USA

  • Deborah Stratman – The Illinois Parables (2016)

    2011-2020Deborah StratmanExperimentalUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    An experimental documentary comprised of regional vignettes about faith, force, technology and exodus. Eleven parables relay histories of settlement, removal, technological breakthrough, violence, messianism and resistance, all occurring somewhere in the state of Illinois. But the state is a structural ruse, and its histories are allegories that ask what belief might teach us about nationhood. In our desire to understand the inscrutable, whom do we end up blaming or endorsing?Read More »

  • Adan Jodorowsky – The Voice Thief (2013)

    USA2011-2020Adan JodorowskyFantasyShort Film

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    When an opera singer loses her voice, her husband embarks on an odyssey through Miami’s dark underworld to recover it through supernatural means. Read More »

  • Joseph Strick – Road Movie (1974)

    1971-1980CultExploitationJoseph StrickUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    “This cult favorite from one of cinema’s richest eras, directed by Academy Award-winning director Joseph Strick, stars Barry Bostwick (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and Robert Drivas (Cool Hand Luke) delivering bravura performances as a pair of brutish truck drivers who pick up a prostitute on a trip across America. Regina Baff (The Paper Chase) tears at the heart as the beaten and furious hooker who exchanges her body for a ride to New York, only to be further abused. Rejected and scorned, she becomes determined to seek revenge.” – DVD packaging copyRead More »

  • Christopher Guest – Best in Show (2000)

    1991-2000Christopher GuestComedyUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    After parodying the idiosyncrasies of community theater devotees in the mock documentary Waiting for Guffman, actor/director Christopher Guest returns with another semi-improvised comedy that casts a satirical gaze on the world of championship dog breeding and training. A television crew is on hand to document the prestigious Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show, and competition is fierce among the canine devotees vying for top honors. Salesman Gerry Fleck (Eugene Levy), who is cursed with two left feet (literally), and his wife Cookie (Catherine O’Hara) have entered their Norwich terrier “Winky” in competition. Wealthy and neurotic Meg Swan (Parker Posey) and her husband Hamilton (Michael Hitchcock) are on hand with their Weimaraner “Beatrice,” who they fear may have been traumatized by watching them have sex.Read More »

  • Jeff Nichols – Loving (2016)

    Drama2011-2020Jeff NicholsRomanceUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    The story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, whose challenge of their anti-miscegenation arrest for their marriage in Virginia led to a legal battle that would end at the US Supreme Court.
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    Loving is a 2016 American historical drama film which tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, the plaintiffs in the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia, which invalidated state laws prohibiting interracial marriage. The film was produced by Big Beach and Raindog Films, and distributed by Focus Features. The film takes inspiration from The Loving Story (2011) by Nancy Buirski, a documentary which follows the Lovings and their landmark case.Read More »

  • Robert Aldrich – Autumn Leaves (1956)

    1951-1960ClassicsRobert AldrichRomanceUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    In the ’50s, Robert Aldrich was a favorite of the French Cahiers du Cinema critics. In the ’60s, though, Aldrich got sloppier as his budgets got bigger. Most of his later movies are at least a half hour too long, and formulaic action films like The Dirty Dozen and Too Late the Hero tarnished his once bright reputation. But movies like World for Ransom, Kiss Me Deadly, and Attack! still hold up as harsh portraits of violence, paranoia, and a new kind of universal dread that began with the A-bomb and ended with the JFK assassination. All of Aldrich’s early work is intriguing, but Autumn Leaves is his secret gem. It’s been passed over as camp because of its star, Joan Crawford, but Aldrich brings all his hard edges to this woman’s picture. The collision of his tough style with the soapy material makes for a film that never loses its queasy tension.Read More »

  • Jennifer Montgomery – Art for Teachers of Children (1995)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaJennifer MontgomeryUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis:
    Jennifer, an intelligent but insecure 14-year-old student at a boarding school, seduces her married dormitory counselor, a photographer who has offered to teach her about his art and winds up shooting her in the nude. She is naive, and he manipulates her into an affair that eventually is discovered. Years later, as the photographer is being investigated by the FBI, the adult woman remembers her first love as a case of herself watching the artist who watched her.Read More »

  • William Friedkin – The Exorcist [Director’s Cut] (1973)

    1971-1980DramaHorrorUSAWilliam Friedkin

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Plot summary
    A movie actress taking up temporary residence in Washington D.C. has her troubles. The script for the movie she’s filming seems inadequate. Her ex, who is also the father of her adolescent daughter, Regan, neglects to call the girl on her birthday. And the attic has rats. Meanwhile, Father Karras, a priest and a psychiatrist, is losing his faith; and he’s dealing with a sick mother who needs medical care he hasn’t the money to provide. Another priest, the old and ailing Father Merrin, has just returned from Iraq with forebodings of evil. These three persons meet when the sweet and cheerful Regan turns foul-mouthed and violent. But her sickness is beyond the reach of a medical doctor or a psychiatrist. What Regan needs is an exorcistRead More »

  • Richard Brooks – The Catered Affair (1956)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaRichard BrooksUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis:
    At breakfast, Jane announces that she and Ralph are getting married the next week. All Jane and Ralph want is a small wedding with the immediate family and no reception. This is because Janes parents are poor and Jane and Ralph can borrow a car for their honeymoon. However, at dinner that night all Ralph’s parents talk about are the big weddings they gave their daughters and everything escalates. All of a sudden, it is a big wedding breakfast with hundreds of guests. The problem is that for 12 years, Tom has been saving money to buy his own cab and license, but now that he can, all of his money is going towards a wedding neither he, or Jane or Ralph really want.Read More »

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