Donal Lardner Ward
Answering the question of "Where have all the New Wavers gone?" is The Suburbans, a comedy from first-time director Donal Lardner Ward, who also stars and co-wrote the screenplay. In 1981, power pop band The Suburbans had it all -- big hair, skinny ties and a hit record. But they never followed up on their one chart success, and years later, most of the band's members have dropped out of the music business in favor of "real jobs." However, when one of the ex-Suburbans gets married, the four members are reunited at the reception and play their lone hit for old times sake. As fate would have it, one of the wedding guests is Cait (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a young A&R executive who loved the Suburbans as a kid and thinks they could have another shot at the big time. But does pushing-40 bandleader Danny (Ward) really want to put a stake in the heart of his marriage to Grace (Amy Brenneman) for another moment in the spotlight? The Suburbans features a period-appropraite cameo from A Flock Of Seagulls and supporting performances from Ben Stiller, Jerry Stiller, Will Ferrell and Robert Loggia. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Bierko, Amy Brenneman, (more)
Eric Schaeffer and Donald Ward managed to scrape together 22,000 dollars to make this independent film about the making of an independent film. Schaeffer plays a New York City cabdriver (which he really was), while Ward co-stars as his roommate (which he really was). They have no money, no script, and admittedly not much talent, but they're determined to put a movie together about a couple of slightly overweight twentysomethings who are united by their "outsider" status. Talent agent Lisa Gerstein, the men's mutual friend, takes a maternal interest in their project. Along the way, they manage to charm genuine celebrities such as Phoebe Cates and Martha Plimpton into appearing in their film. (Cates really was cajoled into appearing when she stepped into Schaeffer's taxi!) My Life's in Turnaround debuted at the Seattle Film Festival, where it scored a hit (despite its misogynistic undertones) and earned Schaeffer and Ward a multimillion-dollar studio deal. Incidentally, the word "turnaround" is a Hollywood term referring to a movie project that has been in development so long that its chances of ever being produced are slim to none; detractors of Schaeffer and Ward (and there are many) tend to wish that this had been the fate of My Life's in Turnaround. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Schaeffer, Donal Lardner Ward, (more)
The debut film from writer-director Whit Stillman etches a sophisticated comic portrait of New York debutante society at the twilight of the 1980s. Set during the Christmas season, the film is told from the vantage point of Tom Townsend (Edward Clements), a self-professed proletarian radical who stumbles into the social sphere of a group of well-off Upper East Side twentysomethings calling themselves the SFRP (or Sally Fowler Rat Pack, named in honor of a frequent party hostess). The group includes Nick (Christopher Eigeman), an acidic misanthrope; sweet-natured Jane Austen acolyte Audrey (Carolyn Farina); Charlie (Taylor Nichols), a tongue-tied bumbler secretly in love with Audrey; and femme fatale Cynthia (Isabel Gillies). Quickly, Tom, who comes from much more humble beginnings, finds himself caught in the middle of the group. Audrey even develops a crush on him, but Tom is still reeling from a broken relationship with renowned man-eater Serena (Elizabeth Thompson), a peripheral member of the SFRP. It all leads to a romantic climax at the Southampton vacation home of Nick's womanizing arch-enemy Rick von Sloneker (Will Kempe). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carolyn Farina, Edward Clements, (more)
