Film Reviews

In 1948, Lenny Bruce was just another comic who couldn't get arrested. By 1961, all that would change.

The Mysterious House of Dr. C. (1976) is a rarely seen, reworked version of the 1966 Dr. Coppelius, a dance film based on the classic 19th-century Leo Delibes ballet "Coppelia." This version contains poorly received songs, narration, and animation sequences not in the original.

Documentary focusing on the contributions to the American war effort of African-American soldiers.

The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunites. But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

When Danny O'Shea's daughter is cut from the Peewee football team just for being a girl, he decides to form his own team, composed of other ragtag players who were also cut. Can his team really learn enough to beat the elite team, coached by his brother, a former pro player?

After being forced to leave the village because of an affair, a woman becomes close to a petty criminal when she settles in Parma.

An actor's career takes a "Tootsie"-like turn when he lets himself be cast as a woman in a movie.

Magistrate (Judge) Del Russo presides over four cases brough before him during a period of one day. "Adultery in 16mm" focus on Elena who brings her salesman husband to court on charges of abandonment where he springs surprise evidence involving her affair with her lawyer. In "The Priest and the Prostitute," Don Michele, a young priest, is charged with wrecking a pool room who claims he was robbed by Anna, a prostitute, and beaten by her pimp. In "Indecent Exposure," Meniconi is a man arrested for indecent exposure who claims he was swimming in the nude and his clothes where stolen. The last case "Lustful Lieutenant," involves Gloriana, a middle-aged prostitute, who's brought before Del Russo on charges of soliciting and who apparently knew Del Russo from a time years ago.

While Jane Holman (Mastrantonio) is driving with her two sons, she accidentally runs into a drifter, Jack McCloud (Swayze), who breaks his leg. Being responsible, Jane invites Jack, and his dog, to stay at her home until his leg has healed. Jack struggles to adapt their lifestyle, and finds himself loved by the family. He starts teaching baseball to Tom, who misses his father, who was lost in the Korean war. Jack and Tom develop a strong bond of friendship. Meanwhile, Gunny believes that there is more to Jack and Betty Jane than meets the eye... We learn that Jack, is Jack McCloud, a Star White Socks baseball player in 1941, who dropped out of the league, after his first season, and; "was never heard from again" ... A wonderful story. We witness magic between a boy's imagination, and Jack's dog, and are never sure if we are witnessing imagination or magic by the dog. A story of friendship, family, and learning that life isn't always as cut and dried as we often believe.

The true-life, stranger-than-fiction tale of eighteenth-century Greek pirate turned merchant Ioannis Varvakis, who rose from humble beginnings to become the head of one of the largest mercantile empires in Europe.

This is a collection of portraits: 23 short stories about the Marij women, a sort of Decameron suspended between magic and realism, in which the Autonomous Republic of the Marij El serves as a backdrop for the collective history of a people of ancient tradition. A journey into a mysterious and unknown part of the world.

Three teenage friends get in way over their head when they cross a down-home crime syndicate. They hope to make a break for it and escape their dead-end existence in a cotton-mill town but get sucked into the seedy underbelly of organized crime when one of them steals from the wrong man.

A movie studio is being torn down. TV interviewer Genya Tachibana has tracked down its most famous star, Chiyoko Fujiwara, who has been a recluse since she left acting some 30 years ago. Tachibana delivers a key to her, and it causes her to reflect on her career; as she's telling the story, Tachibana and his long-suffering cameraman are drawn in.

Two top baseball prospects in the Dominican Republic face fierce competition and corruption as they chase their big league dreams.

A lonely hairdresser watches the title sequence of "That Cold Day in the Park" then visits a local park to invite a down-and-out skinhead to his apartment. He draws the silent man a bath and talks to him as he soaks. He locks his guest in a bedroom. Next day, the skinhead leaves through the window and visits his sister, who's making a film called "Sisters of the SLA." He helps with a screen-test. The hairdresser has dreams and fantasies involving the skinhead, the skinhead returns to visit him, and then the filmmaker pays a call on the two men, exposing her brother as faking his silence and pretending a lack of sexual interest. Fantasies can come true.