Film Reviews
Winning Favour |
Based on a true story, it concerns a group of boys who grow up together playing basketball in tournaments and driveways - and end up on opposite sides of the proverbial fence, playing for rival high schools. Then another twist occurs when each high school yields a championship team - pitting the two against one another in the finals and forcing the young men to learn the importance of family, friendship and a great deal more. |
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Hollow City |
A group of children, fleeing the war, is taken to Luanda accompanied by a nun. When they reach the aeroplane, 12-year-old N'Dala decides to leave the group and to reconnoitre the city. The nun then starts her unceasing quest for the missing boy. N'Dala, only carrying a textile bag and a doll made of wire, walks through the busy streets filled with people and traffic. Later he finds the tranquility of the island off the coast, where he meets the old fisherman Antonio, with whom he becomes friends. Not much later, he meets the lively, whimsical Zé, who is a little older than he is. N'Dala starts to experience the city and its inhabitants as increasingly forbidding and he would most like to return to the countryside from whence he came. Then he meets Joka, a fringe figure who persuades him to help with a robbery in exchange for money. With this film, Maria Joao Ganga wanted to provide a realistic sketch of the bitter political situation in Angola. One of her most important motivations ... |
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The Kiss of the Vampire |
Honeymooning in Bavaria, the young couple become stranded and are forced to stay the night in the area. Doctor Ravna, owner of the impressive chateau that sits imposingly above the village, invites them to dinner that evening. Their association with Ravna and his charming, beautiful family is to prove disastrous as they become unwittingly embroiled with this family of vampires who seek to initiate them into their diabolical creed. |
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A2 |
A2 is a continuation of director Tatsuya Mori's film A (1998), an incredible view inside the compound of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult after its leaders carried out the deadly sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995. Most followers had no idea that the attacks were being planned, or even that their new religion had violent aspirations. After the attacks, these followers were left to rebuild the religion where they had once found peace in the face of overwhelming, and understandable, condemnation from the rest of Japan. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence. |
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Zorba the Greek |
An uptight English writer traveling to Crete on a matter of business finds his life changed forever when he meets the gregarious Alexis Zorba. |
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Nightcrawler |
When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran. |
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Great Escape: The Untold Story |
A documentary about the 1944 mass escape from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III for British and Commonwealth airmen that eventually was dramatized by the famous film "The Great Escape". |
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The Marriage of Maria Braun |
The Marriage of Maria Braun is a collage of the times in Germany after the war, economic miracles, and a portrait of a woman who in her circumstances wants to emancipate and have a successful and happy career. |
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Argo |
As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA 'exfiltration' specialist concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador. |
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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales |
Thrust into an all-new paycheck, a down-on-his-luck Capt. Jack Sparrow feels the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost sailors led by his old nemesis, the evil Capt. Salazar, escape from the Devil's Triangle. Jack's only hope of a payout lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Numbers, but to find it, he must forge an uneasy alliance with a reasonably intelligent and pretty astronomer and a irritating young man in the British navy. |
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Scenes from a Marriage |
Ten years of Marianne and Johan's relationship are presented. We first meet them ten years into their marriage. He is a college professor, she a divorce lawyer. They say that they are happily married - unlike their friends Katarina and Peter who openly fight, especially when under the influence of alcohol - but there is a certain detached aloofness in the way they treat each other. In the next ten years, as they contemplate or embark upon divorce and/or known extramarital affairs, they come to differing understandings at each phase of their relationship of what they truly mean to each other. Regardless of if it's love or hate - between which there is a fine line - they also come to certain understandings of how they can best relate to each other, whether that be as husband and wife, friends, lovers or none of the above. |
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Romantically Speaking |
A young lady who has grown up with her father being a radio DJ, becomes one herself. Falls in love and hosts a 'Romantically Speaking' show. |
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Killers |
Mr. Nomura is an eerily handsome, sharply dressed, sociopathic serial killer who preys on the women of Tokyo. In Jakarta, a world-weary journalist named Bayu finds himself unexpectedly falling into vigilantism after brutally killing two sadistic robbers. When each posts videos of their violent sprees online, the pair find one another on the Internet and begin a toxic and competitive duel. While Bayu clings to the hope that he can resume a normal life, Nomura continues to spill blood without remorse. Killing, advises Nomura, is something everyone ought to consider. |
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You're Out of Your Mind, Madicken |
A first movie based on Astrid Lindgren's novel "Madicken och Junibackens pims", which is about two sisters and their adventures in 1910s Sweden. |
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Splendor in the Grass |
A fragile Kansas girl's unrequited and forbidden love for a handsome young man from the town's most powerful family drives her to heartbreak and madness. |
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