Simon Reynolds Movies

Tween ennui serves as the emotional focal point of co-directors Simon Reynolds and Ingrid Veninger's lyrical study of youthful loneliness. His parents so consumed with running their North Ontario hotel that they have precious little time to share with their son, twelve year old Daniel (Jacob Switzer) spends most of his days attempting to avoid responsibilities that include changing the bedding in the rooms and cleaning up around the grounds. The kids from town are always trying to score booze from Daniel for their parties, but he'd rather pass the time breaking stuff and crashing in the rooms than doing favors for them. One day, while stealthily making his way to the pool, Daniel spies a girl just about his age floating face down. Startled, Daniel begins to talk with the girl and discovers that her name is Vera (Elena Hudgins Lyle). Vera's parents are currently in the midst of a bitter separation, and much like Daniel she's frequently left to her own devices. As Daniel and Vera wander the hotel grounds discussing their lives the things that are truly important to them, they eventually come to realize that the thing that binds them so tightly together is their mutual disappointment of not being closer with their parents. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A hapless man trying to hold on to his job is plunged into a dangerous world where no one is what they appear to be in this dark comedy-drama. Charlie (Craig Lauzon) is a stockbroker working for a large financial services firm in Toronto. Charlie knows he's not doing well at work, and his boss Jay Valentine (Simon Reynolds) has told him so to his face. However, Jay has also offered Charlie a chance to prove he can be useful, and Charlie jumps at the opportunity even though it's clearly on the shady side of the law. Before long, Charlie finds himself caught up in a web of money, sex, deceit and murder as he begins traveling in a circle of dangerous and powerful characters, none more menacing than the wealthy and short-tempered Roland Gow (Maury Chaykin). Also starring Lindsey Deluce, Ellen Dubin and Lori Hallier, Bull was the first theatrical feature from writer and director Kent Tessman; the film was an official selection at the 2008 Montreal Word Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Directed by Walter Salles Jr., this remake of Hideo Nakata's supernatural psychological drama Honogurai Mizuno Soko Kara revolves around the plight of a single mother (Jennifer Connelly) whose messy divorce and subsequent battle for the custody of her five-year-old daughter is taking a heavy toll on her emotional well-being. Ultimately, the mother and daughter are able to relocate to an apartment, which, despite its excessively dilapidated interior, seems to be an adequate location for beginning a new life. Before long, however, what appears to be the spirit of a young girl begins to haunt them. No stranger to mental illness, the wary young woman brushes the visions aside as part of the inherent stress of making the transition from housewife to working, single mom. As time goes by and the apparent haunting does not subside, the apartment's new residents are forced to examine the history of its former tenants. Dark Water also features performances from John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, and Dougray Scott. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story, this "Hallmark Hall of Fame" TV movie was produced by Rosie O'Donnell, who also stars as the profoundly mentally challenged Beth Simon. When Beth's father dies, her sister, Rachel (Andie MacDowell), a brittle, self-absorbed fashion photographer, takes charge of Beth -- who, having been allowed to grow up without learning anything of self-discipline and social propriety, is no prize herself. Though she loves her sister, Rachel is embarrassed by Beth's obnoxious, obstreperous behavior, especially when riding the bus, which she does religiously and obsessively every day, much to the dismay of the other passengers. (Be warned: this is not one of those lachrymose "lovable handicapped adult" movies so common to network television.) Also, Beth has been allowed by her overindulgent father to neglect her health and hygiene in a deplorable fashion. Gradually, the two sisters connect and manage to profoundly change one another. Those viewers and critics who condemned Rosie O'Donnell for her abrasive, over-the-top portrayal of Beth were generally those who had had little contact with genuine handicapped people; conversely, those who had such people in their own families, or who had worked extensively with them professionally, applauded O'Donnell for her disturbingly accurate performance. Adapted from the book by the real-life Rachel Simon (actually an English professor and not a photographer), Riding the Bus with My Sister was telecast by CBS on May 1, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Welcome to Life on the Outside" was the advertising tag for the weekly, hour-long Showtime cable network dramatic series Street Time. Rob Morrow starred as former marijuana smuggler Kevin Hunter, recently paroled from prison after five years. Moving into the same neighborhood as his parole officer James Liberti (Scott Cohen), Hunter did his best to go straight, and to mend fences with his common-law wife Rachel Goldstein (Michelle Nordin), the mother of Kevin's nine-year-old son. The no-nonsense Liberti was determined to keep Hunter from lapsing back into his old crooked habits, a task made difficult by Liberti's own chronic gambling and his prickly relationship with wife Karen (Kate Greenhouse). Meanwhile, Hunter's former partners in crime -- who happened to be his brother Peter (Christopher Bolton) and brother-in-law Steve (Simon Reynolds) -- put the pressure on the protagonist to return to the "family business." Street Time debuted on June 23, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Family Pictures is a two-part TV adaptation of the Sue Miller novel of the same name. Anjelica Huston and Sam Neill are Lainey and David Eberlin, a 1950s married couple with six children, one of whom, Randall (Jamie Harrold), is autistic. The parents' initial decision not to institutionalize the boy results in a terrific strain on the rest of the family, until finally only Lainey is willing to shoulder the responsibility of raising Randall. The second half of Family Pictures, related from the vantage point of the 1980s by the Eberlins' oldest daughter (Kyra Sedgwick), details the effect that Randall's inevitable institutionalization had on the family. This anecdotal four-hour drama first aired on March 21 and 22, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This realistic made-for-TV drama chronicles the courage of three women who must leave a New York freeway to get gas in a part of town so bad that even the police avoid it. Once there, they end up fighting for their lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-TV drama, a teenage girl named Sarah (Kathleen Robertson) is flying home to see her parents when she falls ill. While Sarah is convinced that she has simply come down with a bad cold, when she keels over and dies while crossing a street, an autopsy reveals that Sarah had in fact contracted the pneumonic plague. Dr. Nora Hart (Kate Jackson), the hospital's authority on epidemics and highly contagious diseases, now must track down as many people as possible who came in contact with the girl before the plague begins to spread -- including Calvin Phillips (Howard Hessman), a congressman Sarah met on her flight. Based on the novel The Black Death by Gweneth Cravens and John C. Marr, Quiet Killer also stars Jerry Orbach, Luis Guzman, and Al Waxman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Patrick (Simon Reynolds) is a teenager with the usual concerns of teens: schoolwork, his peers' opinions of him, and girls. In addition, he has to put up with his weirdo dad (R.H. Thomson), who imagines he is some kind of inventor. His dad has some other problems, too, like his habit of taking out his frustrations on Patrick's mom and sister. At school, some light dawns when a history teacher takes an interest in him. With her help, he gradually starts taking responsibility for his performance at school. That lesson prompts him to take a good hard look at what's happening at home, and before long he calls the police to cart his abusive dad away. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The Guardian is set in an upper-class New York apartment building, recently plagued by a series of break-ins and murders. The tenants eagerly enlist the services of former military officer John Mack (Louis Gossett Jr.) as the building's head of security. Slowly but surely, the tenants give up their freedom of movement to Mack, who runs the place like his own private fiefdom. Bristling over this infringement upon his rights, liberal-minded tenant Charles Hyatt (Martin Sheen) begins to suspect that the killings were orchestrated by Mack himself as a means of gaining power over his employers. Stirring up a respectable amount of suspense, the made-for-cable The Guardian debuted October 20, 1984, over the HBO service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide