Jamie Elman Movies
Set in the year 1882, director Pinchas Perry's adaptation of Irvin D. Yalom's fictional 1992 novel finds a depressed Friedrich Nietzsche seeking out the advice of pioneering psychoanalyst Josef Breuer for help in battling mental malaise. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Cross, Armand Assante, (more)
- 2007
Romanian director Cristian Nemescu's comedy California Dreamin' (aka Nesfarsit, 2007) unfolds against the backdrop of the Kosovo War, circa 1999. A NATO train rolls through a Romanian hamlet, transporting a plethora of weapons across the country -- without official documents, and equipped only with the verbal consent of the Romanian authorities. The transport thus grows intensely vulnerable to the locals -- particularly the corrupt head of the railway station, who moonlights as a mobster and promptly decides to interfere with the shipment. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Armand Assante, Razvan Vasilescu, (more)
- 2005
This Hallmark Channel TV movie is one of several starring Kellie Martin as Samantha "Sam" Kinsey, the owner of a British-style American bookshop which traffics in mystery novels. This time out, Sam scores a coup when she manages to get reclusive mystery writer Donald Fiske (William Katt) to make a rare personal appearance at her "Mystery Woman" bookshop. Also on hand is the writer's bitchy wife Jody (Sheree J. Wilson) and his troubled son Cameron (AJ Trauth), not to mention a somewhat disreputable videogame developer named Randy (Jamie Elman), who has persuaded Sam to carry his latest creation, an addictive game called "Whodunnit?", in her store. When Fiske is murdered, Randy is the primary suspect, the result of an ownership squabble over "Whodunnit" which not only involved the dead man, but also some very shady characters from Russia. Though Randy seems to be guilty as hell, Sam nonetheless works overtime to prove his innocence, a task complicated when Sam is assaulted and Jody is kidnapped. Mystery Woman: Game Time premiered August 21, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Before Jayson Blair made headlines for his plagiarized New York Times reporting, Stephen Glass defamed the weekly current events magazine The New Republic with a series of eye-catching, entertaining, and completely fabricated stories. Now Glass' trail of lies gets the big-screen treatment in writer/director Billy Ray's Shattered Glass, featuring Hayden Christensen in the title role. The film chronicles Glass' time at the magazine in the late '90s, when his colorful coverage of a hedonistic Young Republican convention, superstar web hackers, and the circus surrounding the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal made him the toast of the publishing world, garnering attention from such national publications as George and Rolling Stone. Barely out of college, the eager Glass ingratiates himself with the office staff, including his mentor, managing editor Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria). But when Kelly is unceremoniously fired and replaced with editor Chuck Lane (Peter Sarsgaard), Glass' pieces come under a greater degree of scrutiny, until one in particular threatens to expose his tall tales to the rest of the world. Based in part on a Vanity Fair article by journalist Buzz Bissinger, Shattered Glass premiered at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals before its limited fall theatrical release. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, (more)
