Ladd, Diane

Christy - A New Beginning

Christy (Lauren Lee Smith) and the rest of the Cutter Gap community are just beginning to recover from a typhoid epidemic when a storm hits the rural alcove. In A New Beginning, the second of a two-part PAX production that began with A Change of Seasons, she gets stranded in the forest with Dr. MacNeill (Stewart Finlay-McLennan), and her fiancé David (James Waterston) risks life and limb to rescue her. Despite a loss of property, the town makes it through the storm relatively intact, but many have been changed by the experience. Christy, for instance, has come to see Dr. MacNeill in a new light, thus questioning her engagement to David. Will she marry the preacher or break off the engagement? Marriage is on the minds of several characters in this engaging recollection by the elderly Christy about her experiences as a young schoolteacher in the Smoky Mountains. Age 8 and older. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Wild At Heart

David Lynch's 1990 Wild at Heart is an utterly random and ugly experience with pockets of startling imagery and inspired set pieces. Based on a Barry Gifford novel, the film stars Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as lovers on the lam whose relationship is tested and who meet some truly dangerous wackos (including an almost-simian Willem Dafoe). Lynch's thoughts seem to be everywhere, and he expects the audience to keep up with a story that seems more a collection of avant-garde whims than a coherent vision with the intuitive brilliance of his Blue Velvet. Cage gives one of his more chaotic performances, but then he was just reading Lynch's signposts. --Tom Keogh

David Lynch delivers a "stunning piece of work" (Chicago Tribune) with this "flamboyantly violent and erotic" (The Village Voice) tale of love on the run Â- now remastered under LynchÂ's supervision with upgraded picture and sound. Featuring the "formidable performances" (Leonard Maltin) of Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, Willem Dafoe, Crispin Glover and Diane Ladd, Wild at Heart is a twisted "rollercoaster ride to redemption through an American gothic heart of darkness" (Variety). If Lula (Dern) knows one thing in this world, itÂ's that sheÂ's destined to be with her ex-con boyfriend Sailor (Cage) Â- no matter how many times her mama tries to kill him. But when she and Sailor finally hit the road in a desperate bid to find happiness, their journey plunges them into a disturbing underworld filled with sexual secrets and dangerous desires that form a terrifying "tapestry of human extremity" (Variety).

Christy - A Change of Seasons

In A Change of Seasons, Christy returns to Cutter Gap with her adult daughter, Catherine, and narrates an episode in her life as a young schoolteacher. The story picks up where the PAX production, Return to Cutter Gap, left off. In this recollection, typhoid sweeps the region, and Christy's faith is tested when her best friend succumbs to the disease. Christy (Lauren Lee Smith), Alice (Diane Ladd), Dr. MacNeill (Stewart Finlay-McLennan), and David (James Waterston), the local preacher, do what they can to save the rest of the inflicted, but they can only do so much. Towards the end, Christy gets engaged to one of the men, but then he contracts the disease. Fortunately, he recovers, but things end on an ambiguous note as Christy appears to have lost the friendship of the man whose affections she spurned. This dilemma will be resolved in A New Beginning. Ages 8 and older. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Special Edition)

You know exactly what you're getting in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation: another goofball, slapstick comedy of chaos and catastrophe with Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and family. This time, there's no traveling involved: Clark and Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) prepare for a nice Christmas with the kids (played by none other than Juliette Lewis and Roseanne star Johnny Galecki), when their home is invaded by backwoods cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and his brood, along with assorted other crazy and/or stuffy relatives. Complications, of course, are inevitable. The film is preceded by National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) and National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) and followed by National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation (1997). Directed by Jeremiah Chechik, who went on to do Benny & Joon and the Sharon Stone remake of Diabolique. --Jim Emerson

Make merry as Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid and an ensemble of comedy favorites strive to gift-wrap the "perfect Christmas" for the Griswold family. The most successful of the three vacations. Year: 1989 Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid,

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Ray Bradbury adapted his own novel for Something Wicked This Way Comes, Jack Clayton's beautiful rendering of the turn-of-the-century fantasy of a mysterious carnival that literally blows into a small town to taunt and tempt the inhabitants. Jonathan Pryce (Brazil), the handsome but demonic proprietor of Dark's Pandemonium Carnival, preys upon the vanities, the delusions, and the regrets of the townspeople by granting their wishes at the expense of their souls. Jason Robards, as the meek librarian Charles Halloway, becomes his unlikely nemesis when his son Will, with his best friend Jim Nightshade (a deliciously dark name in its own right), discovers the secret of Dark's nightmarish carnival. When they become hunted by Dark's minions (including Pam Grier as the beautiful and mysterious Dust Witch), Halloway must confront his own fears and regrets to save the boys. Clayton captures the idyll of childhood in the fall with rich autumnal colors, his camera gliding along with the energetic boys as they tear through field and forests. The climax, however, gets lost in a cacophony of competing special effects, imaginatively visualized but never very terrifying, as if producer Disney resisted the uneasy undercurrent of the story. It's more dark fantasy than horror, a nightmarish adventure filtered through the memory of a man remembering his childhood in mythic terms. --Sean Axmaker

One of Ray Bradbury's most popular and intriguing novels of good and evil comes to life in this spine-tingling motion picture. On a grim and gusty October day, two young boys encounter a distressed man who foretells of danger blowing their way. Soon after, the town is visited by a seductive stanger named Mr. Dark and his Pandemonium Carnival. Terrifying things begin to happen when the adventurous boys stumble onto the carnival's deadly and destructive secret! Beware: SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES ... and frightening surprises follow!

Primary Colors

Based on the novel by Anonymous (a.k.a. political reporter Joe Klein) and released when the Monica Lewinsky scandal was in full swing, Primary Colors may have been a case of too much, too soon for many moviegoers, who preferred the real-life Clinton crisis over the movie's thinly disguised "Clintonesque" comedy. The general public felt that the film was exploiting the president's indiscretions, and as a result one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 1998 was a box-office disappointment. But when considered apart from the Clinton scandals and judged on its own considerable merits, this superb comedy-drama provides an illuminating, insightful, and frequently hilarious look at the harsh realities of presidential politics. John Travolta stars as Jack Stanton, a presidential hopeful whose campaign is challenged by dual dilemmas: how to squelch a scandal involving the candidate's alleged sex with an underage girl, and how to handle information that could potentially ruin Stanton's opponent (superbly played by Larry Hagman). Stanton's wife (Emma Thompson) stands by her man despite awareness of his infidelities, but his loyal campaign planners (played by Billy Bob Thornton, Maura Tierney, and promising newcomer Adrian Lester) experience a crisis of conscience. So does one of the Stantons' oldest friends (Kathy Bates, in an Oscar-nominated role), whose sense of betrayal and lost idealism proves too much to bear. Masterfully adapted by director Mike Nichols and his former-comedy-partner-turned-screenwriter, Elaine May, Primary Colors plays like a sophisticated comedy with loads of memorable scenes and dialogue, but it sneaks up on you with devastating dramatic impact. Anchored by Travolta's superb performance (which is reminiscent of Clinton without being a cheap impersonation), the movie presents a story of great moral complexity and leaves viewers to contemplate their own reactions to the volatile and ethically complicated game of modern politics. --Jeff Shannon

Christy - Return to Cutter Gap

Christy (Lauren Lee Smith) and the rest of the Cutter Gap community are just beginning to recover from a typhoid epidemic when a storm hits the rural alcove. In A New Beginning, the second of a two-part PAX production that began with A Change of Seasons, she gets stranded in the forest with Dr. MacNeill (Stewart Finlay-McLennan), and her fiancé David (James Waterston) risks life and limb to rescue her. Despite a loss of property, the town makes it through the storm relatively intact, but many have been changed by the experience. Christy, for instance, has come to see Dr. MacNeill in a new light, thus questioning her engagement to David. Will she marry the preacher or break off the engagement? Marriage is on the minds of several characters in this engaging recollection by the elderly Christy about her experiences as a young schoolteacher in the Smoky Mountains. Age 8 and older. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Set in early twentieth century Tennessee, this touching family film tells the story of a schoolteacher, Christy Huddleston, who learns lessons in loyalty, faith, and friendship when she attempts to force a small community into progressing with the outside world.

Considered an outsider by the residents of Cutter Gap, Christy is beloved as a teacher but begins to stir up conflict with her pleas for progress and stories of an outside world of skyscrapers and modern conveniences. When a free-spirited woman aviator crash lands in Cutter Gap, the attention is taken off Christy . . . until a series of robberies occur. Believing the thieves would never have come if it were not for the new road that Christy had built, the town unites against her. Faced with this series of setbacks, Christy contemplates returning home to North Carolina, but is persuaded to stay when she realizes she has much more to learn about her new friends . . . and herself!

28 Days (Special Edition)

To appreciate 28 Days, it's best to be thankful that director Betty Thomas hasn't forced Sandra Bullock into a remake of Clean and Sober. Instead Thomas has balanced her comedic sensibility (evident in Dr. Dolittle and Private Parts) with the seriousness of alcoholism and substance abuse, and she succeeds without compromising the gravity of the subject matter. Some critics have scoffed at the movie's breezy, formulaic portrait of 27-year-old boozer and pill-popper Gwen Cummings (Bullock), but this smooth-running star vehicle does for Bullock what Erin Brockovich did for Julia Roberts, focusing her appeal in a substantial role without taxing the limits of her talent. It's no wonder that Susannah Grant (who wrote both films) was one of the hottest new screenwriters of 1999. She writes "Hollywood Lite" without insulting anyone's intelligence.

As played by Bullock, Gwen is an alcoholic in denial whose latest bender with boozer boyfriend Jasper (Dominic West) ruins the wedding of her sister (Elizabeth Perkins) and lands her in a month-long rehab program with the requisite gang of struggling drunks and junkies. Newcomer Alan Tudyk steals his scenes as a gay German rehabber who might've dropped in from a Berlin performance-art exhibit, and Steve Buscemi aptly conveys the weary commitment of a counselor who's seen it all. Thomas has surrounded Bullock with a sharp ensemble, and the addition of singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III (as a kind of Greek chorus crooner) is sublimely inspired. Certainly no surprises here--the warring sisters will reconcile, and at least one rehabber will fail to recover--but there's ample pleasure to be found in Bullock's finely tuned performance, and in Thomas's inclusion of flashbacks and tangents that add depth and laughter in just the right dosage. --Jeff Shannon

White Lightning

Burt Reynolds is Gator McKlusky a moonshine runner who wages war against corrupt police officials in this two-fisted four-wheeling action extravaganza. With adrenaline-pumping car chases bone-crunching brawls and terrific acting by an all-star cast including Diane Ladd and Laura Dern White Lightning will give you the jolt of your life!Gator is serving time in the Arkansas prison when he learns that his brother has been murdered by ruthless Sheriff J.C. Connors (Ned Beatty). Swearing vengeance Gator agrees to go undercover to expose Connors going to any lengths to get the goods on the sheriff and make him pay for the crime... with his life.System Requirements:Starring: Burt Reynolds Ned Beatty Jennifer Billingsley Matt Clark Bo Hopkins Directed By: Joseph Sargent Running Time: 101 Min. Color Copyright 2003 MGM Studios.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: PG UPC: 027616889188 Manufacturer No: 1004914

Gracie's Choice

Gracie Thompson hasn't been so much brought up as dragged through life by her manipulative, drug-addled mother. Missing meals, dodging cops and landlords, changing schools the way most kids change socks, Gracie and her sister and brothers, each the product of a different dead-beat dad, seem to have hit the skids. Then Gracie makes a choice to get a job, succeed in school, find stability. And her choice isn't just for herself. At the age of 17, she decides to be the mother, emotionally and legally, her siblings never had.