Courtney Love
- 2007
Inevitably recalling the shenanigans of Tom Green and Sasha Baron Cohen's Ali G, Canadian comedian Nardwuar the Human Serviette is essentially a provocateur who built his career out of shocking and offending politicians, actors, musicians, and other noteworthy public figures by pummeling them with outrageous and bizarre questions. Nardwuar particularly specializes in skewering anyone with an aura of self-righteous dignity or importance. Like Green, he rose to celebrity through the tunnels of public access television; the release Nardwuar the Human Serviette: Welcome to My Castle presents a "best of" compilation of interview footage from Nardwuar's 1990s local access series, in which he does Q&A with such guests as Pierre Eliot Trudeau, Ron Jeremy, Timothy Leary, Gerald Ford, Nirvana, Tony Robbins and many others. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nardwuar, Tommy Chong, (more)
- 2005
- AddComedy Central Roast of Pamela Andersonto QueueAddComedy Central Roast of Pamela Andersonto top of Queue
The Playboy playmate turned Baywatch bombshell proves that beauty is not above ridicule as Comedy Central brings together a who's who of top comedic talents to roast Pamela Anderson in a rousing night of insulting insight featuring the talents of Jimmy Kimmell, Tommy Lee, Eddie Griffin, Nick DiPaolo, Andy Dick, Courtney Love-Cobain, and many more. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pamela Anderson
When Rodney Bingenheimer was just a teenager -- a diminutive, long-haired kid who was picked on a lot -- his mother, a divorced autograph hound, dropped him off in front of the home of actress Connie Stevens and essentially said, "Good luck." Stevens was on location shooting a movie and Bingenheimer says he didn't see his mother again for five or six years after that. The Mayor of the Sunset Strip, a documentary by George Hickenlooper (Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse), tracks Bingenheimer's rise from the 1960s, when he was a groupie -- eventually landing his first show-business job as a double for Davy Jones on The Monkees -- through stints as a successful club owner and influential DJ to his current status as a fading musical icon. The film takes us from the innocent pop of Brian Wilson and Sonny & Cher through the raucous heyday of L.A.'s punk scene and beyond. Hickenlooper also delves into Bingenheimer's relationships, showing him mourning his neglectful and unbalanced, but beloved, mother and visiting with his father, who never attempted to make contact with Bingenheimer after his mother abandoned him. He also pines for a close friend, Camille Chancery, and helps out a seemingly hopeless middle-aged wannabe rock star, Ronald Vaughan. While Bingenheimer used his skills as a consummate hanger-on and his genuine enthusiasm for rock & roll to become a central figure in the L.A. music scene for a couple of decades and is lauded in the film for his good taste and good nature by celebrities from Cher to David Bowie to Gwen Stefani, his current life is shown to be somewhat sad and lonely. The Mayor of the Sunset Strip is chock full of cameos and features a star-studded soundtrack. It was shown at the 2003 New York Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rodney Bingenheimer
A mother is caught in a race against time to save her child in this taut suspense thriller. Dr. Will Jennings (Stuart Townsend) and his wife, Karen (Charlize Theron), find their world has been turned upside down when they're taken hostage and held in different cities while their young daughter is kidnapped by the same band of ruthless criminals. Joe Hickey (Kevin Bacon) has hatched a seemingly foolproof plan with his wife, Cheryl (Courtney Love), and cousin, Marvin (Pruitt Taylor Vince): while Dr. Jennings and Mrs. Jennings are under guard and unable to contact the police, Hickey will demand a massive ransom for the return of their daughter. If the payment is not arranged in 24 hours, the girl will be killed. Will and Karen realize it's imperative that they find their daughter as soon as possible, as she suffers from a medical condition that could claim her life if she doesn't receive her medication within a day, but as Karen plots a way to get away from Joe and rescue her little girl, she discovers money isn't the only reason Joe has chosen the Jenningses as his victims. Trapped was based on the novel 24 Hours by Greg Iles; 24 Hours was also announced as the film's title before it was changed to avoid being confused with the popular television series 24. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlize Theron, Courtney Love, (more)
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
One woman's decision to improve her mind has unexpected, life-changing results in this drama. Hoboken-born housewife Julie Johnson (Lili Taylor) left high school at the wishes of Rick (Noah Emmerich), who was then her boyfriend and is now her husband; Julie spends her days cleaning house and looking after her two children, Lisa (Mischa Barton) and Franky (Gideon Jacobs). Julie, who likes to read Scientific American in her spare time, has always dreamed of going back to school, but loutish Rick strictly forbids it. Without Rick's knowledge, Julie and her best friend Claire (Courtney Love) enroll in an "Introduction to Computers" course at a local community college, where instructor Mr. Miranda (Spalding Gray) quickly senses Julie has a tremendous intellectual potential she's never tapped. With Mr. Miranda's coaching, Julie breezes through the computer course and is soon tackling advanced mathematical and scientific theory with other members of the college's faculty. Rick eventually gets wind of Julie's new academic career and isn't the least bit pleased, but Julie, whose accomplishments have done wonders for her self-confidence, responds by kicking him out of the house. Claire, impressed by Julie's stand against Rick, decides it's time to leave her abusive husband Mike (Patrick Fitzgerald), and she moves in with Julie while looking for a new place. As Mr. Miranda urges Julie to obtain a high-school equivalency certificate and move on to a four-year college (where he'll be able to arrange an academic scholarship), Julie and Claire discover their new independence has stirred new feelings within them, and they move from being close friends to tentative lovers. Julie Johnson was based on the play by Wendy Hammond, who co-wrote the screenplay with director Bob Gosse. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lili Taylor, Courtney Love, (more)
This documentary on the cocky Caucasian rapper who is championed by some and vilified by others as sexist and homophobic uses interviews with Eminem (Marshall Mathers) himself, as well as with his friends and family. It contains footage from his concerts and commentary from music luminaries such as Bono, Dido, and Courtney Love. Mathers, a protegé of Dr. Dre, got his start in Detroit at the age of 14, and both his The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP CDs have sold millions in the hip-hop underground market. Purporting to reveal "the real man, behind the mask," the documentary also looks at the Mathers' family photo album and traces his rise from his poverty-stricken roots. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
William S. Burroughs' ill-fated performance of his "William Tell act" -- resulting in his wife Joan Vollmer getting a bullet in the brain with a shot glass atop her head -- soon became the stuff of Beat legend. This film, directed by Gary Walkow, traces this doomed romance from its inception to its bloody end. The movie opens in 1944 New York, where Columbia journalism student Vollmer is already living a bohemian life filled with pharmaceuticals and a host of future beatniks, including hunky Jack Kerouac (Daniel Martinez), a young Allen Ginsberg (Ron Livingston), and of course, Burroughs (Kiefer Sutherland). Also frequenting Vollmer's pad is Lucien Carr (Norman Reedus) whom everyone is enamored with, especially Dave Kammerer (Kyle Secor), who winds up dead after trying to jump the object of his affection. Seven years later, Joan and William have married in spite of Burroughs' obvious homosexual predilections. Their domestic bliss is strained when the two have to flee to Mexico City after they get slapped with a drug rap. Ginsberg and Carr, now correspondents for the UPI, visit the couple only to discover that Burroughs split town with his lover-for-hire. Vollmer and the boys decide to go on a road trip that is brimming with heterosexual tension. William eventually returns from his sex-binge suspecting that Joan had a fling with Carr. During that fateful night, Burroughs pulls out a gun that he was going to sell for drug money and performs one of the most spectacularly botched party-tricks in literary history. This film was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Courtney Love, Norman Reedus, (more)
- 1999
Clara Bow's heartbreaking personal life and successful Hollywood career are recalled during interviews with her son, as well as film expert Leonard Maltin and author Budd Schulberg. Singer/actress Courtney Love narrates this program that also features clips from some of Bow's many movies, including It and Parisian Love. As this video reveals, Bow spent many of her last years struggling with emotional problems in various institutions. ~ Elizabeth Smith, All Movie Guide
On New Year's Eve, no one wants to be alone. On this night in 1981, several different groups of young desperate people begin a journey from around New York City to a big party hosted by Monica (Martha Plimpton) and new friend Hillary (Catherine Kellner). As the hours pass and no one shows, Monica begins to unravel. She must bribe Hilary to stay with the promise of a clear shot at Monica's old boyfriend, Eric (Brian McCardie). Eric, at that moment is drinking in a nightclub with his new girlfriend, Bridget (Nicole Parker) and her friend Caitlyn (Angela Featherstone). When Bridget learns the host of the party is Eric's ex-girlfriend, she moves in on the bartender (Ben Affleck). Another group consists of two teenagers from Long Island, Monica's cousin Val (Christina Ricci) and Stephie (Gaby Hoffmann). The two get lost on the way when they run into a pair of punk rockers, Tom (Casey Affleck) and Dave (Guillermo Diaz). In a nearby diner, Lucy (Courtney Love) commiserates with her best friend Kevin (Paul Rudd) who has just been dumped by performance artist Ellie (Janeane Garofalo) so she could move in with her therapist. As they bar hop it slowly dawns upon the two that they could be more than friends. Elsewhere, new acquaintances Jack (Jay Mohr) and Cindy (Kate Hudson) are celebrating more than the new year. Cindy lost her virginity to Jack the night before, though is afraid Jack is with her out of sense of obligation. Now if only everyone can get to the party by midnight. Linking the different stories is the disco cabbie (Dave Chappelle) in whose cab the party never stops. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, (more)
Comedian Andy Kaufman gave performances that were bizarre and difficult to categorize, in which he might do or say almost anything: show cartoons, impersonate Elvis Presley, play conga drums while singing children's songs, read aloud from The Great Gatsby, or take the audience out for milk and cookies. Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski and directed by Milos Forman (the team behind The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)), this biopic takes an in-depth look at Kaufman's life and art, with Jim Carrey as Kaufman, who could (and would) be any number of different people onstage: the quiet and childlike man, the little foreign guy, the overbearing showbiz "professional," the violently obnoxious wrestler, or the world's worst lounge singer. As Kaufman rose from comedy clubs to guest appearances on Saturday Night Live and a spot on the TV sitcom Taxi, his performances became more complex and dangerous -- so much so that when word got out in 1984 that he was suffering from lung cancer, many fans and associates thought it was just another bizarre stunt; the disease took his life later that year. Man on the Moon features Danny De Vito as Kaufman's manager George Shapiro, Courtney Love as his girlfriend Lynne Margulies, Paul Giamatti as his friend Bob Zmuda, and David Letterman, Judd Hirsch, Marilu Henner, Carol Kane, and Christopher Lloyd as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, (more)
British documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield (Fetishes, Heidi Fleiss, Hollywood Madam) made this portrait of the late rock-star Kurt Cobain and his widow, musician and actress Courtney Love. Beginning with the 27-year-old Cobain's April 1994 suicide, Broomfield traces Cobain's Aberdeen, Washington, childhood and rise to fame, and the 1992 marriage of Cobain and Love, outlining the drug habits the two shared and exploring various "conspiracy" theories surrounding Cobain's death. Legal complications yanked this film both from a scheduled December 1997 BBC airing and a showing at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
"If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me, then it'll protect all of you -- 'cause I'm the worst," declares Hustler Magazine publisher Larry Flynt (as played by Woody Harrelson) in the midst of one of his many court cases. Milos Forman's film follows Flynt from his childhood in Kentucky, where he made extra money for his dirt-poor family by selling the moonshine his father brewed, into adulthood as he manages a strip club in Cincinnati. While the club does middling business, the experience changes Flynt's life in two ways: he meets Althea (Courtney Love), an exotic dancer who becomes the love of his life, and he gets the bright idea of starting a magazine to promote the club. Marketed as a crasser, less pretentious alternative to Playboy or Penthouse, Hustler becomes a huge success after Flynt runs a photo series of Jacqueline Onassis sunbathing nude. However, while plenty of people are buying Hustler, there are also plenty of people who don't care for it, including Charles Keating (James Cromwell), leader of a watchdog group called Citizens For Decent Literature. Keating spearheads the first of many legal attacks on the magazine, one of which reaches the Supreme Court as Alan Isaacman (Edward Norton), Flynt's lawyer, debates the finer legal points of bad taste with the justices of the highest court in the land. Meanwhile, Flynt makes a fortune, loses the use of his legs after an attack by a sniper, embraces and than abandons Christianity, and eventually loses Althea, who succumbs to AIDS after a long addiction to drugs. Woody Harrelson's brother Brett Harrelson is well cast as Larry Flynt's brother Jimmy; Larry Flynt appears briefly as a judge who hands down a judgment against Larry Flynt. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Harrelson, Courtney Love, (more)
Andy Warhol was a phenomenon who warrants a lot of explaining: a completely colorless mega-star celebrity, and a kind of LaBrea Tarpit for a vivid and talented collection of oddballs in the New York scene. He fostered their continued degeneration into weird lifestyles and heavy drug use; and at the same time acted as their mentor, agent, and sponsor. One artist who came to be part of Warhol's "scene" was Jean Michel Basquiat, an antisocial street-bum who went from writing graffiti on alley walls to being the toast of New York City's art world. This film biography chronicles the progression of Basquiat (Jeffrey Wright) and his progression from living in cardboard boxes to penthouses, his romances, his drug use, and his death in 1988 at age 27. Along the way, he never stopped detesting the rich, including art agent Bruno Bischofberger (Dennis Hopper), and he never lost his naivete. Warhol (David Bowie) picks up some of the pieces as Basquiat lurches through the art scene. Cameo appearances by Tatum O'Neal and Courtney Love add spice to this interesting film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Wright, Michael Wincott, (more)
It's not unusual in the movies for a woman to be torn between two brothers, but she usually doesn't change her mind on her wedding day. Then again, hardly anything goes the way one might expect in this black comedy. Freddie (Cameron Diaz), a pretty but hard-as-nails stripper, dreams of some day dancing in a Las Vegas revue, but for the meantime she works at a seedy dive in Minnesota. Freddie is forced by the owner of the club, Red (Delroy Lindo), to marry his accountant, the less-than-charming Sam Clayton (Vincent D'Onofrio), as punishment for supposedly stealing from the strip joint's till (as a further indignity, Red has also had the word "slut" tattooed on her arm). Sam has a rocky relationship with his brother Jjaks (Keanu Reeves) -- his curious name is the result of a typing error on his birth certificate -- but Jjaks receives an invitation to the nuptials from their mother Nora (Tuesday Weld), and he arrives at the wedding reception only a few hours after he's released from prison. When Freddie and Jjacks meet for the first time, there's an immediate chemistry between them, so immediate that before the evening is out, the new in-laws are making love in a bathroom and Freddie has persuaded Jjacks to run away with her; Freddie has also grabbed Sam's bankroll to finance the unscheduled vacation. Sam, understandably enraged, vows to track them down and enlists the help of Ben Costikyan (Dan Aykroyd), a sleazy career criminal. Feeling Minnesota was the debut feature for writer and director Steven Baigelman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keanu Reeves, Vincent D'Onofrio, (more)
This bizarre comedy spoof on spaghetti westerns was made in a hurry on location in Almeria, Spain. Simms (Joe Strummer), Willy (Dick Rude), and Norwood (Sy Richardson) are inept hitmen who decide to rob a bank. They encounter the MacMahon's (The Pogues), a quintet of caffeine-addicted gunslingers who ride motorcycles across the range wreaking havoc. Elvis Costello has a reoccurring role as a waiter who is always ready with a new tray of coffee. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sy Richardson, Joe Strummer, (more)
Punk rock's first great embodiment of the motto "live fast and die young," Sid Vicious joined The Sex Pistols when they were already established as the most controversial rock band in British history; and it soon became apparent that he couldn't play his instrument, had a magnetic attraction to chaos, and possessed a dangerous thirst for booze, drugs, and violence. Sid and Nancy opens shortly after Sid (Gary Oldman) joined the band, when he meets an obnoxious American punk groupie named Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb). Nancy claims that she can get drugs, and Sid naively gives her his money. Nancy doesn't show up with the goods, but when Sid runs into her a few days later, she has a tall tale about getting ripped off - and Sid sympathizes with her. Before long, Sid and Nancy have fallen in love, and while they argue with uncommon vehemence, they also depend completely on each other. When The Sex Pistols break up, Sid has few prospects and an increasingly voracious appetite for heroin, and Nancy's attempts to "manage" his career only hasten his downhill slide. Former Clash leader Joe Strummer wrote the film's theme song, "Love Kills," and The Pogues, The Circle Jerks, and Pray for Rain contributed to the soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Oldman, Chloe Webb, (more)
