Film Reviews · Backpex

Title	Overview
When You're Strange	A documentary about the life of California rock band The Doors, written and directed by Tom DiCillo and narrated by Johnny Depp. Makes public for the first time material from Jim Morrison's 1969 film fragment ‘HWY: An American Pastoral’, and spans the period from the band’s formation through to Morrison’s death in 1973, aged just 27.
Varsham	The film narrates the tale of Venu, owner of a small finance company in Thrissur. His life is shaken up after some unprecedented events leaving him at a dead end. This movie is about how he finds a purpose to live.
Frozen	This is a touching and somber journey of Lasya, who lives with her father Karma and younger brother Chomo in a remote village in the Himalayas. Pristine snow capped mountains surround their tiny hamlet and barren harsh land stretches for miles into nowhere. One day the army moves in, settles a hundred yards across their doorstep. The last bit of comfort the family draws from their familiar surroundings changes into a harsh ceaseless irreversible conflict. The film depicts the life of this family whose dream like existence is interrupted by inevitable odds, one after the other.
Empire	A big time drug dealer Victor Rosa is looking to get out of the game and sees his chance with a big deal with a new friend who happens to be a Wall St. stockbroker. Thinking this will be his chance to go out on top Victor soon finds out that he has been double crossed and his last option is to get revenge.
The Importance of Being Earnest	Two young gentlemen living in 1890s England use the same pseudonym ("Ernest") on the sly, which is fine until they both fall in love with women using that name, which leads to a comedy of mistaken identities...
Dead On	In an erotic update of "Strangers on a Train", airline pilot Ted Beaumont and his lover, Erin Davenport, scheme to rid themselves of their respective spouses. Ted's wife disappears mysteriously and thinking that all is proceeding well, he plans an elaborate scheme to kill Erin's husband. However all is not as it seems.
Nocturnal Animals	Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.
Lulu in Berlin	Documentary about the career of actress Louise Brooks in Berlin.
Pine Flat	Set in a small town in the Sierra Nevadas, Pine Flat is a look at youth and a meditation on nature, socialization, and solitude.
Marc Maron: More Later	Filmed at The Vic Theatre in Chicago, Marc Maron: More Later captures Maron as he dishes out compelling, raw, and wildly honest stand-up. In this brand new special, Maron tackles religion, relationships, rage, Skype sex and ice cream among other topics in the sheerly authentic way that only he can.
Zaza	A seductive music hall star falls in love with a married aristocrat.
The Dead Are Alive	A photographer on an archaeological expedition digging up Etruscan ruins in Italy begins to suspect that not all the Etruscans buried there are actually dead.
The Little Traitor	Based on the novel "Panther in the Basement" by the world-renowned author, Amos Oz, the movie takes place in Palestine in 1947, just a few months before Israel becomes a state. Proffy Liebowitz, a militant yet sensitive eleven year old wants nothing more than for the occupying British to get the hell out of his land.
Flight of the Butterflies	It takes two or three generations for the monarch butterfly to reach the Canadian breeding grounds, but it is one "supergeneration" that makes the 2,000 mile return trip back south into central Mexico. The documentary film covers Dr Fred Urquhart's interest in monarch butterflies, with perspectives of Urquhart as a child wondering where the butterflies went, his years of research and study into their life and migration, to his time decades-later as a senior scientist looking back at his investigations and discoveries about the insect's life pattern.
Stars	World War II has long provided fodder for European filmmakers and East German director Konrad Wolf is no exception. In this uneven though at times compelling drama, he examines the conflict involved in a forbidden love. While the war is in full swing, a young German solder is assigned to a unit in charge of deporting Jews to the death camps. He falls in love with one of the Jewish women being deported, an impossible situation which he knows has no easy solution, if any. Alternately philosophical and at the end, at least, quite powerful, this film may still be too downbeat for most general audiences.

When You're Strange

A documentary about the life of California rock band The Doors, written and directed by Tom DiCillo and narrated by Johnny Depp. Makes public for the first time material from Jim Morrison's 1969 film fragment ‘HWY: An American Pastoral’, and spans the period from the band’s formation through to Morrison’s death in 1973, aged just 27.

Varsham

The film narrates the tale of Venu, owner of a small finance company in Thrissur. His life is shaken up after some unprecedented events leaving him at a dead end. This movie is about how he finds a purpose to live.

Frozen

This is a touching and somber journey of Lasya, who lives with her father Karma and younger brother Chomo in a remote village in the Himalayas. Pristine snow capped mountains surround their tiny hamlet and barren harsh land stretches for miles into nowhere. One day the army moves in, settles a hundred yards across their doorstep. The last bit of comfort the family draws from their familiar surroundings changes into a harsh ceaseless irreversible conflict. The film depicts the life of this family whose dream like existence is interrupted by inevitable odds, one after the other.

Empire

A big time drug dealer Victor Rosa is looking to get out of the game and sees his chance with a big deal with a new friend who happens to be a Wall St. stockbroker. Thinking this will be his chance to go out on top Victor soon finds out that he has been double crossed and his last option is to get revenge.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Two young gentlemen living in 1890s England use the same pseudonym ("Ernest") on the sly, which is fine until they both fall in love with women using that name, which leads to a comedy of mistaken identities...

Dead On

In an erotic update of "Strangers on a Train", airline pilot Ted Beaumont and his lover, Erin Davenport, scheme to rid themselves of their respective spouses. Ted's wife disappears mysteriously and thinking that all is proceeding well, he plans an elaborate scheme to kill Erin's husband. However all is not as it seems.

Nocturnal Animals

Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.

Lulu in Berlin

Documentary about the career of actress Louise Brooks in Berlin.

Pine Flat

Set in a small town in the Sierra Nevadas, Pine Flat is a look at youth and a meditation on nature, socialization, and solitude.

Marc Maron: More Later

Filmed at The Vic Theatre in Chicago, Marc Maron: More Later captures Maron as he dishes out compelling, raw, and wildly honest stand-up. In this brand new special, Maron tackles religion, relationships, rage, Skype sex and ice cream among other topics in the sheerly authentic way that only he can.

Zaza

A seductive music hall star falls in love with a married aristocrat.

The Dead Are Alive

A photographer on an archaeological expedition digging up Etruscan ruins in Italy begins to suspect that not all the Etruscans buried there are actually dead.

The Little Traitor

Based on the novel "Panther in the Basement" by the world-renowned author, Amos Oz, the movie takes place in Palestine in 1947, just a few months before Israel becomes a state. Proffy Liebowitz, a militant yet sensitive eleven year old wants nothing more than for the occupying British to get the hell out of his land.

Flight of the Butterflies

It takes two or three generations for the monarch butterfly to reach the Canadian breeding grounds, but it is one "supergeneration" that makes the 2,000 mile return trip back south into central Mexico. The documentary film covers Dr Fred Urquhart's interest in monarch butterflies, with perspectives of Urquhart as a child wondering where the butterflies went, his years of research and study into their life and migration, to his time decades-later as a senior scientist looking back at his investigations and discoveries about the insect's life pattern.

Stars

World War II has long provided fodder for European filmmakers and East German director Konrad Wolf is no exception. In this uneven though at times compelling drama, he examines the conflict involved in a forbidden love. While the war is in full swing, a young German solder is assigned to a unit in charge of deporting Jews to the death camps. He falls in love with one of the Jewish women being deported, an impossible situation which he knows has no easy solution, if any. Alternately philosophical and at the end, at least, quite powerful, this film may still be too downbeat for most general audiences.