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Across the Universe
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Director: Julie Taymor
Screenwriter: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Max Carrigan, Dana Fuchs, Martin Luther, T.V. Carpio
Genre: Musical, Romance
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language)
Official Website: AcrosstheUniverse.com
Plot Summary: At once gritty, whimsical and highly theatrical, Revolution Studios' "Across the Universe" is an original movie musical springing from the imagination of renowned director Julie Taymor ("Frida," "Titus," and the Broadway smash hit musical "The Lion King") and writers Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais ("The Commitments").
A love story set against the backdrop of the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock 'n roll, the film moves from the dockyards of Liverpool to the creative psychedelia of Greenwich Village, from the riot-torn streets of Detroit to the killing fields of Vietnam. The star-crossed lovers, Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), along with a small group of friends and musicians, are swept up into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements, with "Dr. Robert" (Bono) and "Mr. Kite" (Eddie Izzard) as their guides. Tumultuous forces outside their control ultimately tear the young lovers apart, forcing Jude and Lucy – against all odds – to find their own way back to each other.
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The Brave One
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: Neil Jordan
Screenwriter: Cynthia Mort, Neil Jordan
Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Mary Steenburgen
Genre: Psychological Thriller
MPAA Rating: R (for strong violence, language and some sexuality)
Official Website: TheBraveOne.com
Plot Summary: New York radio host Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) has a life that she loves and a fiancé she adores. All of it is taken from her when a brutal attack leaves Erica badly wounded and her fiancé dead. Unable to move past the tragedy, Erica begins prowling the city streets at night to track down the men she holds responsible. Her dark pursuit of justice catches the public's attention, and the city is riveted by her anonymous exploits. But with the NYPD desperate to find the culprit and a dogged police detective (Terrence Howard) hot on her trail, she must decide whether her quest for revenge is truly the right path, or if she is becoming the very thing she is trying to stop.
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Eastern Promises
Studio: Focus Features
Director: David Cronenberg
Screenwriter: Steve Knight
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinead Cusack, Donald Sumpter, Jerzy Skolimowski
Genre: Thriller
MPAA Rating: R (for strong brutal and bloody violence, some graphic sexuality, language and nudity)
Official Website: FocusFeatures.com/EasternPromises
Plot Summary: The mysterious and charismatic Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin (Mortensen) is a driver for one of London's most notorious organized crime families of Eastern European origin. The family itself is part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood. Headed by Semyon (Academy Award nominee Armin Mueller-Stahl), whose courtly charm as the welcoming proprietor of the plush Trans-Siberian restaurant impeccably masks a cold and brutal core, the family's fortunes are tested by Semyon's volatile son and enforcer, Kirill (Vincent Cassel), who is more tightly bound to Nikolai than to his own father.
But Nikolai's carefully maintained existence is jarred once he crosses paths at Christmastime with Anna Khitrova (Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts), a midwife at a North London hospital. Anna is deeply affected by the desperate situation of a young teenager who dies while giving birth to a baby. Anna resolves to try to trace the baby's lineage and relatives. The girl's personal diary also survives her; it is written in Russian, and Anna seeks answers in it.
Anna's mother Helen (Sinead Cusack) does not discourage her, but Anna's irascible Russian-born uncle Stepan (Jerzy Skolimowski) urges caution. He is right to do so; by delving into the diary, Anna has accidentally unleashed the full fury of the Vory.
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Great World of Sound
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Director: Craig Zobel
Screenwriter: Craig Zobel, George Smith
Starring: John Baker, Libertad Green, Michael Harding, Pat Healy, Kene Holliday, Barlow Jacobs, Carver Johns, Robert Longstreet, Rebecca Mader, Tricia Paoluccio, Scott Reynolds, Mark Scarboro
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: R (for language)
Official Website: GreatWorldofSound.com/Film
Plot Summary: "Great World of Sound" follows Martin (Pat Healy), as he applies for a job at a company training prospective "music producers". During training he pairs up with another new employee, Clarence (Kene Holliday), a middle aged man trying to change his career path. As record producers, the two travel to towns where the company has placed newspaper ads to find undiscovered musicians. They are seeking talent for the record label- signing new artists and giving them a chance to let their music be heard... for a small fee. It's going great at first, but soon Martin and Clarence begin to question whether the company is as virtuous as it promises to be in it's promise to give people their dream.
This film evokes the image of the traveling salesman- a talent salesman- to address the increasing trend of people looking for a shortcut to fame. The film also examines the people who promise such an easy path- commenting that a "scam artist" rarely believes they are one, and that often the scam artist is being scammed himself.
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In the Valley of Elah
Studio: Warner Independent Pictures
Director: Paul Haggis
Screenwriter: Paul Haggis
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon, Jason Patric, Jonathan Tucker, James Franco, Frances Fisher, Tim McGraw, Mehcad Brooks, Wes Chatham
Genre: Drama, War
MPAA Rating: R (for violent and disturbing content, language and some sexuality/nudity)
Official Website: IntheValleyofElah.com
Plot Summary: "In the Valley of Elah" tells the story of a war veteran (Tommy Lee Jones), his wife (Susan Sarandon) and the search for their son, a soldier who recently returned from Iraq but has mysteriously gone missing, and the police detective (Charlize Theron) who helps in the investigation.
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Moving McAllister
Studio: First Independent Pictures
Director: Andrew Black
Screenwriter: Ben Gourley
Starring: Ben Gourley, Mila Kunis, Jon Heder, Rutger Hauer
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some drug content, sexual references and crude humor)
Official Website: MovingMcAllisterthemovie.com
Plot Summary: Rick Robinson is a ladder-climbing law intern from Miami with four days until the Bar Exam. Desperate to score points with his boss (McAllister), he commits to a favor he can't afford. He ends up in a rundown truck headed to L.A. with his boss's possessions, his Hollywood-bound niece, and her pet pig. Amidst hitch-hikers, breakdowns, and assorted local yokels, Rick finds love, life and maybe himself in this trans-American road trip from hell.
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Mr. Woodcock
Studio: New Line Cinema
Director: Craig Gillespie
Screenwriter: Michael Carnes, Josh Gilbert
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Seann William Scott, Susan Sarandon, Ethan Suplee, Melissa Sagemiller, Amy Poehler
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for crude and sexual content, thematic material, language and a mild drug reference)
Official Website: Woodcockmovie.com
Plot Summary: Billy Bob Thornton, Seann William Scott, and Susan Sarandon star in the outrageous comedy "Mr. Woodcock." Scott stars as John Farley, a self-help author who returns to his hometown only to discover that his mother (Sarandon) has fallen in love with his old high school nemesis, Mr. Woodcock (Thornton) – the gruff, no-nonsense gym teacher who had put him through years of mental and physical humiliation. Determined to prevent history from repeating itself, John sets out to stop his mother from marrying the man who had made life miserable for him and his classmates.
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Silk
Studio: Picturehouse
Director: François Girard
Screenwriter: Michael Golding
Starring: Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley, Alfred Molina, Koji Yakusho, Sei Ashina, Mark Rendall
Genre: Drama, Romance
MPAA Rating: R (for sexuality and nudity)
Official Website: Silkmovie.com
Plot Summary: Based on the beloved, best-selling novel by Alessandro Baricco, "Silk" is the story of Herve Joncour (Pitt), a 19th Century French silkworm merchant who travels to Japan and begins a clandestine and forbidden romance with a mysterious and sensual woman.
Silkworm eggs. In one's palm one could hold thousands of them. When the pébrine epidemic—the spotted silkworm disease that ravaged eggs from European hatcheries in the 1860s—spread overseas, however, eggs from as far away as Africa and India became infected and the entire European silk trade seemed doomed.
To continue his lucrative trade Baldabiou (Molina), a roguish French trader, decides to send a young military officer Herve Joncour (Pitt) on a perilous mission to Japan. Thus, separating him for months on end from Helene (Knightley), his lovely and devoted schoolteacher wife. The island that produced the finest silk in the world for thousands of years, prior to the opening of the Suez Canal, Japan was considered a dominion forbidden to foreigners, quite literally the opposite end of the world.
It is here that Herve encounters the powerful and feared local baron, Hara Jubei (Yakusho), with whom he will trade for the precious silkworm eggs. And it is here, in a world unlike anything that Herve has experienced before, that he becomes entranced by the baron's concubine, a deeply mysterious girl of intoxicating beauty. Without speaking one another's language, together they share a doomed, obsessive love...
A film of painterly beauty and ravishing romance, "Silk" is a historically rapturous epic romance of East meets West.
Darkon
Studio: Porchlight / IFC
Director: Andrew Neel, Luke Meyer
Screenwriter: Not Available
Starring: Skip Lipman, Daniel McCarthur, Rebecca Thurmond, Kenyon Wells
Genre: Documentary
Official Website: Darkonthemovie.com
Plot Summary: Swords. Armor. Crossbows. Grown men attacking a plywood fortress. Imagine "Braveheart" re-enacted in a Baltimore park -- and everybody wants to be a hero. A serious look into the bizarre and fascinating world of Darkon, a full-contact medieval fantasy group, active in the Baltimore area since 1985.
December Boys
Studio: Warner Independent Pictures
Director: Rod Hardy
Screenwriter: Marc Rosenberg
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Christian Byers, Lee Cormie, James Fraser, Teresa Palmer, Jack Thompson, Kris McQuade, Suzie Wilks, Victori
Genre: Drama, Family, Romance
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for sexual content, nudity, underage drinking and smoking)
Official Website: DecemberBoys.com
Plot Summary: Based on the classic Michael Noonan novel, "December Boys" is a story of four orphan teenagers growing up behind the closed doors of a catholic convent in outback Australia during the 1960s. As the boys watch younger kids get adopted by loving families, they begin to realize that as they get older, their turn may never come. When the convent sends the boys to visit the seaside one summer, they finally have something to look forward to.
While at the seaside, the boys meet a young couple unable to have children, who would make the perfect parents. The eldest of the boys, Maps, finds himself drawn to Lucy, a beautiful girl from down the coast. Competing to be the most adoptable, the rest of the boys, Sparks, Misty and Spit, severely test their friendships as long gestating feelings of rejection explode to the surface.
The bonds of friendship eventually overcome the rivalries, sealing forever the strong ties that bind the December boys as they learn the real meaning behind friendship, family and love.
Dragon Wars (D-War)
Studio: Freestyle Releasing
Director: Hyung-rae Shim
Screenwriter: Hyung-rae Shim
Starring: Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Robert Forster, Aimee Garcia, Craig Robinson
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence and creature action)
Official Website: Dragon-Wars.com
Plot Summary: In a small Korean village, five hundred years ago, a girl named Narin was born carrying the coveted Yeouijoo inside her. The Heavens sent the protector Bochun and his protégé Haram, to ensure that when it came time, Narin was peacefully sacrificed to the pre-determined Good Imoogi. Bochun vigorously trained Haram as a knight, to be prepared for the eventual day when Narin would be delivered to the Good Imoogi. The day the Dark Imoogi, Buraki, and his army destroyed Narin's village looking for the Yeouijoo, Bochun instructed Haram to take her to the Good Imoogi.
The young girl and her knight would then fulfill the giant's serpent's destiny by giving it the power to save the world and become a heavenly dragon. By this time, after spending several years together, Haram and Narin had fallen in love. Unable to sacrifice their love to the benevolent Imoogi, they jumped to their deaths together in each other's arms. The Good Imoogi's destiny was unfulfilled and he would have to wait another five hundred years until the next Yeouijoo appears.
It is now five hundred years later in present day Los Angeles and the quest for the Imoogi is reborn. Haram and Narin have been reincarnated as Ethan Kendrick (Jason Behr) and Sarah Daniels (Amanda Brooks) whose bond of love remains unsevered. Ethan is an investigative reporter for the local news. He is closely following a series of unexplainable disasters occurring in the area. When a young woman named Sarah is linked to those occurrences, Ethan remembers that an ancient man he met many years before had predicted all of these events . Ethan finds Sarah and helps her escape the wrath of Buraki and his army. Aware that Sarah must sacrifice herself in order to save the city from the Buraki and ensure that the Good Imoogi becomes the Dragon, Ethan tries to convince Sarah that there is another way to battle the Imoogies. Meanwhile, the FBI agent on the case, Frank Campbell (Robert Forster), has uncovered the Imoogies' intentions through his own investigations. Campbell is ready to sacrifice Sarah to the demonic animals to save Los Angeles. In the face of chaos and destruction, Ethan and Sarah must decide their own fate - whether to defy the will of heaven once again and let the city be destroyed or deliver Sarah to the Good Imoogi.
Ira & Abby
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Director: Robert Cary
Screenwriter: Jennifer Westfeldt
Starring: Jennifer Westfeldt, Chris Messina
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: IraandAbby.com
Plot Summary: A sweet, hilarious and slightly subversive romantic comedy that examines the issues of marriage, monogamy and whether "I do" is the only path to life-long love and happiness.
Ira Black, is brilliant, neurotic, Jewish and has so many issues he can't fit them into 12 years of analysis. He can't finish his dissertation, he can't commit to his longtime girlfriend, and he's incapable of making a decision, even if it's just what to order at the diner. Abby Willoughby, is a free spirit who's better at solving her friends' problems at the gym than selling memberships. When the two meet, the impossible happens: they fall in love, meet each other's parents and decide to get married, all in a few breathless hours.
And life is good, until Ira finds out that Abby is a divorcee... two times over. Despite even more therapy, Ira can't help but feel that their marriage was built on a lie. They divorce quietly, while cracks grow wider in their parents' marriages. Ira's gorgeous analyst mother Arlene starts a secret liaison with Abby's charming voiceover artist father Michael, while Abby's mother Lynne wonders why she's no longer attractive to her husband and Ira's father Sy pretends not to notice.
Of course, Ira soon realizes he's miserable without Abby. He asks her forgiveness and they marry again, this time making more realistic vows. But Ira's jealousy issues and Abby's free-floating tendencies lead him to reconnect with his ex-girlfriend. When Abby finds out about their parents' infidelities, the three couples converge for a group therapy session with all of their therapists. Ira and Abby ultimately realize that they were meant to be together. But divorced. Because marriage just isn't for them...
King of California
Studio: First Look Pictures
Director: Mike Cahill
Screenwriter: Mike Cahill
Starring: Michael Douglas, Evan Rachel Wood, Greg Davis Jr, Angel Oquendo
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some strong language, mature thematic elements and brief drug references)
Official Website: FirstLookStudios.com
Plot Summary: A young girl's teenage years are complicated by an eccentric and manic-depressive father who becomes obsessed with his belief that there's buried treasure in the San Fernando Valley.
Moondance Alexander
Studio: The Bigger Picture
Director: Michael Damian
Screenwriter: Michael Damian, Janeen Damian
Starring: Kay Panabaker, Don Johnson, Lori Loughlin, James Best
Genre: Family
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: MoondanceAlexander.com
Plot Summary: Inspired by a true story - "Moondance Alexander" is a spirited teen living with her eccentric mother. She is faced with another uneventful summer until she discovers a lost pinto pony named Checkers who has jumped out of his paddock. Although Moondance returns the horse to his rightful owner, the gruff and mysterious Dante Longpre, she is convinced that Checkers is a champion jumper in disguise and is determined to help him realize his full potential. Moondance manages to talk Dante into training her and Checkers for the Bow Valley Classic and despite the criticism of her piers; discovers that perseverance, loyalty and individuality can land you in the winner's circle.
Film Database
The Rape of Europa
Studio: Menemsha Films
Director: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham
Screenwriter: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: RapeofEuropa.com
Plot Summary: In a journey through seven countries, "The Rape of Europa" takes the audience into the violent whirlwind of fanaticism, greed, and warfare that threatened to wipe out the artistic heritage of Europe. For twelve long years, the Nazis looted and destroyed art on a scale unprecedented in history. But young art professionals as well as ordinary heroes, from truck drivers to department store clerks, fought back with an extraordinary effort to safeguard, rescue and return the millions of lost, hidden and stolen treasures.
"The Rape of Europa" begins and ends with the story of artist Gustav Klimt's famed Gold Portrait, stolen from Viennese Jews in 1938 and now the most expensive painting ever sold. Today, more than sixty years later, the legacy of this tragic history continues to play out as families of looted collectors recover major works of art, conservators repair battle damage, and nations fight over the fate of ill-gotten spoils of war. According to U.S. estimates, the Nazis stole one-fifth of all the known artworks in Europe. While the Allies returned most of the displaced art in the decade following the war, much of the loot is still missing. Tragically, unique masterpieces were destroyed and lost to posterity forever. Other works of art—the last, forgotten victims of the war—survived but remain unidentified, traceable only with costly and difficult investigation.
In contrast to the wholesale looting of Hitler and the Nazis, the western Allies worked to mitigate the tragic, inevitable toll exacted on art and historic cities during their invasion of Italy, France and Germany. Central to this history is the unprecedented mission of the Monuments Men, mostly American art historians and museum curators who, drafted into military service, mounted a miraculous effort to protect monuments and recover millions of pieces of displaced art.
Across the Universe
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Director: Julie Taymor
Screenwriter: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Max Carrigan, Dana Fuchs, Martin Luther, T.V. Carpio
Genre: Musical, Romance
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language)
Official Website: AcrosstheUniverse.com
Plot Summary: At once gritty, whimsical and highly theatrical, Revolution Studios' "Across the Universe" is an original movie musical springing from the imagination of renowned director Julie Taymor ("Frida," "Titus," and the Broadway smash hit musical "The Lion King") and writers Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais ("The Commitments").
A love story set against the backdrop of the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock 'n roll, the film moves from the dockyards of Liverpool to the creative psychedelia of Greenwich Village, from the riot-torn streets of Detroit to the killing fields of Vietnam. The star-crossed lovers, Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), along with a small group of friends and musicians, are swept up into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements, with "Dr. Robert" (Bono) and "Mr. Kite" (Eddie Izzard) as their guides. Tumultuous forces outside their control ultimately tear the young lovers apart, forcing Jude and Lucy – against all odds – to find their own way back to each other.
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The Brave One
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: Neil Jordan
Screenwriter: Cynthia Mort, Neil Jordan
Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Mary Steenburgen
Genre: Psychological Thriller
MPAA Rating: R (for strong violence, language and some sexuality)
Official Website: TheBraveOne.com
Plot Summary: New York radio host Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) has a life that she loves and a fiancé she adores. All of it is taken from her when a brutal attack leaves Erica badly wounded and her fiancé dead. Unable to move past the tragedy, Erica begins prowling the city streets at night to track down the men she holds responsible. Her dark pursuit of justice catches the public's attention, and the city is riveted by her anonymous exploits. But with the NYPD desperate to find the culprit and a dogged police detective (Terrence Howard) hot on her trail, she must decide whether her quest for revenge is truly the right path, or if she is becoming the very thing she is trying to stop.
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Eastern Promises
Studio: Focus Features
Director: David Cronenberg
Screenwriter: Steve Knight
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinead Cusack, Donald Sumpter, Jerzy Skolimowski
Genre: Thriller
MPAA Rating: R (for strong brutal and bloody violence, some graphic sexuality, language and nudity)
Official Website: FocusFeatures.com/EasternPromises
Plot Summary: The mysterious and charismatic Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin (Mortensen) is a driver for one of London's most notorious organized crime families of Eastern European origin. The family itself is part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood. Headed by Semyon (Academy Award nominee Armin Mueller-Stahl), whose courtly charm as the welcoming proprietor of the plush Trans-Siberian restaurant impeccably masks a cold and brutal core, the family's fortunes are tested by Semyon's volatile son and enforcer, Kirill (Vincent Cassel), who is more tightly bound to Nikolai than to his own father.
But Nikolai's carefully maintained existence is jarred once he crosses paths at Christmastime with Anna Khitrova (Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts), a midwife at a North London hospital. Anna is deeply affected by the desperate situation of a young teenager who dies while giving birth to a baby. Anna resolves to try to trace the baby's lineage and relatives. The girl's personal diary also survives her; it is written in Russian, and Anna seeks answers in it.
Anna's mother Helen (Sinead Cusack) does not discourage her, but Anna's irascible Russian-born uncle Stepan (Jerzy Skolimowski) urges caution. He is right to do so; by delving into the diary, Anna has accidentally unleashed the full fury of the Vory.
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Great World of Sound
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Director: Craig Zobel
Screenwriter: Craig Zobel, George Smith
Starring: John Baker, Libertad Green, Michael Harding, Pat Healy, Kene Holliday, Barlow Jacobs, Carver Johns, Robert Longstreet, Rebecca Mader, Tricia Paoluccio, Scott Reynolds, Mark Scarboro
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: R (for language)
Official Website: GreatWorldofSound.com/Film
Plot Summary: "Great World of Sound" follows Martin (Pat Healy), as he applies for a job at a company training prospective "music producers". During training he pairs up with another new employee, Clarence (Kene Holliday), a middle aged man trying to change his career path. As record producers, the two travel to towns where the company has placed newspaper ads to find undiscovered musicians. They are seeking talent for the record label- signing new artists and giving them a chance to let their music be heard... for a small fee. It's going great at first, but soon Martin and Clarence begin to question whether the company is as virtuous as it promises to be in it's promise to give people their dream.
This film evokes the image of the traveling salesman- a talent salesman- to address the increasing trend of people looking for a shortcut to fame. The film also examines the people who promise such an easy path- commenting that a "scam artist" rarely believes they are one, and that often the scam artist is being scammed himself.
View attachment 25959
In the Valley of Elah
Studio: Warner Independent Pictures
Director: Paul Haggis
Screenwriter: Paul Haggis
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon, Jason Patric, Jonathan Tucker, James Franco, Frances Fisher, Tim McGraw, Mehcad Brooks, Wes Chatham
Genre: Drama, War
MPAA Rating: R (for violent and disturbing content, language and some sexuality/nudity)
Official Website: IntheValleyofElah.com
Plot Summary: "In the Valley of Elah" tells the story of a war veteran (Tommy Lee Jones), his wife (Susan Sarandon) and the search for their son, a soldier who recently returned from Iraq but has mysteriously gone missing, and the police detective (Charlize Theron) who helps in the investigation.
View attachment 25960
Moving McAllister
Studio: First Independent Pictures
Director: Andrew Black
Screenwriter: Ben Gourley
Starring: Ben Gourley, Mila Kunis, Jon Heder, Rutger Hauer
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some drug content, sexual references and crude humor)
Official Website: MovingMcAllisterthemovie.com
Plot Summary: Rick Robinson is a ladder-climbing law intern from Miami with four days until the Bar Exam. Desperate to score points with his boss (McAllister), he commits to a favor he can't afford. He ends up in a rundown truck headed to L.A. with his boss's possessions, his Hollywood-bound niece, and her pet pig. Amidst hitch-hikers, breakdowns, and assorted local yokels, Rick finds love, life and maybe himself in this trans-American road trip from hell.
View attachment 25961
Mr. Woodcock
Studio: New Line Cinema
Director: Craig Gillespie
Screenwriter: Michael Carnes, Josh Gilbert
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Seann William Scott, Susan Sarandon, Ethan Suplee, Melissa Sagemiller, Amy Poehler
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for crude and sexual content, thematic material, language and a mild drug reference)
Official Website: Woodcockmovie.com
Plot Summary: Billy Bob Thornton, Seann William Scott, and Susan Sarandon star in the outrageous comedy "Mr. Woodcock." Scott stars as John Farley, a self-help author who returns to his hometown only to discover that his mother (Sarandon) has fallen in love with his old high school nemesis, Mr. Woodcock (Thornton) – the gruff, no-nonsense gym teacher who had put him through years of mental and physical humiliation. Determined to prevent history from repeating itself, John sets out to stop his mother from marrying the man who had made life miserable for him and his classmates.
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Silk
Studio: Picturehouse
Director: François Girard
Screenwriter: Michael Golding
Starring: Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley, Alfred Molina, Koji Yakusho, Sei Ashina, Mark Rendall
Genre: Drama, Romance
MPAA Rating: R (for sexuality and nudity)
Official Website: Silkmovie.com
Plot Summary: Based on the beloved, best-selling novel by Alessandro Baricco, "Silk" is the story of Herve Joncour (Pitt), a 19th Century French silkworm merchant who travels to Japan and begins a clandestine and forbidden romance with a mysterious and sensual woman.
Silkworm eggs. In one's palm one could hold thousands of them. When the pébrine epidemic—the spotted silkworm disease that ravaged eggs from European hatcheries in the 1860s—spread overseas, however, eggs from as far away as Africa and India became infected and the entire European silk trade seemed doomed.
To continue his lucrative trade Baldabiou (Molina), a roguish French trader, decides to send a young military officer Herve Joncour (Pitt) on a perilous mission to Japan. Thus, separating him for months on end from Helene (Knightley), his lovely and devoted schoolteacher wife. The island that produced the finest silk in the world for thousands of years, prior to the opening of the Suez Canal, Japan was considered a dominion forbidden to foreigners, quite literally the opposite end of the world.
It is here that Herve encounters the powerful and feared local baron, Hara Jubei (Yakusho), with whom he will trade for the precious silkworm eggs. And it is here, in a world unlike anything that Herve has experienced before, that he becomes entranced by the baron's concubine, a deeply mysterious girl of intoxicating beauty. Without speaking one another's language, together they share a doomed, obsessive love...
A film of painterly beauty and ravishing romance, "Silk" is a historically rapturous epic romance of East meets West.
Darkon
Studio: Porchlight / IFC
Director: Andrew Neel, Luke Meyer
Screenwriter: Not Available
Starring: Skip Lipman, Daniel McCarthur, Rebecca Thurmond, Kenyon Wells
Genre: Documentary
Official Website: Darkonthemovie.com
Plot Summary: Swords. Armor. Crossbows. Grown men attacking a plywood fortress. Imagine "Braveheart" re-enacted in a Baltimore park -- and everybody wants to be a hero. A serious look into the bizarre and fascinating world of Darkon, a full-contact medieval fantasy group, active in the Baltimore area since 1985.
December Boys
Studio: Warner Independent Pictures
Director: Rod Hardy
Screenwriter: Marc Rosenberg
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Christian Byers, Lee Cormie, James Fraser, Teresa Palmer, Jack Thompson, Kris McQuade, Suzie Wilks, Victori
Genre: Drama, Family, Romance
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for sexual content, nudity, underage drinking and smoking)
Official Website: DecemberBoys.com
Plot Summary: Based on the classic Michael Noonan novel, "December Boys" is a story of four orphan teenagers growing up behind the closed doors of a catholic convent in outback Australia during the 1960s. As the boys watch younger kids get adopted by loving families, they begin to realize that as they get older, their turn may never come. When the convent sends the boys to visit the seaside one summer, they finally have something to look forward to.
While at the seaside, the boys meet a young couple unable to have children, who would make the perfect parents. The eldest of the boys, Maps, finds himself drawn to Lucy, a beautiful girl from down the coast. Competing to be the most adoptable, the rest of the boys, Sparks, Misty and Spit, severely test their friendships as long gestating feelings of rejection explode to the surface.
The bonds of friendship eventually overcome the rivalries, sealing forever the strong ties that bind the December boys as they learn the real meaning behind friendship, family and love.
Dragon Wars (D-War)
Studio: Freestyle Releasing
Director: Hyung-rae Shim
Screenwriter: Hyung-rae Shim
Starring: Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Robert Forster, Aimee Garcia, Craig Robinson
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence and creature action)
Official Website: Dragon-Wars.com
Plot Summary: In a small Korean village, five hundred years ago, a girl named Narin was born carrying the coveted Yeouijoo inside her. The Heavens sent the protector Bochun and his protégé Haram, to ensure that when it came time, Narin was peacefully sacrificed to the pre-determined Good Imoogi. Bochun vigorously trained Haram as a knight, to be prepared for the eventual day when Narin would be delivered to the Good Imoogi. The day the Dark Imoogi, Buraki, and his army destroyed Narin's village looking for the Yeouijoo, Bochun instructed Haram to take her to the Good Imoogi.
The young girl and her knight would then fulfill the giant's serpent's destiny by giving it the power to save the world and become a heavenly dragon. By this time, after spending several years together, Haram and Narin had fallen in love. Unable to sacrifice their love to the benevolent Imoogi, they jumped to their deaths together in each other's arms. The Good Imoogi's destiny was unfulfilled and he would have to wait another five hundred years until the next Yeouijoo appears.
It is now five hundred years later in present day Los Angeles and the quest for the Imoogi is reborn. Haram and Narin have been reincarnated as Ethan Kendrick (Jason Behr) and Sarah Daniels (Amanda Brooks) whose bond of love remains unsevered. Ethan is an investigative reporter for the local news. He is closely following a series of unexplainable disasters occurring in the area. When a young woman named Sarah is linked to those occurrences, Ethan remembers that an ancient man he met many years before had predicted all of these events . Ethan finds Sarah and helps her escape the wrath of Buraki and his army. Aware that Sarah must sacrifice herself in order to save the city from the Buraki and ensure that the Good Imoogi becomes the Dragon, Ethan tries to convince Sarah that there is another way to battle the Imoogies. Meanwhile, the FBI agent on the case, Frank Campbell (Robert Forster), has uncovered the Imoogies' intentions through his own investigations. Campbell is ready to sacrifice Sarah to the demonic animals to save Los Angeles. In the face of chaos and destruction, Ethan and Sarah must decide their own fate - whether to defy the will of heaven once again and let the city be destroyed or deliver Sarah to the Good Imoogi.
Ira & Abby
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Director: Robert Cary
Screenwriter: Jennifer Westfeldt
Starring: Jennifer Westfeldt, Chris Messina
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: IraandAbby.com
Plot Summary: A sweet, hilarious and slightly subversive romantic comedy that examines the issues of marriage, monogamy and whether "I do" is the only path to life-long love and happiness.
Ira Black, is brilliant, neurotic, Jewish and has so many issues he can't fit them into 12 years of analysis. He can't finish his dissertation, he can't commit to his longtime girlfriend, and he's incapable of making a decision, even if it's just what to order at the diner. Abby Willoughby, is a free spirit who's better at solving her friends' problems at the gym than selling memberships. When the two meet, the impossible happens: they fall in love, meet each other's parents and decide to get married, all in a few breathless hours.
And life is good, until Ira finds out that Abby is a divorcee... two times over. Despite even more therapy, Ira can't help but feel that their marriage was built on a lie. They divorce quietly, while cracks grow wider in their parents' marriages. Ira's gorgeous analyst mother Arlene starts a secret liaison with Abby's charming voiceover artist father Michael, while Abby's mother Lynne wonders why she's no longer attractive to her husband and Ira's father Sy pretends not to notice.
Of course, Ira soon realizes he's miserable without Abby. He asks her forgiveness and they marry again, this time making more realistic vows. But Ira's jealousy issues and Abby's free-floating tendencies lead him to reconnect with his ex-girlfriend. When Abby finds out about their parents' infidelities, the three couples converge for a group therapy session with all of their therapists. Ira and Abby ultimately realize that they were meant to be together. But divorced. Because marriage just isn't for them...
King of California
Studio: First Look Pictures
Director: Mike Cahill
Screenwriter: Mike Cahill
Starring: Michael Douglas, Evan Rachel Wood, Greg Davis Jr, Angel Oquendo
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some strong language, mature thematic elements and brief drug references)
Official Website: FirstLookStudios.com
Plot Summary: A young girl's teenage years are complicated by an eccentric and manic-depressive father who becomes obsessed with his belief that there's buried treasure in the San Fernando Valley.
Moondance Alexander
Studio: The Bigger Picture
Director: Michael Damian
Screenwriter: Michael Damian, Janeen Damian
Starring: Kay Panabaker, Don Johnson, Lori Loughlin, James Best
Genre: Family
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: MoondanceAlexander.com
Plot Summary: Inspired by a true story - "Moondance Alexander" is a spirited teen living with her eccentric mother. She is faced with another uneventful summer until she discovers a lost pinto pony named Checkers who has jumped out of his paddock. Although Moondance returns the horse to his rightful owner, the gruff and mysterious Dante Longpre, she is convinced that Checkers is a champion jumper in disguise and is determined to help him realize his full potential. Moondance manages to talk Dante into training her and Checkers for the Bow Valley Classic and despite the criticism of her piers; discovers that perseverance, loyalty and individuality can land you in the winner's circle.
Film Database
The Rape of Europa
Studio: Menemsha Films
Director: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham
Screenwriter: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: RapeofEuropa.com
Plot Summary: In a journey through seven countries, "The Rape of Europa" takes the audience into the violent whirlwind of fanaticism, greed, and warfare that threatened to wipe out the artistic heritage of Europe. For twelve long years, the Nazis looted and destroyed art on a scale unprecedented in history. But young art professionals as well as ordinary heroes, from truck drivers to department store clerks, fought back with an extraordinary effort to safeguard, rescue and return the millions of lost, hidden and stolen treasures.
"The Rape of Europa" begins and ends with the story of artist Gustav Klimt's famed Gold Portrait, stolen from Viennese Jews in 1938 and now the most expensive painting ever sold. Today, more than sixty years later, the legacy of this tragic history continues to play out as families of looted collectors recover major works of art, conservators repair battle damage, and nations fight over the fate of ill-gotten spoils of war. According to U.S. estimates, the Nazis stole one-fifth of all the known artworks in Europe. While the Allies returned most of the displaced art in the decade following the war, much of the loot is still missing. Tragically, unique masterpieces were destroyed and lost to posterity forever. Other works of art—the last, forgotten victims of the war—survived but remain unidentified, traceable only with costly and difficult investigation.
In contrast to the wholesale looting of Hitler and the Nazis, the western Allies worked to mitigate the tragic, inevitable toll exacted on art and historic cities during their invasion of Italy, France and Germany. Central to this history is the unprecedented mission of the Monuments Men, mostly American art historians and museum curators who, drafted into military service, mounted a miraculous effort to protect monuments and recover millions of pieces of displaced art.