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Film Reviews

Friday the 13th

Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child's drowning.

Shadow Magic

Beijing, 1902: an enterprising young portrait photographer named Liu Jinglun, keen on new technology, befriends a newly-arrived Englishman who's brought projector, camera, and Lumière-brothers' shorts to open the Shadow Magic theater. Liu's work with Wallace brings him conflict with tradition and his father's authority, complicated by his falling in love with Ling, daughter of Lord Tan, star of Beijing's traditional opera. Liu sees movies as his chance to become wealthy and worthy of Ling. When the Shadow Magic pair are invited to show the films to the Empress Dowager, things look good. But, is disaster in the script? And, can movies preserve tradition even as they bring change?

School for Seduction

An Italian temptress arrives at a school in Newcastle to teach a group of Geordies about the art of romance.

Committed

An accidental meeting between a man being pressured to propose to his girlfriend and a runaway bride.

Altered States

A research scientist (William Hurt) explores the boundaries and frontiers of consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from native American shamans, he explores these altered states of consciousness and finds that memory, time, and perhaps reality itself are states of mind.

The Dresser

One fateful night in a small English regional theatre during World War II a troupe of touring actors stage a production of Shakespeares King Lear. Bombs are falling, sirens are wailing, the curtain is up in an hour but the actor/manager Sir who is playing Lear is nowhere to be seen. His dresser Norman must scramble to keep the production alive but will Sir turn up in time and if he does will he be able to perform that night? The Dresser is a wickedly funny and deeply moving story of friendship and loyalty as Sir reflects on his lifelong accomplishments and seeks to reconcile his turbulent friendships with those in his employ before the final curtain.

Blood and Concrete

A dimwitted thug encounters a strung-out, suicidal young woman and an unlikely relationship develops as they work together to make a break for new horizons.

The Devil, Probably

In order to be technically free of the mortal sin of suicide, a young man who has given up on the world pays a drug-addict to shoot him. Charles (Antoine Monnier), who is a student, has tried political action and investigated the claims of religion but ultimately finds nothing which will change the overwhelming bleakness he feels surrounded by. In this austere movie by director Robert Bresson, the power of the storytelling comes from the lucidity of the imagery captured on film, rather than in the acting.

Too Much Sleep

While riding the bus one day, night watchman Jack Crawford gets distracted by a beautiful girl and has his gun stolen. To get it back, he enlists the help of local wise guy, Eddie, and their search reveals the bizarre characters lurking in the strange underworld of a sleepy New Jersey suburb.

Smugglers' Cove

Slip and Sach are working as cleaners in a high rise building. They enter an office to clean it when a messenger hears them use Slip's given name, Terrance Mahoney. The messenger has a letter for "Terrance Mahonoey, Esq." and mistakenly delivers it to Slip. The letter informs Slip that he has inherited a mansion in Long Island. The boys then make their way to the mansion and find that it is inhabited by diamond smugglers. The real owner of the house shows up and helps save the day and defeat the smugglers and gives the boys the house as a reward.

Semen, a Love Sample

A biologist in an insemination clinic unexpectedly falls in love with a free-spirited trapeze artist and the idea of fathering her child. A hilarious romantic comedy about love at first sight, with complications to follow...and more laughs than you could possibly conceive!

Genocide

A series of separate experiments involving poisonous insects by a pair of disparate characters fuses with a plot about an American H-bomb that's been accidentally dropped—intact—on a remote Japanese island and is the subject of a frenetic search by American officers and shady local characters with ulterior motives of their own. (IMDb)

Charms For the Easy Life

The story of three women who live in a North Carolina town and defy the traditional roles set forth for them by society.

Little Dead Rotting Hood

The residents of a small town discover that something more sinister than killer wolves is lurking in the backwoods: first the wolves start turning up dead...then people.

Sorority Wars

Katie (Lucy Hale) and Sara (Phoebe Strole) have been friends since childhood. They enter college together, where Katie is a prized legacy candidate for the Delta sorority, which was co-founded decades ago by her mother, Lutie (Courtney Thorne-Smith) and Summer (Faith Ford), whose own daughter Gwen (Amanda Schull) now leads the Deltas on campus. Events occur during pledge week to cause a rift between Katie and the Deltas, which leaves Sara as a Delta pledge and Katie out in the cold. Katie joins the rival Kappa sorority, and the rivalry splits not just Katie and Sara, but extends all the way into the Delta alumnae association led by Lutie and Summer.

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