Scott Campbell Movies

A writer suffering from a creative block stumbles into a situation most middle-aged man would envy in this independent comedy-drama from writer and director Gary Walkow. Richard McMurray (Campbell Scott) is a novelist who enjoyed overnight success with the publication of his first book, The Trouble With Dick. Seven years later, Richard is working on his second novel but hates the story more with each passing day, while his marriage to a well-known actress is falling apart. Richard agrees to speak to the class of Diane (Alex Kingston), his former girlfriend who teaches a college literature course and inspired on of his novel's main characters. Spending the day with Diane is the last straw for Richard's wife, and she kicks him out of the house. During his lecture to the class, Richard comes clean about the sad state of his marriage and the fact he has no place to stay that night, and afterward one of the students, Kristin (Izabella Miko), offers Richard the use of the couch at her apartment. Jacqueline (Lizzy Caplan), Kristin's flatmate, is agreeable to Richard's presence, and offers a deal -- both Kristin and Jacqueline are aspiring writers, and in exchange for tutoring and "literary consultation," he's welcome to stay as long as he pleases. Before long, Richard's consultations with his new charges begin taking place in the bedroom, and Jacqueline informs him that she wants him to help her write a sexy novel that will help her become "the post-modern Jacqueline Suzanne." While Richard enjoys the ongoing ménage et trios at first, it doesn't take long for matters to become difficult and even dangerous. A sequel of sorts to Gary Walkow's first feature (called The Trouble With Dick), Crashing also features David Cross and Stephen Gyllenhaal. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Coproduced by Marlo Thomas, the made-for-TV Taken Away was a curiosity: a Valerie Bertinelli film not based on a true story. Bertinelli plays a young, divorced mother, unjustly charged with neglecting her 8-year-old daughter Juliet Sorcey. The motives behind the charge soon become clear: some well-meaning but misguided bureaucrat wants to take Sorcey out of Bertinelli's hands and place the child in the foster-parent pool. With few friends and no money, Bertinelli is nonetheless determined to take on the system and regain custody of Sorcey. Seldom bothering with subtlety, Taken Away hammers away relentlessly at the viewer's tear ducts. The film premiered on November 5, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Aimed primarily at American football fans, this dramatized biography of Paul Bryant, a celebrated football coach nicknamed the "Bear," focuses on the man's early career as a player and his later work as a coach in the locker rooms and on the field with his own players -- in Kentucky, Texas, and Alabama. While the Bear's personality is clearly brought forward in Gary Busey's interpretation -- he is alternately caring and verbally abusive, depending on the situation at hand -- the people who must have meant a lot to him in his life outside of football are underwritten here, and a sense of unfolding drama -- outside of his career and the football field -- is missing. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The evils of taking drugs and being a hippie are presented in this 1972 drama. Johnny loves his family and his dog too. But when his pet dies, his family doesn't seem to care. The despondent lad leaves home to become a drug-taking-hippie. Johnny is a happy hippie until he suffers a bad trip. Johnny wakes up and realizes that Hippies and Drugs Are Bad and he goes home. Reunited with his family, the lad is again happy. He is soon unhappy when his cat eats his beloved parakeet. This time his Dad shows the appropriate sympathy and all is well. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide