Film Reviews

Innocent Steps is a romantic Korean tale about a 19 year old girl (Mun Geun-yeong) from China on a dance contract. She is paid to practice and dance with her partner (Park Geon Hyeong) for the upcoming 'KDFA Cup Korea Dancesport Championship'. For the next three months, she trained hard for the competition. Love blossomed, of course. Being professional during the practices, they did not reveal their feelings to each other.

A wife and mother starts an affair with a young missionary... with disastrous consequences.

Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes. A moving drama from director Barry Levinson.

A daffy door-to-door saleswoman blunders into a murder investigation.

Wild Is the Wind represents a (perhaps deliberate) reversal of the situation in The Rose Tattoo (1955). Whereas in Tattoo, Anna Magnani played a widow who could never find a man to measure up to her late husband, in Wind her character, Giola, marries widowed rancher Gino (Anthony Quinn), who is haunted by the memory of his first spouse. The situation is dicier in Wind, since Italian immigrant Gino's deceased wife was Giola's sister. Eventually tiring of her husband's mood swings, Giola turns to his son, Bene (Anthony Franciosa), for emotional and sexual gratification. A Hollywood approximation of the Italian neorealist school of filmmaking, Wild Is the Wind was based on Furia, a story by Vittorio Nino Novarese. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In a beauty salon in Beirut the lives of five women cross paths. The beauty salon is a colorful and sensual microcosm where they share and entrust their hopes, fears and expectations.

Screenwriter Paul Javal's marriage to his wife Camille disintegrates during a film production as she spends time with its producer.

After Jake Tilton is given a mystical "monkey's paw" talisman that grants its possessor three wishes, he finds his world turned upside down after his first two wishes result in his malevolent coworker, Tony Cobb, being resurrected from the dead. When Cobb pressures Jake into using the final wish to reunite Cobb with his son, his intimidation quickly escalates into relentless murder - forcing Jake to outwit his psychotic friend and save his remaining loved ones.

An undercover MI6 agent is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents.

A world-famous pianist loses both hands in an accident. When new hands are grafted on, he is horrified to learn they once belonged to a murderer.

Artifact is a 2012 American documentary film directed by Jared Leto under the pseudonym of Bartholomew Cubbins, a recurring character in the Dr. Seuss universe. The film is a documentary about the making of the 30 Seconds to Mars album This Is War and the band's battle against record label EMI. Included in Artifact are several interviews, including the one with neurophysicist Daniel Levitin, author of the popular science book This Is Your Brain On Music. The film won the BlackBerry People's Choice Documentary Award at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.

Filmmakers Joe Barber and Mary Patel examine the dysfunctional world of American politics through the prism of the 2006 United States Senate race between Democrat Bob Casey Jr. and Republican Rick Santorum. Gullible media, corporate influence and hyper-managed candidate personas are among the myriad subjects covered in this incisive documentary, which includes interviews with Barack Obama, Al Gore, Ed Rendell and many others.

Two women love the same man in a world of few prospects. In Budapest, Liliom is a "public figure," a rascal who's a carousel barker, loved by the experienced merry-go-round owner and by a young, innocent maid. The maid, Julie, loses her job after going out with Liliom; he's fired by his jealous employer for going out with Julie. The two lovers move in with Julie's aunt; unemployment emasculates him and a local weasel tempts him with crime. Julie, now wan, is true to Liliom even in his bad temper. Meanwhile, a stolid widower, a carpenter, wants to marry Julie. Is there any future on this earth for Julie and Liliom, whose love is passionate rather than ideal?