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
A woman realizes that friends can be lovers, but now has to convince the friend in question in this romantic comedy. Michael O'Neal (Dermot Mulroney) and Julianne Potter (Julia Roberts) were romantically involved in college, and after breaking up, they have managed to remain close friends. For years, Julianne and Michael have had a pledge that if both were single when they turned 28, they would get married. Shortly before her 28th birthday, Julianne is lamenting the sad state of her love life when she gets a call from Michael, who announces that he has important news. Julianne is convinced that Michael is going to ask her to marry him, and she is crestfallen when he announces that he's engaged to Kimmy Wallace (Cameron Diaz). Kimmy seems like the perfect woman for Michael; she's sweet, pretty, bright, and adores Michael, and her wealthy family is just as fond of him as she is. But now that Julianne has realized how much she loves Michael, she's not about to give him up without a fight -- and isn't afraid to fight dirty. Julianne's uneasy ally in the battle for Michael's affections is her friend and editor George Downes (Rupert Everett), a cheerfully out-of-the-closet homosexual who is not prepared when Julianne asks him to pose as her boyfriend. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, (more)
The jazz world of 1930s Kansas City serves as the backdrop for an offbeat story of kidnapping, political corruption, and organized crime in director Robert Altman's loving but unsentimental look at his childhood hometown. The film's intricate story is triggered by petty thief Johnny O'Hara (Dermot Mulroney), who aims for a big score by trying to rob notorious crime boss Seldom Seen (Harry Belafonte), only to end up Seen's captive. In fear for her husband's life, Johnny's wife Blondie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) decides to take action. Following an eccentric personal logic, she takes as a hostage the wife of a prominent local politician, in hopes of getting the woman's husband to help; unfortunately, he is on the road with an upcoming presidential campaign, putting a major hitch in Blondie's plans. The film moves freely among its idiosyncratic characters in an overt attempt to mimic the improvisational structure of 1930s jazz. Indeed, many of the film's most important sequences take place in Seldom Seen's club, with contemporary jazz greats imitating the period's master musicians and Harry Belafonte shining as the magnetic, menacing Seen. The central narrative never achieves the seemingly effortless integration of Altman's greatest works, but those who share Altman's obvious passion for the period and its music will find much to admire. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, (more)
In this whimsically absurd comedy, Al Fountain (John Turturro) is an rigidly self-controlled electrical engineer who has discovered his first gray hair and has begun seeing things (bicycles running backwards, coffee pouring from the cup into the pot). To Al's shock, he's fired without notice from his job and told to go home. Instead, he rents a car and heads out in search of Splatchee Lake, a vacation spot he remembers visiting as a child (and one of the few places where he ever felt truly content). Al discovers that the lake is too polluted to swim in, but he finds The Kid (Sam Rockwell), a genial eccentric who wears a coonskin cap and lives in the woods with a large collection of junk scavenged from trash heaps. The Kid encourages Al to be spontaneous and take some chances in his life; an opportunity to do so presents itself when Dupree sisters Floatie (Catherine Keener) and Purlene (Lisa Blount) appear, and love (or a reasonable facsimile) is in the air. Writer/director Tom DiCillo had originally intended this project to follow his debut feature, the hipster comedy Johnny Suede, but problems with financing and production delays led him to make the indie film satire Living in Oblivion first. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Turturro, Sam Rockwell, (more)
- 1996
Catherine Keener stars in this made-for-TV drama as Magda, an artist who has strong ideas about the notion of retribution and personal justice against those who have hurt other people emotionally. After Magda is unceremoniously dumped by her boyfriend for another woman, she takes off in his car and heads North, going nowhere in particular. After seeing a man die in a fiery car accident, Magda begins using images of the fiery pits of Hades in her paintings, as she struggles to find answers to her emotional turmoil in art. However, the longer Magda is obsessed with seeing her ex suffer as she has, the more she feels the need to express herself in more than just paint and canvas. Heroine of Hell also features Dermot Mulroney, Wendy Phillips, and Karen Gordon. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Accomplished actress Anjelica Huston, daughter of John Huston, made her directorial debut with this absorbing, often wrenching story of child abuse in the 1950s American South. Based on a novel by Dorothy Allison, the film (narrated by Laura Dern) tells the tale of Bone (Jena Malone), a poor white girl so named because she was born right after her mother survived a terrifying car crash. While Bone is still a small child, her single mother, Anney (Jennifer Jason Leigh), meets and marries the sweet Lyle (Dermot Mulroney), and the two add another daughter to the family before Lyle dies in an auto accident. Anney is next courted by the less good-natured Glen (Ron Eldard), who takes out his rage on Bone both physically and sexually, as Bone becomes even more disillusioned at her mother's inability to get away from her monstrous husband. Set in South Carolina in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Bastard Out Of Carolina touches on many aspects of life, family, and hardship amidst the poor white of the South. TNT owner Ted Turner refused to air the film, ostensibly because of its difficult subject matter, but the film goes out of its way to handle its material with as little exploitation as possible. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ron Eldard, (more)
The film's opening sequence takes the audience inside a mall, where a series of minor slights among strangers leads to an inexorable tension. Eventually, the focus settles on the main characters of The Trigger Effect, Matthew (Kyle MacLachlan) and his wife Annie (Elisabeth Shue). When a massive power failure hits their calm suburban California town, things begin to break down. Unable to fill a prescription for their sick baby because the phones and computers are out, Matthew tries to reason with the pharmacist, who responds testily. Desperation drives him to sneak behind the counter when the pharmacist isn't looking and steal the antibiotic the baby needs. Annie is strangely titillated when she hears about it. Later that day, their friend Joe (Dermot Mulroney) shows up at their house. Joe is a much more rugged individual than Matthew. While his presence during the crisis is welcome, Matthew resents Joe, while Annie feels drawn to him. Joe convinces Matthew to buy a gun, over Annie's objections. Joe's presence heightens the problems of their already struggling marriage. After a night of drinking and triangular tension, a burglar breaks into their home, leading to a fatal shooting. The next morning, the fearful couple, short on cash and gasoline, decide to travel to their in-laws until the power comes back on, and Joe agrees to go along. But the trip turns harrowing when they meet a desperate fellow traveler (Michael Rooker) on the road. Screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Spider-Man) made his feature directorial debut with The Trigger Effect. The premise for the film was inspired by the BBC documentary series Connections. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kyle MacLachlan, Elisabeth Shue, (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)
- 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)
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)
- 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)
- 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)
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)
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)
