8 Movies Starring Illeana Douglas

Basic Info:

Cast:

Writer:

Fullplot:

We spend a week in the L.A. offices where the daytime TV show "The Love Judge" is written and produced. Jo, the show's large and loud producer, announces she is leaving the show in two weeks. Paula (driven and on Prozac) and Mark (gay and moody) compete for Jo's job. Mark, coming onto the first anniversary of the death from AIDS of the love of his life, is attracted to Bill, who claims to be straight. Meanwhile, Jeremy, a close friend of Mark's, is putting the moves on Bill. Leslie, Jo's overworked assistant, tells Mark she wants to be a writer (she even has a script written). How these relationships that combine work and friendship play out is the movie's subject.

Basic Info:

Cast:

Writer:

Fullplot:

An aspiring singer, Denise Waverly/Edna Buxton, sacrifices her own singing career to write hit songs that launch the careers of other singers. The film follows her life from her first break, through the pain of rejection from the recording industry and a bad marriage, to her final triumph.

Basic Info:

Cast:

Writer:

Fullplot:

Basic Info:

Cast:

Writer:

Fullplot:

A comedy-drama about best friends - one a straight woman, Abbie, the other a gay man, Robert - who decide to have a child together. Five years later, Abbie falls in love with a straight man and wants to move away with her and Robert's little boy Sam, and a nasty custody battle ensues.

Basic Info:

Cast:

Writer:

Fullplot:

Tom's a regular guy, a utilities lineman, married, with a young son, his wife is pregnant; he hangs out with long-time pals in a Chicago neighborhood. At a party, his sister-in-law hypnotizes him, and he goes into a deep trance. Before waking him, she suggests that he keep his mind open. That night he sees flashes of violence and the ghost of a young woman. His young son, too, is "a receiver," but while the boy is calm and coherent in his conversations with spirits, Tom is confused and agitated. Over time, the young woman's story comes to the surface, and Tom begins a hunt for her body that puts him and his usually understanding wife, Maggie, in grave danger.

Basic Info:

Cast:

Writer:

Fullplot:

Michael Gavin and his partner Daniel trade the rat race of New York City for the idyllic charm of the Connecticut shoreline, with hopes of a simpler life and time for Michael to finish his first novel. All that changes when one of Michael's high school students accuses him of 'inappropriate conduct', and the town rushes to judgment.

Basic Info:

Cast:

Writer:

Fullplot:

"ALL-STARS" follows a girls' 10-year-old fastpitch softball team and their families through a recreation league season that culminates in the selection of the coveted 10-and-under All-Star team. Lance Grayden, a veteran coach who left the league years ago when his daughter moved to an elite softball club team, and then college, has returned to "give something back" to the community. He assumed he'd be coaching a 16-and-under team of seasoned and accomplished competitors, but instead is saddled with a 10-and-under team of inexperienced players. Not only is he forced to go back to the basics and teach the fundamentals of the game to the little girls, half of whom would rather be in the dugout eating snacks, but he also faces the greater challenge of riding herd over their over-eager, overly ambitious, and entirely delusional parents whose ridiculous behavior is more suited to five-year-olds than adults. Lance also faces a personal decision about whether it's more important to win at all costs or to teach the girls something their parents seem to have forgotten: that each player is a valuable member of the team and fair play is more important than winning. Even though he knows what the answer should be, Lance's moral compass is severely tested by the relentless take-no-prisoners mentality of the parents as well as his own ambitions and innate drive to win. He may be dealing with eight, nine, and ten-year-old little girls, but he is, after all, only human. Meanwhile, each parent is on a mission to ensure that their nine-year-old prodigy is recognized as the elite athlete they imagine her to be, whether or not she possesses one whit of actual athletic ability. The parents' blind ambitions, combined with their grand delusions, give each parent the baseless notion that the Holy Grail - an All-Star jacket with their child's name on the back - is not only within reach, but is her God-given-birthright. "All-Stars" provides a hilarious commentary on the state of all youth sports today, fueled by the outrageous behavior of the desperate sports parent living vicariously through his or her child. In the vein of a Christopher Guest film - think "Best in Show" where it's more about the dog owners than the dogs - "All-Stars" is about the adults involved in youth sports (parents, coaches, umpires, volunteers, board members, etc.) more than the kids.

Basic Info:

Cast:

Writer:

Fullplot:

Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny are four orphaned brothers and sisters who mysteriously appear in a small town on a warm summer night. No one knows who these young wanderers are or where they have come from. Frightened to live with a grandfather they have never met, the children make a home for themselves in an old abandoned red boxcar they discover in the woods. Henry, the oldest, goes to town to earn money and buy food and supplies while the other kids make a home in the boxcar finding old dishes and scraps in a junkyard. Ambitious and resourceful, the plucky children make a happy life for themselves. As time passes, they discover the struggles and rewards of independence as well as the joys of family - until one day Violet gets too sick for her brothers and sister to care for her. They must take Violet to a doctor risking discovery and the loss of their secret home in the forest.