William Richert Movies
This first feature for filmmaker Jordan Melamed uses the verite style of the Dogme 95 movement for a hard-hitting drama centering on a group of troubled teens. Taking place entirely in a psychiatric ward, the film opens with Lyle (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who has chosen to accept calm in the wake of being treated for wounds due to a violent outburst from a fight that left another young man in horrible shape. Learning that he won't be taken home by his mother, he is transferred instead to a juvenile lockdown facility and deemed a menace to society. After being sedated during an episode, he wakes up to a room shared by Kenny (Cody Lightning), a 12-year old child molester. Lyle is put off by his new surroundings and refuses to befriend the other inmates or cooperate with the patient, weary Dr. Monroe (Don Cheadle). But Lyle soon begins to adapt to his new life, meeting Chad (Michael Bacall), a bipolar case with an impending release who lures Lyle into a plan for an escape. Lyle also finds solace in Tracy (Zooey Deschanel), a young girl plagued with nightmares and self-mutilation, who finds herself drawn to him as well. Manic also features Elden Henson, Sara Rivas, and Blayne Weaver in supporting roles. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Bacall, (more)
- 1998
Actor-director William Richert (Winter Kills), who directed the late River Phoenix in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988), originally planned this low-budget adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' 1848-50 classic adventure, as a vehicle for River Phoenix. Casting his son, Nick Richert, in the dual role of Philippe and King Louis XIV, he continued on with the project, despite the competition of the heavily promoted, more lavish MGM production scheduled for release almost the same month. The future King of France is kidnapped as a boy, put inside an iron mask, and imprisoned in the Bastille. Court intrigue then places his younger twin on the throne as Louis XIV. A decade later, the queen confesses on her deathbed, revealing the truth to Count Aramis (William Richert), who recruits the three Musketeers (Edward Albert, Dennis Hayden, Rex Ryon) in order to bring truth and justice to the situation. Filmed at the historic Mission Inn in Riverside, California. Previous film versions: the 1939 James Whale version with Louis Hayward, the 1976 TV movie with Richard Chamberlain, and Ken Annakin's The Fifth Musketeer (1978, aka Behind the Iron Mask) with Beau Bridges, Lloyd Bridges, Ursula Andress, Cornel Wilde, Jose Ferrer, Rex Harrison, and Olivia de Havilland. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Albert, Dana Barron, (more)
- 1995
In this art-film, a famous multimedia artist abandons his former life for a new one in a hermetically sealed room filled with living portraits. His new space becomes a haven for the terminally dysfunctional. Trouble ensues when two strangers, the world-weary Col. Hardy and the handsome son of an aspiring presidential candidate, come to collect on a commissioned work of art. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A sterling cast headed by Oscar-nominated Susan Sarandon makes this slick thriller one of the better adaptations of a John Grisham bestseller. Mark Sway (Brad Renfro) witnesses the suicide of a Mafia lawyer, who confesses that the Mob was behind the murder of a U.S. senator. Mark's brother is traumatized into a coma by the incident; gangster Barry Muldano (Anthony LaPaglia) is soon on Mark's trail, and in desperation, he arrives at the office of recovering alcoholic lawyer Reggie Love (Sarandon). With the Mob after them, and a ruthless federal attorney (Tommy Lee Jones) trying to force Mark to reveal what he knows, Love battles to guarantee the safety of her client and his family. The relationship between Reggie Love and Mark Sway is the center of the film, adding considerable character development to plot's routine elements. Director Joel Schumacher helmed another Grisham adaptation, A Time To Kill, in 1996. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
Gus Van Sant's dreamtime riff on Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Parts I and II" features River Phoenix as Mike Waters, a narcoleptic male hustler who is first seen drifting on a stretch of highway in Idaho. Mike shifts from Seattle to Portland, where he has taken up with Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves), who is also a hustler. The difference between them is Mike's sleepy state betrays an uncertain future, while Scott is ready to inherit a fortune from his father within a week. Mike feels a real affection for Scott, but Scott does not believe men can really love each other. Besides, Scott is mostly hustling as a means of slumming and killing time before he inherits his money. Mike, however, delusionally thinks Scott will continue with his life as a drifter after receiving his inheritance. Mike's belief is shared by the dregs of Portland, who live out of an abandoned hotel with their spiritual leader Bob (film director William Richert). They're convinced Scott's fortune will benefit them all, when in reality Scott has other plans. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, (more)
- 1988
- R
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The teen drama A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon is directed by William Richert, who adapted the screenplay from his own semi-autobiographical novel Aren't You Even Going to Kiss Me Goodbye? Set in a wealthy Chicago suburb during the 1960s, middle-class Jimmy Reardon (River Phoenix) hangs out with his upper-class best friend, Fred Roberts (Matthew Perry), and sleeps with Fred's snobby girlfriend, Denise Hunter (Ione Skye). He spends his time writing poetry and drinking coffee while he decides what to do after high school. His parents won't help him pay for tuition unless he attends the same business college as his father did, but Jimmy doesn't want to follow that path. Instead, he focuses on coming up with enough money for a plane ticket to go to Hawaii with his wealthy yet chaste girlfriend, Lisa Bentwright (Meredith Salenger). On the night of a big party, Jimmy is given the task of driving home his mother's divorced friend, Joyce Fickett (Ann Magnuson), who conveniently seduces him. Since he is late picking up Lisa, she goes to the dance with the rich Matthew Hollander (Jason Court) instead. Jimmy then crashes the family car and shares an intimate rapprochement with his father (Paul Koslo). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- River Phoenix, Ann Magnuson, (more)
Based on a novel by the iconoclastic Richard Condon (of Manchurian Candidate and Prizzi's Honor fame), Winter Kills was one of the vanguard efforts in the "JFK conspiracy" school of literature. Jeff Bridges stars as Nick Kegan, the scion of a powerful Kennedyesque family, who has done his best to make himself obscure after the assassination of his older brother, the former president of the U.S. While working as an oil rigger, Nick is introduced to a terminally ill gentleman who claims to have been "the second assassin." His curiosity aroused, Nick begins digging into what was supposed to be a closed case -- and, predictably, what he finds out isn't pretty. This, however, is the only predictable element of this mesmerizingly mazelike yarn. A failure when first released, Winter Kills fared somewhat better when director William Richert arranged to rerelease the film through his own company and restore several scenes that had been cut by its previous backers. Elizabeth Taylor appears uncredited as one "Lola Comante." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, John Huston, (more)
- 1979
- PG
In mid-1978, the cult fantasy guru and comic book illustrator Bill Richert -- after months directing Jeff Bridges and Belinda Bauer in the scattergun carnival of a political satire, Winter Kills -- faced a real head-scratcher. With Winter yet to be completed, Richert's backer, Avco-Embassy, lopped off all funding and suspended production indefinitely. Projectless, Richert spun around, picked up an unproduced feature script by drive-in director Larry Cohen (Q, It's Alive!), and somehow found the cash to churn out a second piece of eccentricity with Bridges and Bauer in the leads, this one for Columbia Pictures -- hoping he could use the latter's earnings to polish off Winter. Thus began a very shaky history over the next 30 years for a little film originally called The American Success Company. This ghost of a picture bombed at the box office in 1979, was later reedited twice by Richert under distinct titles (first as American Success in 1981 and then as Success in 1983), and received limited theatrical distribution. It has since fallen through the cracks of movie history, never receiving official distribution on home video but popping up in bootleg versions under the titles Good as Gold and The Ringer. The movie tells the story of Harry Flowers (Bridges), a Milquetoast employee of a Munich-based credit card company, AmSucCo (did AmEx raise any eyebrows at that?), married to the daughter (Bauer) of his slightly tyrannical boss (Ned Beatty). Flowers allows himself to be shoved around and coddled by everyone, until he suddenly decides to slip into an assumed identity -- that of a gruff, bull-by-the-horns modern-day prince, determined to "rescue himself" from wimpdom by learning sexual aggression from a prostitute (Bianca Jagger) and ultimately wresting millions from the hand that feeds him. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Belinda Bauer, (more)
- 1975
- R
Lynn Redgrave stars as New York madam Xaviera Hollander in this romp based on Hollander's rise to the top of the sex-for-hire industry. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lynn Redgrave, Jean-Pierre Aumont, (more)
- 1974
- R
Fed up with an escalating crime rate and an increasingly ineffective police force, blue-collar New Yorkers Willie and Cy (Carroll O'Connor and Ernest Borgnine) join a citizen's vigilante group. Their efforts to act as an auxiliary police force are comically inept, but director Ivan Passer lulls us into laughter only to catch us unprepared when he wants to play things in dead seriousness. After finally proving their worth as after-hours cops, Willie and Cy are euphoric; this lasts just long enough for Cy to be killed. Constantly changing its tone and point of view, Law and Disorder struck just the right nihilistic note in the 1970s. Modern viewers may not be quite as responsive, though many will cheer Willie's final act of defiance against the Big Apple. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
This documentary looks at the lives and ambitions of young ballet dancers, following them in their training and as they jockey for position both within their companies and in the larger dance world. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- R
Filmed in exotic Dayton, Ohio, Derby is not a hat. Nor is it a horse race. No, this "derby" is of the roller variety. The film consists of excellent footage of this rambunctious sport, its participants and aspirants, and its fans. While there are admittedly a few dead spots, the in-your-face roller derby footage compensates for these. Non-roller derby fans may find a few chuckles in Derby, but they'll be laughing with the film and its personnel, not at them. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
