Actor Michael Keaton (1951)

The neo-noir film, The Merry Gentleman (2008), directed by Michael Keaton, tells the story of Kate. She escapes her abusive husband, a police officer, and moves to Chicago. Despite befriending a colleague at work, she mostly keeps to herself due to her shame over the black eye from her husband’s latest attack. Feeling isolated and rejected, she encounters mainly unsavory characters. One night, while standing in an office window, Frank Logan, a professional hit man on a nearby rooftop preparing for a hit, sees her through his rifle scope. Instead of leaving after the job is done, he takes off his hat and steps out ...

The Company (2007) is a three-part serial based on the best-selling 2002 novel by Robert Littell, following the activities of the CIA during the Cold War. Ken Nolan penned the teleplay adaptation and received a Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Long Form – Adapted. The story begins in 1950 as Jack McAuliffe, Leo Kritzky, and Yevgeny Tsipin graduate from Yale and venture down different paths. While Jack and Leo join the CIA under Frank ‘The Wizard’ Wisner’s guidance, Yevgeny returns to Moscow where he is recruited by KGB spymaster Starik and ...

The Last Time (2006) is an American independent black comedy following the story of Ted Riker, the top salesman at Bineview’s New York office. He is given the task of training Jamie Bashant, a new and inexperienced salesman who has recently moved to the area with his fiancé, Belisa. Despite Ted’s efforts to assist Jamie in improving his skills, he continues to struggle. When Belisa meets Ted, she is impressed by his success and confident demeanor. They eventually share a passionate night together and make sure to keep their affair a secret from Jamie. As their relationship intensifies, Ted opens up about his past failed love which led him to switch careers ...

The American sports comedy film, Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), directed by Angela Robinson, follows the adventures of a spirited Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own. After losing multiple races, Herbie is towed to a junkyard and decommissioned. Meanwhile, Maggie Peyton, the youngest member of the racing Peyton family, finishes college and secures an internship at ESPN. To celebrate her achievement, her father Ray takes her to the junkyard to choose a car as a graduation gift. Amidst the selection process, Herbie escapes from a crane and lands on top of the car Maggie initially picked out. With no hesitation, Maggie ...

Game 6 (2005) is an American comedy drama film directed by Michael Hoffman. Successful playwright Nicky Rogan is preparing for the opening night of his latest play. Despite assurance from those around him that it will be a hit, doubts and fears creep in as he is reminded of another writer who received harsh criticism from the local newspaper’s new drama critic, Steven Schwimmer. These doubts escalate when Rogan mistakenly ends up with a handgun and considers seeking revenge against Schwimmer. Rather than attending his play’s premiere, Rogan finds himself at a bar with a lady cab driver and her grandson, who ...

White Noise (2005) is a supernatural horror thriller film directed by Geoffrey Sax. Jonathan Rivers, an architect, is married to his wife Anna, a best-selling author. Together, they have a young son from Jonathan’s previous marriage and Anna is pregnant with their second child. One night, Anna mysteriously disappears and is missing for five weeks. During this time, Jonathan is approached by Raymond Price, who has recently lost his son. Raymond shares that he has been receiving messages from his deceased son through electronic voice phenomena (EVP). He also claims to have recordings of Anna’s voice, ...

Live from Baghdad (2002) is an American TV war drama film directed by Mick Jackson and co-written by Robert Wiener, based on his book of the same name. On August 2, 1990, Iraqi forces invade Kuwait City, prompting CNN to select Wiener and his team for coverage. At the Rome International Airport, Wiener meets his producer Ingrid Formanek before arriving in Baghdad on August 23 and settling into their rooms at the Al-Rasheed Hotel. However, they soon realize they are being monitored. Their first story focuses on a young British boy being held captive by Saddam Hussein. As ...

Michael Corrente’s A Shot at Glory (2000) is a film that experienced limited commercial and critical success. The story centers around Gordon McLeod, the manager of a second tier Scottish football team. Under pressure from his American owner, McLeod must sign a marquee player in hopes of improving the team’s fortunes and preventing it from being relocated from its dedicated town after a century of history. Along the way, he faces personal battles with his daughter and a former colleague who betrayed him. The fictional Scottish football club featured in the film, Kilnockie FC, is based on a Second Division ...

The American dark fantasy drama film, Jack Frost (1998), was directed by Troy Miller. The lead singer of a rock band based in the fictional town of Medford, Colorado neglects his family, including his 11-year-old son Charlie, due to his focus on music and hopes of a record deal. However, Jack and Charlie bond while building a snowman together and Jack gifts Charlie his best harmonica that he received on the day of Charlie’s birth. In jest, Jack tells Charlie it is magical and that he will always be able to hear it wherever he is. Despite promising his wife Gabby that he will attend their son’s hockey game, ...

The film Desperate Measures (1998) directed by Barbet Schroeder, follows the story of Frank Conner, a police officer and single father in San Francisco. In a race against time to find a bone marrow donor for his son Matt, who is battling leukemia, Frank resorts to extreme measures. He breaks into FBI headquarters and discovers a potential match in the form of Peter McCabe – a notorious sociopath serving life in prison for multiple murders. McCabe’s record includes numerous escape attempts and killings of guards and inmates, resulting in him being restricted with multiple restraints while out of his cell in ...

Jackie Brown (1997), an American crime film by Quentin Tarantino, is based on the 1992 novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard. A flight attendant, Jackie smuggles money from Mexico into the US for Ordell Robbie, a Los Angeles gun runner. When Ordell’s courier, Beaumont Livingston, is arrested, he enlists the help of bail bondsman Max Cherry to free him. However, after killing Beaumont to keep him quiet, Ordell finds himself in a tight spot when ATF agent Ray Nicolette and LAPD detective Mark Dargus discover the cash and drugs in Jackie’s possession. Facing ...

Multiplicity (1996) is a sci-fi comedy featuring Michael Keaton and Andie MacDowell. The film is based on Chris Miller’s short story published in National Lampoon magazine in Spring 1993. It follows the story of Doug Kinney, a hard-working construction worker in Los Angeles who struggles to balance work and family life. While working on a new project, he meets Dr. Leeds, a scientist who has developed a technique for cloning humans. Sympathetic to Doug’s situation, Dr. Leeds offers to clone him so that his duplicate can handle work responsibilities while Doug ...

Speechless (1994) is an American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Ron Underwood. In the gift shop of a Las Cruces, New Mexico hotel, two insomniac writers cross paths for the first time. They quickly engage in a dispute over the last box of sleep medicine available. Little do they know that they are both speechwriters for rival candidates in a New Mexico Senate election and end up falling in love. Julia works for Democratic candidate Lloyd Wannamaker while Kevin represents Republican candidate Ray Garvin. As they unintentionally influence each other’s work, their true professions are revealed when they are ...

The American comedy-drama film, The Paper (1994), directed by Ron Howard, follows Henry Hackett, a dedicated metro editor at The New York Sun. While he loves his job, Henry is tired of the long hours and low pay. He fears becoming like his work-obsessed boss, Bernie White, who neglects his family. When Bernie reveals his prostate cancer diagnosis, he tries to reconcile with his estranged daughter before it’s too late. Facing financial struggles, the paper’s owner enacts unpopular cutbacks under the supervision of Henry’s rival, managing editor Alicia Clark. At home, Henry clashes with his pregnant wife ...

My Life (1993) is an American drama film written, directed and co-produced by Bruce Joel Rubin. Bob Ivanovich, a young Ukrainian-American, prays one night for a circus to be erected in his backyard the following day. After school the next day, he eagerly runs home with his friends, hoping to see the circus. However, they are all disappointed to find that there is no circus. Feeling angry, Bob retreats to his personal space in the closet in his room. He has distanced himself from his Ukrainian-born parents due to their customs and traditions, which led him to change his last name to Jones and move away from his family in ...

The romantic comedy film, Much Ado About Nothing (1993), is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play of the same name. After quashing an uprising led by his half-brother Don John, Don Pedro of Aragon and his comrades pay a visit to their friend Leonato in Messina. Accompanying Don Pedro is Benedick, a quick-witted man who has a history with Leonato’s clever niece, Beatrice. Claudio, a young count and friend of Benedick’s, also joins them. Despite his previous rebellion, Don John seems to have reconciled with his brother. Claudio has been enamored with Hero, Leonato’s daughter, since before he ...

Tim Burton directed Batman Returns (1992), a superhero movie with a screenplay by Daniel Waters. Set in Gotham City, the film tells the story of two wealthy parents who reject their deformed son Oswald and leave him to be raised by penguins in the sewers. Thirty-three years later, during the holiday season, a powerful businessman named Max Shreck is kidnapped by the Red Triangle gang – a former circus troupe known for abducting children across the country – and taken to an abandoned zoo. The leader of the gang, Oswald (now going by the name Penguin), uses evidence of ...

Pacific Heights (1990) is an American psychological thriller directed by John Schlesinger and written by Daniel Pyne. During their time in San Francisco, unmarried couple Drake Goodman and Patty Palmer purchase an expensive 19th-century Victorian house in the exclusive neighborhood known as Pacific Heights. As they settle into their new home, they also rent one of the building’s first-floor apartments to the Watanabes, a friendly Japanese couple. However, things take a dark turn when Carter Hayes visits to view the remaining vacant unit. Despite driving an expensive ...

The Dream Team (1989), an American comedy thriller directed by Howard Zieff, follows the story of psychologist Dr. Jeff Weitzman in his work at a New Jersey sanitarium. His patients include Billy, Henry, Jack, and Albert. Among them, Billy stands out as the group’s de facto leader despite his dangerous tendencies and constant lying. Henry struggles with OCD and has convinced himself that he is one of the doctors at the hospital, often seen carrying a clipboard and wearing a lab coat and stethoscope. Jack used to work in advertising but now believes he is Jesus Christ. Lastly, Albert communicates solely through ...

Batman (1989), a superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, is directed by Tim Burton. It marks the beginning of Warner Bros.’ original Batman film series. At a fundraiser hosted by billionaire Bruce Wayne, who is secretly Batman, reporter Alexander Knox and photojournalist Vicki Vale investigate sightings of the ‘Batman’, a masked vigilante targeting criminals in Gotham City. It was during this event that Wayne becomes enamored with Vale. ...