Bill Sage Movies

Boys is a coming-of-age tale about an addled prep school student who nurses a woman back to health after an accident and becomes involved in her cryptic past. John Baker Jr. (Lukas Haas) is a tormented high school senior outcast who's weary of his upper-crust boarding school life and dreads his future as a supermarket chain manager. When he finds Patty Vare (Winona Ryder) unconscious in a field after being thrown from a horse, Baker sees this as an opportunity to break out of his humdrum existence, and he smuggles her into the school to take care of her. The relationship blooms into a somewhat bizarre love affair, as John discovers that Patty is concealing a mysterious secret involving a missing baseball player and a stolen car. Although the film takes a little time to get started, what originates as an analysis of guarded youths making foolish judgments evolves into a celebration of adolescent insurrection. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

This Italian drama, set in the industrial areas of Turin, examines the effects of infidelity. It is summer, but that is not why the rebellious factory worker Francesco is upset. He is hot under the collar because his wife Carla slept with Charles, a hotel detective, during her recent visit to New York. Charles decides to visit Turin for his vacation and Carla decides to disappear for a while. Before she goes, she arranges for her pal Gabrielle to let Charles stay with her. Francesco is becoming more rebellious and angry. He vents his frustrations upon the body of a stranger and then threatens Charles. It is Gabrielle who puts the two together in an old warehouse for their final showdown. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A pair of brothers dodge the law while trying to locate their long-lost father in this third feature from independent New York filmmaker Hal Hartley. Robert John Burke stars as Bill McCabe, a failed computer thief who's just been doublecrossed by his girlfriend and partner. Vowing revenge on the next beautiful blonde he encounters, Bill meets up with his younger brother Dennis (William Sage), a philosophy student concerned about their father William (John A. MacKay). It seems the McCabe paterfamilias was a former major league shortstop who became an anarchist bomber in the 1960s, nearly blowing up the Pentagon. On the run for twenty-three years, William was recently caught by the FBI but escaped again. Based on information from their mother, the McCabes travel to Long Island, where William may be hiding. Along the way, the brothers meet the epileptic Elina (Elina Lowensohn) and her friend Kate (Karen Sillas), a beautiful blonde with whom Bill is instantly smitten. While Dennis figures out that Elina is somehow connected to William, Bill contends with Kate's ex-con husband Jack (Joe Stevens) and Jack's best friend Martin (Martin Donovan), both of whom are also in love with her. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Theory of Achievement, a short film by director Hal Hartley, is a droll look at a group of young Brooklynites grappling with the great issues: aesthetics, romance, and real estate. Bob, a broke, aspiring writer, takes advantage of his girlfriend's absence to enter the real estate business. He sublets her apartment to a group of struggling artists, convincing them that Williamsburg, Brooklyn is destined to be "the new art capital of the world." Amongst the tenants are Hartley regulars William Sage and Elina Lowensohn, portraying a couple arguing over the husband's refusal to quit his uninspiring job and follow his dream of becoming a songwriter. Bob and the tenants bond in their mutual poverty and ennui, discussing art, drinking beer, and playing the accordion. All is well, until Bob's girlfriend returns to town early and discovers his scheme. The short is one of three made by Hartley in 1991, along with Ambition and Surviving Desire. All are available on a single videocassette. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Writer-director Hal Hartley's first feature -- shot in less than 12 days in his backyard for a mere $200,000 -- is a dry and dark comedy about the dangerous undercurrents that exist below the surface of normal middle class existence. Over the credits, Josh (Robert Burke), a man garbed in black, is seen hitch-hiking back to his Long Island home. People ask him, "Are you a priest?" and Josh responds, "No. I'm a mechanic." Back in Long Island in the town of Lindenhurst, beautiful and somber 17-year-old Audry (Adrienne Shelly) is busy worrying about the forthcoming apocalypse. Josh arrives in Lindenhurst and is hired by Audry's father (Chris Cooke) as a mechanic at his garage. But Audry's father worries about him, particularly when he falls in love with Audry. Her father's problems compound when Audry dumps her old boyfriend and rejects an invitation to attend Harvard. The whole town is now gossiping about Audry's new boyfriend, with rumors spreading that Josh is a mass murderer who killed two members of the family of local waitress Pearl (Julia McNeal). Pearl tells Audry, "He seems like a nice man." Audry responds, "Even though he killed your father and your sister?" Audry finally makes her father happy when she tells him she won't see Josh again, but dad's relief is short-lived when Audry informs him she's moving to New York to become an underwear model. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide