Rain Phoenix Movies
Part of the acting family that also includes River, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer, Rain Phoenix has pursued a varied career as both an actor and a musician. Born in Crocket, TX, on March 31, 1973, she began performing at the age of three, when she and her older brother, River, sang and played the guitar for money on the streets.Phoenix got her professional acting start in gigs on such TV shows as Family Ties and Amazing Stories, and in 1987 made her film debut in the Ally Sheedy comedy Maid to Order. Around this time Phoenix and River formed the band Aleka's Attic and continued to perform together until the latter's untimely death in 1993.
While she continued to lend her musical talents to such bands as R.E.M. and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Phoenix popped up in a variety of films, with one of her most prominent roles in Gus Van Sant's amazingly ill-fated Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), which cast her as the lusty cowgirl Bonanza Jellybean opposite Uma Thurman's equally lusty hitchhiker Sissy Hankshaw. Phoenix again collaborated with Van Sant in To Die For (1995).
Phoenix continued to work onscreen intermittently throughout the 1990s, and in 2001 had one of her more prominent roles to date as Julia Stiles' best friend in O, Tim Blake Nelson's prep school adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello. That same year, the actor shared the screen with Jacqueline Bisset, Martha Plimpton, and Amy Madigan in The Sleepy Time Gal, a drama about family secrets and identity. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Following up his critically acclaimed third film, 2001's The Sleepy Time Gal, filmmaker Christopher Munch helmed this dramedy about a pair of brothers who embark on a camping trip together. Harry (Bryce Johnson) is the eldest of the two, a 23-year-old former teen idol who has stopped off for the long-promised expedition while en route to a gig in Japan. Max (Cole Williams) is Harry's 16-year-old younger brother, a burgeoning pop star himself. As the siblings begin spending time together in seclusion, their cordialness erodes and strong feelings begin to come out, exposing old emotions that were never dealt with. Also featuring performances by Michelle Phillips and Rain Phoenix, Harry and Max premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bryce Johnson, Cole Williams, (more)
In this gritty drama, a woman discovers that her long-lost mother is now her partner in a cutthroat prison gang. Treasure (Yolonda Ross) is a young African-American woman who grew up without a mother and has been in trouble with the law most of her life after falling in with a rough-and-tumble street gang. Treasure has long been told that her mother, a hard-as-nails female criminal nicknamed "Brownie," died years ago, but one of Treasure's best friends and gang-sisters tells her about meeting a hard-core "lifer" named Brownie in an adult lockup, and Treasure wonders if she might be her mother. About to turn 21, Treasure goes out of her way to break enough rules to be sent to the State Facility for Women, where Brownie (Davenia McFadden) is also held. Treasure soon meets Brownie and discovers she is indeed her mother, but finds that the longtime prisoner would prefer to regard her as a gang ally than as a daughter. Treasure also learns that not everyone welcomes her presence in Brownie's gang, especially Kit (Rain Phoenix), a drug dealer who runs with Brownie and feels that her daughter is forcing her to divide her loyalties. Stranger Inside was directed and co-written by Cheryl Dunye, who previously made the controversial independent feminist satire The Watermelon Woman; the film was premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival prior to its telecast on the premium cable network HBO, which financed the project. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yolonda Ross, Davenia McFadden, (more)
Two women connected by family are drawn closer by fate in this low-key drama. Frances (Jacqueline Bisset) is a woman in her early fifties who had already begun to sense time was running out for her when she learned that she has cancer. While Frances is fighting the disease through medical treatment, she decides it's a good idea to do some travelling before it's too late, and she pays a visit to Bob (Seymour Cassel), a former boyfriend who now owns a farm in rural Pennsylvania. To Bob's surprise, Frances strikes up a fast friendship with his wife Betty (Peggy Gormley), and Frances shares a confession with her -- while Frances maintains a close relationship with her son Morgan (Nick Stahl), she also had a daughter by Bob that she put up for adoption, and she's not certain if she should track down the child while there's still time. Coincidentally, Frances' daughter is Rebecca (Martha Plimpton), a successful lawyer who has begun to express a curiosity about her birth parents. Rebecca has been hired by a large communications firm to deal with the paperwork regarding the purchase of a radio station in Florida, and while in the Sunshine State, Rebecca gets to know the station's manager, Jimmy (Frankie R. Faison). As Jimmy and Rebecca ease into a short-term romance, he shares stories about the "Sleepy Time Gal," a mysterious female disc jockey who worked at the station back in the '50s; what neither Jimmy nor Rebecca know is that the Sleepy Time Gal was actually Frances. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Bisset, Martha Plimpton, (more)
A modernized retelling of William Shakespeare's Othello, O changes its setting to an elite private school in the American South. Odin (Mekhi Phifer) is the only black student at Palmetto Grove and also the star basketball player, with hopes of reaching the NBA. A popular student, he is dating Desi Brable (Julia Stiles), the daughter of the school's dean (John Heard), and they are deeply devoted to each other despite their different backgrounds. His best friend Hugo (Josh Hartnett) is a starter on the basketball team, and the son of the hard-driving coach Duke Goulding (Martin Sheen), who considers Odin as much his son as Hugo. Hugo is jealous of Odin's widespread popularity, so he hatches a scheme to ruin Odin's reputation with the help of Roger (Elden Henson), his rich roommate who will do anything to be popular and get Desi's attention. Through carefully planned revenge, he begins to make Odin believe that Desi is carrying out an affair with teammate Michael (Andrew Keegan). As Odin begins to receive merely coincidental signs to prove it, he begins to slowly lose his grounding and turns to Hugo for help, not knowing that he is being set up. As the basketball season comes to a close, Odin's jealousy begins to consume him, resulting in the loss of everything he cares about the most. O was sometime actor Tim Blake Nelson's directorial follow-up to his well-received debut Eye of God. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett, (more)
Twenty-something L.A. hipsters make some earnest and not-so-earnest attempts at growing up in this ensemble comedy-drama from writer/director Gil Cates Jr., which premiered at the 2000 South-by-Southwest Film Festival in Austin, TX. The film's central dysfunctional relationship concerns Max (Jason London), a writer who agrees to give up his gambling habit for his significant other Brigette (Charlie Spradling) -- but only if she promises to give up her drinking habit. Meanwhile, Max's buddy Doug attempts to hound none other than Jack Nicholson (who does not appear in the film) in hopes that the perma-smirk star will produce his script. To this end, he employs the comely Brigette to woo the superstar at a Lakers game. On the home front, Max's roomie Grant (James Parks) is struggling with the issue of his closeted sexuality -- and more specifically, with the massive crush he harbors for his strapping rent-sharer. Spent is the first feature from Cates, whose father is veteran TV producer/director Gilbert Cates; his cousin is actress Phoebe Cates. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason London, Charlie Spradling, (more)
- 1999
- R
A real estate developer (Eric Roberts) sells out his partner/buddy in order to clear the path for the construction of a major hotel. The wife of his buddy, who was a former lover of his, discovers the body of her husband (with the body of a woman he was having an affair with) and becomes aware his scheme. The big boss in charge of the whole project (Angus McFadyen) assigns two goons to get rid of the wife, but she manages to escape their bumbling chase and get her revenge. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniela Elle, Brad Garrett, (more)
Writer/director Gus Van Sant's early bid for big-time commercial success -- a success he didn't manage to achieve until Good Will Hunting -- is based on Tom Robbins' 1976 feminist bestseller. Uma Thurman plays Sissy Hankshaw, a woman born with very large thumbs. After her parents (Grace Zabriskie and Ken Kesey) take her to a doctor (Buck Henry), who offers her parents no remedy for their daughter's condition, the film races ahead to the 1970s. Sissy is now a popular feminine hygiene spray model for a product called Yoni Yum, the product of a company owned by The Countess (John Hurt in drag). Sissy travels to the Rubber Rose beauty ranch, also owned by The Countess, to shoot a Yoni Yum commercial. At the ranch, she makes the acquaintance of the inscrutable Chink (Pat Morita) and Bonanza Jellybean (Rain Phoenix). But under the nose of The Countess, the cowgirls on the ranch are talking mutiny, with the women trying to liberate the Rubber Rose Ranch from the chains of patriarchal oppression. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Uma Thurman, John Hurt, (more)
Rich but repulsive teenager Jessie (Ally Sheedy) can't stand the notion that the whole world doesn't jump to the crack of her whip. Her overindulgent father, millionaire Charles Montgomery (Tom Skerritt), wishes he could teach his daughter a lesson, but can't bring himself to deny his little darling everything her heart desires. Unfortunately, she gets her comeuppance when, after finding out that Jessie has been arrested, her father mutters a wish that she'd never been born. Zap! Enter fairy godmother Beverly D'Angelo, who grants the girl her wish. With no name, no friends, and no money, Jessie has no choice but to look for work. She is hired as a maid by a filthy-rich Malibu couple (Valerie Perrine and Dick Shawn), whose selfish excesses make Jessie look like Pollyanna. Worse still, Jessie is compelled by circumstance to meet up with her father, who doesn't even recognize her. The key to the film's success is the wonderfully many-sided performance of Ally Sheedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ally Sheedy, Beverly D'Angelo, (more)
