Donovan Leitch Movies
Tall, dark, and always stylish, Donovan Leitch is one of the world's top male models, a rock artist, and a talented actor. The son of popular 1960s folk-rock artist Donovan, Leitch (who claims he was conceived in the home of ex-Beatle George Harrison) and his sister, actress Ione Skye, were raised by their mother, fashion model Enid Karl, in Los Angeles. He grew up no stranger to jet-set living. Many of his mother's crowd were flamboyant drag queens and it is from them that he learned about fashion, makeup, and hair. Sometimes he would borrow from their wardrobes and hang out in local clubs. Leitch began acting while attending Hollywood High School, where he was quite popular and served as senior class president and homecoming king. While in high school, Leitch made friends with guitarist Jason Nesmith, the son of rock/country artist and former Monkee Michael Nesmith. Within a few years, after Leitch had begun his acting and modeling career, the two would reunite to form the hard-driving, funky glam-rock band Nancy Boy as an upbeat antidote to the hopelessness of grunge rock. He made his acting debut in Roger Vadim's rollicking And God Created Woman (1987) and has gone on to play lead and supporting roles ranging from a teenaged killer in Cutting Class (1989) to former member of Andy Warhol's factory, actor Gerard Malanga in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 2006
After a round of lies between Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Cristina (Sandra Oh) about their love lives (or lack of same), the story proper gets under way with Cristina having second thoughts about moving in with Burke (Isaiah Washington), and George (T.R. Knight) threatening to move out of Meredith's house unless she meets his demands. Back at work, the staff deals with such patients as a competitive hot dog eater (Natalie N. Okamoto) suffering from what may be a terminal case of hiccups; a rock guitarist (Donovan Leitch) who loses several fingers; a woman (Jill Holden) whose drug treatment makes her abnormally cheerful; and an elderly lady (Carole Cook) who stubbornly refuses to leave after being discharged (as usual, George is stuck with this one!) And in another development, Alex (Justin Chambers) gets the results of his board exams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Actors and political activists come together to take a long, hard look at the State of the Union during the 2000 U.S. Presidential election in this documentary, a follow-up to 1993's The Last Party, in which actor Robert Downey Jr. followed the 1992 presidential campaign. In The Last Party 2000, with Robert Downey Jr. unavailable due to drug convictions (he does make a brief appearance, and his legal problems as well as the current state of American drug laws are discussed), Philip Seymour Hoffman takes his place as he visits the 2000 Democratic and Republican National Conventions and talks to politicians and activists both famous and obscure as a pitched battle is fought between supporters of democratic candidate Al Gore, republican nominee George W. Bush, and the many voices who believed neither candidate represented a worthwhile or reasonable choice. Along with Downey and Hoffman, celebrities speaking out on the issues in this film include Courtney Love, Rosie O'Donnell, Reese Witherspoon, and David Crosby; the rock band Stone Temple Pilots also appear at a political rally. The Last Party 2000 was directed by actor and musician Donovan Leitch, who served as a producer on the first film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2001
New York City has long had a reputation as a city willing to embrace anyone and anything, regardless of eccentricity, and this documentary pays tribute to a handful of rock musicians, drag performers, and performance artists who have helped to make the Big Apple's underground entertainment scene among the liveliest in the world. Freaks, Glam Gods and Rockstars...The NYC Story features interviews and performance footage from transsexual rock pioneer Jayne County, drag queen and Wigstock founder the Lady Bunny, Kembra Pfaler from the theatrical rock band the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, members of the all-female thrash-punk group the Lunachicks, and many other Manhattan-based performers, who offer both a perspective on New York's past and their gripes with the city's present (most notably the elimination of rent control and Rudy Giuliani's efforts to clean up the city and make it harder for night clubs to operate). Village Voice columnist Michael Musto also offers his perspective on New York's entertainment underbelly. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Aviance, Jayne County, (more)
In the romantic comedy Cherry, Leila Sweet (Shalom Harlow) has begun to hear the faint rumblings of her biological clock at the age of 29. This isn't unusual in itself, but Leila's key obstacle in her dilemma about having a child is rather uncommon -- she's still a virgin. Leila was stood up at the altar ten years ago and promptly swore off men forever; since then, she graduated from Harvard and moved to New York City, where she runs a muffin shop and keeps a dog for company. Leila is now determined to have a baby but isn't willing to forgive the enemy in the process, so she begins advertising for sperm donors willing to assist in artificial insemination. However, most of the respondents remind her why she gave up on men in the first place. Circumstances soon force her to take a closer look at two of her neighbors who seem fond of her -- a professional clown named Eddie (Donovan Leitch) and a gynecologist named, we kid you not, Beverly Kirk (Jake Weber). While Leila weighs her options, Beverly meets a pair of sweet-natured street kids in dire need of a loving mother. Shalom Harlow, who played Matt Dillon's dim-witted super model girlfriend in In & Out, gives an able comic performance as the most beautiful 29-year-old virgin in New York in this film, which was screened at the 1999 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shalom Harlow, Jake Weber, (more)
New Age masseur Poe Finklestein (Mario Van Peebles) has an appointment at the posh estate of widow Evelyn Heiss (Lesley Ann Warren), who lives with her gay stepson Dominique (Donovan Leitch) and her sister-in-law Alena Heiss (Louise Fletcher). The gardener (Melvin Van Peebles) is a bystander observing the con games, betrayals and schemes unleashed in this dysfunctional household. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mario Van Peebles, Lesley Ann Warren, (more)
- 1996
Alex, an undergraduate art student at a California school, attempts to find meaning and purpose in his life in this satirical Canadian comedy-drama. He decides that the only way to accomplish this is to become a filmmaker. Unfortunately he has no inspiration as to a subject matter until he looks closely at his fringe-dwelling buddy Gnome, a Venice Beach comic-book store owner who considers every aspect of life a political cause to fight against. Gnome is truly a bizarre character and the perfect subject for a film. Now that Alex has a subject, he needs the cash to make his film. Helpful Gnome grabs his life-savings and heads off to Vegas to win some cash for his friend, leaving Alex and his pals to race after him before he destroys his life. During the chase, Alex finds himself falling for punk-rocker Maggie. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The true story of Valerie Solanas, the radical feminist who became notorious after shooting art world icon Andy Warhol, is portrayed in this fact-based drama. In an attempt to present a fair assessment of her actions, writer-director Mary Harron focuses on Solanas' troubled life, from her childhood as an abuse victim to her life as teenage prostitute in New York City. These experiences left Solanas (played by Lili Taylor) deeply scarred, contributing to a hatred of men that later found full flower in her famous "SCUM Manifesto," an extremist tract calling for the establishment of a "Society for Cutting Up Men." Deeply troubled, she nevertheless briefly finds hope after befriending young transvestite Candy Darling (played by Stephen Dorff) and discovering herself on the fringes of the wild, colorful world surrounding the eccentric Warhol. She becomes obsessed with the idea that Warhol's support could change her life, only to become violently enraged when the artist and his friends begin to turn away from her. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lili Taylor, Jared Harris, (more)
- 1993
- R
In this humorous documentary, Robert Downey, Jr. shares his views of politics, attitudes and himself while travelling across the country in 1992. He spends a special amount of time at the Democratic and Republican conventions. Downey includes brief interviews by such luminaries as Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, Jerry Falwell, and his father, Robert Downey, Sr. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Downey, Jr.
Marshall Herskovitz directed this tearjerking schizophrenic combination of The Wonder Years and To Kill a Mockingbird. It is 1972, and John Leary (Danny De Vito) and his two sons Jack (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.) and Dylan (Miko Hughes) have just moved to Oakland, California. John is a television celebrity who has been fired from one station after another, appearing now on a cheap local station as the Saturday night host of a horror-film showcase. But John spends most of the time drinking and grieving over the loss of his wife, who was recently killed in an accident. The children try to adapt to their new school, and the family tries to adapt to the collection of kooks that populate their neighborhood. Foremost among them is Norman Strick (Gary Sinise), a sinister neo-Nazi who lives across the street. When Strick circulates a petition for the local white-supremacist candidate, John gets drunk and attacks him on his television show. As a result, Strick takes his revenge by abducting one of John's children. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny DeVito, Robert J. Steinmiller, (more)
- 1992
- PG
A troubled teen girl finds friendship with a cast-aside horse, in this family drama. Ari Meyers (from TV's Kate & Allie) stars as Allison Mills, a young girl who gets herself into trouble after the death of her mother. Sent to a horse farm as part of a community service sentence, Allison is initially cold and unresponsive, but slowly she begins to open up as she befriends a difficult-to-manage horse named Jet. Unfortunately, just as she begins to find purpose in her work at the farm, Allison's mettle is once again put to test after a devastating accident leaves both she and her prized horse seriously injured. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Begley, Jr., Mimi Rogers, (more)
Based on a novel by Richard Peck called Don't Look and It Won't Hurt, Allison Anders's melodramatic coming-of-age tale Gas Food Lodging takes place in Laramie, NM, a small town right off the highway. Nora (Brooke Adams) is a truck-stop waitress who lives in a trailer park with her two teenaged daughters, Trudi (Ione Skye) and Shade (Fairuza Balk). While Trudi sleeps around and defies her mother, Shade spends her time at the local cinema and wishes she could have a dad like a normal family. One day, Trudi hooks up with a visiting geologist (Robert Knepper) and spends a magical evening in a cave with him. However, he turns up missing and Trudi finds herself pregnant. Meanwhile, Shade's romantic advances are rejected by Darius (Donovan Leitch), but she finds something new with film projectionist Javier (Jacob Vargas). Shade's attempts at finding a husband for her mom are unsuccessful, but Nora ends up meeting satellite TV installation man Hamlet Humphrey (David Lansbury). Features a cameo appearance from Dinosaur Jr. frontman J. Mascis, who also wrote the original music. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, (more)
- 1991
The "first time" usually refers to romance in TV movies of this nature. Corin Nemic is an impressionable young Jewish kid who falls hard for girl next door Cheryl Pollak. Ah, but this is San Antonio in the early 1960s, and Pollak is Catholic. Before you can say "Bridget Loves Bernie" (or even "Abie's Irish Rose") the two young spooners are stymied by parental pressure. It is the girl who takes the initiative in quelling the fears and doubts of the grown-ups, while shy Corin stands by in moonstruck admiration. For the Very First Time is nearly stolen by Donovan Leach (son of rock singer Donovan and sister of actress Ione Skye), who plays a beatnik artist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Martin Scorsese explores the life of organized crime with his gritty, kinetic adaptation of Nicolas Pileggi's best-selling Wiseguy, the true-life account of mobster and FBI informant Henry Hill. Set to a true-to-period rock soundtrack, the story details the rise and fall of Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian New York kid who grows up idolizing the "wise guys" in his impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood. He begins hanging around the mobsters, running errands and doing odd jobs until he gains the notice of local chieftain Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino), who takes him in as a surrogate son. As he reaches his teens, Hill (Ray Liotta) is inducted into the world of petty crime, where he distinguishes himself as a "stand-up guy" by choosing jail time over ratting on his accomplices. From that moment on, he is a part of the family. Along with his psychotic partner Tommy (Joe Pesci), he rises through the ranks to become Paulie's lieutenant; however, he quickly learns that, like his mentor Jimmy (Robert DeNiro), his ethnicity prevents him from ever becoming a "made guy," an actual member of the crime family. Soon he finds himself the target of both the feds and the mobsters, who feel that he has become a threat to their security with his reckless dealings. Goodfellas was rewarded with six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture; Pesci would walk away with Best Supporting Actor for his work. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, (more)
Glory is a celebration of a little-known act of mass courage during the Civil War. Simply put, the heroes involved have been ignored by history due to racism. Those heroes were the all-black members of the 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, headed by Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick), the son of an influential abolitionist (played by an uncredited Jane Alexander). Despite the fact that the Civil War is ostensibly being fought on their behalf, the black soldiers are denied virtually every privilege and amenity that is matter of course for their white counterparts; as in armies past and future, they are given the most menial and demeaning of tasks. Still, none of the soldiers quit the regiment when given the chance. The unofficial leaders of the group are gravedigger John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman) and fugitive slave Trip (Denzel Washington), respectively representing the brains and heart of the organization. The 54th acquit themselves valiantly at Fort Wagner, SC, charging a fortification manned by some 1,000 Confederates. Glory was based on Lincoln Kirstein's Lay This Laurel and Peter Burchard's One Gallant Rush; the latter book was founded on the letters of Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the real-life character played by Matthew Broderick. The film won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for co-star Denzel Washington, and additional statuettes for Best Cinematography (Freddie Francis) and Sound Recording. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, (more)
This reject from slasher-movie remedial school -- featuring copious amounts of teen sex and the usual unimaginative gore murders -- involves the return of a problem teen (Donovan Leitch) to high school after his release from an institution. After essentially pinning the "Red Herring" sign on the main character, the filmmakers then pander what passes for suspense as Leitch's classmates head for that big D-hall in the sky. Not even a supporting performance by then-unknown Brad Pitt managed to rescue this lackluster thriller, which arrived far too late in the game to appeal to the teen-horror crowd -- an audience which by then had already migrated from Halloween clones and Friday the 13th sequels to Freddy Krueger territory after Wes Craven's crafty A Nightmare on Elm Street. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donovan Leitch, Jill Schoelen, (more)
After the phenomenal box-office and critical success of David Cronenberg's 1986 remake of The Fly, a series of big-budget remakes of '50s horror favorites rode in on its coattails in the late 1980s -- though none managed to rise above mere camp clones of their elders, albeit garnished with modern makeup effects in an attempt to draw modern teen horror-junkies. One remake that managed to live up to its cheesy inspiration was Chuck Russell's version of The Blob, in which the title goo crashes to earth and promptly begins digesting the residents of a small California town while growing to gargantuan proportions. The clean-cut teen hero originally portrayed by Steve McQueen (his first starring role) is replaced here with a rebellious outsider (Kevin Dillon) whose preppie rival (Donovan Leitch) for the affections of the cute heroine (Shawnee Smith) is quickly eliminated by the all-consuming space-gelatin. No sooner has the plasma menace set up house in the town sewers when a shadowy government Blob Squad shows up under the direction of the grandfatherly Dr. Meddows (Joe Seneca), to clean up the mess... or not. This high-spirited remake replaces the '50s "Daddy-O" conventions of the original with '80s cynicism -- not even likeable characters are spared from the slaughter -- and anti-government sentiment. It also pushes the gore envelope in ways unavailable to its low-budget parent -- e.g. the scene in which one victim is sucked through a sink drain was only hinted at in the 1958 film, but here viewers are treated to the entire bone-crunching ordeal. Though the quality of blob effects seems inversely proportional to the creature's size (some of the climactic "wall-of-blob" footage is painfully cheap-looking), the end result is more blob for the monster-movie fan's dollar. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, (more)
- 1988
- PG
Perry Parker (Joe Pantoliano) is a Philadelphia dance-show host who hopes to take the place of Dick Clark after the world's oldest teenager takes his show to Hollywood in 1965. Del Green (Donovan Leitch) is a college-bound high schooler who crashes the Dance Party and becomes a favorite of the teen audience. He becomes the dance partner of Vicky (Jennifer Runyon), the pretty blonde star dancer of the popular show. Del soon must decide whether or not to remain a teen tube fave or attend an Ivy League college, and he must also deal with the trial of peer pressure. Plenty of music from the mid 1960s is provided, including "Land Of 1,000 Dances" and the well-crated instrumental "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" by Vince Guaraldi. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donovan Leitch, Joe Pantoliano, (more)
French director Roger Vadim pillages his own grave in this nominal re-make of his 1956 creamy sensation And God Created Woman -- the film that made Brigitte Bardot an international star. Unfortunately, he is unable to do the same thing for the cool and cryptic Rebecca DeMornay in this version. DeMornay plays an escaped convict who lands in the limousine of New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Frank Langella and seduces him. For some inexplicable reason, she turns into a hot singing act. DeMornay also seduces innocent stud carpenter Vincent Spano along the way and suckers the poor guy into marrying her so that she can get an early parole. But the joke is on him when she announces that their marriage does not include sexual relations. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rebecca De Mornay, Vincent Spano, (more)
- 1984
It was perhaps inevitable that the breakdancing craze of the early 1980s would pervade even a traditionalist sitcom like Alice. In this episode, a group of talented breakdancers are hired to perform at an art festival held at Mel's Diner; unfortunately, Mel (Vic Tayback) mistakes the dancers for hoodlums and boots them out. Featured in this episode are professional dancers Steven "Sugar Pop" DeSilva and Jason "Elf" DeSilva), not to mention a veritable chorus line of familiar faces, among them What's Happening!!'s Fred "Rerun" Berry, Coach's Kenneth Kimmins, and singer-model Donovan Leitch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
