Paul Bartel Movies
American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker Paul Bartel is perhaps best known as the director and star of the quirky sleeper Eating Raoul (1982). Born in New York City, Bartel was a film aficionado since childhood and entered the industry at age 13 working as an assistant animator for UPA. He later studied film at UCLA and while there, made several short animated films and documentaries; for his work as a student actor and playwright, Bartel won several awards. Later he studied at Rome's prestigious Centro Sperimental di Cinematografica on a Fulbright Scholarship; there his graduation film, Progetti, was shown at the Venice Film Festival. Soon after coming back to the U.S., Bartel began working as an assistant director for military films; he then went on to make films for the U.S. government. As a feature filmmaker, Bartel is consistently drawn to the darkly funny, more perverse aspects of life. His provocative directorial debut was Private Parts (1972) which centered on a runaway teenage girl who encounters several residents involved with bizarre sexual practices in her aunt's ramshackle San Francisco hotel. Though it was a box office flop, the film earned Bartel decent notice from critics. He next involved himself with B-movie king Roger Corman and worked for him as both an actor and a second unit photographer. In 1974, he again tried directing with Big Bad Mama. He directed one more film before coming up with the screenplay for Eating Raoul. Directed by and starring Bartel, it is the ghastly but hilarious tale of an average couple who comes up with an unusual scam for making money involving sex for sale and a very large frying pan. Bartel was unable to find a distributor for the film until he entered it in the Los Angeles Film Festival where it generated such acclaim that 20th Century-Fox obtained the distribution rights. The film has since become a cult favorite. After the success of Raoul, Bartel continued directing a variety of films through the 1980s. Notable efforts from this time period include his wild satire of westerns Lust in the Dust (1985) and Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989). In the early '90s, he directed Shelf Life and then began focusing on his acting career and appearing in such films as The Jerky Boys (1994) and Basquiat (1996). He died of a heart attack, following surgery for liver cancer, on May 13, 2000. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi- 2001
A serious filmmaker takes on a not-so-serious subject, and finds love along the way in this romantic comedy. Katie (Marianne Hagan) is a struggling documentary filmmaker whose career seems to be going nowhere as her 32nd birthday looms on the horizon. While pitching a project about the life of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to a public television outlet, Katie makes the acquaintance of Arlene (Barbara Gulan), a TV producer who offers her another project -- a series on the ups and down of dating and single life. Katie isn't especially interested, especially since her last relationship has soured her on romance in general, but she's in no position to turn down work; with the help of Spider (Mike Dooly), a cameraman who has known Katie for years (and long had a crush on her), she begins following Jed (Dave Gibbs), a handsome but self-centered single guy. Jed has no clue as to how he should behave around women, and most of the dates Katie films are nothing short of disastrous, but the more time she spends with Jed, the more she likes him, and she starts to wonder if perhaps with a little work he could be groomed into a better grade of boyfriend material. Dinner and a Movie also features actor and filmmaker Paul Bartel in one of his final roles; acclaimed singer/songwriter Dar Williams contributed to the musical score. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marianne Hagan
A bittersweet satire about Hollywood's bottomless capacity for corruption, Dreamers follows the travails of two friends who leave their small Tennessee town for Tinsletown. Opening with a view of Hollywood through the lens of an Asian tourist's video camera accompanied by the movie-loving tourist's ramblings, the film cuts to Jefferson City, Tennessee, where two boys indulge in fantasies of fleeing to L.A. Several years later, one of those boys, Dave (Jeremy Jordan), is heading west to join his childhood friend Ethan (Mark Ballou) in Hollywood. Ethan has spent the past five years trying unsuccessfully to finish his untitled film, scraping together a living as an Amway salesman and construction worker. Following his arrival, Dave finds brief work on a porn set before being fired, and, as part of an attempt to help Ethan find funding for his movie, loses his virginity to a lusty Beverly Hills housewife (Ruth de Sosa). Dreamers is directed by Chinese native Ann Lu and features the late, great Paul Bartel in one of his last screen roles. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeremy Jordan, Mark Ballou, (more)
William Shakespeare's classic tale is brought to the screen for the third time in ten years in this modernized interpretation. Writer/director Michael Almereyda updates the story to the present day, where Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) is a struggling filmmaker whose personal and familial trials are set against the machinations of a huge production firm called the Denmark Corporation. Joining Hamlet as he seeks revenge for the death of his father and the wedding of his mother to an enemy are Kyle MacLachlan as Claudius, Julia Stiles as Ophelia, Bill Murray as Polonius, Sam Shepard as the ghost of Hamlet's father, Diane Venora as Gertrude, Steve Zahn as Rosencrantz, and Dechen Thurman as Guildenstern. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, (more)
- 1998
Armistead Maupin calls the three-story wooden house at 28 Barbary Lane in San Francisco "my homestead, my Tara." He began his portrait of Barbary Lane life during the '70s in a daily newspaper serial, expanding the material into a series of six novels. PBS aired the original TV miniseries in 1994, but threats and pressures prompted PBS to drop their plans for a follow-up, leaving an unresolved cliffhanger for four years. Several members of the original PBS cast were reunited for this six-part Showtime sequel (adapted from Maupin's second novel in the series), set in San Francisco of 1977. It picks up the threads of the story six weeks after the point where the PBS miniseries ended. When Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney), hoping for romance, and her cynical gay friend Michael (Paul Hopkins) take a Mexican cruise, Mary Ann meets amnesia victim Burke Andrew (Colin Ferguson) and Michael runs into his former lover, Dr. Jon Fielding (William Campbell). Michael's roommate Mona Ramsey (Nina Siemaszko), in a purple haze of pot and angel dust, answers phones at a Reno brothel owned by Mother Mucca (Jackie Burroughs). Mona learns about her lineage and also about Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis), the former Mr. Madrigal. Rich widow Frannie (Diana LeBlanc) finds a cure for her depression at the rural resort Pinus, where society ladies celebrate their 60th birthdays with youthful houseboys. Beauchamp Day (Thomas Gibson) is married to Frannie's pregnant daughter DeDe (Barbara Garrick), but Beauchamp isn't the father. Locations include San Francisco, Montreal (substituting for some areas of San Francisco), and Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Premiered June 7, 1998 on Showtime. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Laura Linney, Olympia Dukakis, (more)
Tommy O'Haver wrote and directed this gay lifestyle comedy about aspiring photographer Billy (Sean P. Hayes) who encounters rocky romantic roads intersecting among an assortment of Los Angelenos -- handsome Fernando (Armando Valdes-Kennedy), who has a steady boyfriend; blond waiter Gabriel (Brad Rowe), who has a San Francisco girlfriend; Billy's roommate Georgiana (Meredith Scott Lynn); and pal Perry (Richard Ganoung). Entranced by Gabriel, Billy takes him on as a model and introduces him at gallery openings and parties, only to see Gabriel leave for better modeling assignments with well-known fashion photographer Rex Webster (Paul Bartel). Fantasy sequences parody Vertigo, '30s musicals, and From Here to Eternity. Shown at 1998 film festivals, including Berlin and Sundance. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sean Hayes, Brad Rowe, (more)
- 1997
- R
Three makes for a dangerous crowd in this darkly comic crime story. Convicted murderer Lewis (Salvator Xuereb) breaks out of prison with Clark (Dan Gunther), who is doing time for computer fraud. The escapees are heading to New Mexico in search of a secret map to a gold mine that was hidden by a prisoner who recently met with a fatal accident. Clark, however, doesn't like Lewis, and Lewis only has Clark around because he's functionally illiterate and needs help reading maps. Meanwhile, George (Rose McGowan), a young woman who never speaks, has hit the highway after lifting the $10,000 that she and her boyfriend Fred (Art LaFleur) were given for a shipment of drugs that they never actually delivered. After Lewis impulsively shoots one person too many, Clark strikes out on his own, and while hitchhiking, he gets picked up by George, who has stolen a car and has a poisonous snake for protection. George learns about Clark's secret gold mine, and eager to get on his good side, she seduces him. While George spells "trouble" so clearly that she should have the word tattooed on her forehead, Clark falls for her like the proverbial ton of bricks; Lewis also finds "romance" of his own with a sleazy woman he meets in a trailer park before meeting up with Clark at the location of the hidden map. Deciding that they work better as a team, Lewis and Clark head out to Mexico in search of the gold, with George tagging along, but what they don't know is that Fred has been following her, convinced that George still has his money. This was Rose McGowan and Salvator Xuereb's second film together, after appearing in Gregg Araki's post-modern road movie The Doom Generation. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rose McGowan, Salvator Xuereb, (more)
- 1996
Bored Anita (Joanna Pacula) wants to escape small-town life but finds herself stuck in the middle of nowhere until her scientist husband finishes his research in a local swamp. Thus, Anita is understandably thrilled when brother and sister John and Janet Jones move to town and make life interesting; although John is a bit of a nutter, his sister is fun and lively, and she and Anita become fast friends. Unfortunately, things get weird and bodies start piling up, and Anita begins to suspect that maybe her new pal isn't who she claims to be. Paul Bartel and Annabelle Gurwitch co-star. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joanna Pacula, Paul Bartel, (more)
Escape from L.A. finds Kurt Russell once again in the role of Snake, which he played in the 1981 film, Escape from New York. Los Angeles has finally had the really big earthquake everyone was afraid of, and what remains is now an island. Because the country's ultra-righteous President-for-Life (Cliff Roberton) wants it that way, all the weirdos and freaks that previously inhabited New York in large numbers, and the rest of the U.S. in smaller concentrations, have been quarantined on the island of L.A. The president has Snake taken from the nice, decent prison he was living in for a special mission in L.A. The president's daughter has joined the resistance movement determined to overthrow his one-man rule, and has stolen his secret "black box" (a doomsday machine) to boot. Snake is given a poison which will kill him in a few hours unless he returns to the president for the antidote. His mission is to recover the black box and kill the president's daughter. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kurt Russell, Stacy Keach, (more)
Andy Warhol was a phenomenon who warrants a lot of explaining: a completely colorless mega-star celebrity, and a kind of LaBrea Tarpit for a vivid and talented collection of oddballs in the New York scene. He fostered their continued degeneration into weird lifestyles and heavy drug use; and at the same time acted as their mentor, agent, and sponsor. One artist who came to be part of Warhol's "scene" was Jean Michel Basquiat, an antisocial street-bum who went from writing graffiti on alley walls to being the toast of New York City's art world. This film biography chronicles the progression of Basquiat (Jeffrey Wright) and his progression from living in cardboard boxes to penthouses, his romances, his drug use, and his death in 1988 at age 27. Along the way, he never stopped detesting the rich, including art agent Bruno Bischofberger (Dennis Hopper), and he never lost his naivete. Warhol (David Bowie) picks up some of the pieces as Basquiat lurches through the art scene. Cameo appearances by Tatum O'Neal and Courtney Love add spice to this interesting film. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Wright, Michael Wincott, (more)
This film is based on an innovative short film made for MTV about a guy living in a horrible downtown apartment filled with scores of mischievous, smart-alecky roaches. The story chronicles the adventures of Joe (Jerry O'Connell), a hapless rube from the rural Midwest who journeys to the wilds of New York City. Mugged repeatedly on his arrival, his luck seems to turn when he finds an affordable apartment in a very dubious neighborhood. Unfortunately, his landlord (Don Ho) is more interested in evicting or, if need be, murdering his tenants, so that the building can be turned into a (highly profitable) penitentiary. Joe finds the allies he needs in his apartment's cockroaches, who sing and dance their way into his heart. This film should be of interest for fans of 1930s musicals; it makes reference to Busby Berkeley's elaborate dance phantasmagorias and the odd water ballets of Esther Williams. Many of the scenes utilized real roaches who were "choreographed" via tiny filament harnesses and other devices. Animal rights activists will be pleased to note that no roaches were intentionally harmed during filming. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jerry O'Connell, Megan Ward, (more)
- 1995
The struggle of country music's mother-daughter duo The Judds is told in this made-for-television drama. Kathleen York stars as Naomi Judd (then known as Diana Judd) a single mother of two daughters, who turned to music as way to help positively influence her increasingly belligerent and rebellious eldest daughter Wynonna (then known as Christina). The movie chronicles Naomi's struggle to provide for her daughters (the youngest is actress Ashley Judd), the singing duo's rise from Nashville fame to national celebrity, the ups and downs that accompanied a working family relationship, and Naomi's eventual retirement from the music business. The movie was based on Naomi's autobiography Love Can Build A Bridge. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
Near the end of The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey, in his Oscar-winning performance as crippled con man Roger "Verbal" Kint, says, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." This may be the key line in this story; the farther along the movie goes, the more one realizes that not everything is quite what it seems, and what began as a conventional whodunit turns into something quite different. A massive explosion rips through a ship in a San Pedro, CA, harbor, leaving 27 men dead, the lone survivor horribly burned, and 91 million dollars' worth of cocaine, believed to be on board, mysteriously missing. Police detective Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) soon brings in the only witness and key suspect, "Verbal" Kint. Kint's nickname stems from his inability to keep his mouth shut, and he recounts the events that led to the disaster. Five days earlier, a truckload of gun parts was hijacked in Queens, NY, and five men were brought in as suspects: Kint, hot-headed hipster thief McManus (Stephen Baldwin), ill-tempered thug Hockney (Kevin Pollak), flashy wise guy Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), and Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a cop gone bad now trying to go straight in the restaurant business. While in stir, someone suggests that they should pull a job together, and Kint hatches a plan for a simple and lucrative jewel heist. Despite Keaton's misgivings, the five men pull off the robbery without a hitch and fly to Los Angeles to fence the loot. Their customer asks if they'd be interested in pulling a quick job while out West; the men agree, but the robbery goes horribly wrong and they soon find themselves visited by Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite), who represents a criminal mastermind named Keyser Soze. Soze's violent reputation is so infamous that he's said to have responded to a threat to murder his family by killing them himself, just to prove that he feared no one. When Kobayashi passes along a heist proposed by Soze that sounds like suicide, the men feel that they have little choice but to agree. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, (more)
- 1995
- R
Two guys from Queens wind up in trouble with the mob because of their fondness for prank phone calls in this quickie comedy. Stars Johnny Brennan and Kamal Ahmed first found fame as "The Jerky Boys" thanks to a series of comedy albums featuring real prank calls in which the duo assumed a variety of abrasive and often extremely foul-mouthed characters. Playing characters based on themselves, they reprise many of these same routines in this debut film, linking the comic bits together through a loose plot concerning local organized crime. It seems the boys have used their phone skills to trick a local mobster (Alan Arkin) into thinking that they are notorious Chicago hoods, only to have to go on the run when their scheme is discovered. Made to capitalize on a Jerky Boys fad, the film failed to attract much of an audience beyond their existing fans. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Johnny Brennan, Kamal Ahmed, (more)
- 1995
- NR
In this satiric allegory about life on the margins of the entertainment industry, Charlie (Charlie Mattera) is a guy who just wants to find steady work honestly honing on his craft, while his agent thinks that he should lower his sights a bit and take some work he might otherwise think was beneath him. However, Charlie isn't an actor, he's a hit man, and while he's good at his job, he has very strict rules about what sort of assignments he'll take -- he'll only kill women, preferably wives who are unfaithful and an economic burden to their husbands. His agent, on the other hand, thinks that if he's willing to murder the occasional husband for money, they'd both be in better shape. Charlie doesn't care for Los Angeles and is looking for new representation, but in the meantime, he's trying to keep a few steps ahead of the law, hoping that his business partners Johnny (Keith Bogart) and Todd (Todd Newman) will keep their mouths shut, and trying to keep his wife Nina (Nina Siemaszko) happy. Director Jordan Alan and leading man Charlie Mattera created the basic storyline and provided "improvisational guidelines" for the cast; from that point on, the dialogue and other material was generated spontaneously by the cast. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlie Mattera, Keith Bogart, (more)
- 1995
- NR
Three HIV positive robbers play PC Robin Hoods when they begin stealing a high-priced drug and sharing it with their afflicted, impoverished peers and AIDS centers. The drug, manufactured by Apothecary Industries, is said to stave off the development of AIDS in HIV patients and could be effective for up to ten years. This comedy chronicles their adventures. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul Mercurio, Debi Mazar, (more)
- 1995
Bare breasts abound in this black comedy that centers on a crooked plastic surgeon and abortionist and his nurse/lover who run the shady American Beauty Institute. There the two entice young women to come as patients. The patients are then killed and sent to the sicko Morganfeller, the richest man on the planet with a taste for necrophilia. The two use the money he pays them to help restore the Bulgarian king to his throne. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Richard Glatzer's bittersweet comedy concerns the production of a sleazy tabloid television program called "The Love Judge" and the problems that arise when the Divine-esque producer Jo (Kent Fuher) announces that he/she is leaving to become a Hungarian housewife. Mark (Craig Chester), the head writer who is mourning the loss of his lover to AIDS, spends the time he has not mourning worrying about whether he'll get a promotion to producer of the show after his boss leaves. In his way is the smarmy Paula (Lucy Gutteridge), who also is hoping for the promotion. In the meantime, Mark is flirting with male office worker Bill (Alexis Arquette), even though his old college friend Jeremy (Carlton Wilborn) is warning against Mark's flirtation -- for reasons of his own. In the midst of all this, it's no wonder that the office secretary Leslie (Illeana Douglas) has sworn off men altogether. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Craig Chester, Jackie Beat, (more)
In this slapstick, family-oriented comedy, a wealthy businessman hires two muscle-bound, thick-headed brothers (Peter and David Paul, former professional wrestlers once known as "the Barbarian Brothers") to oversee his rambunctious twin sons while he goes to court and testifies against his mob-affiliated ex-partner. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Paul, David Paul, (more)
- 1993
In this behind-the-scenes thriller, a movie actress finds herself accused of hacking up her producer. She tries to flee with two lovers preparing to marry. The three get into all sorts of trouble that ends with the death of the fiancee. Once again, the actress finds herself accused of the crime, but did she do it? ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Linda Fiorentino, C. Thomas Howell, (more)
Writer, director, and star Mario Van Peebles tried to correct historical misconceptions about African-Americans on the frontier with this action-packed western that's also an homage to spaghetti Westerns. During the Spanish-American War, a squadron of black soldiers led by Jesse Lee (Van Peebles) is assigned a dangerous mission behind enemy lines in Cuba by evil Colonel Graham (Billy Zane). Joined by a white gambler, Little J (Stephen Baldwin), the troupe is to recover a chest of gold. Realizing that Graham will slaughter them once they've relinquished the booty, Lee and his men retrieve the chest, wound Graham, and head for home. Ambushed by Graham in New Orleans, the "posse" heads for Lee's hometown of Freemanville, a frontier settlement of ex-slaves. Years ago, Lee's minister father (Robert Hooks) was murdered there by Klansmen, and the gunslinger wants revenge. There's new trouble brewing in Freemanville, however. Sheriff Bates (Richard Jordan), top lawman in neighboring Cutterville, plans to wipe out Freemanville's citizens and sell their lucrative property to a railroad. Then there's Graham, still on Lee's trail. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mario Van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin, (more)
- 1992
- R
Mark Manos' futuristic thriller stars Candice Daly as a woman who goes undercover as a showgirl to solve the killing of her sister. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Steinmetz, Candice Daly, (more)
- 1992
- PG13
An unfunny comedy that ribs film noir conventions, Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel is set at a second-rate motel in 1950s Anaheim that is run by a fussy and nosy manager (Paul Bartel, invoking the ghost of Billy De Wolfe). Checking into the hotel is toy salesman Chester DeSoto (Whip Hubley) and his sultry wife Bridey (Sherilyn Fenn), who likes to take midnight swims in the motel swimming pool in sexy black negligees. She seduces local lady-killer Augie March (David Johansen), who happens to be blackmailing her husband concerning his past Communist Party associations. While Bridey is giving the once-over to Augie, Chester is busy himself -- hiring a screwball private detective by the name of Deadpan Winchester (David Hewlett) to spy on his wife. With the hotel manager peeking behind the curtains, one person turns up dead, and those left attempt to link Deadpan Winchester to the murder. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sherilyn Fenn, Whip Hubley, (more)
Paul Bartel directed this film version of a performance art piece by O-Lan Jones, Andrea Stein, and Jim Turner, who play Tina, Pam, and Scotty -- three grown-up kids who have spent the last thirty years sealed off in a backyard family bomb shelter. A prologue explains what happened: in 1963, when John Kennedy is assassinated, a typical middle-class family from Anaheim retreat to their backyard bomb shelter, afraid that the commies are coming. In 1993, they are still there -- even Mom and Dad, who have since died, but the bones are laid out nicely on their bed. The brother and two sisters, in worn-out clothing, amuse themselves by playing silly little games (something called "Egyptian Fantasy" with Ken as the Pharaoh), engaging in absurd rounds of role playing (Tina as a high-school tease), and hurling senseless rebukes at one another ("I can't hear you. I've got a set of encyclopedias up my butt"). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- O-Lan Jones, Andrea Stein, (more)
- 1992
In this documentary, a variety of directors and actors, many of them well known, give answers to questions the viewer never hears -- answers which, on the face of it, call into question the validity of the whole filmmaking enterprise and the culture which spawned it. The narration asserts that the theme is "art versus enterprise," but critics objected that the film is not sufficiently focused to back up that claim. It does, however, reveal a strong anti-Hollywood bias. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Oliver Stone
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