Antonia Rey Movies

Miguel Pinero became a leading figure in New York's art scene during the 1970s as a poet, actor, and playwright whose vibrant, often pointed, work spoke directly to the lower classes and to disenfranchised minorities. As a founder of the influential Nuyorican Poets Cafe, his poetry soon became recognized as a forerunner to rap and hip-hop music. TV screenwriter turned director Leon Ichaso spins this impressionistic biographical look at this artist. Raised in an abusive family, Pinero (Benjamin Bratt) turns to streets for solace. Soon he is engaging in petty crime, drug dealing, and addiction. When he finds himself in Sing-Sing, he turns his experiences in prison into the play Short Eyes, which eventually garners him seven Tony awards in 1974. Uncomfortable with his new fame, he clings to his girlfriend, Sugar (Talisa Soto), and his childhood buddy, Miguel Algarin (Giancarlo Esposito), who is a literature professor and who co-founded the Nuyorican Cafe. Though Pinero makes cameos on such shows as Kojak, his art begins to suffer as he starts to succumb to his drug addictions. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a young professional photographer, Diane Di Sorella, must suddenly return to her long- abandoned family home in New Jersey after her mother unexpectedly dies. Once back amongst her fellow Italian-American neighbors she begins to rediscover the heritage she rejected some many years before. She also begins to remember her embittered mother whom she abandoned. This is a tough time for Diane and she finds support with the best friend of her late grandmother who gives her a secret journal kept by Diane's mother. It is in Italian so the woman must read it to Diane. Passages from it are illustrated via live action vignettes and through puppet shows. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Dream House is an opposites-attract TV movie which strives mightily for social relevance. John Schneider plays a Georgia-cracker contractor who journeys to New York for a major building project. Out of love for Manhattanite urban planner Marilu Henner, he scraps his big-bucks assignment. Instead, he endeavors to build a "dream" house in the middle of one of New York City's most rundown ghettos. Dream House coasts merrily along on its star power alone; the storyline is acceptable, but nothing to break a date over. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, this made-for-television drama tells the tale of a college student, a mysterious young woman and a strangely beautiful garden. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A young thug needs money, so he visits his girlfriend while she's baby-sitting. While there, he plans to tie up the girl, kidnap the child, and hold him for ransom in the hope that his wealthy father will pay up. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

This upbeat children's adventure tells the true story of gentle Barney Marcovitz who firmly believes that the world's hope is in the hands of children. Barney manages a pony farm/petting zoo in Greenwich Village so that city kids can sample country life. The trouble begins when the real estate developers who own his property want to put up a housing complex. The irate neighbors rally on behalf of Barney's zoo, but the developers won't listen. The defeated zoo keeper then gives his animals to the local kids. Mayhem ensues, especially with two children who try to keep their new pony a secret from their parents. In the end, all is saved when Barney moves his menagerie to the Bronx. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Clint Eastwood stars as Walt Coogan, an Arizona deputy sheriff who has been sent to New York City to extradite escaped killer James Ringerman (Don Stroud). On arrival, he's forced to wait by NYPD detective Lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb), who informs him that Ringerman is recovering from a bad acid trip at Bellevue Hospital. After briefly flirting with attractive probation officer Julie Roth (Susan Clark), Coogan heads for Bellevue, where he's able to con the hospital's staff into releasing the criminal. The cop and the fugitive are on the way to catch a flight back to Arizona, when Ringerman's hippie girlfriend Linny (Tisha Sterling) and a large accomplice spirit the killer away, leaving Coogan unconscious. Luckily, Julie is the girl's probation officer, and Coogan manages to get her address from the woman's files while getting to know her better. He tracks the girl to a popular psychedelic club, whereupon, deciding she likes the deputy, she takes him back to her apartment for further interrogation. The first in a series of films on which Eastwood would collaborate with director Don Siegel, it features a memorable scene in which a battle fought with billiard balls and cue sticks suggests the birth of a new martial art. Although its seemingly innocuous scenes of sex and violence drew criticism at the time, it served as the source for television's considerably more benign McCloud, starring Dennis Weaver as the laconic fish out of water. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

John Cusack and James Spader play against type in Kevin Wade's morality play, directed by Herbert Ross. Spader plays Tim Gerrity, a well-heeled WASP blueblood, who has dedicated his life to justice and public service. Engaged to Diana Stiles (Imogene Stubbs), the daughter of a powerful senator (Richard Widmark), Tim seems to have a rosy future ahead of him. Enter Peter Burton (John Cusack), Peter's working-class roommate at the University of Virginia. Peter, a ravenous and devouring go-getter, is out to climb the political ladder at any cost. He sees Tim and latches onto him. Their friendship blooms at the university and continues afterwards, with the weak-willed Tim constantly deferring to the antagonistic and aggressive Peter. But they finally come to blows on skis when Tim finds out that Peter has bedded Diana, who has decided to drop Tim for his lack of ambition. When Peter blackmails Senator Stiles to secure a House seat, Tim rouses himself from his lethargy to fight Peter politically. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this comedy drama, Spike Fumo (Sasha Mitchell) is a Brooklyn streetfighter with pugilistic aspirations. With Spike's mafioso father in Sing Sing, mobster and former fighter Baldo Cacetti (Ernest Borgnine) looks out for Spike by getting him some bouts and every once in a while convincing the fighter to throw a match. When Spike meets and falls for Baldo's daughter Angel (Maria Patillo), Baldo suddenly sours on Spike. The father wants Angel to marry the college-bound son of a cocaine-snorting congresswoman (Sylvia Miles), and Baldo only envisions Spikes' future as being a mob enforcer. Eventually, Spike moves away from his embittered lesbian mother (Geraldine Smith) and moves in with the Puerto Rican boxer Bandana (Rick Aviles). He soon has two women pregnant in two different neighborhoods as he contemplates his future. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The "wise guys" referred to in the title, Harry Valentini (Danny DeVito) and Moe Dickstein (Joe Piscopo), turn out to be not so wise after all in this crime-oriented comedy. Harry and Moe run the risk of certain death when they steal money from a Mafia don (Dan Hedaya) and then try to multiply their ill-gotten gains at the horse races. Naturally, they lose the bundle and the next thing they know they're running from hitmen and trying to come up with enough cash to pay back their debt. Wise Guys' blend of comedy and action represented something of a change of pace for director Brian DePalma, best known for his offbeat thrillers and Hitchcock homages. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Peter Medak's The Changeling is among a handful of films, including The Haunting (1963), Ghost Story (1981), and Lady in White (1988), that have successfully recreated the intimate, drawing-room atmosphere of supernatural horror fiction. After his wife and daughter are killed in a snowbound car accident, classical composer John Russell (George C. Scott) relocates from New York to Seattle to teach at his alma mater. Looking for a quiet place to rest and continue writing music, he is referred Claire Norman (Trish Van Devere) at the Seattle Historical Preservation Society. Claire shows John a large, sparsely furnished estate in the outlying countryside. He takes the house, appreciating its remoteness and the solitude it might afford, and diverts himself by renovating and settling in. He even starts to compose, putting aside his older work in favor of a new, sentimental piece for the piano. It is not long, however, before he begins having nightmares about the accident that killed his wife and daughter. Possibly because of this trauma, he is open to communications from the house's ghostly occupants. Pursuing a loud, repetitive pounding noise in an upper room, he stumbles on the apparition of a young boy drowning in a tub. Working together with Claire, John discovers frightening parallels between this vision and buried events from the house's past. Horror writer M.R. James once said that his goal as a writer was to make the reader feel "pleasantly uncomfortable." Those looking for a similar experience in movies will appreciate The Changeling as a gem in the horror genre. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide

Most westerns wrap their stories, legends really, with a light clothing of history and period. Any history found in them is usually a mix of legend and fantasy. By way of contrast, in this film, an attempt is made to accurately portray the lives and persons of Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and the now-legendary events that took place in the town of Tombstone. Those looking for fast-paced action will be disappointed in this film, as it deals more in psychological character studies than action. Sheriff Wyatt Earp (Harris Yulin) is shown to be a fairly ordinary politician, and the romance of Doc Holliday (Stacy Keach) and Kate Elder (Faye Dunaway) is highlighted. As it must, however, the film concludes with the well-known gunfight at the O.K. Corral ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This bittersweet comedy is, among many other things, a tour de force for the marvelous Anne Bancroft. The star is cast as Estelle Rolfe, an unconventional divorcee who resides in New York, in close proximity to her grown son Gilbert (Ron Silver) and his wife Lisa (Carrie Fisher). Though his wife yearns to move back to her home state of California, Gilbert cannot quite cut the silver cord that binds him to his mother. Upon learning that Estelle is dying, her dutiful son offers to honor her last request to meet the reclusive actress Greta Garbo. The rest of the film plays wonderful variations on this theme, involving such peripheral characters as a gay Garbo fan (Harvey Fierstein), an elderly Shakespearean actress (Hermione Gingold), a "female Joe Papp" director (Denny Dillon), and an ageing papparazzi (Howard Da Silva). Without giving away the ending, it is worth noting that the divine Garbo shows up in the person of playwright/lyricist/ performer Betty Comden. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide