Victor Nuñez Movies
Independent filmmaker Victor Nunez creates high-quality, memorable portraits of life in his native Northern Florida. Among mainstream filmgoers, Nunez is best known for directing Ulee's Gold, a potent relationship drama in which Peter Fonda gives his finest performance since Easy Rider (1969). Fonda received an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe award for his performance. A founding member of the Independent Feature Project board, Nunez holds degrees in film and film production from Antioch College and U.C.L.A. After obtaining his master's degree from the latter school, he gained experience making short educational and industrial films. He also made three fictional short films. In 1979, he made his feature film debut with Gal Young Un; set in 1920s Florida, it was the tale of a miserable but wealthy farm widow, her new, younger spouse, and his girlfriend. That year, it was designated Best First Feature at the Chicago Film Festival and was a co-recipient of the USA/Park City Film Festival Best Feature Award. Nunez's sophomore film, A Flash of Green, was based on a novel by John D. MacDonald and, unlike his first film, featured a bigger budget and a name cast that included Ed Harris, Richard Jordan, and Blair Brown. Set in a small, Florida seaside town, the story followed a reporter's investigation of a fishy landfill deal. His third film, Ruby in Paradise, was Ashley Judd's feature debut and chronicled a young Florida woman's attempt to overcome personal and financial adversity. The film (like his other two) was chosen for screening at the Cannes Film Festival Directors Fortnight. It also played at the New York Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Nunez is a founding member and serves on the boards of the Independent Feature Project and the Sundance Film Institute. Between 1983 and 1986, he served on the selection panels of the NEA, CPB, and the Florida Fine Arts Council. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Victor Nuñez's Coastlines centers on Sonny (Timothy Olyphant), who is returning home after his release from prison. When he asks for money owed to him by local crime boss Fred Vance (William Forsythe), Vance responds by blowing up Sonny's home (causing the death of Sonny's father). Sonny moves in with old friends Dave and Ann (Josh Brolin and Sarah Wynter), even though Dave is now a policeman. Ann, who has grown bored by her husband's conversion from wild man to cop, begins an affair with Sonny. Nuñez wrote this script before his breakthrough films Ruby in Paradise and Ulee's Gold, but directed it after making those movies. Coastlines was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Olyphant, Josh Brolin, (more)
Peter Fonda received a richly deserved Oscar nomination for his superb performance as Ulysses "Ulee" Jackson, a Florida beekeeper forced to put his splintered family back together. Ulee is a Vietnam veteran whose wife died several years ago, a blow he's still learning to live with. His son Jimmy (Tom Wood) is in prison, and his daughter-in-law Helen (Christine Dunford) ran away, leaving Ulee to raise their two daughters by himself. Ulee is a quiet man who has a hard time displaying warmth and does not always deal well with the rebellious children put in his care. But he possesses an intense inner strength and a firm sense of loyalty and responsibility. One day Ulee gets a call from Jimmy; he's received word that Helen has fallen in with a pair of drug dealers and is in sad shape. While he doesn't much care for the idea, Ulee heads out to rescue her, only to discover the men who have her were Jimmy's partners in the robbery that put him behind bars; they threaten Ulee by saying if they're not given the $100,000 Jimmy has stashed away, they'll come after his daughters. Meanwhile, Ulee is forced to deal with Helen's painful withdrawal from drugs; he gets some help from Connie (Patricia Richardson), a divorced nurse who has recently moved into the neighborhood and seems to understand Ulee's lonely stoicism. Written and directed with subtle intelligence by Victor Nuñez, Ulee's Gold is a moving story about the trials and responsibilities of family ties, with Peter Fonda leading a fine cast that delivers uniformly impressive work. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Fonda, Patricia Richardson, (more)
In 1989, Oregon Department of Corrections director Michael Francke was murdered near an office building. The case remains unsolved and in the opening and closing credits, the filmmakers offer viewers $1million for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the killers. This taut crime/courtroom thriller has a two-fold purpose. The first is to chronicle a brother's search for the truth and the second is to call the fairness of the American justice system into question. Either way, it's a scary tale. Shortly before Francke was killed he visited his brother Kevin in Florida. There he confided that he had accidentally discovered a drug smuggling ring that linked his colleagues with prison inmate. Later when the Salem police contact Kevin about the death, they assure him that Michael died during a routine robbery, but Kevin doesn't buy it and so heads to the northwest to investigate. It doesn't take long for him to get knee-deep into a complex conspiracy plot that leaves him wonder whom, if anyone in town he can trust. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1993
- R
Florida-based independent filmmaker Victor Nuñez gave young actress Ashley Judd her breakthrough role with his original script about a woman taking to the road to escape her past and forge a new future for herself. Feeling smothered and confused after the death of her mother, Ruby Lee Gissing flees her Tennessee home. She drives south to the panhandle of Florida, because she has always dreamed of living near the ocean. Mildred Chambers (Dorothy Lyman), the owner of a souvenir shop, hires her as a clerk and befriends Ruby as well. Soon, there are two men in Ruby's life: Mike McCaslin (Todd Field) and Mildred's ne'er-do-well son, Ricky (Bentley Mitchum). Although Ruby briefly succumbs to the advances of one of them, by the film's end, she is still on her own, understanding that a new chapter of her life is just beginning. In addition to the picture taking home the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Judd was nominated for Best Actress by the New York Film Critics and won Best Female Lead at the Independent Spirits. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ashley Judd, Todd Field, (more)
- 1984
A John D. MacDonald novel was the source material for A Flash of Green. Ed Harris plays a reporter for a Florida resort-town newspaper. His best friend is shady county-commissioner Richard Jordan. When Harris shows signs of sympathizing with a local ecology group that is dead set against a new land-fill development, Jordan tries to keep the editor quiet with a bribe. At first, Harris acquiesces, but rapidly develops a conscience when Jordan enlists a local right-wing terrorist group to keep the ecologists in line. A secondary plot involves Harris' romance with Blair Brown, an affair tainted by the fact that Harris' wife lies comatose in the hospital. Thanks to its pro-eco stance, A Flash of Green was financed by and telecast as an edition of PBS' American Playhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Harris, Blair Brown, (more)
- 1979
An obvious labor of love for producer/ director/ writer/ photographer Victor Nunez, Gal Young 'Un was blessed with almost unanimous critical praise, and as such received a much wider distribution than might otherwise have been possible. The film, set in Florida in the 1930s, involves an independent woman (Dana Preu) who marries a charming but wastrelly man (David Peck) much younger than herself. She tries to maintain equilibrium in the relationship despite her husband's obvious preoccupation with the "gal young'un" (J. Smith) who works as their housekeeper. Director Nunez brilliantly conveys the isolation and loneliness inherent in the story with his evocative use of genuine backwater Florida locations. This was based on a story by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Preu, David Peck, (more)
