The Dinner (1998)
Similar movies
Stranded student Pete (Ron Eldard) gets a lift from racist trucker Zack and repays the favor by inviting him in for dinner with his roommates, Jude (Cameron Diaz), Luke (Courtney B. Vance), Marc (Jonathan Penner) and Paulie (Annabeth Gish). When Zack praises Hitler and pulls a knife at the table, the roommates kill him. Rationalizing their actions as a favor to humanity, they bury Zack in the yard and begin to invite other offensive types to a string of similarly murderous meals.
Diahann Carroll was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe award for her gripping portrayal as the indomitable Claudine in this heartwarming comedy. While struggling to support herself and her six children in Harlem by working as a maid for a wealthy family, Claudine (Carroll) meets a charming garbage man, Roop (James Earl Jones). But although Roop is smitten with the lovely single mother, his own life trials make him slow to respond to her invitation to a lifetime of love. The touching story of Claudine will inspire smiles and tears in viewers of all ages.
Social climbing Millicent and Oliver Jordan throw a dinner for a bunch of New York society types, each of whom has much to reveal.
Professional daredevil and white-suited hero, The Great Leslie, convinces turn-of-the-century auto makers that a race from New York to Paris (westward across America, the Bering Straight and Russia) will help to promote automobile sales. Leslie's arch-rival, the mustached and black-attired Professor Fate vows to beat Leslie to the finish line in a car of Fate's own invention.
The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune and the slow and then sudden upheavals that transformed Europe during the first half of the 20th century.
A charming and ambitious young man finds many ways to raise himself through the ranks in business and social standing - some honest, some not quite so. If he can just manage to avoid a certain very predatory woman...
Traditional Sunday dinners at Mama Joe's (Irma P. Hall) turn sour when sisters Teri (Vanessa L. Williams), Bird (Nia Long) and Maxine (Vivica A. Fox) start bringing their problems to the dinner table in this ensemble comedy. When tragedy strikes, it's up to grandson Ahmad (Brandon Hammond) to pull the family together and put the soul back into the family's weekly gatherings. Michael Beach, Mekhi P
Hallie Parker and Annie James are identical twins separated at a young age because of their parents' divorce. unknowingly to their parents, the girls are sent to the same summer camp where they meet, discover the truth about themselves, and then plot with each other to switch places. Hallie meets her mother, and Annie meets her father for the first time in years.
Famous and wealthy funnyman George Simmons doesn't give much thought to how he treats people until a doctor delivers stunning health news, forcing George to reevaluate his priorities with a little help from aspiring stand-up comic Ira.
Arthur is the most quotable drunk millionaire that is likely to ever steal your heart. Dudley Moore portrays Arthur, a thirty year old child who will inherit 750 million dollars if he complies with his family's demands and marries the woman of their choosing.
A dark comedy about an eclectic group of strangers invited to a downtown bar by a mutual ex-lover, Nikki Franklyn, a maddeningly sexy, unpredictable and possibly insane young woman who's recently gotten out of prison for murdering her last ex-boyfriend. The party really gets started when Nikki herself arrives, hauling her latest lover and fiancee, the morally challenged lawyer who'd been handling her case. She's mysterious about her intentions and her current and former lovers soon realize they are all caught in one of her brilliant, mischievous mind-games with possible deadly consequences. By the night's end, revenge will be had, new romance will bloom, and Nikki will have delivered on her reputation as the sexy evil genius
Based in Delhi's Chandni Chowk, orphaned Sidhu is adopted by the owner of Bajrang Bali Parathas, known simply as Dada. Years later Sidhu has grown up and is an expert at slicing vegetables.
The film details the travails of a working-class family in London's East End, struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's premiership. Only the mother Mavis (Pam Ferris) is working; father Frank (Jeff Robert) and the couple's two sons Colin (Tim Roth), a timid, chronically shy individual and Mark (Phil Daniels), an outspoken, headstrong young man, are on the dole. This situation is contrasted by the presence of Mavis's sister Barbara (Marion Bailey), and her husband John (Alfred Molina), whose financial and social loftiness, in suburban Chigwell, appears to be a comfortable facade over the unspoken soreness of a lacklustre marriage.
Set in 1959, Diner shows how five young men resist their adulthood and seek refuge in their beloved Diner. The mundane, childish, and titillating details of their lives are shared. But the golden moments pass, and the men shoulder their responsibilities, leaving the Diner behind.
Jeff Gerber, an insurance agent, lives in a typical suburban neighborhood. He is also both racist and a fitness freak. But Jeff's bigoted world of taunting and harassing black people on and off the job is turned upside down when his skin inexplicably turns dark overnight. As Jeff tries to come to terms with this unexplained phenomenon that has befallen him, he soon becomes the victim himself when all of his friends and neighbors suddenly shun and harass him. This puts a strain on his marriage and loyal wife Althea, who begins to crack under the pressure. When all medical attempts to change his skin back to his former color fail, Jeff accepts that Kharma has caught up with him. Jeff tries to see the light of being a persecuted black man in this cruel and segregated world with the help of some of some new black friends, some of whom were people he, as a white man, taunted and harassed.
Follows seemingly unrelated people as their lives begin to intertwine while they fall in, and out, of love. Affections languish and develop as Christmas draws near.
A conflicted youth confesses to crimes he didn't commit while a man and woman aroused by death become obsessed with each other.
After Yu's mother dies his father, a priest, only seems to take solace in the confessions of his sons sins causing Yu to partake in various 'sinful' activities to appease him. This is a teen love story as only the Japanese could bring us, complete with up-skirt photography, cross dressing, and bloody gore.
Multi-storied, fish-eyed look at American culture with some 22 characters intersecting--profoundly or fleetingly--through each other's lives. Running the emotional gamut from disturbing to humorous, Altman's portrait of the contemporary human condition is nevertheless fascinating. Based on nine stories and a prose poem by Raymond Carver.
Sam Montgomery is a tomboyish, unpopular girl at school. She has been text messaging a somebody named Nomad for a few months and he asks her to meet him at the Halloween dance at 11:00 in the middle of the dance floor. The only problem is, she must get back to the diner, ran by her wicked Stepmom Fiona by 12 sharp because she is not supposed to be there. Before Nomad can found out who she is, she must leave with her best friend, Carter driving her back to the diner. After that night, everything in Sam's life goes wacko!
In a beauty salon in Beirut the lives of five women cross paths. The beauty salon is a colorful and sensual microcosm where they share and entrust their hopes, fears and expectations.
Where are we welcome? On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her, and meets Masako, a formal and ethereal middle-aged woman whose luggage has gone missing. The three women work in the diner, interact, and serve customers. A somewhat brusque man teaches Sachie to make delicious coffee, then he returns under other circumstances. Three neighborhood women inspect the empty diner every day; will anything bring them inside? The number of customers gradually increases, but the diner seems to attract only those with problems. Conversation with Sachie and the tasty food seem to resolve people's woes. We learn why Sachie serves rice balls; but why Finland?
In 1978 in Hong Kong, a grisly murder takes place. Eight years later, on a Macao beach, kids discover the severed hands of a fresh victim. A squadron of coarse, happy-go-lucky cops investigate, and suspicion falls on Wong Chi Hang, the new owner of Eight Immortals Restaurant, which serves delicious pork bao. The hands belong to the missing mother of the restaurant's former owner; he and his family have disappeared; staff at the restaurant continue to go missing; and, Wong can't produce a signed bill of sale: but there's no evidence. The police arrest Wong and try to torture him into a confession. Can they make him talk? And what was in those pork bao?
In the crowded by lanes of old Delhi, Shuklaji runs a small photo studio as a front for small time crime. Over the years he has groomed a bunch of youngsters in the art of pick pocketing and petty crime. Then one day a girl comes into their midst and then everything collapses.
In this luminous tale set in the former Yugoslavia, Perhan, an engaging young Romany with telekinetic powers, is seduced by the quick-cash world of petty crime that threatens to destroy him and those he loves.
Aga, a band singer, returns to Hengchun with frustration. Tomoko is a Japanese model assigned to organize a local warm-up band for the Japanese super star beach concert. Together with other five ordinary Hengchun residents who were not expected to be great or anything, they formed an impossible band.
Almodóvar has described his fourth film as a homage to Italian Neorealism, although this tribute also involves jokes about paedophilia, prostitution, and a telekenetic child. The film, set in the towerblocks around Madrid, depicts female frustration and family breakdown.
In occupied France during the WWII, a German officer is murdered. The collaborationist Vichy government decides to pin the murder on six petty criminals. Loyal judges are called in to convict them as quickly as possible.
As a child Takuma is diagnosed with a heart condition that requires care from a cardiologist. He soon becomes friends with his doctors young daughter Mayu while being treated at the hospital. One day Mayu overhears her father saying that Takumas condition is serious enough that he most likely wont live beyond the age of 20. Takuma isn't aware of this himself, however, so at 8-years-old he makes a promise to marry Mayu when they turn 20. Later in life, Takuma becomes aware that he wont be able to keep this promise and he begins distancing himself from Mayu in hopes of protecting her.
In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being caught out after curfew. While waiting for the German Kommondant, Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements. Returned to the ghetto, the shopkeeper shares his information with a friend and then rumors fly that there is a secret radio within the ghetto.
Rachel is a quick-witted and lovable stay-at-home mom. Frustrated with the realities of preschool auctions, a lackluster sex life and career that's gone kaput, Rachel visits a strip club to spice up her marriage and meets McKenna, a stripper she adopts as her live-in nanny.
In this Shakespearean farce, Hero and her groom-to-be, Claudio, team up with Claudio's commanding officer, Don Pedro, the week before their wedding to hatch a matchmaking scheme. Their targets are sharp-witted duo Benedick and Beatrice -- a tough task indeed, considering their corresponding distaste for love and each other. Meanwhile, meddling Don John plots to ruin the wedding.
Joe Toy, on the verge of adolescence, finds himself increasingly frustrated by his single father, Frank's attempts to manage his life. Declaring his freedom once and for all, he escapes to a clearing in the woods with his best friend, Patrick, and a strange kid named Biaggio. He announces that they are going to build a house there, free from responsibility and parents. Once their makeshift abode is finished, the three young men find themselves masters of their own destiny, alone in the woods.
Priscilla and Jack appear to be the perfect couple, but they have a secret: She is sexually frustrated. They separate in the hope of resolving the situation. While Jack moves into a bachelor pad and begins an affair with a student, Priscilla discovers the joys of self-pleasuring and finds an unusual bed-mate.
Emma (Line Kruse) is an eleven year-old only child from a wealthy Danish family. Emma's parents seem more interested in their own interests than in her. One evening when Emma overhears her mother talking about how tragic it must be to have your child kidnapped, Emma decides to stage her own kidnapping. She soon meets Malthe, a kind-hearted, child-like, naïve sewer cleaner who literally stumbles on to her. She convinces Malthe that she is a Russian princess whose family is being chased by Bolsheviks, so Malthe lets Emma stay with him in his very modest abode. After being "kidnapped" for a few days, Emma decides to return home. But, just as she is about to return, she overhears a couple of servants talking about how her parents don't seem to be very upset over her dilemma....
A three-way love affair in the Rome of the early seventies. Construction worker Oreste and young fiancee Adelaide meet Nello, cook in a pizzeria. This love triangle often go to communist rallies, and enjoy the filthy beach of Ostia. Will the hostile environment leave a way to jealousy?
Former child star Jackie Cooper headlines this sentimental behind-the-scenes comedy drama. He plays an ex-child star who now jerks sodas for a living in Hollywood. He gets back into the movie business when he overhears a conversation between producers discussing their newest prodigy. Cooper butts in and suggests the producers remake Skippy (a real-life 1931 film that made young Cooper a star). The bigwigs like the idea and then hire Cooper to become the boy's acting coach. Once back on the backlot, Cooper finds both trouble and romance while helping the young boy adjust to life as a movie star.
Lucknow based Mithilesh Shukla, is a regular, nondescript sort of a guy, who has washed his hands off marriage, until his nagging mom and her concerned brother get him to see Veena as a prospective bride. Veena is beautiful, cultured, educated and pretty much everything Mithilesh wants. She is also leggy, a good 6" taller than our hero. This doesn't concern him too much, until he overhears people talk and laugh at his relative lack of stature/looks. Everyday situations, such as driving a scooter, with a tall wife towering from the back-seat, or a fawning doodh-wala (milk-man) delivering milk, become a nagging headache for the insecure Mithilesh. More problems crop up when Veena's good college friend, the TALL, worldly, smart Akash moves into the flat next door, and jealousy consumes Mithilesh, leading him into a quagmire of problems, which threaten to rip apart his life.
A college graduate goes to work as a nanny for a rich New York family. Ensconced in their home, she has to juggle their dysfunction, a new romance, and the spoiled brat in her charge.
Nicole and Chase live next door to each other but are worlds apart. However, they plot a scheme to date each other in order to attract the interest and jealousy of their respective romantic prey. But in the mist of planning a gala centennial celebration, Nicole and Chase find that the one they always wanted was closer than they ever thought.
A successful artist, weary of Parisian life and on the verge of divorce, returns to the country to live in his childhood house. He needs someone to make a real vegetable garden again out of the wilderness it has become. The gardener happens to be a former schoolfriend. A warm, fruitful conversation starts between the two men.
Coffee And Cigarettes is a collection of eleven films from cult director Jim Jarmusch. Each film hosts star studded cast of extremely unique individuals who all share the common activities of conversing while drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.
Pete, an eight-year-old Catholic boy growing up in the suburbs of Chicago in the mid-1970s, attends Catholic school, where as classes let out for the summer, he's admonished by a nun to follow the path of the Lord, and not that of the Devil. Perhaps taking this message a bit too seriously, Pete decides it's his goal for the summer to help someone get into heaven; having been told that Catholicism is the only sure path to the kingdom of the Lord, Pete decides to convert a Jew to Catholicism in order to improve their standing in the afterlife. Hoping to find a likely candidate, Pete begins visiting a nearby synagogue, where he gets to know Rabbi Jacobson, who responds to Pete's barrage of questions with good humor. Pete also makes friends with the Rabbi's son, Danny, who is about the same age; when he learns that Danny is seriously ill, he decides Danny would be an excellent choice for conversion.
Over the course of his summer break, a teenager comes into his own thanks in part to the friendship he strikes up with one of the park's managers.
Stories from the lives of the tenants of the Moscow's communal apartment: Kostik, who is a college student, lives with his aunt while studying; Arkady Velyurov who is a performing artist; Khobotovs, who are a divorced couple; and Sava, who is Margarita Khobotov's new fiancé. All these people live in one apartment and their lives constantly touch each other's.
Two actors, as their make up is applied, talk about the size of their parts. Then into the film: Laurence Sterne's unfilmable novel, Tristram Shandy, a fictive autobiography wherein the narrator, interrupted constantly, takes the entire story to be born. The film tracks between "Shandy" and behind the scenes. Size matters: parts, egos, shoes, noses. The lead's girlfriend, with their infant son, is up from London for the night, wanting sex; interruptions are constant. Scenes are shot, re-shot, and discarded. The purpose of the project is elusive. Fathers and sons; men and women; cocks and bulls. Life is amorphous, too full and too rich to be captured in one narrative.
The film consists of four stories plus epilogue, set in 19th-century Sicily. THE OTHER SON - A mother spends her life waiting for news from her two sons (emigrated to America) while ignoring her third, because he is the reincarnation of the bandit who raped her. MOON SICKNESS - a newly-wed peasant girl discovers that her husband goes mad every full moon. She arranges for a male friend to protect her, but they end up in bed together just as the moon emerges from behind a cloud. THE JAR - a rich landowner hires a master craftsman to repair a giant olive jar, but the craftsman gets trapped inside. REQUIEM - villagers band together in an attempt to force their landlord to let them bury their dead. CONVERSATIONS WITH MOTHER - the writer Luigi Pirandello talks with his aged mother about a story he always wanted to write, but which he never managed to capture in words. Written by Michael Brooke
Twenty-three-year old Peter Foster is an only child who lives at home, where he constantly hears his parents arguing. Because Peter does nothing all day, the family goes to a clinic where a therapist videotapes them. After Peter watches his tape, he views the tape of a troubled Armenian family, who gave their only son away for adoption when they arrived in Canada. Peter decides to visit this family, and he pretends to be their son, Bedros Deryan. The Deryan family welcomes him with open arms, and Peter tries to patch up the poor relationship between George Deryan and his daughter Azah. Written by Will Gilbert
In a staid English seaside town after the Second World War, young Lynda grows up with her widowed father and younger sister. Rebellious Lynda has been swearing constantly from an early age. At sixteen, she becomes more exhibitionist and seeks out sexual encounters challenging the prevailing lower-middle class attitudes to sex. She eventually becomes pregnant by an acquaintance of her father.
Romance in the '90s is where you find it. But what do you do to make it happen in today's hilariously mixed-up Singles world?
A young writer, nearing a mental breakdown caused by his family and boss, moves into an apartment occupied by a walking, talking, foul-mouthed ape in a Hawaiian shirt and Converse High Tops.
A group of single moms are brought together in the aftermath of an incident at their children's school.
The story of Jody, a misguided, 20-year-old African-American who is really just a baby boy finally forced-kicking and screaming to face the commitments of real life. Streetwise and jobless, he has not only fathered two children by two different women-Yvette and Peanut but still lives with his own mother. He can't seem to strike a balance or find direction in his chaotic life.
When Jonathan Jordan gets divorced he's thrust back into the world of being a single Mormon - a world who's ultimate goal is eternal marriage. Struggling to fit in, Jonathan decides to stop going to church only to be pursued by the members of the local singles ward who want to reactivate him. Nothing works until Jonathan falls for Cammie Giles, the ward activities director. Suddenly, going to church becomes much more appealing, But is he going for the right reasons?
Will Freeman is a hip Londoner who one day realizes that his friends are all involved with the responsibilities of married life and that leaves him alone in the cold. Passing himself off as a single father, he starts to meet a string of single mums, confident in his ability to leave them behind when they start to ask for a commitment. But Will's hope of a continued bachelorhood is interrupted when he meets 12-year old Marcus, in many ways his complete opposite.
The tomboyish, outgoing Julieta is the daughter of a member of the Palmeiras soccer club board. She is constantly frustrated by what she sees as institutional bias against women in soccer. One day while watching her beloved Palmeiras, she is struck by a handsome man, Romeu, that she sees rooting for the Palmeiras' chief rivals, the Corinthians. After meeting the same man again in the middle of eye exam, Julieta and Romeu quickly become a couple. However, in order to avoid incurring the wrath of her parents, Romeu is forced to pretend to be an adoring Palmeiras fan, an increasingly difficult task for the die-hard Corinthiano.
The Singles Ward gang returns in this hilarious sequel of marital proportions! Dalen (Kirby Heyborne) has finally met the girl of his dreams. Christine (Erin Chambers) is everything Dalen has ever wanted: sweet, simple, and devoted to the gospel. Too bad his future in- laws are anything but! The original gang is back for the celebration five years in the making!
Advice columnist Dan Burns (Carell) is an expert on relationships, but somehow struggles to succeed as a brother, a son and a single parent to three precocious daughters. Things get even more complicated when Dan finds out that the woman he falls in love with is actually his brother's new girlfriend.
Sung (Chow) is by far the best lawyer in Guangdong and the outlying areas of Southeast China. His skills have earned his family an excellent living, albeit his habit of winning all his cases by whatever means necessary. Because of his shyster ways, none of his sons survived beyond a year old, causing grief for his wife Madam Sung (Mui). Upon the death of his 13th son, Sung decides to retire from law, and switch to business, opening an inn in the middle of town, and a tea stand on the outskirts of the city.Sung finds it difficult to truly give up his former career, and in his boredom reenacts his final case constantly. A chance encounter between Madam Sung and a woman whose husband was suspiciously murdered revives his hopes of returning to court. However, the case is compounded by corrupt magistrates, who make it their goal to bury the truth. Sung needs all his wits to beat a system that he has embraced for a long time, as well as redeem himself so he can finally start a family.
Holly is tired of moving every time her mom Jean breaks up with yet another second-rate guy. To distract her mother from her latest bad choice, Holly conceives the perfect plan for the perfect man, an imaginary secret admirer who will romance Jean and boost her self-esteem.
© Valossa 2015–2024
