Steven Anthony Jones Movies

A father and daughter confront their problems with both family and race issues in the independent drama Dumbarton Bridge. John Shed (Tom Wright) is a Vietnam veteran who scrapes together a living working at the salt ponds in a small town south of San Francisco. Though John is black, he has few black friends and lives with his white girlfriend, Belinda (Daphne Ashbrook). While stationed in Vietnam, John had an affair with a local woman and fathered a child. To his surprise, one day his daughter, now grown and named Ming (Esperanza Catubig), appears at his door to pay an extended visit. John is at best disinterested and at worst hostile towards his daughter, and when Belinda asks Ming to stay with them, the tension becomes so great that Belinda moves out. After a prolonged period of difficulty, John and Ming realize they have difficulty coming to terms with each other because they've never come to terms with their own ethnicity. John takes a step toward self-acceptance by joining a support group for black men, while Ming begins to resolve her own issues when she becomes romantically involved with a Vietnamese-American social worker. The debut feature from writer/director Charles Koppelman, Dumbarton Bridge features a score of vintage jazz classics assembled by legendary producer Orrin Keepnews. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This thriller takes place in Blue Bay, Florida, where social-climbing guidance counselor Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon) is indifferent to teen-socialite Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards), who retaliates by accusing him of rape, an accusation that leads to his suspension by the school and a rejection from the country club. He can't afford a big attorney, so he hires shrewd Ken Bowden (Bill Murray), while Kelly's mom, Sandra Van Ryan (Theresa Russell), Sam's former lover, gets a platoon of top lawyers. Trailer-trash Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell) backs up Kelly's claim and additional plot twists and turns develop. The seldom-seen Carrie Snodgrass (Diary of a Mad Housewife) has a supporting role in this film. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

A seemingly ordinary couple jump the tracks into disaster in this drama based on a true story. Chris Anderson (Luke Perry) is a straight-arrow cop who meets Pam (Ashley Judd) after she's hurt in a barroom fight. He asks her to dance after helping to stop her bleeding, and it's love at first sight. While Chris plays by the rules, Pam likes to drink, smoke dope, spend money, and cause trouble, and while he wants to make her happy, her emotional instability makes this no easy task. After Chris is fired and takes a job as a security guard, he can no longer pay the bills that Pam is ringing up. He uses his knowledge of security systems to rob banks, and he discovers that he's good at it. Pam eventually finds out about Chris' sideline; the prospect of danger excites her sexually, and she insists on joining in for future robberies, goading him into a crime spree that leads to tragedy. While Normal Life was planned as a theatrical release, the film debuted on premium cable after disputes between the studio and director John McNaughton; despite this, the film earned positive reviews and a cult following. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

An adopted girl's search for the truth is the subject of this Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation. Lea Salonga stars as Geri Riordan, a half-Vietnamese girl who feels an emptiness in her life because she doesn't know her ancestral roots. After the death of her adopted father, she starts to investigate her past and finds a reluctant Vietnam veteran who may hold the answers she has been longing for. The film is based on Lanford Wilson's play. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi

Psychotherapist Jesse Newman is a psychic. When she learns that the criminal who brutally murdered a cop has been captured, she feels distress for according to her visions, the police have the wrong man. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

John McNaughton directed this Richard Price-scripted comedy about a cop who learns to love an unwanted gift from a gangster. Robert De Niro plays Wayne Dobie, a shy and reclusive Chicago cop who has never fired a gun. Dobie is an evidence technician who takes photographs at crime scenes, earning the moniker of "Mad Dog" for his diffident attitude. One day Dobie walks in on a convenience store holdup and saves the life of Chicago mob boss Frank Milo (Bill Murray). Frank is impressed by the way Dobie handled the holdup and wants to pay him back for saving his life. In thrall to Frank is Glory (Uma Thurman), who is working off her brother's gambling debts by living with the mobster. One day, Glory turns up at Dobie's house, explaining that Frank is giving her to him for one week as a gift. Initially Dobie wants nothing to do with Glory, but as the week goes on, he realizes he is becoming intensely attracted to her. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

A foster home-bound 9-year-old and his aging grandmother run from the authorities in this drama. ~ Rovi

Shot over the course of several live appearances by comedic performance artist Eric Bogosian, Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll is a filmed record of the Off-Broadway stage show of the same name. Against an economical, minimalist set, suggestive of harsh urban environments, Bogosian performs a number of satirical monologues, becoming a number of widely varied characters simply by assuming a different voice and physical stance. The characters sketched provide a cross-section of life in the big city, from a loquacious panhandler working the crowd on the subway, to a wealthy, high-powered entertainment lawyer closing a big deal while juggling the demands of his wife, his new mistress, and his racquetball partner. Other segments include the retelling of a raucous, drug-filled bachelor party, a radio interview with a hypocritical, pretentious, faux-environmentalist rock star, the gleeful confession of an unrepentant Casanova, and the rambling, paranoid musings of a downtown artist. Director John McNaughton and cinematographer Ernest Dickerson vary the visual style from monologue to monologue, using camera movement and changes in composition to reflect the mood of the piece while remaining true to the simplicity of the theatrical conception. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

Rampage delves into the subject of legal insanity, so often the default defense in modern-time gruesome crime trials. Alex McArthur plays an outwardly normal guy who goes on incredible killing and mutilating sprees until (and even after, when he escapes for a short time) he's captured. When he comes to trial, the liberal DA (Michael Biehn) is torn between his own leftist leanings and the reality of the heinous crimes for which the accused is being tried. He must argue for the death penalty. ~ Rovi

The shortlived British children's series Escape Into Night was based on Marianne Dreams, a novel by Catherine Starr. The titular Marianne was a young girl who was plagued by nightly nightmares. In her fevered imagination, Marianne visited a weird fantasy world where she experienced any number of thrilling adventures and met a colorful array of eccentric characters. Vicki Chambers and Steven Jones headed the cast of Escape Into Night, which ran for six 25-minute episodes over the ATV network in 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi