Sheryl Lee Ralph Movies

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, Rovi

A devoted nun endeavors to create a halfway house for female convicts on parole in this drama. To achieve her goal, she must face a daunting series of obstacles. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Based on a story by Jimmy Breslin, The Neighborhood takes place in an all-white, blue collar neighborhood in an unspecified big city. A "blockbuster" real estate agent begins selling houses to black families (among the new neighbors is recent Oscar nominee Howard Rollins Jr.), resulting in mixed emotions (most of them leaning towards hostility) from the white residents. There are isolated incidents of terrorism, including a burning cross, before wiser heads prevail and the neighbors learn to live together in harmony. The nicer white residents include Christine Belford and Ron Masak, playing the sort of altruistic types that seem to exist exclusively in TV movies. The contrived upbeat ending of The Neighborhood is a sure giveaway that the film was intended as the pilot for a weekly series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After a four-week hiatus, Good Times returned to CBS's Wednesday-night schedule with this episode. Sheryl Lee Ralph guest stars as Vanessa Blake, an old girlfriend of unemployed J.J. Evans (Jimmie Walker). Afraid to tell Vanessa that he's out of work, J.J. suffers a thousand deaths as his high-maintenance sweetie pressures him into taking her on a very expensive date. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Unconditional Love stars stand-up comic John Kennedy Horne as Joe Kirkman, an investigative reporter for an L.A. newspaper. When his best friend is murdered by underlings of Ted Markham (Henry Silva), a business executive with criminal ties, Kirkman decides to get revenge the best way he knows how -- by digging into Markham's business, uncovering the extent of his crimes, and bringing him to justice. He's aided in his research by Patrice (Tracey Ross), a graduate student and computer expert who soon develops a decidedly non-academic relationship with Kirkman. Unconditional Love also features supporting performances from Antonio Fargas, Robert Culp and Adrian Zmed. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

From director-writer Desmond Nakano comes this unusual role-reversal picture examining racism from a different perspective. Louis Pinnock (John Travolta) is a semi-literate worker in a chocolate candy factory. One day he makes a delivery to the mansion of wealthy Thaddeus Thomas (Harry Belafonte). He is noticed while he is unintentionally looking up at Thomas' wife, Megan (Margaret Avery), while she is undressing in an open window. Thomas makes sure that Pinnock is fired for this innocent indiscretion despite his years of reliable performance at the factory. Some time later, unemployed and destitute, Pinnock and his wife Marsha (Kelly Lynch) and children are evicted roughly from their home by police officers. Marsha's mother (Carrie Snodgress) takes in her daughter and grandchildren, but she won't let Pinnock stay. Police officers beat up Pinnock one day because, they say, he fits the description of a criminal suspect. Finally, Pinnock goes to Thomas's house to get an explanation for his firing, but Thomas doesn't remember the incident. Pinnock takes Thomas hostage and demands he be paid for all the hours of work he has missed. In this film, all the authority figures and wealthy people are black, and Pinnock is a member of a poor white underclass. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Successful character actor Barry Primus spent seven years trying to get financing for his feature debut as a writer-director, Mistress. In the film, a once-promising writer-director, Marvin Landisman (Robert Wuhl), who now directs instructional videos, is sitting home one night, watching his own print of Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion, when he gets a strange phone call. A producer, Jack Roth (Martin Landau), formerly a bigwig at Universal, tells Marvin he was cleaning out his office when he came across Marvin's old script, "The Darkness and the Light." Jack claims he can get financing to make the film, and agrees to Marvin's stipulation that he be attached to direct. They "take a meeting" at a low-rent diner, and Jack brings along a gung-ho novice screenwriter, Stuart (Jace Alexander), to help Marvin polish the script. They meet with three potential backers, played by Eli Wallach, Danny Aiello, and Robert DeNiro, each one more meddlesome than the last, and each with a girlfriend (played by Tuesday Knight, Jean Smart, and Sheryl Lee Ralph, respectively) whom they demand be cast in the film. At first, Marvin adamantly resists changing his serious, downbeat, and very personal script, about an painter who commits suicide, rather than betray his ideals. But eventually, Marvin gets caught up in the momentum of actually getting his dream project made, and starts compromising. He agrees to cast the three women; he agrees to make the script funnier and sexier; he even agrees to change the painter to a photographer to please his backers. Laurie Metcalf plays Marvin's long-suffering wife, and Christopher Walken has a cameo as a tortured actor. Mistress was the first film produced by DeNiro's independent production company, Tribeca Films. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Xavier Quinn (Denzel Washington) is police chief of a tiny Caribbean island. Quinn's efforts to straddle the fence between the local blacks and the moneyed whites have lost him the respect of both groups. When a murder is committed, Quinn suspects that the killer is Maubee (Robert Townsend), a notoriously elusive criminal who has become a folk hero to the locals. Despite various political pressures -- and the fact that he and Maubee were childhood friends-Quinn vows to solve the murder, and, if necessary, bring Maubee to justice. A mess of merry plot twists distinguish this diverting fox-and-hound caper. Filmed entirely on location, The Mighty Quinn was based on Finding Maubee, a novel by A.H.Z. Carr. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi