USA

It’s hardly an earthshaking revelation that we live in a culture where fame (or its cheaper companion, notoriety) is the secular equivalent of sainthood. But “To Die For,” Gus Van Sant and Buck Henry’s brilliant satire, makes that discovery seem like a clarion call from the heavens or—more appropriately—a rock-’em, sock-’em TV sound bite.

Henry’s script, based on Joyce Maynard’s novel, is assured, sophisticated and mercilessly glutted with funny zingers. Van Sant’s fluid, subtly wicked direction is a personal redemption of sorts; he’s the one responsible for the legendarily abysmal “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.” But what gives the movie its sharpest, sweetest edge is Nicole Kidman.Read More »

Synopsis:
Jim Curtayne, formerly a successful criminal defense attorney and currently a recovering alcoholic, has turned to civil law because of his problems with the bottle, daughter Ginny delays marrying in order to keep her dad on the straight and narrow, but when the son of neighborhood friends is accused of murder, he is lured into returning to criminal law. Complications arise as the initially overconfident Curtayne experiences lapses inn memory and judgment as well as an uncooperative client. He finds himself well over his head as he tries to reclaim his self-confidence and professional standing.Read More »

Synopsis:
After the arranged marriage of Arthur (Richard Harris) and Guinevere (Vanessa Redgrave), the king gathers the noble knights of the realm to his Round Table. The dashing and stalwart Lancelot (Franco Nero) joins, but soon finds himself enraptured by the lovely Guinevere. When Arthur’s illegitimate son, Mordred (David Hemmings), reappears in the kingdom and outs the secret lovers, Arthur finds himself trapped by his own rules into taking action against his wife and closest friend.Read More »

Synopsis:
Stephen is a married Oxford professor experiencing the pangs of a mid-life crisis as he begins to bristle at the stifling emotional repression of the society in which he lives. Things begin to change for him when he meets Anna, a beautiful student who is engaged to William, another of Stephen’s students. Though he begins to feel alive again in her presence, Stephen’s feelings for Anna can only end in tragedy for them and those around them.Read More »

Quote:
Clive Barker’s more sanguinary inclinations are paid tribute here through a hulking golem, a malevolent meat merchant in his dapper best, named Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) who smashes, eviscerates and cleaves through unsuspecting commuters on the last train home. Adapted from Barker’s seminal anthology, “Books of Blood”, the similarly named “The Midnight Meat Train” is more than just an opportunity for some sophomoric snickering over its title but one of Barker’s most revered short stories about a supernatural serial killer that ekes out fascination, fear and obsession from a lone photographer, Leon Kaufman (Bradley Cooper) stumbling upon the butcher’s late night deliveries.Read More »

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A spoof about a filmmaker making a documentary about a once-famous, now almost forgotten British heavy metal band returning to the United States after 17 years for a concert tour.Read More »

Synopsis:
Vampire hunter Professor Abronsius (Jack MacGowran) and his faithful assistant, Alfred (Roman Polanski), are traveling across Transylvania when they stop to rest at a suspicious-looking inn. That night, they witness the innkeeper’s daughter, Sarah (Sharon Tate), being whisked away by Count von Krolock (Ferdy Mayne), an obvious vampire, and pursue him to his nearby castle. They break in, only to be invited to stay by the unfazed count, and plot to rescue Sarah and destroy their murderous host.Read More »

Framed as a pathetic movie pitch set in Berlin, Indefinite Pitch points toward unconscious and elusive influences in life and in cinema mimicked by the rising and falling sonic frequency that, like an alarm, has an extremely indefinite pitch.Read More »

In a remote house in Maine, two friends predict shifts in global financial markets by viewing footage of the forest.
Quote:
A digital-pastoral drama of friendship, landscape and technology, “For the Plasma” begins as the story of two young women (Anabelle LeMieux and Rosalie Lowe) employed as forest-fire lookouts in Northern Maine, and ends in a hundred places at once. Along the way, the girls make financial predictions based on surveillance footage of the surrounding forest, the local lighthouse keeper and a pair of unusual investors interrupt their solitude, and a dreamlike portrait of small town America and contemporary life is revealed. “For the Plasma” is a film of minimal means but ambition, shot in Super 16mm and 4:3 with a small cast and crew, and scored by the great Japanese experimental composer, Keiichi Suzuki. great Japanese experimental composer, Keiichi Suzuki.Read More »