James Schamus Movies
Since his initial efforts of the early '90s, independent film producer and screenwriter James Schamus has learned a lot about international culture through his frequent fruitful collaborations with celebrated film director Ang Lee. "I can order a beer in Chinese now," jokes Schamus "and not just by saying Tsing Tao. I can actually say 'beer' in Chinese." Multilingual restaurant beverage ordering jokes aside, Schamus has been a key component in the production of some of the most provocative and intriguing independent films of the '90s, often recognized for taking necessary risks to bring challenging stories by innovative filmmakers to the screen, as well as consistently forsaking conventional confines in favor of artistic freedom and vision.Take a look at any list of important independent films of the past decade and it's likely that Schamus' name will appear somewhere in the credits. Aside from his collaborations with Lee, Schamus has worked with such notorious filmmakers as Todd Haynes and Todd Solondz, often producing (through his Good Machine production company) fiercely defiant and shockingly compelling films that may otherwise have been lost in a sea of mediocrity and studios unwilling to take the needed risks in bringing these stories to light. Aside from his work with Solondz and Haynes, Schamus' most enduring cinematic relationship may lie with Lee, with whom he has collaborated as screenwriter on all of Lee's films except Sense and Sensibility (on which Schamus served as co-producer). Schamus' keen ability to capture the complex emotional intricacies of characters in difficult situations has been a driving factor in the success of his scripting of Lee's films, including The Ice Storm (1997), Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), and the phenomenally successful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which was produced by Good Machine and earned Schamus Oscar nominations for Best Music (Song) for his lyrics to the film's "A Love Before Time" and Best Adapted Screenplay (along with co-writers Wang Hui Ling and Kuo Jung Tsai). Not speaking the Mandarin language in which the film is presented, or in which the original novel was written, Schamus describes the experience of writing the film as both rewarding and nerve-wracking. "It was weird because on the one hand, I was writing an original screenplay because I didn't know the novel...And on the other hand, I knew that I had to maintain fidelity to something I didn't know." ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2010
Filmmaker Ang Lee and screenwriter/producer James Schamus team for this adaptation of Jean Dell's play about a happily engaged Brooklyn couple who, after hearing rumors that they have broken up, decide to find out how their circle of friends really feels about their coupling. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Gena (Aesha Waks) is a 16-year-old girl whose mother has fallen into a coma; with her immediate family unable to watch over her, it's decided that she'll spend the summer with her Uncle John (Paul Lazar). Gena takes a part-time job at a beauty parlor and makes friends with a girl named Jane (Summer Phoenix). Jane, however, is not an especially good influence; she's a recent runaway from a halfway house and is looking for her missing brother Sonny (Sam Rockwell), a convicted felon. When Jane disappears, Gena searches for her and is led into a netherworld of drugs, crime, gang violence, and sexual initiation. This independent drama was screened at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival; Heather Matarazzo of Welcome to the Dollhouse appears in a supporting role. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
The life and sordid, untimely death of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane are explored by director Paul Schrader in this biopic, which marks one of the few times the filmmaker has not scripted his own film. Auto Focus chronologically traces the meteoric rise of Crane's show business career, beginning with his early success as a jokey deejay on Los Angeles morning radio in the early '60s. A devout family man, Crane lives in Southern Californian comfort with his wife Anne (Rita Wilson) and their young children, relishing the modicum of celebrity his job provides him. His life begins to change, however, when his agent Lenny (Ron Leibman) proposes that he take a breakthrough role on the CBS POW-camp sitcom Hogan's Heroes. Initially reluctant to take the job, Crane signs on with the production and, to his and everyone else's surprise, the show becomes a smash hit. With celebrity comes a new set of friends, and Crane falls in with audio-visual guru John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe), a Sony sales rep who spends his days setting up home entertainment systems for the Hollywood elite, and his nights cruising strip clubs for anonymous sexual encounters. Already a pornography buff, Crane starts using his fame to secure him and Carpenter an endless parade of affairs, which they videotape and then obsessively review. It isn't long before Anne demands a divorce, and Crane marries his Hogan's co-star Patti Olsen (aka Sigrid Valdis, here played by Maria Bello), who's more accepting of his escapades. When the sitcom is canceled, however, Crane has trouble securing acting jobs, and recedes further and further into his life of amateur porn with Carpenter. Auto Focus premiered at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals before its art-house run in the fall of 2002. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, (more)
Ang Lee's adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's story Brokeback Mountain stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as young cowboys named Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar. Each of them is hired to corral sheep on the title location and they soon bond very closely. Their platonic relationship explodes into a physical one, but eventually the two are separated when their job comes to an end. Although the two follow different life paths -- one becoming a father of two and the other marrying into a successful business -- they have a reunion years later. Each is affected profoundly by the rekindling of their old feelings for each other. Those feelings lead each to consider what continuing their hidden relationship would cost them. The screenplay was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, (more)
Australian director Gregor Jordan makes his sophomore effort with this tale about crooked U.S. soldiers based in Germany during the waning days of the cold war. Special Fourth Class soldier Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix) guards against the Soviets while on duty, and rips off the U.S. military while off duty. Handsome, calculating, and thoroughly amoral, Elwood runs a profitable black-market business that operates just below the official radar. He and his associates make drugs to sell to his fellow GIs; steal Army supplies, selling them to a German connection; and a host of other dirty deeds. One day, he and his gang uncover some loot that will land them some real money -- high-tech military weaponry. As they try to quietly offload the stuff, the new sergeant, Robert K. Lee (Scott Glenn), catches on to Elwood's nefarious deeds and sets out to put him out of businesses. Elwood, in turn, catches on to the fact that Lee has a very attractive daughter (Anna Paquin) and sets out to bed her. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joaquin Phoenix, Anna Paquin, (more)
- 2000
- PG13
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Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee took a break from making Western period dramas to fashion this wild and woolly martial arts spectacular featuring special effects and action sequences courtesy of the choreographer of The Matrix (1999), Yuen Woo Ping. In the early 19th century, martial arts master Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) is about to retire and enter a life of meditation, though he quietly longs to avenge the death of his master, who was killed by Jade Fox (Cheng Pei-pei). He gives his sword, a fabled 400-year-old weapon known as Green Destiny, to his friend, fellow martial arts wizard and secret love Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), so that she may deliver it to Sir Te (Sihung Lung). Upon arrival in Peking, Yu happens upon Jen (Zhang Ziyi), a vivacious, willful politician's daughter. That night, a mysterious masked thief swipes Green Destiny, with Yu in hot pursuit -- resulting in the first of several martial arts action set pieces during the film. Li arrives in Beijing and eventually discovers that Jen is not only the masked thief but is also in cahoots with the evil Jade. In spite of this, Li sees great talent in Jen as a fighter and offers to school her in the finer points of martial arts and selflessness, an offer that Jen promptly rebukes. This film was first screened to much acclaim at the 2000 Cannes, Toronto, and New York film festivals and became a favorite when Academy Awards nominations were announced in 2001: Tiger snagged ten nods and later secured four wins for Best Cinematography, Score, Art Direction, and Foreign Language Film. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, (more)
Director Ang Lee's follow-up to his surprise box-office hit The Wedding Banquet is another look at ethnic and sexual conflicts in a Chinese family, with meals as a centerpiece of the film. Master chef Chu (Sihung Lung) is a long-time widower who lovingly cooks large Sunday dinners for his three daughters, who view the meals as too traditional. Secretly, however, successful airline executive Jia-Chien (Chien-Lien Wu) loves traditional cooking and would like to be a chef like her father, if women were permitted to do so. Her older sister Jia-Jen (Kuei-Mei Yang) is unmarried and cynical about men, but she becomes attracted to a volleyball coach and eventually pursues him vigorously. The youngest daughter, Jia-Ning (Yu-Wen Wang), is a college student who becomes pregnant from her frequent sexual escapades. As the film progresses, the personal relationships between the daughters and their significant others change unexpectedly. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sihung Lung, Yang Kuei-Mei, (more)
After his 1995 breakthrough, Welcome to the Dollhouse, director Todd Solondz was courted by a number of studios to make a big-budget film with top stars. Instead, he chose to make this aggressively dark comedy-drama of perversions and twisted lives. Andy Kornbluth (Jon Lovitz) explodes with anger after rejection in a restaurant from Joy Jordan (Jane Adams), one of a trio of middle-class New Jersey sisters. Joy's sister Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), a housewife with three kids, is married to psychiatrist Bill (Dylan Baker), who counsels the lonely, overweight Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Allen is obsessed with Joy's other sister, the successful poet Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), all the while ignoring the attentions of his seemingly sweet yet overweight neighbor Kristina (Camryn Manheim). Bill has fantasies of turning an assault rifle on families in a park, masturbates to teen magazine photos, and develops an unhealthy interest in a classmate of his 11-year-old son, Billy (Rufus Read). After a telephone sales job, Joy moves on to substitute teach at an adult education class, where she falls prey to the advances of an insensitive cabdriver, Vlad (Jared Harris). Allen's series of obscene phone calls to Helen come to an end when she challenges him to come next door and carry out his sexual threats. Meanwhile, the sisters' parents, Lenny and Mona Jordan (Ben Gazzara and Louise Lasser), find their marriage collapsing after 40 years. Lenny has sparked the interest of divorcée Diane Freed (Elizabeth Ashley), but he actually would prefer to be alone. The path to happiness, it seems, is littered with dreams, despair, and abnormalities. Winner of the International Critics' prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, Happiness met with much controversy both in pre-production and upon its release, as chronicled in producer Christine Vachon's book Shooting to Kill. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Adams, Dylan Baker, (more)
Ang Lee directs the live-action feature film The Hulk, based on the Marvel comic book created by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby. Emotionally stunted Dr. Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) is part of a research team at the University of California at Berkeley. Corporate hustler Glenn Talbot (Josh Lucas) takes notice of the lab and makes plans to take it over. Then Bruce accidentally gets hit by an experimental ray and grows into a huge beast, destroying the lab in the process. A creepy janitor who claims to be his real father, Dr. David Banner (Nick Nolte), starts to secretly use the experimental ray on himself. He creates some mutant dogs and sends them after Bruce's lab mate and ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly). After Bruce saves her life in the form of the Hulk, she lets her distant father, General Ross (Sam Elliott), take him to an abandoned army base in the desert. However, Glenn Talbot takes over the operation and wants to patent the creature's superpowers for his own profit, so he holds Bruce unconscious in an isolation tank. When provoked, Bruce turns into the Hulk and makes a break for San Francisco, leading to a desert chase sequence involving military aircraft, tanks, and bombs. Only the sight of Betty can make him turn back to his human form. When he is eventually captured, Dr. David Banner shows up for a final confrontation with his son and his old adversary, General Ross. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, (more)
- 1992
Consumed by visions of prosperity and clean, attractive cities, Silva travels to New York City from Poland with all the cash she can scrape together in her purse, speaking not one word of English. Once there, she swiftly falls prey to an aggressive con artist, and sees nothing but the dingy crime-filled streets which represent New York at its worst. Refusing to be ignored by the man who took her money, she hounds him until he takes her to bed with him, and then her relationships expand to include the creep's cousin. At no point is a good time had by anyone. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schrader, Dani Levy, (more)
Alexandre Rockwell's quirky autobiographical comedy stars Steve Buscemi as Adolpho Rollo, a would-be screenwriter who is obsessed with getting his 500-page script "Unconditional Surrender" produced. Desperate for money, he places an ad for financial backing, which is answered by con man Joe (Seymour Cassel). The film was shot in color, but was released theatrically in black & white. Both verisions eventually made their way to home video release. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Buscemi, Seymour Cassel, (more)
- 1998
When young Turkish talent Kutlug Ataman wanted to make a film about transvestites, the first location he had in mind was Istanbul. As he developed the script, his thought was to place these marginal characters, who are subject to societal prejudices in an environment where there is already discrimination, would add dramatic effect. Supported by funding from German sources, Ataman set his story in Berlin, inside the community of "guest workers" where Turkish transvestites are shunned not only by Germans, but by their own kind as well. The result is a strong film with moments of tenderness, emotion and laughter juxtaposed with the harsh realities of life for those who dare to be different. 16 year old Murat (Baki Davrak) is a Turk who is curious about gay life and eventually submerges himself in the gay hustler and transvestite subculture. He is taken by the free and easy atmosphere of the dimly lit bars and the appearance of camaraderie among this marginal community, while at home his very conservative brother Osman (Hasan Ali Mete) rules with an iron fist. Murat finds the brotherly love denied at home in a transvestite, Lola (Gandi Mukli), who turns out to be his actual brother, disowned by Osman years ago. As more family secrets come to the open, violence erupts. Murat survives the ensuing tragedy and finally finds a way of living his own life. Most of the players in this film are non-professional actors from Berlin's Turkish community (and incidentally, not all of them are gay or transvestite). Veteran German actress Inge Keller, who plays the mother of Frederich, an aristocrat who risks his social standing because of his passion for Bilidikid (Erdal Yildiz), is the only famous name among the cast. Clever editing by Ewa J. Lind prevents a downhill flow into sheer melodrama by periodically mixing the narrative with dynamic performances in Turkish transvestite bars, as if giving the audience a chance to fuel up before charging them with the next powerful emotion. Night scenes in the desolate parks of Berlin accentuate the loneliness of the characters with impressive camerawork by Chris Squires. Lola und Bilidikid opened the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999 and won the Teddy Bear Award given to gay/lesbian films. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gandi Mukli, Erdal Yildiz, (more)
- 1997
- PG13
In this inarguably bizarre comedy, Larue Maxwell (Will Keenan) is an unfortunate young man suffering from "compulsive reading syndrome," a neurochemical malady that causes him to furiously read as many books as he can, and then destroy them. Larue is released from the mental institution he's called home for some time against the advice of his psychiatrist, Dr. Noguchi (Yukio Yamamoto), who stresses the importance of Larue taking his medication. Instead, Larue throws his pills away and sets out to see the world; however, he is soon attacked by a trematode, a mutated parasite that has grown to fantastic size and has a habit of burrowing into people's bodies after emerging from their toilets. Dr. Noguchi is aware of the trematode and its effects and is trying to find the creature to prevent it from attacking others. While Larue is consumed by the parasitic super worm, he finds himself at the mercy of a number of strangers, including his neighbor Helen, (Shannon Burkett), and Kali (Kymberli Ghee), a woman who is convinced that an Egyptian deity is her husband. Stuart Gray composed the film's original score and performed it with his rock band Lubricated Goat; another musician of note, Kerri Kenny of the band Cake Like, also appears in a supporting role. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Keenan
Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee adapts this Eileen Chang story set in World War II-era Shanghai that details the political intrigue surrounding a powerful political figure named Mr. Yee (Tony Leung) in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Spanning the late '30s and early '40s, the movie introduces us to Hong Kong teen Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei), a shy college freshman who finds her calling in a drama society devoted to patriotic plays. But the troupe's leader, Kuang Yu Min (Wang Leehom), isn't just a theater maven -- he's a revolutionary as well, and he's devoted to carrying out a bold plan to assassinate top Japanese collaborator Mr. Yee. Each student has an important role to play, and Wong puts herself in a dangerous position as Mrs. Mak; she befriends Mr. Yee's wife (Joan Chen), and slowly gains trust before tempting him into an affair. While at first the plan goes exactly as scripted, things suddenly take a deadly turn and Wong is emigrated from Hong Kong. Later, in 1941, the occupation shows no signs of ceasing and Wong is simply drifting through her days in Shanghai. Much to her surprise, the former actress finds Kuang requesting that she resume the role of Mrs. Mak. Now, as Wong again gains intimate access to her dangerous prey, she must struggle with her own identity in order to pull off the performance of a lifetime. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Tang Wei, (more)
Photographer Cindy Sherman, who often uses motifs from exploitation films in her work, pays witty tribute to slasher films in this satiric horror-comedy. Dorine Douglas (Carol Kane) has spent 16 years at the bottom of the totem pole as a copy editor for Constant Consumer magazine when, due to budget cuts, she's downsized into a contract employee and forced to work out of her home. Dorine isn't at all happy about this, and when she's called back into the office to help obnoxious writer Gary (David Thornton) fix a glitch in his computer, she's not at all upset when he's accidentally electrocuted. Dorine brings Gary's corpse home to join her in front of the TV. When pushy publisher Virginia (Barbara Sukowa) orders Dorine and overly ambitious Kim (Molly Ringwald) to salvage Gary's story from his notes, Dorine snaps, and soon Gary has some company in Dorine's increasingly crowded home office. Office Killer also stars Jeanne Tripplehorn and Michael Imperioli as more of Dorine's co-workers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carol Kane, Molly Ringwald, (more)
- 1991
- NC17
This film has become infamous thanks to the efforts of the Rev. Donald Wildmon, who publicly questioned the fact that NEA dollars were spent on this "filth." While Wildmon's point was certainly overstated, this debut feature from Todd Haynes is quite disturbing. The Poison in question is sex, and its toxic effects are explored in three segments which have been shuffled together like a deck of cards. "Hero" is a pseudo-documentary about a seven-year-old boy who shoots his father and then ascends into the sky. "Horror" is a mad-scientist story filmed like a Roger Corman "B"-movie. The scientist in question has managed to distill the essence of the human sex drive into a test tube. When he inadvertently drinks it, he turns into a leprous monster, terrorizing the city. "Homo" is a gay love story set in a prison. All three segments are based on the writings of Jean Genet. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Larry Maxwell, Edith Meeks, (more)
- 1992
- NR
Acclaimed Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee made his directorial debut with this drama, leavened with gentle comedy, about a household turned upside down by a man who could not be much more out of place. Mr. Chu (Sihung Lung) is an elderly gentleman who has devoted much of his life to studying and teaching tai chi; growing old and wanting to be closer to his family, he decides to move in with his son. However, Mr. Chu has lived all his life in Beijing, and his son Alex (Bo Z. Wang) lives in New York City. Chu arrives at Alex's doorstep not knowing a single word of English, and he soon finds himself out of sorts in the home of his very Americanized son. Alex's wife Martha (Deb Snyder) is a writer who is dealing with the stress of publishing her first novel, in addition to watching over her six-year-old son. Mr. Chu is very much at odds with American customs and technology, and he even gets lost when he tries to take a walk; Martha soon feels as if she's watching over two children rather than one, while Mr. Chu resents his loss of dignity and independence. Eventually, he tries to strike out on his own and get a job, but the harder he tries to feel at home in New York, the more alien he seems. Ang Lee and Sihung Lung would team up again on Lee's next two films, The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sihung Lung
A complex tale of uneasy alliances along the Kansas/Missouri border during the Civil War, Ride with the Devil concerns Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich), a proud son of the South ready to fight for the Confederate cause after his father is killed by Union troops. Chiles's best friend, Jake Roedel (Tobey Maguire), joins the Bushwhackers, a group of renegade Southerners aligned with the Confederate Army, even though his family supports the Union cause. The two young men, used to the slow pace and gracious lifestyle of the South's privileged class, are soon confronted with the chaos of battle. Their comrades include valiant leader Black John (James Caviezel), paranoid madman Pitt (Jonathan Rhys Myers), Southern gentleman George (Simon Baker), and Daniel (Jeffrey Wright), a slave from George's plantation. The Bushwhackers hide out in a barn near the home of Sue Lee (singer/songwriter/poet Jewel, in her film debut), a pregnant widow whose husband died in battle three weeks after their marriage. Roedel and Sue Lee begin a chaste romance, but it remains to be seen if the war will permit them to stay together. Adapted from the novel Woe to Live On by Daniel Woodrell, Ride with the Devil was directed by Ang Lee, whose previous project was a very different look at America's past, the 1970s domestic drama The Ice Storm (1997). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Skeet Ulrich, Tobey Maguire, (more)
- 1994
Based on a popular one-man play and filmed in a single day at the theatrical space the Kitchen in 1993, this avant-garde drama contrasts the lives of two famous homosexuals, both of whom died of AIDS in the 1980s. Both men are played by original castmember Ron Vawter. Roy Cohn was a gay-bashing right-wing lawyer and a steadfast protector of the "American Family." He was also a closet homosexual. Jack Smith was an openly gay experimental filmmaker who was credited as one of the fathers of performance art. In this film version of the play, the opposing lives of the two men are woven together, whereas on stage, they were profiled in two separate acts. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ron Vawter
Todd Haynes presents a revisionist take on the paranoia thriller with this story of a Southern California housewife who suddenly falls victim to an inexplicable, apparently incurable illness. Carol White (Julianne Moore) lives with her husband and son in suburban comfort until she collapses one day, for no apparent reason. Her condition worsens in the weeks that follow, as she suffers from coughing fits, exhaustion, and spontaneous nose bleeds, triggered by sources as disparate as car exhaust, cologne, and the sun. Failing to find any medical explanation for her maladies, her doctor refers her to a psychiatrist, who suggests that her physical ailments are psychosomatic -- a theory echoed by her callous and increasingly frustrated husband. At her wits' end, Carol withdraws to an expensive New Age retreat for sufferers of "20th century disease," where the community's guru (Peter Friedman) champions a dubious regimen of diet, climate control, introspection, and self-love. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julianne Moore, Peter Friedman, (more)
The recipient of seven Oscar® nominations, this film version of Jane Austen's classic 1811 novel stars Emma Thompson as Elinor Dashwood. With her mother and sisters, Elinor struggles financially after the death of her father, who bequeathed the Dashwood estate to his oafish son by an earlier marriage. While sorting out the family's affairs, the shy, self-sacrificing Elinor secretly falls for her stepbrother-in-law, Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant), a sensitive, well-educated bachelor who cannot court her because of his foolhardy youthful engagement to the greedy Lucy Steele (Imogen Stubbs). The grateful Dashwoods are offered a modest country home by family friends, which they accept. Once relocated, Elinor's brash, spirited sister Marianne (Kate Winslet) falls for a dashing local, John Willoughby (Greg Wise), a womanizer who nevertheless seems to share her affections. A prominent neighbor, Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman), also falls in love with Marianne, but she is oblivious to the older man's affections. Eventually, Willoughby fails Marianne, breaking her heart, until she realizes Brandon's feelings. When Edward's family disowns him, Lucy marries his brother instead, leaving him free to pursue an exultant Elinor. Thompson won the film's sole Oscar® for her screenplay adaptation of Austen's novel. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, (more)
This is the second film by actor/director Ed Burns, his first being The Brothers McMullen. The two Fitzpatrick brothers, Mickey (Ed Burns) and Francis (Mike McGlone), would appear to have little in common, as the older is a rather volatile cab driver, the younger is a very settled stockbroker. Just prior to the time of the film, Mickey, after a whirlwind romance, married Hope (Maxine Bahns), one of his passengers. Francis has been married to his lifelong sweetheart (Jennifer Aniston) for some time. However, they are both very competitive about Heather (Cameron Diaz), an old flame of Mickey's. Mickey, who was once her fiance, left her when he found out she was sleeping with someone else. At the time of the story, Heather just happens to become a passenger in Mickey's cab, and they decide to finish exchanging belongings left over from their break-up. When Heather gives Francis (her current lover) the watch Mickey just returned to her, complications multiply. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Aniston, Maxine Bahns, (more)
Tom Kalin directed this cool and aloof black-and-white study of the infamous Leopold and Loeb case, a case told before in two previous films -- Rope and Compulsion. In 1924, in Chicago, Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, two 18-year-olds, kidnapped and murdered the 13-year-old Bobby Franks, immediately killing him and then stuffing his naked body up a culvert. The motive for the crime was simply that they wanted to prove to themselves that they were smart enough to get away with it. The previous film versions downplayed Leopold and Loeb's homosexuality, but Kalin's version plays it up into a psychosexual motif. Loeb (Daniel Schlachet) is the calculating intellectual, while Leopold (Craig Chester), the amateur ornithologist, is the emotional and weak one. In love with Loeb, Leopold is willing to do anything for him, and when Leob uses the withholding of sex as a prompt, Leopold is even willing to commit murder to have his sexual desires satisfied by Loeb. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Schlachet, Craig Chester, (more)
Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee tells the story of the Greenwich Village interior designer who inadvertently helped to spark a cultural revolution by offering the organizers of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival boarding at his family's Catskills motel. The year is 1969. Change is brewing in America, and the energy in Greenwich Village is palpable. Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) is working as an interior designer when he discovers that a high-profile concert has recently lost its permit from the nearby town of Wallkill, NY. Emboldened by the burgeoning gay rights movement yet still tied to tradition in the form of the family business -- a Catskills motel called the El Monaco -- Tiber phones producer Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff) at Woodstock Ventures and offers boarding to the harried concert crew. Later, as the Woodstock Ventures staff begans arriving in droves, half a million concertgoers make their way to Max Yasgur's (Eugene Levy) adjacent farm in White Lake, NJ, to witness the counterculture celebration that would ultimately make history as one of the greatest events in the annals of rock & roll. Imelda Staunton, Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, and Paul Dano co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Demetri Martin, Dan Fogler, (more)
- 1993
An American sitcom family is parodied in this scathing satire that is part of the Independent Television Service's "TV Families" series. The family is comprised of Japanese-Americans fit into the typical Anglo sitcom family mold. The results are hilarious as they deal with drugs, sexuality, discrimination, aging, and the perils of parenting. Ma loafs around in the house dressed in her lovely bedroom clothes taking the life-support drugs of ailing Grandpa. Dad, the perfect TV dad, has a secret urge to murder his sick father. Their daughter is a pregnant cheerleader addicted to sex; their twins boys are total opposites. Kazumi is a drug addict with a space case for a girlfriend. Marvin is the classic computer nerd who secretly lusts after men in uniforms. Surrounding this family are drug-dealers looking to collect on owed money, cheerleaders on a vendetta, and a family lawyer looking for new prospects for the kiddie-porn industry. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sharon Omi, Ken Narasaki, (more)
