Dermot Mulroney Movies
An actor whose versatility is matched by the unpredictability of many of his career choices, Dermot Mulroney has been appearing in films since the early 1990s. Born in Alexandria, Virginia, on October 31, 1963, Mulroney developed an early interest in acting. After graduating from Northwestern University in 1985, he began acting in a number of made-for-TV movies, playing young men caught up in problematic teen romances in both Sin of Innocence (1986) and Daddy (1987). In 1988 he made his film debut in the Brat Pack western Young Guns, portraying one of the titular group of Old West gunslingers.Despite the success of Young Guns, Mulroney remained a relative unknown, appearing in a number of forgettable films. One exception was Longtime Companion (1990), a seminal AIDS drama that cast him as a young man who becomes one of the virus' earliest casualties. The actor continued to pop up in films of widely varying subject matter, to say nothing of quality, starring in everything from teen comedies (Career Opportunities, 1991) to westerns (Bad Girls, 1994) to thrillers (Copy Cat, 1995) to chick flicks (How to Make an American Quilt, 1995). He also enjoyed a collaboration with director Tom Di Cillo, starring (and in the first case, associate producing) Di Cillo's Living in Oblivion (1995) and Box of Moonlight (1996). In 1997, Mulroney had one of his most high-profile roles to date as Julia Roberts' titular best friend in My Best Friend's Wedding, a successful black comedy that also starred Cameron Diaz and Rupert Everett.
Mulroney has also benefited from his collaborations with Di Cillo for more personal reasons: for some years he has been married to Catherine Keener, an actress often cited as the director's muse. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 1986
While we're tempted to label the TV-movie Sin of Innocence as Brady Bunch: The Lost Episode, the film transcends all kidding with its intelligent, tasteful approach to its story material. Dermot Mulroney plays a teenager whose widowed father (Bill Bixby) marries a divorcee (Dee Wallace Stone). Suddenly Mulroney inherits a stepsister (Megan Follows), a girl his own age. What should have been an uncomplicated setup becomes problematic when stepbrother and stepsister fall in love with each other. Sin of Innocence comes to a logical and satisfying conclusion with the two young people solving the dilemma themselves, without the self-serving "assistance" of their anguished parents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
Set during the 1950s, this made-for-cable serio-comedy stars William Petersen as the lovesick manager of a minor league baseball team whose team makes a pennant run. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William L. Petersen, Virginia Madsen, (more)
"Daddy" is Dermot Mulroney--a high-school-age kid who has no clue of what he's in for. Mulroney has gotten his girlfriend Patricia Arquette pregnant, less out of callousness than naivete. Arquette drops out of school, thinking she can drop back in anytime, while Mulroney puts his music lessons on hold for the "duration," also treating the situation as temporary. The film is remarkable in conveying the principles' utter lack of preparedness for their upcoming parental responsibilities. Some critics felt that the film should have been required viewing for teens who think themselves wise beyond their years simply because they've discovered sex. Made for TV, Daddy was first telecast April 5, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Director Blake Edwards departed from his customary sex farces to direct an unusual satirical Western comedy-thriller. In 1927, legendary lawman Wyatt Earp (James Garner) comes to Hollywood to serve as an advisor to a film studio making a movie about Earp's life. He meets silent screen cowboy star Tom Mix (Bruce Willis). The two stumble upon a murder that has apparently occurred on the set but is linked to a renowned bordello. The aging cowboy and the young actor set off on a series of time-warp misadventures to try to solve the mystery. Along the way, they encounter the shady Alfie Alperin (Malcom McDowell) and the intriguing Cheryl King (Mariel Hemingway). ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, James Garner, (more)
In this Western based loosely on actual events and people, Emilio Estevez stars as William H. Bonney (aka Billy the Kid). Sought for a petty crime in Lincoln County, Billy is taken in by John Tunstall (Terrence Stamp), a British ranch owner seeking to make it in the cattle business. Tunstall employs a group of "regulators," comprised of wayward youths he's gathered over the years, to watch over his ranch; in turn, he teaches them how to read and reforms them into better men. Tunstall's business interests come into conflict with those of corrupt and murderous businessman Lawrence Murphy (Jack Palance), whose widespread connections make him a power to be reckoned with. When Tunstall won't budge from his right to pursue a living, Murphy's henchmen stage an ambush and kill him. This triggers a vow of vengeance from the quick-tempered Billy and his five fellow regulators, who are deputized to serve arrest warrants in the murder. However, when Billy decides to gun down the suspects instead of detaining them, his loyal pals become accessories in a vigilante spree to wipe the territory clean of Murphy and his web of conspirators. Soon, the supposed lawmen are on the run from bounty hunters, henchmen, and government soldiers, from all directions of the compass. This box-office hit also stars Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Dermot Mulroney, and Casey Siemaszko. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
After winning an Academy Award for their documentary Down and Out in America (1986), actress-director Lee Grant and her producer-husband Joseph Feury filmed this comedy-drama based on an original script by playwright Monte Merrick. In a small Southern town, the McDermott family has owned and operated a popular chicken restaurant for years. Each of the three McDermott boys, Brian (Tim Quill), Kit (Dermot Mulroney), and Duncan (Sean Astin) expects to inherit part of the business from their father (Jim Haynie). While enjoying liberal amounts of skirt-chasing, marijuana-smoking, and alcohol consumption in their off hours, the McDermotts have big plans for the place, but then dad drops a bombshell -- he's sold the restaurant without consulting his family, leaving each son to struggle with his newfound, unwanted independence. In the meantime, mom (Melinda Dillon) considers reuniting with her old band. Because of the bankruptcy of its producer, Hemdale Film Corporation, Staying Together (1989) was shelved for over a year before its release. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Astin, Stockard Channing, (more)
In this taut outdoor actioner, a pair of teens head into the Rockies as part of a course in survival and end up having to use all of their skills to survive when they find themselves hunted by a pack of crazed mercenaries. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lance Henriksen, Mark Rolston, (more)
- 1989
This biopic follows physically challenged Richmond Flowers Jr. as he overcomes his difficulties and the conflicts caused by his father's activism in the civil rights movement, and becomes a famous college athlete. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
At the time of Longtime Companion's release in 1990, the devastating disease of AIDS was seen as a mysterious and deadly scourge, replete with rumors, lies, and panic. As the first narrative film to examine the AIDS epidemic, screenwriter Craig Lucas and director Norman René place the disease in an historical context, dramatizing the impact of the disease through time in a series of vignettes involving seven gay men. AIDS first made its presence felt surreptitiously, as an article in The New York Times reported on a rare cancer attacking gay men called Karposi's syndrome. Then the Village Voice began a series of in-depth articles concerning a "gay plague" which later became known as AIDS. The film follows the AIDS crisis through the lives of the seven main characters so that they are only aware of AIDS in the historical framework of each episode. The characters include former gay couple Willy (Campbell Scott) and John (Dermot Mulroney), first seen partying at a Fire Island club, who don't pay much attention to the mysterious article in The New York Times but become intimately effected by the disease. There is also Sean (Mark Lamos), a soap opera writer whose mind is slowly deteriorating because of the disease, and his supportive friend David (Bruce Davidson). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Davison, Campbell Scott, (more)
- 1991
- R
This contemporary western stars Dermot Mulroney as a Montana teenager whose sanity is being eroded by his parent's domestic squabbles. Linking up with Lili Taylor, a Wyoming-bound transient with a checkered history, Mulroney embarks upon an odyssey of self-discovery. Unfortunately, he persists in crossing the paths of people even more emotionally disturbed than his mother and father. Adapted by Richard Ford from two of his short stories, Bright Angel is a film of short, pithy vignettes, handled with subtlety and sensitivity-at least until the unexpectedly brutal finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dermot Mulroney, Lili Taylor, (more)
John Hughes strip-mines familiar terrain -- in this case his own past successes -- in this comedy that Hughes produced and scripted, directed by Bryan Gordon. Frank Whaley stars as Jim Dodge, a 21-year-old con-man who goes from job to job but likes to put on a facade of success. As Career Opportunities begins, he has just been fired from another job and has been hired by the local Target store manager (played by an un-credited John Candy) as the night cleanup boy. After the manager locks Jim in the store overnight, he goes on a binge -- playing with the skates, eating candy, watching television, and blasting the stereos. But then Jim discovers that he is not the only person in the store. Also there is rich girl Josie McClellan (Jennifer Connelly) who is spending the night in the store to get her father worried about her. Although Jim knew Josie in high school, when Josie wouldn't even give him the time of day, here they click like two castanets and they romp around the store aisles to a pounding rock score. But just at the moment when Jim and Josie plan to run away together with the $52,000 Josie holds in her purse, two low-rent comic thieves -- Nestor Pyle (Dermot Mulroney) and Gil Kinney (Kieran Mulroney) -- break into the store and Jim and Josie decide to stick it out, saving the store from the bumbling crooks. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Whaley, Jennifer Connelly, (more)
- 1992
- PG
When an adopted 21-year-old finds that she was adopted, she forsakes her adopted parents and goes on a crazed hunt to discover her real parents. When at last she finds them, she is disappointed to discover that they are very empty and shallow people; her adoptive parents earn a new respect in her eyes. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martha Plimpton, Dermot Mulroney, (more)
Marc Rocco's gritty drama Where the Day Takes You stars Dermot Mulroney as King, a street-smart hustler who acts as a father figure to a motley collection of young runaways. Among the people in his sphere are the young self-destructive drug addict Greg (Sean Astin), self-hating gay prostitute Little J (Balthazar Getty), and newcomer Heather (Lara Flynn Boyle). The film is structured as a series of flashbacks triggered by King's conversations with a prison psychologist (Laura San Giacomo). Included in the impressive cast are such soon-to-be-famous names as Will Smith and Ricki Lake, and the already established Kyle MacLachlan, Christian Slater, and Alyssa Milano. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Astin, Lara Flynn Boyle, (more)
Family Pictures is a two-part TV adaptation of the Sue Miller novel of the same name. Anjelica Huston and Sam Neill are Lainey and David Eberlin, a 1950s married couple with six children, one of whom, Randall (Jamie Harrold), is autistic. The parents' initial decision not to institutionalize the boy results in a terrific strain on the rest of the family, until finally only Lainey is willing to shoulder the responsibility of raising Randall. The second half of Family Pictures, related from the vantage point of the 1980s by the Eberlins' oldest daughter (Kyra Sedgwick), details the effect that Randall's inevitable institutionalization had on the family. This anecdotal four-hour drama first aired on March 21 and 22, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, 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)
A handful of up-and-coming songwriters discover that love is as difficult to navigate as the music business in this romantic comedy-drama from director Peter Bogdanovich. Miranda Presley (Samantha Mathis) is an aspiring singer/songwriter from New York City who loves country music and has decided to take her chances in Nashville, TN, where she hopes to strike it big as a musician. After arriving in the Music City after a long bus ride, Miranda makes her way to the Bluebird Café, a local watering hole with a reputation as a showcase for new talent. The bar's owner, Lucy (K.T. Oslin), takes a shine to the shy but plucky newcomer, and gives her a job as a waitress. Before long, Miranda has gotten to know a number of other Nashville transplants who are look looking to land a gig or sell a song, among them sweet and open-hearted Kyle Davidson (Dermot Mulroney), moody but talented James Wright (River Phoenix), and spunky Linda Lue Linden (Sandra Bullock). As the four friends struggle to find their place in the competitive Nashville music scene, both Kyle and James display a romantic interest in Miranda, while she finds it difficult to choose between the two. The Thing Called Love features cameos from a number of noted country performers, including Trisha Yearwood, Pam Tillis, Katy Moffatt, Jo-El Sonnier, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Sadly, The Thing Called Love would be best remembered as the last film actor River Phoenix completed before his death in the fall of 1993. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- River Phoenix, Samantha Mathis, (more)
Director John Badham's remake of French action thriller La Femme Nikita moves the action to the U.S., where Maggie (Bridget Fonda) is a strung-out Washington, D.C. drug addict who kills a policeman in a pharmaceutical-induced haze. Sentenced to death, Maggie is rescued by a shady operative, Bob (Gabriel Byrne), who offers to save her life if she'll become a covert government assassin. Maggie agrees and trains for a life as a professional killer under a new name, Claudia. Her classes include weaponry, martial arts, explosives, and even social graces under the tutelage of Amanda (Anne Bancroft). Claudia is transformed into a classy sophisticate and is assigned to Venice, California, where she falls for J.P. (Dermot Mulroney), an attractive photographer who lives downstairs. Claudia's highly dangerous job soon interferes when she's ordered to carry out a series of clever assassinations, including a hit in a restaurant and a hotel bombing. When one particular killing goes horribly wrong, she gets some assistance from Victor the Cleaner (Harvey Keitel), a disposal artist who may have also been ordered to get rid of Claudia. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bridget Fonda, Gabriel Byrne, (more)
- 1994
- PG13
Playwright Sam Shepard wrote and directed this bizarre combination of western film revisionism and Greek tragedy. Silent Tongue (Tantoo Cardinal) is a mute Kiowa who is raped by Eamon McCree (Alan Bates), the owner of the Kickapoo Traveling Medicine Show. Eamon attempts to make up for his crime by marrying her, hoping for forgiveness. Instead, Silent Tongue enacts a bitter retribution through her two daughters, Awbonnie (Sheila Tousey) and Velada (Jeri Arredondo). Awbonnie, as the film begins, has already died, but her grieving husband Talbot (River Phoenix) refuses to let her go, dragging around her corpse. To assuage Talbot, his father Prescott (Richard Harris) sets out to purchase Velada from Eamon, thinking that only Awbonnie's sister can replace her in Talbot's eyes. But Velada's half-brother Reeves (Dermot Mulroney) protests the attempted transaction. As a result, Prescott kidnaps Velada and flees, with not only Reeves and Eamon chasing him, but also Awbonnie's ghost. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Bates, Richard Harris, (more)
Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell, and Drew Barrymore are the stars of this Western whose main gimmick is making heroes into heroines. They all start out as prostitutes, as Cody (Stowe) shoots a drunken colonel who attempts to molest Anita (Masterson). She is about to be lynched for defending her friend when the other "bad girls" ride in and rescue her, pursued by detectives. The rest of the film follows their adventures as they get caught up in hostage situations, bank robberies, shootouts, and romantic interludes with handsome young cowboys with never a hair out of place or an unsightly smudge of Western dust. Amazingly, all four former prostitutes are able to ride, shoot, rope, and fight as well. Bad Girls is not likely to be thought of as a realistic view of how women lived in the Old West. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, (more)
Similar to the premise of American Graffiti, this film centers on eight California high school students whose lives intersect over two nights in the hot summer of 1965. As the Watts riots begin, the young people make decisions that will impact their entire lives. Writer-director Floyd Mutrux examines at the graduating class of 1965 of Westwood High School in Los Angeles, which was featured on the cover of Look magazine in 1961. The story is narrated by the class valedictorian, Mary Beth (Lucy Deakins). Kelli Williams plays Sunshine, a prototypical flower child. Characters played by Dermot Mulroney and Rick Schroder and others struggle with decisions about the Vietnam war, aspire to be rock musicians, and take divergent paths on politics while navigating various romantic entanglements. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dermot Mulroney, Rick Schroder, (more)
Mickey Rourke stars as a Western outlaw bent on revenge in this made-for-cable movie. Rourke is convincing as the evil Colonel Graff, the leader of a criminal gang of Wild West thugs. After a robbery gone wrong, the gang members start getting killed one by one, and the survivors don't know who to trust. Dermot Mulroney, who stars as Graff's sidekick Eostis, is one of several strong supporting cast members. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rourke, Dermot Mulroney, (more)
Updated from the 1951 film of the same name, Angels In The Outfield takes liberties with the original to bring sentimental values to a modern setting. Roger (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a foster child whose irresponsible father promises to get his act together when Roger's favorite baseball team, the California Angels, wins the pennant. The problem is that the Angels are in last place, so Roger prays for help to turn the team around. Sure enough, his prayers are answered in the form of angel Al (Christopher Lloyd), and, before you know it, the Angels' bitter manager (Danny Glover) is watching in amazement as his team starts making the plays -- with the help of angels visible to the audience only as glowing special effects. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Glover, Tony Danza, (more)
A serial killer stalks the streets of San Francisco; unlike his many predecessors does not choose a distinctive, identifying pattern. No, this killer prides himself on his unoriginality: he is a copycat, recreating the violent murders of some of the country's most notorious serial killers, his heroes. On the case, is criminal psychologist Helen Hudson who is the reigning expert on serial killers; she has also become agoraphobic after having too close of a brush with killer, Daryll Lee Cullum. Though he has finally been locked up, she is unable to function outside her apartment. It is homicide detective M.J. Monahan and her partner Ruben who involve Hudson after they begin suspecting that the recent rash of bizarre murders they investigate is the work of a new mass murderer. Using her career and her vast knowledge, she figures out the killer's game. She knows he is well-versed in history and that the killings are tributes to the old masters. Unfortunately, she cannot predict his next style of killing, who he will kill, or when. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, (more)
Following up his debut, Johnny Suede, director Tom DiCillo presented this filmmaking comedy that allegedly draws much from DiCillo's experiences on the set of the 1991 Brad Pitt vehicle. Steve Buscemi stars as Nick Reve, the long-suffering director of a no-budget independent film. If he's not dealing with his heartbroken director of photography Wolf (Dermot Mulroney), Reve is trying to keep his leading lady Nicole (DiCillo mainstay Catherine Keener) happy or ignore the pseudo-auteur suggestions of Pitt-inspired name-actor Chad Palomino (James LeGros). All the while, the audience can't ever be sure if the scene they're watching is a dream or reality. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, (more)
- 1995
- PG13
- Add How to Make an American Quilt to QueueAdd How to Make an American Quilt to top of Queue
A young woman at a crossroads in her life finds herself receiving plenty of advice from her older and wiser counterparts in this drama. Finn Dodd (Winona Ryder) is a graduate student trying to finish up her doctoral thesis on women's folk art while deciding if she should marry her fiancé Sam (Dermot Mulroney); she's not sure if she's ready to settle down, and suspects that Sam is unfaithful to her. Needing time to sort things out, Finn chooses to spend the summer with her grandmother Hy (Ellen Burstyn) and great aunt Gladys Jo (Anne Bancroft). Hy and Gladys Jo are avid quilters, and with a group of their friends, they work on a special quilt for Finn's wedding; as the women work together, they share stories of their lives, and Finn finds herself learning as much from hearing them talk as she does from her schoolwork. Finn also receives a visit from her free-spirited mom Sally (Kate Capshaw) and finds herself infatuated with a good looking young man who lives nearby. Maya Angelou plays one of the quilters, as do Kate Nelligan, Jean Simmons, and Alfre Woodard. How to Make an American Quilt was the directorial debut of Jocelyn Moorhouse, and was based on a novel by Whitney Otto that itself began as a doctoral thesis. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft, (more)
