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Twenty-five years ago I experienced Robert Zemeckis’ bone-chilling ghost story What Lies Beneath in theaters. I was thirteen at the time and remember being blown away by it in the moment. At the time, I was ecstatic about X-Men, which I’d seen the week prior. I distinctly remember walking out of the small theater in my home town and declaring, “That was better than X-Men!” I hadn’t seen What Lies Beneath since the early 2000s, and while I no longer think it’s better than Bryan Singer’s original entry in the long running Marvel franchise, it still holds up as a well-crafted ghost story featuring strong performances from two Hollywood icons.

The plot

Dr. Norman Spencer and his wife Claire have a seemingly happy existence living in their idyllic, lakeside Vermont home. But when Claire begins to experience unexplainable happenings in the house, she begins to suspect...

What Lies Beneath will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray release from Scream Factory on May 6.

The 2000 horror-thriller has been newly restored from the original 35mm camera negative, approved by cinematographer Don Burgess, with Dolby Vision.

Robert Zemeckis directed the film while production for Cast Away was on a hiatus so Tom Hanks could lose weight for his character.

Disc 1 – 4K Uhd:

4K Transfer From The Original 35mm Camera Negative Approved By Cinematograper Don Burgess (new) Presented In Dolby Vision (Hdr-10 Compatible) (new) Audio: English DTS-hd Master Audio 5.1 & 2.0 Audio Commentary With Director Robert Zemeckis

Disc 2 – Blu-ray:

4K Transfer From The Original 35mm Camera Negative Approved By Don Burgess (new) Audio: English DTS-hd Master Audio 5.1 & 2.0 Audio Commentary With Director Robert Zemeckis “You Know: Uncovering What Lies Beneath” – Feature-Length Documentary With Robert Zemeckis, Producers Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke, Writers Sarah Kernochan and Clark Gregg, Actress Amber Valletta,...

Hollywood legend Kim Basinger has played every kind of character during her decade-long career. She's been the love interest of Batman, an unofficial Bond girl, and a Bdsm enthusiast, among many others. And while the actress has appeared as some sensual and provocative roles over her long career, she has a controversial view on the need for intimacy coordinators on movie sets.

The actor of films like Batman, 8 Mile, 9½ Weeks and L.A. Confidential, which earned her an Academy Award in 1998, opened up to Variety during a rare interview in which she spoke about her various roles. Basinger spoke about the experience of shooting 9½ Weeks, the steamy 1986 romantic drama co-starring Mickey Rourke where she plays a New York City girl who commits to a Bdsm-style relationship with another New Yorker. Think of an 80s version of Fifty Shades of Grey that didn't evolve from Twilight fan fiction.

RelatedAfter 'Anora,...

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Clark Gregg, even if he lives to be 100 and works until his final day as an actor, will forever be known best as Agent Coulson. The actor helped kick off the Marvel Cinematic Universe during Phase 1 as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., culminating in a pivotal role in 2012's "The Avengers," one of the biggest and most important movies ever made. He even survived his death to headline seven seasons of Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." More than a decade before all of that, though, he wrote one of the biggest hits of 2000.

"What Lies Beneath" was directed by "Back to the Future" legend Robert Zemeckis, with Harrison Ford starring in the lead role alongside Michelle Pfeiffer ("Batman Returns"). It may seem unlikely, but the man behind Agent Coulson did indeed pen a horror/thriller for one...

At the very start of the noughties, the horror genre was churning out some decent, if unspectacular movies. We saw the re-emergence of the spoof with the first entry in the Scary Movie franchise, Pinhead and co. continued to wreak spiky havoc in Hellraiser: Inferno, while the werewolf genre would get revived with the fun and well received Ginger Snaps. We also got a pretty poor Blair Witch sequel, and let’s face it, the first movie in that series only got traction due to an ingenious marketing campaign, and the media spouting bollocks about people being sick in the cinema from shock. Not the incredibly shaky camera work. Requiem for a Dream provided some messed up thrills, as did the similarly perverted Hollow Man. However, for every decent horror movie that was released, we also got howlers like Da Hip Hop Witch with Eminem. My point is, what the...

1998's All I Wanna Do deserved more recognition and success like The Holdovers, with its stellar cast and thoughtful satire. All I Wanna Do masterfully balanced comedy and drama, addressing real issues with wit and humor. The movie's failure can be attributed to alleged sabotage by Harvey Weinstein's company and a series of title changes.

Content warning: This article contains mentions of sexual harrassment

26 years before The Holdovers became a surprise success, Disney buried one of the best boarding school dramedy movies ever made. While 2023’s The Holdovers wasn’t a massive box office success, director Alexander Payne’s darkly comedic drama was by no means a failure. The boarding school movie earned stellar reviews upon release and performed admirably at the box office given its stiff competition. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for one earlier boarding school dramedy that deserved to be a huge hit. 1998’s...

A new stage musical based on the classic Nancy Drew adventure book series is in the works from Little Mermaid composer Alan Menken, Legally Blonde lyricist Nell Benjamin, book by two-time Oscar winner Sarah Kernochan and direction by frequent Stephen Sondheim collaborator James Lapine.

Nancy Drew and the Mystery at Spotlight Manor: A Musical will be based on the Simon & Schuster book series and, according to the announcement from producers Daryl Roth, Lauren Mitchell, Revilo Imaginations (Beckett Swede and Ilana Landsberg-Lewis) and Bill & Laurie Benenson, “seeks to bring her story to a whole new audience while celebrating the power of her legacy which has inspired generations.”

Specific information of a production timeline or casting was not disclosed.

Lapine, who directed and wrote books for the musicals Into The Woods and, most recently, Flying Over Sunset, among many others, said in a statement, “After 175 Nancy Drew mysteries that span from her...

When Heather Matarazzo’s indelible film debut “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” went to the Sundance Film Festival in 1996, the young star didn’t attend. “I didn’t go,” she told IndieWire during a recent interview. “Sony wouldn’t pay for me.” Now, it’s hard to imagine a breakout star of Matarazzo’s caliber, let alone the lead of a Grand Jury Prize winner, not being feted in the mountains of Park City.

At the time — and, as a tween herself — she wasn’t fazed by the decision on the part of distributor Sony Pictures Classics. “I didn’t know what a big deal it was,” she said.

Matarazzo’s performance as Dawn Wiener was a shock to the system. In Solondz’s pastel-colored New Jersey suburbia, Dawn is a gangly 11-year-old with glasses whose classmates call her “lesbo” and whose teachers chide her for being a “grade grubber.” Matarazzo,...

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)

This week’s question: This past Friday saw the release of Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro,” a documentary that speaks to our present moment through the writings and actions of the late James Baldwin. What other documentaries — recent or not — might help people better understand and / or respond to the state of the world today?

Richard Brody (@tnyfrontrow), The New Yorker

“The state of the world today” is too big a matter for any one documentary, because there’s no one state of things, there’s an overwhelming diversity of experiences — and the history of movies is as much the history of the ones that it doesn’t show.

Independent film veteran Ira Deutchman has received the first annual Spotlight Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in the distribution and exhibition of independent films. The award was created by advertising company Spotlight Cinema Networks in partnership with the Art House Convergence.

Read More: Why Indie Producing Veteran Ira Deutchman Is Moving From Films to Broadway

Deutchman has been distributing, marketing and making independent films for more than 40 years, working on some of the most successful and acclaimed indie titles of our time. He received the award Tuesday night at a dinner following Art House Convergence’s annual conference.

“Ira Deutchman is a legendary figure in the world of independent film distribution, marketing and production,” Spotlight Cinema Networks chief executive officer Jerry Rakfeldt said in a statement. “His creativity, passion and business acumen have helped shape, nurture and expand the independent film industry.”

Deutchman has worked on more than 150 films,...

Entering UK cinemas on the 10th of June Learning to Drive is riding high on a very positive festival run over the last year and a half. Written by Sarah Kernochan and directed by Isabel Coixet the film stars Sir Ben Kingsley, Paticia Clarkson and The Newsroom’s Grace Gummer. We’ll have our interview with Patricia […]

The post Exclusive: Sir Ben Kingsley on Learning to Drive appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Entering UK cinemas on the 10th of June Learning to Drive is riding high on a very positive festival run over the last year and a half. Written by Sarah Kernochan and directed by Isabel Coixet this look and love, loss and driving lessons stars Sir Ben Kingsley, Paticia Clarkson and The Newsroom’s Grace Gummer. […]

The post Exclusive: Patricia Clarkson talks Learning to Drive appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley give the 50-something drama a gentle gear change

Let’s hear it for small, cosy, comfy, B-minus-ish independent movies that punch a little above their weight. Such is Isabel Coixet and Sarah Kernochan’s Learning To Drive, which, at 89 minutes, is exactly as succinct as it needs to be, and not long enough to wear out its welcome. It’s a modest drama with relatively few surprises, but that’s not to say it is predictable or rote, as it lives or dies on the excellence of its leads – and Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson are rarely anything but brilliant.

Related: Learning to Drive review – touching, insightful and occasionally unpredictable

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Chicago – The anchoring presence of actress Patricia Clarkson has been familiar to movie audiences for the last three decades. From her debut role as Elliott Ness’s wife in “The Untouchables,” to her role currently as a just-divorced New Yorker in “Learning to Drive,” Clarkson brings depth and character to all of her roles.

“Learning to Drive” is a transition story for the two main characters. Patricia Clarkson is Wendy, a successful book critic in New York City. whose husband has just walked out on her and seeks a divorce. Devastated, she looks to resume her life, and part of it means finally learning to drive. Darwan (Sir Ben Kingsley) is her driving instructor, a Sikh from India going through a transition of his own. The two disparate souls help each other in essential ways, and at the same time weather the storm of some extreme life changes.

Movie Poster...

Chicago – The presence of Sir Ben Kingsley – yes, he was knighted in his native Britain – is the first thing that commands a room. The regal and precise actor, who was awarded an Best Actor Oscar for his definitive performance in “Gandhi,” is back portraying a native of India in his latest film, “Learning to Drive.”

The film is a transition story for the two main characters. Darwan (Kingsley) is a Indian Sikh who gained political asylum in America shortly before September 11th. He is a driving instructor, and encounters a new student in Wendy (Patricia Clarkson). The woman is going through a bitter divorce, and is using the potential of learning to drive to gain more freedom. The two disparate souls help each other in essential ways, and at the same time weather the storm of some extreme life changes.

Sir Ben Kingsley as Darwan in ‘Learning to Drive’

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Academy Award nominee Patricia Clarkson and Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley star in this feel-good, coming of (middle) age comedy about a mismatched pair who help each other overcome life’s road blocks—festival circuit favorite Learning To Drive, which was chosen the Audience Award runner-up at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

Wendy (Clarkson) is a fiery Manhattan book critic whose husband has just left her for another woman; Darwan (Kingsley) is a soft-spoken taxi driver from India on the verge of an arranged marriage. As Wendy sets out to reclaim her independence, she runs into a barrier common to many lifelong New Yorkers: she’s never learned to drive. When Wendy hires Darwan to teach her, her unraveling life and his calm restraint seem like an awkward fit. But as he shows her how to take control of the wheel, and she coaches him on how to impress a woman,...

I recently sat down with director Isabel Coixet, and actors Patricia Clarkson and Sarita Choudhury at the Crosby Hotel in New York City, to discuss their new film "Learning to Drive." The film, written by Sarah Kernochan, is based on the autobiographical New Yorker short story by Katha Pollit, a long-time political columnist for the Nation.

Wendy is a fiery Manhattan author whose husband has just left her for a younger woman; Darwan is a soft-spoken taxi driver from India on the verge of an arranged marriage. As Wendy sets out to reclaim her independence, she runs into a barrier common to many lifelong New Yorkers: she’s never learned to drive. When Wendy hires Darwan to teach her, her unraveling life and his calm restraint seem like an awkward fit. But as he shows her how to take control of the wheel, and she coaches him on how to impress a woman, their unlikely friendship awakens them to the joy, humor, and love in starting life anew.

My conversation began with Isabel Coixet and Sarita Choudhury

Isabel Coixet’s award-winning film credits include "Demaisiado viejo para morir joven," "Things I Never Told You,""My Life Without Me," "The Secret Life of Words," "Paris, je t’aime," "Elegy," "Map of the Sounds of Tokyo," "Yesterday Never Ends," "Another Me," "Nobody Wants the Night," as well as documentaries, including "Invisibles."

Currently, Sarita Choudhury can be seen on Showtime’s "Homeland." Her film credits include "Admission," "Gayby," "Midnight’s Children," "Generation Um…," "Entre Nos," "The Accidental Husband," "Lady in the Water," "The War Within," "Mississippi Masala," "Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love," "She Hate Me," "Just a Kiss," "Wild West," "High Art," "The House of the Spirits," "Gloria," and "A Perfect Murder."

Susan Kouguell: Tell me about the process of how "Learning to Drive" came about.

Isabel Coixet: We started talking about making this film with Patricia and Ben Kingsley when we were making "Elegy" (directed by Coixet, starring Clarkson and Kingsley) and we got along very well and we wanted to make another film together. Patricia discovered the short story by Katha Pollit, and she gave it to me and I thought it was wonderful. And then we got the screenwriter Sarah Kernocha involved. The film is a comedy but not a classical comedy. It was a very difficult film to pitch because you know financiers and producers want something they can put in one box and you can’t with this film. It was a long process. It took nine years.

Some Words Unspoken and the Intimacy of the Camera

Isabel Coixet: There is always this romantic feeling underneath [subtext], I think there is that possibility. You have to be true to your words. If they are true, you will have to stick to your words.

Sarita Choudhury: That’s what happens with people you meet. No you were my inspiration don’t make me your inspiration.

Isabel Coixet: I love Henry James. There is a possibility of romance in the air. My romantic side is always excited when I see something like this.

Sarita Choudhury: I had so few words in the film. In a way, I kept the words because I had to know not to say them. For us the script -- the situational was also in the script; the languidness. It was because Isabel holds the camera. There was a pace created to it. When you’re acting you can feel where the camera is, but when the camera is at the end of Isabel’s hand and she’s moving it, it almost creates an intimacy between you and the camera, and you and the actor. There’s a pace you normally don’t get in film. You didn’t know when she was on your face; you had to keep acting like acting in the theatre.

On The Lack of Women Directors

Isabel Coixet: There are so many articles about it. I’m always afraid to play the victim, to complain too much. I know there is an inequity with men and women directors. This is an issue in the world. I always say, (Coixet smiles) we have to ask for more salary to make up for all these years and maybe if we ask for more they’ll give us the same as a man.

I want to put my words where my mouth is by producing female directors; they are amazing talented people. I’m producing three short films and a feature documentary. That’s what I do.

Sarita Choudhury: I just did a young woman’s short film; there is something about her that’s brilliant. I’ve done two short films. I can’t change the caste system and I can’t do the voluntary work I need to be doing. Film is no different from the world, like Isabel said. That’s our work, to get every woman involved. And if a man is brilliant, let him in too.

I then asked Patricia Clarkson about her involvement with "Learning to Drive."

Academy Award® nominee and Emmy Award-winning actress, Patricia Clarkson, has worked extensively in independent films. The National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics named her Best Supporting Actress of the Year for "Pieces of April" and "The Station Agent." Her many film credits include "The Maze Runner," "Last Weekend," "Friends With Benefits," "One Day," "Easy A," "Shutter Island," "Vicky Christina Barcelona," "Elegy," "No Reservations," "All the Kings’ Men," "Lars and the Real Girl, and "Good Night, and Good Luck."

Susan Kouguell: What attracted you to the project?

Patricia Clarkson: I loved the Katha Pollit story in The New Yorker; it serendipitously came to me. I love Wendy, I love this character. I was nine years younger at the time, but I still felt I knew her. I was relentless trying to get this film made with producer Dana Friedman. I found it an equal dose of funny and tragic. I liked the almost commedia dell'arte aspect; this absurd situation and finding the tragic comedy. A woman who is brilliant who lives a great life -- she has everything, but “forgets to look up,” and then meets a man who has experienced tragic loss. They have disparate worlds. I found it a quintessential New York story, but it’s also universal. It’s an independent film, but it’s not independently-minded.

Some Final Words

The disparate worlds about which Clarkson refers to in regard to her character, Wendy’s relationship with Darwan [Ben Kingsley] -- the life of a financially successful New Yorker compared to the immigrant’s struggle, was a thematic element that I further discussed with Coixet and Choudhury. As Choudhury said to me, Coixet’s visual choices of her character, such as the moment when she watches feet walk by her basement apartment window, feeling trapped, underscore the poignancy of this fish-out-of-water situation. Coixet captures these elements with a delicate balance of both drama and comedy.

It was an inspiring morning to speak with these three powerful and talented women, who are committed to sharing their knowledge with the next generation of female filmmakers.

Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting at Purchase College Suny, and presents international seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide. www.su-city-pictures.com, http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog...

Read More: Top 10 Patricia Clarkson Characters On Screen After being named the first runner-up for the People's Choice Award at least year's Toronto International Film Festival, the comedy-drama "Learning to Drive" finally hits theaters this weekend. In an industry dominated by men, the comedy-drama brings a wave of powerful female talent both in front of and behind the camera, including Spanish director Isabel Coixet, writer Sarah Kernochan, producer Dana Friedman and stars Patricia Clarkson, Sarita Choudhury, Grace Gummer and Samantha Bee. "Learning to Drive" focuses on the unlikely friendship between Wendy (Clarkson), a no-holds-barred literary critic whose husband just left her, and Darwan, a kind Indian cab driver. Over the course of several driving lessons, the two bond while talking life, relationships and the meaning of friendship. In the exclusive featurette above, the cast and crew talk about how important the involvement of women was to the...

Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson on the Learning to Drive red carpet Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Patricia Clarkson returning from England last week after starring with Bradley Cooper and Alessandro Nivola in The Elephant Man walked The Paris Theatre red carpet with her Learning To Drive co-star Ben Kingsley. Director Isabel Coixet, Sarita Choudhury, Jake Weber, Avi Nash, Harpreet Singh Toor, editor Thelma Schoonmaker, author Katha Pollitt, screenwriter Sarah Kernochan, producers Daniel Hammond and Dana Friedman and executive producer Gabriel Hammond joined them.

Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson at the Southgate after party Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Bryan Batt, who played Judge Turner in Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave and Orry-Kelly in Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland's The Last Of Robin Hood, William Ivey Long, Lena Hall, Matthew Morrison, Renee Puente, Laura Michelle Kelly, Cornelia Guest, Sydney Van Til, Montego Glover, Sakina Jaffrey, Nanette Lepore and Peter Cincotti were among...

Learning To Drive star Patricia Clarkson with Sarah Kernochan, Katha Pollitt, Isabel Coixet and Thelma Schoonmaker Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Paris Theatre VIP première of Learning To Drive, attended by Patricia Clarkson, Ben Kingsley, Sarita Choudhury, Jake Weber (who was in Saverio Costanzo's pulsating Tribeca hit Hungry Hearts with Adam Driver), Avi Nash, director Isabel Coixet, Martin Scorsese's favorite editor, Thelma Schoonmaker (The Wolf Of Wall Street), author Katha Pollitt, screenwriter Sarah Kernochan, producers Daniel Hammond and Dana Friedman, executive producer Gabriel Hammond and costume designer Vicki Farrell, with guests including William Ivey Long, Bryan Batt, Cornelia Guest, Sydney Van Til, Harpreet Singh Toor, Lena Hall, Montego Glover, Nanette Lepore, Peter Cincotti, Lora Lee Gayer, Laura Michelle Kelly, Matthew Morrison, Renee Puente, Sakina Jaffrey, Meetu Chilana, Benjamin Rauhala, Taylor Louderman, Ellyn Marks, Magee Hickey, Kaity Tong and Tom Murro, was followed by a reception at Southgate on Central Park South.

Romantic drama stars Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson.

WestEnd Films has acquired international rights to Isabel Coixet’s Learning To Drive, a romantic drama set in New York.

The film, which debuted at Toronto, stars Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson, and is produced by Dana Friedman and Daniel Hammond from Broad Green Pictures.

Clarkson plays a Manhattan writer who takes driving lessons after her husband of 20 years out. Her Sikh instructor (Kingsley) has marriage troubles of his own and the two form a friendship behind the wheel.

The film was written by Sarah Kernochan (What Lies Beneath) and is edited by Martin Scorsese’s long-time collaborator and Oscar winner Thelma Schoonmaker.

Learning To Drive will be distributed in the Us through Broad Green Pictures, with a minimum P&A spend of $4m, no later than September 2015.

Madman has acquired Australian rights and Jaguar will handle airline rights.

WestEnd will screen the film and continue international sales at the...

Production is underway in New York on Learning To Drive, a film that stars Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson, and reunites them with director Isabel Coixet. They worked together previously on Elegy. The film is based on a Katha Pollitt essay first published in The New Yorker in 2002. Jake Weber, Grace Gummer, and Sarita Choudhury also star. Dana Friedman and Daniel Hammond are producing, and Sarah Kernochan wrote the script. Gabriel Hammond is executive producer. “We’ve been working to make this film for nearly 10 years, but having Sir Ben and Patricia step into these roles makes the wait worthwhile,” said Friedman. Clarkson plays a Manhattanite who takes driving lessons from a Sikh instructor (Kingsley) who is living in Queens under political asylum. Kingsley comes off what for my money was one of the great villain performances in a Marvel superhero movie when he played Mandarin in Iron Man 3.

Jake Weber has joined the cast of the indie drama Learning to Drive, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The film, directed by Isabel Coixet (Paris, je t’aime; Elegy) and written by Sarah Kernochan (What Lies Beneath, Nine ½ Weeks), is based on a Katha Pollitt personal essay published in The New Yorker in 2002. The story recounted Pollitt’s biweekly lessons with her Filipino driving instructor as she attempts to earn a license after her lover leaves her. Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley star, and Grace Gummer plays a supporting role. Weber will play Ted Shields, described as a charming college professor

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) will present “Oscar’s Docs, 1955–2002: American Stories” from February 2 through February 14 at MoMA in New York City. This annual collaboration highlights Oscar®–winning and nominated short and feature-length documentary films that explore the history, culture and politics of the United States. All prints are from the Academy Film Archive’s collection. The filmmakers will be present at several screenings (visit MoMA.org for details).

The schedule is as follows:

Sat., Feb. 2, 2 p.m.

American Dream (1990)

Barbara Kopple. This stirring film depicts the effects of a mid-1980s strike by the workers of a Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota. 98 min.

Sat., Feb. 2, 8 p.m.

Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (1994)

Freida Lee Mock. A profile of Maya Lin, the young artist who created the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington and other politically motivated artistic creations.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) will present “Oscar’s Docs, 1955–2002: American Stories” from February 2 through February 14 at MoMA in New York City. This annual collaboration highlights Oscar®–winning and nominated short and feature-length documentary films that explore the history, culture and politics of the United States. All prints are from the Academy Film Archive’s collection. The filmmakers will be present at several screenings (visit MoMA.org for details). The schedule is as follows: Sat., Feb. 2, 2 p.m. American Dream (1990) Barbara Kopple. This stirring film depicts the effects of a mid-1980s strike by the workers of a Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota. 98 min. Sat., Feb. 2, 8 p.m. Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (1994) Freida Lee Mock. A profile of Maya Lin, the young artist who created the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington and other politically motivated artistic creations.

Chicago – Few performers are lucky enough to make their big-screen debut in a hit movie, let alone two. In 1989, 7-year-old Gaby Hoffmann starred opposite John Candy and Macaulay Culkin in John Hughes’ “Uncle Buck,” as well as shared the screen with Kevin Costner and Burt Lancaster in Phil Alden Robinson’s Oscar-nominee “Field of Dreams.” Not a bad way to start a career.

Over the following years, Hoffmann has worked with acclaimed filmmakers such as Woody Allen (“Everyone Says I Love You”), Kenneth Lonergan (“You Can Count on Me”) and Todd Solondz (“Life During Wartime”). She’s also made a number of TV appearances, and recently starred on the third season premiere of Louis C.K.’s revered sitcom, “Louie.” Her latest film is the award-winning indie, “Nate & Margaret,” which marks the feature directorial debut of Chicago actor and filmmaker Nathan Adloff. The film centers on an unlikely friendship between a 52-year-old aspiring stand-up comedian,...

“Glory gee to Besus!” Marjoe is an interesting revelation of a documentary. It was when it came out and won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature; and it is now, this many years later, when Marjoe Gortner is but an obscure factoid. In the film, we follow Marjoe as he preaches in Pentecostal revival tents. He tells of the glory of God, the fire of damnation, and the healing power of the Holy Ghost. People cry, people feel salvation, people feel healed and touched by this agent of Heaven. By all account, Marjoe looks and sounds like the real deal.

Afterwards, he urges people to show their love for God by donating money for his help-the-homeless program, raking in thousands of dollars. Then Marjoe gleefully pockets all the money and picks up cute stewardesses to bang in motel rooms.

His story is an interesting one. At the age of 4, Marjoe became the youngest ordained preacher.

Director Robert Zemeckis pulls out all of the stops in his edge-of-your-seat thriller "What Lies Beneath". He deploys every scare tactic -- any plot twist, music cue, creepy sound, dark shadow, special effect and camera movement imaginable -- to keep audiences in a state of elevated tension. His success, however, must be weighed against the physical and mental exhaustion such relentless manipulation brings about in a viewer.

Many will giggle and scream their way through the 130-minute creep-athon. Others may weary of the shameless milking of suspense gimmicks nearly as old as cinema itself. By making continual references to Hitchcock and other masters of terror, Zemeckis by implication shuns any claim to originality here; "What Lies Beneath" is simply an affectionate, tongue-in-cheek tribute to movie trickery.

Haunted-house movies generally play to younger audiences, but Zemeckis' older stars, Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford, should significantly broaden those demographics. Critics will likely be divided: One may see cunning artifice, while another will find only tired cliches. Audiences and critics alike, however, will be amazed at the filmmakers' willingness to, in the name of suspense, return over and over to an image or location, especially an upstairs bathroom that gets a greater workout than the shower in "Psycho" and the bathtub in "Diabolique" combined.

Zemeckis' approach to Clark Gregg's screenplay is to incorporate unmistakable elements from Hitchcock's films, most notably "Psycho", "Rear Window" and "Vertigo". Alan Silvestri's music underlines these borrowings with its expert imitation of a Bernard Herrmann score.

But what gets created is less an homage to Hitchcock than to early Brian De Palma. Only De Palma at least strove to reignite Hitchcock's magic by employing the master's theories on suspense within the structure of his stories. Zemeckis is content to quote Hitchcock without putting any of his ideas to work.

Pfeiffer and Ford play a happily married couple, living a seemingly placid if not idyllic life in a picturesque Vermont lakeside home. She's a retired musician, and he's a genetics researcher. When her daughter by a previous marriage (Katharine Towne) leaves for college, Ford says, "It's just us now".

Well, not exactly. It's just them plus the troubled spirit of a young woman. Strange noises and terrifying visions plague Pfeiffer to the point that she goes to shrink Joe Morton. She fears that these events have something to do with the new couple next door, a perpetually scowling professor (James Remar) and his frightened wife (Miranda Otto), who has suddenly disappeared.

But audiences know this "Rear Window" bit is a red herring because the movie's own ad campaign -- "He was the perfect husband, until his one mistake followed them home" -- tips you off that she is sleeping with the enemy.

As her visions, repressed memory and more back story gradually make clear, this unearthly visitor is connected to the disappearance of a young college student a year earlier, just about the time of Pfeiffer's mysterious auto accident.

The story and its escalating tension play out in a setting -- the lakeside home and its rustic surroundings -- beset by wind, rain, fog, telekinesis, eerie sounds and seemingly malevolent household objects. There is never a calm moment.

Nor is any moment wasted in the entire movie. Every idle conversation or scrap of information will eventually play its role. The danger here is that an audience will quickly catch on and start to spot plot twists before they

happen.

But the greater problem with such an intricate and artificial plot construction is that it leaves no room for its characters to live and breathe. Pfeiffer, the movie's central figure, is so buffeted by waves of cinematic effects and placed in such a reactive position that one struggles to understand what kind of a person she would be under normal circumstances.

And Ford's scientist makes little sense except as a fictional character marching to the orders of a manipulative screenwriter. Gregg (working from his and Sarah Kernochan's story) takes a stab at explaining his alarming behavior in the third act in terms of a long festering rivalry with his late father, a brilliant research scientist. But it's too lame to have any impact.

Cinematographer Don Burgess' smooth-as-silk camera plays peekaboo with mirrors and other objects in Rick Carter and Jim Teegarden's lovingly detailed set, turning a beautiful home into a house of horrors. Visual effects supervisor Robert Legato, second unit director Steve Starkey and underwater unit director Max Kleven do their damndest to give the audience the willies. And editor Arthur Schmidt makes certain there is no letup.

WHAT LIES BENEATH

DreamWorks Pictures

and 20th Century Fox

An Imagemovers Production

Producers: Steve Starkey,

Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Screenwriter: Clark Gregg

Story by: Sarah Kernochan, Clark Gregg

Executive producers: Joan Bradshaw,

Mark Johnson

Director of photography: Don Burgess

Production designers: Rick Carter,

Jim Teegarden

Music: Alan Silvestri

Costume designer: Susie DeSanto

Editor: Arthur Schmidt

Color/stereo

Cast:

Norman Spencer: Harrison Ford

Claire Spencer: Michelle Pfeiffer

Jody: Diana Scarwid

Dr. Drayton: Joe Morton

Warren Feur: James Remar

Mary Feur: Miranda Otto

Madison Elizabeth Frank: Amber Valletta

Running time -- 130 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...

This clearly heartfelt and nostalgic feature from screenwriter Sarah Kernochan, making her directorial debut, was released by Miramax in a few territories, Australia among them, under the title "Strike!" That title, which brings to mind a political melodrama, was not exactly appropriate for this comic tale of rebellion at an all-girls prep school during the 1960s. Now outfitted with the unfortunately bland moniker "All I Wanna Do", the film is being released independently, and only major critical appreciation will rescue it from being short-routed to the video bins.

Appropriately, if too cutely prefaced in the credits with the phrase "A film by everyone who worked on it," this egalitarian effort is set at Miss Godard's Prep School for Girls in New England circa 1963 (a dramatically resonant year that has long proved a useful device for filmmakers). The school's headmistress, Miss McVane (Lynn Redgrave), is the type of stern but loving leader who's not above taking advantage of the ass-kissing Abby Sawyer Rachael Leigh Cook), an all too eager student snitch. The school's newest arrival is Odette (Gaby Hoffman), who's been shipped to the school by her mother after being discovered with a birth-control device.

Odette is soon inducted into the DAR, or Daughters of the Ravioli, a secret society whose members include the precociously rebellious Verena (Kirsten Dunst), the aspiring slut and resident loudmouth Tinka (Monica Keena), the bulimic, insecure Tweety (Heather Matarazzo) and the science whiz Momo (Merrit Wever). All of the girls are enthralled with Odette's record collection, which comprises the vintage R&B songs that serve as the film's heavy-handed soundtrack.

The centerpiece of the film is the girls' plan to throw a damper on a proposed merger with the male academy next door by sabotaging a dance social between the schools.

This leads to such comic sequences as the girls spiking the punch with ipecac. Most of the male characters in the film suffer some kind of humiliation, especially the predatory teacher who sexually harasses his comely students.

The film is not exactly subtle, but it has many amusing moments. And its brand of lighthearted feminism, surrounded as it is by sex farce, is certain to strike a chord with the young women who will chiefly comprise its audience.

Helping matters greatly are the performances by its young and enthusiastic cast.

ALL I WANNA DO

Redeemable Features

Director-screenwriter: Sarah Kernochan

Producers: Ira Deutchman, Peter Newman

Executive producers: Robert Lantos,

Andras Hamori, Nora Ephron

Co-producer: Clara George

Director of photography: Anthony Jannelli

Editor: Peter Frank

Production designer: John Kasarda

Music: Graeme Revell

Color/stereo

Cast:

Verena Von Stefan: Kirsten Dunst

Odette Sinclair: Gaby Hoffman

Miss McVane: Lynn Redgrave

Abby Sawyer: Rachael Leigh Cook

"Frosty" Frost: Thomas Guiry

Snake: Vincent Kartheiser

Tinka Parker: Monica Keena

Tweety Goldberg: Heather Matarazzo

Momo: Merrit Wever

Running time -- 94 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...