Film Reviews · Backpex

Title	Overview		Toggle columns Title Overview
The Disenchanted	A worldly French teen (Judith Godrèche) is determined to escape from her current situation for a better life.
Goemon	Follow the infamous ninja bandit named Ishikawa Goemon (Yosuke Eguchi) in an epic story. One night while looting treasure from Nanban (Southern Barbarians), Goemon finds a mysterious box hidden inside a secret grave. A forgotten relic from the past containing untold powers.
Apartment for Peggy	Professor Henry Barnes decides he's lived long enough and contemplates suicide. His attitude is changed by Peggy Taylor, a chipper young mother-to-be who charms him into renting out his attic as an apartment for her and her husband Jason, a former GI struggling to finish college.
Scandal	An English bon-vivant osteopath is enchanted with a young exotic dancer and invites her to live with him. He serves as friend and mentor, and through his contacts and parties she and her friend meet and date members of the Conservative Party. Eventually a scandal occurs when her affair with the Minister of War goes public, threatening their lifestyles and their freedom.
A Sinner in Mecca	For a gay filmmaker, filming in Saudi Arabia presents two serious challenges: filming is forbidden in the country and homosexuality is punishable by death. For filmmaker Parvez Sharma, however, these were risks he had to assume as he embarked on his Hajj pilgrimage, a journey considered the greatest accomplishment and aspiration within Islam, his religion. On his journey Parvez aims to look beyond 21st-century Islam’s crises of religious extremism, commercialism and sectarian battles. He brings back the story of the religion like it has never been told before, having endured the biggest jihad there is: the struggle with the self.
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?	Three people live in a remote Buddhist monastery near Mount Chonan: Hyegok, the old master; Yong Nan, a young man who has left his extended family in the city to seek enlightenment - Hyegok calls him Kibong!; and, an orphan lad Haejin, whom Hyegok has brought to the monastery to raise as a monk. The story is mostly Yong Nan's, told in flashbacks: how he came to the monastery, his brief return to the city, his vacillation between the turbulence of the world and his hope to overcome passions and escape the idea of self. We also see Hyegok as a teacher, a protector, and a father figure, and we watch Haejin make his way as a curious and nearly self-sufficient child.
Attack on Titan II: End of the World	Eren (Haruma Miura) leaves to restore a break in the wall destroyed by a Titan. He comes under attack by the Titans and is cornered. Shikishima (Hiroki Hasegawa) comes to his aid. The titans never stops attacking. Eren is now injured and tries to protect Armin (Kanata Hongo), but is swallowed by a titan. A Titan with black hair appears and begins to expel the other titans.
The Last Gangster	Edward G. Robinson stars as a crime boss who goes searching for his ex-wife and son after a 10 year prison stint. Robinson's old gang has other plans though, and use the child to try and make him disclose the location of the loot he hid before going to the slammer. A young James Stewart, early in his career, plays a sizable role as a newspaper reporter who marries the gangster's wife.
Time to Love	A poor painter falls in love with a photograph of a woman while at work in one of the massive villas on Istanbul's Princes' Islands.
The Mummy	Though safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia, and terrors that defy human comprehension.
Forever Lulu	A schizophrenic romantic tracks down her college sweetheart to help her find their son she gave up for adoption sixteen years ago to the dismay of his new wife.
Grief	A campy chronicle of the lusts and loves of the men and women who work on a low-rent TV show called, "The Love Judge."
Ilo Ilo	Set in the mid 1990s in Singapore, ILOILO chronicles the relationship between a family and their maid from Ilo Ilo, a province in the Philippines.
Today You Die	A former thief who is trying to go straight seeks vengeance on those who framed him.
Winning	Frank Capua is a rising star on the race circuit who dreams of winning the big one - the Indianapolis 500. But to get there he runs the risk of losing his wife Elora to his rival, Luther Erding, and strains the relationship with his stepson.

The Disenchanted

A worldly French teen (Judith Godrèche) is determined to escape from her current situation for a better life.

Goemon

Follow the infamous ninja bandit named Ishikawa Goemon (Yosuke Eguchi) in an epic story. One night while looting treasure from Nanban (Southern Barbarians), Goemon finds a mysterious box hidden inside a secret grave. A forgotten relic from the past containing untold powers.

Apartment for Peggy

Professor Henry Barnes decides he's lived long enough and contemplates suicide. His attitude is changed by Peggy Taylor, a chipper young mother-to-be who charms him into renting out his attic as an apartment for her and her husband Jason, a former GI struggling to finish college.

Scandal

An English bon-vivant osteopath is enchanted with a young exotic dancer and invites her to live with him. He serves as friend and mentor, and through his contacts and parties she and her friend meet and date members of the Conservative Party. Eventually a scandal occurs when her affair with the Minister of War goes public, threatening their lifestyles and their freedom.

A Sinner in Mecca

For a gay filmmaker, filming in Saudi Arabia presents two serious challenges: filming is forbidden in the country and homosexuality is punishable by death. For filmmaker Parvez Sharma, however, these were risks he had to assume as he embarked on his Hajj pilgrimage, a journey considered the greatest accomplishment and aspiration within Islam, his religion. On his journey Parvez aims to look beyond 21st-century Islam’s crises of religious extremism, commercialism and sectarian battles. He brings back the story of the religion like it has never been told before, having endured the biggest jihad there is: the struggle with the self.

Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?

Three people live in a remote Buddhist monastery near Mount Chonan: Hyegok, the old master; Yong Nan, a young man who has left his extended family in the city to seek enlightenment - Hyegok calls him Kibong!; and, an orphan lad Haejin, whom Hyegok has brought to the monastery to raise as a monk. The story is mostly Yong Nan's, told in flashbacks: how he came to the monastery, his brief return to the city, his vacillation between the turbulence of the world and his hope to overcome passions and escape the idea of self. We also see Hyegok as a teacher, a protector, and a father figure, and we watch Haejin make his way as a curious and nearly self-sufficient child.

Attack on Titan II: End of the World

Eren (Haruma Miura) leaves to restore a break in the wall destroyed by a Titan. He comes under attack by the Titans and is cornered. Shikishima (Hiroki Hasegawa) comes to his aid. The titans never stops attacking. Eren is now injured and tries to protect Armin (Kanata Hongo), but is swallowed by a titan. A Titan with black hair appears and begins to expel the other titans.

The Last Gangster

Edward G. Robinson stars as a crime boss who goes searching for his ex-wife and son after a 10 year prison stint. Robinson's old gang has other plans though, and use the child to try and make him disclose the location of the loot he hid before going to the slammer. A young James Stewart, early in his career, plays a sizable role as a newspaper reporter who marries the gangster's wife.

Time to Love

A poor painter falls in love with a photograph of a woman while at work in one of the massive villas on Istanbul's Princes' Islands.

The Mummy

Though safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia, and terrors that defy human comprehension.

Forever Lulu

A schizophrenic romantic tracks down her college sweetheart to help her find their son she gave up for adoption sixteen years ago to the dismay of his new wife.

Grief

A campy chronicle of the lusts and loves of the men and women who work on a low-rent TV show called, "The Love Judge."

Ilo Ilo

Set in the mid 1990s in Singapore, ILOILO chronicles the relationship between a family and their maid from Ilo Ilo, a province in the Philippines.

Today You Die

A former thief who is trying to go straight seeks vengeance on those who framed him.

Winning

Frank Capua is a rising star on the race circuit who dreams of winning the big one - the Indianapolis 500. But to get there he runs the risk of losing his wife Elora to his rival, Luther Erding, and strains the relationship with his stepson.