- Messages
- 6,174
View attachment 25000
3:10 to Yuma
Studio: Lionsgate
Director: James Mangold
Screenwriter: Stuart Beattie, Michael Brandt, Derek Haas
Starring: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Logan Lerman, Dallas Roberts, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda, Vinessa Shaw, Alan Tudyk, Luce Rains, Gretchen Mol
Genre: Western
MPAA Rating: R (for violence and some language)
Official Website: Lionsgate.com/310toYuma
Plot Summary: "3:10 to Yuma" stars Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster, Gretchen Mol and Peter Fonda in a modern take on the classic western by Elmore Leonard from producing/writing/directing team Cathy Konrad and James Mangold ("Walk the Line").
In Arizona in the late 1800's, infamous outlaw Ben Wade (Crowe) and his vicious gang of thieves and murderers have plagued the Southern Railroad. When Wade is captured, Civil War veteran Dan Evans (Bale), struggling to survive on his drought-plagued ranch, volunteers to deliver him alive to the "3:10 to Yuma", a train that will take the killer to trial. On the trail, Evans and Wade, each from very different worlds, begin to earn each other's respect. But with Wade's outfit on their trail – and dangers at every turn – the mission soon becomes a violent, impossible journey toward each man's destiny.
View attachment 25001
The Brothers Solomon
Studio: Screen Gems (Sony)
Director: Bob Odenkirk
Screenwriter: Will Forte
Starring: Will Arnett, Will Forte, Chi McBride, Kristen Wiig, Malin Akerman
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: R (for language and sexual content)
Official Website: SonyPictures.com
Plot Summary: "The Brothers Solomon" tells the hilarious story of Dean and John Solomon (Forte and Arnett), two good-hearted but romantically-challenged brothers. When they find out their dying father's last wish is for a grandchild, the brothers set out to find someone to have a baby with. But after spending their formative years being home schooled by their father in a remote arctic location, their social skills prove to be somewhat lacking and their attempts at fatherhood go hysterically and disastrously wrong.
View attachment 25002
Hatchet
Studio: Anchor Bay
Director: Adam Green
Screenwriter: Adam Green
Starring: Joel Moore, Tamara Feldman, Deon Richmond, Mercedes McNab, Kane Hodder, Parry Shen, Joleigh Fioreavanti, Joel Murray, Richard Riehle, Patrika Darbo, Robert Englund, Joshua Leonard, Tony Todd, John Carl Buechler, Rileah Vanderbilt
Genre: Comedy, Horror
MPAA Rating: R (for strong bloody horror violence, sexual content, nudity and language)
Official Website: Hatchetmovie.com
Plot Summary: When a group of tourists on a New Orleans haunted swamp tour find themselves stranded in the wilderness, their evening of fun and spooks turns into a horrific nightmare.
View attachment 25003
The Hunting Party
Studio: MGM, The Weinstein Company
Director: Richard Shepard
Screenwriter: Richard Shepard
Starring: Richard Gere, Terrence Howard, Jessie Eisenberg, James Brolin, Diane Kruger, Joy Bryant
Genre: Action, Adventure
MPAA Rating: R (for strong language and some violent content)
Official Website: TheHuntingPartymovie.com
Plot Summary: "In war what you see, and what really happened, are sometimes two very different things."
TV News reporter Simon Hunt (Richard Gere) and cameraman Duck (Terrence Howard) have worked in the world's hottest war zones: from Bosnia to Iraq, from Somalia to El Salvador. Together they have dodged bullets, filed incisive reports and collected Emmy awards. Then one terrible day in a Bosnian village everything changes. During a live broadcast on national television, Simon has a meltdown. After that, Duck is promoted and Simon just disappears.
Five years later Duck returns to Sarajevo with rookie reporter Benjamin (Jessie Eisenberg) to cover the fifth anniversary of the end of the war. Simon shows up, a ghost from the past, with the promise of a world exclusive. He convinces Duck that he knows the whereabouts of Bosnia's most wanted war criminal "The Fox." Armed with only spurious information Simon, Duck and Benjamin embark on a dark and dangerous mission that takes them deep into hostile territory.
It's the scoop of a lifetime but will they live to report it?
The movie is based on the "Esquire" article "What I Did On My Summer Vacation" by Scott Anderson.
View attachment 25004
In the Shadow of the Moon
Studio: THINKFilm
Director: David Sington
Screenwriter: Not Available
Starring: Jim Lovell, Dave Scott, John Young, Gene Cernan, Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, Charlie Duke, Harrison Schmitt
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: PG (for mild language, brief violent images and incidental smoking)
Plot Summary: Between 1968 and 1972, nine American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon, and 12 men walked upon its surface. They remain the only human beings to have stood on another world. "In the Shadow of the Moon" brings together for the first, and very possibly the last, time surviving crew members from every single Apollo mission that flew to the Moon, and allows them to tell their story in their own words.
This riveting first-hand testimony is interwoven with visually stunning archival material which has been re-mastered from the original NASA film footage – much of it never used before. The result is an intimate epic that vividly communicates the daring, the danger, the pride, and the promise of this extraordinary era in history when the whole world literally looked up at America.
The participating astronauts include Jim Lovell (Apollo 8 and 13), Dave Scott (Apollo 9 and 15), John Young (Apollo 10 and 16), Gene Cernan (Apollo 10 and 17), Mike Collins (Apollo 11), Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), Alan Bean (Apollo 12), Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14), Charlie Duke (Apollo 16) and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17). Beautifully shot by Clive North in High Definition video, the astronauts talk directly to camera. They emerge as surprisingly eloquent, witty, emotional and very human.
The producers Duncan Copp and Chris Riley spent many weeks in the NASA film library examining cans of film some of which had not been opened for over 30 years. This search uncovered many gems, astonishing space shots which have been re-mastered from the original film rolls to reveal the Apollo program with a visual clarity and impact it has never had before. The mute 16mm rolls shot in Mission Control have been laboriously lip-synced with the 16-track audio recordings of the mission controllers’ voice loop to re-unite the pictures and sound of many historic moments for the first time, lending a striking immediacy to many dramatic scenes.
Editor David Fairhead and director David Sington have woven this material together with a beautiful orchestral score from composer Philip Sheppard to create a moving, nostalgic and inspiring cinematic experience.
View attachment 25005
Shoot 'Em Up
Studio: New Line Cinema
Director: Michael Davis
Screenwriter: Michael Davis
Starring: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci, Greg Bryk, Chris Jericho, Stephen McHattie, Jane McLean, Daniel Pilon
Genre: Action, Thriller
MPAA Rating: R (for pervasive strong bloody violence, sexuality and some language)
Official Website: ShootEmUpmovie.com
Plot Summary: A gritty, fast-paced action thriller, "Shoot 'Em Up" kicks into high gear with a memorable opening scene and never relents. Clive Owen stars as Mr. Smith, a mysterious loner who teams up with an unlikely ally (Monica Belluci) to protect a newborn baby from a determined criminal (Paul Giamatti) who hunts them throughout the bowels of the city. "Shoot 'Em Up" is written and directed by Michael Davis ("Monster Man") and is scheduled for a Sept. 7, 2007 release.
The Bubble
Studio: Strand Releasing
Director: Eytan Fox
Screenwriter: Eytan Fox, Gal Uchovsky
Starring: Ohad Knoller, Alon Friedman, Daniela Virtzer, Yousef 'Joe' Sweid, Miki Kam, Shredi Jabarin, Lior Ashkenazi Zion Barouch, Oded Leopold, Dorin Munir, Zohar Liba, Yael Zafrir, Noa Barkai, Yotam Ishay, Avital Barak
Genre: Drama
Official Website: TheBubble.msn.co.il
Plot Summary: Three young Israelis, two guys and a girl, share an apartment in Tel Aviv's hippest neighborhood: headstrong Lulu, who works in a bath products boutique; flamboyant Yali, who manages a trendy café; and brooding music store clerk Noam, who spends his weekends serving at checkpoints in the National Guard. When Noam meets and falls in love with a Palestinian man named Ashraf, he and his friends conspire to help Ashraf stay on in Tel Aviv illegally. They participate in a beach rally, celebrating a peaceful coexistence, and calling for an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories. But ultimately, their carefully constructed utopia is shattered by the political and social realities of the Middle East, and the constant outbursts of violence.
Fierce People
Studio: Autonomous Films
Director: Griffin Dunne
Screenwriter: Dirk Wittenborn
Starring: Diane Lane, Anton Yelchin, Donald Sutherland, Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Perkins, Paz de la Huerta, Blu Mankuma, Chris Evans
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R (for language, drug use, sexuality/nudity and some violence)
Official Website: FiercePeoplemovie.com
Plot Summary: Trapped in his mother's Lower East Side apartment, sixteen-year-old Finn (Anton Yelchin) wants nothing more than to escape New York and spend the summer in South America studying the Iskanani Indians, or "Fierce People," with the anthropologist father he's never met. But Finn's dreams are shattered when he is arrested in a desperate effort to help his drug-dependent mother, Liz (Diane Lane), who scrapes by working as a masseuse. Determined to get their lives back on track, Liz moves the two of them into a guesthouse on the vast country estate of her ex-client, the aging aristocratic billionaire, Ogden C. Osbourne (Donald Sutherland). In Osbourne's close world of privilege and power, Finn and Liz encounter a tribe fiercer and more mysterious than anything they might find in the South American jungle: the super rich. While Liz battles her substance abuse and struggles to win back her son's love and trust, Finn falls in love with Osbourne's beautiful granddaughter, Maya (Kristin Stewart), befriends her charismatic older brother, Bryce (Chris Evans), and even wins the favor of Osbourne himself. But when a shocking act of violence shatters Finn's ascension within the Osbourne clan, the golden promises of this lush world quickly sour. And both Finn and Liz, caught in a harrowing struggle for their dignity, discover that membership always comes at a price...
Contrasting the mores of high society with the blunt savagery of primitive tribes, "Fierce People" takes an inside look at the upper classes, examining the darkness that lurks beneath the surface of good manners. Sporting a biting wit, and featuring charismatic performances from Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland, this unflinching drama exposes the trappings of wealth and privilege, and their overwhelming power to both seduce and corrupt.
The Inner Life of Martin Frost
Studio: New Yorker Films
Director: Paul Auster
Screenwriter: Paul Auster
Starring: David Thewlis, Irène Jacob, Michael Imperioli
Plot Summary: After working for three years on a novel, writer Martin Frost (David Thewlis of "Naked") borrows the empty country house of his friends for a long-needed rest. No sooner does he arrive, however, than an idea for a new story inspires him to get back to work. When he wakes the following morning, eager to begin his new tale, Martin is shocked to find a strange young woman (Irène Jacob) sleeping next to him in bed * the attractive, effervescent Claire. Presumably the niece of his hosts, Claire wittily overcomes Martin's initial resistance to her, and the two of them agree to share the country house, while promising to respect each other's space. Soon their attraction for each other takes over and they begin to fall in love; but is Claire really the person she claims to be?
As Martin nears the finish of his story, Claire falls deathly ill. Does this mysterious muse have an existence independent from Martin's story? Can the imaginary cross over into the real world, and, if so, what are the consequences? These weighty questions are handled with a light touch, peppered with wordplay, puns, and pratfalls. Just when the story seems to verge on tragedy, it takes an unpredictable turn into comedy, ignited by a hilarious performance from Michael Imperioli ("The Sopranos") as an obnoxious plumber-cum-writer whose lack of talent threatens his own muse (lovely Sophie Auster, the director's daughter).
"The Inner Life of Martin Frost" is a philosophical mystery that asks us to question the manner in which we define reality and the way we choose to see the world around us. Like much of Auster's work ("The New York Trilogy," "The Brooklyn Follies," "The Music of Chance"), this witty and haunting parable tells a wonderful story and also functions as a testament to the pleasures of storytelling.
Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint
Studio: Luminous Velocity Releasing
Director: Neten Chokling
Screenwriter: Neten Chokling, Tenzing Choyang Gyari
Starring: Orgyen Tobgyal, Kelsang Chukie Tethtong, Jamyang Lodro, Jamyang Nyima
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Foreign
Plot Summary: "Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint." It is a story of greed and vengeance, of demons, magic, murder-and redemption. It is an ancient tale that bears a timeless message about the futility of revenge.
Nine hundred years after his death, the visionary, sorcerer, saint, and poet Milarepa remains Tibet's greatest mystic. Yet his youthful rage and black magic brought death and destruction upon his enemies and suffering to his family. Milarepa depicts the humble beginnings of the man who was to become Tibet's greatest saint. A true story based on centuries-old oral traditions, a youthful Milarepa is propelled into a world of sorrow and betrayal after his father's sudden death. Destitute and hopeless, he sets out to learn black magic and exact revenge on his enemies, encountering magicians, demons, an enigmatic teacher and unexpected mystical powers along the way. But it is in confrontation with the consequences of his anger that he learns the most.
Milarepa was filmed on location in the spectacular Spiti Valley on the Tibet-India border and produced with a crew of 50 Buddhist monks from Pema Ewam Chogar Gyurme Ling Monastery. The story offers a provocative parallel to the cycle of violence and retribution consuming today's world.
Romance & Cigarettes
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Director: John Turturro
Screenwriter: John Turturro
Starring: James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, Kumar Pallana, Christopher Walken, Mandy Moore, Aida Turturro, Mary-Louise Parker, Eddie Izzard, Bobby Cannavale, Ivan Fatovic, Tony Goldwyn, Amy Sedaris, Elaine Stritch, Amedeo Turturro
Genre: Musical, Romance
MPAA Rating: R (for sexual content including some strong dialogue, and language)
Plot Summary: "Romance & Cigarettes" is a down-and-dirty musical love story set in the world of the working class. Nick (Gandolfini) is an ironworker who builds and repairs bridges. He's married to Kitty (Sarandon), a dressmaker, a strong and gentle woman with whom he has three daughters. He is carrying on a torrid affair with a redheaded woman named Tula (Winslet). Nick is basically a good, hardworking man driven forward by will and blinded by his urges. Like Oedipus at Colonus, he is sent into exile and searches to find his way back through the damage he has done. In an imaginative, humorous, and touching way, "Romance & Cigarettes" explores the cost and value of a relationship through life and death. When the characters can no longer express themselves with language, they break into song, lip-synching the tunes lodged in their subconscious. It is their way to escape the harsh reality of their world – to dream, to remember, and to connect to another human being.
Summer Palace
Studio: Palm Pictures
Director: Ye Lou
Screenwriter: Ye Lou, Feng Mei
Starring: Xueyun Bai, Lin Cui, Long Duan, Xiadong Guo, Lei Hao, Ling Hu, Chi Le, Xianmin Zhang
Genre: Drama, Foreign, Romance
Plot Summary: Country girl Yu Hong leaves her village, her family and her lover to study in Beijing. At university, she discovers an intense world of sexual freedom and forbidden pleasure. Enraptured, compulsive, she falls madly in love with fellow student Zhou Wei. Driven by obsessive passions they can neither understand nor control, their relationship becomes one of dangerous games - betrayals, recriminations, provocations - as all around them, their fellow students begin to demonstrate, demanding democracy and freedom. Protests collapse, and Yu and Zhou lose each other amidst the social chaos and panicked crowds. Zhou Wei is sent to a summer military camp, and on his release moves to Berlin, fleeing both his country and memories of Yu. She finds a job, a lover, but can not forget Zhou. In Germany, social unrest is mounting: calls for freedom, demonstrations for democracy. A familiar story for Zhou. Weary, still haunted by Yu, he returns to China as the Berlin Wall crashes down. He finds her at last, in a small town. From evening to dawn, their future stretches before them, two changed souls in a changed world.
The Unknown Soldier
Studio: First Run Features
Director: Michael Verhoeven
Plot Summary: The Wehrmacht-Exhibition, which was shown in eleven major cities in Germany between 1999 and 2004 and was visited by more than 500,000 attendants, challenged ordinary Germans to rethink what their fathers and grandfathers did during the war. Whereas most had been led to believe that the cold-blooded murder of civilians had been a crime of a minority of officers, for the first time Germans saw photos and footage of ordinary soldiers gleefully tormenting and executing civilians on the Eastern front. The nation was shaken, and large protests were organized by those who believed the evidence was manufactured.
In "The Unknown Soldier," director Michael Verhoeven ("The Nasty Girl") interviews historians and experts, including those who allege or deny the crimes, and filmed in the killing fields of Ukraine and White Russia.
3:10 to Yuma
Studio: Lionsgate
Director: James Mangold
Screenwriter: Stuart Beattie, Michael Brandt, Derek Haas
Starring: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Logan Lerman, Dallas Roberts, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda, Vinessa Shaw, Alan Tudyk, Luce Rains, Gretchen Mol
Genre: Western
MPAA Rating: R (for violence and some language)
Official Website: Lionsgate.com/310toYuma
Plot Summary: "3:10 to Yuma" stars Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster, Gretchen Mol and Peter Fonda in a modern take on the classic western by Elmore Leonard from producing/writing/directing team Cathy Konrad and James Mangold ("Walk the Line").
In Arizona in the late 1800's, infamous outlaw Ben Wade (Crowe) and his vicious gang of thieves and murderers have plagued the Southern Railroad. When Wade is captured, Civil War veteran Dan Evans (Bale), struggling to survive on his drought-plagued ranch, volunteers to deliver him alive to the "3:10 to Yuma", a train that will take the killer to trial. On the trail, Evans and Wade, each from very different worlds, begin to earn each other's respect. But with Wade's outfit on their trail – and dangers at every turn – the mission soon becomes a violent, impossible journey toward each man's destiny.
View attachment 25001
The Brothers Solomon
Studio: Screen Gems (Sony)
Director: Bob Odenkirk
Screenwriter: Will Forte
Starring: Will Arnett, Will Forte, Chi McBride, Kristen Wiig, Malin Akerman
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: R (for language and sexual content)
Official Website: SonyPictures.com
Plot Summary: "The Brothers Solomon" tells the hilarious story of Dean and John Solomon (Forte and Arnett), two good-hearted but romantically-challenged brothers. When they find out their dying father's last wish is for a grandchild, the brothers set out to find someone to have a baby with. But after spending their formative years being home schooled by their father in a remote arctic location, their social skills prove to be somewhat lacking and their attempts at fatherhood go hysterically and disastrously wrong.
View attachment 25002
Hatchet
Studio: Anchor Bay
Director: Adam Green
Screenwriter: Adam Green
Starring: Joel Moore, Tamara Feldman, Deon Richmond, Mercedes McNab, Kane Hodder, Parry Shen, Joleigh Fioreavanti, Joel Murray, Richard Riehle, Patrika Darbo, Robert Englund, Joshua Leonard, Tony Todd, John Carl Buechler, Rileah Vanderbilt
Genre: Comedy, Horror
MPAA Rating: R (for strong bloody horror violence, sexual content, nudity and language)
Official Website: Hatchetmovie.com
Plot Summary: When a group of tourists on a New Orleans haunted swamp tour find themselves stranded in the wilderness, their evening of fun and spooks turns into a horrific nightmare.
View attachment 25003
The Hunting Party
Studio: MGM, The Weinstein Company
Director: Richard Shepard
Screenwriter: Richard Shepard
Starring: Richard Gere, Terrence Howard, Jessie Eisenberg, James Brolin, Diane Kruger, Joy Bryant
Genre: Action, Adventure
MPAA Rating: R (for strong language and some violent content)
Official Website: TheHuntingPartymovie.com
Plot Summary: "In war what you see, and what really happened, are sometimes two very different things."
TV News reporter Simon Hunt (Richard Gere) and cameraman Duck (Terrence Howard) have worked in the world's hottest war zones: from Bosnia to Iraq, from Somalia to El Salvador. Together they have dodged bullets, filed incisive reports and collected Emmy awards. Then one terrible day in a Bosnian village everything changes. During a live broadcast on national television, Simon has a meltdown. After that, Duck is promoted and Simon just disappears.
Five years later Duck returns to Sarajevo with rookie reporter Benjamin (Jessie Eisenberg) to cover the fifth anniversary of the end of the war. Simon shows up, a ghost from the past, with the promise of a world exclusive. He convinces Duck that he knows the whereabouts of Bosnia's most wanted war criminal "The Fox." Armed with only spurious information Simon, Duck and Benjamin embark on a dark and dangerous mission that takes them deep into hostile territory.
It's the scoop of a lifetime but will they live to report it?
The movie is based on the "Esquire" article "What I Did On My Summer Vacation" by Scott Anderson.
View attachment 25004
In the Shadow of the Moon
Studio: THINKFilm
Director: David Sington
Screenwriter: Not Available
Starring: Jim Lovell, Dave Scott, John Young, Gene Cernan, Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, Charlie Duke, Harrison Schmitt
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: PG (for mild language, brief violent images and incidental smoking)
Plot Summary: Between 1968 and 1972, nine American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon, and 12 men walked upon its surface. They remain the only human beings to have stood on another world. "In the Shadow of the Moon" brings together for the first, and very possibly the last, time surviving crew members from every single Apollo mission that flew to the Moon, and allows them to tell their story in their own words.
This riveting first-hand testimony is interwoven with visually stunning archival material which has been re-mastered from the original NASA film footage – much of it never used before. The result is an intimate epic that vividly communicates the daring, the danger, the pride, and the promise of this extraordinary era in history when the whole world literally looked up at America.
The participating astronauts include Jim Lovell (Apollo 8 and 13), Dave Scott (Apollo 9 and 15), John Young (Apollo 10 and 16), Gene Cernan (Apollo 10 and 17), Mike Collins (Apollo 11), Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), Alan Bean (Apollo 12), Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14), Charlie Duke (Apollo 16) and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17). Beautifully shot by Clive North in High Definition video, the astronauts talk directly to camera. They emerge as surprisingly eloquent, witty, emotional and very human.
The producers Duncan Copp and Chris Riley spent many weeks in the NASA film library examining cans of film some of which had not been opened for over 30 years. This search uncovered many gems, astonishing space shots which have been re-mastered from the original film rolls to reveal the Apollo program with a visual clarity and impact it has never had before. The mute 16mm rolls shot in Mission Control have been laboriously lip-synced with the 16-track audio recordings of the mission controllers’ voice loop to re-unite the pictures and sound of many historic moments for the first time, lending a striking immediacy to many dramatic scenes.
Editor David Fairhead and director David Sington have woven this material together with a beautiful orchestral score from composer Philip Sheppard to create a moving, nostalgic and inspiring cinematic experience.
View attachment 25005
Shoot 'Em Up
Studio: New Line Cinema
Director: Michael Davis
Screenwriter: Michael Davis
Starring: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci, Greg Bryk, Chris Jericho, Stephen McHattie, Jane McLean, Daniel Pilon
Genre: Action, Thriller
MPAA Rating: R (for pervasive strong bloody violence, sexuality and some language)
Official Website: ShootEmUpmovie.com
Plot Summary: A gritty, fast-paced action thriller, "Shoot 'Em Up" kicks into high gear with a memorable opening scene and never relents. Clive Owen stars as Mr. Smith, a mysterious loner who teams up with an unlikely ally (Monica Belluci) to protect a newborn baby from a determined criminal (Paul Giamatti) who hunts them throughout the bowels of the city. "Shoot 'Em Up" is written and directed by Michael Davis ("Monster Man") and is scheduled for a Sept. 7, 2007 release.
The Bubble
Studio: Strand Releasing
Director: Eytan Fox
Screenwriter: Eytan Fox, Gal Uchovsky
Starring: Ohad Knoller, Alon Friedman, Daniela Virtzer, Yousef 'Joe' Sweid, Miki Kam, Shredi Jabarin, Lior Ashkenazi Zion Barouch, Oded Leopold, Dorin Munir, Zohar Liba, Yael Zafrir, Noa Barkai, Yotam Ishay, Avital Barak
Genre: Drama
Official Website: TheBubble.msn.co.il
Plot Summary: Three young Israelis, two guys and a girl, share an apartment in Tel Aviv's hippest neighborhood: headstrong Lulu, who works in a bath products boutique; flamboyant Yali, who manages a trendy café; and brooding music store clerk Noam, who spends his weekends serving at checkpoints in the National Guard. When Noam meets and falls in love with a Palestinian man named Ashraf, he and his friends conspire to help Ashraf stay on in Tel Aviv illegally. They participate in a beach rally, celebrating a peaceful coexistence, and calling for an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories. But ultimately, their carefully constructed utopia is shattered by the political and social realities of the Middle East, and the constant outbursts of violence.
Fierce People
Studio: Autonomous Films
Director: Griffin Dunne
Screenwriter: Dirk Wittenborn
Starring: Diane Lane, Anton Yelchin, Donald Sutherland, Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Perkins, Paz de la Huerta, Blu Mankuma, Chris Evans
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R (for language, drug use, sexuality/nudity and some violence)
Official Website: FiercePeoplemovie.com
Plot Summary: Trapped in his mother's Lower East Side apartment, sixteen-year-old Finn (Anton Yelchin) wants nothing more than to escape New York and spend the summer in South America studying the Iskanani Indians, or "Fierce People," with the anthropologist father he's never met. But Finn's dreams are shattered when he is arrested in a desperate effort to help his drug-dependent mother, Liz (Diane Lane), who scrapes by working as a masseuse. Determined to get their lives back on track, Liz moves the two of them into a guesthouse on the vast country estate of her ex-client, the aging aristocratic billionaire, Ogden C. Osbourne (Donald Sutherland). In Osbourne's close world of privilege and power, Finn and Liz encounter a tribe fiercer and more mysterious than anything they might find in the South American jungle: the super rich. While Liz battles her substance abuse and struggles to win back her son's love and trust, Finn falls in love with Osbourne's beautiful granddaughter, Maya (Kristin Stewart), befriends her charismatic older brother, Bryce (Chris Evans), and even wins the favor of Osbourne himself. But when a shocking act of violence shatters Finn's ascension within the Osbourne clan, the golden promises of this lush world quickly sour. And both Finn and Liz, caught in a harrowing struggle for their dignity, discover that membership always comes at a price...
Contrasting the mores of high society with the blunt savagery of primitive tribes, "Fierce People" takes an inside look at the upper classes, examining the darkness that lurks beneath the surface of good manners. Sporting a biting wit, and featuring charismatic performances from Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland, this unflinching drama exposes the trappings of wealth and privilege, and their overwhelming power to both seduce and corrupt.
The Inner Life of Martin Frost
Studio: New Yorker Films
Director: Paul Auster
Screenwriter: Paul Auster
Starring: David Thewlis, Irène Jacob, Michael Imperioli
Plot Summary: After working for three years on a novel, writer Martin Frost (David Thewlis of "Naked") borrows the empty country house of his friends for a long-needed rest. No sooner does he arrive, however, than an idea for a new story inspires him to get back to work. When he wakes the following morning, eager to begin his new tale, Martin is shocked to find a strange young woman (Irène Jacob) sleeping next to him in bed * the attractive, effervescent Claire. Presumably the niece of his hosts, Claire wittily overcomes Martin's initial resistance to her, and the two of them agree to share the country house, while promising to respect each other's space. Soon their attraction for each other takes over and they begin to fall in love; but is Claire really the person she claims to be?
As Martin nears the finish of his story, Claire falls deathly ill. Does this mysterious muse have an existence independent from Martin's story? Can the imaginary cross over into the real world, and, if so, what are the consequences? These weighty questions are handled with a light touch, peppered with wordplay, puns, and pratfalls. Just when the story seems to verge on tragedy, it takes an unpredictable turn into comedy, ignited by a hilarious performance from Michael Imperioli ("The Sopranos") as an obnoxious plumber-cum-writer whose lack of talent threatens his own muse (lovely Sophie Auster, the director's daughter).
"The Inner Life of Martin Frost" is a philosophical mystery that asks us to question the manner in which we define reality and the way we choose to see the world around us. Like much of Auster's work ("The New York Trilogy," "The Brooklyn Follies," "The Music of Chance"), this witty and haunting parable tells a wonderful story and also functions as a testament to the pleasures of storytelling.
Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint
Studio: Luminous Velocity Releasing
Director: Neten Chokling
Screenwriter: Neten Chokling, Tenzing Choyang Gyari
Starring: Orgyen Tobgyal, Kelsang Chukie Tethtong, Jamyang Lodro, Jamyang Nyima
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Foreign
Plot Summary: "Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint." It is a story of greed and vengeance, of demons, magic, murder-and redemption. It is an ancient tale that bears a timeless message about the futility of revenge.
Nine hundred years after his death, the visionary, sorcerer, saint, and poet Milarepa remains Tibet's greatest mystic. Yet his youthful rage and black magic brought death and destruction upon his enemies and suffering to his family. Milarepa depicts the humble beginnings of the man who was to become Tibet's greatest saint. A true story based on centuries-old oral traditions, a youthful Milarepa is propelled into a world of sorrow and betrayal after his father's sudden death. Destitute and hopeless, he sets out to learn black magic and exact revenge on his enemies, encountering magicians, demons, an enigmatic teacher and unexpected mystical powers along the way. But it is in confrontation with the consequences of his anger that he learns the most.
Milarepa was filmed on location in the spectacular Spiti Valley on the Tibet-India border and produced with a crew of 50 Buddhist monks from Pema Ewam Chogar Gyurme Ling Monastery. The story offers a provocative parallel to the cycle of violence and retribution consuming today's world.
Romance & Cigarettes
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Director: John Turturro
Screenwriter: John Turturro
Starring: James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, Kumar Pallana, Christopher Walken, Mandy Moore, Aida Turturro, Mary-Louise Parker, Eddie Izzard, Bobby Cannavale, Ivan Fatovic, Tony Goldwyn, Amy Sedaris, Elaine Stritch, Amedeo Turturro
Genre: Musical, Romance
MPAA Rating: R (for sexual content including some strong dialogue, and language)
Plot Summary: "Romance & Cigarettes" is a down-and-dirty musical love story set in the world of the working class. Nick (Gandolfini) is an ironworker who builds and repairs bridges. He's married to Kitty (Sarandon), a dressmaker, a strong and gentle woman with whom he has three daughters. He is carrying on a torrid affair with a redheaded woman named Tula (Winslet). Nick is basically a good, hardworking man driven forward by will and blinded by his urges. Like Oedipus at Colonus, he is sent into exile and searches to find his way back through the damage he has done. In an imaginative, humorous, and touching way, "Romance & Cigarettes" explores the cost and value of a relationship through life and death. When the characters can no longer express themselves with language, they break into song, lip-synching the tunes lodged in their subconscious. It is their way to escape the harsh reality of their world – to dream, to remember, and to connect to another human being.
Summer Palace
Studio: Palm Pictures
Director: Ye Lou
Screenwriter: Ye Lou, Feng Mei
Starring: Xueyun Bai, Lin Cui, Long Duan, Xiadong Guo, Lei Hao, Ling Hu, Chi Le, Xianmin Zhang
Genre: Drama, Foreign, Romance
Plot Summary: Country girl Yu Hong leaves her village, her family and her lover to study in Beijing. At university, she discovers an intense world of sexual freedom and forbidden pleasure. Enraptured, compulsive, she falls madly in love with fellow student Zhou Wei. Driven by obsessive passions they can neither understand nor control, their relationship becomes one of dangerous games - betrayals, recriminations, provocations - as all around them, their fellow students begin to demonstrate, demanding democracy and freedom. Protests collapse, and Yu and Zhou lose each other amidst the social chaos and panicked crowds. Zhou Wei is sent to a summer military camp, and on his release moves to Berlin, fleeing both his country and memories of Yu. She finds a job, a lover, but can not forget Zhou. In Germany, social unrest is mounting: calls for freedom, demonstrations for democracy. A familiar story for Zhou. Weary, still haunted by Yu, he returns to China as the Berlin Wall crashes down. He finds her at last, in a small town. From evening to dawn, their future stretches before them, two changed souls in a changed world.
The Unknown Soldier
Studio: First Run Features
Director: Michael Verhoeven
Plot Summary: The Wehrmacht-Exhibition, which was shown in eleven major cities in Germany between 1999 and 2004 and was visited by more than 500,000 attendants, challenged ordinary Germans to rethink what their fathers and grandfathers did during the war. Whereas most had been led to believe that the cold-blooded murder of civilians had been a crime of a minority of officers, for the first time Germans saw photos and footage of ordinary soldiers gleefully tormenting and executing civilians on the Eastern front. The nation was shaken, and large protests were organized by those who believed the evidence was manufactured.
In "The Unknown Soldier," director Michael Verhoeven ("The Nasty Girl") interviews historians and experts, including those who allege or deny the crimes, and filmed in the killing fields of Ukraine and White Russia.
