Jenifer Lewis Movies

Director Bill Duke steps behind the camera for this adaptation of the T.D. Jakes novel concerning a newly married couple that finds their union threatened by pressures involving faith, family, and finances. As the couple exchanges their vows, the minister lays a cord around them while uttering the blessing, "a threefold cord is not easily broken." Later, during their darkest hour, the minister's advice to always keep God at the center of their marriage could be the only thing that keeps this troubled pair together. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Writer/director Maurice Jamal follows up his debut feature, The Ski Trip, with this comedy about a gay man from the big city returning to his small Southern hometown. Rockmond Dunbar plays Sheldon, a New York magazine writer who has long left his roots behind. When he begrudgingly heads back to Georgia, cultures clash as the homosexual socialite reunites with the down-home folks of his youth. He also surprisingly learns that he has an estranged ten-year-old son. Dirty Laundry also stars Loretta Devine as Patrick's mother, Evelyn. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Joining the cast of the Lifetime network doctor series Strong Medicine during its fifth season is Tamera Mowry as Dr. Kayla Thornton, new first-year resident at Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Women's Health Clinic. Though raised in a rural community, Kayla has returned to her home town of Philadelphia to pursue a medical career that was inspired by the tragic death of her brother. The arrival of Kayla proves to be a blessing for the clinic's male nurse Peter (Josh Coxx), who falls in love with the attractive resident--even though his feelings are not entirely reciprocated, at least not at first. Otherwise, Season Five picks up where Season Four left off, as Dr. Lu Delgado (Rose Blasi), one of Rittenhouse's two medical directors, falls in love with Ben Sanderson (Grant Show), the hospital's chief benefactor. Even so, Lu balks when Ben begs her to come with him when he is transferred to Hawaii. Meanwhile, Lu's partner Dr. Andy Campbell (Patricia Richardson) continues having issues with her daughters Jessie (Michelle Horn) and Lizzie (Morgan Flynn) over her divorce from her abusive husband Les. Andy tries to move on with her life by dating Dr. Milo Morton (Richard Biggs), but this proves difficult thanks to the resistance of her ex-husband. Tragically, Milo is slated to be killed by a drunken motorist, which is one of the motivating factors for Andy to consider giving up the clinic and lobbying for the position of State Attorney General (the other is the fact that she is denied the position of clinic chief of staff, a post recently departed by Dr. Paul Santiago [Philip Casanoff]). Meanwhile, Lu has problems of her own, beginning with the likelihood that her son Marc (Chris Marquette) has gotten a girl pregnant.On a more positive note, Lu enters into a relationship with Jonas Ray (Nestor Carbonel), a self-made millionaire from humble Cuban-refugee origins. Guest stars this season include Olympic athlete Keri Strug) and versatile actresses JoBeth Williams, Lynn Whitfield and Charlotte Rae. The series' 100th episode "Cinderella in Scrubs" manages to find roles for the likes of Fran Drescher, Camryn Manheim and Sara Gilbert. And in the 108th episode "First Response", the series' regulars are shunted into the background while the focus is on Nicole Hiltz and Lauren Velez as Kate and Vanessa, dedicated members of Rittenhouse's EMS team, and foster sisters (one white, one black) in the bargain. Can it be that "First Response" was intended as a spinoff for a new series? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Oceanic wise guys meet up with a small fish who has a big attitude in this computer-animated comedy. Don Lino (voice of Robert De Niro) is the patriarch of a family of sharks who lord over a bustling aquatic community based along a massive underwater reef. Don Lino has two sons, Frankie (voice of Michael Imperioli) and Lenny (voice of Jack Black); Frankie is a carnivorous tough guy who takes after his father, but Lenny is, at heart, a kind soul who has earned the ire of his dad by becoming a vegetarian. One of Don Lino's cronies is Sykes (voice of Martin Scorsese), who runs a "whale wash" where Oscar (voice of Will Smith) scrubs aquatic mammals for a living. Oscar is a small but ambitious fish who dreams of making something of himself, and when a dropped anchor accidentally kills Frankie, Oscar is suddenly (if mistakenly) celebrated as "the shark killer." Oscar's overnight fame attracts the attentions of Lola (voice of Angelina Jolie), a slinky dragon fish who woos Oscar away from his steady date, Angie (voice of Renée Zellweger); however, Oscar strikes up a friendship with Lenny and has to decide what to do when Don Lino and Sykes decides it's time to "take care" of the "different" shark. Also popping up in Shark Tale's all-star voice cast are Peter Falk, Vincent Pastore, Ziggy Marley, and Katie Couric. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Season Three of "Strong Medicine" marks the departure of series regular Janine Turner as Dr. Dana Stone, who with her earthier counterpart Dr. Lu Delgado (Rose Blasi) has since the outset of the series been in charge of the Rittenhouse Women's Health Clinic in Philadelphia. Having resumed her romance with the clinic's arrongant resident Dr. Nick Biancavilla (Brennan Elliott), Dana suddenly hears the ticking of her biological clock, and wants to have a baby. The clinic's sensitive male nurse Peter (Josh Coxx) volunteers to be sperm donor, which of course causes friction between Dana and Nick. Although she loses her baby, Dana adopts two infant girls, one of whom is HIV-positive, then decides to give up the clinic and return to her home state of Virginia with her new family, which she does in the season's sixth episode "Discharged". Dana's exit does not rest well with Lu, who is already emotionally fragile as a result of being raped the previous season. But once Dana's decision is made, Lu sets about to find a replacement. At the same time, Rittenhouse chief of staff Dr. Jackson (Philip Casnoff) makes his own choice for Lu's new partner: Dr. Andrea "Andy" Campbell (Patricia Richardson), a former Marine sergeant who has returned to civilian life specifically to take command of Rittenhouse--and, not surprisingly, Andy's strict, rules-are-rules approach to medicine serves only to drive a wedge between herself and Lu. Meanwhile, Andy is saddled with domestic problems, specifically an abusive husband (Brian Kerwin) and a pair of troublesome daughters, Jessie (Michelle Horn) and Lizzie (Morgan Flynn). In various story develops, Lu puts aside her resentment toward Andy to forestall not one but two potentially deadly epidemics; the 9/11 tragedy is touched upon when Lu clashes with the Government over admitting a patient who may be a terrorist; briefly returning to active duty, Andy has her hands full dealing with a patient with post-polio syndrome; and Lu drops her attitude about Andy and offers moral support when her new partner is beaten by her volatile husband. In the season's cliffhanger finale, Lu's currently boyfriend, a firefighter named Mickey Arenas (Julian Acostas), has no sooner emerged unscathed from a particularly nasty fire than he is gunned down by one of Lu's more unbalanced patients! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The second season of Lifetime's feminist medical series Strong Medicine begins with the episode "Donors", which includes a characteristic ethical clash between Rittenhouse Women's Health Clinic directors Dr. Lu Delgado (Rose Blasi) and Dr. Dana Stone (Janine Turner) over treatement of a girl who tries to pay for her eduction by selling her eggs to a fertility clinic, and a tense confrontation with a husband who'll stop at nothing to find a heart donor for his ailing wife. Elsewhere, the romantic relationship between Dana and egocentric resident Dr. Nick Biancavilla (Brennan Elliott) hits the first of several snags, culminating with a "big chill when Nick balks at the notion of marriage, just as Dana suspects that she's pregnant. Meanwhile, Lu has a fling with Harry (Don Michael Paul), who says he's divorced but isn't. In other developments, Lu's son Marc is booted out of school after he is caught cheating; Rittenhouse chief of staff Dr. Jackson (Philip Casnoff) begs Dana to give his wife preferential treatment when a new, experimental anti-MS drug is made available; Dana discovers that her ex-fiance has terminal cancer; Lu has a violent run-in with radio shock jock over medical ethics, and later faces the loss of her license when she inadvertently makes public the plight of a staunch pro-life advocate who is faced with the choice of saving her own life or that of her unborn child; and long-hidden hostilities are yanked kicking and screaming into the forefront when Rittenhouse's nurses go on strike. The last three episodes of the season comprise a tense story arc in which Lu is raped by a trusted colleague, surgeon Rand Kilner (Gregory Harrison), who claims that he'd merely indulged in consensual sex. The residue of this incident culminates in Lu's son Marc swearing vengeance, Dana being forced to deal with the devil when she needs Kilner for a particularly delicate operation, and an emotional tailspin for Lu that very well may cost her her job. Guest stars during Season Two include real-life MS victim Teri Garr as a good-humored woman who is diagnosed with the disease in the episode "Control Group"; and singer Mary J. Blige as "herself" in "History", wherein Lu flashes back to the establishment of her own storefront clinic with her colleagues, receptionist Lana (Jenifer Lewis) and male nurse/midwife Peter (Josh Coxx). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Reggie Rock Bythewood makes his directorial debut with this sharp comedy-drama about love, compromise, and TV. The film opens with the parallel childhoods of Tomasina "Tommy" Crawford (Nicole Ari Parker) and George Washington (Isaiah Washington). Both were utterly shaped by television -- watching Roots was one of the few times that Tommy's parents stopped fighting long enough to sit on the couch together, while George was traumatized by being banned from TV for a month after swiping some church donation cash. As adults, George is a programming executive at the WPX network where fledgling writer Tommy tries to pitch shows. On the strength of both her passion for her craft and her striking good looks, George decides to champion her show called "Just Us," a serio-comedy about a juvenile offender adopted by a judge. They shoot the pilot, the network greenlights the project, and eventually they fall in love. Even though Tommy longs to present her characters in an uncompromised, unvarnished manner, pressure from network execs and advertisers forces her to water down the plot. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Soul diva Jackie Washington is determined to hit the comeback trail but seems to be having trouble finding the on-ramp in the mock-documentary comedy Jackie's Back. Jackie (played by Jenifer Lewis) was a Rhythm and Blues singer who had a few late '60's and early 70's hits, including "Yield" and the memorable "Look At Me (My Love For You Has Only Made Me Love Me More)," but she's spent much of the 80's and 90's playing the "Where Are They Now?" circuit. However, Jackie has organized what she hopes will be a gala comeback concert, and filmmaker Edward Whatsett St. John (Tim Curry) is on hand to film the event, and discusses the high and (frequent) low points of Jackie's career with such friends and well-wishers as Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Penny Marshall, Jackie Collins and Dolomite himself, Rudy Ray Moore. Meanwhile, Jackie's big gig is not going quite the way she planned. Directed by Robert Townsend, Jackie's Back was produced for the Lifetime Cable Network and originally aired June 14, 1999. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In the tradition of My Left Foot (1989), Peter Chelsom directed this emotional drama of outcasts, adapted from the Rodman Philbrick's popular young-adult novel Freak the Mighty. Although burly, slow-paced eight-grader Maxwell Kane (Elden Hensen), who narrates, is learning disabled, he nevertheless has a poetic soul, as evidenced when he meets the bright and brainy Kevin Dillon (Kieran Culkin), crippled by a birth defect. The physically deformed Kevin, who wears leg braces and uses crutches, suffers from Morquio's Syndrome, which causes physical growth to stop after the age of six. Illiterate Max gets Kevin as a reading tutor, and the two misfits soon become friends, sharing a vision of life as a contemporary Camelot. Gena Rowlands and Harry Dean Stanton appear as Max's grandparents and guardians. Max is portrayed by 19-year-old Emerson College filmmaking student Henson, while Sharon Stone has the role of Gwen Dillon, Kevin's mother. Boston-born author Philbrick, who winters in Key West, otherwise resides in Seacoast, New Hampshire (the setting of the book). The movie was filmed at a soundstage in Toronto, the University of Toronto, Cincinnati, and Covington, Kentucky. Exhibited out of competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

In this first episode of a two-part story, Tess (Della Reese) pays a visit to the Greene family, the protagonists of the Touched by an Angel spinoff series Promised Land. She informs Joshua Greene (Austin O'Brien) that God has reserved a special purpose for him, specifically act as the "eyes" for the temporarily blinded Monica during her next assignment. Hitching a ride with one Michael Burns (George Newbern), Joshua and Monica end up in a rundown Denver neighborhood, where Michael's grandfather runs an inner-city mall. Here the travellers befriend lunch-counter owner Mary Harding (Esther Rolle) and her grandchildren Calvin (Sean Nelson) and Chanice (Myriah Darden), and also beauty salon proprietor Queenie (Jenifer Lewis). Unfortunately, the neighborhood is rife with tension over a dangerous band of "taggers" who have covered the walls with gang graffiti--and just before the episode ends, tragedy strikes one of the principal characters. Though the concluding half of this story originally aired as an episode of Promised Land, it is currently included in the Touched by an Angel syndication package. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Spike Lee directed this comedy-drama about a woman who falls into a career in phone sex. An African-American woman (Theresa Randle) who aspires to a career as an actress endures a number of dispiriting jobs (handing out leaflets and working as a coat check girl) before reaching the end of her rope at an audition with Q.T. (Quentin Tarantino), a sleazy movie director. Q.T. claims that he wants to offer her a role in his next film -- but since the role requires nudity, she will have to show him her breasts first. After firing her agent, the actress is strapped for cash and is offered a job enacting sexual fantasies for men over the phone. Dubbed "Girl 6" by her employers, the actress is treated with respect by her boss (Jennifer Lewis) and is well-liked by her co-workers. However, she has a hard time emotionally distancing herself from her work, and she finds herself becoming infatuated with Bob (Peter Berg), one of her regular callers, going so far as to set up a meeting with him. As she deals in other people's fantasies for a living, Girl 6 begins retreating into her own world of make-believe, where she can be a sexy screen siren or a butt-kicking blaxploitation star. Meanwhile, her former fiancé (Isaiah Washington), who scrapes by as a shoplifter, desperately wants her to give him another chance, and her next door neighbor, a baseball card collector named Jimmy (Spike Lee), keeps pestering her that she ought to be doing something more positive with her life. Girl 6's supporting cast includes Madonna as one of Girl 6's supervisors, John Turturro as her agent, and Debi Mazar as one of the other phone-sex girls; the film also features an original song score by Prince. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide