Film Reviews · Backpex

Title	Overview
Pixadores	Pixadores are a group of young men from the São Paulo favelas. They paint their message on incredible locations to fight the society that’s suppressing them. An invitation to the Berlin Biennale changes everything for the outcasts. Their art, however, won’t fit the frames provided by the establishment. As the men’s world expands outside the favelas, their friendship is put to test.
Education for Death	A propaganda film during World War II about a boy who grows up to become a Nazi soldier.
A Grandpa for Christmas	An old-time movie-star singer/ hoofer rebonds with his estranged daughter and 9-year-old granddaughter.
Children of Hiroshima	Shows the devastation caused by the Atomic bomb, and by use of a fictional storyline, portrays the struggle of the ordinary Japanese people in dealing with the aftermath.
Yumeji	Artist Yumeji has gained fame and recognition for his skills at painting as well as notoriety for his untamed lifestyle. Despite his betrothal to a beautiful and timid young woman of high birth, his libido turns to his many female models. Despite this freedom from constraint, his lust and artistic sentiment cause him nothing but an increasing awareness of the elusive embodiment of true Beauty. While traveling he encounters a mesmerizing widow who relentlessly searches for her husband's body in the nearby lake, believing him killed at the hands of a ferocious roaming bandit. Infatuated with her beauty, he feigns to help her look for the corpse, only to unlock the mystery himself thereby sending him to further depths of debauchery and despair. This is the third and final film in director Suzuki Seijun's critically acclaimed Taisho Trilogy.
A Sister's Nightmare	Police officer Jane Rydert's life goes into a tailspin the day her older sister, Cassidy, shows up at her door after sixteen years of confinement in a psychiatric hospital.
Master, a Building in Copacabana	"Master" is the name of a 12-story apartment building in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro's neighborhood for nightlife. Over the course of four weeks in 2001, Eduardo Coutinho's film crew rented one of the 276 apartments and used it as home base to make a film about the building's residents. We get to know the building manager, who succeeded in turning the troubled residence into a family complex within just a few years. Using interviews and a few stolen moments in the corridors of the building, Coutinho explores this world. Most of the building's residents come from the lower middle class and are just getting by, but that's just about the only thing they have in common - so many people, so many stories, sometimes told in a self-confident tone, sometimes with averted eyes. The fact that a film crew is interested in their stories puzzles some of them. Hope, fear, dreams, memories, love and loneliness all appear from behind the doors of this average apartment building.
Have Rocket, Will Travel	The Stooges are janitors working at a space center who accidentally blast off to Venus. They encounter a talking unicorn, a giant fire breathing tarantula, and an alien computer who has destroyed all human life on the planet and creates three evil duplicates of the Stooges. When the boys return home triumphant, they are given a hero's welcome.
L'amour fou	A documentary on the relationship between fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent and his lover, Pierre Berge.
Dial M for Murder	An ex-tennis pro carries out a plot to have his wife murdered after discovering she is having an affair, and assumes she will soon leave him for the other man anyway. When things go wrong, he improvises a new plan - to frame her for murder instead.
Three Outlaw Samurai	Shiba, a wandering ronin, encounters a band of peasants who have kidnapped the daughter of their dictatorial magistrate, in hopes of coercing from him a reduction in taxes. Shiba takes up their fight, joined by two renegades from the magistrate's guard, Sakura and Kikyo. The three outlaws find themselves in a battle to the death.
A Woman Is a Woman	Exotic dancer Angéla attempts to have a child with her unwilling lover Émile. In the process, she finds herself torn between him and his best friend Alfred.
The Gallows	20 years after a horrific accident during a small town school play, students at the school resurrect the failed show in a misguided attempt to honor the anniversary of the tragedy - but soon discover that some things are better left alone.
Brother John	A mysterious man John Kane (Sidney Poitier) who, when he returns to his hometown in Alabama for his sister's funeral, is thought to be an outside labor agitator - until it's revealed that he's really a heavenly messenger. The plot revolves around a strike at the town's big factory.
Remake, Remix, Rip-Off: About Copy Culture & Turkish Pop Cinema	Turkey in the 1960s and 1970s was one of the biggest producers of film in the world. In order to keep up with the demand, screenwriters and directors were copying scripts and remaking movies from all over the world. This documentary visits the fastest working directors, the most practical cameramen and the most hardheaded actors to have a closer look into the country's tumultuous history of movie making.

Pixadores

Pixadores are a group of young men from the São Paulo favelas. They paint their message on incredible locations to fight the society that’s suppressing them. An invitation to the Berlin Biennale changes everything for the outcasts. Their art, however, won’t fit the frames provided by the establishment. As the men’s world expands outside the favelas, their friendship is put to test.

Education for Death

A propaganda film during World War II about a boy who grows up to become a Nazi soldier.

A Grandpa for Christmas

An old-time movie-star singer/ hoofer rebonds with his estranged daughter and 9-year-old granddaughter.

Children of Hiroshima

Shows the devastation caused by the Atomic bomb, and by use of a fictional storyline, portrays the struggle of the ordinary Japanese people in dealing with the aftermath.

Yumeji

Artist Yumeji has gained fame and recognition for his skills at painting as well as notoriety for his untamed lifestyle. Despite his betrothal to a beautiful and timid young woman of high birth, his libido turns to his many female models. Despite this freedom from constraint, his lust and artistic sentiment cause him nothing but an increasing awareness of the elusive embodiment of true Beauty. While traveling he encounters a mesmerizing widow who relentlessly searches for her husband's body in the nearby lake, believing him killed at the hands of a ferocious roaming bandit. Infatuated with her beauty, he feigns to help her look for the corpse, only to unlock the mystery himself thereby sending him to further depths of debauchery and despair. This is the third and final film in director Suzuki Seijun's critically acclaimed Taisho Trilogy.

A Sister's Nightmare

Police officer Jane Rydert's life goes into a tailspin the day her older sister, Cassidy, shows up at her door after sixteen years of confinement in a psychiatric hospital.

Master, a Building in Copacabana

"Master" is the name of a 12-story apartment building in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro's neighborhood for nightlife. Over the course of four weeks in 2001, Eduardo Coutinho's film crew rented one of the 276 apartments and used it as home base to make a film about the building's residents. We get to know the building manager, who succeeded in turning the troubled residence into a family complex within just a few years. Using interviews and a few stolen moments in the corridors of the building, Coutinho explores this world. Most of the building's residents come from the lower middle class and are just getting by, but that's just about the only thing they have in common - so many people, so many stories, sometimes told in a self-confident tone, sometimes with averted eyes. The fact that a film crew is interested in their stories puzzles some of them. Hope, fear, dreams, memories, love and loneliness all appear from behind the doors of this average apartment building.

Have Rocket, Will Travel

The Stooges are janitors working at a space center who accidentally blast off to Venus. They encounter a talking unicorn, a giant fire breathing tarantula, and an alien computer who has destroyed all human life on the planet and creates three evil duplicates of the Stooges. When the boys return home triumphant, they are given a hero's welcome.

L'amour fou

A documentary on the relationship between fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent and his lover, Pierre Berge.

Dial M for Murder

An ex-tennis pro carries out a plot to have his wife murdered after discovering she is having an affair, and assumes she will soon leave him for the other man anyway. When things go wrong, he improvises a new plan - to frame her for murder instead.

Three Outlaw Samurai

Shiba, a wandering ronin, encounters a band of peasants who have kidnapped the daughter of their dictatorial magistrate, in hopes of coercing from him a reduction in taxes. Shiba takes up their fight, joined by two renegades from the magistrate's guard, Sakura and Kikyo. The three outlaws find themselves in a battle to the death.

A Woman Is a Woman

Exotic dancer Angéla attempts to have a child with her unwilling lover Émile. In the process, she finds herself torn between him and his best friend Alfred.

The Gallows

20 years after a horrific accident during a small town school play, students at the school resurrect the failed show in a misguided attempt to honor the anniversary of the tragedy - but soon discover that some things are better left alone.

Brother John

A mysterious man John Kane (Sidney Poitier) who, when he returns to his hometown in Alabama for his sister's funeral, is thought to be an outside labor agitator - until it's revealed that he's really a heavenly messenger. The plot revolves around a strike at the town's big factory.

Remake, Remix, Rip-Off: About Copy Culture & Turkish Pop Cinema

Turkey in the 1960s and 1970s was one of the biggest producers of film in the world. In order to keep up with the demand, screenwriters and directors were copying scripts and remaking movies from all over the world. This documentary visits the fastest working directors, the most practical cameramen and the most hardheaded actors to have a closer look into the country's tumultuous history of movie making.