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Zachary Matz Movies

2009  
PG13  
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A dysfunctional family living on a picturesque island in the Bronx spares no expense in avoiding the truth about their messed-up lives in writer/director Raymond de Felitta's dark family comedy. The family patriarch, Vince (Andy Garcia) is a prison guard who is secretly plotting a new career as an actor. Meanwhile, as Vince takes acting lessons on the down low, his daughter moonlights as a stripper and his younger namesake harbors a secret fetish that involves the family's 300-pound neighbor. Under normal circumstances Vincent's wife, Joyce (Julianna Margulies), would be the family rock, but lately she's been preoccupied with uncovering the identity of the hired help, a secret that only her husband knows. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Starring:
Andy GarciaJulianna Margulies, (more)
 
2008  
R  
Add Jolene to Queue Add Jolene to top of Queue  
Author E.L. Doctorow's acclaimed short story Jolene: A Life gets the big screen treatment in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont's director Dan Ireland's independent drama about life on the road. Jolene (Jessica Chastain) is a red-haired wanderer who isn't content to call one place home for any expended stretch of time. Setting off to explore the outside world at age fifteen, the free-spirited teen embarks on a decade-long cross-country of adventure which finds her crossing the paths of everyone from a firebrand Texan (Dermont Mulroney) who steals her heart and destroys her marriage to his wealthy fundamentalist nephew (Michael Vartan), to an ex-mobster (Chazz Palminteri) attempting to make good in Las Vegas. Denise Richards, Rupert Friend, and Theresa Russell co-star in a film adapted from the story by screenwriter Dennis Yares. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Starring:
Jessica ChastainDermot Mulroney, (more)
 
2005  
 
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An elderly widow and a young would-be author strike up an unlikely friendship in this comedy drama. Mrs. Palfrey (Joan Plowright) has been uneasy since the death of her husband, and she decides to move from her long-time home in Scotland to London so she can be closer to her grandson Desmond (Lorcan O'Toole). Mrs. Palfrey settles into the Claremont Hotel, a shabby residential inn for senior citizens that has seen better days. She tries to contact Desmond, but isn't able to get in touch with him, and at first she has a hard time relating to the other folks at the Claremont, especially friendly busybody Mrs. Arbuthnot (Anna Massey). Lonely and out of sorts, Mrs. Palfrey goes out for a walk one day and takes a nasty spill after losing her balance. Ludovic Meyer (Rupert Friend), a struggling writer in his mid-twenties, finds Mrs. Palfrey on the pavement and helps her, taking her back to her room and making sure she's OK. The two strike up a conversation and discover they have a surprisingly amount in common. A friendship grows between them, even though Mrs. Palfrey asks Ludovic to pose as her absent grandson so her neighbors will stop asking questions about him. Mrs. Palfrey even gives her new friend romantic advice, encouraging Ludovic to ask a pretty girl he meets at the video store out on a date. Based on a novel by the British author Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont was directed by Dan Ireland. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Joan PlowrightRupert Friend, (more)
 
2004  
 
 
2003  
R  
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Writer/directors Jeff Renfroe and Marteinn Thorsson make their feature debut with the paranoid thriller One Point O (1.0). Jeremy Sisto plays a computer programmer named Simon J. who gets used as a test subject. His corporate employers are secretly conducting a experiment on him in order to test out a new advertising scheme. Simon receives empty boxes at his apartment, grows suspicious of everyone else, and develops a strange desire for milk. Also starring Deborah Unger, Lance Henriksen, and Udo Kier. One Point O premiered at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the dramatic competition. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

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Starring:
Jeremy SistoDeborah Kara Unger, (more)
 
2000  
R  
Eric Roberts appears in this coming-of-age drama about a young lass coming to terms with her parents' radical past. Raised without a mom, Cally (Clea DuVall just happens to stumble across Sabine (Daryl Hannah), a hippy-dippy artist with a passion for gauzy fabrics, driftwood sculptures, and potent psychotropics. Of course, this aging, drug-fried woman is Cally's mom, and soon Calley is obsessed with her, even to the point of having sex with her lover (Eric Roberts). ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

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Starring:
Clea DuvallDaryl Hannah, (more)
 
2000  
 
Add Sleep Easy, Hutch Rimes to Queue Add Sleep Easy, Hutch Rimes to top of Queue  
Michael O'Connell ran several video stores in Denver, CO, before taking up screenwriting, and the endless stream of direct-to-video thrillers that littered his shelves inspired his script for this satiric black comedy. Hutch Rimes (Steven Weber) runs an insurance company, and even though he's married, he's developed a bad habit of getting involved with his secretaries. Hutch's latest Girl Friday, Holly (Nina Siemaszko), is also married, but often finds herself being used as a punching bag by her loutish husband Cotton (Gregg Henry). Holly persuades Hutch to help her kill Cotton, but things don't go as planned, and Cotton pulls a gun on Holly; Hutch manages to escape just before Cotton kills his wife. Ten years later, Cotton is released from prison just as Hutch begins receiving a series of anonymous letters from someone who wants to kill him. But since Hutch is having an affair with his stenographer Olivia (Gail O'Grady), he's not sure if the angry party is Cotton or Olivia's husband, Dewey (Stephen Tobolowsky). Things get even stickier for Hutch when Olivia decides she wants out of her relationship with Dewey -- and asks Hutch to help murder her husband. Sleep Easy, Hutch Rimes also features Swoosie Kurtz as Binny, one of Hutch's few female employees that he never gets around to sleeping with. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Steven WeberSwoosie Kurtz, (more)
 
2000  
 
A drug runner finds his life is in danger when he becomes hooked on his own merchandise in this drama. Paul (Josh Evans) is a young hoodlum who falls in with Mr. Ball (Michael Madsen), a crime kingpin marketing a new street drug that he tells Paul is "more addictive than air." With few prospects, Paul agrees to act as Mr. Ball's bagman to help deliver the "product," but he makes the mistake of trying the new drug and soon he's hooked. Paul fails to make his deliveries and later becomes implicated in the murder of his friend and fellow drug runner D (Sticky Fingaz); now he has both the law and Mr. Ball's enforcers on his trail, with only his girlfriend (Charis Michelsen), a fellow addict, on hand to help him. The Price of Air also features Dick Van Patten, Alexis Arquette, and Michelle Phillips; British electronic music star Goldie wrote the film's original score and also played a supporting role. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Josh EvansCharis Michelsen, (more)
 
1998  
R  
Add Welcome to Hollywood to Queue Add Welcome to Hollywood to top of Queue  
Film director Adam Rifkin spoofs Hollywood's star machine in concocting this fictional "mockumentary" about a director (Rifkin playing himself) who wants to make a documentary film about a rising young star. Anton Markwell (Tony Markes, who co-directed the film) is the object of Rifkin's inquiring camera. Rifkin, fancying himself a star-maker, advises Markwell to change his name to Nick Decker. Decker is actually the second choice for the project. Rifkin originally selects David Lake (David Andriole), but Lake signs a film contract and his studio won't cooperate with Rifkin's documentary. Rifkin has no better luck with Decker, until his protégé lands a guest role on the popular television series Baywatch. But while filming on the set, Decker steps on a sting ray and ends up in the hospital, ending his chance for quick notoriety. Meanwhile, Lake continues to beat out Decker for plum roles. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

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Starring:
Tony MarkesAdam Rifkin, (more)
 
1997  
NC17  
Josh Evans wrote and directed this cynical glimpse at power players and hustlers working the shadowy side of the film industry. After his mother's death, talented eccentric Sonny Daye (William McNamara) arrives on the Hollywood scene. His brother, Franky Syde (Frank Whaley), confident of Sonny's abilities, allows crass, scurrilous producer Sid Dalgren (Tony Danza) to see Sonny's journal. Recognizing Sonny's gift, Sid makes moves to manipulate and exploit him. Sid's girlfriend, Vanessa (Natasha Gregson Wagner), sees Sonny in a different light. The Glam cast includes director Evans' mother, Ali MacGraw. Some of the Glam character names link with characters introduced in Evans' directorial debut, Inside the Goldmine (1994), a film that also featured Wagner, the daughter of Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner. Shown at the 1997 Vancouver Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

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Starring:
William McNamaraFrank Whaley, (more)
 
1995  
 
In this old-fashioned screwball comedy, two Hollywood screenwriters have numerous disastrous, heated encounters before they realize the obvious and find romance. It all begins in catastrophe-ridden LA after yet another earthquake. Zina is driving her car on the freeway when she runs into Davis while trying get out from under a cracked overpass. They start out civil enough but soon find themselves fighting tooth and nail over who is at fault. Later the two instant enemies find that they run into each other wherever they go, be it a trendy restaurant or a major party. When they both begin vying for the opportunity to write the same script, the fireworks begin in earnest. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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1991  
R  
In this fast-paced, noirish road movie, a computer expert embezzles half a million dollars and races off to Reno to start anew. Unfortunately, en route, he picks up a pair of hitchers and ends up entangled with a crazed couple who commandeer his car and leave him alone in the desert to die. As soon as he can, he hits the road to get revenge and to find his money before they do. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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Starring:
Jim MetzlerJennifer Rubin, (more)
 
1991  
 
When a bunch of swimsuit models travel to a photo shoot on an isolated island in hopes of being chosen for a magazine cover, they are stalked and slowly knocked off by someone who is a touch competitive--and perhaps, a touch touched. This bulging-bikini flick contains some nudity, profanity, adult situations and violence. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

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Starring:
Holly FloriaAlicia Anne, (more)