Lucinda Jenney Movies

Nicole Beharie, Tim Blake Nelson, Will Patton, and Xzibit headline this fact-based drama about an innocent Texas mother caught up in a high-profile drug raid, and unjustly accused due to the uncorroborated testimony of a single informant. Dee Roberts (Beharie) is a young single mother of four living in a small Texas town. Arrested during a drug raid and accused of a crime she didn't commit, Dee goes against the wishes of her mother, Alma (Alfre Woodard), and rejects the plea-bargain that would free her from jail, but brand her as a felon for life. As word begins to spread that similar incidents are occurring in poor communities all across the country, Dee realizes that there are more mothers out there like her, and decides to take a stand against powerful district attorney Calvin Beckett (Michael O'Keefe). Now, despite being well aware of District Attorney Beckett's fierce reputation, Dee enlists the aid of ACLU attorney David Cohen (Nelson) and former narcotics officer Sam Conroy (Patton) in overcoming the seemingly insurmountable obstacles that, if not navigated with the greatest of caution, now threaten to destroy her life. With the custody of her children on the line, one brave mother wages a valiant battle to strike at the very heart of the corrupt Texas justice system. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Following a chance meeting with a woman whom he's certain he has met before, Monk (Tony Shalhoub) is unable to sleep. After several slumberless hours, Monk decides to go for a nocturnal walk...only to see the same woman again. Shortly thereafter, Monk witnesses a murder during a botched drug deal, but when he is unable to prove that anything actually went down, it is assumed that he is imagining things because of sleep deprivation. Things get curiouser and curiouser when the so-called murder victim turns up alive. Thus, Monk finds himself in mental overload as he not only tries to solve a murder that may have not been a murder, but also figure out the identity (and significance) of that ubiquitous "mystery woman". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clark Johnson's big-screen adaptation of the 1970s television series S.W.A.T. stars Colin Farrell as Jim Street, a young special weapons and tactics team member who, in the film's opening sequence, is demoted after his hothead partner Jeremy Renner shoots a hostage while trying to kill her captor. In need of good press, the higher-ups call in SWAT expert Hondo Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson) to put together an elite team that can bring some luster back to the badge. He chooses Street, veteran T.J. (Josh Charles), and tough single mother Chris Sanchez (Michelle Rodriguez). The new team survives a series of tests before hitting the streets. Their first big assignment involves transporting an international criminal (Olivier Martinez) to federal authorities. The criminal had offered a hundred million dollars to anyone who can bust him out. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

As Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) and Ramon (Joaquim de Almeida) escape in the helicopter, Ryan Chappelle (Paul Schulze) returns to CTU, and contemplates shooting them down. He has to make a decision before the helicopter flies over a populated section of Los Angeles, and Chase (James Badge Dale) reminds him that he'd better clear it with Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) before killing the man who saved the president's life. Wayne (D.B. Woodside) gets word to Palmer during the debate, which Palmer decides to interrupt in order to deal with the crisis. He gives the order to shoot down the chopper, but it's too late. Once on the ground, Jack is able to contact Ramon's personal pilot, and make plans to get out of the country. Since Jack's work appears to be done, Ramon decides to kill him. Back at CTU, Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) realizes that Gael (Jesse Borrego) has been thwarting the team's efforts to contact Jack. Meanwhile, Kyle (Riley Smith) is brought in and examined by CTU's medical team, which makes a surprising discovery. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

The Romeo and Juliet story has been modernized to a high school setting previously, but this romance from director John Stockwell turns the tale inside out. Jay Hernandez stars as Carlos Nunez, a poor but athletically gifted Latino teenager who endures a two-hour bus ride every day from East L.A. to attend the posh, wealthy Pacific Palisades High School in Los Angeles on a football scholarship. A straight-A student, Carlos is focused and driven, but his future is cast in doubt when he becomes the flirtation target of spoiled, self-destructive bad girl Nicole Oakley (Kirsten Dunst), who's the daughter of a prominent congressman (Bruce Davison). When his friends, family, and even Nicole's own father oppose the romance for Carlos' sake, he chooses to ignore their advice and stubbornly pursues his relationship with Nicole, whose feelings grow from simple physical attraction to something much deeper. Crazy/beautiful is directed by writer, actor, and director John Stockwell, who also penned the same year's Rock Star. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

This three-part drama, produced for HBO, examines the changing tides of the lives of lesbians in America, both politically and personally, as we eavesdrop on three stories taking place in the same house over a span of five decades. In 1961, the house is home to Edith (Vanessa Redgrave) and Abby (Marian Seldes), an elderly lesbian couple whose lifestyle is not accepted or acknowledged by their families. When Abby suffers a serious stroke and is on the verge of death, her family rallies to her side, but not understanding the nature of her relationship with Edith, she is not included as her loved ones say their final good-byes. After Abby's death, her nephew (Paul Giamatti) and his wife (Elizabeth Perkins) arrive from out of state with plans to sell the house, without consulting Edith. In 1972, the house is now home to four college students, Michelle (Amy Carlson), Linda (Michelle Williams), Karen (Nia Long), and Jeanne (Natasha Lyonne), all of whom are actively involved in the women's movement and also happen to be lesbians. The four find themselves at odds with the campus women's group when they try to promote an all-women's dance, while the other members of the group feel that feminism, not lesbianism, should be the focus of the group. Similarly, Linda faces hostility from her friends when she becomes involved with Amy (Chloe Sevigny), a very butch townie; Linda's friends see Amy's masculine attire and attitude as a form of self-loathing against being a woman, and while Linda cares deeply for Amy, she's not always comfortable with her and isn't sure that she wants to be public with their relationship. In 2000, Fran (Sharon Stone) and Kal (Ellen DeGeneres), a happy and firmly committed couple, are sharing the house, and after much discussion, they decide that they want to take their relationship to the next level and have a baby. However, deciding that they want a child and dealing with the practicalities of getting pregnant are two different things; Fran and Kal first debate about going to a sperm bank as opposed to asking one of their male friends to help out, and later, either going to a doctor to perform the procedure or trying it at home. DeGeneres' significant other, Anne Heche, wrote and directed the final segment; the 1972 story was directed by Martha Coolidge, and the 1961 episode was directed by Jane Anderson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Ten years after Allison Anders and Kurt Voss collaborated on Border Radio, a gritty and evocative look at life along the margins of the L.A. punk rock scene, the two have reunited for another look at the California music biz, this time aiming their sights considerably higher up the ladder. Sugar Town follows the interconnected lives of a handful of power brokers, wanna-bes and has-beens. Gwen (Jade Gordon), a self-centered would-be rock star who will do anything to further her career, is working as an assistant to production designer Liz (Ally Sheedy), but when Gwen discovers Liz has a date with famous producer Burt (Larry Klein), any loyalty she has to her boss immediately goes out the window. Burt's latest project is a comeback attempt from three aging Brit-rockers, Nick (Michael Des Barres), Clive (John Taylor), and Jonesy (Martin Kemp). Clive is married to Eva (Rosanna Arquette), an actress and one-time sex symbol depressed over her latest job offer -- playing Christina Ricci's mom. Nick has a dilemma of his own -- the band is strapped for cash, and Jane (Beverly D'Angelo), a potential investor, will write them a check only in exchange for sex with Nick... who unfortunately is only attracted to teenage girls. On the other side of town, Carl (John Doe) is a session musician with a pregnant wife (Lucinda Jenney), a flock of kids to support and bills to pay. When he's offered a spot in the touring band of a popular Latina singer, Rosio (Lumi Cavazos), Carl is torn -- his wife wants him to take the job, but Carl knows Rosio wants him for sex as much as music. Sugar Town, which premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, is authentically cast with many real-life rock musicians, including Doe (a member of L.A. punk legends X, and co-star of Border Radio), Taylor (from Duran Duran), Kemp (ex-Spandau Ballet), Des Barres (who has sung with Silverhead, Chequered Past and The Power Station) and Klein (a bassist and producer who's worked with Peter Gabriel and Joni Mitchell). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this bittersweet comedy-drama, Olympia Dukakis plays Dotty, a woman with extreme agoraphobia. Dotty's condition has prevented her from leaving her house for the past 20 years, but just before her husband Hiram (Andy Griffith) died, he made Dotty promise that she would scatter his ashes near Cathedral Rocks, a mountain range in New Mexico where Dotty and Hiram used to vacation before her agoraphobia set in. One night, Hiram appears to Dotty in a vision and reminds her that she hasn't made good on her deathbed promise to him, telling her that he won't know true peace until his ashes have been scattered according to his wishes. Realizing she has to make good on her promise, Dotty steels herself for a long voyage as she leaves her home for the first time in two decades. Produced for television, Scattering Dad was first aired on the CBS television network on May 27, 2001.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The mysterious reasoning of women who protect men who hurt them is explored in this psychological drama. Hedda (Robin Wright-Penn) was once involved with a man who had a long history of violence against women (played by Anthony Lucero). Even though Hedda broke up with him after a violent incident that caused her to fall out of a window, she hasn't been able to get him out of her mind, and her sorrow over ending the affair has led her to attempt suicide on more than one occasion. After the man's most recent girlfriend died as an indirect result of his abuse, District Attorney K.D. Dietrickson (William Hurt) has decided to file charges of negligent homicide against him, and he wants Hedda to testify in court to help establish a pattern of abuse. However, for whatever reason, Hedda still loves him, and in her mind she has turned the incident into a situation in which she was at fault. Despite the urgings of Hedda's concerned parents (Joanna Cassidy and Paul Dooley) and her sister, a tough lawyer named Brett (Amy Madigan), Hedda seems unmovable, which makes it all the more difficult for Dietrickson to stop the abuser before he can hurt someone else. Sean Penn, who happens to be Robin Wright-Penn's husband, served as co-producer and has a showy cameo role early in the film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

While Neal Cassady never gained fame as a writer, he was a pivotal figure among the Beat poets and novelists of the 1950s. A close friend of most of the seminal figures in the Beat movement, Cassady's free-wheeling, larger-than-life personality was a major influence on Jack Kerouac, who used him as the inspiration for the character Dean Moriarity in On the Road, and he was a founding member of Ken Kesey's post-Beat, pre-hippie "Merry Pranksters," driving their now-famous psychedelic bus (whose destination, then as now, was "Furthur"). The Last Time I Committed Suicide is loosely based on several incidents from Cassady's life, as well as an eight-page letter that he wrote to Kerouac about some complicated events in his love life. In the late 1940s, 20-year-old Cassady (Thomas Jane) was living in Denver and working the late shift at a tire factory when he became involved with Joan (Claire Forlani), a sad young woman with a suicidal bent, and befriended Harry (Keanu Reeves), a cheerful but past-his-prime alcoholic. Cassady also found himself the target of the affections of Cherry Mary (Gretchen Mol), a sexy 16-year-old whose mother, Mrs. Greenway (Christine Rose), doesn't much care for him; he also encountered Ben (Adrien Brody), a shy young poet whose interest in Cassady seemed to be more than just literary. Footage of the real Neal Cassady can be found in the documentary on the Beat Movement, The Source. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Illeana Douglas delivers a superb performance as Denise Waverly, a fictional singer and songwriter whose life bears more than a passing resemblance to that of real-life pop star Carole King. Edna Buxton, the daughter of a Philadelphia steel tycoon, aspires to a career as a singer, and when against her mother's bidding she sings a sultry version of "Hey There (You With the Stars in Your Eyes)" (instead of Mom's choice, "You'll Never Walk Alone") at a talent contest, she wins a recording contact and moves to New York City. She cuts a record and gains a new stage name, Denise Waverly; however, she soon finds that girl singers are a dime a dozen in the Big Apple and her career as a vocalist goes nowhere. But she has a knack for writing songs, and eccentric producer Joel Milner (John Turturro) asks her to pen some songs for his upcoming projects. Teamed with Howard Caszatt (Eric Stoltz), a hipster songwriter who wants to express his political and social ideals through pop tunes, she finds both a successful collaborator and husband. While her work with Howard gains Denise writing credits on a string of hit records and respect within the industry, their marriage falls apart, and she becomes involved with Jay Phillips (Matt Dillon), the gifted but unstable leader of a popular West Coast surf music combo. Students of pop music history will have a ball with the various characters modeled after real-life rock legends, and the 1960s-style song score includes numbers written by Joni Mitchell and J. Mascis (of the band Dinosaur Jr.), as well as one-time King collaborator Gerry Goffin; a collaboration between Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach, "God Give Me Strength," led to a full album written by the two great tunesmiths. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This black comedy about "keeping up with the Joneses" pits a sophisticated college professor and his schoolteacher wife against their next-door neighbors, a loutish beer-drinking butcher, his wife and their son. As each family's pranks against the other escalate, they also start to get crueler and more destructive. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

The title character, a manic depressive prone to very irrational behavior (Richard Gere), is hospitalized for treatment. While there, the psychiatrist responsible for his rehabilitation (Lena Olin) becomes involved with him and cannot stand to allow his check-out. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide