Film Reviews

The story of the 1914-1916 Antarctic exploration mission of Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Jean-Pierre Gorin interacts with a club of model railroad train enthusiasts and his mentor, artist/writer Manny Farber.

A masked vigilante who discovers the dark side to heroism. Going after the nation's most notorious super criminal leaves Sparks' life and reputation in ruins.

After he did some jobs for CIA, ex-marine John Shale is visiting his high school love Jane. She's now a teacher in Columbus High School in Miami. Soon after his arriving Jane has her knee cap broken while jogging. After that, John decides to go undercover as her substitute in high school. Very soon he finds out that gang named Kings of Destruction is terrorizing the school.

A plane crash-lands on a jungle island inhabited by a scientist and his nubile young daughters. Complications ensue.

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.

In World War II, a British secret agent carrying a vitally important document is kidnapped en route to Washington. The British government calls on Sherlock Holmes to recover it.

A young married physician discovers a mermaid, and gives into her request to be taken to see London. Comedy and romantic entanglements ensue soon after.

A Parisian teacher (Lino Ventura) loses his cool when his teenage daughter tells him she plans to drop out of school and move in with her boyfriend.

Plot of Fear tells the story of a decadent weekend party full of orgies and drugs on the outskirts of Milan. After two deaths occur Inspector Lomenzo (Michele Placido) interrogates one of the guests, a fashion model (Corninne Clery) who becomes his informant, as well as his lover. Clery reveals that after a “wildlife orgy”one of the hosts tried to jokingly feed one of the prostitutes to a tiger but she got so frightened that she died of heart attack. In his attempt to find a connection between the victims, he investigates a cutting-edge security and surveillance firm whose director (Eli Wallach) has secrets of his own to hide.

After watching a documentary about the suffering of women forced into prostitution during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, Markova decides to tell his own painful story to reporter Loren Legarda. Escaping the torment of growing up with an abusive older brother, he and his friends found further suffering at the hands of Japanese soldiers, forced into sex work to survive. But even after the war, Markova's struggle continued.

A grieving husband tries to uncover the truth behind his wife's suicide, leading him to discover a tragic tale of infidelity and redemption.

After obtaining his medical degree from Madras Medical College, Dr. Abraham Verghese decides to re-locate to Johnson City, Tennessee. He eventually gets married to Rajani, who is an accomplished dancer, and has a boy, Steven. Since Abraham specializes in infectious diseases, he takes special interest in patients suffering from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome(AIDS), and presents his work at the local gay/lesbian hang-outs and clubs, creating a public awareness of AIDS. Soon he has as many as 82 patients in his care at the local hospital. He gets engrossed in his work to the extent that he starts neglecting his very heavily pregnant wife Rajani, who eventually gives birth to Jacob. She threatens him with marriage counseling, while fearing that her husband may acquire AIDS through contact with his patients, while he himself has to deal with hospital administration who are concerned about funds and resources being utilized on patients who may never recover.

Semi-autobiographical story of Conrad Rooks, who travels to France to undergo a drug-withdrawal cure. Flashbacks to the beginings of psychedelia in San Fran. Though initially confusing, as Rooks blends drug-illusion with reality, and cuts color with black-and-white and monochrome tinted shots, "Chappaqua" is conventionally constructed with a beginning, middle, and end.

This film is about the relationship of a mother and her daughter, the split-up of their family, the blessing and curse of belonging together and about coming of age - all this from the perspective of the young girl Aglaja. The story is based on real-life events, an Eastern European circus artist family that fled to the West. If they want to stay in the circus business they have to make up an exotic act. The mother spends all their money to buy a very dangerous act: hanging by her hair high up in the dome of the circus while juggling with burning torches. Every night Aglaja is terrified by the fear of losing her mother. But, on some day, she has to follow the family tradition and become the "Woman with the Hair of Steel".