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Film Reviews

Whitey

The second movie version, now in color, of Flemish (heimat-)author Ernest Claes' classical novel, titled after the nickname (Dutch 'the White', referring to a blond male) of the main character. The smart but naughty farmhands son's eternal mischief, pranks and disobedience drive his elders (especially teachers, family and father's grumpy employer, a rich farmer, but also neighbors and even the kind curate whose liturgical server he is) and classmates to despair in a time when a boy's punishment was still inevitable, swift and often severe; thus when his mother catches him skinny dipping she takes all his clothes home, forcing him to a long walk of shame, dreading dad's wrath all the way. This version also stresses the story's social and Flamingant aspects.

Hannah Takes the Stairs

Hannah is a recent college graduate interning at a Chicago production company. She is crushing on two writers at work, Matt and Paul, who share an office and keep her entertained. Will a relationship with one of them disrupt the delicate balance of their friendship?

Dead Birds

The film's title is borrowed from a Dani fable that Gardner recounts in voice-over. The Dani people, whom Gardner identifies mysteriously as "a mountain people," believe that there was once a great race between a bird and a snake, which was to determine the lives of human beings. Should men shed their skins and live forever like snakes, or die like birds? The bird won the race, dictating that man must die. The film's plot revolves around two characters, Weyak and Pua. Weyak is a warrior who guards the frontier between the land of his tribe and that of the neighboring tribe. Pua is a young boy whom Gardner depicts as weak and inept.

Bomber

An 83 year-old man returns to Germany for a long planned journey of atonement. When Ross, his useless son agrees to drive him there, a nightmare family road trip ensues.

The Diary of Anne Frank

The story of a 13-year-old Jewish girl and her family who are forced into hiding by the Nazis during World War II.

City Under Siege

Sunny is a naïve circus performer who dreams of inheriting his father's knife-throwing skills. However, his hostile colleagues continue to bully him, relegating him to a lowly clown. On a tour to Malaysia, Cheung and other performers discover a cave occupied by the Japanese army during World War II. Instead of finding treasure, the performers - including Sunny - are sprayed with a mysterious chemical that turns them into superhuman mutants...

The Assault

Saturday 24th December 1994. Four GIA terrorists hijack an Air France A300 Airbus at the Algiers airport. The Airbus, bound for Paris, has 227 passengers on board. No one knows exactly what the terrorists’ intentions are, just that they are armed and extremely determined. They demand the liberation of their “brothers in arms” and want the aircraft to take off at once. After very lengthy and intense negotiations between the French and Algerian governments, the plane is finally allowed to leave. There are three main characters at the heart of the action: a member of the GIGN, Carole Jeanton, an ambitious technocrat willing to do anything it takes to achieve personal gain from the events, and Yahia Abdallah, a determined jihadist who grew up in the slums of Algiers and was being manipulated by an obscure GIA envoy, Ali Touchent.

Mickybo and Me

The film tells the story of two boys who become friends at the start of the Troubles in 1970. The boys share an obsession with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, with the consequence that they run away to Australia.

You Can't Kill Stephen King

Siblings Monroe (Monroe Mann) and Hilary (Crystal Arnette) have discovered that they have inherited a lake house and to make things even better, the famous horror author Stephen King is rumoured to live somewhere nearby. They decide to take their friends down to the lake house to check things out, only to find immediate resistance from all of the locals, who insist that King doesn't live in the area. Despite being completely unwelcome, they decide to stay and soon find that people are being killed one by one in a manner similar to several deaths in various Stephen King stories.

RISE

Rise follows real life events of a young nurse, Will McIntyre, who has his freedom taken after a one night stand leads to a charge of rape. Despite his innocence, he is found guilty upon trial. We are taken into the maximum security prison where Jimmy Cove, a hardened inmate, infamous for a string of armed robberies is positively impacted by Will’s courage and struggle to make sense of it all. Meanwhile, a Queen’s Counsel Barrister, Julie Nile, is challenged to compromise her status and wage to prove his innocence.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her

Told from the female perspective, the story of a couple trying to reclaim the life and love they once knew and pick up the pieces of a past that may be too far gone.

The Execution of Private Slovik

The story of Eddie Slovik, who was executed by the Army in 1945, the only American soldier to be executed for desertion since the Civil War.

The Houses October Built

Beneath the fake blood and cheap masks of countless haunted house attractions across the country, there are whispers of truly terrifying alternatives. Looking to find an authentic, blood-curdling good fright for Halloween, five friends set off on a road trip in an RV to track down these underground Haunts. Just when their search seems to reach a dead end, strange and disturbing things start happening and it becomes clear that the Haunt has come to them…

Eastern Promises

A Russian teenager living in London who dies during childbirth leaves clues to a midwife in her journal that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.

Ernesto

Ernesto (Martin Hahn) is a young Italian Jew of the early 1900s who works in his uncle's factory in Trieste. Not entirely secure with his sexual orientation, Ernesto enters into an affair with one of his uncle's employees--then experiments with heterosexuality, courtesy of an obliging prostitute. When the boy finds himself participating in an arranged marriage with the female twin of one of his male lovers, he finally makes the choice that will determine the direction of his subsequent sex life.

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