Karen Black Movies

Jon Seda, Alison Eastwood, Paul Rodriguez, Ed Begley, Jr., and Karen Black star in writer/producer/director David Siquerios' fish out of water comedy following a conservative half-Mexican, half-Caucasian businessman as he attempts to navigate a foreign land that he could have called home. The year is 1994. California Governor Pete Wilson has just signed the proposition that drove a sizable wedge between Mexicans and Americans. Into this catastrophe wanders Richard Macedo (Seda), an average businessman of mixed heritage who's about to get lost in Mexico. Can Richard survive one night in this close but strangely foreign land, or has he been so Americanized that he's forgotten what it means to be a true Mexican? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A young man leaves his home and family in search of himself in this independent drama. America Brown (Ryan Kwanten) -- called "Ricky" by most of his friends -- was born and raised in a West Texas town where football is treated more like a religion than a game. Raised by a single mother (Karen Black), America's primary male role model has been his older brother Daniel (Michael Rapaport), who has drilled it into Ricky's head that it's his destiny to be a football star. But America has come to hate football, and especially loathes Bo (Leo Burmester), the manipulative coach of his high-school team. Desperate to get away from it all, America runs away to New York City, where he seeks refuge with John Cross (Hill Harper), a one-time football legend from West Texas who gave up the game to become a Catholic priest. As America looks to find a new life, he finds in Cross a man who is still haunted by his past and smitten with a woman in his congregation, Rosie (Élodie Bouchez). America, meanwhile, develops an infatuation of his own with Vera (Natasha Lyonne), a pretty but streetwise girl who waits tables at a neighborhood diner. America Brown was the first feature film from writer and director Paul Black; it was screened at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based upon Peter Biskind's book of the same name, this BBC-produced documentary traces the rise of a generation of Hollywood filmmakers who briefly changed the face of movies with a more personal approach that pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable onscreen. Influenced by such European directors as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, and Federico Fellini, the movement kicked off in the mid-'60s with two films directed by Arthur Penn: Mickey One and Bonnie and Clyde. (The latter had been offered to both Godard and Truffaut before it wound up with producer/star Warren Beatty and Penn.) What really kicked it into gear was the unexpected success of Easy Rider, a biker-road movie that became that rare film phenomenon: acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival and a huge commercial success. Film school graduates, the first generation brought up with movies as their main cultural reference, flooded the studios (whose own regimes were changing) with production chieftains such as Robert Evans of Paramount and David Picker at United Artists; they approved risky-looking projects and allowed relatively untested filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola to take on heavyweight movies such as The Godfather or Hollywood newcomers like Britain's John Schlesinger to make quirky stories like Midnight Cowboy. Enriched by success with their TV show The Monkees, producer Bert Schneider and director Bob Rafelson formed a company that produced not only Easy Rider but seminal '70s films such as Five Easy Pieces and the Oscar-winning Vietnam War documentary Hearts and Minds. Another godfather to the new movement was producer Roger Corman, who gave early career opportunities to Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, and Jonathan Demme on low-budget projects that allowed them to learn their craft.

Two things brought this movement to an end: Some individual filmmakers' personal excesses (such disastrous flops as Dennis Hopper's follow-up to Easy Rider, appropriately titled The Last Movie, and Scorsese's New York, New York), and the studios growing fascination with special effects-driven B-movies. An outgrowth of two box-office and marketing juggernauts -- Jaws and Star Wars -- the resulting films became entertainments rather than personal statements of the directors. Narrated by William H. Macy, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls features vintage clips of Coppola, Scorsese, Beatty, George Lucas, Sam Peckinpah, Roman Polanski, Robert Altman, and Pauline Kael. It also includes original interview material with Penn; Corman; Bogdanovich; Hopper; Picker; writer/directors John Milius and Paul Schrader; actresses Karen Black, Cybill Shepherd, Margot Kidder, and Jennifer Salt (the latter two shared a house in Malibu, a social center for young filmmakers); actors Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, and Richard Dreyfuss; producers Jerome Hellman, Michael Phillips, and Jonathan Taplin; editor Dede Allen; production designer Polly Platt; writers David Newman, Joan Tewksbury, Gloria Katz, and Willard Huyck; cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond; agent Mike Medavoy; and former production executive Peter Bart. Among the films discussed are Rosemary's Baby, The Wild Bunch, Mean Streets, American Graffiti, The Rain People, Midnight Cowboy, M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Last Picture Show, Shampoo, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull. (Three interviewees -- cinematographer Gordon Willis, critic Andrew Sarris, and writer-director Monte Hellman -- listed in the Variety review of this film, were not included in this version from a screening on Bravo.) ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

In this offbeat sci-fi-drama, Rosetta Stone (Tilda Swinton) is a scientist specializing in biogenetics who has made a major breakthrough in artificial biological engineering. Rosetta has created a type of Self-Replicating Automaton, which looks like a human being, but is in fact part machine and part living organism. In order to survive and reproduce, Rosetta discovers her SRAs need certain human genetic compounds that are found only in male semen. Hoping to kill two birds with one stone, Rosetta programs one of her SRAs, Ruby (also played by Swinton) to seduce men Rosetta has found through a website offering paid "fantasy dates," which will provide both needed materials and ready cash. Ruby brings back used condoms, and shares the contents with her fellow SRAs Marine and Olive (both also played by Swinton). However, after their assignations with Ruby, the men find themselves with a strange illness that leaves them with skin outbreaks and the inability to perform sexually. Two health investigators (James Urbaniak and Karen Black) begin interviewing the men infected, which sends them on a trail leading back to Rosetta and her research lab. Meanwhile, the more Ruby comes in contact with humans, the more she finds herself falling under the sway of human emotions, and she finds herself falling in love with Sandy (Jeremy Davies), a shy man working at a photocopying center. Shot on digital video equipment by acclaimed cinematographer Hiro Narita, Teknolust was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Troma Team Pictures, the independent production company who've taken a brave stand for creative tastelessness with such films as The Toxic Avenger, Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D., and Terror Firmer, launched their own film festival to provide a showcase for real independent filmmakers in the midst of the annual Utah chaos that is the Sundance, Slamdance, Slamdunk, Nodance, and other film festivals. Best of Tromadance Film Festival, Vol. 1 collects three hours worth of short films screened at the Troma-sponsored festival, which charges no entry fee to filmmakers and offers free admissions to all their screenings. Highlights include Deadbeats, which marked the first screen appearance of wrestling star Mick Foley; Kill Mr. Kinski, a short based on a number of strange stories about working with the brilliant but notoriously difficult actor Klaus Kinski; Psychotic Odyssey, a dramatization of the grim career of a real-life serial career, re-enacted using hand puppets; purposefully rancid children's show parody H.R. Pukenshette; and Los Vampirios Moronious, featuring Karen Black. The video also includes a documentary on the festival produced for the British television series Edge TV. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this Southern gothic drama, Griffith (Dan Montgomery) has lived all his life in the poor Mississippi community of Pine Apple. While Griffith wants to move on and try to make something of his life, he's stranded in Pine Apple by his responsibilities to his crippled Aunt Summer (Karen Black) and his affair with his cousin Emily (Aleksa Palladino). A man from out of town (Walton Goggins) arrives and rents a cabin from Griffith; he soon finds himself attracted to the stranger, confronted by emotions he has never felt before. Red Dirt, the feature debut for writer and director Tag Purvis, was shown at the 2000 L.A. Independent Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Los Angeles suburbanites Quinn (James Wilder) and Laura (Kimberly Kates) host a backyard barbecue of co-workers, including a doctor (C. Thomas Howell), his wife (Erika Eleniak), rough-edged Barry (Jack Scalia), and winsome Jude (Karen Black), who was recently widowed when her executive husband was killed in a botched kidnapping. A confrontation with an irate neighbor (James Russo) turns ugly, and it seems there is more to the guest list than first thought. And then it gets uglier once the accusations fly -- much uglier. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide

In 1980 the U.S. Department of Defense named the Ada programming language in honor of Lord Byron's daughter, the mathematician Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), credited as the "first computer programmer" because of her plan for calculating Bernoulli numbers. Lady Ada was 18 when she met Charles Babbage and learned about his Analytical Engine. She expanded his concepts into an 1843 article on the subject, and she also predicted the sound and graphics possibilities of computers. This science-fiction film features Ada Byron King as the central figure. Directed by video artist Lynn Hershman Leeson, the co-director of Shooting Script: A Transatlantic Love Story (1992), it also includes a few cast members known for cyber-communications, such as Timothy Leary (filmed nine days before his death) and John Perry Barlow (Grateful Dead lyricist and Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder), plus "electronic Victorian" music by The Residents (who moved from pure sonic explorations to CD-ROM virtual experiences).

Artificial intelligence researcher Amy Coer (Francesca Faridany) uses cybertechnology tactics to probe the past in hopes of locating Ada Byron King (Tilda Swinton), her spiritual mentor. Receiving input, time-tracking tips, and guidance from cyber-guru Sims (Timothy Leary), Amy is successful, and the two women communicate over the centuries, although Ada is initially puzzled. Comparing notes, they find gender is a setback, since Charles Babbage (John O'Keefe) receives recognition while Ada's ideas are forgotten. Amy's research encounters roadblocks set up by her boyfriend Nicholas Clayton (J.D. Wolfe). Amy is pregnant and plans to name her child Ada, hoping that she can overcome the long-standing gender barriers. Shown at 1997 film festivals (Sundance, Toronto). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a much-older banker embarks upon a forbidden love affair with an adolescent girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This low-budget sci-fi feature attempts to satirize life in Salt Lake City, UT, and begins as a young woman locates a strange bronze plate beneath the Great Salt Lake. As she tries to unlock its secrets, she discovers that it is part of a UFO conspiracy based on actual Mormon doctrines. The aliens turn out to be intergalactic sex fiends who want to take over the Earth. Fortunately, the heroine has help from assorted crazy characters who work together to save the planet. The title has little to do with the film, nor is it really related to Edward D. Wood Jr.'s awful classic Plan 9 from Outer Space. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Henry Jaglom is a filmmaker who was a pioneer of the independent film movement long before it had a name. Jaglom began his Hollywood career in the mid-Sixties as an actor, but in 1971 he wrote and directed his first feature film, A Safe Place, which starred his friends Orson Welles and Jack Nicholson; it was an offbeat, personal work which received mixed reviews, setting a standard that many of Jaglom's future works would follow. After A Safe Place bombed at the box office, Jaglom began making films on tiny budgets which he often released himself, allowing his actors plenty of room to improvise and often dealing with women's issues in an intense and emotionally compelling manner. Jaglom has a significant cult of admirers, and a number of notable actors work with him at a fraction of their usual salaries, but his eccentricity and knack for self-promotion has rubbed a few people in the movie business the wrong way, and while some critics regard him as a singular talent, others consider him an overbearing con artist. Both Jaglom's supporters and detractors get a chance to air their opinions in Who Is Henry Jaglom?, a documentary about the filmmaker which offers a look at his movies, his life before and behind the camera, and the actors and craftspeople who've worked with him and have their own stories to tell. Jaglom himself is also extensively interviewed, and contributes a wealth of footage from his archives. Who Is Henry Jaglom? includes interviews with Candice Bergen, Karen Black, Dennis Hopper, Andrea Marcovici, Sally Kellerman, Martha Plimpton and many more. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide