Jason Alexander

[6] Michael Keaton leads an all-star ensemble in this Ron Howard comedy/drama about newspaper staff trying to balance their high-stress job with the challenges of every-day life. Over the course of twenty-four hours, Keaton’s character chases an exclusive while his pregnant wife (Marisa Tomei) worries if he’ll be there for her and their new family. Glenn Close plays the hard-ass who feuds with Keaton over …

[4] Terrence McNally adapts his play for the silver screen, with direction by Joe Mantello. Love! Valour! Compassion! is about a group of gay men who get together around the holidays at a rustic house in the middle of nowhere. Since the play was written in 1995 and the film released in 1997, AIDS eclipses anything else the story or characters might be about. (Gay …

[8] Jacob’s Ladder is a terrific example of what can happen when an inspired screenplay gets into the hands of a great director and a capable leading actor. I’m talking about Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost), Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction), and Tim Robbins (Shawshank Redemption), respectively. Rubin’s script is a fever dream of a tale, following a New York Vietnam vet who’s losing his grip on …

[7] This stand-alone slasher flick from Bob and Harvey Weinstein (the first Miramax film production) rivals the best of the Friday the 13th fare. The requisite nubile flesh and gory kill scenes are here, but the teen protagonists are more likable than usual and the film creates a genuinely creepy atmosphere throughout. With its lakeside camp setting and deformed villain, The Burning isn’t going to …

[10] Harrison Ford gives one of his best performances as Allie Fox, an obsessed inventor who moves his family to a Central American jungle to escape what he perceives to be the end of American civilization. Peter Weir (Witness, Dead Poets Society) directs from a screenplay by Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull), based on the novel by Paul Theroux. We experience the story through …