Archive for July, 2011

THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 135

Language:

Director: U. Roberto Romano

Plot: Every year there are more than 400,000 American children who are torn away from their friends, schools and homes to pick the food we all eat. Zulema, Perla and Victor labor as migrant farm workers, sacrificing their own childhoods to help their families survive. THE HARVEST/LA COSECHA profiles these three as they journey from the scorching heat of Texas’ onion fields to the winter snows of the Michigan apple orchards and back south to the humidity of Florida’s tomato fields to follow the harvest.

 

Assassination Games

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Action-Adventure

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 99

Language:

Director: Ernie Barbarash

Plot: Brazil (Jean Claude Van Damme) is a contract killer, willing to take any job if the price is right. Flint (Scott Adkins) left the assassin game when a ruthless drug dealer’s brutal attack left his wife in a coma. When a contract is put out on the same cold-blooded drug dealer, both Brazil and Flint want him dead – one for the money, the other for revenge. With crooked Interpol agents and vicious members of the criminal underworld hot on their trail, these two assassins reluctantly join forces to quickly take out their target before they themselves are terminated.

 

The Guard

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Comedy

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 138

Language: English

Director: John Michael McDonagh

Plot: THE GUARD is a comedic, fish out of water tale of murder, blackmail, drug trafficking and rural police corruption, and the two cops who must join forces to take on an international drug-smuggling gang, an unorthodox Irish policeman and a straitlaced FBI agent.

 

The Future

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Drama

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 151

Language:

Director: Miranda July

Plot: Sophie (Miranda July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) live in a small LA apartment, have jobs they hate, and in one month they’ll adopt a sick cat who will need around-the-clock care. Terrified of their looming loss of freedom, they quit their jobs, disconnect their Internet, and set out to pursue their modest dreams. But as the month slips away, the two find themselves living in two starkly different realities. Sophie and Jason must reunite with time, space and their own souls in order to reconnect. Using elements of magical realism-a talking cat who narrates his own sad tale, a living t-shirt, and a strangely familiar Moon-the film bravely creates its own universe. With pathos and humor, it invites us to recognize the bitter sweetness of this very moment.

 

POINT BLANK (A BOUT PORTANT)

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Action-Adventure

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 124

Language: French

Director: Fred Cavaye

Plot: Samuel (Lellouche) is a happily married nurse working in a Paris hospital. When his very pregnant wife (Anaya) is kidnapped before his helpless eyes, everything falls apart. After being knocked unconscious, he comes to and his cell phone rings: he has three hours to get Sartet (Zem), a man under police surveillance, out of the hospital. Shot on location in wide lens, POINT BLANK is an exhilarating non-stop ride through Paris’ streets, subways, hospitals, warehouses, and police stations, as Samuel quickly finds himself pitted against rival gangsters and trigger-happy police in a deadly race to save the lives of his wife and unborn child.

 

THE DEVIL’S DOUBLE

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Drama

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 149

Language: English

Director: Lee Tamahori

Plot: Based on a gripping, unbelievable true story of money, power and opulent decadence, Lionsgate’s THE DEVIL’S DOUBLE takes a white-knuckle ride deep into the lawless playground of excess and violence known as Bagdad, 1987. Summoned from the frontline to Saddam Hussein’s palace, Iraqi army lieutenant Latif Yahia (Dominic Cooper) is thrust into the highest echelons of the “royal family” when he’s ordered to become the ‘fiday’ – or body double – to Saddam’s son, the notorious “Black Prince” Uday Hussein (also Dominic Cooper), a reckless, sadistic party-boy with a rabid hunger for sex and brutality. With his and his family’s lives at stake, Latif must surrender his former self forever as he learns to walk, talk and act like Uday. But nothing could have prepared him for the horror of the Black Prince’s psychotic, drug-addled life of fast cars, easy women and impulsive violence. With one wrong move costing him his life, Latif forges an intimate bond with Sarrab (Ludivine Sangier), Uday’s seductive mistress who’s haunted by her own secrets. But as war looms with Kuwait and Uday’s depraved gangster regime threatens to destroy them all, Latif realizes that escape from the devil’s den will only come at the highest possible cost.

 

Life in a Day

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 107

Language: English

Director: Kevin Macdonald

Plot: From Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald (State of Play, Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void) comes Life In A Day, a cinematic experiment to capture life around the world in a single day. Drawing from 4,500 hours of footage sent in from 192 countries.

 

Spiderhole

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Thriller

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 122

Language: English (International)

Director: Daniel Simpson

Plot: Attractive young artist Molly, along with three art student pals, are trying to find an empty house in London where they can live as squatters, free from rent, and free to party. Upon finding the ideal squat, they break in and go about the merry business of decorating the stark interior to reflect their artistic selves. But soon after moving in, a nightmare unfolds that traps them in a terrifying and unforgiving hell. SOME PLACES ARE HIDDEN FOR A REASON. SOME SECRETS WILL TRAP YOU FOREVER.

 

Where The Road Meets The Sun

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Drama

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 114

Language:

Director: Mun Chee Yong

Plot: Where the Road Meets the Sun follows four men whose lives intersect for a brief time in the city of Los Angeles. Takashi, a Japanese hit man, wakes up from a four year coma and moves to Los Angeles to escape mysterious traumatic memories. He strikes an unusual friendship with Blake, the hotel manager who still mourns the loss of his wife to an affair he ended up regretting. Julio, an illegal immigrant, works at an Indian restaurant to provide for his wife and kid back in Mexico. He befriends Guy, a young British backpacker who lives off his estranged father’s ATM card and sleeps with any girl who crosses his path. What follows are the wild times and often gut-wrenching adventures of four men trying to survive both emotionally and physically.

 

Blue eyes

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Drama

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 85

Language:

Director: José Joffily

Plot: arshall, chief immigration officer of New York’s JFK Airport begrudgingly faces his compulsory retirement. On his last day of work, drunk and blinded by prejudice, he harasses a group of Latin American visitors and exposes them to a series of humiliating events that result in the death of a young Brazilian. Years later, after serving a lengthy prison term and filled with guilt, Marshall goes to Brazil in search of the victims daughter and is guided by a young street-smart woman named Bia.

 

All She Can

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Drama

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 123

Language:

Director: Amy Wendel

Plot: Luz Garcia, a high school senior in a small Texas town, wants something different than the options awaiting her after graduation. She’s earned a ticket out with admission to the University of Texas at Austin, but she can’t afford to go. Her one shot is a scholarship for winning the State Powerlifting Championship. It’s all or nothing for Luz…until nothing stares her in the face. Official Sundance Film Festival selection.

 

Forged

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Action-Adventure

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 117

Language:

Director: William Wedig

Plot: Set in the cold and rusty steel mill town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Forged follows Chuco (Manny Perez) on his quest to redeem himself after committing a horrific sin against his son, Machito (David Castro). After Chucos release from prison, the boy, now 13 years old, abused and homeless, seeks him out and simply mutters: You killed my mother. Now I kill you. As Chuco’s guilt and Machito’s need for a father take hold, they must both find a way to move past impossible circumstances to forge a bond that has been forever broken.

 

The Interrupters

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Documentary

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 147

Language:

Director: Steve James

Plot: An epic tale of courage and hope, “The Interrupters” is a new film from acclaimed director Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) and award-winning author Alex Kotlowitz (“There Are No Children Here”). The film tells the moving and surprising story of three Violence Interrupters in Chicago who with bravado, humility and even humor try to protect their communities from the violence they once employed.

 

Without Men

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Comedy

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 133

Language: English

Director: Gabriela Taglianvini

Plot: n this offbeat comedy, the women of a secluded Latin American village are left to rebuild their society after all of the men are recruited by a bumbling group of guerrillas. It may be a man’s world out there, but in here, it’s all woman.

 

Good Neighbors

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Thriller

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 149

Language: English

Director: Jacob Tierney

Plot: Neighbors Spencer (Scott Speedman) and Louise (Emily Hampshire) have bonded over their fascination with a recent string of murders terrorizing their community. When a new tenant named Victor (Jay Baruchel) arrives in the building, all three quickly hit it off. But as they soon discover, each of them has their own dark secret. As the violence outside mounts, the city retreats indoors for safety. But the more time these three spend together in their apartment building, the clearer it becomes that what they once thought of as a safe haven is as dangerous as any outside terrors they could imagine. Smart dialogue, strong performances and jarring thrills give this film all the elements of a great mystery.

 

COWBOYS & ALIENS

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Action-Adventure

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 150

Language: English

Director: Jon Favreau

Plot: 1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It’s a town that lives in fear.

But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.

Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents – townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors – all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

 

Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Genre: Comedy

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 152

Language: English

Director: Glenn Ficarra

Plot: At fortysomething, straight-laced Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is living the dream–good job, nice house, great kids and marriage to his high school sweetheart. But when Cal learns that his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), has cheated on him and wants a divorce, his “perfect” life quickly unravels. Worse, in today’s single world, Cal, who hasn’t dated in decades, stands out as the epitome of un-smooth. Now spending his free evenings sulking alone at a local bar, the hapless Cal is taken on as wingman and protege to handsome, thirtysomething player Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling). In an effort to help Cal get over his wife and start living his life, Jacob opens Cal’s eyes to the many options before him: flirty women, manly drinks and a sense of style that can’t be found at Supercuts or The Gap. Cal and Emily aren’t the only ones looking for love in what might be all the wrong places: Cal’s 13-year-old son, Robbie, is crazy about his 17-year-old babysitter, Jessica, who harbors a crush on Cal. And despite Cal’s makeover and his many new conquests, the one thing that can’t be made over is his heart, which seems to keep leading him back to where he began.

 

True Adolescents

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Genre: Comedy

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 131

Language: English

Director: Craig Johnson

Plot: Meet Sam Bryant. He’s a 34-year-old Seattle rocker with no job, no record deal, no girlfriend and no place to stay, until he finds room at his Aunt Sharon’s house in the suburbs. He’s also the last guy anyone would pick to take two teens camping for some quality dude time.

 

LA RAFLE (THE ROUNDUP)

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Genre: Drama

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 60

Language: French

Director: Roselyne Bosch

Plot: The infamous Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup is the focus of this gripping French drama starring Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds, Beginners) and Jean Reno (The Da Vinci Code, The Professional). Two days after Bastille Day in 1942, French police carried out an extensive raid of Jews in Greater Paris. More than 13,000 people were arrested, among them 4,000 children, consigned to several miserable days in Paris’s Vélodrome d’Hiver stadium before being shipped to internment camps within France, and finally to Auschwitz. Long a taboo subject in France-Jacques Chirac issued a public apology only in 1995-the raid and its political backdrop are brought to stirring life in writer-director Rose Bosch’s detailed scenario. With a meticulously constructed script based on extensive research and first-hand accounts, La Rafle (The Roundup) became a big box-office hit in France, and its audiences included thousands of young people who came to learn about a dark chapter in their country’s history.

 

Another Earth

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Genre: Drama

Release Year: 2011

Runtime: 137

Language: English

Director: Mike Cahill

Plot: In Another Earth, Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling), a bright young woman accepted into MIT’s astrophysics program, aspires to explore the cosmos. A brilliant composer, John Burroughs (William Mapother), has just reach the pinnacle of his profession and is about to have his second child.

On the eve of the discovery of a duplicate earth, tragedy strikes and the lives of these strangers become irrevocably intertwinted.