Drama

One of the most electrifying heroes of the twentieth century receives an appropriately sweeping screen biopic, rich in both historical insight and propulsive cinematic style, courtesy of visionary director Spike Lee. Built around an extraordinary performance from Denzel Washington, Malcolm X draws on the iconic civil rights leader’s autobiography to trace his journey of empowerment, from a childhood riven by white-supremacist violence to a life of petty crime to his conversion to Islam and rebirth as a fearless fighter for Black liberation, whose courage and eloquence inspired oppressed communities the world over. Impeccably crafted by Lee and his closest creative collaborators, and buoyed by commanding performances from Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Al Freeman Jr., and others, this is a passionate monument to a man whose life continues to serve as a model of principled resistance.Read More »

Remember that classic 1985 music video for a-ha’s “Take On Me,” the one where that girl in the diner falls into an animated charcoal drawing? Since then, its director, Steve Barron, has had an eclectic career—he helmed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and produced While You Were Sleeping—but with Choking Man, his first independent film, he returns to his earliest preoccupations: cartoons and girls in restaurants. Choking Man takes place at a Queens diner randomly owned by none other than Mandy Patinkin, affecting a Greek accent. Jorge (Octavio Gomez Berrios), a sullen, greasy Ecuadorian dishwasher, is a modern-day invisible man who gives himself over to extravagant animated fantasies, but speaks no more than 30 words though the course of the movie. Meanwhile, his charming coworker Amy (Eugenia Yuan) is being courted by the boorish Jerry (Aaron Paul), which pleases him not a bit. Choking Man has a tepid plotline, some stilted dialogue, and way too many pointless shots of the subway rumbling overhead. But the tender and spirited performances of its diverse cast elevate Barron’s portrait of contemporary Queens life.Read More »

This quirky French film examines a series of events during the German occupation of France and shows what might have happened if one thing had gone differently in each instance. The first story given this treatment concerns the assassination of a German officer by a young member of the Resistance.Read More »

Professor Karas is widely known as enthusiastic propagator of the motto “Morality Above All Else”. He guides his students as well as his own family to live a morally decent life. One day he has an unexpected visitation. It’s his illegitimate daughter Vera, who is proof of his thoughtlessness of youth. Mr. Karas know that she can ruin his image of morality propagator, thus he decides to keep her in secret and asks her to leave. Instead of leaving she takes a position of a governess in his own family without letting him know. Mr. Karas realizes that he must reveal the truth sooner or later, but he doesn’t have enough courage to do so. As he still postpones it, he is more and more scared to come to his own home. Situation gets even more complicated, as Vera turns all the orderliness in the family upside down. All the confusion culminates when everybody find out that Mr. Karas secretly meets Vera.Read More »

The Fifth Seal (Az ötödik pecsét) is a 1976 film by Hungarian director Zoltán Fábri based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Hungarian author Ferenc Sánta. It won the Golden Prize at the 10th Moscow International Film Festival and it was entered into the 27th Berlin International Film Festival. It tells a story set in the closing days of World War II in which five friends meet in a local cafe in Hungary. When one of them makes a disparaging political remark that is overheard and reported to the Arrow Cross soldiers, their own beliefs about freedom and dignity are tested when they are imprisoned, tortured and offered freedom only if they slap the face of a dying Communist partisan.Read More »

The story of a Finnish Army machine gun company operating in the Karelian front during the Continuation War from mobilization in 1941 to the Moscow Armistice in 1944.Read More »

When his twin brother dies, Willy, 50, finally decides to leave his parents’ home. He moves to a small nearby town to start afresh. “In Caudebec I’ll live. An apartment, I’ll have one. And friends too. And you can all go to hell!” Though a misfit, Willy tries to find his place in a world unknown.Read More »

A village has to be destroyed for coal mining. Henning, a 15 years old boy, who wants to visit his grandfather one more time, realizes that nothing will be the way it used to be.Read More »

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This film by Toyoda depicts the hard life of an unmarried mother in Tokyo. Umeko (Machiko Kyo), at 36, is working in a bar, struggling valiantly to keep her family together. Her 17-year-old daughter Takeko becomes increasingly upset by her mother’s constant drinking and yakuza boyfriend, and runs away from ho…Read More »