Richard Bekins Movies
- 2009
- PG13
- Add Julie & Julia to Queue
Nora Ephron adapts Julie Powell's autobiographical book Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen with this Columbia Pictures production starring Amy Adams as an amateur chef who decides to cook every recipe in a cookbook from acclaimed celebrity chef Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) in order to chronicle it in a blog over the course of a year. Streep's Devil Wears Prada co-star Stanley Tucci re-teams with the actress as Child's husband. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, (more)
Three families living in a rural Vermont community struggle with loss while allowing the delicate hands of time to gradually ease their sorrows in director Dorothy Lyman's poetic drama. Sgt. Claire Rodman (Ed Blunt) has just returned home from the Iraq War suffering a permanent hand injury, and as he slips into a helpless state of self-pity, his sister dutifully cares for their dying mother. In time, Sgt. Rodman's despondence drives a bitter wedge between the two siblings. Meanwhile, housekeeper Kathy McClellan struggles to maintain her relationship to her two grown children, Carissa and Glen. But while Glen's paranoid rants about the war seem like nonsense to many, the truth is they contain an explosive secret. Over on a neighboring farm, Nan (Dorothy Lyman) and her partner Sandra (Dey Young) find their regular routine interrupted by the sudden appearance of Sandra's daughter Enid, who isn't her usual self following a recent encounter with "the light." As the snow continues to fall, each family will confront their issues while discovering that nature really can ease sorrow. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heidi Armbruster, Richard Bekins, (more)
- 2006
With his English-language political thriller The Feast of the Goat, action helmer Luis Llosa cinematizes Mario Vargas Llosa's sweeping, epic novel about the myriad of events leading up to the assassination of a real-life tyrannical despot. The story opens in 1992, when a Dominican émigré attorney, Urania Cabral (Isabella Rossellini) leaves her new home in the U.S. and heads back to her native country, for the first occasion in decades. She intends to confront her father, 80-year-old Augustin (Tomas Milian), about his former employment in the government of the supremely corrupt dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo (Tomas Milian). The film then flashes back to the events surrounding the assassination of Trujillo on a highway in late May of 1961, by delving into the lives and motives of each of the participants - from Amadito (Juan Diego Botto), whom Trujillo forced to execute his future brother-in-law, to that victim's father (Murphy Guyer), to Antonio (David Zayas), the brother of an incriminating witness whom Trujillo's men executed. One by one, as their stories are disinterred, the assassins gather on a nighttime road, brandishing guns, and prepare to shoot Trujillo and throw his body into the trunk of a car. Paul Freeman, Stephanie Leonidas and Richard Bekins co-star; Llosa co-authored the script with Augusto Cabada and Zachary Sklar. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tomas Milian, Isabella Rossellini, (more)
Bloody Sunday director Paul Greengrass marks the five-year anniversary on the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States with this speculative meditation on the events that took place onboard the fourth hijacked plane, and the actions of the passengers who gave their lives to ensure the safety of others. Told in real time and acted out by a cast of unknowns who were provided with detailed studies of their real-life counterparts, United 93 attempts to reconstruct the airborne tragedy from the view of the ground and flight controllers, the passengers, and their nervous families awaiting word on the fate of their loved ones. As the terrified travelers and crew gradually become aware of the historical events taking place on the ground so far beneath them, the 90 minutes in which a random collection of strangers realized their fate and came together to confront an unthinkable threat are re-created. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Alan Basche, Richard Bekins, (more)
- 1995
A gay councilman is murdered, leading detectives Logan (Chris Noth) and Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) to question such "probables" as the dead man's roommate, Joe Gibb (Michael Lichtenstein), and a married man (Robert Joy) with whom the decedent might have had a brief affair. When the investigation narrows down to Councilman Kevin Crossley (Daniel Hugh Kelly) who, despite his outspoken homophobia, insists that he was a good friend of the victim, an outraged Logan completely loses his cool. Suffice to say that this final fifth-season Law & Order episode also represented the last regular appearance of co-star Chris Noth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this film version of E. L. Doctorow's Billy Bathgate, Loren Dean plays the title character, a street-smart kid who inveigles his way into the confidence of 1930s gangster Dutch Schultz (Dustin Hoffman). Billy is ordered to look after Schultz' new moll, Drew Preston (Nicole Kidman), while Dutch fends off tax evasion charges and such up-and-coming rivals as Lucky Luciano (Stanley Tucci). Even though they know they're playing with dynamite, Billy and Drew fall in love. In attempting to escape Schultz' wrath, Billy succeeds only in putting himself in the thick of a gun battle between his boss and Luciano. When "Charley Lucky" emerges triumphant, Billy is forced once again to rely on his wits to escape being sent to the bottom of the briny in a cement overcoat. Bruce Willis shows up in an extended cameo as Dutch Schultz' former business associate. Billy Bathgate was adapted for the screen by British playwright Tom Stoppard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, (more)
- 1982
With minimal sex and covered-up nudity, this routine romance about love in New York's high fashion world has enough glamor and beautiful people to satisfy glossy standards, but the storyline is thinner than the models under consideration. Dino (Bruce Lyons) and Richie (Richard Bekins) pose as young men in the film industry in order to get behind the scenes in the world of modelling -- where they meet Becky (Anne Howard) who falls for Richie, and Serina (Cindy Harrel) who is more interested in her career than in Dino. Between rounds of parties and the high life of the fashion world, Richie and Dino are not exactly suffering when their love interests give them a hard time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Lyons, Richard Bekins, (more)
