Think Friday Night Lightsmeets Searching for Bobby Fischer. In the sleepy little hamlet of North Hatley, life revolves around high school chess, and everyone's intrigued when Tommy Linklater (Nicolas Wright) strolls into town. Tommy's late mother, unbeknownst to him, was once the town's most gifted champion and could've been a grandmaster if the expectations surrounding a critical game against a group of visiting Russians hadn't sapped away her love for the game. While his father pens some indecipherable tome about science and human consciousness while struggling against writer's block and a fawning priest who acts as if he has a direct line to the Almighty, Tommy gives the local high school a whirl. He's quickly accepted into The Syndicate, a...Read the entire review

I have never read "Blonde," Joyce Carol Oates' fictional retelling of the Marilyn Monroe story, but if the 2001 TV miniseries of the same name is as faithful to Oates' novel as it seems, then it seems I haven't missed much. "Blonde" (at least the miniseries) takes the bare outlines of the Monroe legend and fills them in with clunky, clichéd melodrama; it seems that guessing at the gaps isn't the artistic liberty it claims to be, but instead, it's just a lazy way of doing a biography without actually having to do a biography. Either give us truthful history, or give us pure fiction. The mix of the two simply doesn't click, at least not here.

Perhaps it doesn't work because director Joyce Chopra and screenwriter Joyce Eliason, both longtime TV movie veterans, lack the originality needed to make this fictional Marilyn stand on her own. The filmmakers seem confused as to how to handle the material....Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Relationships in the palm of their hands

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Interesting independent films
Likes: Harry Connick, Jr., Monica Keena
Dislikes:
Hates: Chick flicks

The Movie
Linda Yellen's first film debuted in a film festival with George Lucas' THX 1138 and Martin Scorscese's Italian American. Since then, she's earned a few degrees, won a few awards and made a few movies, but nothing that has kept her in the same company in which she started. Her latest film, released in 2000, follows a string of TV movies, and has that genre's feel, only with a roster of actors that most directors would like to work with.

The movie starts in the...Read the entire review

After three arduous days at a fly-by-night film school, Jake Barrymore (Seth Meyers) and Larry Finkelstein (John Cho) are ready to set out and make their own feature film. Thanks to feigned terminal illness and a well-placed ex-girlfriend(Jessalyn Gilsig), they even manage to sleaze their way onto a spot at the Montréal World Film Festival. The only problem...? They don't actually have a film...or a budget, a cast, a crew, or a script. But they do have a title and a screening three weeks off, so with their chainsmoking lech of a teacher filling in as editor and a pill-popping wannabe actress in tow, they head to Montréal and try to cobble together something before the lights go down. With a camera crew documenting the process, hilarity ens...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

Leo Spivak has a combination of problems that is supposed to make him sound like Everyman but that really makes him sound like EveryMovieCharacter. His teenage daughter is growing up too fast, his aged father is crankily awaiting death, he hates his job, and a younger co-worker is trying to replace him. He's married to Isabella Rossellini, though, so I don't know what he's complaining about.

"King of the Corner" benefits most from its performances. Not its plot, which is typical mid-life-crisis-comedy stuff, nor its characters, who are not especially intriguing, but its performances. In the lead (and also the writer and director) is Peter Riegert, one of those New Yorkish actors you recognize without knowing his name. He played Donald "Boon" Schoenstein in "Animal House"; more recently, he's been a defense lawyer on "Law & Order," and he has a recurring role as a crooked assem...Read the entire review

How often do your find yourself watching the evening news and see yet another person attacked by a dog, specifically a Pit Bull Terrier. When you see this do you feel angry that the dog attacked, or angry at the owner of the dog who may have mistreated the dog and made these angry tendencies surface? Is it really the breed that is the problem, or is it the owner who get a charge out of knowing that their dog has the potential to be mean, thus making them feel tougher and more secure in their lives? Statistics show that although it is true that Pit Bulls are high up on the list of dogs that are known to bite, other types bite almost as often like the Rottweiler, and even the Chow Chow is a known biting breed.

First time filmmaker Bobby J. Brown, winds his way into the underworld of dog breeding and dog fighting with his sixty minute documentary Off the Chain. Brown takes us through...Read the entire review

The Movie

Hoo boy, there's just nothing worse than a comedy movie this bad. Bad drama can give you a lot of laughs, and bad genre films can entertain through sheer force of ineptitude -- but a worthless comedy is a chore of epic proportions.

Let's use, oh I don't know, this movie you've never heard of called Daddy Who? as an example. (It's been sitting on a shelf somewhere for over five years with the title of Kimberly; why someone chose to rename it, nay, even release it, is anybody's guess.) It's not enough for me to say that Daddy Who? contains precisely zero in the laugh department, that the plot is stunningly stupid (yet sincerely divulged), and that the actors range from humorously untalented to overwhelmingly obnoxious ... I'll go as far as to say that this might be one of the worst comedies I've ever seen. It's bad enough for a chintzy comedy to be entirel...Read the entire review

The Movie

When a movie finally hits North American DVD more than four years after it was playing the festival circuit ... you're probably looking at a pretty bad movie. But in the case of Sorted, you're looking at a bad pretty movie. The flick's got energy and style to spare, but very little in the brain and logic departments.

Carl is a country-bumpkinish young lawyer who must travel into London to straighten out the affairs of his recently-demised brother. As he begins to dig through poor Justin's apartment, Carl meets up with his brother's old girlfriend, and he's forced to share the tragic news. Sunny is a painfully gorgeous and rather demure ex-model who, after she regains her composure, informs Carl that his (now dead) brother was really into the London rave scene. Like, a whole lot.

So Carl and Sunny head off to the nearest nightclub, where they hope to find some information r...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Out of the Past is a bit of a smorgasbord of gay and lesbian history, current affairs, and individual profiles that manages to bring to light some lesser known facts about LGBT history—but it is a rather melancholy experience.

The Story:
I see a good deal of these documentaries on the gay past, and they can begin to weigh heavily on your conscious after a while, because you're going along living a happy and positive life, and then one of these films drudges up the horrors of the past. Sure, you get to see how much things have changed, but you're also reminded of how much hasn't—that your very existence is constantly being attacked by people you don't even know and who will never even cross paths with you in your life. It's plain exhausting…and downright obnoxious and annoying. But having said that, I'll admit, I did indeed learn something from this odd docu...Read the entire review

The Movie:
I think, sadly,that the time when young boys were overwhelmingly fascinated withcowboys has come to an end. It's hard for me to imagine, intoday's day and age, that any youngster dreams of becoming acowboy when he has all these video games and superheroes andvarious indoor activities to eat up his time. The lore of thelegendary cowboy has, unfortunately, passed. I remember a time,however, when wanting to be a cowboy was just about the coolestthing you could ever want to be. Riding horses, roping cattle,and driving the range was all so macho. It was John Wayne. It wasCowboys and Indians. And it was the roughest men of them all: theBull Riders.

As many times as I'd wished, as a kid, that I could move out Westand get a couple horses, I never reall...Read the entire review

I like Craig Shoemaker.

That's not to say I know the guy. In fact, before sitting down to review Craig Shoemaker Live: That's a True Story!, I had barely heard of him, and I generally keep up with stand-up comedy. But his stage presence and material give him a friendly vibe; he is the correct answer of the all-important presidential polling question, "Which candidate would you rather have a beer with?"

In his first full-length stand-up DVD (a quasi-autobiographical independent film, The Lovemaster, features bits of his stand-up in between scenes), Shoemaker shows some excellent chops, the kind of skill that earned him the 1997 American Comedy Award for Comedian of the Year. But this routine is not quite up to the standard of other DVD stand-up releases, and the differences between Story, a taped gig, and a plotted and planned special such as any Read the entire review

VICTORY OVER VHS OBLIVION! This is a particularly bittersweet capture for CineSchlock-O-Rama's Most Wanted. It's also the most illusive thus far with 176 WEEKS on the lam! I'd like to thank DVD Talk honcho Geoff Kleinman for spending an obscene portion of that time trying to make our shared dream come true -- an extras-laden CineSchlock-O-Rama release of Ice Cream Man!

Why? The picture became a personal passion on sight for obvious reasons: You've got B-deity Clint Howard at maximum "Clint" in a menage-a-huh? mix of a kiddie flick, a gross-out h...Read the entire review

I'll admit it. The only reason I wanted to review this movie was Sam Rockwell. I've yet to see a performance by him that didn't leave me satisfied. In fact, his work in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind made me a fan for life, despite the opinion of my honorable colleague, Mr. Beierle. His ability to be likable, yet dangerous, is one I find to be a wonderful trait.

So with this Rockwell Love out in the open, let me introduce you to one of his early films, 1996's Mercy. This low-budget thriller is directed by Richard Shepard, who is quickly becoming a go-to guy for independent films. It's hard to find someone who really dislikes him films, as they're all at the very least interesting, with some big-name actors, including Adrian Bro...Read the entire review

"Freaks need to get funky too." I don't know if The Deviants ever had a one-sheet poster, but this line, spoken by Monique (Tamara Curry), should have been on one. It perfectly sums up this fun, yet flawed film, which suffers from a lack of story, while having a plethora of interesting characters. Now released on DVD, this independent effort can reach a wider audience than its limited theatrical release could ever hope to.

The movie centers on Norm (get it? Norm? Normal?), a matchmaker for deviant people. Be they nudists, circus folk or pro wrestling freaks, Norm can find them someone to love, with the help of his matchmaker-in-the-making assistant Monique. Portrayed by co-writer Doug Dezzani, Norm is a drip, focused entirely on his work. Even when he's having sex with his bitchy girlfriend, he's...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE

November 22, 1963: Lee Harvey Oswald sits near a window on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository and waits for the Presidential Motorcade. Meanwhile, John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline race back to Washington, D.C. aboard Air Force One.

Wait a minute…that's not how it happened. But that's how it could have happened if someone had gotten to the President before the assassin's bullet did. And that's the interesting idea that TimeQuest proposes: how would our world be different today if JFK had lived?

The Waltons' Ralph Waite plays the time traveler, who arrives in the presidential suite in Fort Worth, Texas not long before the President (Victor Slezak) is scheduled to leave for Dallas. There, he tells the Kennedy family (Bobby Kennedy – played by Vince Grant - is flown in via Air Force jet) about the assassinati...Read the entire review