Michelle Phillips Movies

Teenagers stand up for their rights and take on the woman who wants to scuttle their freedoms in this comedy drama inspired by a true story. Principal Weller (Julie Bowen) is the ambitious but hard-headed leader of Booker High School. Weller plans to run for superintendent of her school district, and believes if she wants to win she needs to project the image of a no-nonsense leader, and with that in mind she begins cracking down on what she sees as discipline problems at Booker High. However, in many cases what she sees as kids out of control are seen by others as kids expressing themselves, including a girl who wants to distribute condoms to recognize National Safe Sex Day, and two boys who are caught kissing in the hallway between classes. Mr. Drucker (Malik Yoba) is a teacher at Booker who tries to champion the students' rights of free expression, but his conflicts with Principal Weller end up costing him his job when he's fired for questioning her authority. Holden Donovan (Gregory Smith) is a student at Booker who is alarmed that the students have lost one of their few allies, and decides to do something about it -- along with his classmates, he sets out to establish and defend the right of free expression for high-school students, and launches a campaign against Weller's bid to become superintendent. Kids in America also stars Stephanie Sherrin, Nicole Richie, Adam Arkin, George Wendt, and Elizabeth Perkins. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Leslie Jordan writes and stars in this autobiographical account of being gay and drug-addled in 1970s Atlanta. The film opens with the protagonist known only as Storyteller (Jordan) meeting his maker after a drug overdose and trying to explain the sorry state of his former life. Rewind 20 years, when our hero, styling himself as a lilliputian dandy à la Truman Capote, leaves home for Atlanta -- dubbed the "San Francisco of the South." There he meets debutante refugee and drug connoisseur "Miss Make-Do" (Erin Chandler) who introduces him to the wonderful world of chemicals and the film's titular hotel -- a low-rent Chelsea-like dive. After his benefactress kicks him out for taking up with a thuggish coke dealer, the hapless fop protagonist finds another protector in Tripper -- a roughneck junkie, ex-con, and pimp. The two form a weird platonic and dependent relationship that eventually spirals into an opiate oblivion. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

One of several top-notch musical biographies presented by the VH1 cable service, Sweetwater: A True Rock Story unfolds the poignant saga of the legendary L.A.-based band which "opened" the original Woodstock Festival in 1969. Nearly 30 years after this historic event, Cami Carlson (Kelli Williams), a reporter for the MIX-TV cable music channel, is assigned to produce a "Where Are They Now?" documentary about the long-disbanded Sweetwater. Although she receives the grudging assistance of several surviving members, Carlson does not learn the full story of why Sweetwater seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth after 1969 until she tracks down the group's lead vocalist and guitarist, Nanci Nevins (played by Amy Jo Johnson in the flashback sequences, and by Michelle Phillips in the present-day scenes). As Nanci painfully recalls the devastating tragedy which all but permanently stilled her voice, Carlson comes to terms with her own private demons. Filmed in Los Angeles and Vancouver, Sweetwater: A True Rock Story first aired on August 15, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The made-for-TV Pretty Poison is a remake of the 1968 "cult" film of the same name, which starred Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. Fresh out of a mental institution, the charming but delusional Dennis Pitt (Grant Show) cannot cope with the harsh realities of life and creates a dream world of his own, in which he is a daring government agent. In the course of his travels, Dennis meets a high school girl named Sue Ann Stepanek (Wendy Benson), who seems to swallow his tall tales about being an FBI man hook, line and sinker. As it turns out, however, Sue Ann has got a few problems of her own--chief of which is her deadly hatred for her domineering mother (Michelle Phillips). Inevitably, Mom is murdered and Dennis and Sue Ann hit the road together--and the question becomes not "When will they get caught?" but "Who exactly is manipulating whom?" Set in New England (but filmed in Montreal) and originally telecast by the Fox network on September 24, 1996, Pretty Poison was like its predecessor based on Stephen Geller's novel She Let Him Continue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dolph Lundgren and George Segal star in this action thriller in which a man who was convicted of a crime he didn't commit escapes from prison and takes a woman hostage, not knowing she's a police officer. Meanwhile, the escapee is trying to set a trap to get revenge against the corrupt detective who sent him to the big house. The supporting cast includes Ken Foree and Bert Remsen. Also shown under the title Army of One. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A video review of the sixties with Dennis Hopper, Graham Nash, Peter Fonda, Michelle Phillips and John Paul Jones DeJoria. ~ All Movie Guide

Season Thirteen of Knots Landing gets under way with only one of the four original "couplings" of the series' first season intact: After many romantic side trips and emotional detours, Gary Ewing (Ted Shackelford) and his ex-wife Val (Joan Van Ark) have decided to let bygones be bygones and tie the matrimonial knot for the third (and last!) time. Once this matter is settled, Gary again demonstrates his basic lack of common sense by teaming with one Joseph Barringer (Mark Soper]) in a wild scheme to harness the power of ocean tides to provide low-cost energy for the citizens of California. Not surprisingly, Gary loses his shirt (and everything else) in this dead-on-arrival venture, and ends up working as a day laborer on his own ranch before returning to his old cul-de-sac neighborhood. Meanwhile, Val revitalizes her literary career by starting research on a novel intended to expose the crooked machinations of Greg Sumner (William Devane). In other developments, Linda Fairgate (Lar-Park Lincoln), ex-daughter in law of Gary's business partner Karen (Michele Lee), is murdered by Brian Johnston (Philip Brown), who holds several of the principal characters hostage before Karen is able to save the day--thereby confirming her "local heroine" status established at the end of the previous season, when she single-handedly took on the members of a street gang. Also, Greg Sumner's predatory sister Claudia (Kathleen Noone) meets her Waterloo in the form of Alex Barth (Boyd Kestner), who knows where all of her bodies are buried. As for Greg, he begins an affair with Anne Matheson (Michelle Phillips), former lover of Greg's longtime nemesis Mack (Kevin Dobson); reduced to penury after failing to cheat her daughter Paige (Nicollette Sheridan) out of an inheritance, Anne has staged a comeback as a nude model and radio star! Among the newcomers to the series are Bruce Greenwood as Paige's new boyfriend Pierce Lawton, who later tries to kill Paige and several others when he loses all his money in Gary's "Tidal Energy" scheme; Maree Cheatham as Mary Robeson, who claims to be the biological mother of Greg's late wife Laura (Constance McCashin), and who had been sent to prison on a trumped-up charge engineered by Greg; and Felicity Waterman as Vanessa Hunt, an old friend of Claudia Whittaker's daughter Kate (Stacy Galina). Making their final appearances in Season Twelves are Larry Riley and [$Kent Masters-King as Frank and Julia Williams--and, surprisingly, Joan Van Ark as Val Ewing, who mysteriously vanishes in the midst of preparing her tell-all novel. With ratings steadily decreasing during its most recent seasons, Knots Landing wnet on a brief production hiatus in the middle of Season Thirteen so that the new writing team could get a grip on the concept and come up with more compelling storylines. Although things did improve a bit, the series was destined to survive for just one more year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Appearances began life as a 2-hour TV pilot film. A Midwestern family tries to carry on after the sudden death of the family's son. Everyone puts up a brave public front, but the artifice results in gradual erosion of family solidarity. Ernest Borgnine fares best as the clan's patriarch. Appearances never developed into a series, though it has been released to home video. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this detective yarn, a very traditional investigator from New Jersey moves to Hawaii and begins looking into the death of a prominent real-estate developer. Unfortunately, few locals welcome the detective's arrival. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When private detective Mike Hammer (Stacy Keach) is blamed for a Las Vegas murder, he sets out to prove his innocence and meets a lovely woman along the way. ~ All Movie Guide

As indicated by its title, this Next Generation episode deliberately evokes memories of the film classic Casablanca, right down to a romantic Parisian flashback (courtesy of the Holodeck). Investigating a series of time disruptions, Picard and his crew trace the problem to an isolated planetoid. The disruptions have been caused by Dr. Paul Manheim (Rod Loomis), who has been conducting experiments in time and space travel. While attempting to rescue Manheim (and the Enterprise) from the consequences of his actions, Picard is unexpectedly reunited with his lost love, Manheim's wife Jenice (Michelle Phillips). First telecast May 7, 1988, "We'll Always Have Paris" was written by Deborah Dean Davis and Hannah Louise Shearer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide