Film Reviews

In Nepal, a venerable monk, Geshe Lama Konchog, dies and one of his disciples, a youthful monk named Tenzin Zopa, searches for his master's reincarnation. The film follows his search to the Tsum Valley where he finds a young boy of the right age who uncannily responds to Konchog's possessions. Is this the reincarnation of the master? After the boy passes several tests, Tenzin takes him to meet the Dali Lama. Will the parents agree to let the boy go to the monastery, and, if so, how will the child respond? Central to the film is the relationship the child develops with Tenzin.

After he's fired from his job -- by his mother, no less -- Bob Funk agrees to quit drinking, see a therapist, and eventually report to a new boss, who might just be the woman of his dreams.

When a planeload of Pakistani orphans are shipped to his state for permanent relocation, the governor of Idaho (Beau Bridges, who won an Emmy) defies the president (Phil Hartman) and closes the state's border. News Net Television, a cable news program that makes hay by reporting on political scandals, quickly spins the racist act into an overnight media sensation, creating a divide in national opinion over the issue.

After cheating on her mean boyfriend, Lewis, Brownie is hospitalized by a series of severe accidents. Instead of visiting her in the hospital, Lewis (assistant to the Dean of the local university) helps investigate two professors suspected of sleeping with students.

An elderly artist thinks he has become too stale and is past his prime. His friend (and agent) persuades him to go to an offshore island to try once more. On the island he re-discovers his muse in the form of a young girl.

A middle-class couple go camping in Dorset, but peace and quiet elude them.

After a series of pipe dream ventures go belly up, retired pro soccer player Kim Won-kang happens to visit East Timor, where he finds children playing the game barefoot on rocky pitches. Sensing a new business opportunity on finding the country doesn't have a single sporting goods store, he embarks on a scheme to get rich quick by purveying athletic shoes to the unshod youngsters. Sadly, no one there can afford to pay $60 for a pair of shoes, even on a generous installment plan, and before he knows it, he is reduced to coaching a team of ragged 10-year-olds and prospects are looking grim. Written by Palm Springs Internation Film Festival

Henry Hobson owns and tyrannically runs a successful Victorian boot maker’s shop in Salford, England. A stingy widower with a weakness for overindulging in the local Moonraker Public House, he exploits his three daughters as cheap labour. When he declares that there will be ‘no marriages’ to avoid the expense of marriage settlements at £500 each, his eldest daughter Maggie rebels.

An auto engineer (Herbert Marshall) and a professor's daughter (Jean Arthur) pose as married servants in a mobster's (Leo Carrillo) mansion.

Covering issues such as America's unhealthy dieting craze, the use of the outdated and misleading BMI scale and the currently touted "obesity epidemic," Roberts debates the widely believed concepts that you have to be thin to be healthy. During his journey, he discovers the plethora of factors contributing to America's body dissatisfaction, many of which are being promoted by doctors, schools, the government, and even the First Lady of the United States. Roberts questions these industries' promotion of weight loss surgeries, fad diets, disorderly eating, and a nationwide fear of fat that causes panic whenever our Body Mass Index passes the number 25. With one of the most advanced medical systems in the world and alternative health modalities at our disposal, is it possible to be healthy at a variety of sizes and weights?

Life coach Sven travels to Thailand to fulfil his dreams as a writer. He meets Gitte a yoga-practising free spirit from Norway. Then along comes Anja, an editor who works for a Swedish publisher. What does he really want to do with his life, and who does he want to do it with?

Dale is an attractive, hard-as-nails gay male escort in Greenwich, London. He specialises in fulfilling sexual fantasies - dressing up as a schoolboy, BDSM, you name it, he's done it, yet his own dreams of a happy ending are complicated when straight best friend and childhood crush Raj announces his forthcoming marriage. Meanwhile, a spate of gay hate crimes are being reported on the local heath...

Two rebellious youths, Ralph and Scott, find themselves struggling with adulthood as the Vietnam War rages. Feeling trapped in their small town, Scott battles with his conservative veteran father, Cliff, and Ralph deals with his desperately sexual mother, Ev. When tragic news arrives from overseas, the entire town, inspired by Ralph and Scott's antiwar efforts, reevaluates its attitude toward the war.

Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda are dead. Now, upon the news of Detective Kerry's murder, two seasoned FBI profilers, Agent Strahm and Agent Perez, arrive in the terrified community to assist the veteran Detective Hoffman in sifting through Jigsaw's latest grisly remains and piecing together the puzzle. However, when SWAT Commander Rigg is abducted and thrust into a game, the last officer untouched by Jigsaw has but ninety minutes to overcome a series of demented traps and save an old friend...or face the deadly consequences.

A young couple forsakes their urban existence for life in the exciting but dangerous Peruvian jungle.