Film Reviews

SACCO AND VANZETTI is an 80-minute-long documentary that tells the story of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant anarchists who were accused of a murder in 1920, and executed in Boston in 1927 after a notoriously prejudiced trial. It is the first major documentary film about this landmark story.

Expecting the usual tedium that accompanies a summer in the Catskills with her family, 17-year-old Frances 'Baby' Houseman is surprised to find herself stepping into the shoes of a professional hoofer – and unexpectedly falling in love.

Just as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) is testimony to German silent film art, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) symbolises both the birth of the Australian film industry and the emergence of an Australian identity. Even more significantly it heralds the emergence of the feature film format. The Story of the Kelly Gang, directed by Charles Tait in 1906, is the first full-length narrative feature film produced anywhere in the world. Only fragments of the original production of more than one hour are known to exist and are preserved at the National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra. (unesco.org)

While combing through the belongings of his recently deceased aunt, Matsuko, nephew Sho pieces together the crucial events that sank Matsuko's life into a despairing tragedy.

Pozzetto is a rich man obsessed by the idea of becoming poor. So, his psychiatric suggests him to leave home and live just like a poor man for some days. He will then become familiar with this way of living, and fear less the idea of becoming poor. So he does, and his old family & friends soon forget about him. They don't miss him at all.

In a small Russian town, there is a Research Institute for magic. One of the witches, Alyona Sanina, is going to marry a guy named Ivan Puhov (not a magician). A jealous Apollon Sataneev tells her boss Kira Shemahandskaya that Sanina is going to marry not Ivan Puhov, but Ivan Kivrin, whom Shemahandskaya is going to marry herself. Enraged, Shemahandskaya, who is a powerful witch, orders Sanina to forget about her Ivan and marry Sataneev instead. And this will be final unless Alyona kisses Puhov before midnight on New Year. Alyona's friends call Puhov to the rescue.

A teenager called Noriko Shimabara runs away from her family in Tokoyama, to meet Kumiko, the leader of an Internet BBS, Haikyo.com. She becomes involved with Kumiko's "family circle", which grows darker after the mass suicide of 54 high school girls.

Jussi Vares falls in love with a beautiful brunette - only to lose her in a horrible way. After dating Sole a few weeks, her body is found in a bird-watching tower. The investigations come to a standstill, until Vares promises to solve a mystery of messy denunciation letters. Before the letters reveal their secret, a lot of things happen. A gun-for-hire, Stahanov, gets an assignment. Sole's brother finds his wife in the arms of a wrong man and goes on a rampage, accompanied by a black cat. In the end the clues lead to a familiar person and more death in unavoidable

Price, a former hitman, is struggling to cope with retirement. He left the assassination business to live the "easy life." However, retirement arrived with its own agenda. It was not the instant peace and calm that Price expected. Rather, it was emptiness, boredom, and, worst of all, restlessness. The Last Lullaby plummets Price back into his old life and forces him into a corner from which he may never escape. Price's old ways no longer work for him when his heart opens, and he finds life beyond his profession. The tension finally boils, as Price must decide to close himself off again or open himself up to a world beyond his control.

Carpathian Americans are just like any other expatriate organization, they enjoy family get together, and share business opportunities. There is just one minor difference, the Carpathian Americans seem to have a predilection for drinking human blood.

Comedy about a fool woman that in reality is clever and fools everybody.

A wooden boy Buratino tries to find his place in life. He befriends toys from a toy theater owned by evil Karabas-Barabas, gets tricked by Alice the Fox and Basilio the Cat and finally discovers the mystery of a golden key given to him by kind Tortila the Tortoise.

At 17 LeighAnne Williams has a six month old baby to look after, with only the help of three teenage squatters who flog stolen gear to make ends meet. A neighbour (actually from Turkey) across the street becomes target to her growing paranoia that Social Services are going to take her daughter, Rebecca, away from her. Her behavior becoming increasingly desperate as her delusions over her neighbor grow.

Based on an inspiring true story, a small-town news reporter (Krasinski) and a Greenpeace volunteer (Barrymore) enlist the help of rival superpowers to save three majestic gray whales trapped under the ice of the Arctic Circle. ‘Big Miracle’ is adapted from the nonfiction book ‘Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World’s Greatest Non-Event’ by Tom Rose.

The picaresque and touching story of the politically incorrect, fully lived life of the impulsive, irascible and fearlessly blunt Barney Panofsky.