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In the boring desert of New Mexico, a single mother raises her two teenage daughters, Shade and Trudi, whose deepest desire is to leave the dead calm town. Shade is the type to escape in her extravagant fantasies while Trudi is so rebelious it could drive her away.Read More »
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As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice, celebrity performance artist Saul Tenser publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. Timlin, an investigator from the National Organ Registry, obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed. Their mission – to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.Read More »
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Wickedly funny and observant slice of life NYC gangster pic, that’s decidedly Jewish, quirky and anarchistic. The surprise cult comedy/drama hit was shot in 1969 and put on the shelf when no distributor was willing to take a chance on it when test audiences didn’t laugh, but it was released in 1989 to play in the NYC Film Festival. Rave reviews gave this pic a new lease on life, and it got its long awaited theatrical release–only twenty years too late to help the splendid aging unknown cast advance their careers.Read More »
Plot Synopsis by Mark Deming
Acclaimed playwright George S. Kaufman made his directorial debut with this broad political satire. Senator Melvin G. Ashton (William Powell) is a long-time congressman for whom the phrase “dumb as a log” would be fitting if one were not afraid of insulting the trees. After more than twenty years of representing his clueless constituents, Ashton decides to take a shot at the presidential race, and hires Lew Gibson (Peter Lind Hayes) is his press agent. Party topkick Dinty (Charles D. Brown) considers Ashton an utterly hopeless candidate, especially after he begins making fantastic campaign promises no one could possibly keep, but Ashton turns out to be a bit more shrewd than expected. Read More »
My Name is Oona captures in haunting, intensely lyrical images fragments of the coming to consciousness of a child girl. A series of extremely brief flashes of her moving through nightlit space or woods in sensuous negative, separated by rapid fades into blackness, burst upon us like a fairy-tale princess, with a late sun only partially outlining her and the animal in silvery filigree against the encroaching darkness; one of the most perfect recent examples of poetic cinema. Throughout the entire film, the girl, compulsively and as if in awe, repeats her name, until it becomes a magic incantation of self-realization.Read More »
“Schmeerguntz” is one long raucous belch in the face of the American Home. A society which hides its animal functions beneath a shiny public surface deserves to have such films as Schmeerguntz shown everywhere – in every PTA, every Rotary Club, every club in the land. For it is brash enough, brazen enough and funny enough to purge the soul of every harried American married woman.”
– Ernest Callenbach, Film QuarterlyRead More »
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Stand Clear of the Closing Doors is the story of Ricky (Jesus Sanchez-Velez), an autistic 13-year-old who runs away from home and discovers a new world on the NYC subway. His mother Mariana (Andrea Suarez Paz), an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, starts a panicked search of their neighborhood in Rockaway Beach with the help of a local shopkeeper. But as days pass with no sign of her son, and with Hurricane Sandy bearing down, the divisions the family has tried to ignore are brought to light. Stand Clear of the Closing Doors is a beautiful and moving New York City story, and one with an eye-opening view of life on the autism spectrum.Read More »
One of the few bona fide counter-cultural films to be produced by a major studio, The Swimmer is a sun-scorched and surreal suburban satire that boasts a fine performance from Burt Lancaster (Castle Keep, Buffalo Bill and the Indians) as Ned Merrill, the all-American man who one day determines to swim home to his Connecticut mansion via a series of pools in his neighbourhood.
Directed by Frank Perry (Diary of a Mad Housewife) imbues Eleanor Perry’s (David and Lisa, Ladybug Ladybug) adaptation of John Cheever’s short story with stunning expressionistic flourishes, creating a true masterpiece of cinema.Read More »
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Reporter ‘Stew’ Smith meets beautiful Ann Schuyler, a rich socialite, while covering the story of a scandal involving Ann’s family. Ann takes a liking to the wisecracking Smith and the couple eventually elope. Stew’s roots as a street smart reporter don’t prepare him well for mixing with Ann’s high society friends and he starts spending more time with his ‘pal’, female reporter Gallagher. Everything comes to a head when Ann and her family return home to their mansion one evening and find that Stew has invited all his ‘pals’ over for an impromptu drinking party.Read More »