2011 Movies : Biography

With Jonathan Lee

Paul Goodman was once so ubiquitous in the American zeitgeist that he merited a cameo in Woody Allen's Annie Hall. Author of legendary bestseller Growing Up Absurd, Goodman was also a poet, 1940s out queer and family man, pacifist, visionary, co-founder of Gestalt therapy—and a moral compass for many in the burgeoning counterculture of the '60s.

With Amber Heard • Johnny Depp • Greg Shapiro • Giovanni Ribisi • Anthony Rhulen • Richard Jenkins • Aaron Eckhart • Robert S. Kravis • Bruce Robinson • A.J. Dix • William Shively

Tiring of the noise and madness of New York and the crushing conventions of late Eisenhower-era America, itinerant journalist Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) travels to the pristine island of Puerto Rico to write for a local newspaper, The San Juan Star, run by downtrodden editor Lotterman (Richard Jenkins). Adopting the rum-soaked life of the island, Paul soon becomes obsessed with Chenault (Amber Heard), the wildly attractive Connecticut-born fiancée of Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart). Sanderson, a businessman involved in shady property development deals, is one of a growing number of American entrepreneurs who are determined to convert Puerto Rico into a capitalist paradise in service of the wealthy. When Kemp is recruited by Sanderson to write favorably about his latest unsavory scheme, the journalist is presented with a choice: to use his words for the corrupt businessmen’s financial benefit, or use them to take the bastards down.

With Jennifer Fox

Yeshi, who was recognized at birth as the reincarnation of a famous spiritual master, considers departing from tradition to embrace the modern world.