Alicia Witt

Jon Avnet directs Al Pacino in the thriller 88 Minutes. Pacino plays university professor Jack Gramm, who occasionally assists the FBI in matters of forensic psychiatry. His recent testimony against a freshly convicted criminal seems to be the reason he has gotten a scary phone call informing him he will die in 88 minutes. As with the like-minded thriller D.O.A. (both the original and the remake), the protagonist must use his skills in order to track down who has hatched this evil plot and hopefully prevent his own demise. Alicia Witt and Leelee Sobieski co-star as the professor's star students. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Michael Steinberg, co-director of The Waterdance, made his solo directorial debut with the Gen-X character study Bodies, Rest & Motion. Written by Roger Hedden, based on his own play, the film's title refers to Newton's First Law of Motion, which states essentially that a body at rest or in motion will remain in that state until acted upon by an external force. The film is set in the desert town of Enfield, AZ. Nick (Tim Roth) is a feckless television salesman who gets fired and impulsively decides that he and his girlfriend, Beth (Bridget Fonda), will move to Butte, MT, which he's read is "the city of the future." "I read that a while ago, so the future should be there by now," he enthuses. He waits until the last moment to tell Carol (Phoebe Cates), his ex and Beth's best friend, about the move. While Nick is working his last day, Sid (Eric Stoltz) comes to the couple's house to paint it for the next tenants. He quickly develops an interest in Beth. He, Beth, and Carol get stoned and hang out. When Sid hears about the move, he tells Beth that he's never left Enfield, and has no interest in traveling. Meanwhile, Nick decides to take off on his own. When Beth gets word of this from Carol, she finds solace in Sid's arms. Sid proclaims his love the next morning, and implores Beth to stay. Meanwhile, Nick visits his childhood home, looking for his parents, has an epiphany, and decides to return to Carol. The film features Alicia Witt (Urban Legend) in her first substantial part. There's also a very brief cameo by Peter Fonda, Bridget's father. Hedden would go on to collaborate with Stoltz again on Sleep With Me and Hedden's directorial debut, Hi-Life. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Iconoclastic satirist John Waters bites the hand that (periodically) feeds him in this humorous look at the underside of the film industry. Self-styled guerrilla filmmaker Cecil (Stephen Dorff) leads a Baltimore movie-making collective/street gang called the Sprocket Holes, which includes Cecil's girlfriend and frequent leading lady, a low-rent porn actress named Cherish Oh Lordy (Alicia Witt). Desperate for attention, they kidnap famous Hollywood actress Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) during a Baltimore publicity stop and force her at gunpoint to star in their latest production, Raving Beauty. Before long, Honey comes down with a severe case of Stockholm syndrome and joins the Sprocket Holes in their bid to destroy the mainstream film industry. Waters regulars Ricki Lake, Patty Hearst, and Mink Stole highlight the supporting cast, and techno star Moby contributes to the soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Despite living in what she considers to be a less than perfect environment to raise the perfect family, pregnant teen Rena Grubb (Jena Malone) vows to escape the squalid trailer park that she calls home with a little help from the father she barely knows. If her living situation wasn't bad enough, Rena's frustration is compounded when she is rejected by her selfish boyfriend (Erik Von Detten) and forced to fend for herelf as she prepares to give birth to her child. As Rena sees it, the only chance her child has for happiness is the love of a stable family, so she convinces her mother (Michelle Forbes) to drive her family to the annual prison picnic in hopes that she can hold her family together for a bright future. Surrounded by barbed wires and high fences, Rena slowly begins to understand both her father's plight and the important role she can play in giving her child everything that she never had in life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

David Lynch wades through dark waters in his adaptation of Frank Herbert's cult science fiction novel. In condensing Herbert's rambling and complex book by eliminating characters and compacting events, Lynch succeeds in rendering the story incomprehensible to those unfamiliar with the novel and making the film look like a sketchy greatest hits collection of the book for Herbert fans. The story takes place in the year 10,191. The universe is governed through a system of feudal rule, presided over by Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV (José Ferrer), who appears to take his marching orders from something that resembles a talking vagina. In the kingdom are two rival houses -- the House of Atreides and the House of Harkonnen. Each house is trying to gain dominion over the universe, but that dominion can only be gained by the house that controls the Spice, a special substance that permits the folding of time. The Spice is only available on the desert world of Arrakis, or Dune. Shaddam, tired of the feuding between the two houses, permits the Atreides to take over the Spice production on Dune, while secretly working with the Harkonnens to launch a sneak attack on the Atreides and destroy them. The leader of the Atreides is Duke Leto (Jürgen Prochnow), who rules with the help of his concubine Jessica (Francesca Annis) and son Paul (Kyle MacLachlan). The rival Harkonnens are headed by the pus-oozing degenerate Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillan, in a thoroughly through-the-roof performance) and his two unsavory nephews, Rabban (Paul L. Smith) and Feyd (Sting). When his father is murdered by the Harkonnens, Paul escapes to Dune, where he is greeted by the Fremen (the desert dwellers on Dune who prepare the Spice) as the messiah foretold in Fremen legend. Paul assumes the mantle of messiah and leads the Fremen in a revolt that topples the balance of power in the universe. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Bonnie (Alicia Witt) and Hillary (Renee Humphrey) are two seemingly average California teenagers who have some very heavy emotional baggage to lug around. Bonnie was abandoned by her mother years ago, and Hillary was sexually assaulted by her father, who is now behind bars. Bonnie and Hillary have enough in common that they strike up a fast friendship and head out one day in search of "fun." However, by the end of the day, their pursuit of happiness has taken them from typically meanspirited teenage pranks, such as dropping pennies onto cars from an overpass, to an abrupt and shocking extreme -- the murder of an elderly woman who has done them no harm. Jane (Leslie Hope), a social worker assigned to work with Bonnie and Hillary, finds it all but impossible to get through to them and is dealing with her own precarious emotional state (which she treats with alcohol), while tabloid journalist John (William R. Moses) tries to wring a juicy, sensational story out of the girls' crime spree. Meanwhile, Bonnie and Hillary wonder out loud about their sudden "celebrity" and who will play them in the inevitable TV movie about their crimes. Alicia Witt and Renee Humphrey both won awards for their performances at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, though the film didn't find a distributor until 1996, after the release of the thematically similar Heavenly Creatures. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A woman learns to love life when she finds out she won't be around long in this comedy. Georgia Byrd (Queen Latifah) lives in New Orleans, where she works in the cookware department of an upscale gourmet supply shop. While Georgia carries a torch for Sean (LL Cool J), one of her co-workers, she doesn't have the nerve to tell him, and despite her estimable skills in the kitchen, she lives frugally and doesn't put her talent to use. Georgia's good friend Rochelle (Jane Adams) often tells her that life is short and she needs to live a little, but she doesn't pay her much mind until a visit to the doctor reveals that Georgia has a very rare medical condition, and only has three weeks to live. Throwing caution to the wind, Georgia cashes out her life savings and heads to Europe for a last bit of revelry. She checks into a four-star hotel, trades her drab clothes for haute couture, finds herself flirting with a handsome and powerful politician (Giancarlo Esposito), convinces the head of a cooking supplies firm (Timothy Hutton) that she's a high-powered executive from a rival company, and makes friends with a four-star chef (Gérard Depardieu). But when Sean learns the truth about Georgia's condition, he sets out to find her before their chance at romance has passed. Directed by Wayne Wang, Last Holiday is a remake of a 1950 British comedy, which starred Alec Guinness as a salesman with a few weeks to live. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Liebestraum is a moody, stylish suspense thriller written and directed by British director Mike Figgis. Nick (Kevin Anderson) is an architectural writer who goes home to be with his dying mother, Mrs. Anderssen (Kim Novak) from whom he was separated as a baby. There he meets an old friend and has an affair with the friend's wife, who was herself adopted after her mother went insane. Through a series of coincidences and a good deal of investigation Nick learns some terrible truths concerning everyone. The film, while beautiful to look at, and with a wonderful score composed by Figgis, is more interested in style and emotion rather than cogent explanations for the actions of the characters, however, taken for what it is, a mood piece, Liebestraum succeeds beautifully. Figgis has beautiful technique and is greatly aided by Juan Ruiz-Anchia's stark and evocative images. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Robert Allan Ackerman's Passion's Way stars Sela Ward and Timothy Dalton as former lovers who are reunited under less than ideal circumstances. When they find each other again, he is deeply involved with one of her employees. The two women engage in a series of psychological battles in order to defeat each other in this battle of the heart. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Directed and written by Rodrigo Garcia, Ten Tiny Love Stories features ten women who, in a series of monologues, talk about the men who have made the largest impact on their respective lives. Though each woman is unique in her experiences with love, sex, death, loss, and many other aspects of the human condition, they all have one thing in common: their memories are the only remaining connection they have to the man who affected them to an extent he will probably never realize. Ten Tiny Love Stories is Garcia's second feature film, and features Kathy Baker, Radha Mitchell, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Debi Mazar, and Elizabeth Peña. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Two friends wonder if there might be more between them when their lives both take a left turn in this romantic comedy. Terry (Joan Allen) is a middle-aged housewife and mother of four teenaged daughters and gets the shock of her life when her husband, without a word of warning, leaves them behind, presumably to move to Sweden with his secretary. Going through a bender of depression and alcohol, Terry finds herself commiserating with Denny (Kevin Costner), a former baseball star turned unenthusiastic radio personality who was her husband's colleague and friend and an occasional presence at the house. With both Terry and Denny feeling down in the dumps about recent events in their lives, the two find themselves drawn to one another, and while Terry fights the notion of a new romance, her daughters -- Andy (Erika Christensen), Hadley (Alicia Witt), Emily (Keri Russell), and Lavender (Evan Rachel Wood) -- each have different ideas about their futures. The Upside of Anger was written and directed by Mike Binder, who also plays a supporting role as the producer of Denny's radio show. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Australian director Jamie Blanks helmed this teen horror film set at Pendleton University. Campus legend has it that 25 years earlier Pendleton was the site of a mass murder by a demented abnormal psych instructor who killed six students and then himself. However, no proof of the prof's deed remains. Urban legends are the subject of a course in American folklore taught by Professor Wexler (Robert Englund). When a series of bizarre deaths occur on the campus, assertive student Natalie thinks they are murders based on urban legends, but classmates Brenda (Rebecca Gayheart), ambitious journalism major Paul (Jared Leto), and practical joker Damon (Joshua Jackson) claim it's just a coincidence. Then Natalie begins to realize that she's the next victim. Since Joshua Jackson is a co-lead on TV's Dawson's Creek, an inside joke surfaces when a radio plays a bit of the Dawson's Creek theme (Paula Cole's I Don't Want to Wait). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide