Anders, Allison

Four Rooms

This unbearable quartet of stories was written and directed by hot filmmakers Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi), Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging), and Alexandre Rockwell (In the Soup), which only proves that even the smart guys can really blow it sometimes. The anthology is linked by the hotel in which all the events are taking place, and by Tim Roth as a bellboy flitting from scene to scene. Nobody overcomes the insufferable air of self-congratulation that permeates this exercise in forced hipness. With Bruce Willis, Madonna, Lili Taylor, Ione Skye, Jennifer Beals, and Antonio Banderas. --Tom Keogh

Don't miss the fun in this hilariously sexy comedy that has Antonio Banderas (THE MASK OF ZORRO), Madonna (EVITA), and a sizzling all-star cast checking in for laughs! It's Ted the Bellhop's (Tim Roth -- PULP FICTION) first night on the job ... and the hotel's very unusual guests are about to place him in some outrageous predicaments! It seems that this evening's room service is serving up one unbelievable happening ... after another! Also featuring Academy Award(R) winner Marisa Tomei (1992 Best Supporting Actress, MY COUSIN VINNY), FOUR ROOMS is a wild night of highly original comedy entertainment you'll enjoy ... without reservations!

Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life)

A rare and harsh gem of a film, Mi Vida Loca tells the story of young Hispanic women in Los Angeles and the struggles they have in a life of gangs, drugs, and personal betrayal. Mousie (Seidy Lopez) and Sad Girl (Angel Aviles) are best friends from childhood, growing up in gang-infested Echo Park and remaining loyal to each other. But when Sad Girl sleeps with Mousie's boyfriend (a drug dealer who is killed) and becomes pregnant, their friendship is ruptured. As the violence of their neighborhood erupts around them, they must try to stay together as friends despite their betrayals. This is an unforgiving look at a world where women seem to have no choice but to raise their children, deal drugs, and survive by whatever means necessary. Director Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging) structures the film as a series of unflinching and vivid anecdotes, bringing insight to a tragic side of modern society. --Robert Lane

Grace of My Heart

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 18-APR-2000
Media Type: DVD

The traditions of old-fashioned melodrama are given a hip facelift in this homage to the Brill Building era (the late 1950s to the early 1970s) of pop-music glory, providing a perfect match between writer-director Allison Anders and her excellent cast. Illeana Douglas plays a singer-songwriter (loosely modeled after Brill recording artist Carole King) whose life runs emotionally parallel to popular music trends. John Turturro is a stand-in for "wall of sound" producer Phil Spector and Matt Dillon is a thinly disguised version of maverick Beach Boy Brian Wilson. It's a bit too schematic in the way the central character is always in the right place at the right time, but as a tale of fame and romantic highs and lows in the '50s and '60s the movie is funny, touching, and sincere. It's a lively and loving tribute to timeless music and the colorful characters who created it. --Jeff Shannon

Grosse Pointe - The Complete Series

The onscreen melodrama is nothing compared to what happens when the cameras stop rolling on the fictitious primetime soap Grosse Pointe. The comedy follows the lives of six young actors trying to adjust to the demands of instant stardom as their hit show launches them into the world of premieres paparazzi and power. There s the two-faced diva her insecure best friend the wide-eyed newcomer who threatens the offscreen balance of power the surfer stud the show s heartthrob and his stand-in/gofer. Guiding these "innocents" through the savage world of network presidents and last-minute rewrites are the producers who live in constant fear of the one misstep that would send ratings plummeting and their careers into oblivion.System Requirements:Run Time: 416 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396120976 Manufacturer No: 12097

Like Fox's Action, Grosse Pointe is a single-camera, behind-the-scenes comedy that didn't get the chance to find the audience it deserved. With the success of HBO's Entourage a few years later, it's possible that the timing was simply off as this devilishly entertaining melodrama should've been a hit with fans of Darren Star's Beverly Hills 90210 and Sex and the City. It's essentially a spot-on satire of the former, as well as the actors who made it into a cultural touchstone in the 1990s. Created by Star, the show-within-a-show played the game while breaking the rules. In other words, the five attractive leads, all actors on high school soap Grosse Pointe, aren't exactly model citizens (and the occasional in-jokes at the WB's expense can't have won Star many points with the network brass). There's dumb stud Johnny (ex-model Al Santos), terminally insecure Marcy (Lindsay Sloane, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch), fresh-faced Courtney (Bonnie Somerville, NYPD Blue), scheming Hunter (Irene Molloy, Andy Richter Controls the Universe), and 30-year-old teen Quentin (Kohl Sudduth channeling Luke Perry).

Plot developments include a shoplifting arrest for Hunter ("Thieves Like Us"), opportunistic boyfriend for Marcy ("Halloween"), gay fan for Johnny ("Boys on the Side"), and Japanese beer commercial for Courtney ("Star Wars" with George Takei). Short run aside, Grosse Pointe attracted name directors, like Jake Kasdan, Peyton Reed, Allison Anders, and 90210 alum Jason Priestley, who plays himself. In addition, Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh composed the jazzy score. Recurring characters include writer/producers Rob (William Ragsdale) and Hope (Joely Fisher) and perennial second bananas, Dave the Stand-In (Kyle Howard) and Kevin the PA (Nat Faxon). This two-disc set includes an interview with Star, plus commentary on four episodes. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Gas Food Lodging

American independent director Allison Anders made her name with this keenly observed tale of a single mother and her two daughters stuck in the truck-stop town of Laramie, New Mexico, barely a fly speck on the never-ending desert horizon. Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk star as sisters Trudi and Shade, who couldn't be more different. Trudi rebels against her mother and her soul-numbing life through sex and develops a reputation among the boys for being easy. Shade is the "good girl" who escapes through the overripe Mexican melodramas in the town's largely vacant theater. Brooke Adams, a loving mother hardened by rejection and a demanding job as a truck-stop waitress, tries to hide her loneliness and disappointment and set Trudi on a better path, but as with so many relationships in this film, conflict brings out the worst in them. Anders, a single mother herself, drew on her own experiences to enrich her adaptation of Richard Peck's novel Don't Look and It Won't Hurt, and she brings a haggard understanding to the strained relations between mother and daughter and the bleak desolation to the lives of three women trapped by circumstance, economics, and landscape, but she also reaches deep into the characters to expose their yearnings and steel their resolve. No knight in shining armor for these women, but Anders allows them to make their way through the emotional landscape with pluck and determination. --Sean Axmaker

Things Behind the Sun

Border Radio - Criterion Collection

Before carving out a niche as one of the most distinct voices in nineties American cinema Allison Anders made her debut alongside codirectors and fellow UCLA film school students Kurt Voss and Dean Lent with 1987's Border Radio. A low-key semi-improvised postpunk diary that took four years to complete Border Radio features legendary rocker Chris D. of the Flesh Eaters as a singer/songwriter who has stolen loot from a club and gone missing leaving his wife (Luanna Anders) a no-nonsense rock journalist to track him down with the help of his friends (John Doe of the band X; Chris Shearer). With its sprawling Southern Californian and Mexican landscape captured in evocative 16mm black-and-white Border Radio is a singular DIY memento of the indie film explosion in America.System Requirements:Running Time: 83 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 715515021128 Manufacturer No: CC1661DDVD

As with Jim Jarmusch's Stranger than Paradise, Border Radio may be a small movie, but it marked the arrival of a significant talent. (Both debuts were also shot in black and white.) Co-directed by UCLA film students Kurt Voss, Dean Lent, and Allison Anders, it's a post-punk noir with documentary interludes. Chris D. (the Flesh Eaters) is Jeff Bailey, a name swiped from Robert Mitchum's character in Out of the Past. After the LA cult rocker steals money from a man named Skelley, he sends three hip thugs to collect ("The Clash are the cornerstone of social significance in rock and roll music," one insists. "It's just like dumb heavy metal," counters the other), so Jeff hightails it for Mexico. That leaves wife Luanna (Luanna Anders, Allison's sister) in the lurch. Bandmate Dean (X's John Doe), flaky roadie Chris (Chris Shearer), and Luanna spend the rest of the film trying to track him down. As for Anders, it would take another five years before Gas Food Lodging finally made her rep. With its low budget, four-year shoot, and ramshackle acting, Border Radio may be less technically adept than Repo Man, to name another film set in a similar milieu, but shares its anarchic spirit. And Lent's sundrenched 16mm cinematography and Blaster Dave Alvin's twangy score, fortified by tracks from Los Lobos and Green on Red, make it required viewing for fans of the LA punk scene, as well as the consistently underrated Anders. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Sugar Town