Film Reviews

Selma's mother died giving birth to her, and Selma's step aunt is living proof that men only cause trouble. So the 11 year old girl makes a deal with her best friends that they will stay away from boys and dedicate their lives to science. And by the way, Selma was probably born on another planet and not meant to fall in love with anyone. But what happens when her friends break the pact, and she actually meets a boy who's not like the rest?

When Max, a young poet hires a marketing company to turn his suicide-by-jumping into a mass-media spectacle, he finds that his subversive intentions are quickly diluted into a reactionary gesture, and his motivations are revealed as a desperate attempt to seek attention through celebrity.

When David Greene receives a football scholarship to a prestigious prep school in the 1950s, he feels pressure to hide the fact that he is Jewish from his classmates and teachers, fearing that they may be anti-Semitic. He quickly becomes the big man on campus thanks to his football skills, but when his Jewish background is discovered, his worst fears are realized and his friends turn on him with violent threats and public ridicule.

In 2010 David Crowley, an Iraq veteran, aspiring filmmaker and charismatic up-and-coming voice in fringe politics, began production on his film Gray State. Set in a dystopian near-future where civil liberties are trampled by an unrestrained federal government, the film’s crowd funded trailer was enthusiastically received by the burgeoning online community of libertarians, Tea Party activists and members of the nascent alt-right. In January of 2015, Crowley was found dead with his family in their suburban Minnesota home. Their shocking deaths quickly become a cause célèbre for conspiracy theorists who speculate that Crowley was assassinated by a shadowy government concerned about a film and filmmaker that was getting too close to the truth about their aims.

A vibrant, hopelessly romantic physiotherapist meets a handsome young Rajput prince who is the complete opposite of her – and is engaged to someone else.

A ratings hit! Amy Schumer debuts her one-hour special in front of a live audience at the Historic Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco. Nothing is off limits as Schumer airs every hilarious, messed up detail of her dating and sex life, from encounters with unexpected body parts to hate-filled personal grooming appointments. In her matter-of-fact raunchy style, at odds with her self-described "Cabbage Patch Kid" appearance, Schumer tells stories of a boyfriend who makes dirty requests over dinner, the way she outsmarts her birth control, and a shocking ending to a seemingly innocent cab ride.

A young woman experiences the worst life has to over in this depressing but worthwhile Colombian drama tinged with a hint of magical realism. Paola Baldion plays Marina, a withdrawn teenager whose abusive grand-dad houses her in a dilapidated shed. When the old fart pops his clogs, Marina passes into the care of cousin Jairo (Julian Roman), a cheesecake photographer who "hires" her to help him with his gear, and the two end up taking an episodic road trip as they travel to reclaim grandpa's legacy. Unpleasant flashbacks to Marina's tragic childhood ensue. Yep, the good times never end in this one! Known in English as Portraits in a Sea of Lies, this meditation on the 50-year long Colombian civil war - as seen through the grueling experiences of our heroine - won the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 14th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival.

A man begins to suspect that his long-distance girlfriend, whom he met online but has never met in person, has been living in the same city the whole time and sets out to find her.

Three generations of a French family open up about their sexual experiences and desires after young Romain is caught masturbating in his biology class.

A barkeeper saves a Yakuza boss' life and thus makes his way up in the organization. However, his fear of nothing soon causes problems.

Ellis, a fourteen-minute film directed by JR and written by Academy Award winner Eric Roth, tells the elusive story of countless immigrants whose pursuit of a new life led them to the now-shuttered Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital. Following its opening in 1902, approximately 1.2 million people passed through the facility, where the Statue of Liberty can be seen from the windows. Languishing in a sort of purgatory awaiting their fate, many were never discharged.

Roastmaster General Jeff Ross talks to Black Lives Matter activists, goes on an eye-opening police ride-along, and roasts members of the Boston Police Department.

It’s snowing in Kabul, and gregarious waiter Mustafa charms a pretty student named Wajma. The pair begin a clandestine relationship—they’re playful and passionate but ever mindful of the societal rules they are breaking. After Wajma discovers she is pregnant, her certainty that Mustafa will marry her falters, and word of their dalliance gets out. Her father must decide between his culturally held right to uphold family honor and his devotion to his daughter.

During the opening of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Exhibition in 1889, three engineers from the Eiffel companies are killed under mysterious circumstances. Louise Massart, the recently divorced daughter of one of them, scandalizes society and finds herself unjustly accused of her father's murder. Incarcertaed in the psyche ward of the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, she discovers through hypnosis that the key to the affair lies within her, and finds the strength to accept her differences.

In the future, America is a dystopian wasteland. The latest scourge is Ma-Ma, a prostitute-turned-drug pusher with a dangerous new drug and aims to take over the city. The only possibility of stopping her is an elite group of urban police called Judges, who combine the duties of judge, jury and executioner to deliver a brutal brand of swift justice. But even the top-ranking Judge, Dredd, discovers that taking down Ma-Ma isn’t as easy as it seems in this explosive adaptation of the hugely popular comic series.