Ann-Marie MacDonald Movies
Better Than Chocolate is a lesbian love story. Walking home from an evening at the lesbian club 'Cat's Ass,' Maggie is confronted by a gang of skinheads. Suddenly a minibus comes to a screeching halt and out jumps Kim. The skins move on, and Maggie thanks Kim, who watches her go. This is their first meeting. Maggie has recently dropped out of law school and now works in a women's shop. To avoid a confrontation with her mother, she makes up a success story and tells her that she's living in a beautiful apartment. As her mother is having her difficulties with her second husband, she decides to take her young son and come to live with Maggie for a while. Meanwhile, Maggie is housesitting the apartment of a female performer on tour. As fate might have it, she runs across Kim again and they find themselves at the new apartment making love in the shower -- at which moment Maggie's mother and little brother step in. The film was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wendy Crewson, Karyn Dwyer, (more)
- 1997
29-year-old defense lawyer Nick Donahue (Rick Schroder) is still tied to the apron strings of his possessive mother Diana (Judith Light)--so much so that, when he tries to move out of the family home, Diana is able to bind him even tighter by attempting suicide. While visiting Diana in the hospital, Nick meets and falls in love with Abby (Sarah Trigger), his mother's nurse. Ultimately, Nick and Abby marry, much to Diana's dismay. When Abby announces she is pregnant, it is too much for the unbalanced Diana to bear--and thus she promptly begins plotting her daughter-in-law's murder. This fact-based melodrama culminates in an intense courtroom scene, in which accused killer Diana is defended by--guess who? Made for the CBS TV network, Too Close to Home originally aired April 29, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1989
The Canadian Where the Spirit Lives begins on a sombre note, as several Native American children are forcibly rounded up by the government and placed in orphanages. As sparse as life was on the reservation, it is even worse in these government-supported institutions. The latest arrival is Michelle St. John, a girl possessed with more than the usual quotient of feistiness. Refusing to buckle under the system, Michelle attempts daring escape. Despite its grim trappings, Where the Spirit Lives is an ultimately uplifting experience. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Clayton Julian
- 1987
- R
- Add I've Heard the Mermaids Singing to Queue Add I've Heard the Mermaids Singing to top of Queue
Lensed on a smile and a shoeshine on 16 millimeter, I've Heard the Mermaids Singing effectively shifts from black and white to color and back again to make its artistic statement. Sheila McCarthy stars as a self-effacing amateur photographer who goes to work for yuppie art-curator Paule Baillargeon. Ms. McCarthy expresses her admiration for Ms. Baillargeon by secretly submitting the latter's paintings to some appreciative critics. Baillargeon responds by behaving atrociously towards McCarthy. This shakes up McCarthy to the point that she realizes she'll never succeed as an artist on her own terms long as she hides behind the accomplishments of others. This apparently autobiographical first film by director Patricia Rozema (we say "apparently" because Sheila McCarthy's character name is rhythmically and ethnically close to Rozema's) won the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sheila McCarthy, Paule Baillargeon, (more)
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