Film Reviews · Backpex

Title	Overview		Toggle columns Title Overview
Face of Fire	A local handyman saves a child in a fire, but the burns he receives disfigure his face so much that the townspeople avoid him.
Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet	When doctors diagnosed 19-year-old rock star Jason Becker with Lou Gehrig's Disease, they said he would never make music again and that he wouldn’t live to see his 25th birthday. 22 years later, without the ability to move or to speak, Jason is alive and making music with his eyes.
Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry	After being evicted from their old house by Tom's owner for causing major damage, cat and mouse Tom and Jerry enter a race entitled the "Fabulous Super Race" to win a mansion.
Without a Trace	Based on the case of young New Yorker Etan Patz, who disappeared in the early 1980s, this film casts Kate Nelligan as the distraught mother who lashes out at the police (in the person of a relentless detective played by Judd Hirsch), who make her and her husband suspects, even as she hounds them to find her child and drives away her husband (David Dukes) and friends (including Stockard Channing) with her intensity and single-mindedness. Squandered on a Hollywood ending that doesn't square with the real case: Etan Patz was never found.
Somewhere in the City	The film portrays life of New York City's Lower East Side inhabitants. Introvert therapist Betty is befriended with Chinese immigrant Lu Lu, leftist radical Che is also Lu Lu's friend. Italian immigrant and wife of supervisor of building where they all live, Marta, is having an affair with her neighbour Frankie who likes scams. One of his scams goes terribly wrong.
Sleeping Betty	Princess Betty sleeps in a narcoleptic stupor. The king appeals to his subjects to wake her, and several respond: Uncle Henry VIII, Aunt Victoria, an emotional alien, a cool witch and a handsome prince. This worthy Prince Charles lookalike has to leave his royal suburb to save the princess, but will Betty be wakened with just a kiss?
Shepard & Dark	Shepard & Dark is the remarkable story of a friendship in letters.
The Killing Fields	The Killing Fields tells the real life story of a friendship between two journalists, an American and a Cambodian, during the bloody Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia in 1975, which lead to the death of 2-3 million Cambodians during the next four years, until Pol Pot's regime was toppled by the intervening Vietnamese in 1979.
Nick Offerman: American Ham	This live taping of Nick Offerman's hilarious one-man show at New York's historic Town Hall theater features a collection of anecdotes, songs, and woodworking/oral sex techniques.
Biloxi Blues	During the Second World War, Eugene enlists in the US Army during the last year of the War and is sent to basic training in Biloxi Mississippi. There he must live with a variety of fellow soldiers while enduring the whims of a mentally unstable drill sergeant.
Men without Wings	After an attack against the guard of the Third Reich, Nazi repression intensifies, and the Czechoslovakian resistance's organized sabotage in an aircraft factory leads to Gestapo shootings.
The Iron Lady	A look at the life of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a focus on the price she paid for power.
The Protagonists	An enterprising reporter takes along four willing adventurers to interview and photograph a young Sardinian criminal in hiding. Under intermittent gunfire, they make their way to the mountain hideout of the bandit. After a leisurely conversation and photo session, the encampment comes under fire from a group of armed citizens acting as police. Bullets fly and violence overtakes the criminal's two henchman, as the thrill-seeking group and the wanted criminal find themselves under attack.
Dark Haul	The meaning of cryptic prophesy splits apart a team of secretive guardians as they transport by 18-wheeler truck, a deadly creature and it's half-human sister from their now ineffective holding place to a more secure location. The sister's hidden agenda undermines the mission releasing the beast and they end up battling for the fate of the world when the true meaning of the prophesy is discovered in this mysterious and thrilling, action-packed creature feature.
Racing Dreams	From go-kart champs, NASCAR winners are bred -- or so goes the thinking of the drivers (and their families) involved in the World Karting Association's National Pavement Series. This documentary follows three of the series' top contenders. Although small in stature, the adolescent racers harbor big dreams as they hit speeds of 60 to 70 miles per hour in their quest to ascend the first rung on their way to NASCAR in this film from Marshall Curry.

Face of Fire

A local handyman saves a child in a fire, but the burns he receives disfigure his face so much that the townspeople avoid him.

Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet

When doctors diagnosed 19-year-old rock star Jason Becker with Lou Gehrig's Disease, they said he would never make music again and that he wouldn’t live to see his 25th birthday. 22 years later, without the ability to move or to speak, Jason is alive and making music with his eyes.

Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry

After being evicted from their old house by Tom's owner for causing major damage, cat and mouse Tom and Jerry enter a race entitled the "Fabulous Super Race" to win a mansion.

Without a Trace

Based on the case of young New Yorker Etan Patz, who disappeared in the early 1980s, this film casts Kate Nelligan as the distraught mother who lashes out at the police (in the person of a relentless detective played by Judd Hirsch), who make her and her husband suspects, even as she hounds them to find her child and drives away her husband (David Dukes) and friends (including Stockard Channing) with her intensity and single-mindedness. Squandered on a Hollywood ending that doesn't square with the real case: Etan Patz was never found.

Somewhere in the City

The film portrays life of New York City's Lower East Side inhabitants. Introvert therapist Betty is befriended with Chinese immigrant Lu Lu, leftist radical Che is also Lu Lu's friend. Italian immigrant and wife of supervisor of building where they all live, Marta, is having an affair with her neighbour Frankie who likes scams. One of his scams goes terribly wrong.

Sleeping Betty

Princess Betty sleeps in a narcoleptic stupor. The king appeals to his subjects to wake her, and several respond: Uncle Henry VIII, Aunt Victoria, an emotional alien, a cool witch and a handsome prince. This worthy Prince Charles lookalike has to leave his royal suburb to save the princess, but will Betty be wakened with just a kiss?

Shepard & Dark

Shepard & Dark is the remarkable story of a friendship in letters.

The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields tells the real life story of a friendship between two journalists, an American and a Cambodian, during the bloody Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia in 1975, which lead to the death of 2-3 million Cambodians during the next four years, until Pol Pot's regime was toppled by the intervening Vietnamese in 1979.

Nick Offerman: American Ham

This live taping of Nick Offerman's hilarious one-man show at New York's historic Town Hall theater features a collection of anecdotes, songs, and woodworking/oral sex techniques.

Biloxi Blues

During the Second World War, Eugene enlists in the US Army during the last year of the War and is sent to basic training in Biloxi Mississippi. There he must live with a variety of fellow soldiers while enduring the whims of a mentally unstable drill sergeant.

Men without Wings

After an attack against the guard of the Third Reich, Nazi repression intensifies, and the Czechoslovakian resistance's organized sabotage in an aircraft factory leads to Gestapo shootings.

The Iron Lady

A look at the life of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a focus on the price she paid for power.

The Protagonists

An enterprising reporter takes along four willing adventurers to interview and photograph a young Sardinian criminal in hiding. Under intermittent gunfire, they make their way to the mountain hideout of the bandit. After a leisurely conversation and photo session, the encampment comes under fire from a group of armed citizens acting as police. Bullets fly and violence overtakes the criminal's two henchman, as the thrill-seeking group and the wanted criminal find themselves under attack.

Dark Haul

The meaning of cryptic prophesy splits apart a team of secretive guardians as they transport by 18-wheeler truck, a deadly creature and it's half-human sister from their now ineffective holding place to a more secure location. The sister's hidden agenda undermines the mission releasing the beast and they end up battling for the fate of the world when the true meaning of the prophesy is discovered in this mysterious and thrilling, action-packed creature feature.

Racing Dreams

From go-kart champs, NASCAR winners are bred -- or so goes the thinking of the drivers (and their families) involved in the World Karting Association's National Pavement Series. This documentary follows three of the series' top contenders. Although small in stature, the adolescent racers harbor big dreams as they hit speeds of 60 to 70 miles per hour in their quest to ascend the first rung on their way to NASCAR in this film from Marshall Curry.