Eric Thal Movies

A disillusioned young girl looking to carve her own path in life and live on her own terms hits the road with a volatile collection of radical revolutionaries in director Alison Murray's uncompromising coming-of-age road film. Sherry (Ellen Page) is a teenage contradiction of sorts; she wants to be accepted but she doesn't want to sacrifice her fierce individualism. When Sherry meets up with SPARKS (Street People Armed with Radical Knowledge) and decides to join the curious group of counter-culture activists in their trek across Europe, it appears as if the idealistic young traveler has finally found a family who will accept her for who she really is. When the SPARKS group arrives in an abandoned Portuguese vineyard to set up their own private Shangri-la, though, their ultimate goal grows increasingly ominous as the heated rhetoric of group leader Harry begins to take a dangerous slant. When a pair of deaths prompt the more weak-minded members of the group to pledge unwavering support, skeptical Sherry and questioning fellow SPARKS member Mad Ax begin to see the group for what it really is -- a cleverly disguised recruitment tool designed specifically to promote dangerous leader Harry's warped ideology. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Supermodel Naomi Campbell stars in this thriller as Traci, a bartender who makes a date with a man, not knowing he's actually a small-time hood (played by Eric Thall). While waiting for him to pick her up for their date, Traci sees him committing a violent crime; the next day, her picture is on the front page of the newspaper as the only witness to the incident. The thug's boss orders Traci's executed, but he's grown fond enough of her that he can't bring himself to kill her. Instead, he kidnaps her and keeps her under lock and key, hoping to keep her safe as they wait for the incident to blow over so he can break away and start a new life -- hopefully with Traci at his side. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Bermuda-born Alison Swan, a NY documentary filmmaker, made her dramatic feature directorial debut with this comedy-drama, a low-budget look at racial identities. With divorced parents (white attorney father and black mother), Nia (Karyn Parsons) grew up in Westchester Country. Employed as an upwardly mobile advertising copywriter, she hangs out with both black and white friends. Irritated by an ad campaign to spur ghetto blacks to consume alcohol, she quits her job with plans to write a book. Stirring the racial mix, she sets out to find her own identity. Shown at the 1998 New York Women's Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Writer/director Peter Wellington's Joe's So Mean to Josephine tracks the slow unraveling of a dysfunctional relationship. Josephine (Sarah Polley from Go), a smart but immature college girl living in Toronto, is out drinking with some friends when she sees Joe (Eric Thal) sitting at the bar. Joe is cute, wears a leather jacket, and seems quite unfriendly. Josephine is intrigued enough to smile at Joe as he leaves the bar. Joe ignores her. The next morning, Josephine wakes up to find Joe in her kitchen, arguing with her mother (Dixie Seatle). It turns out that when Joe's not earning an extra dollar illegally wiretapping phone lines, he works as a telephone repairman. Josephine approaches him and introduces herself. He doesn't seem particularly interested. Later, Josephine steps out of a bar and sees Joe waiting for his hapless partner-in-crime, Mike (Canadian indie superstar Don McKellar). Joe is pretty cold to her, but this time, he invites her out to eat. She's nervous, but delighted, and ends up going home with him. After their tryst, she shows up at his job, and then at his apartment, and she buys a goldfish for his empty aquarium. He seems sick of her, and treats her rudely. She tells him off and leaves, which he likes. When she returns later, he's nicer to her, and they start dating again. But when they run into some of her friends from the newspaper where she works, Joe's rude to them, and the two argue. Eventually, Josephine moves out of her parents' house, and in with her friend, Mona (Waneta Storms). Her budding writing career starts coming together, and Joe feels threatened by her success. She tries to break up with him, but finds he's not so easy to get rid of. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Robert A. Heinlein's 1951 novel The Puppet Masters comes to the screen 43 years later. Sharp-eyed viewers will recognize similarities to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but Heinlein's book came first. Parasitic space aliens invade the Midwest, taking over the bodies of humans and manipulating these unfortunates to do their bidding. US security agent Donald Sutherland and his team of troubleshooters attempt to squash the extraterrestrial scheme before everyone in the world is turned into Howdy Doody. Adding an extra layer to this familiar scenario is the fact that Sutherland doesn't get along with everyone on his side-in particular, he has a lot of trouble relating with his son Eric Thal. Stuart Ormes' perfunctory direction is not up to the standard set by the actors and special effects. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Penelope Ann Miller's delightful performance as the shy, part-time librarian Betty Lou Perkins is the saving grace of this comedy from Touchstone Pictures. Betty Lou is the neglected wife of small-town police detective Alex Perkins (Eric Thal). She soon feels even more neglected when Alex can't make their anniversary dinner because he has to investigate a brutal motel room slaying. Taking her dog for a walk, Betty Lou finds a gun by the river's edge that just happens to be the missing murder weapon in Alex's murder investigation. In order to get some attention, she announces that she was the one who committed the murder. Hauled behind bars, Betty Lou gets some quick assertiveness training from her cell-mate, hard-boiled prostitute Reba Bush (Cathy Moriarty). She also becomes an instant media celebrity, with crowds clamoring around her and television news reporters elevating her to legendary status. But Alex doesn't believe she committed the murder (she tells him the dead man was her lover) and continues investigating the crime. Her husband is not the only one who's suspicious -- the FBI wants to use her to lure crime lord Beaudeen (William Forsythe), who they suspect actually committed the murder, out into the open. It turns out the FBI is right; Beaudeen killed the motel room victim because he planned to blackmail him with an incriminating cassette. Beaudeen is convinced that Betty Lou has the tape and musters his forces to get it from her one way or another. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi