Film Reviews
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Death of a Man in the Balkans |
Shot in only nine takes, this sharp and inventive black comedy consistently transcends its formal constraints. A lonely composer commits suicide in his apartment in Belgrade. Alarmed by the gunshots, Aca and his neighbour Vesko arrive but decide to wait for the police. Soon other characters appear – an undertaker, paramedics and, eventually, the police, who have been stuck in traffic. The whole film is presented via a webcam set up by the composer before his death, with the characters entering the ‘set’ through a single entrance. Unaware of the camera catching their unguarded behaviour, the men struggle to remember the composer’s name and admire his décor, wives come and go while the representatives of officialdom exhibit a blind indifference. Inspired by his own experience – a neighbour was found dead – director Miroslav Momčilović has produced a compelling commentary on an absurd reality. |
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King Lines |
King Lines follows Chris Sharma on his search for the planet's greatest climbs. From South American fantasy boulders to the sweeping limestone walls of Europe, Sharma finds and climbs the hardest, most spectacular routes. Off the coast of Mallorca he discovers his most outrageous project yet, a 70 foot arch rising from the Mediterranean Sea... |
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Cosas insignificantes |
Esmeralda is a teenager with an unusual obsession: she collects lost, forgotten or discarded objects from people she doesn't know and keeps them in a box beneath her bed. This is the tale of three objects in the box and the people behind them, all in some way incapable of relating to the person they love most. It is also a tale of the box itself, and of how Esmeralda learns to open it, to feel and to hoard the most valuable thing of all: human relations. |
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Memoirs of an Invisible Man |
After a freak accident, an invisible yuppie runs for his life from a treacherous CIA official while trying to cope with his new life. |
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Panic in the Streets |
One night in the New Orleans slums, vicious hoodlum Blackie and his friends kill an illegal immigrant who won too much in a card game. Next morning, Dr. Clint Reed of the Public Health Service confirms the dead man had pneumonic plague. To prevent a catastrophic epidemic, Clint must find and inoculate the killers and their associates, with the reluctant aid of police captain Tom Warren, despite official skepticism, and in total secrecy, lest panic empty the city. Can a doctor turn detective? He has 48 hours to try... |
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Ballet Shoes |
An unusual explorer named Gum and his kindly niece adopt three orphans -- Pauline, Petrova and Posy -- and raise them as sisters in 1930s London. But the girls must fend for themselves when Gum doesn't return from one of his adventures. Together, they nurture their passions for acting, aviation and ballet in this charming TV adaptation of Noel Streatfield's novel. |
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Vanilla Sky |
David Aames (Tom Cruise) has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia (Penelope Cruz), his face is horribly disfigured in a car accident. That's just the beginning of his troubles as the lines between illusion and reality, between life and death, are blurred. |
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Batch '81 |
Sid Lucero, a 26-year old pre-Med student is an aspiring neophyte of the Alpha Kappa Omega fraternity. Over a six-month initiation period, he and six other neophytes are subjected to severe physical and psychological torture in and outside the fraternity house. The neophytes come to accept the senseless violence as a requisite of their acceptance into the brotherhood. Only five of them survive the brutal, fascistic ordeal, due to the fraternity rumble with Sigma Omicron Sigma headed by Arvisu. |
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Dum Laga Ke Haisha |
Prem Prakash Tiwari (Ayushmann Khurrana) listening to Kumar Sanu is the film's opening shot. Set in Haridwar, 1990s, the film captures the nascent feel of the town. Prem owns a cassette shop in the local market. His father is keen to get him hitched and the family goes to a local temple to meet Sandhya (Bhumi Pednekar). B.Ed, waiting for a teaching job, the most visible thing about her is her weight. Coming from a patriarchal cognitive set-up, she doesn't fit the quintessential idea of beautiful. And still, the school drop out Prem must marry her because he is incapable of attaining a girl with 'Juhi-Chawla-level-of-looks.' In an elaborate community-wedding ceremony, Prem and Sandhya get married. Their wedding night is uncomfortable with neither treading towards establishing conjugal relations. Prem has in his own reasons and the girl is naturally shy. Next morning on a call, she announces it to a friend and the whole family finds out |
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Goodbye First Love |
A 15-year-old discovers the joys and heartaches of first love with an older teen, but in the ensuing years, cannot seem to move past their breakup. |
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Kismet |
Like a tale spun by Schehrazade, Kismet follows the remarkable and repeated changes of fortune that engulf a poor poet. It all happens in one incredible day when Kismet (Fate) takes a hand. |
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The Challengers |
After her father dies and she moves to a new town, Mackie wants to join a certain gang/band. But they've got this boys-only rule. So Mackie comes up with an audacious plan...only it begins to backfire. |
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Smile |
Introduced to a volunteer opportunity with the Doctor's Gift Program, Katie (Mika Boorem) signs up for a trip to China, where she meets Lin (Yi Ding), a girl with whom she shares a birthday. Lin has a facial deformity that discourages her from ever showing her face, but her friendship with Katie helps her start to see life in a new way. |
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The Speak |
A small TV crew make their way into the most haunted hotel in the US for the last program in their web series on the paranormal. With the help of a native-American medium, they perform ‘the speak’, a ceremony that brings forth more spirits and demons than the crew bargained for. |
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Operation: Rabbit |
Wile E. Coyote, genius, announces to Bugs Bunny that he is going to catch him and eat him, and then employs a variety of gadgets and plans in an attempt to do so. |