Film Reviews

After a childhood of abuse by his evangelistic father, misfit Oscar Hopkins becomes an Anglican minister and develops a divine obsession with gambling. Lucinda Leplastrier is a rich Australian heiress shopping in London for materials for her newly acquired glass factory back home. Deciding to travel to Australia as a missionary, Oscar meets Lucinda aboard ship, and a mutual obsession blossoms. They make a wager that will alter each of their destinies.

A Jewish woman, Dr. Michele Wolf, interred in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII returns to her Paris home after the war's end. She's unaware that her husband, the handsome gigolo and chess master Stanislaw Pilgrin, has been having an affair with her stepdaughter Fabi in her absence.

Algeria, the 1930s. Younes is nine years old when he is put in his uncle's care in Oran. Rebaptized Jonas, he grows up among the Rio Salado youths, with whom he becomes friends. Emilie is one of the gang; everyone is in love with her. A great love story develops between Jonas and Emilie, which is soon unsettled by the conflicts troubling the country.

Frank Perry is an institutionalized convict twelve years into a life sentence without parole. When his estranged daughter falls ill, he is determined to make peace with her before it's too late. He develops an ingenious escape plan, and recruits a dysfunctional band of escapists - misfits with a mutual dislike for one other but united by their desire to escape their hell hole of an existence.

A Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman for criminals discovers that a contract has been put on him after a heist gone wrong.

Reminiscent of the latter works of Bela Tarr, Miklos Jancso's "Beloved Electra" is comprised of a series of extremely slow and extremely long takes (there are just eight principal shots, each lasting an entire reel of film). More contemplative music video than conventional film, "Beloved Electra" is based on "Oresteia", a Greek myth written by Aeschylus, an ancient tragedian. The film stars Mari Toriocsik as Electra, a tortured woman who serves as a kind of metaphor for the people of Hungary and their historic suffering. She roams Jancso's landscape with a melancholic face, angry at Aegisztosz for conspiring with her mother to kill Agamemnon, her father.

Set six months after a deadly outbreak has all but ended the human race, a man and woman have survived by isolating themselves in a remote cabin and never opening the door. Now they don’t have a choice. Starved for resources, they must confront the horrors that threaten them… but what’s inside may be even more toxic than what remains outside. When it all ends, this is what remains.

AMERICAN MOVIE is the story of filmmaker Mark Borchardt, his mission, and his dream. Spanning over two years of intense struggle with his film, his family, financial decline, and spiritual crisis, AMERICAN MOVIE is a portrayal of ambition, obsession, excess, and one man's quest for the American Dream.

Four strangers board a plane and become fast friends, but a catastrophic crash leaves only one survivor. He then sets off on a journey to discover who these people were, but ultimately discovers the devastating truth about himself.

Latcho Drom is a 1993 French documentary film directed and written by Tony Gatlif. It follows the journey, music and culture of the Romani people from their genesis in India to many of the countries through which they passed.

Taking place during the 1976 Soweto uprising, the story follows a white school teacher whose life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.

George Carlin is in top form with these stand-up recorded at the Beverly Theater in Los Angeles in 1986. Routines included are "Losing Things," "Charities," "Sports," "Hello and Goodbye," "Battered Plants," "Earrings," and "A Moment of Silence." Also included is a short film entitled "The Envelope" co-starring Vic Tayback.

Two students from the Czech Film Academy commission a leading advertising agency to organize a huge campaign for the opening of a new supermarket named Czech Dream. The supermarket however does not exist and is not meant to. The advertising campaign includes radio and television ads, posters, flyers with photos of fake Czech Dream products, a promotional song, an internet site, and ads in newspapers and magazines. Will people believe in it and show up for the grand opening?

Former gunfighter Django has become a monk and abandoned his violent former ways. His daughter is kidnapped by rogue Hungarian soldiers using slave labor to run a silver mine. Django casts off his habit and digs up his machine gun to practice a little liberation theology.

Based on the incredible true story of Jesse Owens, the legendary athletic superstar whose quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy. Starring Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons, Carice Van Houten and William Hurt - Race is an enthralling film about courage, determination, tolerance, and friendship, and an inspiring drama about one man's fight to become an Olympic legend.