Novella Nelson Movies

Acclaimed animator and independent filmmaker Emily Hubley directed this offbeat fusion of animation and live action. Mona Peek (Lily Rabe) is slowly coming to terms with the death of her father when she learns that the house where she grew up is about to be sold. As a child, Mona buried a bone in the backyard, imaging it had magical powers, and now that a new family is about to move in, she decides to head back home to dig it up. As Mona searches for the lost talisman, she discovers she's misplaced her wallet and has to make time to find it. Meanwhile, on another plane, a pack of talking dogs are playing a game of cards that controls the path of Mona's life. The Toe Tactic also stars Kevin Corrigan, Mary Kay Place, and John Sayles, while Eli Wallach, David Cross, Don Byron, and Andrea Martin contribute their voice talents. The score was written and performed by the celebrated indie rock band Yo La Tengo, whose drummer, Georgia Hubley, is Emily's sister. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Frankie L. Faison, Hill Harper, and Zoe Saldana star in director Pete Chatmon's tale of an emerging African American actor who embarks on a frantic race to prevent the love of his life from marrying another man. After being ejected from a casting call for a tempestuous outburst, told by his mother that he will soon be homeless in the city, and discovering that his one-time fiancée is set to be married in just thirty-eight hours, the lovelorn thespian sets out to get his act together and convince his would-be bride that the pair were always meant to be together. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A pair of estranged twins driven apart by the death of their parents find reconciliation and redemption after following radically different paths in life in director Charles Randolph-Wright's righteous tale of sibling rivalry and divine intervention. Upon losing their parents, twin brothers Teshawn (Billöah Greene) and Wesley Tucker (Darien Sills-Evans) each attempt to deal with the devastating blow in their own personal ways. While Wesley falls back on his faith by becoming a respected Harlem minister, Teshawn breaks into the music business by transforming himself into thuggish gangsta rapper Zulu. With his star on the rise and the future looking bright, Teshawn is suddenly forced to flee his West Coast home for the safety of Harlem when vengeful record producer Bull Sharky (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) vows to put an end to more than just his recording career. As Teshawn seeks sanctuary in the open arms of his forgiving brother and the gospel church, his work with the failing church choir offers fulfilling sense of community that soon leads him into the arms of attractive churchgoer Kia (Janine Green) -- a no-nonsense woman of God who holds Harlem's rich history near and dear to her heart. Now, as Bull Sharky and violent his crew begin knocking down doors in a desperate attempt to locate the exiled hip-hop star, Teshawn and Wesley are compelled to confront the past in order to clear the path for a brighter future. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Directed by Jonathan Glazer, Birth takes place in New York's Upper East Side, where Anna (Nicole Kidman), a 35-year-old widow, resides. Just as Anna has shaken off what she thought were the final remnants of her old life -- she has even found love with a new man, Joseph (Danny Huston), whom she plans on marrying -- Sean (Cameron Bright), a ten-year-old boy, comes into her life insisting that he is the reincarnation of her late husband. Though she initially brushes off the boy's claims as the result of a crush on her, his grave demeanor and uncanny knowledge of her life leads Anna through a self-reevaluation that not only threatens her marital plans with Joseph (Huston), but also strains her relationship with her mother, Eleanor (Lauren Bacall). ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Can a high-attitude African-American politician who says what he thinks stand a chance in a presidential campaign? Mays Gilliam (Chris Rock) is a straight-talking alderman representing a inner-city neighborhood in Washington, D.C. In the midst of a hard-fought race for the White House, the Democratic presidential and vice-presidential candidates are killed in an airline crash, and with little time to prepare a new campaign, the Republican candidate, Vice President Brian Lewis (Nick Searcy), seems all but guaranteed to win. With practically nothing to loose, party head Martin Geller (Dylan Baker) approaches Gilliam and asks him to stand as the Democrat's presidential candidate. While Gilliam is dubious at first, before long his streetwise style and willingness to face the issues head-on earns him surprising figures in the polls, especially after he persuades his short-fused older brother, Mitch Gilliam (Bernie Mac), to join the ticket as vice presidential candidate -- a big jump for a bail bondsman. Gilliam's love life also becomes more complicated as his ex-girlfriend Kim (Robin Givens) decides she wants him back now that he has a shot at the White House, even though Gilliam only has eyes for Lisa (Tamala Jones). Head of State marked the directorial debut for comic and actor Chris Rock, who also co-wrote and co-produced the film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A Perfect Murder is based on Frederick Knott's play Dial M for Murder, filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1954. Married to commodities trader Stephen Taylor (Michael Douglas), Emily Bradford (Gwyneth Paltrow) is romantically involved with artist David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen). Aware of this affair, Stephen researches David's past, visits his loft studio, and informs David that he knows about his aliases, jail sentences, and various cons and scams directed at rich women. Then Stephen offers David $500,000 to murder Emily, and David agrees. The plan is calculated to make the murder look like an accident, but events soon go on an unscheduled course. Enter Detective Mohamed Karaman (David Suchet). Knott's original play opened June 1952 in London, followed by a New York run that began October 1952. Several books and sources describe how Hitchcock's film was made in 3-D but neglect to mention that, despite trade screenings in 3-D, Dial M for Murder was originally released in 1954 with ordinary, flat 2-D prints. It was finally shown to audiences in 3-D during the mid-'80s. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Spike Lee directed this comedy-drama about a woman who falls into a career in phone sex. An African-American woman (Theresa Randle) who aspires to a career as an actress endures a number of dispiriting jobs (handing out leaflets and working as a coat check girl) before reaching the end of her rope at an audition with Q.T. (Quentin Tarantino), a sleazy movie director. Q.T. claims that he wants to offer her a role in his next film -- but since the role requires nudity, she will have to show him her breasts first. After firing her agent, the actress is strapped for cash and is offered a job enacting sexual fantasies for men over the phone. Dubbed "Girl 6" by her employers, the actress is treated with respect by her boss (Jennifer Lewis) and is well-liked by her co-workers. However, she has a hard time emotionally distancing herself from her work, and she finds herself becoming infatuated with Bob (Peter Berg), one of her regular callers, going so far as to set up a meeting with him. As she deals in other people's fantasies for a living, Girl 6 begins retreating into her own world of make-believe, where she can be a sexy screen siren or a butt-kicking blaxploitation star. Meanwhile, her former fiancé (Isaiah Washington), who scrapes by as a shoplifter, desperately wants her to give him another chance, and her next door neighbor, a baseball card collector named Jimmy (Spike Lee), keeps pestering her that she ought to be doing something more positive with her life. Girl 6's supporting cast includes Madonna as one of Girl 6's supervisors, John Turturro as her agent, and Debi Mazar as one of the other phone-sex girls; the film also features an original song score by Prince. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A rich but bigoted man is forced to confront his ugliest prejudices face to face in this thriller. Frank Kramer (John Rubinstein) is a successful but narrow-minded attorney who comes home one day to discover that his daughter Nicole (Rhea Silver-Smith) is missing. Kramer shortly receives a telephone call from someone who claims to be holding his daughter hostage and gives him instructions to visit a pay phone in one of the most crime-ridden ghettos in New York City. Furious, but too worried not to follow orders, Kramer does as he's told and takes a call at the public phone -- only to be told to go to another phone booth in another, equally dangerous part of town. As Kramer dashes from telephone to telephone while being confronted by muggers, drug dealers, prostitutes, and angry people who simply don't want him in their neighborhood, it becomes evident that the kidnappers aren't just interested in money -- they have a personal grudge against Kramer, and they want their revenge to be psychological as much as financial. In time, Kramer discovers that he does indeed know one of the kidnappers -- Ruby (Amber Kain), the daughter of Kramer's maid, who has pulled the job with the help of her boyfriend -- and he discovers that his ex-wife is no more sympathetic to him than Ruby and her partner. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When they discover that their deceased boss had stashed away two million illegally embezzled dollars in a Caribbean safe deposit box, two co-workers decide to claim the cash. To do so, however, they must convince everyone the boss is actually alive -- a situation which seems oddly familiar to them both. This sequel to the popular 1989 comedy Weekend at Bernie's promises more of the same: slapstick with an amazingly lifelike corpse at the center. Whatever freshness the premise may have once had has vanished, however, and the occasionally clever set pieces become lost under the weight of a number of cluttered subplots. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Frank Pierson's made-for-cable adaptation of Nicholas VonHoffman's biography, Citizen Cohn stars James Woods as the controversial lawyer Roy Cohn. The film is structured as a series of flashbacks while Cohn lies in a New York hospital dying of AIDS. In the 1940s and early '50s, Cohn became one of the most powerful men in the country after becoming an important associate of Senator Joseph McCarthy (Joe Don Baker) and his Communist witch hunts. The film recounts those turbulent times and features portrayals of such real-life figures as J. Edgar Hoover (Pat Hingle), Dashiell Hammett (Frederic Forrest), Cardinal Spellman (Daniel Benzali), and Walter Winchell (Joseph Bologna). ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Green Card fuses the template of a light romantic comedy with a classic fish-out-of-water scenario. In order to retain her beautiful rent-controlled Manhattan apartment, a beautiful, socially-conscious American woman (Andie MacDowell) has to be married, so she decides to marry a burly French composer (Gerard Depardieu), who is eager to earn a green card so he can stay and work in America. After the marriage, the couple doesn't live together, but when the government's Immigration agents begin to investigate the pair, they are forced to put up a charade to convince the authorities that they are truly in love. Of course, the charade eventually becomes reality. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Done in a semi-documentary style, this is a discussion of women in menopause which is done in a trendy, 90s style that tends to be preachy, arty and more socially conscious than necessary for the format used. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide