Film Reviews

In 2001, Lenny Cooke was the most hyped high school basketball player in the country, ranked above future greats LeBron James, Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. A decade later, Lenny has never played a minute in the NBA. In this quintessentially American documentary, filmmaking brothers Joshua and Benny Safdie track the unfulfilled destiny of a man for whom superstardom was only just out of reach.

There are limits to jokes? What is the politically incorrect humor? A joke has the power to offend? It is these issues that 'Laughter of Others' discusses interviewing personalities such as comedians Danilo Gentili and Rafinha Bastos, cartoonist Laerte and Congressman Jean Wyllys, among others. The documentary delves into the world of Stand Up Comedy to discuss the fine line between comedy and offense, between legal and what creates endless lawsuits.

Wanting to escape city life for the countryside, New Yorkers Cooper Tilson (Quaid), his wife Leah (Stone) and their two children move into a dilapidated old mansion still filled with the possessions of the previous family. Turning it into their dream house soon becomes a living nightmare when the previous owner (Dorff) shows up, and a series of terrifying incidents lead them on a spine-tingling search for clues to the estate's dark and lurid past

Five short stories with contemporary settings. In New York, people are indifferent to derelicts sleeping on sidewalks, to a woman's assault in front of an apartment building, and to a couple injured in a car crash. A man, stripped of his identity, dies in bed with actors expressing his agony. A cheerful, innocent young man walking a city street in a time of war pays a price for this innocence. A couple talks about cinema while it watches another couple talk of love and truth on the eve of one character's return to Cuba. Striking students take over a university classroom; an argument follows about revolution or incremental change.

A group of film students set out to finish filming a movie that was never completed after its director was murdered. After they begin filming, they realize they're in for a bit of trouble, not unlike the late director...

A vampire lures beautiful young women to his castle in Europe.

Irene, a thirty-something housewife with a successfull husband and a young son, has her life thrown in a spin when she becomes attracted to Billy, a member of a landscape crew outside her house. When Irene's husband and son leave for a weekend fishing trip, Irene wanting to see Billy, gets locked in the back of his trailer and ends up at remote Lake Consequence with Billy and his girlfriend Grace where they take Irene on a trip into the nearby town to a Chinese New Year Festival, and through a series of adventures they bring out the repressed sexual needs Irene has been holding inside for a long time.

Unconventional narrative about the interactions amongst a group of people in a small town in Alaska, each of whom has guards a secret.

Documentary covering the end of an era as Polaroid stops producing its signature cameras and film as well as The Impossible Project to keep instant photography alive.

Young Alex Sammako has seen his brothers defy the law in a series of deeds that first land them in jail, and then, after they escape and return to their rural home, land them back in the lap of their locally notorious family. Alex wants nothing to do with them. He is in love with Mirja, whose family is not that different from the Sammakos, but who shares Alex's viewpoints and feelings. Not helping matters is a police department convinced that all Sammakos are bad, and the family itself, pressuring Alex to follow in their murky footsteps.

After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.

During a time when the city of Los Angeles is terrorized by animal attack style murders, a kindly elderly lady provides a nomad with room and board. It turns out that he is a werewolf and is responsible for the recent killings. He bites the elderly woman, turning her into a hungry werewolf. Now her adult son must try to prevent the both of them from doing any more harm.

The 'Legend of Secret Pass' takes place in the mountains of the South West and involves Thunderbirds of Indian mythology and an animal refuge of mystical proportions. An unlikely troop of animals and humans are caught up in a clash of ageless magic. In this moment of crisis, the barest chance to avoid cataclysm falls into the hands of an Indian boy, Manu. Written by Erik Stoops

An office worker is trapped inside the building where a killer is on the loose.

Victor Marswell runs a big game trapping company in Kenya. Eloise Kelly is ditched there, and an immediate attraction happens between them. Then Mr. and Mrs. Nordley show up for their gorilla documenting safari. Mrs. Nordley is not infatuated with her husband any more, and takes a liking to Marswell. The two men and two women have some difficulty arranging these emotions to their mutual satisfaction, but eventually succeed.