Peter Thoemke Movies
A salesman in a slump turns to a life of crime in this comedy-drama from filmmaker Jill Sprecher. Mickey Prohaska (Greg Kinnear) is an insurance salesman living and working in rural Wisconsin. Mickey likes to believe that he's a talented salesman who can talk anyone in to buying a policy, but the truth is his career has hit the skids, he's struggling to make ends meet, and his divorce from his wife Jo Ann (Lea Thompson) has shaken his confidence. Mickey and his new partner Bob Egan (David Harbour) are able to sell a policy to elderly farmer Gorvy Hauer (Alan Arkin), though Gorvy seems more interested in having someone come by and fix his television than discussing his financial future. One day, Mickey is paying Gorvy a visit when he makes a remarkable discovery -- the old violin in his living room is a vintage one worth $30,000. Seeing an easy payday, Mickey begins hatching a scheme to get the instrument away from Gorvy and into the hands of a violin dealer, but his plan gets more complicated at every turn and eventually goes from difficult to dangerous. Also starring Bob Balaban and Billy Crudup, The Convincer (aka Thin Ice) was an official selection at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, (more)
Phoebe Cates stars in this bizarre comedy that wants to be the kind of stylish comic fable the likes of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice and Pee-wee's Big Adventure but ends up looking like a shabby burlesque about schizophrenia. Cates is Elizabeth, who has recently separated from her philandering husband Charles (Tim Matheson) and moved back home with her harridan mother Polly (Marsha Mason). Back in her old little-girl haunts, she regresses into childhood and recalls her imaginary childhood friend Drop Dead Fred (Rik Mayall), a nasty, ill-tempered sociopath. As a child, Elizabeth created mayhem with her imaginary pal, but Polly locked him up tight in a jack-in-the-box. But now, Elizabeth mistakenly liberates him from the jack-in-the-box, and the newly freed Drop Dead Fred proceeds to wreak more havoc than the Id Monster from Forbidden Planet -- taking vengeance upon all the people who have made Elizabeth miserable -- and then some. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Phoebe Cates, Rik Mayall, (more)
- 1982
- R
The summer of '68 provides the backdrop for this drama that chronicles the experiences of an alienated drop-out from society who with his "chemically dependent" pal, rebels against his parents, college, the draft, and all things Establishment in the usual ways. The authentic music on the soundtrack is notable. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chuck McQuary, Bernard Baldan, (more)
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