Dean Williams Movies
- 2005
Tagged as a "fairy tale for adults," Nicola Scott's byzantine spiritual fantasy Fated opens in Liverpool on New Year's Eve of 1992, when Tatty (Michael Angelis), a middle-aged artist, is suddenly and unexpectedly abandoned by his much younger French paramour, Amy (Katrine De Candole). As she flees from him, she is struck dead by a passing car - the incident quietly observed by a local boy (James Harris. Torn asunder with grief, Tatty erects a statue of his beloved and mounts it in the crumbling church of St. Luke's; he then bows to the monument and begs the deceased woman to revisit him in the flesh. Exactly thirteen years later, on New Year's 2005, Tatty's life is now a wreck; the incident has reduced him to an impoverished, ragged hobo who resides in St. Luke's, still hovering over his statue. Fleeing aggressors, a local boy, Cal (Brendan Mackey), opts to evade harm by stowing away in the church for one night. He encounters Tatty, and - when the head of the statue is accidentally knocked off - Amy is resurrected. Tatty informs Amy that her only hope of staying alive resides in kissing Cal (the first man she spotted after her resurrection) before dawn. But he fails to anticipate Amy's continued rejection of himself and her inclination to fall in love with Cal. As the night progresses, events unfurl in surprising and completely unexpected ways.
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brendan Mackey, Michael Angelis, (more)
- 1986
- R
A moribund nightclub on the fringes of Liverpool's sprawl is the primary setting for this frenetic, dark, and confusing comedy done in a heavy regional "dialect" by director Peter Smith. Set on New Year's Eve, the film chronicles the rivalry between elderly Irish Catholic and Protestant attendees at a party held in a gritty pub in Liverpool. Mixed in with the warring oldsters are some shady types such as Billy the Beast, the killer of an Ulster terrorist. The club's new manager has a talent for dealing with mayhem and violence, but his first challenge lies in handling the punk rock band perversely scheduled to entertain the oldsters by the disgruntled former manager. After that challenge, he is faced with a magician on the verge of a nervous breakdown and other kinds of chaos that tear through the place. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Angelis, Avis Bunnage, (more)
Three divorced fathers, played by Paul Reiser, Matthew Modine, and Randy Quaid, experience the joys and hardships of their former marriages, their relationships with their kids, and getting back into the dating scene in this whimsical comedy. Dave (Modine) is diligently playing the field, while Vic (Quaid) is enraged over his ex-wife's spending problem and Donny (Reiser) is struggling with the love he still feels for his ex and his own feelings of rejection. However, what develops over the weekend changes each man's life forever. Vic goes on a nightmare date with a neurotic woman (Janeane Garofalo), Dave loses control of his female interests when they all show up at the house simultaneously, and Donny finds himself literally out on a limb in order to communicate with his teenage daughter. Though it deals with serious subject matter, Bye Bye Love is a lighthearted look at modern American divorce and the often humorous ways in which people adjust to a new life. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Modine, Randy Quaid, (more)
- 1988
- PG13
Set in 1940s England, Distant Voices/Still Lives is a compassionate look at a radically dysfunctional family. The son and his mother must endure the casual and overt cruelties of the bull-necked father. The ongoing abuse takes its toll in the form of failed marriages and misguided attempts at seeking security outside the family unit. As was the case with his earlier short subject trilogy (The Children, Madonna and Child, Death and Transfiguration), director Terence Davies based much of the material on his own life, combining rheumy-eyed cynicism with soft-edged nostalgia (the musical track, drawn from popular wartime songs, is particularly evocative). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Freda Dowie, Pete Postlethwaite, (more)
