Film Reviews

In Kyushu, southwest Japan, one hot summer morning, a municipal bus is hijacked. In the carnage only three people survive: the driver, a school girl, and her older brother.

A town supports the memory of an aspiring actress who dies before her first film premieres.

The frothy experiences of a vain little flapper. Her father induces an actor friend to become a gentlemanly cave man and the film becomes another variation of the 'Taming of the Shrew' theme.

Tish Gray had a baby and gave it up for adoption. She is contacted by a second childless couple who want her to have the husband's baby because of the wife's inability to have children. She accepts but finds that knowing the parents, and developing a relationship with them for the entire pregnancy complicates the simple arrangement.

Russell Peters once again delivers his trademark take on race and culture as well as his lightning quick improv. Russell shares his observations on everything from the declining population of white people, to the stereotyping of Arabs, to his recent travels in India.

The meaning of art itself comes into question in this documentary about Shelby Lee Adams' controversial photos of families in Appalachia.

EntreLobos (AmongWolves) tells the remarkable story of a poor country boy named Marcos, who at the age of 7 is handed over to his father's employer, a rich landowner, who in turn delivers him to a life of labor with a hermetic goatherd in an isolated valley. The old man, who lives in a cave, is unused to human company and at first seems not very interested in having a live-in apprentice. The boy, who was abused by his parents, is frightened and equally aloof initially. Despite this, the shepherd begins teaching Marcos how to herd the goats, as well as how to care for himself and how to survive in the wilderness by trapping and fishing.

In search of an emissary to represent the American theater at an arts expo in Paris, a State Department bureaucrat (Ray Bolger) invites Ethel Barrymore to appear -- too bad her invitation is sent to chorus girl Ethel "Dynamite" Jackson (Doris Day) instead! Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Miss Jackson hightails it to Paris -- with the bureaucrat in pursuit. A plethora of song-and-dance numbers ensues in this Sammy Cahn-scored musical.

The world is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Only five Americans survive, including a pregnant woman, a neo-Nazi, a black man and a bank clerk. The five fight each other, fall in love, and act really depressed a lot.

With a torrid past that haunts him, a movie theatre owner is hired to search for the only existing print of a film so notorious that its single screening caused the viewers to become homicidally insane.

Four years after the death of Freddie Mercury 'Made In Heaven' the album was released. The visual conception was commissioned with the help of the B.F.I. and producers Hot Property. Eight films representative of Queen's music are accompanied by the tracklist: 'I Was Born To Love You', 'O', 'Return Trip', 'Closing Titles', 'Evolution', 'Mother Love', 'Heart-Ache' and 'Outside-In'

Jude, a college professor, is obsessed with Sophie, his student. She, in turn, is intrigued by his scholarly charm. Flirtation turns to lust and the two become lovers.

Rattled by sudden unemployment, a Manhattan couple surveys alternative living options, ultimately deciding to experiment with living on a rural commune where free love rules.

Hard man Ricky is incarcerated in a futuristic prison where ultra-violence is his only means of survival in the corrupt, sadistic system. He must battle his way quite literally 'through' the feared 'gang of four', and undergo multiple tortures before facing the governor in one of the goriest climaxes ever seen.

After years of painstaking research at the cost of his domestic pleasure, Dr. Dipankar Roy discovers a vaccine for leprosy. The news is flashed over television and overnight, an insignificant junior doctor receives international recognition. Professional jealousy and abuse of power threaten Dr. Roy, even as the Secretary of Health reprimands him for breaking the news to the press. He is asked to report to the Director of Health. Professional colleagues Dr. Arijit Sen and Dr. Ramananda invite him to a lecture but it is merely a pretence to humiliate him. Dr. Roy suffers a mild heart attack but he refuses to go to the hospital. His wife and few others like Dr. Kundu stand by Dr. Roy, but the harassment continues; a letter from an American foundation is suppressed and Dr. Roy transferred to a remote village. The last straw is two American doctors receiving credit for discovering the same vaccine. Dr. Roy is shattered. Written by Rajesh Das.