Film Reviews · Backpex

Title	Overview		Toggle columns Title Overview
Liliom	A carousel barker falls in love with a young woman. Both are fired from their jobs, and when the young woman becomes pregnant, the carousel barker tries to help pull off a robbery, which goes wrong. Because of the robbery, he dies, and after spending time in hell, is sent back to earth for one day to try to make amends.
Mistress	A comedy about a screenwriter (Wuhl) whose old movie script is read by a producer (Landau) and the search for financial backers begins. But it seems that each money source (Aiello, DeNiro, Wallach) has his own mistress that he wants put into the film. Gradually, the screenwriter is forced to make changes to his script to accommodate these backers until he finally sees no semblance of his original ideas in the writing.
Adrift	A 1980s-set drama about a teenage girl undergoing her sexual awakening when she learns about her father's infidelities.
Ripped	Two free-spirited stoners find themselves catapulted into 2016 after smoking some top secret pot created by the CIA in 1986. With 30 years of their lives lost, these now balding and overweight friends use their uncomplicated enthusiasm to get their lives back on track and figure out the modern world.
Shakes the Clown	Shakes plods about his duties as party clown, and uses all of his free time getting seriously drunk. Binky, another clown, wins the spot on a local kiddie show, which depresses Shakes even more, and his boss threatens him with unemployment if he can't get his act under control.
Pizza 2: Villa	Jebin is a writer who is trying to get his work published. He comes to understand his financial status after his father's death. There is also a villa in Pondycherry that has been bequeathed to him by his dad about which he had no clue till then. His ensuing journey to the villa sets the ball rolling for interesting events that get unfurled slowly.
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son	An experimental feature made by rephotographing the 1905 Biograph short Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son.
Love Without Pity	25 year-old Hippo doesn't have a job, doesn't study either but lives from the money his younger brother earns with dealing and from occasional Poker winnings.
The Phantom of Crestwood	Five men have to prove their innocence when a blackmailer is murdered.
Hayride	A college student returning home for Halloween is forced to face his childhood fears when an escaped killer takes refuge in his family's "Haunted Hayride".
The Karamazov Brothers	Dostoevsky’s latter-day opus about the siblings and their father is among the masterpieces of world literature. It asks profound questions about ethics and religion. Is there a God? Does the devil exist? Is everything allowed because we live in a world without morality? And if so, does patricide even constitute a crime? One of the most interesting adaptations of the material is The Karamazovs by Czech director Petr Zelenka. We witness a group of thesps from Prague on a trip to Krakow in Poland to stage the novel as a play in a derelict steelworks as part of the Closer to Life Festival. The project, however, is born under the bad sign, apparently doomed from the start. When they arrive, the roof is about to cave in, so that the actors are told to wear safety helmets. Their sole consistent audience is a laborer (Andrzej Mastalerz) who rather follows each dress rehearsal than watching over his seven-year-old son who has suffered a tragic accident in the factory.
Sundays and Cybele	The tragic story of a young orphan girl who is befriended by an innocent but emotionally disabled veteran of the French Indochina War.
Citizen Ruth	"Citizen Ruth" is the story of Ruth Stoops, a woman who nobody even noticed -- until she got pregnant. Now, everyone wants a piece of her. The film is a comedy about one woman caught in the ultimate tug-of-war: a clash of wild, noisy, ridiculous people that rapidly dissolves into a media circus.
Nobody Wanted to Die	The film is set in Lithuania after the Second World War. It shows dramatic events in a small Lithuanian farming community, where people are split between the Soviets and the "brothers in the woods", who are fighting to defend their land from the Soviets after the end of the Second World War.
Make Your Move	A pair of star-crossed dancers in New York find themselves at the center of a bitter rivalry between their brothers' underground dance clubs.

Liliom

A carousel barker falls in love with a young woman. Both are fired from their jobs, and when the young woman becomes pregnant, the carousel barker tries to help pull off a robbery, which goes wrong. Because of the robbery, he dies, and after spending time in hell, is sent back to earth for one day to try to make amends.

Mistress

A comedy about a screenwriter (Wuhl) whose old movie script is read by a producer (Landau) and the search for financial backers begins. But it seems that each money source (Aiello, DeNiro, Wallach) has his own mistress that he wants put into the film. Gradually, the screenwriter is forced to make changes to his script to accommodate these backers until he finally sees no semblance of his original ideas in the writing.

Adrift

A 1980s-set drama about a teenage girl undergoing her sexual awakening when she learns about her father's infidelities.

Ripped

Two free-spirited stoners find themselves catapulted into 2016 after smoking some top secret pot created by the CIA in 1986. With 30 years of their lives lost, these now balding and overweight friends use their uncomplicated enthusiasm to get their lives back on track and figure out the modern world.

Shakes the Clown

Shakes plods about his duties as party clown, and uses all of his free time getting seriously drunk. Binky, another clown, wins the spot on a local kiddie show, which depresses Shakes even more, and his boss threatens him with unemployment if he can't get his act under control.

Pizza 2: Villa

Jebin is a writer who is trying to get his work published. He comes to understand his financial status after his father's death. There is also a villa in Pondycherry that has been bequeathed to him by his dad about which he had no clue till then. His ensuing journey to the villa sets the ball rolling for interesting events that get unfurled slowly.

Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son

An experimental feature made by rephotographing the 1905 Biograph short Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son.

Love Without Pity

25 year-old Hippo doesn't have a job, doesn't study either but lives from the money his younger brother earns with dealing and from occasional Poker winnings.

The Phantom of Crestwood

Five men have to prove their innocence when a blackmailer is murdered.

Hayride

A college student returning home for Halloween is forced to face his childhood fears when an escaped killer takes refuge in his family's "Haunted Hayride".

The Karamazov Brothers

Dostoevsky’s latter-day opus about the siblings and their father is among the masterpieces of world literature. It asks profound questions about ethics and religion. Is there a God? Does the devil exist? Is everything allowed because we live in a world without morality? And if so, does patricide even constitute a crime? One of the most interesting adaptations of the material is The Karamazovs by Czech director Petr Zelenka. We witness a group of thesps from Prague on a trip to Krakow in Poland to stage the novel as a play in a derelict steelworks as part of the Closer to Life Festival. The project, however, is born under the bad sign, apparently doomed from the start. When they arrive, the roof is about to cave in, so that the actors are told to wear safety helmets. Their sole consistent audience is a laborer (Andrzej Mastalerz) who rather follows each dress rehearsal than watching over his seven-year-old son who has suffered a tragic accident in the factory.

Sundays and Cybele

The tragic story of a young orphan girl who is befriended by an innocent but emotionally disabled veteran of the French Indochina War.

Citizen Ruth

"Citizen Ruth" is the story of Ruth Stoops, a woman who nobody even noticed -- until she got pregnant. Now, everyone wants a piece of her. The film is a comedy about one woman caught in the ultimate tug-of-war: a clash of wild, noisy, ridiculous people that rapidly dissolves into a media circus.

Nobody Wanted to Die

The film is set in Lithuania after the Second World War. It shows dramatic events in a small Lithuanian farming community, where people are split between the Soviets and the "brothers in the woods", who are fighting to defend their land from the Soviets after the end of the Second World War.

Make Your Move

A pair of star-crossed dancers in New York find themselves at the center of a bitter rivalry between their brothers' underground dance clubs.