A love story between a girl who loves reading books, and a boy who has previously checked out all of the library books she chooses.Read More »

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Ghassan Halwani’s debut feature ruminates on the thousands who disappeared during the Lebanese Civil War and their still-present absence in the lives of their loved ones.
It begins with a disappearance 25 years in the past. In fact, it begins even before that, during a civil war that has ended but whose impact — and absences — continue to be felt. Erased,____ Ascent of the Invisible embraces this layered sense of history’s continual unspooling into the present.Read More »

Commando Daffy Duck goes behind enemy lines and causes havoc for a Nazi German officer and his troops.Read More »

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In 1956, there was an uprising of Hungarians against their Russian overlords, which the Russians briefly allowed to flower and then ruthlessly suppressed. One suspects that the country’s rulers knew about the uprising in advance and permitted it to continue so as to be able to identify who was most actively involved. In this film, it is 1958, and five very different men are waiting in their prison cells to be taken out and executed. Their dreams, fantasies and recollection relieve what might otherwise seem to be an unnecessarily repetitive situation. The internationally known French star Matthieu Carrière plays one of the condemned men. ~ Clarke Fountain, RoviRead More »

In 1840, a young Russian aristocrat, Dimitri Sanin, is returning home after a long tour of Europe. In Germany, he falls in love with a beautiful pastry shop girl, Gemma Rosselli, who soon starts sharing his feelings. They decide to get married and, in order to finance the wedding, Dimitri goes back to Russia to sell his family estate. Unfortunately he falls prey to a seductress, Princess Maria Nikolaevna, who pretends to be willing to buy his land to come nearer him. Now Sanin is in a fix: should he choose the pure Gemma or the evil but irresistible Maria?Read More »

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Creatures of the night find new prey on the scariest night of the year in this horror story. It’s Halloween night, and four friends — Allison (Vanessa Horneff), Elliott (Wil Horneff), Trevor (Karl Jacob), and Brian (Sean Reid) — are on a road trip en route to a friend’s wedding when their car breaks down after running into something. Looking for help, the four happen upon the farmhouse of an elderly couple, Elvin (Richard Little) and May (Barbara Wilhide), which is located next to a huge barn. Elvin and May have already become lost in the darkness of the barn, and soon two of the lost travelers are suffering the same fate as they search for friendly strangers. However, while they can barely see a hand in front of their face, they discover they’re not alone in the barn, which has become home to a huge swarm of bloodthirsty bats. The Roost is framed by an introduction and postscript from a television horror show host, played by Tom Noonan. ~ Mark Deming, RoviRead More »

A Schatzberg film that is probably too little known. Its theme reminds faintly of Reunion, but different and in the other direction.

rottentomatoes summary:
A young Frenchman’s search for his American father provides the thematic center of this drama by septuagenarian director Jerry Schatzberg. Daniel (Guillaume Canet) repairs brass instruments for a living, and when he journeys to New York to work on some French horns for Paul (Tony Lo Bianco), a business friend, he brings with him a scrap of paper bearing the identity of his father, whom he has never met. Upon his arrival in New York, Daniel is introduced to Paul’s family, which includes his daughter Tilly (Monica Trombetta) and Joey (Nick Sandow), her abusive lout of a husband. Read More »

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Set over the course of a weekend tournament for chess software programmers thirty-some years ago, Computer Chess transports viewers to a nostalgic moment when the contest between technology and the human spirit seemed a little more up for grabs. We get to know the eccentric geniuses possessed of the vision to teach a metal box to defeat man, literally, at his own game, laying the groundwork for artificial intelligence as we know it and will come to know it in the future.Read More »

Review
“In French cinema, the simplest subjects often make the most striking films, and Marion Vernoux’s charming but touching romantic drama Rien à faire bears that out. Although the plot is admittedly anodyne stuff, its treatment is pure auteur and the result is a captivating film showing the brutal fragility of an ephemeral romance. The inventive cinematography vividly conveys the mood of the lead characters – frequent moments of euphoria piercing a sense of suppressed melancholia as Marie and Pierre discover a shared relief from their monotonous and unfulfilled lives. Compelling naturalistic performances from Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Patrick Dell’Isola make this a satisfying and moving minimalist drama about those eternal themes of love, loneliness and desire. “Read More »