Film Reviews
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The Castle |
Closely based on Franz Kafka's book "Das Schloß", the movie shares the same action on a land surveyor who is called to a village to do a job that no one seems to have ordered. Once there, he takes up the struggle against bureaucracy emanating from the castle. |
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Left Luggage |
While escaping from Nazis during the WWII, a Jewish man dug suitcases full of things dear to his heart in the ground two. The war deprived him of his family, and afterwards he endlessly turns over the soil of Antwerp to find the suitcases, which makes him look obsessed. He keeps checking old maps and keeps digging, trying to find, in fact, those he lost. His daughter Chaya is a beautiful modern girl looking for a part-time job. She finds a place as a nanny in the strictly observant Chassidic family with many children, although her secular manners clearly fly in the face of many commandments. One of the reasons she is accepted is that mother of the family is absolutely overburdened by the household, so she stays despite the resistance of the father, normally - an indisputable authority in the family. She develops a special bond with the youngest of the boys, four-year old Simcha, so far incapable of speaking. |
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Exiles |
One day Zano suggest a crazy idea to his companion Naïma: travel across France and Spain down to Algeria, where they might ultimately come to know the land their parents once had to flee. |
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What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? |
Amanda (Marlee Maitlin) is a divorced woman who makes a living as a photographer. During the Fall of the year Amanda begins to see the world in new and different ways when she begins to question her role in life, her relationships with her career and men and what it all means. As the layers to her everyday experiences fall away insertions in the story with scientists, and philosophers and religious leaders impart information directly to an off-screen interviewer about academic issues, and Amanda begins to understand the basis to the quantum world beneath. During her epiphany as she considers the Great Questions raised by the host of inserted thinkers, Amanda slowly comprehends the various inspirations and begins to see the world in a new way. |
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Red Victoria |
A writer is forced to write a horror movie by an undead muse who motivates him by killing his friends and family. |
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¡Que Viva México! |
¡Qué viva México! was a film project undertaken in 1931-32 by Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein for American socialist author Upton Sinclair and several investors, which Eisenstein eventually conceived as an episodic portrayal of Mexican culture and politics from pre-Conquest civilization to the Mexican revolution. Over 200,000 feet of silent film were shot before production had to be stopped due to exhaustion of finances and Stalin's demands that Eisenstein return to the USSR. This is one of several attempts to make a feature film out of the existing footage, here according to Eisenstein's skeletal outline and under the supervision of Gregori Alexandrov, Eisenstein's long-time collaborator, including on this project. |
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Miss Lulu Bett |
Lois Wilson (as Lulu) is the spinsterish member of the Deacon family: "The family beast of burden, whose timid soul has failed to break the bonds of family servitude." Her brother-in-law is patriarchal Theodore Roberts (as Dwight Deacon); running the house with an iron fist, he is both a dentist and a Justice of the Peace. As the latter, he accidentally marries Ms. Wilson to his visiting brother Clarence Burton (as Ninian Deacon) while they are out for dinner. Schoolteacher Milton Sills (as Neil Cornish) is also interested in Wilson... |
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Blow for Blow |
The film describes a strike in a French textile factory, when the striking workers occupy the factory. |
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Wholly Moses |
Harvey and Zoey, two tourists in Israel, discover an ancient scroll about Herschel, the man who was almost Moses. Herschel receives the command from God to free his people from slavery, but Moses keeps getting all the credit. |
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The Silenced |
A sickly girl Ju-ran transfers to a new sanitorium boarding school to regain health. But she discovers that students are disappearing and notices abnormal changes happening to her body. She suspects the school for what's happening and tries to discover what secret is hidden. |
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Kaena: The Prophecy |
Compelled by a mysterious force, Kaena, a rebellious, high-spirited teenage girl will defy the High Priest and her people's ancestral beliefs to take the perilous journey through the Axis and discover what dark secrets lie beyond the clouds. |
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Blood Father |
An ex-con reunites with his estranged wayward 16-year old daughter to protect her from drug dealers who are trying to kill her. |
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The Chicago 8 |
Based on actual court transcripts of 8 anti-war protesters on trial for conspiring to cause riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. |
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Right On, Man! |
In the punk rock era of the late 1970s three restless teenagers, two boys and a girl, spend their time in and out of a special class for problem kids. Jussi seldom sees his parents at home, so he is free to indulge in petty crimes, pranks, and getting drunk with his friend Pete. Jussi falls in love with equally rebellious classmate Lissu (Aki Kaurismäki's favourite actress Kati Outinen in her debut role), but the lovers' plan to run away together fails dramatically. |
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Pale Moon |
Daily, Rika Umezawa battles a nagging sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction. She works a tiring job, comes home to an unappreciative husband and has little opportunity to enjoy life. But things change when office gossip about affairs and embezzlement inspire Rika to do the unthinkable. Soon, Rika finds herself filling the void with a university student named Kota and the millions entrusted to her by clients. Is her newfound lifestyle the key to happiness? And if so, how long can it last? |