The Karen Silkwood case provided the rather obvious inspiration for this fictionalized account of a plutonium plant employee who becomes the target of management as well as union harassment when she tries to blow the whistle on the company for negligent safety procedures, and soon finds her life in peril.
Tag: USA
Spacy Callahan has two problems. In the first place, he’s a young teen, which is difficult enough. In the second place, he has been placed “for his own good” in an Iowa juvenile facility which has more than a passing resemblance to a military prison. If a boy breaks one of the innumerable rules of the place, they get placed in a situation where the will probably be sexually molested by their jailer Mr. Kibby, while he quotes Bible verses at them. He has a friend, though, a boy named Gary and together they make the best of things. That is, until it becomes clear that a clueless young inmate could make things really difficult for them – really difficult.
Johnny One-Eye was adapted from one of Damon Runyon’s lesser-known stories. Pat O’Brien and Wayne Morris star as Martin Martin and Dane Cory respectively, former partners in crime who have long since split up. When a new district attorney puts the heat on, Cory, anxious to save his own hide, accuses Martin of an unsolved murder. Holed up in abandoned house, Martin is befriended by a little girl and her dog. It so happens that the girl is the daughter of the crusading DA, and thereby hangs the rest of this tale.
Documentary about the influential comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Includes highlights of the team’s many television appearances, featuring recently discovered kinescopes of live performances not seen since their original television broadcasts in the late 1950s and 60s. Four of their radio sketches have been re-created with new animation created especially for the program. Featuring interviews with Steve Allen, Tom Brokaw, Steve Martin, Arthur Penn, Robin Williams, and others.
Alex Cox (REPO MAN) directed this stylized adaptation of Jorge Luis Borges labyrinthine detective story about a totalitarian city of the future plagued by a rash of bizarre crimes. Peter Boyle stars as Lonnrot, a decidedly even headed detective prone to philosophizing and Christopher Eccleston is his nemesis, Red Scarlach, whom Lonnrot believes could be behind these ritualistic crimes. Set in a surreal landscape that provokes Lonnrot’s philosophical musings and leads him through mystical cabals and conspiracies within conspiracies, DEATH AND THE COMPASS is a remarkable adaptation of Borges’ story, and a fascinating, often exhilarating film.
After attending the funeral of a close friend, Katherine Eure decides that life is too fleeting to not be grabbed directly by the horns. Hailing a cab, she embarks on a trip to visit several locations that were important in her life – a trip that leads from Pasadena all the way to Canada. However, this excursion is a bit unexpected to the cabbie, who believed he was just picking up a routine fare! Based on a true story, Cab to Canada is a touching and uplifting tale of friendship, discovery and the extraordinary journey of life.
Oscar-nominee Sally Kellerman stars in Dorothy Parker’s 1929 O. Henry Prize-winning short story which poignantly chronicles the life of a vivacious showroom model and good-time party girl in the 1920’s who gives up her high-life for marriage to a traveling salesman – played by four-time Emmy winner John Lithgow. When he turns out to be a hard-drinking philanderer, the marriage deteriorates – and the now-blowsy and dissolute aging flapper turns to drinking for solace, moving from man to man as she sinks into an alcoholic haze.
Zedd is minding his business, when he is stopped by a cop who accuses him of being a junkie. After a short argument he is beaten and dragged to the police station. At the station he is interrogated by a detective and the police chief. After being beaten and tortured several more times, Nick Zedd’s character mutilates himself with some hedge cutters.