Drama

A 48-hour leave from reform school brings life lessons for the teenage protagonist of “7 Virgins,” a street-kids piece that combines energy and delicacy to striking and subtle effect. The best Spanish movie of its type since Fernando Leon’s 1998 “Barrio,” pic rises above genre standard with scrupulous attention to detail and an engaging central tandem. Downsides are lapses into sentimentality and visual deja vu, and an occasional inability to exploit the emotional potential. “Virgins” should snuggle up in plenty of fest beds, with arthouse interest a certainty in Spain-friendly territories.Read More »

SEVERAL of the characters in ”Dune” are psychic, which puts them in the unique position of being able to understand what goes on in the movie. The plot of ”Dune” is perilously overloaded, as is virtually everything else about it. As the first king-sized, Italian-produced science-fiction epic, ”Dune” is an ornate affair, awash in the kind of marble, mosaics, wood paneling, leather tufting and gilt trim more suitable to moguls’ offices than to far-flung planets in the year 10191. Not all of the overkill is narrative or decorative. Even the villain, a flying, pustule-covered creature, has more facial sores than he absolutely needs.Read More »

Synopsis:
The film is a video-art para documentary following Adam, a literature scholar who has a hard time in making a connecting with the surrounding world after he survives an accident. He quits his job and becomes a store cashier in order to have more time to study Dante’s Divine Comedy. The film is both a visual experiment and a tribute to Majewski’s beloved city Katowice.

“These are intimate visions, things that are in my head that are taking place in Katowice. Why Katowice? I was born there, I lived all over the world, but the visions that I have are usually connected with this place,” Majewski told FNE.Read More »

synopsis – AMG:
Last Resort opens as Tanya (Dina Korzun), a young Russian traveling to England with her son Artiom (Artiom Strelnikov), is questioned at a British airport’s passport control. Tanya tells the official she is visiting England on a vacation, but then switches her story and says that her English fiancי is meeting her, and finally, out of desperation, asks for political asylum. She and Artiom are duly packed off to an immigrants’ center in a grim coastal town, where they are given a small apartment and informed that their application for asylum will take over a year to process. After Tanya’s fiancי dumps her over the phone, she gradually befriends Alfie (Paddy Considine), who runs an arcade. Alfie wins the trust of Tanya and her street-smart son, and soon Tanya must decide how far she wants to carry her relationship with this new friend. Last Resort was screened at the 2000 Edinburgh International Film Festival. — Rebecca Flint MarxRead More »

New Grenada is a planned community set in the desert where there is nothing for the kids to do, save for a rec center – which closes at 6 PM. The parents, in their zeal to attract industry to their town, have all but neglected their children. As a result, the kids begin to create their own entertainment, which involves vandalism, theft, and general hooliganism. During an incident when one of the kids brandishes an unloaded gun at town cop Ed Doberman, he is shot and killed. When the parents gather the next night to discuss the killing and the level of lawlessness among the youth, they soon find out that their kids have had all they can take.Read More »

Synopsis:
A feisty widowed single mom finds herself burdened with the full-time custody of her rambunctious 15-year-old ADHD son. As they try to make ends meet and struggle with their unpredictable ménage, Kyla, the peculiar, new girl across the street, offers her help. Together, they find a new sense of balance, and hope is regained.

Une veuve mono-parentale hérite de la garde de son fils, un adolescent TDAH impulsif et violent. Au coeur de leurs emportements et difficultés, ils tentent de joindre les deux bouts, notamment grâce à l’aide inattendue de l’énigmatique voisine d’en face, Kyla. Tous les trois, ils retrouvent une forme d’équilibre et, bientôt, d’espoir.Read More »

“Ben O Değilim” tells the story of a simple man who works at a kitchen in Istanbul. Pirselimoğlu narrates his transformation into another man and gaining a different identity in a slow-paced and minimal style. Just like in his earlier films such as the “Conscience and Death Trilogy” Pirselimoğlu uses static shots and little dialogue where he searchs the reflections of “master-slave dialectics” and creates a dreamlike atmosphere. At the leading role there is the famous actor Ercan Kesal who is known for his collaborations with Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

“Ben O Değilim” won the Golden Tulip Award in Istanbul Film Festival and Best Screenplay Award in Rome Film Fest. Read More »

Review:
Originally released in 1932 to cash in on the horror boom of the 30s, “Freaks” has always been something of a hot potato.

Director Tod Browning, who’d scored a huge hit with the original “Dracula” in 1930, promised MGM the ultimate scary movie.

But the resulting picture surprised everyone: “I asked for something horrifying,” said the studio’s shocked head of production, “and I got it.”

After trouble with the censors and a brief cinema run during which audiences reacted with unparalleled disgust, the picture was dropped and vanished into obscurity until it was revived in the 60s.

It’s easy to see why reactions to the film have been so strong – it’s a catalogue of the abnormal, the bizarre, and the grotesque that’s still as unsettling today as it was 70 years ago.Read More »

dvdauthority.com wrote:
Beverly (Heather Hall) is about to learn a lot about herself, as she explores a side of herself she never knew existed. The way she behaves makes most people think she hates men, which would make sense, as she has been in numerous bad relationships with bad men. Her roommate Joan (Judy Young) has no such hatred, in fact she loves men and loves to have sex as often as possible. Her boyfriend Rook (John Aristedes) is not a good man, more like a street thug, but he satisfies her needs, so she keeps him around. One night, Rook decides to climb into Beverly’s bed, which sets off a sexual chain reaction. After that encounter, Bev realizes she is a nymphomaniac and as a result, she needs sex all the time. Joan catches the two in the act and beats Bev to a pulp, then tosses her into the street. She soon meets a new man who understands her condition, but when her path crosses once more with her old friends, will her new lifestyle be put in jeopardy?Read More »