Piper Laurie Movies

A precocious but troubled young girl living in 1950s-era Alabama seeks solace in the music of Elvis Presley in director Deborah Kampmeier's controversial tale of childhood trauma and musical healing. An air of repression lingers over the home of spirited youngster Lewellen (Dakota Fanning), who finds both comfort in the music of pop sensation Presley, as well as a place to store her pain and anger. In time Lewellen begins to find her own voice, a voice that will instill her with the strength to move beyond the pain of her past and into a more hopeful future. Piper Laurie, David Morse, and Robin Wright Penn star in a period drama that made its debut at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Writer/director Michael Clancy makes his feature film debut with the black comedy Eulogy. Zooey Deschanel plays Kate Collins, an unhappy college student who is made even more unhappy when her grandfather (Rip Torn) dies. Even though the entire family hates each other, they reunite at the home of Grandma Collins (Piper Laurie). Among other family members, Kate observes a war between her washed-up actor dad, Daniel (Hank Azaria); her lesbian Aunt Lucy (Kelly Preston); her wound-up Uncle Skip (Ray Romano); and her strict Aunt Alice (Debra Winger). Tensions escalate and family secrets are ultimately revealed. Kate is also inundated with the eulogy-writing duties, as she's the only one capable of such a task. Meanwhile, she reunites with old flame Ryan Carmichael (Jesse Bradford). Eulogy premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Christine Baranski makes her first series appearance as Seattle radio therapist Dr. Nora Fairchild, a spoof of a certain well-known, ultraconservative talk-show host. Dr. Nora's outspoken, bullying and predominately homophobic "my way or the highway" radio personality is extremely irritating to many observers, including Frasier (Kelsey Grammer), who to his everlasting regret recommended Nora to the KACL management. Even so, the outrageous Nora dramatically increases the station's ratings -- setting the stage for a riotous showdown between the Doctors Crane and Fairchild. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Child-actor turned novelist Joshua Miller now adds directing to his resume with this screen adaptation of his novel The Mao Game. Piper Laurie plays an older woman who gave up an early career as a hoofer to become a respected photographer. Her daughter (Kirstie Alley) has become a film star with emotional problems, with a son (Joshua Miller) who has a failing career as an actor and a drug habit. The Mao Game features a musical score by Vivian Kubrick, daughter of legendary director Stanley Kubrick; Whoopi Goldberg served as executive producer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Miramax Films darlings Robert Rodriguez and screenwriter Kevin Williamson teamed up for a high-school alien-horror film that they described as The Breakfast Club meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Dilapidated Herrington High is the location for a story about a school faculty taken over by outer-space creatures, forcing the students to take charge and kick some alien butt. School faculty members (Robert Patrick, Bebe Neuwirth, Salma Hayek, and Jon Stewart) are infested with rapidly reproducing space worms that take over their minds and bodies. But never fear, because at this school, between hazing the student body and having sex in the locker room, a Scooby-Doo-ish group of high school students is ready to fight back. The up-and-coming acting talent includes R&B singer Usher Raymond, Elijah Wood, Clea DuVall, Josh Hartnett, Shawn Hatosy, Laura Harris, and Jordanna Brewster. The story is nearly irrelevant, as the real stars are the action and lots of special effects. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide

Made for television, A Christmas Memory is adapted from the wistful short story by Truman Capote, previously filmed in 1967 as a one-hour episode of ABC Stage 67. Capote himself narrated the original version, in which he recalled his lonely childhood and the strong bond between himself and his simple-minded older cousin Sook, a role brilliantly essayed in 1967 by Geraldine Page. The remake stars Patty Duke as Sook, with whom young Buddy (Eric Lloyd) (the Capote character) lives during one memorable Depression Christmas while his divorced (and detached) mother and father are otherwise occupied. Looked after by her unmarried sisters Jennie (Piper Laurie) and Callie (Anita Gillette), the warm, unfailingly cheerful Sook busies herself with preparing Christmas fruitcakes for everyone she can think of--including President Roosevelt and Jean Harlow!--and, with the innocence of the eternal child, she allows the impressionable Buddy into her own private world. When the time comes for Sook and Buddy to be separated, he prefers to remain with her. . .a decision, alas, that is not his to make. Bereft of Capote's eloquent narration, and including several subplot intrigues not to be found in the original short story, A Christmas Memory is a game effort, but in the end falls short of the 1967 classic. The remake aired December 21, 1997 on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The luck of the Irish is not shining on anyone looking for a spot of whiskey or stout in this comedy about an unusual family get-together. Mary Pat Donnely McDonough (Piper Laurie) is the matriarch of a large Irish-American family, and as is her custom, she has invited as many of her family as can attend to a weekend-long party and reunion to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. However, upon arrival her guests discover this year's gathering will be a bit different; Mary has decided that it's time she gave up alcohol, and not only will she not be drinking any spirits during the weekend, she will not permit anyone else to drink in her home, either. Needless to say, the nearly two-dozen guests on hand are not sure just what to expect from two days together with no social lubricants, and soon more than a few secrets fall by the wayside: Thomas (Redmond M. Gleason), the family servant, decides to proclaim his love for Mary; Priss (Joanne Baron), Mary's daughter, announces she's leaving her husband for a much younger man; a pair of distant cousins decide a roll in the clover is in order; and teenaged Cassie (Colleen Fitzpatrick) is on hand to capture everyone's most embarrassing moments on videotape. Incidentally, Colleen Fitzpatrick would later become a successful pop singer under the name Vitamin C. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this heartwarming drama, a dying widow "abducts" a trio of women suffering from Alzheimer's disease and embarks upon a journey to the title Texas town in order to fulfill her lifelong fantasy of seeing the ocean. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Rushing to Milwaukee after his wife, Jenn (Christine Harnos), and daughter, Rachel (Yvonne Zima), are injured in a car accident, Greene (Anthony Edwards) is relieved to learn that they're all right -- but none too happy with the news that Jenn has been withholding from him. Back in Chicago, Carol (Julianna Margulies) is given advice about her new house by Josh Shern (Adam Goldberg), a paranoid schizophrenic with an innate talent for architecture. And Dr. Morganstern (William H. Macy) and Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) clash when he suggests that her personal problems vis-à-vis little Suzy are negatively affecting her job performance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Truman Capote, this often-witty coming-of-age drama looks at a young man growing up with an unusual family in the Deep South in the 1940s. After the death of his parents, Collin Fenwick (Edward Furlong) finds himself living in a small town with two of his aunts, Dolly (Piper Laurie) and Verena (Sissy Spacek). Verena is the more stable of the two, an entrepreneur who controls a number of local businesses and rules the roost with a firm hand. Dolly, on the other hand, is a gentle eccentric who claims to hear the voices of the dead as the wind whistles through the grass, and has developed a homemade concoction that supposedly cures dropsy. Dolly's potion attracts the attention of Morris Ritz (Jack Lemmon), a smooth-talking con man from Chicago who wants to snatch the formula away from her. Along the way, Collin also gets to know Catherine (Nell Carter), Verena and Dolly's quick-witted house maid; Amos (Roddy McDowall), a barber who is also the town's one-man rumor mill; Charlie Cool (Walter Matthau), a charmingly cynical retired judge with an opinion about everything; and Sister Ida (Mary Steenburgen), an accordion-toting traveling evangelist who has had a heroic brood of 13 children without benefit of marriage. The Grass Harp was directed by Charles Matthau, the son of Walter Matthau. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Set in Utah (but filmed in Texas), the made-for-TV Shadows of Desire will probably seem fresh and original to anyone who hasn't seen the old Katharine Hepburn-Robert Taylor-Robert Mitchum theatrical feature Undercurrent--or, for that matter, to anyone unfamiliar with the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Central to the plotline is Rowena Ecklund (Nicollette Sheridan), a woman torn between her sincere love for the kindly, sensitive Jude Snow (Adrian Pasder) and her insatiable lust for Jude's arrogant, dangerous older brother Sonny (Joe Lando) (guess which brother has the longest hair and the sweatiest shirt?) The passions engendered by this triangle are matched only by the all-stops-out histrionics of Piper Laurie as Jude and Sonny's domineering mother Ellis. Originally telecast September 20, 1994, on CBS, Shadows of Desire has since been rerun on cable television and on Canadian TV under the title The Devil's Bed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Harris and Robert Duvall star in this low-key drama concerning a hard-drinking former sea captain (Richard Harris) who befriends a shy retired barber (Robert Duvall). Though their polar-opposite personalities find the relationship slow going at first, roguish Frank (Harris) and gentle Walter (Duvall) soon develop a close friendship as they pass the days with conversation. As death looms near and their pasts seem to evaporate into the air with the passing of each day, the lonely souls find comfort in each other's company until their fragile friendship is shattered. When Frank insults a waitress (Sandra Bullock) with whom Walter harbors a protective friendship, Walter makes the decision to cut his ties with loutish Frank. Forced to reevaluate their friendship, the two lonely souls attempt to find meaning in their lives as their chances for connecting with the outside world grows ever more dim. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In this suspenseful horror movie, a lovely runaway and a helpful hero go looking for the fearsome "Headhunter," the ghoulish hooded killer who sawed off the heads of her parents. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide