Bob Balaban Filmography

Dedication

Actors: Billy Crudup, Mandy Moore, Tom Wilkinson, Bob Balaban, Dianne Wiest, Bobby Cannavale

Synopsis: Actor Justin Theroux (Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Mulholland Dr.) steps behind the camera for his directorial debut with this irreverent romantic comedy. Billy Crudup is Henry, a cynical children's book writer who holds little more than disdain for his pint-sized target audience. Artist Rudy (Tom Wilkinson Read More

No Reservations

Actors: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart, Abigail Breslin, Patricia Clarkson, Jennifer Wade

Synopsis: Carol Fuchs adapts writer/director Sandra Nettelbeck's screenplay for the 2001 romantic drama Mostly Martha for this Scott Hicks directed remake starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart, and Patricia Clarkson. Kate Armstrong (Jones) is the master chef who is equally intense both in and out of Read More

Bernard and Doris

Crew: Director, Executive Producer

Actors: Ralph Fiennes, Susan Sarandon, James Rebhorn, Monique Curnen

Synopsis: Director Bob Balaban's fictional drama presents a speculative exploration of the relationship shared between wealthy tobacco heiress Doris Duke (Susan Sarandon) and her Irish butler Bernard Lafferty (Ralph Finnes) who, after just six years working as Duke's servant, was posthumously awarded Read More

For Your Consideration

Actors: Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, Christopher Guest, John Michael Higgins, Eugene Levy, Jane Lynch, Michael McKean, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard

Synopsis: Mockumentary mastermind Christopher Guest turns his satirical eye away from dog shows, small-town theater, and folk music to offer a hilarious take on Hollywood award season in this comedy focusing on trio of actors whose lives are turned upside down when they discover that their performances in Read More

Trust the Man

Actors: David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James LeGros

Synopsis: Two couples demonstrate that breaking up can be just as hard as staying together in this romantic comedy drama. Rebecca (Julianne Moore) and Tom (David Duchovny) are a seemingly happy married couple living in New York City -- she's a successful actress, while he stays home with the kids. However Read More

Lady in the Water

Actors: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balaban, Sarita Choudhury

Synopsis: M. Night Shyamalan writes and directs this self-proclaimed, grown-up "bedtime story" about an apartment building superintendent named Cleveland (Paul Giamatti) who discovers a magical sea-nymph named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) who's been transported to this world and is living in the building's Read More

The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Laura Kightlinger, Nicholle Tom

Capote

Actors: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins, Jr., Chris Cooper, Bruce Greenwood

Synopsis: The creation of one of the most memorable books of the 1960s -- and the impact the writing and research would have on its author -- is explored in this drama based on a true story. In 1959, Truman Capote (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) was a critically acclaimed novelist who had earned a small Read More

The Exonerated

Crew: Director

Actors: Susan Sarandon, Aidan Quinn, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Delroy Lindo

Synopsis: Adapted by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen from their own off-Broadway play, The Exonerated dramatizes the real-life stories of six innocent citizens who spent anywhere from three to 20 years on death row until DNA testing proved that they had all been falsely convicted. Each of the six stories is Read More

Hopeless Pictures [Animated TV Series]

Crew: Producer

No Joking

Crew: Director

A Mighty Wind

Actors: Bob Balaban, Christopher Guest, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Michael McKean, Jane Lynch, John Michael Higgins

Synopsis: The writing and directing team who created Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show turn their satiric eye toward the world of folk music in this sly mockumentary. Irving Steinbloom was one of the great behind-the-scenes figures of the folk music boom of the late '50s and early '60s, and helped to Read More

Marie and Bruce

Actors: Julianne Moore, Matthew Broderick, Bob Balaban, Tom Riis Farrell, David Wiater

Synopsis: Tom Cairns directs the psychological comedy drama Marie and Bruce, adapted from the play by Wallace Shawn. Set over a period of 24 hours, the black comedy involves the troubled marriage of neurotic New Yorkers Marie (Julianne Moore) and Bruce (Matthew Broderick). What follows is a bleak Read More

No Money Down

Synopsis: An entrepreneurial bachelor and his loyal best friend strike out on their own to live it up in the Hamptons in directors Sam Sokolow and Rob Lobl's all-star comedy featuring Josh Lucas, Bob Balaban, Al Franken, Ally Sheedy, Teri Garr, and Roy Scheider. Eric Traber (Lucas) has just been fired from Read More

Gosford Park

Crew: Producer

Actors: Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jeremy Northam, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Richard E. Grant, Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Emily Watson

Synopsis: Maverick American filmmaker Robert Altman takes a witty and absorbing look at the foibles of the British class system in this intelligent murder mystery set in the early '30s. Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) and his wife Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas) are a pair of wealthy British Read More

The Majestic

Actors: Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Bob Balaban, Gerry Black, Brent Briscoe, Karl Bury

Synopsis: Director Frank Darabont created this Frank Capra-inspired drama based on a screenplay by his friend and one-time schoolmate Michael Sloane. Jim Carrey stars as Pete Appleton, a screenwriter in the Hollywood of the 1950s. Pete's on top of the world with his first motion picture "Sand Pirates of the Read More

Ghost World

Actors: Thora Birch, Steve Buscemi, Scarlett Johansson, Brad Renfro, Illeana Douglas, Bob Balaban

Synopsis: Filmmaker Terry Zwigoff, who enjoyed breakthrough success with his 1994 documentary Crumb, shifts gears as he examines the lives of two young women on the verge of leaving their adolescence behind in his first dramatic feature. Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) are two close Read More

The Mexican

Actors: Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, James Gandolfini, Bob Balaban, J.K. Simmons

Synopsis: A clumsy criminal is put in a position where he not only has to save his own skin, but that of his girlfriend in this comedy with strong undercurrents of romance. Jerry Welbach (Brad Pitt) is a low-level Mafia "mechanic" whose ineptitude is countered by frequent (but unpredictable) bursts of dumb Read More

Plan B

Actors: Diane Keaton, Paul Sorvino, Maury Chaykin, Bob Balaban, Burt Young, Natasha Lyonne

Synopsis: When a gentle bookkeeper is forced to act as an assassin in order to pay off her husband's debt to the mob, the bloodless scheme she concocts to keep a clear conscience could cost her more than she bargained for in a blistering crime comedy starring Diane Keaton, Burt Young, Bob Balaban, Paul Sorvino Read More

Best in Show

Actors: Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Christopher Guest, John Michael Higgins, Michael McKean, Michael Hitchcock, Parker Posey, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Lynch, Fred Willard

Synopsis: After parodying the idiosyncrasies of community theater devotees in the mock documentary Waiting for Guffman, actor/director Christopher Guest returns with another semi-improvised comedy that casts a satirical gaze on the world of championship dog breeding and training. A television crew is on Read More

The West Wing: 20 Hours in L.A.

Actors: Dule Hill, Kathryn Joosten, Tim Matheson, Elisabeth Moss, Jorja Fox, Marlee Matlin

Synopsis: While President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) is in Hollywood for a fundraiser hosted by politically active homosexual movie mogul Ted Marcus (Bob Balaban), Leo (John Spencer) is back in Washington politicking Vice President Hoynes (Tim Matheson) to vote the White House's position on an important tax Read More

The Monster Hunter

Actors: David Carradine, Michael Bowen

Synopsis: In this black comedy shot in mock documentary style, Willie Dickenson (Michael Bowen) is a serial killer on the lam in Texas, and a filmmaker heads down to the Lone Star State to find out more about him and his background. However, while the filmmaker tracks down the killer's friends and Read More

Cradle Will Rock

Actors: Hank Azaria, Rubén Blades, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Cary Elwes, Cherry Jones, Angus MacFadyen

Synopsis: The sometimes rocky relationship between art and politics in America in the 1930s -- as well as the gulf between the wealthy and the struggling -- sets the stage for Tim Robbins' ambitious comedy-drama Cradle Will Rock. Pulling together a variety of threads from actual events, Robbins examines the Read More

Three to Tango

Actors: Matthew Perry, Neve Campbell, Dylan McDermott, Oliver Platt, Cylk Cozart, John C. McGinley, Bob Balaban

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy of mistaken identity, Oscar Novak (Matthew Perry) and Peter Steinberg (Oliver Platt) are a pair of struggling but talented Chicago architects given the chance of a lifetime: Charles Newman (Dylan McDermott), an extremely wealthy business tycoon, is considering hiring them Read More

Jakob the Liar

Actors: Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, Michael Jeter, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Liev Schreiber, Mark Margolis

Synopsis: This remake of the 1975 German film Jakob der Lügner stars Robin Williams in a dramatic role as a man who uses his active imagination to bring a ray of hope where hope was all but unknown. Jakob Heym (Robin Williams) is the owner of a small café during the Nazi occupation of Poland; he has little Read More

Swing Vote

Actors: Andy Garcia, Harry Belafonte, Robert Prosky, Ray Walston, James Whitmore

Synopsis: In this courtroom drama set in the near future, the U.S. Supreme Court has recently overturned the Roe vs. Wade decision and thrown the issue of abortion rights back to the individual states. Alabama has subsequently outlawed abortion on demand and has prosecuted Virginia Mapes (Lisa Gay Hamilton) Read More

Strangers With Candy: Jerri is Only Skin Deep

Crew: Director

Actors: Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Greg Hollimon, Dolores Duffy, Jack Ferver, Orlando Pabotoy, Mitch Rouse, Deborah Rush, Maria Thayer, Sarah Thyre

Synopsis: Jerri's (Amy Sedaris) desperate bid to become homecoming queen yields predictably disastrous results in this episode of Comedy Central's Strangers With Candy. Encouraged by Orlando (Orlando Pabotoy) to nominate herself as homecoming queen, Jerri's hopes are quickly dashed when Mr. Noblot (Stephen Colbert Read More

Strangers With Candy: Season 01

Crew: Director

Actors: Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Greg Hollimon, Dolores Duffy, Jack Ferver, Orlando Pabotoy, Mitch Rouse, Deborah Rush, Maria Thayer, Sarah Thyre

Synopsis: Jerri Blank's (Amy Sedaris) first semester back at Flatpoint High finds the 46-year-old ex-con, ex-prostitute, and ex-drug addict high school freshman attempting to pull her life together. From her initial bid for popularity to her total relapse into drug addition, the first season of Strangers With Candy Read More

Friends: The One with Joey's Bag

Synopsis: Lisa Kudrow plays a dual role as Phoebe and her twin sister, Ursula. When the sisters' grandmother dies, Phoebe is upset, but Ursula seems oblivious to the tragedy. A further trauma awaits Phoebe when, at the memorial service, she finally meets her father (Bob Balaban). Meanwhile, Rachel (Jennifer Aniston Read More

Giving Up the Ghost

Actors: Marg Helgenberger, Alan Rosenberg, Bob Balaban, Brian Kerwin, Ron Lea

Synopsis: A widow's grief over the loss of her beloved husband is softened when he shows up one night to haunt her and tempt her into joining him in the afterlife. Made especially for the Lifetime Television Network, this romantic comedy drama stars the real-life husband-and-wife team of Alan Rosenberg and Marg Helgenberger Read More

Deconstructing Harry

Actors: Woody Allen, Kirstie Alley, Bob Balaban, Richard Benjamin, Billy Crystal

Synopsis: Woody Allen wrote, directed, and stars in this very dark comedy about a novelist, Harry Block, who says with admirable honesty, "I'm a guy who can't function well in life, but I can in art." So far, Harry has made his way through six psychiatrists and three marriages (one, conveniently enough Read More

Directors on Directors: Bob Balaban Meets Robert Altman

Crew: Director

Subway Stories

Crew: Director

Actors: Rosie Perez, Mercedes Ruehl, Lili Taylor

Synopsis: Subways provide the common setting for this modern anthology comprised of distinct vignettes made by ten of Hollywood's top directors and featuring some of Tinseltown's most popular actors. The episodes are based on real stories submitted by scores of subway regulars. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Read More

Clockwatchers

Actors: Joshua Malina, Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow, Alanna Ubach

Synopsis: Four women reflect on their lowly place in the corporate caste system in this dryly satiric comedy. Iris (Toni Collette) is a college graduate who hasn't decided what she wants to do with her life, except that she doesn't want the job her father has lined up for her at a frozen food company. While Read More

The Late Shift

Actors: Kathy Bates, John Michael Higgins, Daniel Roebuck, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley, Jr.

Synopsis: Based on the non-fiction best-seller, The Late Shift is an irreverent, behind-the-scenes look at the conflict over who would succeed Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show, Jay Leno or David Letterman. Beginning with Carson's retirement, the made-for-cable film follows the backstage Read More

Conversation with the Beast

Synopsis: A U.S. historian gets the chilling opportunity of a lifetime to interview one of Western Civilization's greatest villains whom he finds alive and living under an assumed name in an aging Berlin apartment with a beautiful 40-year-old woman. For a long time, professor Arnold Webster had suspected Read More

Waiting for Guffman

Actors: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, Bob Balaban, Parker Posey

Synopsis: The city of Blaine, Missouri is celebrating its sesquicentennial, and what better reason could there be to put on a show? Corky St. Claire (Christopher Guest), current leader of Blaine's community theater group and creator of a stage musical version of Backdraft that led to the unfortunate Read More

Pie in the Sky

Actors: Josh Charles, Anne Heche, John Goodman, Peter Riegert, Christine Ebersole

Synopsis: This comedy chronicles the romantic exploits of a rather stodgy young man with a traffic fetish. Even as a child Charlie Dunlap was totally fixated by freeway traffic. Charlie's biggest idol is Alan Davenport, a radio traffic reporter. As a young man, Charlie falls in love with the lively Read More

Greedy

Actors: Michael J. Fox, Kirk Douglas, Nancy Travis, Olivia D'Abo, Phil Hartman

Synopsis: It's been said that nothing can bring two men closer together than a dollar placed between them, and a large family finds themselves becoming far closer than they'd like over several million dollars in this satiric comedy. Uncle Joe McTeague (Kirk Douglas) is an elderly man with a multi-million Read More

City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold

Actors: Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Jon Lovitz, Jack Palance, Patricia Wettig

Synopsis: Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal) returns in this sequel to the original City Slickers that attempts to recapture the first film's warmth and character comedy. Despite feeling re-invigorated when we last left him, Mitch again faces a few personal dilemmas: his radio station job is going nowhere and Read More

The Last Good Time

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Armin Mueller-Stahl, Maureen Stapleton, Lionel Stander, Olivia D'Abo, Adrian Pasdar

Synopsis: An elderly retired violinist befriends a troubled young woman in this touching, sensitively performed drama. Armin Mueller-Stahl stars as Joseph Kopple, a former professional musician who has withdrawn into a quiet life after the death of his wife. Remaining mostly isolated, Kopple stays at home Read More

My Boyfriend's Back

Crew: Director

Actors: Andrew Lowery, Traci Lind, Danny Zorn, Edward Herrmann, Mary Beth Hurt

Synopsis: Actor Bob Balaban directed this black comedy for Disney concerning a young zombie's love for a pretty high school girl. Johnny Dingle (Andrew Lowery) is a sweet-natured soul who has been in love with Missy McCloud (Traci Lind) ever since first grade, but he's always been reluctant to ask her out Read More

Amos & Andrew

Actors: Nicolas Cage, Samuel L. Jackson, Dabney Coleman, Michael Lerner, Margaret Colin

Synopsis: When African-American professional Andrew Sterling (Samual L. Jackson) moves into a summer home on an up-tight all-white New England resort island, the snoopy white neighbors are sure he must be breaking and entering. They call the cops who get too rambunctious and break into Sterling's limo Read More

For Love or Money

Actors: Michael J. Fox, Gabrielle Anwar, Anthony Higgins, Michael Tucker, Bob Balaban

Synopsis: Michael J. Fox stars as Doug Ireland in this romantic comedy about a brash concierge at a swanky New York hotel who always makes it a point to go out of his way for the hotel guests. But Doug doesn't want to be a concierge forever. What he would really like to do is build a swanky hotel of his Read More

Bob Roberts

Actors: Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Alan Rickman, Ray Wise, Brian Doyle-Murray, Gore Vidal

Synopsis: In the tradition of This Is Spinal Tap, producer/ director/ star Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts is a satire disguised as a documentary. Robbins plays the titular Roberts, a wealthy, well-connected young man running for a senatorial seat in Pennsylvania. On the surface, Roberts is an ingratiating Read More

Little Man Tate

Actors: Jodie Foster, Adam Hann-Byrd, Dianne Wiest, Harry Connick, Jr., David Hyde Pierce

Synopsis: Jodie Foster made her directorial debut (with a script by Scott Frank) in this tale of a child prodigy's search for social acceptance. Fred Tate (Adam Hann-Byrd) is a precocious fourth grader who has no problem with the most complex mathematical problems or in banging out a Rachmaninoff concerto Read More

Unnatural Pursuits

Actors: Alan Bates, Bob Balaban, Sara Mansfield

Synopsis: Alan Bates stars as Hamish Partt an alcoholic writer in the made-for-TV Unnatural Pursuits. Simon Gray's teleplay contrives to have Partt begin singing boisterously whenever confronted by a crisis. This occurs quite often as the playwright follows the progress of his latest work, from rehearsal to Read More

Alice

Actors: Mia Farrow, Joe Mantegna, Alec Baldwin, Blythe Danner, Judy Davis

Synopsis: Woody Allen's character study of a well-kept, upscale Manhattan woman (Mia Farrow) takes the title character on a journey through a Wonderland of her own making, in which she learns some truths about herself, her relationships, and the universe in general. Alice leads a comfortable life, except Read More

The Face of Fear

Actors: Kevin Conroy, Lee Horsley

Synopsis: The TV-movie thriller Face of Fear is a real cliffhanger--or rather, skyscraper-hanger. Lee Horsely plays a psychic mountaineer who's been afraid of heights ever since stumbling off Mt. Everest. Pam Dawber costars as Horsely's patient fiancee. Less patient is neo-Nazi leader Kevin Conroy, who for Read More

Dead Bang

Actors: Don Johnson, Penelope Ann Miller, William Forsythe, Bob Balaban, Frank Military

Synopsis: A police detective (Don Johnson), whose job is the only thing he has left in his life, must investigate the murder of a fellow officer. He follows the trail and is shocked to find a white-supremacist conspiracy in the process. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Parents

Crew: Director

Actors: Randy Quaid, Mary Beth Hurt, Sandy Dennis, Bryan Madorsky, Juno Mills-Cockell

Synopsis: In this bizarre and very black comedy set in 1950s suburbia, Michael Laemle (Bryan Madorsky) comes to suspect that his conventional parents (Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt) have a little secret which they have kept from him. Nothing too major - - just that they happen to be cannibals. It seems Read More

End of the Line

Actors: Wilford Brimley, Levon Helm, Mary Steenburgen, Barbara Barrie, Henderson Forsythe

Synopsis: Two Southern railroad workers drive a train engine to Chicago to protest the closing of the station in Clifford, Arkansas. Will Haney (Wilford Brimley) and his friend Leo Pickett (Levon Helm) steal the engine and hope to confront the company president to prevent the shutdown. The duo gathers Read More

Amazing Stories: Fine Tuning

Crew: Director

Actors: Matthew Laborteaux, Gary Riley, Jimmy Gatherum

2010

Actors: Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban, Keir Dullea

Synopsis: This belated sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is directed by Peter Hyams. Roy Scheider plays the astronaut/skipper of a U.S.-Soviet space mission, sent to find out what happened to the missing Discovery flight that carried Keir Dullea into the beyond in the original 2001 Read More

In Our Hands

Actors: Meryl Streep, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Benjamin Spock

Synopsis: This compilation documentary covers the massive anti-nuclear peace march held in New York City on June 12, 1982, including the preparations that led up to the march and interviews with concerned and knowledgeable people on the issue of peace, as well as Japanese survivors of the atomic bomb Read More