Jim McKay Movies

Filmmaker Josh Fox offers a troubling look into the hearts and minds of American fighting men in this independent drama. Memorial Day opens with a bunch of college students and off-duty soldiers drinking and whooping it up at a beach party in Ocean City, MD, and as the liquor flows, the hijinks become less good-natured and more threatening until several women are raped by the men. We next catch up with the culprits when they're on patrol in Iraq, ferreting out insurgents and passing their spare time playing practical jokes and watching porn movies. The men are then assigned new duties as guards at a military prison, and much as they showed a troubling enthusiasm for assaulting women at home, they clearly enjoy heaping abuse on the prisoners they're supposed to watch until their actions become a clear parallel to the crimes committed at Abu Ghraib. Adapted from a theater piece by Fox and featuring actors from his International Wow Company, Memorial Day was created without the approval or participation of the United States military, though Iraq War veteran Jason Christopher Hartley was a technical advisor on the production. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

As things heat up with Ana, Bill is confronted by members of a UEB rival and sees an opportunity to pit the two groups against each other. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Cultural conflicts threaten to derail the relationship between a determined youth counselor and her headstrong young charge in this drama from Girls Town director Jim McKay. Despite being labeled a delinquent by the child welfare system, African-American inner-city youth Angel (Jonan Everett) is in reality just a troubled teen attempting to survive in his harsh surroundings. When Angel is kicked out of his home on the heels of a heated argument with his father, Angel's pregnant, thirtysomething counselor, Nicole (Rachel Griffiths), warmly accepts the troubled boy into her home until the birth of her baby. As Angel begins to drift back into the self-defeating patterns that led to the rift with his father and Nicole ponders the effect that childbirth will have on her identity, the pair's already fragile relationship threatens to crumble amidst these weighty issues. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A middle-aged Texas mother slowly buckling under the constant demands of modern life sets out on a strange quest after experiencing vivid visions of a sprawling urban loft in director Kyle Henry's haunting tale of modern malaise. Julia (Cyndi Williams) is a suburban wife and mother who is overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated at home. With Christmas rapidly approaching and her personal happiness at an all-time low, Julia begins to experience an increasingly painful series of migraines that are curiously accompanied by elusive visions of a large loft in a noticeable state of disrepair. When Julia experiences a particularly powerful vision that causes her to careen off of the road in daytime traffic, she is compelled to steal money from work, board a plane for New York City, and follow her visions toward an uncertain future that seems strangely tied to the constant reports of violence which saturate the nightly news. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Independent filmmaker Jim McKay (Girls Town) writes and directs the ensemble film Everyday People, produced in part by HBO Films. The story revolves around a neighborhood eatery in Brooklyn called Raskins, a Jewish-owned-and-operated restaurant with an almost exclusively black clientele. After years of faithful service, owner Ira (Jordan Gelber) contemplates selling out to a corporation as part of the city's urban renewal. Everyday People premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 as part of the American Spectrum competition. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Two women connected by family are drawn closer by fate in this low-key drama. Frances (Jacqueline Bisset) is a woman in her early fifties who had already begun to sense time was running out for her when she learned that she has cancer. While Frances is fighting the disease through medical treatment, she decides it's a good idea to do some travelling before it's too late, and she pays a visit to Bob (Seymour Cassel), a former boyfriend who now owns a farm in rural Pennsylvania. To Bob's surprise, Frances strikes up a fast friendship with his wife Betty (Peggy Gormley), and Frances shares a confession with her -- while Frances maintains a close relationship with her son Morgan (Nick Stahl), she also had a daughter by Bob that she put up for adoption, and she's not certain if she should track down the child while there's still time. Coincidentally, Frances' daughter is Rebecca (Martha Plimpton), a successful lawyer who has begun to express a curiosity about her birth parents. Rebecca has been hired by a large communications firm to deal with the paperwork regarding the purchase of a radio station in Florida, and while in the Sunshine State, Rebecca gets to know the station's manager, Jimmy (Frankie R. Faison). As Jimmy and Rebecca ease into a short-term romance, he shares stories about the "Sleepy Time Gal," a mysterious female disc jockey who worked at the station back in the '50s; what neither Jimmy nor Rebecca know is that the Sleepy Time Gal was actually Frances. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Jim McKay follows up on the critical success of his Girls Town (1996) with this sensitively-wrought, finely-etched character study of three teenaged girls living in the Crown Heights section of New York City. Though it is summer, the trio find themselves locked in a demanding rehearsal schedule for their prize-winning marching band. Yet this is one of a sundry responsibilities these girls must shoulder. With their parents over-worked, absent, or in jail, they must take care of all household chores and hold down dreary soul-deadening jobs. To make matters worse, their school is closing down for asbestos removal. Yet the most pressing concern for Maria (Melissa Martinez) is her discovery that she is pregnant, for a second time, after a latex-free tryst with a classmate. She is reluctant to consider an abortion, though the prospect of telling her harried mother seems no less daunting. Her best friend Lanisha (Kerry Washington) is supportive, but Joy (Anna Simpson), the third in the trio, cools to Maria, preferring to retreat into a world of fantasy. This film was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Director Chris Smith made this documentary about independent filmmaking which had its world premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. American Movie centers on a low-budget horror-film buff named Mark Borchardt, who grew up on such horror classics as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead. Now in his late twenties, he has decided to make the ultimate horror opus in the form of an indie feature entitled Northwestern, the scariest film ever made in his Wisconsin town. Filled with determination and passion (and very little else), this documentary follows Mark for a year and a half in the making of Northwestern. The audience sees Mark fending off creditors, including the IRS, and avoiding child support payments so he can make this direct-to-video flick. His efforts to round up cast and crew are disastrous, as there is nobody in his town who shares his knowledge and passion for moviemaking. Eventually he decides to star in his film and wears a dozen crew members' hats as writer, producer, director, cameraman, editor, and soundman. American Movie follows this man with a dream to his dying uncle's trailer park, where he raises three thousand dollars. Unable to make an entire feature for that price, he scraps the idea in exchange for completing one of his many abandoned short films, Coven, which also premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. The end is a world premiere as satisfying as getting accepted into Sundance. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide