1991-2000

Residents of a friendly Pennsylvania town foil three brothers’ plan to rob a bank on Christmas Eve.Read More »

While looking for the cast for another unfinished project, a director discovers his ideal actor, a boy at a baker’s shop. By the time he goes to hire the young boy for his film, the shopkeeper has fired him. What ensues is a search for the homeless child and, along the way, the discovery of his solitude, his survival techniques, and the mental and physical state of surrounding adults and children. When the director finally finds his actor, the young adolescent seems to need serious medical care.The film gives the public a view of the Iranian medical system; once again the inadequacies of the social system and its contradictions are highlighted. Jalili also elaborates on generosity, once a sacred notion, individual responsibility and human limitations. Seen as criticism of the current medical system, the film was withheld for three years and only released in 1998.A True Story has found its moving actor and a life story worth discovering, but the film unintentionally dragged Jalili towards the realm of melodrama. Of this film, Godard said ‘A True Story may turn out to be a film that is not made very well, but it will always be ahead of the art.’Read More »

A reformed convict goes undercover with the help of an angry detective to ensnare a psychotic mobsterRead More »

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Lena Katz, who is German, and David Fish, who is American, are Jews who live in New York. When Lena’s mother, who arrives from Germany, meets her at a hotel, she finds an almost-dead woman lying on the hotel floor. She accompanies the injured woman to the hospital and meets David, who is the woman’s son. After David’s mother dies from the injuries, a question remains: was she murdered? The trail leads to Germany. Apparently, Lena’s mother has some kind of relationship with David’s mother that reaches back into the dark German history of the 1940s.Read More »

Doug is a Secret Service Agent who has just completed his stint in charge protecting Tess Carlisle, widow of a former U.S. President, and close personal friend of the President. He finds that she has requested that he not be rotated but instead return to be her permanent detail. Doug is crushed. He wants off her detail. She is very difficult to guard and makes her detail crazy with her whims and demands. Doug returns with no idea of how to continue dealing with her.Read More »

Psycho-mystery in which two men confront each other over the murder of a woman in Shibuya.Read More »

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Takashi Ishii’s Black Angel 2 follows a beautiful hit-woman on her descent into alcoholism and self-loathing. The first act is an unsurprising retread of numerous assassin/gangster flicks. When Ishii changes gears some will find themselves engaged; others will find it a deeply uncomfortable watch. The depiction of rape is potentially troubling but Ishii’s women are ultimately shown to be more powerful than their aggressors. It’s an uneven film but occasionally it borders on truly bravura film-making, with a handful of masterful scenes. Challenging, little seen and sharing only it’s title with the inferior original.Read More »

A beautiful young computer technician starting off her career in Silicon Valley during the Eighties, is stalked and harassed by a nerdy, dangerous and mentally-unstable colleague with a twisted obsession.Read More »

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A Disturbing Catalogue of Rape Fantasies
RED FLASH referred to as the apotheosis of Angel Guts, it’s a brilliant film, a truly beautiful dreamlike (or perhaps nightmare-like would be more appropriate) thriller with touches of Lynch/Cronenberg weirdness.
Everything in this film is spot-on brilliant. The eye candy cinematography, watery imagery and stunning long takes are all there, the rape scene (followed by an obvious nod to Psycho), superb and very memorable score by Yasukawa, great use of songs, great characters (from IMDB)Read More »