Douglas Roberts Movies

Mike Nichols lends some comic structure to Carrie Fisher's best-selling confessional novel concerning a woman's struggles with drug addiction and mother-daughter rivalry (subjects Fisher admits to understanding all too well). Meryl Streep, in her most full-blown comic performance up to that point, plays Suzanne Vale, a popular movie actress well on her way to a Hollywood crack-up. Suzanne suffers from blackouts and memory lapses, and awakens in the beds of men she doesn't remember; she is a barely-functioning wreck on the set of her latest movie. When a coke dealer who delivers stops by her dressing room between takes, she swiftly finds herself being rushed to the hospital, suffering the effects of a narcotics bender. While in detox, Suzanne attempts to piece her life and career back together, but her confidence is shattered when her mother arrives at the rehab clinic -- Doris Mann, a famed film icon from the 1950s and 1960s (Shirley MacLaine). Doris is soon soaking up the adulation and applause of Suzanne's fellow recovering drug addicts. Upon Suzanne's release, she must compete with her mother for attention and fame as she tries to walk a thin line as a recovering drug abuser. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

From Hollywood to Deadwood is an agreeable private-eye yarn, at once a spoof and a tribute to the film noir output of the 1940s. Detectives Savage and Haines (Scott Paulin, Jim Haynes) are hired to locate Lana Dark (Barbara Schock), a movie actress whose absence is costing her studio tons of money. The two Sherlocks follow the evidence trail to Deadwood, South Dakota. Here, Savage begins a one-sided romance with the restless Lana. He learns that her disappearance was all part of an insurance scam. He further learns that now that he knows all, his life, not to mention the lives of Haines and Lana, aren't worth a plug nickel. Though the film wastes no time with inessentials, we learn a lot more about the emotional and psychological makeup of the three protagonists than is customary for films of this nature. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The directorial debut of Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator of the television series Moonlighting (1985-89), this intense, gritty drama was received as one of the best-ever cinematic treatments of substance abuse. Michael Keaton stars as Daryl Poynter, a hustling, successful Philadelphia real estate agent who has become addicted to cocaine. He's already got problems, including nearly a $100,000 embezzled from his employer and lost on the stock market, when he wakes up one morning with a young woman dead in his bed from a coke overdose. His company is asking questions about the missing funds, and the dead girl's father is plastering his neighborhood with posters accusing Daryl of being a murderer, so he decides to hide out in an anonymous drug treatment program. There, however, Daryl runs into tough-minded counselor and former addict Craig (Morgan Freeman), who has heard all of Daryl's lies and tricks before. Daryl also finds romance with an abused fellow addict, Charlie Standers (Kathy Baker), and understanding with his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor (M. Emmet Walsh). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

We'd rather not speculate over how much of Best Friends is autobiographical. We'll just note that this story of a male-female screenwriting team was written by real-life married scenarists Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin. Lovers as well as collaborators, scriveners Richard Babson (Burt Reynolds) and Paula McCullen (Goldie Hawn) decide to make their union legal. Predictably enough, they discover that their relationship goes straight downhill after they say "I do." The stars are far less interesting than the supporting cast, including Jessica Tandy and Barnard Hughes as Hawn's parents, Audra Lindley and Keenan Wynn as Reynolds' folks, Ron Silver as an avaricious producer (no names, please!), and Richard Libertini as a Mexican justice of the peace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide