USA

A sculptor hires young college girls to take care of his elderly mother and his supposedly insane sister, both of whom live in the old family mansion with himRead More »

To mark her 50th birthday, filmmaker Lynne Sachs gathers a group of her contemporaries—all New Yorkers but originally hailing from all corners of the globe—for a weekend of recollection and reflection on the most life-altering personal, local, and international events of the past half- century, creating what Sachs calls “a collective distillation of our times.” Interspersed with poetry and flashes of archival footage, this poignant reverie reveals how far beyond our control life is, and how far we can go despite this.Read More »

The third of Daniel Eisenberg’s thematically connected film essays about postwar Europe, PERSISTENCE, an award-winning feature-length experimental documentary in gorgeous color, once again explores the relationships between past, present and future in a complex portrait of the city of Berlin (divided from 1961 to 1989 by the grandiose Berlin Wall). The film was shot through the period of unification in 1991-92 and edited together with films by U.S. Army cameramen (1945-46) obtained from the Department of Defense archives. Read More »

Plot: When their mother dies, Frederick Smith hires Emma Thatcher to be a nanny to his 3 children. The children grow up and Frederick becomes rich and successful. He and Emma marry right before his death, and his will becomes a source of trouble between the children and Emma. Written by Rebecca Fennig Read More »

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Veteran director Bob Chinn gets credit, albeit likely more for his role as creator of the Johnny Wadd character and series than any actual input to the film in question. With the always stunning Leslie Bovee given a run for her money by the equally gorgeous Annette Haven, pretty Desiree West and even Thorpe’s Halloween dress-up domme providing sufficient aesthetic focus, the film is possessed of a more appropriate streetwise feel than the fairly iffy lead feature. Suffused with mood lighting and 70’s cop show trope and feel, Colberg graduates from the more static VFW Hall and hotel room filming of All Night Long to a far more location heavy, clearly cinematographic and more highly budgeted affair playing into and lending sufficient weight to Wadd’s tracking down of “sex ritual murderer” the “Black Widow”.
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Stanley Donen (April 13, 1924 – February 21, 2019)
RIP.

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Mark and Joanna Wallace (Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn) have the kind of marriage where barbs and insults mean more to them than all the endearments ever spoken. During a present day trip to the south of France, they remember other European jaunts they’ve made. On their journey, they experience anew the first glow of passion, the aching loneliness of being apart, the elation of cresting a hill at sunrise, the joy of making up after a fight, and ultimately, they establish what it means to be a couple.Read More »

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Written adroitly by Duane Pool, “Shattered Image” has one of those stories about which it is all but impossible to say anything with any degree of certainty. It does seem clear that Parillaud’s Jessie and Baldwin’s Brian are an exceptionally attractive Seattle couple honeymooning at a posh Jamaican resort and that Jessie is deeply disturbed. She apparently has endured a rape and its trauma has been compounded by the death of her wealthy father. She has vivid dreams in which she sees herself as an ultra-cool hired assassin–and her latest assignment is to knock off none other than Brian or a man who is his twin. As for Brian, is he the solicitous husband he seems to be? Or is it the cold-blooded assassin who is real, and Jessie but a figment of her dreams?Read More »

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Oscar winning director Sydney Pollack takes a sharp sideways turn with SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY, a documentary about the noted architect. Usually known for making grandiose productions such as THE FIRM and OUT OF AFRICA, Pollock adds a genuine curio to his filmmaking resume with this movie. Although the two men have been friends for years, Pollock thankfully bypasses the opportunity to pay a fawning tribute to Gehry, instead presenting a well-balanced portrait that offers both positive and negative commentators the chance to etch their thoughts into celluloid.Read More »

Synopsis:
When plans fall through, a six-year-old is faced with a big responsibility on a hot Texas day.Read More »