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When Brendan Met Trudy

When you dawdle through life, holding on to it like a glass of water that you’re afraid will spill, it only takes a random bar encounter like his moment with Trudy (Flora Montgomery) to make a fellow like Brendan (Peter McDonald) realize that he is missing something. She brings pizazz into his life that only a burglar can provide. She is willing to take a chance on him too. He is in for the ride of his life.


Director:  Kieron J. Walsh
Writer:  Roddy Doyle
Cast:
Peter McDonald -  Brendan
Flora Montgomery -  Trudy
Marie Mullen -  Mother
Pauline McLynn -  Nuala
Don Wycherley -  Niall
Maynard Eziashi -  Edgar
Eileen Walsh -  Siobhan
Barry Cassin -  Headmaster
Niall O’Brien -  Judge
Rynagh O’Grady -  Lynn
Ali White -  Mary
Julie Hale -  Female Chorister
Jack Lynch -  Conductor
Dr. Stewart -  Himself
Robert O’Neill -  Dylan
Eoin Manley -  Cyril









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Drowning Mona

I’ve met a couple of people who I could characterize as so despicable I’d be surprised if anyone who note their disappearance. But they likely have someone in their lives who love them for some vague reason. I’ve not had a reason to ask as my brain is full of enough stuff that I don’t need to waste the storage. But then there is Mona Dearly (Bette Midler) who may be the most detested female living in the small town of Verplanck, New York (characterized as the test site some years past for the Yugo car company). When her car brakes fail and she flies right off a cliff into a watery grave in the opening scene, Police Chief Wyatt Rash’s (Danny DeVito) suspicions are aroused after he learns the brake lines had been intentionally cut. Soon, suspects are popping up all over town. There is her husband Phil (William Fichtner) and her son Jeff (Marcus Thomas), both of whom hated her as much as the rest of the town. Jeff is in the landscaping business with Bobby Calzone (Casey Affleck), who Mona would verbally and even physically batter. Or how about the pretty, tough-spoken Ellen (Neve Campbell)? Or maybe the woman who waving an affair with both Phil and Jeff? Rona (Jamie Lee Curtis) is the plain-speaking waitress at the local diner who was envious of Mona’s family. Lots of suspects and lots of motives.


Director:  Nick Gomez
Writer:  Peter Steinfeld
Cast:
Danny DeVito -  Chief Wyatt Rash
Bette Midler -  Mona Dearly
Neve Campbell -  Ellen Rash
Jamie Lee Curtis -  Rona Mace
Casey Affleck -  Bobby Calzone
William Fichtner -  Phil Dearly
Marcus Thomas -  Jeff Dearly
Peter Dobson -  Lt. Feege Gruber
Kathleen Wilhoite -  Lucinda
Tracey Walter -  Clarence
Will Ferrell -  Cubby the Funeral Director
Paul Ben-Victor -  Deputy Tony Carlucci
Paul Schulze -  Deputy Jimmy D.
Mark Pellegrino -  Murph Calzone
Raymond O’Connor -  Father Tom Stowick
Lisa Rieffel -  Valerie Antonielli









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Panic

What happens when you’re unhappy with your life? Some struggle through it and find a solution. Others change parts of it—job, spouse, city, etc.—to find relief from that which is causing the problems. Some see a shrink to find out whether it is them or something in their life. For Alex (William H. Macy), it isn’t quite so straightforward. He’s working in the family business with his dad Michael (Donald Sutherland). His mom, Dierdre (Barbara Bain) helped start the business and it’s all Alex has known since he was a wee sprout. No wonder he is seeing a psychiatrist. You see being employed as a killer-for-hire can be stressful. But he thinks he may have found a release after meeting Sarah Cassidy (Neve Campbell) in the doctor’s waiting room. She’s cute, perky, available and as interested in him as he is in her. This could be better for a mid-life crisis than that little red sports car.


Director:  Henry Bromell
Writer:  Henry Bromell
Cast:
William H. Macy -  Alex
John Ritter -  Dr. Josh Parks
Neve Campbell -  Sarah Cassidy
Donald Sutherland -  Michael
Tracey Ullman -  Martha ‘Matty’
Barbara Bain -  Deidre
David Dorfman -  Sammy
Tina Lifford -  Dr. Leavitt
Bix Barnaba -  Louie
Nicholle Tom -  Tracy
Thomas Curtis -  Alex at Seven
Andrea Taylor -  Candice
Steve Moreno -  Sean
Erica Ortega -  Rachel
Greg Pitts -  Alex at Twenty
Stewart J. Zully -  Eddie









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Billy Elliot

There have been a number of times when, faced with a decision to make, I’ve chosen an alternative on nothing more than intuition. In retrospect, they have usually been the correct one to make (for me). After doing this a few times in my young and stupid days, I began to trust my subconscious. I thought about the process a lot but I was never able to figure out why it worked for me. Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) seems to have discovered his path to intuition as well. After discovering he sucked at boxing, he’s dared by a girl, Debbie Wilkinson (Nicola Blackwell), to try ballet. Boys never refuse a dare so he joins in and finds that he likes it and has potential, according to Debbie’s mum (Julie Walters), the teacher of the class. Now he has to figure out how to hide this girly activity from his coal miner dad who is near the centre of a 1984 UK miners’s strike.


Director:  Stephen Daldry; Billy Fane
Writer:  Lee Hall
Cast:
Jamie Bell -  Billy Elliot
Jean Heywood -  Grandma
Jamie Draven -  Tony Elliot
Gary Lewis -  Dad (Jackie Elliot)
Stuart Wells -  Michael Caffrey
Mike Elliot -  George Watson
Billy Fane -  Mr. Braithwaite
Nicola Blackwell -  Debbie Wilkinson
Julie Walters -  Mrs. Wilkinson
Carol McGuigan -  Librarian
Joe Renton -  Gary Poulson
Colin Maclachlan -  Mr. Tom Wilkinson
Janine Birkett -  Billy’s Mum
Trevor Fox -  PC Jeff Peverly
Charlie Hardwick -  Sheila Briggs
Denny Ferguson -  Miner









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Bounce

We are all plagued by guilt. Guilt over what we’ve done, what we could have done, what we haven’t done. How we handle it is often a measure of how we are able to cope every day. My guilt tends to be associational, that is, something triggers a memory and no matter how hard I try to assuage it, the circumstances I remember cause me to pause and wonder what can be done to eliminate it. But I’m relieved that mine is limited to stuff where I had an element of control over the situation. I wouldn’t want to be Buddy Amaral (Ben Affleck), an ad executive anticipating a one-sight stand with fellow passenger Mimi Praeger (Natasha Henstridge). He gives his airplane ticket to Greg Janello (Tony Goldwyn) who is anxious to get home to his wife Abby (Gwyneth Paltrow) and family. After the plane crashes, Buddy checks into rehab for his drinking. He goes in search of Abby and finds her now working as a struggling real estate agent. Buddy tries to buy some relief by having her as agent for his advertising agency’s new offices but he cannot bring himself to tell her the truth. Serindipitously, Mimi has a chance meeting with Abby, who discovers Buddy’s secret.


Director:  Don Roos
Writer:  Don Roos
Cast:
Ben Affleck -  Buddy Amaral
Gwyneth Paltrow -  Abby Janello
Natasha Henstridge -  Mimi Prager
Edward Edwards -  Ron Wachter
Jennifer Grey -  Janice Guerrero
Tony Goldwyn -  Greg Janello
Lisa Carpenter-Prewitt -  Carol Wilson
Lisa Joyner -  T.V. Announcer
Richard Saxton -  CNN Reporter
Caroline Aaron -  Donna
David Dorfman -  Joey Janello
Alex D. Linz -  Scott Janello
Juan García -  Kevin Walters
Mary Ellen Lyon -  Ellen Seitz
Joe Morton -  Jim Willer
Thea Mann -  Karen