Peter Richardson Movies
- 2006
Peter Richardson's probing documentary Clear Cut: The Story of Philomath, Oregon paints a lingering portrait of a town in the American Northwest being torn asunder by the perpetual struggle between conservative tradition and liberal progressivism. The cultural and moral foundations of Philomath first began to shift when its economic base of logging dwindled, only to be replaced by a Hewlett Packard plant. Meanwhile, the area's older generations felt thwarted by the arrival of new residents, particularly young employees of the nearby university, who propagated leftwing values and what the elders perceived as more loosely-knit behavioral standards. Not long after, Terry Keisler, a Chicagoan émigré, accepted the position of Philomath High School superintendent, and made a series of controversial decisions that ignited the community tinderbox. Keisler first drew the ire of the town's longtime residents by establishing a gay/straight alliance at the high school, then eliminated the school's "Warriors" logo employed by its sports teams. Furious over these decisions, Philomath resident Steve Lowther - whose father made his wealth as a logging entrepreneur and established a college scholarship for local high school students - took drastic action. Lowther first attempted to oust Keisler, then withdrew the scholarship altogether as a form of protest, and ultimately reinstituted it under severely restrictive terms, Filmmaker Richardson uses his cinematic study of the town to make an allegorical statement about the inner forces that continue to divide Middle America. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Lowther, Terry Kneisler, (more)
A British suburb is infected with a severe dose of celebrity worship in this comedy from the U.K. Stella Street is a cul-de-sac in a middle-class suburb of South London. The street has been home to a handful of British show business figures who have moved on to more prestigious environs as they reached the big time, among them the Beatles and Michael Caine. Caine, however, breaks precedent by moving back to Stella Street after an unhappy episode in Los Angeles. Word gets out about Caine's presence in the humble surroundings of Stella Street, and before long a steady stream of Hollywood stars begin snapping up homes there, including Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Madonna, and Joe Pesci, which attracts plenty of star gazers from neighboring communities and annoys several of the locals, among them genial washerwoman Mrs. Huggett and half-mad gardener Len McMonotoney. Stella Street was based on a BBC comedy series created by writers/comedians Phil Cornwell and John Sessions; they also wrote the screenplay for the film (with director Peter Richardson) and play nearly all the characters themselves, including impersonating Stella Street's celebrity denizens. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phil Cornwell, John Sessions, (more)
Eddie Izzard: Glorious features a command performance by brainy British stand-up comic Eddie Izzard. Izzard, in the midst of a world comedy tour, pulls out all the stops, sharing many of his most popular sketches. He portrays James Mason as God, hurrying about with soot and jam trying to complete the world on deadline. He presents Sean Connery as Noah, constructing the Ark as a speedboat. And he updates the Grim Reaper by putting a lawnmower in his skeletal clutches. ~ Betsy Boyd, All Movie Guide
- 1997
British impressionists John Sessions and Phil Cornwell essayed all the roles on the late-night BBC2 comedy series Stella Street. Each ten-minute episode took place on a small street in the fictional London suburb of Surbiton, where virtually every celebrity in the universe had either opened up a business or showed up on holiday. The Sessions-Cornwell repertoire included everyone from Van Morrison to Princess Margaret, from Mick Jagger to Joe Pesci. Co-written by the two stars and by director Peter Richardson (creator of the legendary Comic Strip improv club), Stella Street first aired in 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
At a posh public-relations awards show, Edina (Jennifer Saunders) guzzles champagne with Patsy (Joanna Lumley), bosses Bubble (Jane Horrocks) around, chats up supermodel Naomi Campbell, and prepares to take home a prize. She's beaten to the punch, however, by Claudia (Celia Imrie), her pretentious, politically correct professional arch nemesis. Commiserating later at home with Saffy (Julia Sawalha), Mother (June Whitfield), and Pats, Eddy reveals that she had rigged the awards in her own favor, thus rendering her defeat even more ignominious. Terrified that she'll lose her tenuous hold on her career, Edina creeps into Claudia's celebrity liposuction-a-thon in hopes of bagging Campbell for one of her own celebrity events. Later, at an industry luncheon, she loses her prepared remarks but gives a drunken speech anyway, slagging off the PR industry's parasitical piggy-backing on noble causes such as environmentalism. Eddy's rallying cry against doom-and-gloom marketing -- "Cheer up, because it might not bloody happen!" -- becomes a sensation, and soon she's bagging new clients right and left. Meanwhile, Saffy gets hot and heavy -- for her, anyway -- with Gerard (Simon Stokes), her college psychology lecturer. Originally broadcast on BBC 1 on April 27, 1995, Absolutely Fabulous: Jealous marked series three, episode four of this popular Brit-com. Campbell guest-stars as herself in a send-up of the inane schemes to which hangers-on constantly subject the supermodel elite. Although she doesn't appear on camera, real-life singer Lulu, who is supposedly Edina's biggest client, can be heard announcing one of the PR awards. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- 1992
- R
In this last gasp of the "Carry On" series, minus most of the "Carry On" players, Jim Dale plays Spanish map-maker Christopher Columbus, who has a plan to navigate a new route to India, bypassing the Sultan of Turkey (Rik Mayall) and his sky-high tributes. He convinces King Ferdinand of Spain (Leslie Phillips) and Queen Isabella (June Whitfield) to finance his trip, and he sets off for points east with a cabin boy in tow. But what Columbus doesn't realize is that his cabin boy is, in fact, a cabin girl. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Dale, Bernard Cribbins, (more)
- 1991
- R
A priest discovers that being the leader of the Catholic Church can be hazardous to your health in this satiric comedy. Cardinal Rocco (Alex Rocco) and Monsignor Vitchie (Paul Bartel) are two high-ranking Vatican officials who have been using the church's business dealings to launder funds for Vittorio Corelli (Herbert Lom), a crime boss involved in illegal arms trading. After the death of the aging and infirm Pope, Rocco and Vitchie plan to nominate a successor who will go along with Corelli's schemes, but quite by accident, small town priest Giuseppe Albinizi (Robbie Coltrane) is named the new Pontiff. Albinizi is a reluctant spiritual leader who prefers cars, women, and rock & roll to church business, but when he discovers the level of Rocco's corruption, he has him removed from the Vatican. Rocco and Vitchie are not taking Albinizi's plans to clean up Vatican finances lying down, and they discover that the new Pope's has a not-so-little secret. Before he joined the priesthood, Albinizi fathered a son out of wedlock with Veronica Dante (Beverly D'Angelo); the boy grew up to be Joe Don Dante (Balthazar Getty), a rock star who's romancing Corelli's daughter. After complaints from Catholic groups in the U.S., the distributors of The Pope Must Die changed the title to The Pope Must Diet. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robbie Coltrane, Beverly D'Angelo, (more)
The gritty underbelly of New York's complex, ethnically divided criminal world is exposed in this dark drama from director Abel Ferrara. Christopher Walken stars as Frank White, a drug lord who's just been released from a long stint in prison. Aware that feeding off of society's depravity has made him a wealthy man, Frank has become determined to give something back to the city, and he hatches a scheme to build a multimillion-dollar public hospital in one of Brooklyn's worst ghetto neighborhoods. Needing the assistance of his fellow criminals to pull it off, Frank and his adjutant Jimmy Jump (Laurence Fishburne) encounter a wall of resistance from every faction, including drug-trade partner Lance Wong (Joey Chin) and temperamental cop Dennis Gilley (David Caruso). Frank's do-gooder efforts ultimately result in a Mob war and in a bloody showdown between the city's various ethnic criminal actions. Ferrara followed King of New York with a similarly themed film that many critics considered his masterpiece, Bad Lieutenant (1992). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Walken, David Caruso, (more)
A restaurant worker (Lanah Pellay) is fired from a posh London eatery, so the man returns with a band of terrorists, who have their own ideas about how to run a restaurant, and they begin feeding new customers with old customers. Motorhead provides the music. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lanah Pellay, Nosher Powell, (more)
- 1985
- R
In this romantic comedy that wobbles along on a shaky plot -- the first full-length feature of a Brit TV show -- Dennis (Adrian Edmondson) is on vacation with his mother when he invents a tall tale of his involvement with a drug cartel in order to impress a woman he likes. Sure enough, his story accidentally tallies with what the police already know, and before he can cry "wolf," Dennis is sent off to the coast with two undercover cops. One cop is a woman (Jennifer Saunders) and the other her former boyfriend (Harvey Duncan) -- but the woman has to pretend to be Dennis' lover. Then along comes a string of several unique policemen and a few real drug smugglers, one in drag, adding their eccentricity to the growing group of comic characters. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adrian Edmondson, Jennifer Saunders, (more)
- 1984
- R
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Filmmaker John Sayles' first bonafide box-office success, Brother from Another Planet centers on a black escaped slave from a faraway planet (Joe Morton) who finds himself on the mean streets Harlem. Though the locals are put off by the slave's inability to speak, they are won over by his technical wizardry. He is adopted as a "brother" by his new friends, who protect him from pursuing white aliens played by director Sayles and David Strathairn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Morton, Darryl Edwards, (more)
- 1983
A couple's relationship unravels and comes apart at the seams, leaving no room for psychological mending of any kind in this unremittingly negative film about King Blank (Ron Vawter) and Queenie Blank (Rosemary Hochschild). If viewers were meant to fill in the Blanks, they would be hard-put to find anyone as crass, vulgar, and crude as these two fighting pseudo-lovers. While closeted in their New York hotel room to battle out their differences, there is not much hope for a quick resolution to the couple's maladjustments, and while at the bar for some intermission in their endless rounds, the duking duo run into a succession of alcoholics, psychotics, prostitutes, and other fringe elements who are worse off than they are. Based on the language and behavior of the destructive protagonists, this black-and-white film is not likely to find a large following. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosemary Hochschild, Ron Vawter, (more)
