Susan Rice Movies
- 2008
Directed by filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and produced by journalist Elvis Mitchell, this collaborative documentary offers an informative collection of portraits of twenty influential African Americans ranging from powerful CEOs to prolific artists, well-known politicians, and dedicated activists. Artist Bill T. Jones discusses the reaction of his contemporaries after he described himself as an artist first and a black man second, Chris Rock describes how equality in sports didn't come about until there were bad black athletes in the major leagues, and Vernon Jordan ponders the reason why there is a clear definition of black America while white America remains a vague, undefined standard. Other conversations find Academy Award-winning actor Lou Gossett Jr. discussing institutionalized racism and its effect on his onscreen career, museum curator Thelma Golden reflecting on the times when people mistakenly assumed she was her own assistant, and, by contrast, the manner in which author Toni Morrison was encouraged as a young girl to believe that women can be just as strong as men. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elvis Mitchell
Ordered by the courts to allow her ex-husband to take their five-year-old son Andrew home for the weekend, young mother Gail (Park Overall) has her worst fears realized when both father and son completely disappear. Despite the insensitivity and outright bungling of the authorities, Gail never gives up hope that, someday, she and Andrew will be reunited. Finally, after five long and agonizing years, her former husband surrenders the boy and sends him home. But instead of the happy, carefree Andrew whom she remembers, Gail is confronted with a sullen, embittered ten-year-old, still smarting from half a lifetime of unspeakable abuse. Based on a true story, When Andrew Came Home (filmed under the title Taming Andrew) chronicles Gail's heroic efforts to "reach" her battered son and convince him that he is now in the arms of those who love him, and will never do him any harm. The made-for-cable film premiered October 30, 2000 on the Lifetime network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Comic actor Bob Saget served as producer and director of this made-for-TV film, inspired by the true story of Saget's sister Gay, who died in 1994 at the age of 47. Despite the pressures of single motherhood, schoolteacher Hope Altman (Dana Delany) seems to have her life in order until she is diagnosed with scleroderma, a disfiguring skin disease that causes her body's connective tissues to stiffen and atrophy, and will eventually paralyze her while eating away at her vital organs. There is no cure for scleroderma, and the survival rate is tragically low--and worse, neither the medical community nor the general public has a firm grasp on understanding the disease and its many victims (500,000, mostly female, in the United States alone). The film chronicles the manner in which Hope and her family handle the nightmarish situation, often with what Saget described as "irreverence and dark humor" (At one point, Hope's brother Alan--a comedy writer--quips that scleroderma sounds like "a deli entrée"). Sharon Monsky, who at the time ran one of the most prominent organizations for those suffering from scleroderma, appears briefly as herself. For Hope originally aired over the ABC network on November 17, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
- Add Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story to QueueAdd Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story to top of Queue
Popular comedienne Joan Rivers and her real-life daughter Melissa portray themselves in this made-for-television movie about their family's trials and tribulations in the 1980s. After suffering through some public blows to her career, Rivers' husband Edgar (often the butt of her jokes) committed suicide. The film shows how the mother and daughter struggled to save their already troubled relationship in the wake of the devastating death. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- PG
In this enjoyable, lighthearted "he's fallen for her" situational, a music professor finds a science department faculty member too deeply engrossed in her inter-species communication studies (she talks to chimps) to even notice him. Since he can't get her mind off her studies, he decides to work part-time for her in the university laboratory. In this way he becomes aware of her dilemma: she's found that her research funds are set to be axed. He's there to help her figure out a way to prove their worth, and maybe spike her interest in him at the same time. There's plenty of clean fun and a satisfying outcome to be had here. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karen Allen, Armand Assante, (more)
An astrophysicist falls in love with a beautiful woman who is actually a disguised extraterrestrial in this high-concept comedy. Dan Aykroyd plays Steven Mills, a dedicated and harmlessly odd scientist researching ways to send radio signals to deep space. Unbeknownst to him, one of his experiments works better than expected, attracting the attention of an alien in need of help. She travels to Earth and poses as a human, assuming the name Celeste and the body of Kim Basinger. Celeste's lack of knowledge about humanity causes her to act bizarrely at times, but her odd behavior unexpectedly causes Mills to fall in love with her. The confused Celeste decides to play along for her planet's sake, but she finds her plan threatened by Mills' teenage daughter Jessie (Alyson Hannigan), who has become suspicious of Celeste after witnessing some odd behavior. The culture clash between Celeste's planet and Earth serves as an excuse for broad slapstick and sitcom-style humor, such as Celeste's fumbling efforts to enact the human ritual of "kissing." ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Aykroyd, Kim Basinger, (more)
- 1986
Something in Common is a made-for-television comedy about a middle-aged, widowed career woman (Ellen Burstyn) who discovers that her grown son is having a love affair with a woman (Tuesday Weld) her own age. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1983
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute is a compilation film of three feminist yet disheartening stories of failed relationships. The first story features Virginia (Ellen Barkin) whose deadbeat husband has just left her and their three children. As a result, she is forced to go on welfare. She begins an affair with a now-married old flame, and struggles to keep sanity and humor alive against high odds. In the next vignette, Faith (Lynn Milgrim) visits her still-hip, literary parents in their retirement home to let them know that she and her husband have separated -- and she gets some shocking news in return from her father. In the last story, a social worker and a cabbie (Kevin Bacon) start an affair on a feeble pretext for mutual attraction, and when the social worker gets pregnant, her one-sided decisions on the matter have unexpected effects. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ellen Barkin, Kevin Bacon, (more)
We'd rather not speculate over how much of Best Friends is autobiographical. We'll just note that this story of a male-female screenwriting team was written by real-life married scenarists Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin. Lovers as well as collaborators, scriveners Richard Babson (Burt Reynolds) and Paula McCullen (Goldie Hawn) decide to make their union legal. Predictably enough, they discover that their relationship goes straight downhill after they say "I do." The stars are far less interesting than the supporting cast, including Jessica Tandy and Barnard Hughes as Hawn's parents, Audra Lindley and Keenan Wynn as Reynolds' folks, Ron Silver as an avaricious producer (no names, please!), and Richard Libertini as a Mexican justice of the peace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Goldie Hawn, (more)
