Joseph Maher Movies

Brandon Cole directed this romantic comedy-drama with a revenge angle. Schoolteacher Rachel (Lili Taylor) leaves her car at the O.K. Garage run by small-time crook Yannick (Olek Krupa) who rips off his customers. Rachel's oddball neighbor Sean (Will Patton) likes lizards. Sean hangs with his pal, welder Johnny (John Turturro), who can't overcome his shyness to secure what he envisions as "the perfect relationship." However, a meeting with Rachel puts Johnny in a gentleman-caller mode and opens the doors to a restrained romance of sorts. Sean is curious, since there are no women in his life apart from his mother (Gemma Jones). Meanwhile, with Rachel's car eating up her savings, the trio decides to get revenge during a final showdown at the O.K. Garage. Shown at the 1998 L.A. Independent Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This unusual biography of the renowned Spanish artist Pablo Picasso is a Merchant-Ivory film. The team of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has been responsible for many period dramas, including A Room with a View and Howard's End. The story of Picasso's remarkable misanthropy is told as experienced by his mistress Francoise Gilot (Natasha McElhone). Francoise was Picasso's lover from 1944 to 1954, and they had two children together, Claude and Paloma. The film shows Picasso (Anthony Hopkins) as a notorious womanizer, with flashbacks revealing his relationships with his wife Olga (Jane Lapotaire), the artist Dora Marr (Julianne Moore), and Marie-Therese Walter (Susannah Harker), an earthy type who sees the artist only on Sundays. Hopkins powerfully portrays Picasso as an artistic genius with an appalling habit of using and abusing women. He not only cheats on his wife but two-times his mistresses. Francoise has survived an abusive relationship with her father (Bob Peck), and she is 40 years younger than Picasso when they become lovers. The film was supposed to be based on Gilot's book Life with Picasso, but the filmmakers were unable to get the rights to it, so they settled for basing the film on Arianna Huffington's Picasso: Creator and Destroyer. The movie also uses imitations rather than Picasso's real paintings. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

A crime fighter created in the 1930s and popularized in movies, pulp novels, and a radio show starring a young Orson Welles, The Shadow came back to life in 1994 in this slick, well-cast production. Alec Baldwin stars as Lamont Cranston, a murderous opium dealer reformed by a Tibetan mystic, who teaches him how to use his keen mental powers to manipulate others. As penance for his past misdeeds, Cranston masquerades as a degenerate New York City playboy by day and secretly plays the heroic Shadow by night, staving off evildoers with a network of agents and a cab-driving sidekick (Peter Boyle). A greater challenge arrives when Cranston must fight Shiwan Khan (John Lone), the final descendent of Genghis Khan, who has received training from the same Tibetan master who instructed Cranston. Shiwan plans to use atomic weapons to take over New York and then the world. At the same time, Cranston meets socialite Margo Lane (Penelope Ann Miller), and, although he's instantly enamored of her, he discovers that her psychic abilities render his secret identity vulnerable. The Shadow was directed by former music video creator Russell Mulcahy, whose feature film debut Highlander (1986) was a cult classic. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Killer is writer-director Mark Malone's offbeat noir fantasy about Mick (Anthony LaPaglia), an alienated, existential hit-man with a secret, romantic streak which leads him into tragedy. Mick is troubled by his desire to murder a call-girl because she failed to excite him, and he confides in mob boss George (Peter Boyle). George offers to set Mick up with a prominent psychiatrist if he first makes a hit on an upscale lady who has stolen money from the mob. Mick's pal Archie (Matt Craven) wants to join him, and Mick reluctantly agrees even though Archie's cowardice in a previous hit nearly cost George and Mick their lives. When Mick arrives to carry out the hit, to his surprise, he finds his victim expecting him. Elegant, cool Fiona (Mimi Rogers), asks a great many questions about Mick, learns a great deal and they engage in some mild sadomasochistic sex. Archie too becomes Fiona's confident, telling her of his botched hit and his troubled relationship with Mick. The film's conclusion is unusual and surprising, with dense and subtle performances by the entire cast. Malone is a confident and inventive director whose use of lighting and sound is smoothly impressive. But unlike many directors, Malone never allows this technique to interfere with the performances of his actors. Killer was well-received by critics, but failed to find an a well-deserved audience until it was released on video. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

An astrophysicist falls in love with a beautiful woman who is actually a disguised extraterrestrial in this high-concept comedy. Dan Aykroyd plays Steven Mills, a dedicated and harmlessly odd scientist researching ways to send radio signals to deep space. Unbeknownst to him, one of his experiments works better than expected, attracting the attention of an alien in need of help. She travels to Earth and poses as a human, assuming the name Celeste and the body of Kim Basinger. Celeste's lack of knowledge about humanity causes her to act bizarrely at times, but her odd behavior unexpectedly causes Mills to fall in love with her. The confused Celeste decides to play along for her planet's sake, but she finds her plan threatened by Mills' teenage daughter Jessie (Alyson Hannigan), who has become suspicious of Celeste after witnessing some odd behavior. The culture clash between Celeste's planet and Earth serves as an excuse for broad slapstick and sitcom-style humor, such as Celeste's fumbling efforts to enact the human ritual of "kissing." ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

It shouldn't be surprising that ALF's version of It's a Wonderful Life would take a few delightfully perverse twists along the way. Rendered unconscious by a bump on the head, ALF is visited by his fairy godfather Bob (Joseph Maher) shows him what life would have been like for the Tanners had the hairy little alien never crash-landed in their backyard. But ALF is no George Bailey, and Bob is no Clarence: It turns out that everyone would have been better off if ALF had landed somewhere else! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In yet another slick, formulaic Charles Bronson vengeance film (they would continue until the actor was in his mid-70s, still playing the morally insulted friend/husband/lover), Bronson is Holland, an assassin for hire who has just come out of retirement to finish off a Guatemalan thug by the name of Moloch (Joseph Maher). Moloch tortures and terrorizes the good guys and is protected by a misguided American government agency -- though nothing can stop Holland once he starts killing his way to the chief villain. No one except the wife of one of Moloch's victims -- and perhaps a few viewers now and again -- raises any questions about Holland's trail of corpses. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this black-and-white short, novice director Tim Burton tells the story of Frankenstein's monster in suburbia as a children's fable about tolerance. Loving parents Ben (Daniel Stern) and Susan Frankenstein (Shelley Duvall) encourage their son Victor's (Barret Oliver) home movies, starring their energetic bull terrier, Sparky. Following a terrible car accident, Sparky is dead and Victor is inconsolable. After an experiment with a frog in his science class, Victor gets the idea to make an electrical experiment of his own. After building a fantastic laboratory with only household items, he reanimates his beloved dog. Unfortunately, the family's nosy neighbors become fearful of the monster, even though he has done no wrong. The climactic ending acts as an homage to James Whale's original 1931 film and its sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Jill Clayburgh plays, as one character calls her, "a pill-popping dingbat" in this film adaptation of television producer Barbara Gordon's autobiographical account of her addiction to prescription drugs. Clayburgh plays Gordon in the film as a successful television documentary filmmaker whose mounting pressures force her to pop a Valium or two for nerves. She then ingests a few more pills after an argument with boyfriend Derek Bauer (Nicol Williamson). And thus begins her slow and steady compulsion to keep taking more and more Valium. Finally realizing her addiction, Gordon makes a disastrous attempt to go cold turkey but fails miserably, finally having to undergo a painful rehabilitation in an institution. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a hotel becomes a chaotic place during the 1938 filming of The Wizard of Oz, when it is inundated with groups of midgets, secret agents, and Nazi and Japanese spies. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

In this Sidney Lumet romantic comedy, Max Herschel (Alan King) is a powerful businessman who keeps a bevy of beauties for pleasure to escape his alcoholic wife, Connie (Dina Merrill). His main minx is Bones Burton (Ali MacGraw), a successful television producer who is tiring of Max's lack of commitment. When she takes up with Steven (Peter Weller), Max does everything in his power to win her back. Silent screen star Myrna Loy plays Max's faithful secretary, in her last big-screen role, and steals the show. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide