Matt McGrath Movies
The youthful delusions of a wistful husband and father prompt him to seek out a childhood friend and embark on a soul-searching journey of self discovery to the one place where no adult demands will be made of him in director David Munro's surreal second coming-of-age comedy. Alby (Matt McGrath) is having an early midlife crisis. Convinced that the only way to overcome his current malaise is to seek out his childhood pal Elias (Judah Friedlander) and set out on the open road, Alby leaves behind his wife and son in hopes of recapturing the glory of his youth. Unfortunately for Alby, Elias is all grown up now, and isn't exactly overjoyed to see the "best friend" whose rosy vision of childhood largely came from the fact that he made Elias the unwitting butt of his every joke. When Alby learns that Elias is taking a group of disabled drama students on a trip to the local amusement park, Elias has no choice but to let his pushy pal come along for the ride. What follows is a pensively hilarious look life as seen through the eyes of a man who can't seem to move past his youth, and the effect that a student-clown bartender (Amy Sedaris), a disgruntled former amusement park employee (Alan Cumming), a retired water-park mermaid (Debbie Harry), and a whole host of colorful characters have in helping Alby to bridge the gap between the glory days of his past and an uncertain future. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt McGrath, Judah Friedlander, (more)
Celebrated and vilified in equal measure, the pinup goddess Bettie Page inspired a legion of followers -- and an indecency scandal -- by appearing in a series of nude, sado-masochistic, and/or revealing magazine spreads in the 1950s. An era later, writer/director Mary Harron casts a knowing eye upon the woman who indirectly gave birth to modern pornography in the biopic The Notorious Bettie Page. As a teen, Page (Gretchen Mol) is a smart, plucky girl with ambitions beyond her Tennessee roots. Suffering varying degrees of abuse from her father, her first husband, and suitors of dubious virtue, Page makes her way to New York City, where an amateur photographer discovers her lounging on the beach. It isn't long before images of the shapely brunette reach Irving and Paula Klaw (Chris Bauer and Lili Taylor), brother-and-sister entrepreneurs who publish illicit magazines dedicated primarily to men's fetishes. The casual nudist Page eventually finds herself acquiescing to their requests to don thigh-high boots, whips, and chains, which raise the ire of the smut-fearing senator Estes Kefauver (David Strathairn). The Notorious Bettie Page had its North American premiere at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gretchen Mol, Christopher Bauer, (more)
- 2000
- R
- Add The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy to QueueAdd The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy to top of Queue
Greg Berlanti directs this comedic romp about a quartet of gay yuppies looking for love in all the wrong places. Though photographer Dennis (Timothy Olyphant) longs for a long-term relationship, he continues his routine of one-night-stands until he meets neophyte queer Kevin (Andrew Keegan) at a birthday party. Dennis' associates aren't faring much better. Apartment mate and hunky actor Cole (Dean Cain) goes through boys like Kleenex, that is until he is courted by a closeted movie star. Taylor (Billy Porter) is ditched by his longtime boyfriend during a long distance phone call. And Patrick (Ben Weber) generally whines about how ugly he is. Romantic misunderstandings, drug dalliances, and hugs follow. This film was screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Olyphant, Andrew Keegan, (more)
Based on a true story, this drama was adapted from the life of Brandon Teena, born Teena Brandon, a woman who chose to live her life as a man and suffered tragic consequences as a result. In 1993, 20-year-old Brandon (Hilary Swank) leaves Lincoln, Nebraska for the nearby community of Falls City, where she sports a crew cut, favors jeans and boots, and is regarded as a man by most of the people in town. While Brandon's friend Lonny (Matt McGrath) warns her that sexual outsiders aren't looked upon kindly in Falls City, she develops a reputation for being something of a ladies' man, and is soon living with a single mother named Candace (Alicia Goranson). But when Brandon meets teenage Lana (Chloe Sevigny), the two become romantically involved almost immediately. Brandon makes friends with Lana's mother (Jeanetta Arnette) and a burly ex-con named John (Peter Sarsgaard). John and his buddy Tom (Brendan Sexton) run with a rough group of men who like to drink and carouse, and they accept Brandon as one of their own. However, when Brandon ends up in jail on a traffic violation, her secret comes out, and, while Lana stands by Brandon's side, John and Tom feel betrayed -- and their anger soon boils over into violence. A distinguished feature debut for director Kimberly Peirce, Boys Don't Cry was enthusiastically received in its showings at 1999 film festivals in Venice, Toronto, and New York. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny, (more)
Actor Stanley Tucci made his directorial debut with a strong cast in this Depression Era farce focusing on two struggling two New York actors. In opening scenes, Maurice (Oliver Platt) and Arthur (Tucci) fabricate a fake fight at an outdoor cafe, do acting exercises, audition for a theater director (Woody Allen in an uncredited cameo), stage a pastry shop argument (to get food), and watch over-the-top, Barrymoresque actor Jeremy Burtom (Alfred Molina) on Broadway in Hamlet. Later, Burtom overhears himself insulted by a drunken Maurice and gives chase, forcing Arthur and Maurice to hide in a box. When they awaken, the box has been moved onto a luxury liner bound for France. To evade Burtom, they pose as stewards, meeting passengers and crew members: Staff director Meistrich (Campbell Scott) fancies head stewardess Lily (Lili Taylor), who goes for ship detective Marco (Matt McGrath). Others on board include Greek wrestling enthusiast Sparks (Billy Connelly); a former European queen (Isabella Rossellini); a suicidal lounge vocalist (Steve Buscemi); and a revolutionary (Tony Shalhoub) planning to bomb the liner. Shown in the Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oliver Platt, Stanley Tucci, (more)
- 1998
Tom McGowan makes his first series appearance as Kenny Daly, new manager of radio station KACL. It is bad enough that Kenny irreverently refers to radio shrink Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) as "Doc." But when Kenny insists that all his on-the-air talent perform live commercials for questionable products, it is too much. Outraged, Frasier rallies his co-workers to take a firm stand against the new station policies: After all, Kenny can't fire everyone, can he? Alas, inasmuch as this is the cliffhanger finale of Frasier's fifth season, it looks as if things may not turn out the way Frasier hopes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
Documentary filmmaker Nick Davis, the grandson of famed Hollywood screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (Citizen Kane), wrote and directed this comedy-drama about young New Yorkers at a party on New Year's Eve in the year 1999. The dawning millennium brings the partygoers to an existential precipice, where they look into a yawning canyon of angst, identity crises, insecurities, mood swings, doubts, dreams, and dilemmas. In the neat Greenwich Village apartment of Andrew Goldman (Matt McGrath), the party guests include neurotic Rufus Wild (Dan Futterman), aggressive lesbian Suki (Sandrine Holt), Andrew's self-stringent father Harold (Buck Henry), the mysterious, philosophical Goat Man (Steven Wright), immature and bookish Danny (David Gelb), and insecure vocalist Sylvia (Margaret Devine). To kick into the new millennium with a fresh outlook, Rufus attempts to end his relationship with girlfriend Annabell (Jennifer Garner), but he nevertheless feels they shouldn't cancel their plans to go to Andrew's apartment. At the party, Rufus sees Nicole (Amanda Peet), a woman he's wanted. He considers a confession to her of his desires, but a black-and-white flashback with accompanying internal monologue forces him into a reflective self-examination. The music track goes from the baroque (Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni) to alternative rock (Dandy Warhols). Shown at the 1998 L.A. Independent Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Futterman, Jennifer Garner, (more)
The second outing in the Boys Life series collects another set of gay-themed shorts. Must Be the Music follows a group of Los Angeles teens, three gay and one straight, through a night of romantic misadventures at a hip dance club. In Nunzio's Second Cousin, police Sgt. Tony Randozzy (Vincent D'Onofrio) turns the tables on a group of homophobes (one of them played by Seth Green) and forces one of them, Jimmy (Miles Perlich), to have dinner with him and his mother (Eileen Brennan). Alkali, Iowa uses the backdrop of a Midwestern agricultural community to tell the story of Jack (J.D. Cerna), a gay teen who discovers tantalizing glimpses of his dead father's life buried on the family farm; Mary Beth Hurt plays the boy's distant, defeated mother. The Academy award-winning Trevor relates the tale of a chunky, effete youngster (Brett Barsky) whose love of Diana Ross is matched only by his obsession with Pinky (Jonah Rooney), a handsome classmate. For Boys Life 2's video and DVD release, The DadShuttle replaced Trevor, which had received a video release of its own. An almost plotless tale that takes place during a single car ride to the airport, The DadShuttle focuses on the emotional distance and between a city-dwelling gay man and his suburban father. Alkali, Iowa director Mark Christopher would go on to direct the Hollywood feature 54, while Nickolas Perry, director of Must Be the Music, would go on to helm the Gus Van Sant-produced Speedway Junky. Before directing Trevor, Peggy Rajski was known primarily as a producer; her credits include the Jodie Foster directorial efforts Little Man Tate and Home for the Holidays. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Colin Fitz was a rock star, but his untimely demise put his career in the past tense a few years ago. On the anniversary of his death, Colin's widow decides to hire security guards to watch Colin's grave, in the hope of preventing a repeat of last year's ugly incident in which a group of ardent fans committed mass suicide near his final resting place. The widow approaches Mr. O'Day (William H. Macy), head of O'Day Security, who agrees to put two men on the job. Dim-witted Grady (Andy Fowle) and philosophical Paul (Matt McGrath) wind up on the case, spending most of the night drinking beer and swapping stories as they keep an eye on the various characters who come to pay their respects to Fitz, including a group of especially zealous Swedish fans. The film received awards at the Austin Film Festival and Houston's WorldFest and competed at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt McGrath, Andy Fowle, (more)
- 1992
The two-part TV movie Cruel Doubt was based on a true story, as elucidated in book form by Joe McGinniss. In part one, aired May 17, 1992, Wealthy North Carolinian Blythe Danner discovers that her own son Matt McGrath was involved in a robbery-assault in their home, in which her husband was killed. The story was resolved in part two, which debuted May 19, 1992. As the courtroom trial wears on, flashbacks reveal the extent of McGrath's involvement in the crime, as well as the depths of his mental illness. And for a brief period, there's a slim possibility that the evidence is all wrong, and that McGrath is innocent. The boy's sister is played by Gwyneth Paltrow, real-life daughter of Blythe Danner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Blythe Danner, Ed Asner, (more)
In the tradition of This Is Spinal Tap, producer/ director/ star Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts is a satire disguised as a documentary. Robbins plays the titular Roberts, a wealthy, well-connected young man running for a senatorial seat in Pennsylvania. On the surface, Roberts is an ingratiating glad-hander, a sincere believer in the restoration of such intangibles as national pride, family values, etc. But the longer Roberts is followed about by documentary filmmaker Brian Murray, the more we become aware that the candidate is a textbook case of cynicism and contempt. Only Giancarlo Esposito, a reporter for an underground newspaper, is willing to dig beneath Roberts' veneer--a habit that leads to the film's ironic conclusion. Several well-known actors make cameo appearances as TV commentators, notably Tim Robbins' longtime partner Susan Sarandon. Bob Roberts started out as a Tim Robbins-directed short subject for the TV series Saturday Night Live, then was expanded into a $4 million feature. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, (more)
Teenage angst finds a new voice in this drama. By day, Mark Hunter (Christian Slater) is a quiet, studious student at an ordinary suburban high school in Arizona. But at night, Mark creeps down into his basement, fires up his pirate radio transmitter, and broadcasts to the community as Hard Harry, a sexually obsessed social commentator who passes along angry philosophy about the state of teenage life when not blasting punk rock or gangsta rap cuts. Hard Harry's sworn nemesis is high school principal Mrs. Cresswood (Annie Ross), who keeps SAT scores up at the expense of her students' dignity and individuality by eliminating "troublemakers" from the student body. Hard Harry's broadcasts, however, have become a rallying point for the school's misfit underclass, and Mrs. Cresswood is determined to track down the mystery student and bring him to justice (broadcasting without a license, he's not merely an annoyance, but a criminal). The war against Hard Harry intensifies when he broadcasts data from confidential school board reports; Mark's father is a school commissioner, but he has no idea what his son is doing in the basement. Meanwhile, Mark gains the attentions of Nora (Samantha Mathis), who has figured out who he becomes at night. More serious and intelligent than the average teen film, Pump Up the Volume was written and directed by Allan Moyle, who previously dealt with disaffected, music-obsessed teens in Times Square and would return to them with Empire Records. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, (more)
The Desperate Hours directed by Michael Cimino, is an attempt to remake the Humphrey Bogart classic of the same name with indifferent results. Bosworth (Mickey Rourke), a brutal criminal on the run with his partners, takes over a house occupied by an unhappily married couple Nora (Mimi Rogers) and Tim (Anthony Hopkins) and their young son and daughter. Bosworth has escaped from jail with the help of his defense attorney Nancy Breyers (Kelly Lynch). The film focuses on the interactions of the family and Bosworth as he plans his escape to Mexico. Cimino wastes little time in developing the characters or explaining the implausible premise that Bosworth would chose an occupied house and hold an innocent family captive when the logical choice would be to lay low and wait for his chance to escape. Both Hopkins and Rourke, usually excellent actors, give wildly over-the-top performances, aided by the lurid, over-written dialogue of the screenplay and the badly paced, ill-conceived direction by Cimino, which instead of creating tension and suspense, simply confuses the already muddled and incomprehensible plot. The Desperate Hours is a pale example of the original with little to recommend it. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rourke, Anthony Hopkins, (more)
- 1990
Appearances began life as a 2-hour TV pilot film. A Midwestern family tries to carry on after the sudden death of the family's son. Everyone puts up a brave public front, but the artifice results in gradual erosion of family solidarity. Ernest Borgnine fares best as the clan's patriarch. Appearances never developed into a series, though it has been released to home video. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on the William Kennedy novel of the same name Ironweed is set in the waning years of the Depression. Jack Nicholson plays Francis Phelan, a washed-up ballplayer (a onetime infielder for the Washington Senators) who deserted his family back in the 1910s when he accidentally killed his infant son by dropping him. Since that time, Phelan has been a shabby barfly, living from drink to drink; he spends his days palling around with Rudy (Tom Waits), with whom he works a motley series of jobs in exchange for a place to lay his head and an occasional jug of wine. Wandering into his hometown of Albany, New York, Phelan blearily seeks out his girlfriend and erstwhile drinking companion of nine years, Helen Archer (Meryl Streep), who has begun prostituting herself for drink and lodging. The two derelicts touch base in a mission managed by minister James Gammon, and later in Fred Gwynne's squalid gin mill. Over the next few days, Phelan takes a few minor jobs to support his habit, while his mind wavers between past and present. Eventually, a chance for a reconciliation with his wife (Carroll Baker) emerges. Directed by Hector Babenco following his enormous success with Kiss of the Spider Woman , Ironweed netted Oscar nominations for Nicholson and Streep. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, (more)
