her seven siblings had died before their time. In 1964, Edie moved to New York City, and quickly made a splash on the Manhattan social scene; she became friendly with the famous pop artist Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce), who was fascinated by her gamine loveliness and her quirky personality. Warhol wasted no time in casting her in one of his underground movies, and she quickly became a crucial part of his retinue of "superstars." Fashion icon Diana Vreeland (Illeana Douglas) was convinced Edie had the looks and charm to also become a successful model, and soon she was gracing the pages of Life, Vogue, and Glamour. But Edie's instability was hardly helped by her new fast-lane lifestyle, and when she met Billy Quinn (Hayden Christensen), a folk rock singer-songwriter often cited as "the voice of a generation," he persuaded her that Warhol and his associates were simply using her fame and beauty for their own gain, and she found herself torn between two powerful mentors, one of whom had become her lover as well. Factory Girl also co-stars Jimmy Fallon, Mena Suvari, and Tara Summers as regulars at the Warhol "Factory." The character of Musician was inspired in part by Bob Dylan, who was romantically involved with Edie Sedgwick for a brief time. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Sienna MillerHayden Christensen, (more)
 
2006  
R  
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A Southern beauty whose habit of waking up in strange beds with head-ringing hangovers is beginning to wear thin determines to uncover her secret shrouded family past in hopes of discovering the truth about the woman she has become in the feature filmmaking debut of actor-turned-director Joey Lauren Adams. Lucy (Ashley Judd) is a small town thirtysomething who seems to have fallen into a downward spiral of alcohol-fueled benders and spontaneous one-night stands. In order to begin the transformation necessary to help her overcome her self-destructive ways, however, Lucy will have to look deep into her familial past and seek out the true weight of the burden that has led her down the darkened path she currently walks. Diane Ladd, Tim Blake Nelson, and Laura Prepon co-star in an intimate personal drama that made its premiere at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Starring:
Ashley JuddJeffrey Donovan, (more)
 
2006  
R  
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Twenty-two people become unwitting participants in a tragic and defining moment of the 1960s in this period drama from actor and director Emilio Estevez. It's early June in 1968, and the California presidential primary elections are occupying the minds of many in the Golden State, with Robert F. Kennedy in a close race against Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey. The Kennedy campaign staff has set up camp at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, while the staff and guests become observers as the brother of fallen president John F. Kennedy sets out to pick up where his sibling left off. Paul (William H. Macy) is the manager of the Ambassador, and his wife, Miriam (Sharon Stone), is a hairdresser who runs' the hotel's beauty salon. Angela (Heather Graham) is a receptionist working the hotel's switchboard who has been sleeping with Paul behind Miriam's back. Timmons (Christian Slater) is in charge of the hotel's restaurant and catering department, and makes no secret of his dislike of the African-Americans and Latinos under his employ. Miguel (Jacob Vargas) and Jose (Freddy Rodriguez) are two young Chicanos on the kitchen staff who have it in for Timmons, while Robinson (Laurence Fishburne) is an older black man who counsels them on dealing with their rage. Virginia Fallon (Demi Moore) sings in the hotel's cocktail lounge and has a serious problem with alcohol; her husband, Tim (Emilio Estevez), is a Kennedy supporter and also her manager, and he's nearing the end of his rope in dealing with her problem. William (Elijah Wood) is a young man desperate to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam; Diane (Lindsay Lohan) is a pretty young woman dating William's brother who agrees to marry him so William can avoid being drafted, though William is clearly infatuated with her, while she considers this a marriage in name only. John Casey (Anthony Hopkins) is one of the owners of the Ambassador, and Nelson (Harry Belafonte) is an old friend who works at the hotel. And Jack (Martin Sheen) is a wealthy Kennedy campaign financier who is married to Samantha (Helen Hunt), an attractive but much younger woman. Bobby also features Joshua Jackson, Nick Cannon, and Shia LaBeouf as young Kennedy campaign volunteers, while Ashton Kutcher, Joy Bryant, Kip Pardue, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead also highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Harry BelafonteJoy Bryant, (more)
 
2006  
R  
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Academy Award-winning Exorcist director William Friedkin scuttles deep into the darkest recesses of the traumatized human psyche with this tale of a lonely bartender haunted by the long-ago disappearance of her young son, and the paranoia that emerges when she enters into a tentative relationship with a deeply disturbed drifter. Adapted from the off-Broadway play by Tracy Letts, Bug centers on Agnes (Ashley Judd), who tends bar alongside pal R.C. (Lynn Collins), and has recently moved into a shoddy roadside motel in hopes of avoiding her menacing and recently paroled ex-husband, Jerry (Harry Connick Jr.). Upon making the acquaintance of subdued former soldier Peter (Michael Shannon, repeating his stage role), a veteran of the first Gulf War, Agnes finally senses that things are looking up. Quietly charming despite his melancholy aura, Peter soon reveals to Agnes that he contracted a "bug" while serving in the Middle East, and that it may have been deliberately administered as part of a secret military medical experiment. Convinced that the microscopic insects are quickly multiplying just under the surface of his skin and that they have now infected Agnes as well, Peter soon descends into a psychotic rage as he resorts to increasingly desperate measures to purge himself of the offending subdermal arthropods. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Starring:
Ashley JuddMichael Shannon, (more)
 
2005  
R  
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A pair of writers inhabiting an abandoned New York tenement building become locked in an antagonistic battle of wills in director Danny Green's adaptation of novelist Bernard Malamud's studied exploration of faltering race relations. The time is the early '70s, and Jewish writer Harry Lesser (Dylan McDermott) is finally nearing completion on the novel that has taken him almost a decade to write. The last tenant in a crumbling inner-city apartment building, Harry soon discovers that he is no longer alone in the building when an illegal squatter named Willie (Snoop Dogg) claims a room down the hall and begins writing his own novel. When Harry attempts to offer writing advice to his new neighbor, his criticism of Willie's "immature" writing style ignites a heated confrontation between the pair that is quickly compounded by the growing relationship between Harry and Willie's white girlfriend Irene (Rose Byrne). As the situation quickly spins out of control and Willie sets fire to the only existing copy of Harry's treasured manuscript, the deep-rooted racial animosity explodes into rage and the two writers become locked in a life-or-death struggle to survive. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Starring:
Dylan McDermottSnoop Dogg, (more)
 
2005  
R  
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A romance between a teenage girl and a thirtysomething drifter takes the young woman down a dangerous and unexpected path in this independent drama. Tobe (Evan Rachel Wood) is a pretty 18-year-old whose father, Wade (David Morse), is the sheriff of a town in California's San Fernando Valley. Tobe is driving to the beach with some friends when she stops at a filling station and meets gas jockey Harlan (Edward Norton), who dresses like a cowpoke and claims to have recently relocated to Los Angeles from South Dakota. Harlan is immediately and obviously taken with Tobe, and when she asks him to tag along for the day, he impulsively quits his job to follow her. Tobe and Harlan soon become a couple, but Wade is convinced Harlan is not all he claims to be, and Tobe begins to wonder if her father might be right when Harlan takes her horseback riding and their date is cut short after police inform them the horses have been stolen from an rancher (Bruce Dern) whom Harlan claims is a friend - and who promptly turns up with a gun to confront both of them, insisting that he has never seen Harlan before. Tobe's suspicions grow when Harlan offers to teach her little brother, Lonnie (Rory Culkin), how to shoot using a pair of real .45 revolvers, as his actions become less charming and more worrisome. Leading man Edward Norton also served as producer on this project. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Edward NortonEvan Rachel Wood, (more)
 
2005  
R  
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A withdrawn, deaf, and mute teen adopted by her godparents following the death of her single father finds that life in her dysfunctional new home can be quite deadly in But I'm a Cheerleader director Jamie Babbit's slick and tense teen thriller. The last word Dot (Camilla Belle) ever spoke was when her mother died at the age of seven. Subsequently thrust into a world of silence as a result of her catastrophic loss, Dot lives in a world of withdrawn solitude. When the death of her father renders the muted teen both homeless and orphaned, her suburban godparents, Paul (Martin Donovan) and Olivia Deer (Edie Falco) readily agree to take Dot in and ensure that she has a place to stay as she finishes her high-school education. All is not well in the Deer household, however, and after being rejected and ridiculed by the couple's teenage daughter, Nina (Elisha Cuthbert), Dot soon becomes something of a human confessional to the troubled souls that surround her. From father Paul's twisted incestuous longings to mother Olivia's pill-popping excess and daughter Nina's murderous plan to do away with her leering dad, everyone has something to say to the girl who can say nothing. With Nina's prominent social life quickly unraveling and tensions within the household threatening to explode into violence, Dot is about to reveal that she has a few secrets of her own that are sure to complicate matters. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Starring:
Elisha CuthbertCamilla Belle, (more)
 
2005  
R  
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Three loosely interrelated stories of dysfunctional relationships are played for edgy laughs in this dark comedy drama from writer and director Don Roos. An unexpected assignation between stepsiblings Mamie and Charley results in Mamie becoming pregnant, with the child being put up for adoption shortly after birth. Twenty years later, Mamie (Lisa Kudrow) is approached by Nicky (Jesse Bradford), an aspiring filmmaker with an abrasive personality who claims to know where her long-lost son is living. However, there's a catch -- Nicky wants to shoot the reunion for the student film he's working on, and won't tell her about her child unless she agrees, though her lover, Javier (Bobby Cannavale), attempts to work out a compromise. Meanwhile, Charley (Steve Coogan), now out of the closet, has a longstanding relationship with Gil (David Sutcliffe), and the couple are involved in a legal battle over whether or not Gil's donated sperm produced a baby who has been adopted by a lesbian couple they know (Laura Dern and Sarah Clarke). And finally, Jude (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a bohemian malcontent who becomes involved with Otis (Jason Ritter), a sexually ambiguous rock musician. Otis has a difficult relationship with his father, Frank (Tom Arnold), but when Jude meets Frank, she likes him fine -- in fact, she soon falls in love with him and leaves Otis for his dad. Happy Endings had its world premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Tom ArnoldJesse Bradford, (more)
 
2003  
R  
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James Cox directs the sleazy Hollywood murder tale Wonderland, starring Val Kilmer as legendary porn star John Holmes. Using a non-linear plot structure, the film explores different perspectives of the quadruple homicide that occurred on July 1, 1981, in the Hollywood Hills. At the lowest point of his career and the height of his drug addiction, Holmes was implicated in the murders of the Wonderland gang: Ron Launius (Josh Lucas), Billy Deverell (Tim Blake Nelson), Barbara Richardson (Natasha Gregson Wagner), and Joy Miller (Janeane Garofalo). Launius' wife, Susan (Christina Applegate), was the only survivor. Led by Detective Sam Nico (Ted Levine), the police investigation reveals a dark criminal underworld surrounding Holmes, his disapproving wife, Sharon (Lisa Kudrow), and his innocent teenage girlfriend, Dawn Schiller (Kate Bosworth). Eric Bogosian stars as notorious Hollywood nightclub owner Eddie Nash. Wonderland premiered at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

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Starring:
Val KilmerKate Bosworth, (more)
 
2002  
R  
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The romantic comedy Try Seventeen is a coming-of-age tale directed by Jeffrey Porter. Jones Dillon (Elijah Wood) is a young writer who is living on his own for the first time. Jones continually writes letters to the father he has never met, while his mother Blanche (Elizabeth Perkins) resides in Texas. Enrolled in college, he quickly abandons the stifling dormitory setting and eventually his classes as well. He finds an apartment in an old building in the city and befriends his neighbors. The place is filled with colorful artists and other nonconformist types. Jones gets romantically involved with struggling actress Lisa (Mandy Moore) and photographer Jane (Franka Potente). He buys furniture from Ma Mabley (Debbie Harry) and proceeds to try and lose his virginity while searching for his absent father. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

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Starring:
Elijah WoodFranka Potente, (more)
 
2002  
 
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Fresh from Iowa, Holly (Melissa Joan Hart) and Calvin (Ryan Browning) arrive in New York, there to pursue careers as actors. Alas, money is mighty tight for the new arrivals, and decent housing is well night impossible to find. Eventually, Holly is forced to move in with her eccentric, cat-crazy Aunt Agatha (Lynne Marie Stewart), who lives in a rent-controlled apartment in the middle of an upscale neighborhood. When Aunt Agatha dies of natural causes, a desperate Holly hits upon a brilliant idea: she and Calvin will pretend that Auntie is still alive, the better to remain in the apartment for a minimal price. The couple enlist the apartment building's feckless elevator operator Dennis (Andrew Kavovit) as their co-conspirator, then spend much of the rest of the movie trying to keep their landlord's suspicious son Vincent (Joseph D. Reitman) from stumbling upon the truth. Filmed in 2002, Rent Control did not make its ABC Family Channel debut until September 9, 2005, by which time the made-for-cable film had been extensively re-edited to accelerate its pace. The film has since been released abroad under its working title Aunt Agatha's Apartment. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Melissa Joan HartRyan Browning, (more)
 
2000  
R  
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Israeli-born director Isaac H. Eaton spins this thriller about a Mephistophelean writer luring an impressionable young man into L.A.'s seamy underside. Stuart Chappell (Peter Weller) persuades gas station attendant Michael Holloway (Balthazar Getty) to abandon the straight and narrow and accompany him on a prowl of increasingly kinky haunts -- including stripclubs, S&M dungeons, fight clubs, and Russian roulette joints. This film was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

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Starring:
Balthazar GettyPeter Weller, (more)