Film Reviews
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War Book |
In a contemporary Commons briefing room, a government minister and several aids enact the ‘war book’ exercise: a protocol written in the 1950s which is periodically played out to test post-nuclear scenarios. Low-budget but high-concept, War Book is a terse drama of interpersonal politics with rat-a-tat-tat dialogue and sharp performances. (12 Angry Men, Sleuth and The Deal all feel like reference points.) Created by some of the UK’s most promising talents in down time between other projects, director/producer Tom Harper (Scouting Book for Boys, Woman in Black 2), screenwriter Jack Thorne (Skins, Scouting Book) and producer Lauren Dark bring together a top notch cast (including Sophie Okonedo, Ben Chaplin and Kerry Fox). Cold war anxiety is given contemporary relevance in this exploration of government arrogance and lack of accountability, and the terrifying fragility of world order when faced with the abyss of mutual destruction. |
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Roula |
Troubled Roula finds herself drawn to Leon, an author of children's books who has suffered an enormous emotional and creative blockage ever since his wife died in a motorcycle accident two years before. Leon has only his 12-year-old daughter Tanja to keep him company. As romance blooms between Leon and Roula, his daughter approves. Unfortunately, Roula is carrying heavy emotional baggage stemming from the incest she suffered at the hands of her father. |
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Masked and Anonymous |
Amidst unrest, organizers put on a benefit concert. |
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Grotesque |
A gang of crazed punkers breaks into a family's vacation home in the mountains and slaughters the entire family, except for one daughter who gets away. As the gang pursues the girl through the snow, they slowly realize that some kind of murderous creature is chasing them... |
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Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society |
The story takes place in the year 2034, two years after the events in Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG. Female cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi has left Public Security Section 9, an elite counter-terrorist and anti-crime unit specializing in cyber-warfare, which has expanded to a team of 20 field operatives with Togusa acting as the field lead. |
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Walk of Shame |
A reporter's dream of becoming a news anchor is compromised after a one-night stand leaves her stranded in downtown L.A. without a phone, car, ID or money - and only 8 hours to make it to the most important job interview of her life. |
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Meet the Guilbys |
Claire and Maurice have to take the whole family to Claire's father's funeral. This tightly knit family is not only composed of Claire's vegetarian son, Alex, who's secretly fond of Maurice's daughter, Lucie, the teenage rebel, but also Claire's brother, a poet living under his sister's roof; without forgetting young Prune, Claire and Maurice's daughter, who will develop a passion for the country's emblematic cows. They must all strive to get along during the road trip to Willouby. |
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Virunga |
Virunga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is Africa’s oldest national park, a UNESCO world heritage site, and a contested ground among insurgencies seeking to topple the government that see untold profits in the land. Among this ongoing power struggle, Virunga also happens to be the last natural habitat for the critically endangered mountain gorilla. The only thing standing in the way of the forces closing in around the gorillas: a handful of passionate park rangers and journalists fighting to secure the park’s borders and expose the corruption of its enemies. Filled with shocking footage, and anchored by the surprisingly deep and gentle characters of the gorillas themselves, Virunga is a galvanizing call to action around an ongoing political and environmental crisis in the Congo. |
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The White Knights |
Jacques Arnault, head of Sud Secours NGO, is planning a high impact operation: he and his team are going to exfiltrate 300 orphan victims of the Chadian civil war and bring them to French adoption applicants. Françoise Dubois, a journalist, is invited to come along with them and handle the media coverage for this operation. Completely immersed in the brutal reality of a country at war, the NGO members start losing their convictions and are faced with the limits of humanitarian intervention. |
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The Man from Hong Kong |
Australian authorities arrest a man believed to be connected to the Sydney criminal underworld and send for Inspector Fang Sing Leng (Jimmy Wang Yu) from Hong Kong to question him. After the alleged criminal is assassinated, Inspector Leng and the Sydney police try to hunt down those responsible and hope to solve their case along the way. |
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Night Wind |
A housewife's (Catherine Deneuve) affair with a younger man (Xavier Beauvois) goes nowhere. |
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Belle Starr |
Belle Star is a bandit with an itch to ride with the outlaw legends, the James gang, the Youngers and the Dalton boys. |
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The Affairs of Martha |
Members of a well-to-do small community become worried when it is revealed that one of their maids is writing a telling exposé. |
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Bay of Angels |
A compulsive gambler who falls in love with a bank clerk (Claude Mann) on holiday in Nice. At first, the two lovers simply use each other as good luck charms; but what happens to love when luck runs out? |
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Windwalker |
An ancient Indian warrior who has reached the end of his life is brought back from his 'death' to save his family from a raiding party of enemy Indians in this unique story of 'Indians without a single cowboy. |