Ron Livingston Movies
Ron Livingston first came to the attention of film audiences in 1996, when he portrayed one of Jon Favreau's Rat Pack-obsessed cronies in Swingers. Over the next few years, the actor began taking more and more leading roles, earning recognition and making a name for himself in the process. A graduate of Yale, where he received a B.A. in Theatre Studies and English Literature, Livingston began acting at the Williamstown Theatre Festival while in college. After graduation, he headed to Chicago, where he performed at the Goodman Theatre. Livingston made his film debut in the 1992 Dolly Parton comedy Straight Talk, and the following year he had a supporting role in the independent film Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade.After catching the eyes of audiences in the cult-hit Swingers, Livingston began to take on increasingly more prominent film roles. In 1999 he could be seen in no less than three films, beginning with the comedy Office Space, in which he had the starring role. While the film performed theatrically, it slowly gained an audience on home-video and was later regarded as a modern comedy classic.
In 2001, Livingston turned to the small screen, first in the Stephen Spielberg-produced miniseries Band of Brothers, then with a short-lived starring role on ABC's The Practice. He could be seen in theaters again in 2002, stealing scenes as a smarmy agent in the critically-acclaimed Adaptation and returned to television the following year, with a recurring role as one of Carrie's boyfriends on Sex and the City.
Livingston's next starring film role would come in 2004, when he played opposite Brittany Murphy in the romantic-comedy Little Black Book. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
Twelve-year-old James (Trevor Morgan) is haunted by the car crash that claimed his mother's life two years earlier. Estranged from his father (Ray Liotta) and nurturing a deep hatred of his stepmother (Catherine McCormack), James is none too pleased about the prospect of spending his summer vacation at their Maine beach house. With no one his own age for company, he spends his time exploring the surrounding beaches. One day, while playing in the dunes, James accidentally breaks a fence belonging to Maddy Bennett (Vanessa Redgrave), a cranky old woman with a reputation for loony behavior. James embarks on a mission to fix the fence, and as he works, he and Maddy form a deep friendship. But when the boy's family learns of the friendship, they wrongfully blame Maddy for their own problems, prompting Maddy to react in a manner that profoundly affects the entire family. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Starring:
- Vanessa Redgrave, Ray Liotta, (more)
After a long lonely period of involuntary celibacy, Marty Sachs decides that he has had enough of New York and wants to pack up and run the family business in Maine. Yet before he leaves, he meets two available, attractive women, both named Nina. Nina Cohen shares many of the same eccentric interests as Marty, but she has grow gun-shy from one too many bad relationships. Blonde bombshell Nina Harris literally knocks Marty off his feet in an ill-fated attempt at snagging a cab. Two Ninas was screened at the 1999 Boston Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cara Buono, Amanda Peet, (more)
An unproduced screenplay written by the late Orson Welles (penned in collaboration with actress Oja Kodar, Welles' significant other in his later years) forms the basis of this drama of political gamesmanship and blackmail. Blake Pellarin (William Hurt) is running for governor of Missouri in a close race going into its final week when a figure from his past reappears. Kim Mennaker (Nigel Hawthorne) was Pellarin's one-time mentor and father figure (after Blake's dad died in the Korean war) who left the United States when public disclosure of his homosexuality ended his political career. This visit from an old friend soon proves less then welcome; when Pellarin was a teenager, he participated in a photo session organized by Mennaker in which he was snapped in sexually compromising positions with both a woman and a man. These photos could put a stake through the heart of Pellarin's life in politics, and Mennaker soon makes clear this is hardly the only dirt he has on Blake. Mennaker also has a ready audience for his stories -- Cela Brandini (Irene Jacob), a European reporter looking for scandal, even though she's having an affair with Pellarin. When Pellarin's wife (Miranda Richardson) and bodyguard (Ewan Stewart) get wind of Blake's indiscretions, his candidacy becomes a disaster waiting to happen. Director George Hickenlooper adapted Welles and Kodar's screenplay with critic F.X. Feeney; among his previous credits, Hickenlooper directed the short film Some Folks Call It A Sling Blade, a short film later expanded by Billy Bob Thornton into his award-winning feature Sling Blade. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- William Hurt, Nigel Hawthorne, (more)
Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a computer programmer working for Initech in Houston. Every day, he and his friends Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton (David Herman as not THAT Michael Bolton), suffer endless indignities and humiliations in their soulless workspace from their soulless boss, Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). For Peter, stuck in his cookie-cutter apartment with paper-thin walls and IKEA furniture, every day is worse than the one before it -- so every day is the worst of his life. To cap it off, Initech has hired a pair of "efficiency experts" to downsize the company. One Friday night, Peter's soon to be ex-girlfriend Anne (Alexandra Wentworth) forces him to go to an occupational hypnotherapist to relieve work stress. While Peter is under hypnosis, the therapist keels over and dies. As he never snaps out of his hypnotic state, Peter has a new outlook on life. If something annoys him, he just ignores it or walks away from it. He is completely relaxed and enjoying life for the first time in a long time. On Monday, Peter skips work and sleeps in. He gets up for lunch and drives down to a restaurant next to his office and asks the waitress he's had a crush on, Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), on a date. When Peter stops into the office to pick up his organizer, he's called in to talk to the efficiency experts. Relaxed and friendly, Peter charms them as he describes everything wrong with the office, including his boss. Even as Peter now appears at work only as the mood strikes him, the experts decide he's management material and give him a promotion even as they lay off the hardworking Samir and Michael. Peter then convinces his friends to exact revenge on Initech based upon an idea from Superman III. Not everything works out quite as planned. Office Space originated from writer/director Mike Judge's first animated short of the same name, created in 1991. The short was about Milton (reproduced in the film by Stephen Root), a damaged office drone whose complaints and threats about his sufferings go unheeded. ~ Ron Wells, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, (more)
After making his directorial debut with the acclaimed made-for-cable movie Gia, writer Michael Cristofer helmed his first big-screen offering with this drama. When eight men and women in their early-to-mid-20s head out for a night on the town, hopping from one Los Angeles club to the next, not everything goes as planned as they discover the joys and perils of dating at the end of the 20th Century. Body Shots shifts among the perspectives of its eight characters, played by Sean Patrick Flanery, Ron Livingston, Jerry O'Connell, Amanda Peet, Emily Procter, Tara Reid, Brad Rowe, and Sybil Temchen. The film had a number of titles during production, including The Night Before and Jello Shots, the latter of which was reportedly axed to avoid legal problems with the company that makes the gelatin dessert product. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sean Patrick Flanery, Jerry O'Connell, (more)
- 1998
In Queens, obnoxious and bombastic blue-collar slob Mike (stand-up comic Gerry Red Wilson) gets his kicks from football, cold beers, and spousal abuse with his cute wife Patty (Kellie Overbey). In the premiere episode of this sitcom, Mike is elated by a promotion at the supermarket to "head of the meat department." The fun is short-lived as household tensions erupt when Patty's snobbish sis Catherine (Nadia Dajani) is ditched by her husband and needs a place to stay. Mike already hates her, but this interferes with his plans for the spare room. Variety reviewed this as "an uncomfortably crude...oddly politically incorrect sick-com" from former Roseanne producer Eric Gilliland. It premiered March 10, 1998 on ABC. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gerry Red Wilson, Kellie Overbey, (more)
A group of teenagers telling ghost stories while stranded in the middle of nowhere sets the scene for this collection of horror tales. A girl is terrorized by a psycho she "met" on the internet, a biker makes the mistake of visiting a haunted farmhouse, and some folks in an RV finds monsters along the highway. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
A knowing examination of the psyche of the modern American male, Doug Liman's debut comedy Swingers stars screenwriter Jon Favreau as the sensitive Mike, a struggling actor and stand-up comic looking for romance in the wake of the dissolution of a six-year relationship. Against his better judgment, he hits the town with his pal Trent (Vince Vaughn, in a star-making performance), a retro-hip smooth-talker who calls women "babies" and feels compelled to illustrate to Mike the error of his gentlemanly ways. First in Las Vegas and later in a series of hip L.A. nightspots, the duo and their other pals, including a guy named Sue (Patrick Van Horn), prowl for women, looking for kicks and cheap thrills. The difference is that while Trent wants sex, Mike wants love and romance. Only when he learns to simply be himself does he find what he's looking for. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, (more)
In this drama set in Los Angeles, a group of Yale graduates spend their days as mindless workers at a mundane job and their nights as mooching barflies who enjoy cutting down other patrons with their smart-mouth comments. The main character John loses his roommate and must move into the filthy apartment of Andy, a strange sort who collects and paints Nazi soldier figurines. John later gets a temporary job with a conniving slum lord. Following a failed romance, John suffers a "controlled mental breakdown." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rory Cochrane, Kyra Sedgwick, (more)
Dolly Parton and James Woods as the screen's hottest new romantic team? That's only one of several casting surprises in this romantic comedy. Shirlee Kenyon (Dolly Parton) has had enough of life in her small Arkansas town, not to mention her small-minded Arkansas boyfriend Steve (Michael Madsen). So she decides to head for the big city of Chicago, where she applies for a job as a receptionist at a talk radio station. However, she arrives at the studios just as the staff are frantically searching for the psychiatrist hired to host a call-in show for people seeking advice with their personal problems. Shirlee is put on the air by mistake, and, while she lacks a degree in psychology, she has common sense to spare, and her no-nonsense advice makes the show a hit. Soon "Doctor Shirlee" is the talk of the town, but reporter Jack Russell (James Woods) senses that she might not be all she's supposed to be. Jack does some investigating and finds out the truth about Shirlee, but by this time the two have met and he's fallen in love with her. Will Jack obey his responsibilities as a journalist, or follow his heart? Straight Talk's supporting cast includes filmmaker John Sayles, monologist Spalding Gray, actor and producer Griffin Dunne, and future Lois Lane Teri Hatcher. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dolly Parton, James Woods, (more)
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