Larry Rattner Movies

This documentary explores the world of doll making, talking to numerous doll artists about their work and inspiration, and watching doll makers like Olga Roehl, Shelly Thornton, Gail Lackey, and Nancy Wiley while they work. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

This raw and creatively minded program captures performances by a diverse collection of young, talented poets, slamming their work in front of live audiences at the Poetry Lounge, one of the most celebrated open-mic poetry forums in the country. The program also includes interviews with many young poets, who discuss the process of writing and revealing their work. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

Wilmer Valderrama, Angie Cepeda, Joel David Moore, and Michael Parks star in director Brian Cox's adaptation of Javier Hernandez's gothic-flavored comic book about a young man gifted with a strange supernatural power, and determined to save the soul of the woman he loves. As a young orphan, Diego (Valderrama) met a mysterious Indian man who spoke Aztec and marked the boy with the sign of Tezcatlipoca before dropping dead and leaving the child to fend for himself in the desert. A decade later, Diego has settled in a Latino community in the southwestern United States. The love of Diego's life is a beautiful girl named Maria (Cepeda), the niece of a padre who resides at a local mission. To this day Diego holds a strange fascination with the Aztec gods, and on the Day of the Dead he paints himself up as a zombie mariachi before setting out to celebrate. On the way to the party, however, the mark on Diego's hand reappears and he is suddenly killed in a violent automobile accident. Upon awakening in the Aztec afterlife, Diego's heart is ripped out by Mictlantecuhtli and offered up to Tezcatlipoca. Now Tezcatlipoca retains full power over Diego's soul, and the apocalyptic prophecies of the Aztecs begin to come true as a cycle of sun showers commence. But with each sun shower a sacrifice must be made - a sacrifice of significant symbolic value. Unfortunately for Maria, her family is of the same Christian bloodline that once brought about the demise of the Aztecs, making them an ideal candidate for sacrifice as the sun showers commence. The one thing that Diego doesn't realize is that the mark left on him by that strange Indian so many years ago singled him out as the sacrificial priest charged with carrying out the sacrifices, and that his supernatural mission won't be completed until the last of Maria's bloodline has been offered up to the ancient gods. Now, in order to protect his love and prevent the apocalypse, Diego must turn against an ancient deity whose power and wisdom is beyond that of anything than the newly transformed sacrificial priest can even comprehend - much less hope to defeat. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

It's Young Guns meets Set It Off in this hip-hop take on the time-tested revenge Western. In the placid frontier town of Flatridge, sisters Sally (Licia Shearer) and Rachel (Monica Calhoun) live in relative peace -- until a roving gang of gold-diggers tear up the burgh, looking for buried riches. In their wake, one of them kills Sally, much to the consternation of Rachel, who happens to have once been a member of an infamous, all-femme gang known as The Roses. With her sister six feet under the ground and the town going to hell under the rule of the marauding outlaws, Rachel leaves Flatridge to round up her former compadres, Kim (Stacey Dash), Ming Li (Marie Matiko), Chastity (Lil' Kim), and Marie (LisaRaye). The fivesome return to the lawless town to oust the bad guys once and for all. Gang of Roses premiered in limited theatrical release at the Magic Johnson Theater in Los Angeles before making its way to home video. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

A low-key glimpse into the life and crimes of one of history's most notorious serial killers, Dahmer doesn't concern itself with the gruesome nature of its protagonist's horrific crimes, but rather the troubled mind of the man who committed them. Focusing on the later years in the life of Jeffrey Dahmer (Jeremy Renner), David Jacobson's film follows the troubled killer from department store to gay nightclub as he stalks his prey and battles his inner demons, all the while providing contrast to current events with flashbacks from the days during which madness finally gained an inescapable grip on his already unstable mind. From his days in a Milwaukee chocolate factory to nights spent haunting the streets in search of prey, the viewer peers cautiously over the edge of an abyss so deep and so far-stretching that most minds will never fathom the truly monstrous nature of Dahmer's heretofore unprecedented crime spree. As he befriends and brings home yet another potential victim in the form of an outgoing young man named Rodney (Artel Kayaru), Dahmer is forced to confront his past as the two grow increasingly close over the course of the evening. Will Dahmer have a glimmer of humanity during a night of intimate and revealing conversation, or is it already too late for the unassuming young man who has fallen into the same trap as so many before him? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Three small-time hoods are sent off into the desert to deliver a supply of drugs to a distributor and get the distributor's cash. Only the place of the transaction and the amounts involved are set. They do not know exactly when their counterparts will be sent by the distributor. In the meantime, they try to kill time in the corrugated shed they find at the site. They drink beer, quarrel, and, in a truly self-destructive mode, use their cellular phone to arrange for some prostitutes to entertain them. In the course of their liaison with the prostitutes, they use up a fair amount of the drug supply they were to deliver. Will they be lucky enough, or ingenious enough to survive their own stupidity and the wrath of their bosses? ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

After a drug deal goes horribly awry, Bebe and Alex (Molly Ringwald and Donal Logue) flee to Baja where they wait for money and passports to arrive. Bebe's father (Corbin Bernsen) sends Bebe's not-yet-divorced ex-husband Michael (Michael Nickles) after her, hoping he can talk some sense into Bebe. While Bebe and Alex get increasingly irritated and Michael searches the streets of Baja, a ill-tempered and cut-throat hitman (Lance Henriksen) shows up and befriends Michael. Eventually, all the characters collide in the desert in an explosive confrontation. Typical Elmore Leonard-type plot situation among criminals, but the lush photography of Baja and the competent performances keep this film taut and fresh looking. Henriksen in particular breathes life into a very cliched character making the audience wish the whole film was about him. ~ Sean D. MacLaggan, All Movie Guide

Peter Berg stars as Henry, a chronic gambler forever in trouble with the mob and the law. Through the auspices of his old friend Cowboy Jack (M.K. Harris), Henry is hired as an all-around flunkey by gang boss Paul Hellwart (Terence Stamp). But there's a problem: Henry is currently sexually involved with a nubile young miss (Michelle Johnson) who happens to be Hellwart's main squeeze. Disloyalty begets violence, and violence begets more violence. Anyone looking for logical character development and clever plot twists will be disappointed by Genuine Risk, though action fans will get their fill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide