Joe Mantello Movies
Actor/director Joe Mantello is best known for his work on the New York stage, both on and off Broadway, but he has also occasionally tarried with feature films and television. Born and raised in Rockford, IL, Mantello studied at the Carolina School of the Arts. Upon graduating, he and classmates actress Mary-Louise Parker and writer Peter Hedges founded the short-lived Edge Theater in New York City. In 1989, Mantello joined the prestigious Circle Repertory Company as an actor and a director. That year, he made his feature film debut with a small role in Susan Seidelman's Cookie. Mantello is known as a versatile and talented actor and won a Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination for his work in Tony Kushner's Angels in America. But despite the accolades and his ability, Mantello has found good roles hard to come by and, therefore, has not appeared all that often on Broadway. He has occasionally appeared on such quality television dramas as Law & Order and Sisters. As a director, Mantello has staged a variety of productions, but is best known for directing Terrence McNally's esteemed Love! Valour! Compassion!, a moving chronicle of eight gay men who gather on weekends at a lovely summer cottage. Mantello directed the play off and on Broadway, as well as the 1997 feature film version. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- R
Directed by Susan Seidelman and written by Alice Arlen and Nora Ephron, Cookie comes across as an inconsequential piece of fluff, bolstered by a quirky performance by Emily Lloyd. Lloyd is Cookie Capisco, the daughter of mobster Dino Capisco (Peter Falk), who has just finished thirteen years in prison. Dino wants to get out of jail, settle some old scores, and make up for lost time with his daughter. His illegitimate daughter, that is -- since Cookie's mother, Lenore (Dianne Wiest), has been Dino's longtime mistress. Dino's actual wife Bunny (Brenda Vaccaro) has, he thinks, been kept in the dark about Dino's mistress and his daughter. Dino decides that the best way to get to know Cookie is to hire her as his chauffeur. With her ears attuned to the conspiracies floating around Dino, she quickly discovers that her father's old crony, Carmine (Michael V. Gazzo), has been swindling him and that Dino's life is in jeopardy. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Dianne Wiest, (more)
- 1991
Season Two of Law & Order begins on a shockingly tragic note, as Detective Sergeant Max Greevey is shot down and killed in front of his own home (former regular George Dzundza had already departed the series when this scene was filmed). In his grief, Greevey's partner Logan (Chris Noth) vows to track the murderer to the ends of the earth -- a promise complicated by his difficulty in adjusting to new partner Phil Cerreta (Paul Sorvino). Ultimately overstepping his bounds, Logan may ironically prevent the D.A.'s office from successfully prosecuting the killer. In addition to introducing Paul Sorvino to the cast, this episode also represents the first appearance of Catherine McCormack in the recurring role of police psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Olivet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Eight friends spend three weekends in the country over the course of a summer as they explore their sometimes conflicting attitudes about love, sex, friendship, life, and death in this screen adaptation of Terrence McNally's award-winning play. Gregory Mitchell (Stephen Bogardus) is a successful choreographer whose skills as a dancer have begun to decay as he slips into middle age. He has a handsome summer home in Upstate New York which he shares with his lover Bobby Brahms (Justin Kirk). Gregory and Bobby often invite several of their friends to join them for holiday weekends: Perry Sellars (Stephen Spinella) and Arthur Rape (John Benjamin Hickey) are a pair of yuppies (complete with a Volvo) who have been a couple for 14 years (as Perry jokes, "We're role models -- it's very stressful"). John Jeckyll (John Glover), a musician and composer with a short temper and a witheringly bitter sense of humor, arrives with his latest boyfriend, Ramon Fornos (Randy Becker), a good-looking dancer who often suffers the wrath of John's foul mood. Buzz Hauser (Jason Alexander) is a witty and flamboyant enthusiast of the Broadway theater who describes his greatest fear as a production of The King and I starring Tommy Tune and Elaine Stritch; he's also HIV-positive, though he stubbornly refuses to discuss his condition with his friends. And John's twin brother James Jeckyll (also played by John Glover) is his brother's polar opposite, a kind and forgiving soul who is now living with AIDS. Love! Valour! Compassion! was directed by Joe Mantello, who also directed the original New York stage production; this film also reunites the show's New York cast, with the exception of Jason Alexander, who stepped into the role created by Nathan Lane. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Alexander, Randy Becker, (more)
- 1998
The question of journalistic ethics is brought into play when the wife of a prominent New Yorker is murdered. The victim's husband blames the killing on a gossip columnist working for a widely circulated checkout-stand tabloid. In pursuing the case in tandem, the detectives and the lawyers again find themselves in the position of setting a precedent that may have long-range repercussions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
- PG
The documentary ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway journeys behind the scenes of four Broadway productions mounted during the 2003-4 theatrical season that ultimately garnered nominations for Best Musical: Wicked, the Rosie O'Donnell/Boy George collaboration Taboo, Tony Kushner's Caroline, or Change and the iconoclastic puppet review Avenue Q. The film provides a glimpse into each stage of the theatrical process for these productions - from auditions to staging to rehearsals to previews to opening night to awards season. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
