Larry Meistrich Movies

Filmmakers D. Sikorski and Douglas Stewart team to examine the mystery surrounding the killing of an Iraqi man whose death at the hands of seven U.S. Marines and one Navy Corpsman raised a number of difficult questions about the complexities of warfare. Though the soldiers claim to have gotten into a gunfight with 52 year old retired Iraqi policeman Hashim Ibrahim Awad after catching him in the process of planting a roadside IED near his home in Hamdania, Iraq, the dead man's neighbors and family claimed that the soldiers had murdered Awad in cold blood for refusing to aid coalition forces in their efforts to root out terrorists in the small Sunni village. As a result, the NCIS launched a full-scale investigation that resulted in a lifetime prison sentence for all of the soldiers involved. With this film, co-directors Sikorski and Stewart aim to offer an unbiased account of the crime and its aftermath while putting the rules of engagement under the microscope so that the mechanics of modern warfare come into sharp focus. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

One woman's decision to improve her mind has unexpected, life-changing results in this drama. Hoboken-born housewife Julie Johnson (Lili Taylor) left high school at the wishes of Rick (Noah Emmerich), who was then her boyfriend and is now her husband; Julie spends her days cleaning house and looking after her two children, Lisa (Mischa Barton) and Franky (Gideon Jacobs). Julie, who likes to read Scientific American in her spare time, has always dreamed of going back to school, but loutish Rick strictly forbids it. Without Rick's knowledge, Julie and her best friend Claire (Courtney Love) enroll in an "Introduction to Computers" course at a local community college, where instructor Mr. Miranda (Spalding Gray) quickly senses Julie has a tremendous intellectual potential she's never tapped. With Mr. Miranda's coaching, Julie breezes through the computer course and is soon tackling advanced mathematical and scientific theory with other members of the college's faculty. Rick eventually gets wind of Julie's new academic career and isn't the least bit pleased, but Julie, whose accomplishments have done wonders for her self-confidence, responds by kicking him out of the house. Claire, impressed by Julie's stand against Rick, decides it's time to leave her abusive husband Mike (Patrick Fitzgerald), and she moves in with Julie while looking for a new place. As Mr. Miranda urges Julie to obtain a high-school equivalency certificate and move on to a four-year college (where he'll be able to arrange an academic scholarship), Julie and Claire discover their new independence has stirred new feelings within them, and they move from being close friends to tentative lovers. Julie Johnson was based on the play by Wendy Hammond, who co-wrote the screenplay with director Bob Gosse. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Kenneth Lonergan, the co-screenwriter for Analyze This (1999), makes his directorial debut with this sensitive portrait of a pair of grown siblings. Sammy and Terry Prescott (Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo) were orphaned as children after their parents were killed in a car accident. Since then, the two have taken drastically divergent paths. Sammy is a single mother who leads a quiet, stable life in a small town in upstate New York. A fiercely protective mother, she shields her young son Rudy (Rory Culkin) from all information about his absentee father. She is also involved with Bob (Jon Tenney), a well-meaning but less-than-exciting mate, both in and out of bed. Terry, by contrast, is a troubled, self-destructive soul eking out a nomadic existence. When he abandons his pregnant girlfriend to borrow money from his sister, Sammy finds her stable world disrupted. A bond soon develops between Terry and Rudy; over the objections of his mother, Terry takes the tyke fishing and shares old family secrets. Meanwhile, Terry's presence inspires Sammy to break out of her quiet life. This film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

A group of young Greek-Americans try to sort out their problems with life and love in this independent romantic comedy. Manny Papadopoulos (Dominic Comperatore) is an aspiring author in his mid-twenties who is trying to get his career going while still living with his parents. Manny meets Eve Stephanopoulos (Erin Neill), an attractive woman his own age, and they begin dating. Manny soon learns that Eve is a virgin and in no hurry to change; Manny agrees to respect her boundaries, though he doesn't mention that it has a lot to do with his own emotional issues regarding sex. Manny's friends Mike (Mike Woodbridge) and Teddy (Matthew Aibel) think he's a fool for pursuing a relationship where he isn't getting any action, but both have girl trouble of their own: Mike can't stay faithful to one woman and is cheating on his significant other with Eve's sister Joanne (Tiffany J. Shepis), while Teddy tells his on-again, off-again girlfriend Jenny (Hogan Gorman) that he's won a trip for two to the West Indies in a misguided attempt to win her back. Everything For a Reason was written and directed by Vlas Parlapanides and produced by his brother Charley Parlapanides; the film was the first feature for both of them. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Notable as the directorial debut of Blade Runner co-scripter Hampton Fancher, this darkly comic thriller stars affable Owen Wilson as Vann Siegert, a different brand of serial killer: one who actually believes he's doing his deeply depressed victims a service of mercy. Wandering up the West Coast, Vann chooses victims from a parade of colorful social misfits -- including a haggard junkie (singer Sheryl Crow) whose pain he ends with a nip from his flask of poison amaretto -- and expounds on his motives with a pocket tape recorder (a drawling monologue that serves as the film's narrative voice-over). A brief layover in Owensville eventually finds Vann in the company of quarreling middle-aged couple Doug and Jane (Brian Cox and Mercedes Ruehl), who grow fond of the young drifter's amiable demeanor and take him on as a boarder. After landing a job at the local post office, Vann catches the eye of co-worker Ferrin (Janeane Garofalo), and a tentative romance blossoms -- but even love can't distract Vann from his crusade to terminate people's unhappiness: "They come to me like moths, because I shine," he explains. Though not the complex psychological game it purports to be, The Minus Man is an intriguing character study -- imagine a kindler, gentler version of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer -- with some clever twists and fine performances, including a touching portrayal from the usually acerbic Garofalo. Geared more to the art-movie crowd than to fans of Hitchcockian thrills, this film opened to raves at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Writer/director Nancy Savoca, who wrote and directed Household Saints and True Love, handles the same duties in this tale of Grace Santos (Rosie Perez). The producer of a New York City local morning show targeted at women, Grace has an active professional life under the watch of her executive producer, Joan Marshall (Patti LuPone), that already intersects her personal life as she is married to co-host Eddie Diaz (Diego Serrano). When the other co-host, Margo (Karen Duffy), reveals Grace's pregnancy on- air, Joan seizes the opportunity to monitor Grace's development on the show. The ratings grow along with Grace, as the show pursues such topics as "The ABC's of C-Sections" and "You & Your Epidural." While Grace takes comfort in her marriage and her new assistant Madeline (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), who has just returned from six years of raising her young children, Grace worries about the needs of her unborn child versus her much-loved career and Eddie's beckoning film career. Her fears realized through her daughter's first year, Grace must determine what it means to be a "24-Hour Woman." ~ Chris Gore, Rovi

This "neo-noir comic thriller" from director Amos Poe focuses on struggling actress Eva (Barbara Hershey), a waitress who moonlights by making collections for her ex-husband, loan shark Al (Robbie Coltrane). Her day job is at a Lower Manhattan diner owned by Quint (Ian Hart). Others on the scene are Eva's new boyfriend Zip (John Leguizamo), aspiring actress Myrna (Lisa Marie), Al's girlfriend Simone (Debi Mazar), tough thug Gascone (Ron Perlman), and Al's driver U.B. (David Deblinger). Eva is ready to drop both collecting and acting, dreaming of a picket-fence lifestyle with her son Augie (Zak Kerkoulas), but Al needs her for just one more job -- locating the missing $600,000 stolen from him by Flav (Justin Theroux). Al also plans to stage a production of David Mamet's American Buffalo, and he offers a role to U.B. -- if he will kill Zip. Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

An Alcoholics Anonymous meeting brings together a disparate group of people struggling with addiction to drugs and liquor in this film based on Gary Lennon's play "Blackout." Jim (Richard Lewis) is in a bad mood as he sits in on an AA meeting in the basement of a church in New York City; he's prodded into speaking in front of the group for the first time in seven months, and he confesses that he desperately wants to get drunk. Three years before, Jim gave up a decade of dependence on booze and heroin for the sake of his wife, who has just died unexpectedly of an aneurysm, and before long, Jim runs out in search of a bottle. Meanwhile, the other members of the group share their own stories about their problems with substance abuse, including Rachel (Dianne Wiest), a physician who tries to uses her job to fill the void in her life left by the departure of her husband and son; Joseph (Howard Rollins), whose drunk driving put his five-year-old son in the hospital; Debbie (Parker Posey), a young woman who wishes she could have been Janis Joplin; Shelly (Amanda Plummer), whose force of will is being tested by an upcoming visit from her mother; Becky (Faye Dunnaway), a divorcee who is not sure how she'll handle losing custody of her child; Brenda (Lisa Gay Hamilton), an HIV-positive former junkie who was stealing syringes from her diabetic mother; and Louis (Spalding Gray), who is actually looking for the choir practice at the church; he then goes into a rhapsodic ode to the pleasures of beer which suggests that he has his own problems with the bottle. Drunks was the first feature film for director/producer Peter Cohn. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Two emotionally scarred young people find both love and tragedy as they run away together in this drama. Marcy (Robin Tunney) and Seth (Henry Thomas) meet while shoplifting at the same department store; Seth is the son of an angry, abusive father and steals out of rebellion, while Marcy suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, which causes her to compulsively curse, flail about, and indulge in anti-social behavior. The two misfits find a common ground in each other, and they decide to hit the road. Marcy has always wanted a black "You Do The Hairdo" Barbie doll head, and they drive off to Toronto to find one. However, when a pharmacy along the way refuses to refill Marcy's prescription for her Tourette's medication, she and Seth decide to rob the drugstore, and Seth is shot by the pharmacist. An aging tow truck driver named Walter (Michael Parks) shows mercy on them, but his hospitality proves short-lived thanks to Marcy's increasingly violent outbursts. Robin Tunney's performance in Niagara Niagara earned her the prize as Best Actress at the 1997 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This convoluted crime drama offers a haunting view of the violent and ruthless world of three Miami drug dealers: Dante, his lover Micki and Cisco. Though only in their mid-'20s, all three are veterans in the field and have made their fortunes selling heroin to upper-middle-class clients at the city's hottest nightspots via teenage couriers. The operation is overseen by a friendly but crooked-to-the-core policeman. Together the threesome has fashioned a stable, well-ordered world that borders on respectability, but that world is shattered when Dante learns that former partner Gabriel is getting out of prison and has sworn his vengeance upon the three who he believes framed him. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Sling Blade marked the directorial debut of country singer turned actor Billy Bob Thornton, who also authored the script (expanding George Hickenlooper's acclaimed short Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade) and stars in the picture. Thornton plays Karl Childers, a mildly retarded man who spent most of his life in a mental institution. When Karl was a boy, he was severely mistreated by his abusive father (Robert Duvall). At age 12, Karl found his mother having intercourse with a man who tormented him endlessly; he snapped, flew into a homicidal rage, and killed both individuals by decapitating them. Years later, as a middle-aged man, Karl is deemed harmless to society and released from the mental institution where he resides. Karl says he has learned his lesson and adds, "I reckon I got no reason to kill no one." He returns to the town of his boyhood, where he's befriended by Frank (Lucas Black), the son of a widowed mother who sees the eccentric but open-hearted Karl as a kindred spirit. Karl also gets a job at a fix-it shop and resides in the backroom, until Frank's mother, Linda (Natalie Canerday), takes a liking to Karl and lets him stay with them. However, Karl also meets Doyle (Dwight Yoakam), Linda's boyfriend, a sadistically cruel, narrow-minded drunk who tosses casual abuse at Frank, treats Linda like dirt, and mocks Karl endlessly. The late John Ritter co-stars as Linda's friend Vaughan, a mild-mannered homosexual who works at the neighborhood dollar store. Musicians Col. Bruce Hampton and Vic Chesnutt are among Doyle's party guests. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Well off the beaten path in the New Jersey industrial wastelands sits the ramshackle Bayview Motel. Among the guests are Jimmy and Gene, two Ohio boys heading for New York City. An automobile breakdown forces them to stay at the Bayview. Later Lenny the owner sees to it that only two more guests are allowed to register before he turns on the "no vacancy" sign. They are two women from Trenton. Shelby is trying to escape her brutal lover, a gangster. The other is her innocent cousin Mary Ann. Shelby has a valuable ring and asks Lenny to pawn it for her. She and Mary Ann then check in and decide to stay until the money comes in. For some reason, Lenny does all he can to keep the four guests from leaving. Lenny is a very odd duck and spends much time playing the motel's lounge piano wearing a tacky old smoking jacket and pretending there is an audience. It soon becomes apparent that he has secrets and that they may somehow involve the guests, who have meanwhile coupled off and happily spend their time getting acquainted. Unfortunately Shelby's violent boy friend suddenly shows up with his uncle, a prominent gangster. The mobsters' appearance brings up some old and disturbing memories for Lenny. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi