Film Reviews
Amber City |
A portrait of an unnamed city in Italy. Sidestepping the tourist attractions that make the city famous, the film/video posits an almost-imaginary place that draws closer to the reality of its inhabitants. Using a voiceover narration that collages direct observation, literary texts, historical fact, local folklore, and a bit of sheer fabrication, the film/video melds documentary and narrative, past and present. Visuals range from verite street footage, to formal portraits of residents, to an unusual type of time lapse cinematography that allows filming in the low-intensity light of night landscapes and museum interiors. Made in collaboration with local residents and institutions, Amber City reflects on the "in-betweeness" of places whose historical and geographical location renders their reality strangely invisible. |
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Kirikou and the Wild Beasts |
The film is a sub-story to Kirikou and the Sorceress rather than a straight sequel. The movie is set while Kirikou is still a child and Karaba is still a sorceress. Like Princes et princesses and Les Contes de la nuit, it is an anthology film comprising several episodic stories, each of them describing Kirikou's interactions with a different animals. It is however unique among Michel Ocelot's films, not only in that it is co-directed by Bénédicte Galup (who has previously worked with him as an animator) but also for each of the stories being written by a different person (in all other cases, Ocelot has been the sole writer and director of his films). |
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By the Gun |
A rising Boston gangster (Ben Barnes) endangers those around him when he starts to make moves without the knowledge of his boss (Harvey Keitel). |
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Not My Life |
After a car accident, a woman with a seemingly perfect life begins to have visions that suggest she is not who she thinks she is. |
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The Lady and the Highwayman |
Set in old England, Hugh Grand ("Four Weddings & a Funeral", "Notting Hill") plays a highwayman who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. But during one of his robberies, he falls in love with an aristocratic lady, Emma Samms ("Star Quest", "Delirious"). Now, he is forced to choose between his true love or his true cause. This swash-buckling romantic adventure will have you on the edge of your seat with every swing of Hugh's savage sword. |
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Dog Star Man: Part II |
A man, accompanied by a dog, struggles through snow on a mountain side. We see film stock blister; drawn square shapes appear. Then, we see an infant's face. The images of struggling climber, baby, blurred film stock, large snow flakes, and what may be microscopic details of matter are superimposed on each other, one dominating the frame briefly to be replaced by another. As the man falls in the snow and tries to regain his feet, the baby continues to appear, first with eyes closed. Alternately, images rush by - montages of paper cutouts and life under a microscope. |
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Doctor Detroit |
A shy but gentle man named Clifford Skridlow is a professor of comparative literature at the financially-strapped fictional Monroe College in Chicago. A chance encounter with four beautiful women at a restaurant changes his life forever. |
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13 Assassins |
A bravado period action film set at the end of Japan's feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war-torn future. |
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The Beguiled |
During the Civil War, at a Southern girls’ boarding school, young women take in an injured enemy soldier. As they provide refuge and tend to his wounds, the house is taken over with sexual tension and dangerous rivalries, and taboos are broken in an unexpected turn of events. |
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Easy Street |
When Charlie the Tramp wanders into a mission he is smitten by Edna and puts back the collection box which he has taken. Reformed, he becomes a policeman and is assigned to rough-and-tumble Easy Street. Unable to trick or beat Eric the Tough, he puts Eric's head in a gas pipe and anesthetizes him. A hero, he now helps many poor people living on Easy Street. Eric escapes jail, Edna is kidnapped, but Charlie (recharged after sitting on a doper's needle) conquers all. Easy Street is transformed as is Eric. |
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The Earth Dies Screaming |
A crack space pilot returns to earth to find the planet has been devastated by some unknown forces. There are a few survivors, so he organizes them in a plan to ward off control by a group of killer robots. |
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Porto of My Childhood |
Manoel de Oliveira's autobiographical documentary about returning to his hometown. |
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The Prince of Chess |
Follow the brilliant mind of 13 year old Chess Grand Master Magnus Carlsen |
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Total Recall |
Welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid, even though he's got a beautiful wife who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life - real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police - controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen, the leader of the free world - Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter to find the head of the underground resistance and stop Cohaagen. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate. |
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I Am Bolt |
Fully authorized, access-all-areas feature doc on the hugely charismatic and globally adored Usain Bolt – officially the fastest man alive. With never-before-seen archive footage of his youth in Jamaica, through to original footage that will be captured at his fourth and final Olympic Games in Rio, where he will compete for the gold in both the 100 and 200 metres races, for a third straight Games before his retirement in 2017. I AM BOLT will reveal the man and define the legacy of this incredible athlete. |
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