Film Reviews

A simple peasant is forced to take up arms to defend his farm during the Spanish Civil War. Along the way he falls in love with Russian whose father is involved in espionage.

A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, like himself, is a musically gifted conscript, each having attended the same musical conservatory in France. The fact that the incident occurred in war does not assuage his guilt. He travels to Germany to meet the man's family.

HA Yoon-ju becomes the newest member to a unit within the Korean Police Forces Special Crime Department that specializes in surveillance activities on high profile criminals. She teams up with HWANG Sang-Jun, the veteran leader of the unit, and tries to track down James who is the cold-hearted leader of an armed criminal organization.

Film archivist David and his wife are perfectly happy or so he believes. When a looming secret shatters their marriage at the same time as a turn-of-the-century film reel he is studying reveals their house to be the site of a 1902 multiple-murder, David begins to unravel, and the house’s eerie history threatens to repeat itself. Dripping with tension and chilling to the core, this visceral Irish ghost story is a visually arresting and genuinely shocking journey into the darkness within.

Introverted and peculiar, Mara spends her days fabricating props for movies. But her reclusive persona conceals an internal wrath. Terrified of being alone, Mara refuses to let her lovers leave, sadistically murdering them and keeping their corpses as living dolls. When she's hired by Kat, a fledgling producer, the two instantly hit it off. As their relationship grows more intense, Mara begins to lose her already fragile grip on reality. When her dolls begin demanding all of her attention, and Kat threatens to break her heart, Mara spirals into psychosis, leaving her no choice but to kill again.

Laura Partridge is a very enthusiastic small stockholder of 10 shares in International Projects, a large corporation based in New York. She attends her first stockholder meeting ready to question the board of directors from their salaries to their operations.

A railroad official, Owen Legate comes to Dodson, Mississippi to shut down much of the town's railway (town's main income). Owen unexpectedly finds love with Dodson's flirt and main attraction, Alva Starr. Alva and Owen then try to escape Alva's mother's (Hazel) clutches and the town's revenge.

In 1970, a few days before Christmas, Elvis Presley showed up on the White House lawn seeking to be deputized into the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs by the President himself.

An enigmatic phone call from a psychic catapults a family into a state of suspended belief while waiting for their recently deceased mother to be resurrected.

A documentary concerning the violent Italian 'poliziotteschi' cinematic movement of the 1970s which, at first glance, seem to be rip-offs of American crime films like DIRTY HARRY or THE GODFATHER, but which really address Italian issues like the Sicilian Mafia and red terrorism. Perhaps even more interesting than the films themselves were the rushed methods of production (stars performing their own stunts, stealing shots, no live sound) and the bleed-over between real-life crime and movie crime.

A tough undercover cop inadvertently gets involved in a dangerous heroin ring when a young defector of the drug trade leaves his five year-old sister in his care.

A simple can of ravioli propels this spectacular 30,000-kilometre, eight-country journey through all phases of food production and the far flung sources of international ingredients. A dream-like voyage with glimpses of disconcerting realities, the story begins with a single mother toiling in one of the biggest open pit mines in Brazil and ends on the shelf of a grocery store in Finland. Along the way, the workers whose calloused hands mine, raise and harvest each ingredient reveal their dreams and hopes, like the Danish pig farmer who loves his sows but longs for a girlfriend, and the Portuguese tomato picker who wants to stay healthy long enough to pay her daughters way through university. Sumptuous photography and impressive sound design make an eloquent statement about our modern, globalized world, making us aware of the hundreds of invisible people who prepare the food we eat every day. -Gisèle Gordon (HotDocs.ca)

When Dawn, an overworked single mother, agrees to take her teenage daughter, Kayla, to a luxurious but isolated spa retreat, the women believe they have escaped to a paradise of spa treatments, yoga, and nature hikes until a series of disturbing incidents has Kayla questioning the perfection around her.

It's Halloween in the 100 Acre Wood, and Roo's best new friend, Lumpy, is looking forward to his first time trick-or-treating. That is, until Tigger warns them about the scary Gobloon, who'll turn them into jack-o'-lanterns if he catches them. But if Roo and Lumpy turn the tables on the Gobloon, they get to make a wish! Lumpy and Roo decide to be "brave together, brave forever" and catch the Gobloon so they can make their wishes come true.

Tony Costas, a brash, obnoxious, sexist and racist Detroit cop who has long since stopped following the rules, gets told that he will have to work with Inspector Fuji, a straightlaced policeman from Japan. Fuji is in Detroit searching for a Japanese engineer who has gone to America with plans for a top secret car part. The pair naturally fail to get along at first, but as the investigation continues, they almost begin to come close to tolerating each other's presence.