Film Reviews

Allide experienced The Great Terror under Stalin’s regime, and decades after her hometown people were deported to Siberia, she lives alone in an isolated house. One night, she finds a young woman in her yard – Zara has just escaped from the claws of the Russian mafia that held her as a sex slave. Survivors both, Aliide and Zara engage in unearthing each other’s motives and gradually, and their stories merge into one, revealing the tragedy of a family during the cruelest years in Estonian history.

Dante's Hell Animated is a real and truthful epic animation film that embarks Dante Alighieri's journey through the first part of the afterlife, Hell. It is a compelling four-quadrant film presented circle by circle in a chronological descent to the center of Hell, and to the exit into Purgatory. Dante's Hell Animated comes in two versions, one recited in primitive Italian in Dante's own words, and another narrated in English better understanding in this non-original language. Dante is guided by his hero Virgil through each circle of Hell and their subdivisions until they reach the center of the Earth and escaped to the other hemisphere into Purgatory. It features over 50 original color illustrations from the upcoming Dante's Hell comic book and magazine series, put together in a series of animation clips that will delight young and mature audiences.

Continuing the story of Beijing Meets Seattle I from 2013, the new movie has the couple fall in love again.

Writer/director/star Alex Karpovsky, a familiar face to indie filmgoers, reveals his sterling comic chops in this close-to-the-bone comedy. Teasing the line between fiction and reality, he plays an indie filmmaker named Alex Karpovsky who, dumped by a longtime girlfriend fed up with his refusal to marry, takes to the road with a reluctant old pal for a misbegotten mini tour screening his movie on college campuses and independent cinemas.

The R of the title stands for the young protagonist, Rune, fearlessly played by Pilou Asbæk. Imprisoned for violent assault, he's a cocky, good-looking young man placed in the hardcore ward, where his survival depends on quickly learning the prison's parallel world of rules, honor, and obligations. R also stands for Rachid, a young Muslim prisoner who becomes Rune's friend and accomplice, defying the rigid racial stratifications among the inmates.

Two rival gangs fight for control of Frazier Park -- a deadly arena in competitive dance-fight video game "Beat-Beat Revolution."

A Cinderella story of a young country girl who comes to Hollywood and achieves movie stardom with the help of a publicity man.

Determined to find out the true effects of marijuana on the human body, stand-up comedian and former Stoner of the Year Doug Benson documents his experience avoiding pot for 30 days and then consuming massive amounts of the drug for 30 days. More than just an amusing story of one man's quest to get superhigh, this documentary also examines the hotly contested debate over medical marijuana use.

Through his unconscionable actions against others, a sociopath samurai builds a trail of vendettas that follow him closely.

When their parents die, Bianca starts to smoke and Tomas is still a virgin. The orphans explore the dangerous streets of adulthood until Bianca finds Maciste, a retired Mr. Universe, and enters his dark mansion in search of a future.

Roberta is a bored suburban housewife who is fascinated with a woman, Susan, she only knows about by reading messages to and from her in the personals section of the newspaper. This fascination reaches a peak when an ad with the headline "Desperately Seeking Susan" proposes a rendezvous. Roberta goes too, and in a series of events involving amnesia and mistaken identity, steps into Susan's life.

After the wild life-style of a famous young German photographer almost gets him killed, he goes to Palermo, Sicily to take a brake. Can the beautiful city and a beautiful local woman help him calm himself down?

Cal and his family are driving to their new home in California and are terrorized by a motorcycle gang along the highway.

Renowned documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker captures Otis Redding in his ascendancy, singing at the historic Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967. Comedian Tom Smothers introduces Redding to a crowd that is leaving -- until Redding grabs them with his charged rendition of "Shake." Redding's performance also includes "Respect" (which he wrote), "I've Been Loving You Too Long," "Satisfaction," and "Try a Little Tenderness." Tragically, Redding died in a plane crash six months later. An innovative filmmaker who started in the 1950s making experimental films, Pennebaker garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature in 1993 for The War Room, his behind-the-scenes look at Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. His other subjects have included Norman Mailer, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie.

Academy Award-winning director Michael Moore returns with what may be his most provocative and hilarious film yet: Moore tells the Pentagon to "stand down" — he will do the invading for America from now on.