Lidsay Law Movies

This series follows the lives of Bill Sims and Karen Wilson, a black man and white woman, as they encounter the day-to-day problems facing a biracial couple. In the first episode, Cicily, their college-aged daughter, enters Colgate University, and discovers that it is predominantly white. She must decide whether to choose between black and white in An American Love Story, Part 1: Welcome to America. The couple must deal with the ordinary difficulties of marriage and raising a family, as well as recurring racial issues and prejudice. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide

In this video, the ongoing saga of the Wilson-Sims family continues to unfold. PBS cameras follow the biracial family over the course of a year and a half, as they deal with the typical problems of raising a family, compounded by the atypical struggles against racial stereotyping. The younger daughter, Chaney, is only 12, but is beginning to show signs of maturity in An American Love Story, Part 5: Chaney and the Boy. She looks older than her years and is ready for her first date. Her mother, Karen, looks forward to this next stage in her child's life, but her father, Bill, doesn't want her to grow up too quickly. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide

In the third episode of this thought-provoking series about a biracial family, daughter Cicily finds that her college group divides into black and white upon their arrival in Nigeria. An American Love Story, Part 3: I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up examines the problems that arise when she cannot choose between either faction. As if matters were not confusing enough, she meets a Nigerian, Tony, and falls in love. Tony, though, thinks Cicily is white because of the lightness of her skin. Cicily is confronted with several situations which she must resolve without the help of her parents. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide

In the ninth episode of this series about an interracial family, daughter Cicily, looks for a job that will be meaningful, while still living at home. In An American Love Story, Part 9: It's My Job, Bill feels it is his duty to give her counsel, but she resents it, and life in the Sims-Wilson household becomes stressful. Faced with uncertainty in his own job, Bill begins drinking more. Cicily and her mother go away for a weekend to relieve tension and help Cicily realize her self-worth. Later, Bill comes to grips with his problems, and Cicily finds a job. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide

Transitions occur in An American Love Story, Part 7: True Love, as Cicily becomes the first in the family to graduate from college. As the PBS cameras continue to follow the story of love that binds a biracial family, mother Karen must have immediate surgery, but is determined to attend her daughter's graduation from Colgate. She faces the stark reality that she can no longer bear children. Her devoted husband helps her get back on her feet, and both face changes as one child reaches adulthood while another is ready for her teenage years. ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide

Innovative documentary filmmaker Errol Morris often finds a startling surreal edge in the midst of reality, seeking unique subjects, and discovering humor and pathos in odd, off-the-beaten-path locales. After Morris attracted attention with his memorable look at pet owners and pet cemeteries in Gates of Heaven (1978), he traveled into a backwash of quirky humor by filming Floridians in Vernon, Florida (1981). His controversial The Thin Blue Line (1988) helped free the innocent Randall Adams from prison. Morris ventured into drama with The Dark Wind (1991), and he also made a biographical profile of Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (1992). Now Morris returns with a film he described as "four versions of the myth of Sisyphus." Four eccentrics talk about their seemingly diverse lives, interests, and offbeat occupations: Lion tamer Dave Hoover, following paths trod by his hero Clyde Beatty, offers some curious theories about wild animal thought processes; topiary gardener George Mendo clips hedges to create giraffes, bears, and other creatures; mole-rat specialist Ray Mendez researches the insect-like behavior of these hairless, buck-toothed mammals; robotics scientist Rodney Brooks assembles autonomous robots. Morris finds thematic connections relating the four. While Hoover and Mendo provide footnotes on the fading American scene, Mendez and Brooks look to the future. Contrasting viewpoints are edited into an essay on existence and the human condition, incorporating Morris' reflection on his recently departed parents. Morris and cinematographer Bob Richardson employed a variety of film formats -- black-and-white, color, 35mm, Super-8, and 16mm. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

A 19th-century British naturalist falls in love with the beautiful daughter of a wealthy aristocrat, but he soon discovers that her family's perfect facade disguises unexpectedly grim secrets. Director and co-screenwriter Philip Haas's adaptation of A.S. Byatt's Morpho Eugenio eschews the usual gentility of Victorian period pieces in favor of subtle creepiness. The unsettling mood is emphasized by the film's detailed attention to its protagonist's scientific endeavors, which center on the study of insects and their behavior. In fact, it is his love of insects that brings William (Mark Rylance) to the well-heeled Reverend Alabaster (Jeremy Kemp), who takes a personal interest in William's welfare when a shipwreck leaves William practically penniless. William is welcomed into the Alabaster home, and he resumes his entomological studies while courting the reverend's daughter, Eugenia (Patsy Kensit). Close-up glimpses of insect society parallel this aristocratic world and hint at the dark secrets with which William soon becomes unexpectedly familiar. As in Haas's previous film, The Music of Chance, an unusual, highly symbolic filmmaking approach creates an effective drama, with the potentially detached intellectualism balanced by unusual characterizations and an absorbing attention to detail. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Todd Haynes presents a revisionist take on the paranoia thriller with this story of a Southern California housewife who suddenly falls victim to an inexplicable, apparently incurable illness. Carol White (Julianne Moore) lives with her husband and son in suburban comfort until she collapses one day, for no apparent reason. Her condition worsens in the weeks that follow, as she suffers from coughing fits, exhaustion, and spontaneous nose bleeds, triggered by sources as disparate as car exhaust, cologne, and the sun. Failing to find any medical explanation for her maladies, her doctor refers her to a psychiatrist, who suggests that her physical ailments are psychosomatic -- a theory echoed by her callous and increasingly frustrated husband. At her wits' end, Carol withdraws to an expensive New Age retreat for sufferers of "20th century disease," where the community's guru (Peter Friedman) champions a dubious regimen of diet, climate control, introspection, and self-love. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Three likable losers attempt "a momentary shift in lifestyle" by becoming part-time thieves in this comedy. Russ (Vincent Gallo) is living with his family, who don't get along especially well, and he fools around with the teenage girl who lives next door. Jerry (Adam Trese) is married to Betty (Linda Gay Hamilton), who -- unlike her husband -- has a job and wants to keep it, even if that means having an affair with her boss. And Sid (William Forsythe) has a soft spot for dogs, which helped derail his plans for a taxi service for senior citizens. All three guys are out of work and need quick money; Russ comes up with a plan to rob a jewelry store, but things go haywire when they accidentally break into a bakery instead, though they at least make off with a large supply of doughnuts. Despite their initial failure as criminals, the would-be thieves raise their sights and plan to knock over an armored car, but they soon discover just how far out of their league they really are. Palookaville was based on a series of short stories by Italian writer Italo Calvino. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) wrote this ambitious epic that attempts to examine the communist witch hunts of the 1950s, racial prejudice, abuse of governmental powers, guilt, and suicide. The film begins in 1952 as an eager young FBI recruit, Kevin Walker (Matt Dillon), finds himself assigned to root out communist subversives in San Francisco's Chinese community. Unable to find evidence of communist influence anywhere, Kevin is pressured by the FBI office to get indictments anyway. As a result, Kevin drags innocent Chinese laundry man and labor organizer Chen Jung Song (Tzi Ma) into court on trumped up charges and Song is sent to prison. The film then shifts to 1962, and in the intervening years, Kevin's guilt at what he has done has grown into an obsession. But when Song is newly released from prison, he finds himself once again tracked by Kevin. Song, emotionally unable to deal with his new freedom, kills himself by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. Kevin, shattered, now decides to look after and protect Song's daughter, Marilyn (Joan Chen). Gradually, from his role as Marilyn's protector, Kevin's feelings of concern turn into love. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Carolyn Chute's fascinatingly complex novel Beans of Egypt, Maine was softened and simplified for this 1994 film treatment. Martha Plimpton plays Earlene Pomerleau, who resides in the Maine backwoods community of Egypt. Earlene is swept off her feet by her studdish, irresponsible neighbor Beal Bean (Patrick McGaw), the youngest member of the much-despised Bean family. She lives to regret her sexual impulsiveness, while Beal is forcefully reminded of the importance of family loyalty. Co-produced by PBS' American Playhouse, the film is a toned-down version of the rough-hewn Chute original, ending so abruptly that it seems as though someone tore out the last five script pages just before shooting started. Beans of Egypt, Maine has been released to video as Forbidden Choices. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Documentary filmmaker Philip Haas made his dramatic feature film debut with The Music of Chance, adapted from Paul Auster's terse, existential novel. The film follows the plight of two hapless drifters -- Jim Nashe (Mandy Patinkin), who is escaping family and responsibility with an inheritance and a red BMW, and Jack Pozzi (James Spader), a down-on-his-luck gambler and world class manipulator. Pozzi convinces Nashe to shoot the works and put his remaining $10,000 into a high stakes poker game against two rich suckers -- reclusive lottery winners Willie Stone (Joel Grey) and Bill Flower (Charles Durning), who share a lavish but isolated country estate, using the remains of their lottery fortune to construct a self-contained world on the grounds of their mansion. Instead of bilking the two millionaires, however, Pozzi and Nashe lose their windfall and find themselves indebted to Stone and Flowers, who compel them to work off their losses by constructing a stone monument on their estate, a chore that results in deception, flight, and possibly murder. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide