James Toback

Two Girls and a Guy

Substitute "Gals" for "Girls" and you might mistake this for one of those romantic-comedy trifles they cranked out during World War II. Nothing could be further from the truth, though the film does have a lot to say about modern romance, and you'll laugh--while also gasping--frequently as the film unreels over a riveting hour and a half.

Two very different but equally smashing young women find themselves sharing the sidewalk outside a Soho apartment. Both blond Carla (Heather Graham, pre-Boogie Nights) and the dark-haired Lou (Natasha Gregson Wagner, daughter of Natalie Wood) are waiting for the same guy, an actor named Blake (Robert Downey Jr.), who--unbeknownst to either--has been sleeping with both of them for the past year. They break into Blake's pad and trade can-you-beat-that? anecdotes of his duplicity while waiting for him to show. Show he eventually does, and the mind games begin.

All three players are terrific, with Wagner enjoying a slight edge over indie veteran Graham because her character is fiercer and she's a new screen presence. But it's Downey who rules, partly because director James Toback wrote the script in direct response to seeing his old pal (Downey had starred in his 1987 movie The Pick-Up Artist) in a jail-house news feed after his first well-publicized arrest on drug charges. Actually, Downey's most amazing scene--a long soliloquy in front of a mirror--was largely improvised; it's a passage of monumental self-deception, self-revelation, and sheer genius. As exasperating as it is compelling, Two Girls and a Guy is one of the most provocative films of the '90s. --Richard T. Jameson

Robert Downey Jr. is Blake Allen, an arrogant self-absorbed actor who gets a double dose of girl trouble in this wildly provocative "look at love, lust and sexual commitment in the `90's." (Los Angeles Times)

They're as different as they are beautiful, but Carla (Heather Graham) and Lou (Natasha Gregson Wagner) have more in common than meets the eye. Each thinks she has the world's greatest boyfriend - until both realize they're talking about the same guy! Sparks fly when the two girls discover Blake's deception and team up to confront their lying, two-timing lover.

The Pick-Up Artist

From the pen of James Toback comes this ridiculous talk-fest, in which people seem to say whatever comes into their minds, whether it's interesting, germane, or doesn't even makes sense. What story there is centers on Robert Downey Jr., an inveterate womanizer who meets the girl of his dreams--and the one woman immune to his charms. She's Molly Ringwald, and her drunken father (Dennis Hopper) is in debt up to his neck to the mob. So she agrees to go to Atlantic City with a surly mobster and his cronies (Danny Aiello and Harvey Keitel), who have more than gambling on their minds. Downey tries to save Ringwald, even as he attempts to convince her that he can curb his wandering eye and be faithful to her. These people never shut up, but you'll quickly wish they would. --Marshall Fine

Jack Jericho (Robert Downey Jr.) is a master in the art of meeting women, but the master has just met his match - the beautiful Randy Jensen (Molly Ringwald). In this hilarious, romantic comedy, a smug, compulsive womanizer who won't take no for an answer meets the woman of his dreams, only to find her impervious to his charm.

When Will I Be Loved

Neve Campbell is an arresting enigma in When Will I Be Loved, one of writer-director James Toback's most mysterious and successful minimalist dramas about sex, deception, and mutable identities in New York City. Campbell plays twentysomething beauty Vera, whose nude shower scene during the film's opening credits looks more like mythic preparation for a soon-to-be-fateful day than brazen exploitation. Ensconced in a fantastic loft paid for by her parents (Barry Primus, Karen Allen), the unemployed Vera embarks on an odyssey that begins with a mutually deceitful job interview with a college professor (Toback), leads to misadventures in questionable perception in Central Park, and climaxes with Vera's successful manipulation of two powerful men, one a craven lover (Fred Weller) and the other an Italian billionaire (Dominic Chianese) trying to get her in bed for a lot of money. Provocative as a good urban legend, the film sticks with one for a long time. --Tom Keogh

Neve Campbell Dominic Chianese and Fred Weller star in this smoldering erotic thriller about a femme fatale exploring the frightening reach of her sexual power - and the red-hot fusion of money power and desire. Directed by James Toback When Will I Be Loved is an "illumination of sexual and identity politics" (Slant Magazine) that sizzles and seduces.Episodes-Bonus Features:Audio Commentary by Writer-Director James TobackScene Sexplorations With Neve Campbell & Director James TobackOriginal Theatrical TrailerAudio: English (5.1 Surround)Subtitles: English SpanishAnamorphic (1.77)Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 027616917188 Manufacturer No: M103218

Black & White

James Toback's portrait of white and black culture mixing it up on the streets of Manhattan is like two films colliding. In the center of the swirl are a group of upper-class white teens (led by Elijah Wood and pop singer Bijou Phillips) who appropriate hip-hop culture to rebel against their affluent lifestyle, and a posse of gangstas and drug dealers (led by rap producer Oli "Power" Grant) who are themselves trying to get off the streets and into the business culture through their music. Aging indie filmmaker Toback has long shown an interest in character contradictions and quirks. Here the dynamic works: The two groups are genuinely curious about one another and mix with a cautious but untroubled ease. Less successful is the contrived drama that orbits this cultural mix but never quite meshes--such as Ben Stiller as a self-loathing New York cop who blackmails college basketball star Allan Houston into betraying his boyhood buddy turned street criminal.

Toback spices his Altmanesque style of restless camera work and impressionistic intercutting with attitude, nervous energy, and in-your-face sex. There's an interesting story to be told here, but the provocative cultural mix gets lost in the self-conscious melodrama and only periodically roars to life, notably in the edgy, unpredictable scenes with Mike Tyson (an inspired bit of casting that works marvelously). Also featured are rapper Raekwon, supermodel Claudia Schiffer, Brooke Shields, and Robert Downey Jr. --Sean Axmaker

Fingers

The debut film for director-writer James Toback has developed a cult following over the years but was one of three 1978 films that put a damper on Harvey Keitel's career for more than a decade. In this overheated brew of testosterone and male sensitivity, Keitel plays the son of a fading mob boss; Dad forces him to work as a leg-breaker collecting bad debts while Mom wants him to pursue a career as a classical pianist. Isn't this how Van Cliburn got his start? Keitel rides an emotional roller coaster, torn between parental poles even as he faces the audition that could launch him on the concert circuit. Oh, and for good measure, he starts to suffer doubts about his own manhood, thanks to an encounter with ex-footballer Jim Brown. Strictly for Toback and Keitel aficionados. --Marshall Fine

Harvey Keitel plays a piano virtuoso with a twisted second job - he's the muscle man who collects on his mobster father's debts. Of course this creates an internal struggle between the artist's commitments to his father and his love of music.Running Time: 91 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 053939629927

Harvard Man

This innovative drama from writer and director James Toback (BUGSY, BLACK AND WHITE) follows the travails of Alan Jensen (Adrian Grenier), a Harvard student determined to live life to the fullest and find the ultimate truth. He gets high regularly, and is sleeping with Holy Cross cheerleader Cindy Bandolini (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who also happens to be a mobster's daughter. Simultaneously, Alan is carrying on an illicit affair with his philosophy professor, Chesney Cort (Joey Lauren Adams), a woman with a vast sexual appetite. When his parents lose their Kansas home in a tornado, Alan is desperate to help them financially. He turns to Cindy's father for a loan and is soon entrenched in a high-stakes gambling scheme. But all is not as it seems and Alan soon finds himself in over his head with many aspects of his life: his drug use, the women in his life, and even the FBI. Grenier is endearing as the truth-seeking Alan, and as a tough-talking Mafia princess, Gellar steps far away from her television persona as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eric Stoltz and Rebecca Gayheart lend their talents in supporting roles that add to the film's twisting storyline.

Harvard Man

Two Girls and a Guy

Substitute "Gals" for "Girls" and you might mistake this for one of those romantic-comedy trifles they cranked out during World War II. Nothing could be further from the truth, though the film does have a lot to say about modern romance, and you'll laugh--while also gasping--frequently as the film unreels over a riveting hour and a half.

Two very different but equally smashing young women find themselves sharing the sidewalk outside a Soho apartment. Both blond Carla (Heather Graham, pre-Boogie Nights) and the dark-haired Lou (Natasha Gregson Wagner, daughter of Natalie Wood) are waiting for the same guy, an actor named Blake (Robert Downey Jr.), who--unbeknownst to either--has been sleeping with both of them for the past year. They break into Blake's pad and trade can-you-beat-that? anecdotes of his duplicity while waiting for him to show. Show he eventually does, and the mind games begin.

All three players are terrific, with Wagner enjoying a slight edge over indie veteran Graham because her character is fiercer and she's a new screen presence. But it's Downey who rules, partly because director James Toback wrote the script in direct response to seeing his old pal (Downey had starred in his 1987 movie The Pick-Up Artist) in a jail-house news feed after his first well-publicized arrest on drug charges. Actually, Downey's most amazing scene--a long soliloquy in front of a mirror--was largely improvised; it's a passage of monumental self-deception, self-revelation, and sheer genius. As exasperating as it is compelling, Two Girls and a Guy is one of the most provocative films of the '90s. --Richard T. Jameson

Robert Downey Jr. is Blake Allen, an arrogant self-absorbed actor who gets a double dose of girl trouble in this wildly provocative "look at love, lust and sexual commitment in the '90's." (Los Angeles Times)

They're as different as they are beautiful, but Carla (Heather Graham) and Lou (Natasha Gregson Wagner) have more in common than meets the eye. Each thinks she has the world's greatest boyfriend - until both realize they're talking about the same guy! Sparks fly when the two girls discover Blake's deception and team up to confront their lying, two-timing lover.