Jennifer Jason Leigh Movies
A professional actor since the age of nine, Jennifer Jason Leigh earned her Screen Actors Guild card at 16 and dropped out of high school to study at the Lee Strasberg Institute and star in seedy made-for-TV movies. Born to actor Vic Morrow and writer/actress Barbara Turner in Hollywood, CA, Jennifer picked up the middle name Jason from family friend Jason Robards Jr. Throughout her career, she has made a name for herself portraying helpless, damaged, or mentally unsound characters, often performing at a higher level than the material. Also known for extensively researching her roles, Leigh dropped down to less than 90 pounds for one of her first features as an anorexic teenager in the TV-movie The Best Little Girl in the World. Never one to shy away from touchy subject matter, her breakthrough role came in 1982 as the naïve high school girl who gets an abortion in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. After a decade of developing a repertoire of various troubled characters, she was nominated for two Critics Circle awards in 1990 for playing prostitutes in both Miami Blues and Last Exit to Brooklyn. She would continue to play vulnerable characters in dangerous situations as the rookie narcotics officer-turned-drug addict in Rush. This was followed by her notorious role as the psycho roommate Hedra who tries to steal the identity of her roommate (Bridget Fonda) in Single White Female. She played a phone sex worker in the ensemble film Short Cuts, her first of three projects involving director Robert Altman. Leigh occasionally stepped out of her down-and-out roles, and in 1994 she shined as Amy Archer in The Hudsucker Proxy. Her comic turn as a plucky undercover journalist was said to recall the work of legendary actresses like Katharine Hepburn and Barbara Stanwyck. She delivered critically acclaimed performances in her next two films, with a Golden Globe nomination for Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle and an Independent Spirit nomination for Georgia. After playing an angry daughter in Dolores Claiborne, a spitfire kidnapper in Kansas City, and a domestic violence survivor in Bastard out of Carolina, she took another dramatic turn toward a period film. In Agnieszka Holland's Washington Square, Leigh proved her range by portraying a shy, clumsy girl as she evolves into adulthood. She returned to more showy roles for two films dealing with Shakespeare's King Lear: A Thousand Acres with Jason Robards Jr. and the fourth Dogme 95 film, The King Is Alive. Not limiting herself to dramas, Leigh appeared as an isolated computer programmer in David Cronenberg's thriller eXistenZ and as an over-the-top mom in the comedy Skipped Parts. Around that time, she also appeared on-stage in Broadway and off-Broadway plays, most notably as dancer Sally Bowles in Cabaret. Testing out new ground in 2001, she and fellow Cabaret star Alan Cumming wrote, directed, and starred in the ensemble comedy The Anniversary Party, a digital video project inspired by Dogme 95. Continuing to evolve as a respected actress, she went on to work in the crime genre, first as a hitman's wife in Road to Perdition, and then in Jane Campion's thriller In the Cut. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- 2005
- Add Hubert Selby Jr: It'll Be Better Tomorrow to QueueAdd Hubert Selby Jr: It'll Be Better Tomorrow to top of Queue
Hubert Selby Jr. was a powerful and influential literary figure whose best-known novels, Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, dealt with the dark underside of life in a way that was bleak and often shocking, but also laced with compassion and understanding for the tortured lives of his characters. Selby only completed the eighth grade when he became a merchant marine and contracted a severe case of tuberculosis from infected cattle. While Selby survived thanks to bootleg antibiotics, he lost a lung and had to give up his physically punishing work at sea. Selby took up writing and developed a unique style that helped make his first novel, 1964's Last Exit to Brooklyn, a critical success and a controversial best-seller. However, Selby developed a massive appetite for alcohol and drugs which derailed his career, and by the time he published his second book, 1971's The Room, Selby was all but forgotten. However, Selby's work developed a passionate following in Europe, and was rediscovered in the United States after a successful film adaptation of Last Exit to Brooklyn was released. Hubert Selby Jr.: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow is a documentary which explores the life and work of this unlikely literary icon, and features extensive interviews with Selby as well as his friends and admirers. Interview subjects include Lou Reed, Henry Rollins, Richard Price, Nick Tosches, Ellen Burstyn, Darren Aronofsky, Uli Edel, Amiri Baraka, and Jerry Stahl. Robert Downey Jr. serves as narrator. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Downey, Jr., Hubert Selby, Jr., (more)
Palindromes opens with the dedication, "In loving memory of Dawn Wiener," a reference to the lead character in writer/director Todd Solondz' early feature, Welcome to the Dollhouse. Aviva has just attended Dawn's funeral. Dismayed by her older cousin's untimely death, Aviva asks her mother (Ellen Barkin) for assurance that she won't grow up to be like Dawn. Aviva only dreams of one thing -- having babies. Lots and lots of babies. As a teen, while Aviva has no interest in sex, she eagerly loses her virginity to Judah (Robert Agri), the son of a family friend in hopes of getting pregnant. She does, but her mother insists that she have an abortion. Worse yet, due to a complication during the procedure, the doctor is forced to perform a hysterectomy. Unaware of her medical condition, Aviva runs away from home and is picked up by a truck driver (Stephen Adly Guirgis) who has his way with her and then abandons her at a roadside motel. She wanders in the wilderness until she meets up with Jiminy (Tyler Maynard), a friendly boy who lives with the "Sunshine Family," a group of disabled kids cared for by the cheerful Mama Sunshine (Debra Monk). The kids are also a Christian singing group. Aviva is happy until she learns that Mama Sunshine and her husband are virulently anti-abortion and that they are planning to murder a doctor. Solondz cast eight different actors in the lead role, each of whom play Aviva at different points in the story. Matthew Faber reprises the role of Mark Wiener from Welcome to the Dollhouse. Palindromes was shot at Bard College in upstate New York, using many film students as crew. It was selected by the Film Society of Lincoln Center for inclusion in the 2004 New York Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ellen Barkin, Stephen Adly-Guirgis, (more)
Childstar concerns an egotistical 12-year-old named Taylor who has skyrocketed to fame at that young age. His relationship with his driver, Rick, takes a turn when Taylor confides in him about the problems of celebrity and the fears of his impending teenage years. When Taylor disappears one day, Rick attempts to find the boy and help him through this troubling period. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don McKellar, Mark Rendall, (more)
Based on the autobiographical book by novelist Beverly Lowry, the made-for-TV Crossed Over chronicles the unlikely friendship between Lowry and one of America's most notorious death-row inmates. Consumed by grief after the hit-and-run death of her 18-year-old son Peter (Nick Roth), Beverly Lowry (played by Diane Keaton, who also executive-produced the film) is unable to overcome her depression, despite the tender ministrations of her supportive husband Ethan (Maury Chaykin). But when a psychic informs her that her son's death was caused by a woman, Beverly obsessively begins researching the lives of other women who'd taken lives. The trail of information leads her to the infamous Karla Faye Tucker (Jennifer Jason Leigh), slated to become the first white woman executed for murder in Texas in 135 years. Although the film necessarily telescopes the facts (the actual relationship between Lowry and Tucker spanned nearly a decade), the film successfully details how Beverly's friendship with the doomed Karla enabled both women to expunge the demons within their respective souls. Filmed in Toronto, Crossed Over was originally aired by CBS on March 3, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Jason Leigh, Diane Keaton, (more)
- 2001
Bill Gates guest stars on this, the 200th episode of Frasier. It so happens that this landmark event occurs on the same day as the 2000th radio broadcast of Frasier's radio call-in show. Having accumulated all but one of his broadcast tapes, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) must now negotiate with the overly obsessive fan (Adam Arkin) who owns the only surviving copy of the missing show. This episode orginally ran 35 minutes and was shown in tandem with a special comprised of clips from previous Frasier seasons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A gangster finds his professional, family, and romantic lives all taking unexpected turns in this offbeat suspense drama. Oleg (Vladimir Mashkov) is a kingpin in the Russian Mafia who has decided to get out of the business and move to the United States, buying a posh estate in Southern California as a retirement home. Oleg's mother, Anna (Lesley Ann Warren), was once a well-known dancer who was just 14 when she gave birth to him; only a few years later, she fled the Soviet Union, leaving Oleg behind. Today, the much-married Anna is living in California and dating Miguel (Jsu Garcia), a political activist from Peru, though she remains close with her third husband, Michael (Dean Stockwell), and their son, Alex (Henry Thomas). Oleg is also on good terms with Alex, and at a party at Oleg's new mansion, he announces that he'd decided to turn his share of the business over to Alex, much to the disappointment of Anna, who imagined the responsibility (and the money) would be going to her. Oleg soon realizes someone has it in for him, as he begins receiving threatening telephone calls and mysterious packages in the mail; adding to his discomfort, Oleg finds that his new home is overrun with roaches. Oleg calls an exterminating service, and to his surprise, they send over Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), an attractive young woman who is to spray the home for bugs. Despite the constant activity around him, Oleg hasn't a wife or a girlfriend, and he finds he's quite taken with Lisa. Throwing caution to the wind, he decides to offer her a sizable tip along with the standard exterminator's fee if she'd be willing to sleep with him. Vladimir Mashkov's performance in The Quickie earned him the Best Actor prize at the 2001 Moscow Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vladimir Mashkov, Jennifer Jason Leigh, (more)
- 2000
- Add The Directors: David Cronenberg to QueueAdd The Directors: David Cronenberg to top of Queue
For those who enjoy discovering or learning more about directors with unique or even bizarre filmmaking interests, David Cronenberg is a true find. His movie Crash tells the story of a group of people who think sex is best when it involves violent car accidents, his remake of The Fly is an eerie masterpiece combining the disturbing with the comedic, and his film Scanners is a witty satire about the relative madness of society at large. This video, produced by the American Film Institute, includes an interview with Michael Ironside, an actor who appears in at least one of Cronenberg's films. Ironside provides some interesting insights into the "real" David Cronenberg.
~ Elizabeth Smith, All Movie Guide
~ Elizabeth Smith, All Movie Guide
In this romantic fantasy based on the short story by Jack Finney, Scotty Corrigan (Campbell Scott) is a young man who is engaged to be married, but is having second thoughts about his upcoming wedding. Scotty buys an antique desk and -- hidden in a secret compartment -- he finds a letter from a woman named Elizabeth Whitcomb (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who lived during the 19th century. Fascinated by the letter, Scotty writes her a reply, using antique writing materials, and is shocked when he receives a reply -- somehow he's been able to communicate with her through time, and they begin a correspondence that spans a century and a half. It turns out that Elizabeth is also pledged to marry, but she does not love her fiancée, and a romance begins to blossom through the mail and across time. The Love Letter was produced for the television anthology series The Hallmark Hall of Fame. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Jason Leigh, Campbell Scott, (more)
- 1998
Reuniting several China Beach talents, this three-hour, fact-based TV miniseries dramatizes the apparent government cover-up of the after-effects of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Exposure to toxic agents by some 100,000 men and women led to skin rashes, respiratory infections, and cancer, but the Department of Defense claimed the Gulf War Syndrome was psychosomatic. When Vietnam veteran and retired U.S. Secret Service agent Jim Tuite (Ted Danson) begins work with Sen. Donald Riegle (Brian Dennehy), he sees vets denied proper medical benefits and concludes billions in payouts would result if the government admitted that toxic chemicals were sprayed about during the war. Healthy Chris Small (Matt Keeslar) comes back from the Gulf War in only a few months with digestive and respiratory problems, while his wife Teri (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and baby daughter both experience rashes from contact with Chris. In the post-war operations, Waco farmer Jared Gallimore (Steven Weber) stumbles across uranium dust and has brain tumors by the time he goes home to his sister Jerrillyn Folz (Marg Helgenberger). Interview footage with real soldiers and officers is intercut into the drama, filmed in Toronto and the California Mojave Desert. Premiered May 31, 1998 on Showtime. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ted Danson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, (more)
- 1990
Produced for cable TV, this pedestrian thriller (also known as Till Death Do Us Part) purports to be a riff on Edgar Allen Poe's "The Premature Burial" but actually bears more of a resemblance to Diabolique. It stars Tim Matheson as a cheated-upon husband who can't stay down after his wife's (Jennifer Jason Leigh) unsuccessful attempt to poison him results in his being buried alive. The film's one real moment of horror comes in a claustrophobic sequence where Matheson desperately claws his way out of his coffin. The story then settles into a standard revenge motif, capped with an admittedly potent payoff that, though intriguing, is probably not as shocking as the filmmakers had intended. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Matheson
- 1983
Teenager Fran (Kari Michaelsen) loves her mother (Marion Ross), but is somewhat ashamed that her family is nearly broke, forcing her mom to accept a summer job as a cook for the wealthy Fairchild family. Making things worse as far as Fran is concerned, she will now have to come in contact with young Andrea Fairchild (played by 20-year-old Jennifer Jason Leigh), who has the reputation of being an insufferable snob. It turns out, however, that Fran and Andrea have a great deal in common: Both are on the outs with their parents, if not for precisely the same reasons. This ABC Afterschool Special has been released to video under the title Just Like Us, which is also the name of the novel by Sheila Hayes upon which it is based. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kari Michaelsen, Marion Ross, (more)
Based on true incidents, this movie follows the plight of a young American girl who travels to Japan to start work as a club singer, only to discover that she has been tricked into working as a prostitute for the Yakuza. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1983
The 55-minute made-for-TV drama Just Like Us is of interest primarily because of one of its stars. Two young women live in starkly opposite social circles. Fate brings the girls together. Both overcome prejudices over how the "other half" lives. Costars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kari Michaelsen are equally fine, though only Leigh went on to lasting stardom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1982
After running away with her boyfriend, a teenager is searched for by her mother and an old friend in San Diego. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1981
After allegedly stealing a customized van, 17-year-old Randy Webster (Gary McCleery) is chased down by the Houston police. Randy is killed in a car crash; on his body is found a weapon, supposedly the one used in the commission of the van theft. But Randy's father (Hal Holbrook) suspects that the "official" story of his son's death is the result of a cover-up. The elder Webster attempts to conduct his own investigation despite hostility from an hostile police department and an overcrowded judicial system. Throughout his ordeal, Webster remains convinced that his son was not a criminal, but was set up posthumously by the overzealous authorities. Based on journalist Tom Curtis' s account of a true incident, The Killing of Randy Webster was originally telecast on March 11, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
While on furlough, Jim-Bob (David W. Harper) is pursued by an impulsive lass named Kathy (played by a very young Jennifer Jason Leigh), who insists that she is pregnant--and that Jim-Boy is the father. And half a world away, Ben (Eric Scott) is having a great deal of difficulty curbing his rebellious streak as he sits out the war in a Japanese POW camp. It can be argued that the problems of both Walton brothers are resolved by episode's end--though one of them still has a long way to go before he's completely out of the woods. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
A young girl's dangerous dance with dieting leads to near disaster in this exceptional made-for-television drama. In one of the earliest treatments of the subject, Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as Casey Powell, the quiet daughter of an overbearing mother and milquetoast father. Feeling pressure to be the good girl of the family after her troublesome older sister gets pregnant, Casey retreats into her secretive world of self-starvation. When arguing fails to produce results, her parents (Charles Durning and Eva Marie Saint) send her to a hospital where she meets a spunky fellow patient (Melanie Mayron) and a caring therapist (Jason Miller). Casey's road to recovery is not as simple as merely eating though, and she and her family realize that together they must confront the deeply-rooted familial issues that lay at the heart of Casey's affliction. Jennifer Jason Leigh is utterly compelling in the lead role. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1980
Angel City plays like a Grapes of Wrath updated to the 1980s. Ralph Waite plays a West Virginia farmer who, faced with the prospect of starving to death on his unproductive land, packs up his family and moves to the so-called Promised Land of Florida. There he goes to work on what is euphemistically called a collective farm. But soon he finds himself surrounded in squalor and misery, working back-breaking hours for slave-labor wages. Paul Winfield, Jennifer Warren and Mitchell Ryan co-star in this made for TV movie, which debuted November 12, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Oscar-winning character actor Strother Martin makes a return visit to Baretta, this time in the role of an embittered doctor named Shaner. Having given up on humanity, Shaner has become a professional bounty hunter. Undercover cop Tony Baretta (Robert Blake) finds himself in the uncomfortable position of preventing Doc Shaner from killing a scuzzy drug pusher who caused the death of a wealthy banker's daughter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Blake, Edward Grover, (more)
Synecdoche, New York marked the directorial debut of iconoclastic, cerebral screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as Caden Cotard, an eccentric playwright who lives with artist Adele Lack (Catherine Keener) and their daughter Olive in Schenectady, upstate New York. Prone to neuroses, misgivings and enormous self-doubt, Caden also begins suffering from accelerated physical deterioration - from blood in his stools to disfigured skin. Upon receiving a prestigious MacArthur grant, Caden decides to use the money to concoct one gigantic play as an analogue of his own life; he builds massive sets amid a New York City warehouse, casts others as his friends, family and acquaintances, and casts others to play the ones he’s casting. After Adele whisks Olive off to Europe but demonstrates no sign of returning soon, Caden drifts into a series of relationships with lovers - first with box office employee Hazel (Samantha Morton), who purchases and moves into a house that is perpetually on fire; then with Tammy (Emily Watson), an actress assigned to play Hazel in the theatrical project; and subsequently with others. Unfortunately, the play itself grows so big and unwieldy - and rehearsals go on for so long, taking literally decades - that it becomes unclear if the production itself will ever launch.
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, (more)
Margot at the Wedding, writer/director Noah Baumbach's follow-up to his Oscar-nominated The Squid and the Whale, stars Nicole Kidman as Margot, a woman who travels with her son to the wedding of her sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh). The relationship between the two siblings has never been harmonious, a situation that is exacerbated when Margot discovers she cares very little for her sister's fiancé (Jack Black). Soon the high-strung Margot escalates a feud between her sister and the neighbors, and family secrets come to light, forcing everyone to rethink their various feelings toward each other. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, (more)
A troubled war veteran tries to unlock his memories of a terrible crime in this stylish thriller, the first American project for British filmmaker John Maybury. In 1991, Jack Starks (Adrien Brody) was an American soldier serving in the Persian Gulf when he was shot in the head; pronounced dead by a field surgeon, Starks somehow returned to life, though with no small number of psychological problems to show for his troubles. A year later, Starks is walking through the snowy Vermont wilderness when he discovers a woman whose truck has broken down, Jean (Kelly Lynch). Starks tries to help Jean and her young daughter, and later flags down a car for a ride into town; however, the car is being driven by a criminal on the run from the police (Brad Renfro), and not long after the car is cornered by police, Starks' memory goes blank. When he comes to, Jack is accused of killing a patrolman in the violent standoff that followed, and is told the woman, her daughter, and the criminal existed only in his imagination. Declared insane in his murder trial, Starks is sentenced to a mental institution run by Dr. Becker (Kris Kristofferson), who seems to believe that the more brutal the treatment, the better. As Starks suffers frequent beatings and long spells in a frozen locker, his mind drifts from his harrowing past into the future, where he visits with Jackie (Keira Knightley), who once was the young girl Starks tried to help. The Jacket also features Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dr. Lorenson, a compassionate doctor who tries to help Starks and his fellow patients. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, (more)
