Joanna Miles Movies
Born in France to American parents, Joanna Miles established herself as an actress in the U.S. Joanna's presence graced several soaps opera, most prominently All My Children, in which she was cast as Ann Tyler. She won a 1973 Emmy for the portrayal of Laura in a TV-movie version of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Since that time, she has racked up more television than theatrical-film credits, appearing in such made-for-TV endeavors as Aloha Means Goodbye (1974), As Is (1985), The American Clock (1993) and Born Innocent (1974), Cooperstown (1993). Joanna Miles' recent film work includes a comic cameo as Queen Gertrude in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1993) and a supporting part in the Sylvester Stallone bomb Judge Dredd (1995). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Four people get a crash course in the difference between love and desire in this independent drama. Ellis (Kuno Becker) and Renee (Eliza Dushku) are a young couple who've grown tired of one another, and though they're still in love, they aren't sure how to reignite the spark in their relationship. Elsewhere, James (Macaulay Culkin) and Heather (Alexis Dziena) are another young couple who are having trouble in the bedroom; he's not as attracted to her as he once was, and she's determined to do something about it. Heather arranges for her and James to attend a lecture by relationship therapist Dr. Wellbridge (Joanna Miles), where they meet Ellis and Renee. In a private meeting with Dr. Wellbridge, the two couples are encouraged to swap partners as a way of breaking up the monotony and confronting their problems, but after a few days together the four know more about one another and their troubles than they ever expected to learn. Sex and Breakfast was the first feature film from writer and director Miles Brandman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Macaulay Culkin, Kuno Becker, (more)
- 2000
Robert Mantegna stars as tough Boston private eye Spencer in this made-for-cable adaptation of the Robert B. Parker novel Thin Air. It all begins when Lila St. Claire (Yancy Butler, the new bride of police detective Frank Belson (David Ferry), is kidnapped by Latino ganglord Luis DeLeon (Jon Seda). As a personal favor to Belson, Spencer agrees to burrow into the barrio in hopes of rescuing Lila. In so doing, Spencer is made privy to more unsavory aspects of Beantown's Latino subculture--and also learns more than he cares to know about Lila's clouded past. Thin Air was originally telecast by the A&E network on September 12, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Mantegna, Marcia Gay Harden, (more)
- 2000
Greene (Anthony Edwards) confronts unforeseen perils as he flies to Indiana and back with a heart-transplant patient. Carter (Noah Wyle) treats teenaged patient Trent Larson (Blake Heron), whose parents have not informed him that he is HIV-positive. Kovac (Goran Visnjic) tries to learn the identity of the mugger he has killed. And no sooner has Benton (Eriq La Salle) returned to work than he is placed in charge of the ER. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A violent, effects-heavy science fiction adventure, Judge Dredd depicts a nightmarish future in which overcrowded cities are terrorized by brutal gun battles and policed by "Judges," law officers who act as judge, jury, and executioner. Sylvester Stallone stars as Judge Dredd, a punishing enforcer with an unswerving dedication to law and order. Little does Dredd know that a nasty villain (Armand Assante) and a corrupt Judge (Jurgen Prochnow) are plotting to take over the city and plan to frame Dredd for murder in order to prevent him from interfering. Dredd winds up in prison, but he fights back with the help of Judge Hershey (Diane Lane), his partner and romantic interest, and Fergie (Rob Schneider), his friend and comic relief, developing a plan to clear his name and stop the bad guys. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, (more)
In this high-tension thriller, Christopher Reeves plays Dempsey Cain, a paralyzed detective (ironically, it was filmed a year before the tragic accident that would make him a quadriplegic) whose arrogance and penchant for perfectionism has alienated his family to the point that his wife Gail (Kim Cattrall) turns to his brother Nick (Edward Kerr) for love. Nick is also a cop, but unlike Dempsey, he tends to be irresponsible and sloppy. It was he who was responsible for Dempsey's paralysis. Dempsey knows that Nick and Gail are trysting. This coupled with his disability makes life unbearable. Wanting to end his life, but knowing that his million-dollar life insurance policy will not cover his suicide, he approaches Nick and Gail with the perfect solution -- to murder him and make it look like a burglary. Dempsey plans his demise to the nth degree. Unfortunately, despite his careful scheming, Dempsey makes one fatal flaw -- he did not include his suspicious, resentful and jealous colleague Allan Rhinehart (Joe Mantegna) into the equation and things go horribly awry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1993
In this tense drama a reporter tries to figure out the reason a wealthy young man shot a popular pulp-fiction writer and then shot himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Stoltz, Jennifer Connelly, (more)
- 1993
This made-for-cable version of Arthur Miller's play The American Clock was adapted for television by Frank Galati. Inspired partly by Studs Terkel's oral history Hard Times, and partly by Miller's own recollections, the film is set at the beginning of the Depression. When the stock market crashes, the well-to-do Baumler family (John Rubinstein, Mary McDonnell, Loren Dean) loses everything. The Baumlers are forced to move from their plush penthouse apartment to the less-attractive Brooklyn digs of Mrs. Baumler's sister (Joanna Miles). Twelve-year-old Lee Baumler (Dean), the Arthur Miller counterpart, hits the road to find out how others are coping with the Long National Nightmare. The alternately depressing and uplifting storyline moves along briskly to a surprisingly abrupt climax. Kelly Preston, David Strathairn, Eddie Bracken, Darren McGavin, and Estelle Parson co-star in The American Clock, which premiered over the TNT Cable Network on August 23, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
This gentle baseball fantasy centers on a former ball player who has spent thirty years bitterly brooding over the fact that he has been overlooked by the Baseball Hall of Fame. He finally decides to take action when his long-lost best friend returns from the dead to talk to him. Just before he died, the friend was inducted into the famous museum. The rest of the story is comprised of touching and sometimes funny vignettes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
A Depression-era inventor finds a way of revolutionizing manufacturing technology and then discovers that this invention has its dark side as well. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1992
A dreary and depressing tale despite the excellent assemblage of talent, this is the story of a Depression-era family where sibling rivalry and tragedy seem to be the watch words of their home life. A period piece set in 1930s Texas. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Do not confuse this fact-based feature with the more tongue-in-cheek cable TV version, The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader Murdering Mom. This one looks seriously at the story of a Texas mother who was willing to kill to ensure her daughter's place on the cheerleading squad. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1990
Mark Lenard, who played Mr. Spock's Vulcan-ambassador father Sarek on the original Star Trek, recreated the role in this Next Generation episode, which first aired May 19, 1990. Arriving on the Enterprise for an important diplomatic mission, Sarek surprises his hosts with his uncharacteristic mood swings. Even more perplexing is the fact that the Vulcan's appearance coincides with an outbreak of random violence amongst the crew. "Sarek" was scripted by Peter Beagle from a story by Mark Cushman and Jake Jacobs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
- PG
- Add Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to QueueAdd Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to top of Queue
Much as he would later do with Shakespeare in Love (1998), writer Tom Stoppard delivered a tale of Shakespearean origin from a skewed and unexpected perspective. In this case, it's the perspective of two relatively minor characters from Hamlet, Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) and Guildenstern (Tim Roth), courtiers who, in the original play, were dispatched offstage before the narrative's conclusion. In Stoppard's script (which he also directed), the two supporting players take center stage as the events unfold in Elsinore Castle. Unable to determine the source of the prince's tortured despair, the duo ponders the question of fate as their predetermined roles are played out. Meanwhile, they dabble in a little verbal tennis and some ill-advised science experiments, and endure the puzzling attentions of mysterious wandering thespians led by (Richard Dreyfuss). Ordered to accompany Hamlet (Iain Glen) to England, the pair learn that the letter they carry instructs that nation's king to decapitate their mentally unbalanced and irksome charge, a revelation that Hamlet overhears. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, (more)
- 1988
Joseph Stefano, the screenwriter of the original Psycho, wrote and co-produced this somewhat similar suspense-thriller. Gail O'Grady (Eight Is Enough) returns to her childhood home and is plagued by nightmares and disturbed by her cold-hearted mother (Carol Lynley). There is a screwdriver-stabbing and a few predictable revelations about the family's dark past and why O'Grady's father is missing, but the film is generally forgettable. Joanna Miles co-stars. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carol Lynley, Gail O'Grady, (more)
- 1987
Raquel Welch's astonishing performance in the made-for-TV Right to Die compensates for any number of script deficiencies. Ms. Welch plays a successful psychologist with a happy home life who is suddenly stricken with the dreaded neurological affliction ALS (aka "Lou Gehrig's Disease"). At first, she is determined to fight for her life, but as her conditions deteriorates and she becomes more of a human vegetable, Ms. Welch begs her husband (Michael Gross) to help her die. The producers of Right to Die chose Raquel Welch not so much for her resemblance to the real-life person upon whom the story is based, but in the hopes that this "offbeat" piece of casting would attract a large TV audience. Ms. Welch accepted the role to counter industry accusations that she was impossible to work with. Thus the motivations behind Right to Die were more commercially oriented than the film's subject matter deserved, but this can be excused in the light of Welch's harrowingly accurate portrayal of a woman literally dying by inches before our eyes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raquel Welch, Michael Gross, (more)
- 1986
All My Sons is the 1986 TV adaptation of Arthur Miller's 1947 Broadway play (a film version, starring Edward G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster, was produced in 1948). James Whitmore stars as Joe Keller, a bullying industrialist who'd been accused of selling defective weapon parts to the government during World War II. He was acquitted when the court decided that it was his business partner who was responsible. Keller and his family desperately await the post-war return of son Larry, who was officially listed as missing in action. Larry's fiance Ann (Joan Allen), the daughter of Keller's imprisoned business partner, is attracted to Larry's brother Chris (Aidan Quinn), but she has vowed to remain faithful to her missing fiance. The play's third act reveals that it was indeed Joe Keller, and not his partner, who was responsible for the defective material -- and that his penny-pinching carelessness ended up costing the life of his own son Larry. Michael Learned co-stars as Keller's wife, who like her husband vainly tries to lock out the truth. First telecast January 19, 1987, All My Sons was the sixth-season opener of PBS's American Playhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Manhattan-based writer David Carradine falls victim to AIDS in As Is. Virtually abandoned by friends and family, Carradine is looked after by his gay lover, photographer Jonathan Hadary. Based on a play by William M. Hoffman, As Is wisely avoids editorial comment on the principals' lifestyle, nor does it wallow in the tragedy of the situation. As directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the film never quite overcomes the staginess of its source material; its principal strength lies in the byplay between its stars. The film was produced for cable television in 1985, and telecast early in 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Director Martin Ritt's bucolic rural environments of Norma Rae, Conrack, and Sounder, are re-visited once again in Cross Creek, based on author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' memoirs of her times on a remote Florida bayou. Mary Steenburgen plays Rawlings, author of The Yearling, who, in 1928, makes the abrupt decision to leave her husband and move to an isolated orange grove to concentrate on her writing. Rawlings buys a run-down house covered with cobwebs that she restores with quick dispatch. In these desolate surroundings, Rawlings pauses in her housecleaning to listen reflectively to the otherworldly noises of the swamp. But suddenly out of this loneliness, people emerge. There is Geechee (Alfre Woodard), Rawlings' devoted servant; Marsh Turner (Rip Torn), a liquor-guzzling swamp rat; Floyd Turner (Cary Guffey), a cute harmonica-playing boy; and Ellie Turner (Dana Hill), a little girl whose fawn becomes the basis of Rawlings' Yearling book. Rawlings becomes involved with Norton Baskin (Peter Coyote), the owner of the local hotel, and, as she settles into life on the bayou and her friendship with Norton and Geechee, she is inspired to begin writing. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Steenburgen, Rip Torn, (more)
- 1982
When his wife has an extra-marital affair, an author of children's books decides to avenge his broken heart but is killed before he can carry it through. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1981
The three-part TV miniseries The Sophisticated Gents covers 25 years in the lives of a group of close friends. Nine African-American members of a sports club gather for a quarter-century reunion. As they reminisce over the high and low points of their lives, some of the members await the arrival of the group's troublemaker with less than enthusiasm. The story comes to an out-of-left-field conclusion involving an escaped killer (Melvin van Peebles) and a pursuing cop. The nine "gents" of the title are played by Ron O'Neal, Thalmus Rasulala, Bernie Casey, Dick Anthony Williams, Raymond St. Jacques, Robert Hooks, Rosey Grier, Paul Winfield...and the aforementioned Melvin van Peebles. Based on John A. Williams' novel The Junior Bachelor Society, the 4-hour The Sophisticated Gents was originally telecast September 29, October 1 and October 2, 1981; for reasons unknown, its debut had been postponed for nearly two years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Winfield, Bernie Casey, (more)
In this drama, a young woman gives up college and marries her boyfriend, a Marine. Unfortunately, he is killed in Vietnam. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1978
- R
This gory horror film is not related to the far more popular Friday the 13th from Sean S. Cunningham. In fact it came out before the latter. It is the tale of a 10-year-old boy who doesn't know the difference between a boarding school and an orphanage. The trouble begins when his aunt informs him that he will be going to the former. Mistaking it for the latter, he finds himself plagued by terrifying memories that turn him into a vengeful killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peggy Feury, Mark Owens, (more)
- 1978
This television miniseries is based on Thomas Tryon's complex and suspenseful occult thriller Harvest Home, delving into the forbidden rituals of the small New England township Cornwall Combe, whose residents offer annual human sacrifices to pagan gods in return for a bountiful corn harvest. The production is notable mainly for the participation of Bette Davis, who plays the powerful Widow Fortune, the town's leading practitioner of the black arts. A very young Rosanna Arquette co-stars as one of the new kids in town. Beware the severely cut home video version, which omits almost 200 minutes of footage and thus loses a great deal of clarity. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1978
The story begins as an astronomer notices that a blazing comet is headed straight for Phoenix Arizona. Unfortunately, no one believes him. They will eventually, but only after most of Phoenix has been reduced to cinders. Emmies went to the special effects (among the best ever seen on TV in those days before computer-generated special fx) and sound recording. The all-star cast includes Richard Crenna, Elizabeth Ashley, David Dukes, Joanna Miles, Lloyd Bochner, Merlin Olsen and Andrew Duggan, all of them superbly cast and none merely doing the usual celebrity walk-through. Originally telecast in a three-hour slot, Fire in the Sky debuted November 26, 1978. This film should not be confused with the 1993 alien-abduction film of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
