Movie Releases by Genre
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Garden Party
July 11, 2008
Los Feliz, CA - On the sleazier side of Sunset, teenage beauty APRIL has humble ambitions. She’s searching for a way to get by without taking off her clothes—any more than she already has. Sally St. Clair is a realtor whose business has been built upon her sex appeal and secret past. Nathan, has moved to Los Angeles from Nebraska in search of fame as a dancer. Lacking drive and confidence, Nathan finds himself making late night photocopies for Sally and her clients. Todd is one of those prospective clients. A porn addicted artist in search of a way out of a sexless relationship and into an adventure, he’s happy to help Sally get revenge for some past indiscretions. (Roadside Attractions)
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Death Defying Acts
July 11, 2008
It is 1926, and Harry Houdini is the most famous performer in the world. Audiences flock to watch him perform his amazing stunts. But the man behind the legend is a tortured soul, having been unable to hear his mother’s dying words. He offers a $10,000 reward to anyone who can contact his mother from beyond the grave. When a beautiful but deceptive psychic, Mary McGregor, and her sidekick daughter, Benji, take the challenge, Harry is initially skeptical, but is soon captivated by her charms. The more time he spends with the mysterious woman, the more attracted he is, and what began as a con soon evolves into a passionate and complicated love affair, as Houdini attempts the most dangerous stunt of his career. (Myriad Pictures)
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Giorni e nuvole
July 11, 2008
Well-to-do, sophisticated couple, Elsa and Michele, have a 20 year-old daughter, Alice, and enough money for Elsa to leave her job and fulfill an old dream of studying art history. After she graduates, however, their lives change. Michele confesses he hasn't worked in two months and was fired by the company he founded years ago. Elsa overcomes her initial shock by pouring extra energy into facing the crisis while Michele, exhausted by an unsuccessful job hunt, lets himself go, alternating between vivacity and apathy. The growing distance between them eventually leads to a break-up. Only when they are apart will they realize that they risk losing their most precious possession: the love that binds them. (Film Movement)
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Holding Trevor
July 4, 2008
Trevor Holden has just witnessed his boyfriend, Darrell, overdose on heroin--again. As Darrell's oldest friend, Trevor feels a responsibility to help Darrell in his latest attempt at sobriety, much to the dismay of his own best friends, Jake and Andie. But, when Darrell starts using again, Trevor is finally ready to call it quits. And just when he does, he meets the ever-so-charming Ephram. Simply being everything that Darrell is not immediately wins Ephram a number of points, but Ephram accepts a job thousands of miles away in New York City, and he wants Trevor to go with him. Now, what started out as Trevor's own personal existential journey turns into a path that will lead him to what is most important: himself. Holding Trevor is continually poignant, relentlessly self-deprecating, and just the type of cerebral dark comedy that can speak directly to the 20-somethings of today while letting other generations in on the joke. (Regent Releasing)
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The Wackness
July 3, 2008
The Wackness centers on a troubled high school student named Luke Shapiro--a teenage pot dealer who forms a friendship with Dr. Jeffrey Squires, a psychiatrist and kindred lost soul. When the doctor proposes that Luke trade him weed for therapy sessions, the two begin to explore both New York City and their own depression. (Sony Picture Classics)
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Tell No One
July 2, 2008
Tell No One is based on Harlan Coben's international best-selling thriller about pediatrician Alexandre Beck, who still grieves for his beloved wife Margot Beck, who was murdered eight years earlier. When two bodies are found near the scene of the original crime, the police reopen the case, and Alex becomes a suspect again. The mystery deepens when Alex receives an anonymous e-mail with a link to a video clip that seems to suggest that Margot is somehow still alive and with a message that says "Tell no one." (Music Box Films)
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Finding Amanda
June 30, 2008
From director Peter Tolan, creator of the hit television series Rescue Me, comes Finding Amanda, a hilarious and heartbreaking autobiographical comedy about the compulsions we can’t shake, and the unlikely lengths we’ll go to while trying. Taylor Mendon is a television writer and producer working on a low-rated, little-respected half-hour sitcom. Once destined for bigger and better things, Taylor's compulsive gambling, recreational drug use and drinking all conspired to throw his career off the rails. After kicking the alcohol and drugs, he only has one more hurdle...the horses. His beautiful twenty - year old niece Amanda has her own habit to kick. Living in Las Vegas, working as a "dancer," her family has just discovered she is actually a prostitute, and they suspect hooking for drug money. On their way home from an emergency family meeting, Taylor's wife Lorraine finds recent racing stubs in Taylor's glove compartment. After years of standing by him, she leaves. Taylor comes up with a plan: he'll win back his wife by doing the right thing. He'll go to Las Vegas, find Amanda, and deliver her to a rehabilitation center in Malibu. While he’s at it, he might even catch up with some old friends. But besides that, it’s strictly the business at hand—while he's there, he vows, he won't gamble a single cent, but things don’t turn out quite as he’d planned. (Magnolia Pictures)
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Elsa y Fred
June 27, 2008
When elderly Fred loses his wife, he quietly moves into a smaller apartment to live out the rest of his life, which he hopes will be quick. But when he meets his neighbor, vivacious Elsa, he soon discovers how much life he has to live.
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The Last Mistress
June 27, 2008
The Last Mistress marks the monumental pairing of cinema's premiere provocateur, director Catherine Breillat with the most fearless and explosive actor of our generation, Asia Argento. A penniless rogue, Ryno de Marigny, shocks 19th century France with his engagement to the virginal gem of the aristocracy, Hermangarde. As lurid speculations of Ryno's ten year affair with the carnal Vellini manifest, a supremely erotic and wickedly humorous depiction of human lust is revealed - overriding the brittle facade of nobility and reverence. Bolstered by Breillat's mastery of the medium and Argento's commanding performance, The Last Mistress is a highly entertaining yet incredibly provocative film that has resulted in unanimous praise from audiences and critics across the world. (IFC Films)
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Red Roses and Petrol
June 27, 2008
Based on a successful Irish play by acclaimed writer Joseph O’Conner, and directed by Tamar Simon Hoffs, the darkly comedic drama offers a tour-de-force showcase for McDowell as Enda Doyle, a university librarian, poet, and rascal who is the flawed patriarch of a dysfunctional family struggling to come to terms with his death and with one another. Unfolding amidst a haze of cigarette smoke and uneaten food, as his family gathers in Dublin for his wake, Red Roses and Petrol explores the emotional dynamics of familial relationships with sharp humor and surprising turns. (World Wide Motion Pictures Corporation)
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Full Grown Men
June 25, 2008
Set in a stylized yet familiar landscape of Americana, Munro’s whimsical cautionary tale follows Alby Cutrera, a 35-year-old husband and father who longs for the days of his carefree boyhood when his only occupation was playing with his action figures. Desperate to escape the confines of adulthood and return to his halcyon days, Alby tracks down his childhood whipping boy Elias, who now teaches at a special needs school, and persuades him to take a road trip to Diggityland – their favorite childhood theme park. As the dynamic duo motor along Florida’s tatty Orange Blossom Highway, they encounter a cast of tragicomic creatures, including an AWOL ex-theme park employee turned commando hitchhiker, an oversexed bartending clown-in-training, and a trailer-dwelling delusional mermaid . Calamity and mayhem ensue as Alby and Elias’ sentimental trip down memory lane becomes an unsolicited lesson in the perils of living in the past. (Emerging Pictures)
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Expired
June 20, 2008
The sight of a dark-suited municipal employee doling out parking violations stirs a primal hate in all but the most enlightened souls. And the meter maid, Claire, knows it. The film revolves around Claire, a kind soul who resents having to enforce the law at all times, and Jay, an angry Traffic Officer who loves his job, it being the perfect outlet for his anger and frustrations. Coming both from a place of despair and loneliness, Claire and Jay meet and engage in a tumultuous and twisted relationship, which will eventually teach them that love can spread magic seeds of redemption and hope, even in the most unlikely of souls. By the end, Claire is faced with the question of whether to engage or to run…(MRC Releasing)
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Medicine for Melancholy
June 20, 2008
A love story of bikes and one-night stands told through two African-American twenty-something's dealing with issues of class, identity, and the evolving conundrum of being a minority in rapidly gentrifying San Francisco-a city with the smallest proportional black population of any other major American city. [IFC Films]
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Brick Lane
June 20, 2008
Nazneen’s life is turned upside down at the tender age of seventeen. Forced into an arranged marriage to an older man, she exchanges her Bangladeshi village home for a block of flats in London’s East End. In this new world, pining for her home and her sister, she struggles to make sense of her existence – and to do her duty to her husband. A man of inflated ideas (and stomach), he sorely tests her compliance. Told from birth that she must not fight her fate, Nazneen submits, devoting her life to raising her family and slapping down her demons of discontent. Until the day that Karim, a hot-headed local man, bursts into her life. Against a background of escalating racial tension, they embark on an affair that finally forces Nazneen to take control of her life. Set in multicultural Britain, Brick Lane is a truly contemporary story of love, cultural difference, and ultimately, the strength of the human spirit. (Sony Pictures Classics)
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Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
June 20, 2008
Bright, inquisitive and generous, Kit is a natural born leader. But her happy childhood is abruptly interrupted when her father loses his care dealership and must leave to Cincinnati to look for work. Kit and her mother Margaret are left to manage on their own, growing vegetables, selling eggs and even taking an assortment of boarders. When Kit’s mother and the boarders become the latest victims in a string of robberies, the Kittredges face losing their house to foreclosure. Determined to recover the stolen money, Kit recruits her friends to help her track down the culprit. Together they uncover plot that goes gar be yond Cincinnati. (Picturehouse)
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Beauty in Trouble
June 13, 2008
Beauty in Trouble explores a young woman’s romantic dilemma: torn between a primal connection and the need to provide for her children, she loves two men. Set against the back drop of the recent floods in Prague, Beauty in Trouble is full of unexpected twists, humor and amazing performances culminating in a surprising and paradox ending. (Menemsha Films)
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The Happening
June 13, 2008
It begins with no clear warning. It seems to come out of nowhere. In a matter of minutes, episodes of strange, chilling deaths that defy reason and boggle the mind in their shocking destructiveness, erupt in major American cities. What is causing this sudden, total breakdown of human behavior?For Philadelphia high school science teacher Elliot Moore what matters most is finding a way to escape the mysterious and deadly phenomenon. (Twentieth Century Fox)
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My Winnipeg
June 13, 2008
Have you ever wanted to relive your childhood and do things differently? Guy Maddin casts B-movie icon Ann Savage as his domineering mother in attempt to answer that question in My Winnipeg, a hilariously wacky and profoundly touching goodbye letter to his childhood hometown. A documentary (or "docu-fantasia" as Maddin proclaims) that inventively blends local and personal history with surrealist images and metaphorical myths, the film covers everything from the fire at the local park which lead to a frozen lake of distressed horse heads to pivotal and factually heightened scenes from Maddin's own childhood, all laced with a startling emotional honesty. My Winnipeg is Maddin's most personal film and a truly unique cinematic experience, winning the best Canadian film at the Toronto International Film Festival and the opening night selection of the Berlin Film Festival's Forum. [IFC Films]
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Quid Pro Quo
June 13, 2008
Isaac Knott is a Public Radio reporter in New York City. When he was eight, his mother and father died in an automobile accident that left him in a wheelchair. On air, Isaac recounts how he recently received an anonymous tip from someone identified only as "Ancient Chinese Girl." She tells him a perfectly able-bodied man walked into an emergency ward downtown, and attempted to bribe a doctor into amputating his leg. As Isaac investigates the eerie tip, he encounters Fiona who, through her own quandary, leads Isaac to a netherworld of people afflicted with a perverse desire to be disabled. Like a contemporary noir detective film, Quid Pro Quo follows Isaac as he embarks on a dream-like journey to pull back the layers of what makes people feel whole. (Magnolia Pictures)
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You Don't Mess with the Zohan
June 6, 2008
Zohan is an Israeli commando who fakes his own death in order to pursue his dream: becoming a hairstylist in New York. (Sony Pictures)
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The Go-Getter
June 6, 2008
Mercer steals a car to escape his small Oregon town and find his older brother after a tragic loss in the family. Once on the road he becomes attached to phone calls from Kate, the forgiving and mysterious girl who owns the car he stole. With her voice as guidance Mercer travels across the former Wild West to find a new sense of belonging. A crazy trip to Reno with Joely and odd encounters with his brother’s former friends soon make Mercer realize that everything he’s looking for may not be on the road, but on the other end of the phone. With a soundtrack by M. Ward and some other big names in the indie music scene and shot in the beautiful plains of the Mid-West, The Go-Getter is a road trip about finding love in the strangest of ways. (Peace Arch Entertainment)
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Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan
June 6, 2008
Mongol illuminates the life and legend of Genghis Khan. Based on leading scholarly accounts and Mongol delves into the dramatic and harrowing early years of the ruler who was born as Temudgin in 1162. As it follows Temudgin from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the future conqueror, revealing him not as the evil brute of hoary stereotype, but as an inspiring, fearless and visionary leader. Mongol shows us the making of an extraordinary man, and the foundation on which so much of his greatness rested: his relationship with his wife, Borte, his lifelong love and most trusted advisor. (Picturehouse)
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Take Out
June 6, 2008
An illegal Chinese immigrant falls behind on payments on an enormous smuggling debt. Ming Ding has only until the end of the day to come up with the money.
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Savage Grace
May 30, 2008
Savage Grace, based on the award winning book, tells the incredible true story of Barbara Daly, who married above her class to Brooks Baekeland, the dashing heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. Beautiful, red-headed and charismatic, Barbara is still no match for her well-bred husband. The birth of the couple's only child, Tony, rocks the uneasy balance in this marriage of extremes. Tony is a failure in his father's eyes. As he matures and becomes increasingly close to his lonely mother, the seeds for a tragedy of spectacular decadence are sown. Spanning 1946 to 1972, the film unfolds in six acts. The Baekelands' pursuit of social distinction and the glittering 'good life' propels them across the globe. We follow their heady rise and tragic fall against the backdrop of New York, Paris, Cadaques, Mallorca and London.
(IFC First Take)
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Sex and the City
May 30, 2008
Carrie Bradshaw, successful author and everyone’s favorite fashion icon-next-door, is back, her famously sardonic wit intact and sharper than ever, as she continues to narrate her own story about sex, love and the fashion-obsessed single women in New York. Sex and the City finds Carrie, Samantha, Charlote and Miranda four years after the hit HBO series ended, as our favorite friends continue to juggle jobs and relationships while navigating motherhood, marriage and Manhattan real estate. (New Line Cinema)
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The Strangers
May 30, 2008
The Strangers is a terrifying suspense thriller about a couple whose remote getaway becomes a place of terror when masked strangers invade. The confrontation forces Kristen and James to go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to survive. (Rogue Pictures)
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The Unknown Woman
May 30, 2008
A Russian woman named Irena calculatedly insinuates herself into the lives of a young, affluent Italian family. Stopping at nothing to become the couple’s trusted maid and the beloved nanny to their fragile young daughter, Irena risks everything in her quest to uncover the truth about the family. Like an intricately constructed jigsaw puzzle, The Unknown Woman reveals piece by piece the enigma of Irena’s past. (Outsider Pictures)
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The Children of Huang Shi
May 23, 2008
Based on real events, The Children of Huang Shi is a sweeping but intimate story set against war-torn China in the 1930's. The film centers on a young English journalist, an American nurse and the leader of a Chinese partisan group who meet in desperate and unexpected circumstances. Together they rescue 60 orphaned children, leading them on an extraordinary journey across hundreds of miles of treacherous terrain, through snow-covered mountains and an unforgiving desert. Along the way they discover the true meaning of love, responsibility and courage. (Sony Picture Classics)
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The Edge of Heaven
May 21, 2008
Nejat initially disapproves of his widower father Ali`s choice of prostitute Yeter for a live-in girlfriend. But the young professor warms to her when he learns that most of her hard-earned money is sent home to Turkey for her daughter’s university studies. After Yeter`s accidental death, Nejat travels to Istanbul to search for Yeter`s daughter Ayten. Political activist Ayten has fled the Turkish police and is already in Germany. She is befriended by a young woman, Lotte, who invites rebellious Ayten to stay in her home, much to the displeasure of her conservative mother, Susanne. When Ayten is arrested and her asylum plea denied, she is deported and imprisoned in Turkey. Passionate Lotte abandons everything to help Ayten. A tragic event brings Susanne to Istanbul to help fulfill her daughter`s mission. (Strand Releasing)
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Sangre De Mi Sangre
May 16, 2008
A young Mexican immigrant, Pedro, journeys to New York City in search of the successful father he's never met, only to have his belongings and identity stolen by a conniving thief, Juan. As Pedro is left alone and unable to communicate in a country foreign to him, Juan cons his way into the home of Pedro's father, Diego, finding a man just as flawed as he is. While Juan attempts to reinvent himself, Pedro's only hope lies with a mysteriously complex prostitute, Magda, as he frantically searches for his identity. [IFC First Take]
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Reprise
May 16, 2008
Phillip and Erik stand at the mailbox, two cocky, grinning rebels full of 20-year-old verve and dreams, their whole lives hanging in the balance at this singular moment. Each is about to ship off his first novel to publishers, each is hoping to become a wildly influential cult author, each has a vision of a new life of nonstop intensity, brilliance, romance, and nightclubbing. Fast-forward six months. These reveries have crashed, hard, into reality. Phillip, whose novel garnered instant acclaim and turned him into a mini-celebrity, has had a terrifying breakdown and is just about to be released from a psychiatric hospital. Erik, who never sold his novel, is still pecking away, determined to follow in the footsteps of his undying hero, a reclusive but idolized writing genius, no matter what it takes. Reprise explores not just what happens to Phillip and Erik as they pick up the pieces, but what might have happened to them, what they imagine could happen, what they fear will possibly happen, and why they can't see what's actually happening. [Miramax Films]
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Lion's Den
May 15, 2008
An incarcerated woman struggles to raise her son from prison.
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The Tracey Fragments
May 9, 2008
Based on screenwriter Maureen Medved's novel of the same name, The Tracey Fragments uses highly inventive and dynamic Mondrian-like split screens to tell the story of why 15-year-old Tracey Berkowitz is riding out a blizzard in the back of a city bus, naked except for the tattered curtain she's wrapped in, and looking for her missing brother (whom she fears she has hypnotized).
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Vice
May 9, 2008
Detective Max Walker (Madsen) was once a highly respected cop until he lost his wife and his life unraveled. Haunted by her memory and harboring his rage, Walker has nothing left to lose. He is a loose cannon waiting for an excuse to explode. A drug bust operation goes awry. A large haul of heroin is discovered by Walker and his team, including Salt (Hannah) and Sampson (Williamson). The bust attracts a great deal of heat after several people are killed and one gang member escapes from the scene. Murder and mayhem ensue. The officers involved in the bust are being killed off one by one. No cop is safe. With no suspects in sight, a bewildered Walker joins forces with Salt to investigate the slaughter of his team. What follows is a series of twists, intrigue, and foul play. When it is discovered that some drugs from the bust went missing, the cops start to look among themselves for the killer. Trust is compromised, comradeship dissolves, and friends turn their guns on one another until the last man is standing and the truth is revealed. (41 INC.)
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The Babysitters
May 9, 2008
Sixteen-year-old Shirley Lyner is an honor student working as a babysitter and saving for college. She's developed a crush on Michael Beltran, the father of two of her babysitting regulars. One night on the way home, Michael and Shirley kiss, and he pays her a little something extra. They continue their affair, using the nights Shirley babysits to cover for their time together. Soon Shirley finds herself becoming a high school Heidi Fleiss, taking a percentage every time one of her friends babysits for the married men. But it's only a matter of time before Shirley starts to lose control of her operation and her tightly wound world begins to unravel. (Peace Arch Entertainment)
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The Fall
May 9, 2008
Los Angeles, circa 1920s: A little immigrant girl finds herself in a hospital recovering from a fall. She strikes up a friendship with a bedridden man, who captivates her with a whimsical story that removes her far from the hospital doldrums into the exotic landscapes of her imagination. Making sure he keeps the girl interested in the story, he interweaves her family and people she likes from the hospital into his tale. (Roadside Attractions)
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Frontier(s)
May 9, 2008
Alone in a Paris plagued by deadly race riots, young, beautiful Yasmine is looking for a way out. In her desperation, she turns to her shady ex-boyfriend. Together with his two thug friends, they pull off a bold heist and head for the border. With the police close behind, they hide out in a seemingly peaceful inn. But the mysterious innkeeper is hiding a secret more terrifying than anything they could ever imagine. Trapped in an endless maze of tunnels crawling with hungry subhuman cannibals, they must fight to survive their bloody initiation into the innkeeper's evil family cult. (After Dark Films)
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Noise
May 9, 2008
David is a successful lawyer who can't stand the fact that Manhattan is a place where it's too noisy to get a good night's sleep, listen to classical music, or even make love to his wife without disturbance. Every time David hears a car alarm going off, he swings into action. Adopting the guise of "The Rectifier," he engages in acts of vandalism that satisfy him immensely but which generate no end of grief from his wife. They also make him politically controversial when he provokes the ire of the city's arrogant mayor. (THINKFilm)
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Turn the River
May 9, 2008
A poker-playing pool hustler takes her last shot at redemption by trying to score enough money to run away with the son she was forced to abandon at birth. [Screen Media Films]
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Before the Rains
May 9, 2008
Set in 1930s southern India against the backdrop of a growing nationalist movement, Before the Rains is about an idealistic young Indian man who finds himself torn between his ambitions for the future and his loyalty to the past when people in his village learn of an affair between his British boss and a village woman. (Roadside Attractions)
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Battle for Haditha
May 7, 2008
November 19, 2005, Haditha, Iraq: Iraqi insurgents bomb a convoy of US Marines, resulting in the death of their most popular officer. His young, enraged Marine buddies carry out a brutal retaliation. Their violent house search leads to the massacre of 24 people, many of whom are women and children--tragic causalities of a war they cannot control. The Marines, too, are victims, attacked, wounded, and forced to respond in the way they have been trained. But when events occur at great speed and under extreme stress, can Marines in the line of fire be accused of murder? (HanWay Films)
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The Favor
May 2, 2008
An unmarried photographer living in New Jersey receives a phone call from a woman who broke his heart 25 years ago. A week later, he has loved her and lost her all over again, and her troubled teenage son is living with him. The Favor is an intimate family drama that explores the fabric of human relationships and what we will do for the ones we love. Variety calls it a "gently wrought tearjerker" with strong performances by Tony-award-winning actor Frank Wood and newcomer Ryan Donowho. (7th Art Releasing)
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Fugitive Pieces
May 2, 2008
Based on the international best-selling novel by Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces is a poetic and emotionally charged film about love, loss, and redemption. The film tells the story of Jakob Beer, a man whose life is haunted by his childhood experiences during World War II. As a child in Poland, Jakob is orphaned during wartime, only to be saved by a compassionate Greek archeologist. Over the course of his life, he attempts to deal with the losses he has endured. Through his writing and his discovery of true love, Jakob is ultimately freed from the legacy of his past. (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
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Mister Lonely
May 2, 2008
Only Harmony Korine could weave Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, her daughter Shirley Temple, and flying nuns into a hypnotically funny and truly poignant tale of the instability behind fanaticism and the redemption we can hope to find in one another. The film follows a lonely Michael Jackson impersonator who is invited by a beautiful Marilyn Monroe to a commune in the Scottish Highlands full of other impersonators, including the Queen of England, Madonna, Sammy Davis Jr., and James Dean. In a parallel storyline, the incomparable Werner Herzog plays a Latin American priest who learns his missionary of nuns can literally fly. (IFC Films)
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Redbelt
May 2, 2008
Set on the west side of the Los Angeles fight world, a world inhabited by bouncers, cage fighters, cops, and special forces types, Redbelt is the story of Mike Terry, a jujitsu teacher who has avoided the prize-fighting circuit, choosing instead to pursue an honorable life by operating a self-defense studio with a samurai's code. Terry and his wife, Sondra, struggle to keep the business running to make ends meet. On a dark, rainy night, an accident at the academy between an off-duty officer and a distraught lawyer puts in motion a series of events that will change Terry's life dramatically and introduce him to a world of promoters and to movie star Chet Frank. Faced with this, in order to pay off his debts and regain his honor, Terry must step into the ring for the first time in his life. (Sony Classics)
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Son of Rambow
May 2, 2008
Son of Rambow is a hilariously fresh and visually inventive take on friendship, family, film heroes, and the death-defying adventures of growing up in the video age. The story takes place in 1980s Britain, where young Will Proudfoot is raised in isolation among The Brethren, a puritanical religious sect in which music and TV are strictly forbidden. When Will encounters his first movie, a pirated copy of Rambo: First Blood, his imagination is blown wide open. Now, Will sets out to join forces with the seemingly diabolical school bully, Lee Carter, to make their own action epic, devising wildly creative, on-the-fly stunts, not to mention equally elaborate schemes for creating a movie of total commitment and nonstop thrills while hiding out from The Brethren. When school popularity finally descends on Will and Lee in the form of, oui, the supercool French exchange student, Didier Revol, their remarkable new friendship and precious film are pushed, quite literally, to the breaking point. (Paramount Classics/Vantage)
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XXY
May 2, 2008
For just about everybody, adolescence means having to confront a number of choices and life decisions, but rarely any as monumental as the one facing 15-year-old Alex, who was born an intersex child. As Alex begins to explore her sexuality, her mother invites friends from Buenos Aires to come for a visit at their house on the gorgeous Uruguayan shore, along with their 16-year-old son, Alvaro (Martin Piroyanski). Alex is immediately attracted to the young man, which adds yet another level of complexity to her personal search for identity and forces both families to face their worst fears. (Film Movement)
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Viva
May 2, 2008
Viva is a cult freak-out retro 1970's spectacle, about a bored housewife who gets sucked into the sexual revolution. Abandoned by her perfect Ken-doll husband, Barbi is dragged into trouble by her girlfriend, who spouts women's lib as she gets Barbi to discard her bra and go out on the town. Barbi becomes a Red Riding Hood in a sea of wolves, and quickly learns a lot more than she wanted to about the different kinds of scenes going on in the wild '70's, including nudist camps, the hippie scene, orgies, bisexuality, sadism, drugs, and bohemia. Viva is a highly stylized film that draws on classic exploitation cinema for its look and characters. Saturated to the hilt with vibrant color, and exquisitely detailed in its depiction of the period, Viva looks like a lost film from the late '60s, even down to the campy and self-assured performances, the big lighting, the plethora of negligées, and the delirious assortment of Salvation Army ashtrays, lamps, fabrics, and bric-a-brac. Whether you're looking for naked people dancing, alcoholic swingers, stylish sex scenes, a sea of polyester, Hammond organ jams, glitzy show numbers, white horses, blondes in the bathtub, gay hairdressers, or psychedelic animation, Viva has it all!
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Deal
April 25, 2008
Set against the world of high stakes poker, DEAL follows the story of Alex Stillman, a cocky, hotshot, card-playing senior at Yale University. Alex dreams of becoming a professional Texas Hold'em poker player but does not yet have the skill to master the table. Fortunately for him, a chance encounter introduces Alex to retired poker legend, Tommy Vinson. Tommy was at the top of his game twenty years ago but gave it all up in order to save his family. Upon meeting Alex, Tommy realizes he can regain his own self-confidence, pride and a poker championship title by turning Alex into his protege. The two pair up and master every tournament they enter. The winning streak and friendship between the two is eventually thwarted by the interference of a Las Vegas call girl, Michelle. The pair eventually part ways and separately prepare for the World Poker Tour. Only one will take home the championship title. (MGM)
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Deception
April 25, 2008
A simple enough question, but how Jonathan McQuarry answers it will change his life forever. A corporate auditor adrift in a sea of New York's power elite, Jonathan's work is his entire life. But a chance meeting with Wyatt Bose, a charismatic corporate lawyer, introduces Jonathan to a decadent playground for Manhattan's executive upper crust. For these power brokers, whose eighteen-hour workdays leave no time for a personal life, there's "The List" - a sex club, of sorts, where the right cell-phone number and four simple words ("Are you free tonight?") can lead to an evening's sexual fulfillment. It's a world of "intimacy without intricacy," as Jonathan's first conquest (or vice versa) explains to him, and through The List Jonathan discovers a side of himself that he didn't know existed. But an affair with a ravishing and mysterious stranger known to Jonathan only by her first initial 'S', will expose him to yet another world he never imagined - one of betrayal, treachery and murder. (20th Century Fox)
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Roman de gare
April 25, 2008
Best-selling author Judith Ralitzer is researching unlikely places to find characters for her next bestseller. As luck would have it, a serial killer with a penchant for magic tricks has just escaped from a high-security prison…providing the perfect source material for an intricately plotted, mood mystery. (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
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Then She Found Me
April 25, 2008
Adapted from Elinor Lipman’s novel of the same name, Helen Hunt makes her feature directing debut with Then She Found Me, a touching story of schoolteacher April Epner and her very unlikely path towards personal fulfillment. Following the separation from her husband and the death of her adopted mother, April is contacted by her apparent birth mother, who turns out to be a local talk show host Bernice Graves. As Bernice tries to become the mother to April that she was never able to be, April seems to find solace in the arms of the parent of one of her students, only to find that the mystery to life's questions cannot be solved by a simple revelation. (THINKFilm)
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Stuff and Dough
April 23, 2008
Ovidiu, a young man who runs his own business selling snacks and soft drinks out of his parents' apartment, wants to expand and buy a kiosk, but he doesn't have the "dough." A local mafioso offers him an impressive amount of money for an apparently simple job: he has to take a bag to Bucharest to a specific address. It seems, however, that the bag contains some "stuff" that concerns other people, too. Convinced at first that he has sold only his services, Ovidiu will understand that he has in fact sold his soul. (Mitropoulos Films)
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88 Minutes
April 18, 2008
In 88 Minutes, Dr. Jack Gramm, a college professor who moonlights as a forensic psychiatrist for the FBI. When Gramm receives a death threat claiming he has only 88 minutes to live, he must use all his skills and training to narrow down the possible suspects, who include a disgruntled student, a jilted former lover, and a serial killer who is already on death row, before his time runs out. (TriStar Pictures)
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Forgetting Sarah Marshall
April 18, 2008
Struggling musician Peter Bretter has spent six years idolizing his girlfriend, television star Sarah Marshall. He's the guy left holding her purse in paparazzi photos and accidentally omitted from award acceptance speeches. But his world is rocked when she dumps him and he finds himself alone. After an unsuccessful bout of womanizing and an on-the-job nervous breakdown, he sees that not having Sarah may just ruin his life. To clear his head, Peter takes an impulsive trip to Oahu, where he is confronted by his worst nightmare: His ex and her tragically hip new British-rocker boyfriend, Aldous, are sharing his hotel. But as he torments himself with the reality of Sarah's new life, he finds relief in a flirtation with Rachel, a beautiful resort employee whose laid-back approach tempts him to rejoin the world. He also finds relief in several hundred embarrassing, fruity cocktails. For anyone who has ever had their heart ripped out and cut into a billion pieces comes a hilarious, heartfelt look at relationships. Part romantic comedy, part disaster film, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the world's first romantic disaster comedy. (Universal Pictures)
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The Life Before Her Eyes
April 18, 2008
The Life Before Her Eyes is an intense and visually evocative drama about the loss of youth, investigating how a single moment in time can define an entire life. Based on Laura Kasischke's visionary novel, the story hinges on a pivotal confrontation: two high school girls held captive by a gunman and forced to make the terrifying choice as to who will live and who will die. The Life Before Her Eyes explores the reverberations stemming from the collision of past and future, reality and dream. Life can end in an instant--yet the echoes of possible futures remain inescapable. Moving backward and forward in time, it combines the dramatic intensity of Sophie's Choice with the eerie mystery of a ghost story like The Others. (Magnolia)
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Smart People
April 11, 2008
Professor Lawrence Wetherhold might be imperiously brilliant, but when it comes to solving the conundrums of love and family, he's as downright flummoxed as the next guy. His teenage daughter is an acid-tongued overachiever who follows all too closely in dad's misery-loving footsteps, and his adopted, preposterously ne'er-do-well brother has perfected the art of freeloading. A widower who can't seem to find passion in anything anymore, not even the Victorian literature in which he's an expert, Lawrence seems to be sleepwalking through a very stunted middle age. When his brother shows up unexpectedly for an extended stay just as he accidentally encounters a former student, Janet, the circumstances stir him from his deep freeze, with often comical, sometimes heartbreaking consequences for himself and everyone around him. [Miramax]
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Remember the Daze
April 11, 2008
On the last day of classes in the teenage wasteland of suburbia in 1999, a diverse group of students copes with its undetermined fate over a 24-hour period. Some are comfortably college bound, while others continue to romanticize their own nonsensical pipe dreams. All the while, they find safety in numbers as they enjoy their last night of adolescence. (Freestyle Releasing)
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Dark Matter
April 11, 2008
Liu Xing is a Chinese science student pursuing a PhD in the US in the early 1990s. Driven by ambition yet unable to navigate academic politics, Liu Xing is inexorably pushed to the margins of American life until he loses his way. Liu Xing arrives at a big Western university with plans to study the origins of the universe. In the beginning, everything is looking up. He finds other Chinese students to share a cheap apartment with him, and flirts with an attractive American girl who works in a local tea shop. When the head of the department, Jacob Reiser, welcomes Liu Xing into his select cosmology group, it seems that only hard work stands between him and a bright future in American science. At an orientation for foreigners sponsored by a local church, Joanna Silver, a wealthy patron of the university, notices the earnest student, and an unspoken bond forms between them. Liu Xing becomes Reiser's protege, accompanying him to a prestigious conference where he makes an impressive debut. He is drawn to the study of dark matter, an unseen substance that shapes the universe, but it soon becomes clear that his developing theories threaten the Reiser model. Excited by the possibility of a breakthrough, Liu Xing is deaf to warnings that he must first pay his dues. Soon he is eclipsed within the department by Laurence, a more dutiful Chinese student, and is forced to go behind Reiser's back to publish his discoveries. When his article draws ire instead of accolades, Liu Xing turns to Joanna, who naively encourages him on his collision course. Liu Xing clings to the idea of American science as a free market of ideas, and of American society as wide open to immigrants. But in the end, his dissertation is rejected, and the girl in the tea shop brushes him off. His roommates find jobs, leaving him behind. Too proud to accept help from Joanna and unwilling to return home to his parents, Liu Xing becomes a ghostlike presence at the university. Left alone with his shattered dreams, he explodes in a final act of violence. (First Independent Pictures)
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Street Kings
April 11, 2008
In Street Kings, a police thriller directed by David Ayer, Keanu Reeves plays Tom Ludlow, a veteran LAPD Vice detective. Ludlow sets out on a quest to discover the killers of his former partner, Detective Terrance Washington. Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker plays Captain Wander, Ludlow's supervisor, whose duties include keeping him within the confines of the law and out of the clutches of Internal Affairs Captain Biggs (Hugh Laurie). Ludlow teams up with a young Robbery-Homicide detective (Chris Evans) to track Washington's killers through the diverse communities of Los Angeles. Their determination pays off when the two detectives track down Washington's murderers and confront them in an attempt to bring them to justice. (Fox Searchlight)
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The Visitor
April 11, 2008
In a world of 6 billion people, it takes only one to change your life. In actor and filmmaker Tom McCarthy's follow-up to his award-winning directorial debut "The Station Agent," we get to know Walter Vale, a disillusioned Connecticut economics professor whose life is transformed by a chance encounter in New York City. Through newfound connections with virtual strangers, Walter is awakened to a new world and a new life. (Overture Films)
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Chaos Theory
April 11, 2008
Frank Allen, celebrated author of the bestseller The Five Minute Efficiency Trainer, has perfected the art of living via a foolproof system of timetables and index cards. In fact, his daily “to do” lists are legendary. A man known for playing it safe, Frank doesn’t believe in spontaneity. Every choice he makes is deliberate––designed to contribute to a well-ordered, predictable life. But life, as he soon learns, never adheres to a strict schedule. Frank is about to discover that not even an efficiency expert armed with timetables and index cards can change the serendipitous nature of family and friendship, love and forgiveness. (Warner Bros.)
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The Take
April 11, 2008
John Leguizamo plays Felix, a loving family man who is thrust into the middle of a dangerous armed robbery when his truck is hijacked.
Framed and left for dead by Adell, Tyrese Gibson's character at the crime scene, Felix miraculously survives the violent attack--only to have his life irrevocably changed.
What is the true price of justice? When FBI Agents Perelli (Bobby Cannavale) and Baxter (Matthew Hatchette) suspect this may be an inside job, Felix must risk losing his family and wife (Rosie Perez) forever, descending into the underbelly of East LA to clear his name, as well as exact revenge. (Destination Films)
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Tuya's Marriage
April 4, 2008
Set in the remote inner Mongolian grassland, Tuya's Marriage is the moving tale of Tuya (Nan Yu,) the iron-willed wife of Bater, a herdsman who has been paralyzed. Tuya takes up the sole responsibility to make a living for her family, but her hard labor endangers her health. Faced with a harsh reality, the couple decides to divorce so that Tuya can seek a better life. Imposing her own conditions--her new husband will have to take care of Bater, their children, and their herding land--the strong-minded, stubborn, but gentle Tuya embarks on an arduous and at times unintentionally comic search for a new husband in this Mongolian design for living. She meets suitors who are rich but disingenuous or likable but shy, and keeps her family together against insurmountable odds. Wrenching and beautiful, Tuya's Marriage is the indelible portrait of a strong woman determined to save her family, herself, and their ancient way of life. (Music Box Films)
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Flight of the Red Balloon
April 4, 2008
A highlight at the 2007 Cannes, Toronto, and New York film festivals, Flight of the Red Balloon is the latest masterpiece from Hou Hsiao Hsien. Inspired by Albert Lamorisse's 1956 Academy Award-winning classic, Flight of the Red Balloon, Hou expands on that film's key elements--a young boy, a red balloon, and Paris--to weave an achingly beautiful tale about the mysteries of familial bonds and the lingering effects the past has on us all. Simon, a precocious young boy, must deal with the increasing fragility of his mother, the loving yet preoccupied Suzanne. Completely immersed in her own tribulations, Suzanne hires Song, a Taiwanese film student, to help care for Simon. Together with Song, a unique extended family is formed, utterly interdependent yet lost in separate thoughts and dreams mirrored by a delicate, shiny red balloon. (IFC First Take)
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Meduzot
April 4, 2008
Poignant, often witty, and exceedingly cinematic, Jellyfish tells the story of three very different Tel Aviv women whose intersecting stories weave an unlikely portrait of modern Israeli life. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren, a bride who breaks her leg escaping a locked toilet stall, ruining her chance at a dream Caribbean honeymoon. And attending the event with an employer is Joy, a non-Hebrew-speaking domestic worker who has guiltily left her son behind in her native Philippines. As this distaff trio separately wend their way through Israel's most cosmopolitan city, they struggle with issues of communication, affection, and destiny--but at times find uneasy refuge in its tranquil seas. (Zeitgeist Films)
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Leatherheads
April 4, 2008
Dodge Connolly is a charming, brash football hero determined to guide his team from bar brawls to packed stadiums. But after his players lose their sponsor and the entire league faces certain collapse, Dodge convinces a college football star to join his ragtag ranks. The captain hopes his latest move will help the struggling sport finally capture the country's attention. Welcome to the team Carter Rutherford, America's favorite son. A golden-boy war hero who single-handedly forced multiple German soldiers to surrender in WWI, Carter has dashing good looks and unparalleled speed on the field. This new champ is almost too good to be true, and Lexie Littleton aims to prove that's the case. A cub journalist playing in the big leagues, Lexie is a spitfire newswoman who suspects there are holes in Carter's war story. But while she digs, the two teammates start to become serious off-field rivals for her fickle affections. As the new game of pro football becomes less like the freewheeling sport he knew and loved, Dodge must fight to keep his guys together and get the girl of his dreams. Finding that love and football have a surprisingly similar playbook, however, he has one maneuver he will save just for the fourth quarter... (Universal)
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Meet Bill
April 4, 2008
Bill's a doormat if ever there was one, a man reduced to being a mere accessory to his family by working a dead-end job at his father-in-law's bank and arguing about his overindulgent love for chocolate with his wife, Jess, who is loathe to explain her "friendship" with the local news anchorman. But Bill's fate begins to change when he becomes a mentor to a self-assured boy who engineers Bill's recovery with the help of a cute lingerie salesgirl named Lucy (Jessica Alba). Together, the trio confronts Bill's hapless life with humor and energy while forcing him to capture his dream of being financially independent and self-confident. Meet Bill is a film about what it means to let go of your inhibitions and find the path you're destined for. (First Look Pictures)
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My Blueberry Nights
April 4, 2008
After a rough breakup, Elizabeth (Norah Jones) sets out on a trip across America, leaving behind a life of memories, a dream, and a soulful new friend, a cafe owner, all to search for something to mend her broken heart. Waitressing her way through the country, Elizabeth befriends others whose yearnings are greater than hers, including a troubled cop, his estranged wife, and a down-on-her luck gambler with a score to settle. Through these individuals, Elizabeth witnesses the true depths of loneliness and emptiness, and begins to understand that her own journey is part of a greater exploration within herself. [The Weinstein Company]
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Sex and Death 101
April 4, 2008
Roderick Blank is a successful executive and ladies' man whose life is turned around by an e-mail that includes the names of everyone he's had and ever will have sex with. (Anchor Bay Entertainment)
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Water Lilies
April 4, 2008
It's summer, and the girls' winning synchronized swimming team is in full swing at the vast municipal swimming pool and social hub in the Paris suburb of Cergy. It's here that Floriane, a shapely blonde with come-hither looks, is a valued performer and star of the social set. Although Marie isn't on the team, is small for her age, and is flat-chested, she becomes Floriane's confidante and cover for the budding siren's assignations, often at the expense of Marie's best friend, Anne. The aching doubts and offhanded cruelty of 15- and 16-year-old girls is on full display in this rich coming-of-age tale. [Koch Lorber Films]
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21
March 28, 2008
Ben Campbell is a shy, brilliant MIT student who, needing to pay school tuition, finds the answers in the cards. He is recruited to join a group of the school's most gifted students that heads to Vegas every weekend armed with fake identities and the know-how to turn the odds at blackjack in their favor. With unorthodox math professor and stats genius Micky Rosa leading the way, they crack the code. By counting cards and employing an intricate system of signals, the team can beat the casinos big-time. Seduced by the money, the Vegas lifestyle, and his smart and sexy teammate, Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), Ben begins to push the limits. Though counting cards isn't illegal, the stakes are high, and the challenge becomes not only keeping the numbers straight, but staying one step ahead of the casinos' menacing enforcer, Cole Williams. (Columbia Pictures)
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Chapter 27
March 28, 2008
On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman shocked the world by murdering the beloved purveyor of peace, 40-year-old musician and activist John Lennon, outside The Dakota, his New York apartment building. Chapman's motives were fabricated from pure delusion, fueled by an obsession with the fictional character Holden Caulfield and his similar misadventures in J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. In one instant, an anonymous, mentally unstable 25-year-old, a socially awkward Beatles fan who had fluctuated between idealizing Lennon and being overcome with a desire to kill him, altered the course of history. Jared Leto, 60 pounds heavier for the role, bears an uncanny physical resemblance to the real Chapman, who remains incarcerated in Attica Correctional Facility on a guilty plea. Aside from a Larry King interview in 1992, he has never spoken with the media. However, Chapman did reveal the mechanics of his unraveling over three fateful days in New York City to crime journalist Jack Jones. Those interviews were published in 1992 as Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, a book of Chapman's recollections of his unthinkable act of violence. From this text, the film Chapter 27 is based. (Peace Arch Entertainment)
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My Brother Is an Only Child
March 28, 2008
Already a smash in its native Italy, My Brother is an Only Child, which was presented at this year's Cannes and Toronto film festivals, reunites director Daniele Luchetti with longtime collaborators Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli, best known as screenwriters of the highly acclaimed The Best of Youth. Set in a small Italian town in the '60s and '70s, the film tells the story of two brothers who want to change the world--but in completely different ways. The elder, Manrico, is a handsome, charismatic firebrand who becomes the prime mover in the local Communist party. Accio, the younger, more rebellious brother, finds his own contrarian voice by joining the reactionary Fascists. What starts as a typical tale of sibling rivalry becomes a story of the polarizing and paralyzing politics of those turbulent times. The rift between the brothers is further intensified when Accio realizes that he loves his brother's girlfriend, Francesca, who like everyone else is blind to Manrico's increasingly dangerous ideas. (THINKFilm)
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Stop-Loss
March 28, 2008
Sgt. Brandon King fought for America. He fought for freedom. He fought for his family. He gave everything, and then he came home to begin his life anew. But now his superiors want more: They want him back. (Paramount Pictures)
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Flawless
March 28, 2008
Flawless is a clever diamond-heist thriller set in swinging 1960s London. Demi Moore plays Laura Quinn, a bright, driven, and beautiful executive at the London Diamond Corporation who finds herself frustrated by a glass ceiling after years of faithful employment, as man after man is promoted ahead of her despite her greater experience. Michael Caine is Hobbs, the nighttime janitor at London Diamond who is virtually invisible to the executives who work there, but over the years has amassed a startling amount of knowledge about how the company runs. Hobbs has his own bone to pick with London Diamond and, observing Laura's frustration, convinces her to help him execute an ingenious plan to steal a hefty sum in diamonds. But unbeknownst to Laura, Hobbs plans go even further than he's let on, and together they set in motion a thrilling heist of dizzying proportions, the likes of which London has never seen. (Magnolia)
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Shotgun Stories
March 26, 2008
Son Hayes never speaks of the scars on his back. The shotgun pellets left under his skin make for a sporadic pattern of blue-black dots. The men he works with take bets on how he got them. His brothers, Boy and Kid Hayes, don't discuss it. His past, just like the scars, is never far behind him. This stands true for the memory of his father, a man who never bothered to give his children proper names. He left the three brothers, Son, Boy, and Kid, when they were young. Their last impressions of him were of a violent drunk who never hesitated to put his own needs ahead of his family's. The brothers were left to be raised by their mother, a hateful woman who to this day blames her children for the life she's been left with and the loss of the man she couldn't keep. Their father, having left the memory of his children as completely as he left their home, managed to move on and put his life back together. He sobered up, became a devout Christian, married a wonderful woman, and fathered four new sons--all of whom received proper names. His life became a model that most would aspire to--a man successful in business, community, and family--with his only true failing being the sons he turned his back on. (Liberation Entertainment)
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Alexandra
March 26, 2008
In a desolate, sun-scorched corner of the world, an elderly woman has come to see her beloved grandson, a young officer stationed at a remote military outpost. With the enemy just beyond the compound, she wanders the barracks, observing the routine of military life, before making a sudden trip to the outlying countryside. (The Cinema Guild)
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Boarding Gate
March 21, 2008
Ex-prostitute Sandra is forced to flee London after a steamy S&M encounter with a debt-ridden ex-lover ends in violence. Fleeing to Hong Kong in search of a fresh start, she becomes involved with an attractive young couple, Lester and Sue, who promise to help her obtain papers and money. But nothing turns out as expected for Sandra, and she finds herself trapped in a sordid game of manipulation. (Magnet Films)
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Love Songs
March 21, 2008
In the hope of sparking their stalled relationship, Ismael and Julie enter a playful yet emotionally laced threesome with Alice. When tragedy strikes, these young Parisians are forced to deal with the fragility of life and love. For Ismael, this means negotiating through the advances of Julie's sister and a young college student, one of whom may offer him redemption. Love Songs is a modern-day musical told through unforgettable songs sung entirely by the cast. (IFC First Take)
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Irina Palm
March 21, 2008
Middle-aged Maggie must find a way to get enough money for her grandson’s lifesaving medical treatment. With all financial resources exhausted, Maggie tries her best to lift the dwindling hopes of her only son Tom and his wife Sarah. When a “Hostess Wanted” sign catches her eye, Maggie naively stumbles into a city sex club. The true job description is quite a surprise for the respectable, middle-class widow, even if she isn’t a prude. But unskilled Maggie accepts this as her fastest way to urgently needed cash and her very last option, having already sold her own home to pay for little Olly’s hospital bills.
Shy Maggie has a rough start at “Sexy World,” more than just a train ride from her conservative suburb. Wisecracking colleague Luisa shows her the ropes and the two women strike a touching friendship. Tough guy owner Miki, a real ladies’ man, reveals a soft spot for dutiful Maggie, and transforms her into the much-in-demand and lucrative “Irina Palm.” Maggie courageously proves to herself that she’s not so old and useless after all. (Strand Releasing)
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Shelter
March 21, 2008
Forced to give up his dreams of art school, Zach spends his days working a dead-end job and helping his needy sister care for her son. In his free time he surfs, draws, and hangs out with his best friend, Gabe, who lives on the wealthy side of town. When Gabe's older brother Shaun returns home, he is drawn to Zach's selflessness and talent. Zach falls in love with Shaun while struggling to reconcile his own desires with the needs of his family. (Regent Releasing)
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Meet the Browns
March 21, 2008
A single mother living in inner-city Chicago, Brenda has been struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street. But when she's laid off with no warning, she starts losing hope for the first time--until a letter arrives announcing the death of a father she's never met. Desperate for any kind of help, Brenda takes her family to Georgia for the funeral. But nothing could have prepared her for the Browns, her father's fun-loving, crass Southern clan. In a small-town world full of long afternoons and country fairs, Brenda struggles to get to know the family she never knew existed...and finds a brand-new romance that just might change her life. (Lionsgate)
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Under the Same Moon (La misma luna)
March 19, 2008
When the death of his grandmother leaves young Carlitos alone, he takes his fate into his own hands and heads north across the border to find his mother. As he journeys from his rural Mexican village to the L.A. barrio, Carlitos faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles with a steely determination and unfettered optimism that earn him the grudging respect and affection of a reluctant protector, a middle-aged migrant worker named Enrique. The unlikely pair finds their way from Tucson to East L.A., but the only clue Carlitos has to his mother's whereabouts is her description of the street corner from which she has called him each Sunday for the last four years. Unaware that Rosario is just hours away from returning to Mexico to be with her son, Carlitos and Enrique desperately comb the vast, unfamiliar city for a place he has seen only in his imagination. (Fox Searchlight)
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Funny Games (2008)
March 14, 2008
Michael Haneke remakes his own 1997 about a vacationing family who gets an unexpected visit from two deeply disturbed young men. Their idyllic holiday turns nightmarish as they are subjected to unimaginable terrors and struggle to stay alive. [Warner Independent Pictures]
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Hacia la oscuridad
March 14, 2008
Towards Darkness deals with 90 minutes in a kidnapped hostage's life, and the frustration his family, a special-ops team, and a man in charge of delivering the ransom money all feel as they rush to save him. (Peace Arch Entertainment)
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Never Back Down
March 14, 2008
Jake Tyler never goes looking for trouble, but it always seems to find him. Since the breakup of his parents' marriage, it's everywhere he turns. Freshly transplanted from a sleepy Iowa town to the heat and flash of new-money Orlando, Florida, Jake seems headed for even more rocky terrain as he is pulled into an underground fighting league--a kind of fight club for teens. With the help of his new group of friends--a fight and life-savvy coach, a free-thinking and adventurous girlfriend, and a scrawny but charming best friend--Jake manages to rise above the chaos around him. But just as he's beginning to feel like he's in control, his world is turned upside down once again by an unrelenting campaign to get him back in the ring. (Summit Entertainment)
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Sleepwalking
March 14, 2008
Forced out of her home after her boyfriend is arrested, Joleen Reedy needs a place to stay with her 11-year-old daughter, Tara. She turns for help to her younger brother, James--a simple and overly trusting man who doesn't hesitate to welcome them into his modest rental apartment. Almost as soon as she moves in, however, Joleen hits the road with another man. Utterly ill-equipped to be the sole guardian of an adolescent girl, James does his best to make his distraught niece happy. But before long, things spin out of control: He loses his job, and Tara is put into foster care. That's when James makes a fateful decision that will bring his life full circle and force him to face his demons. He takes off with Tara, and the two assume new identities as father and daughter. What starts out as a ploy to evade authorities takes on a deeper significance as James strives to become the dad Tara never had and for the first time finds a true purpose in life. But when their road trip takes them to the Utah farm where James grew up, old wounds reopen between James and his father, whose emotionally abusive and sometimes violent ways have changed little since James was a boy. (Overture Films)
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Heartbeat Detector
March 14, 2008
Based on the book “La Question Humaine” by François Emmanuel, Heartbeat Detector unfolds a quietly riveting mystery of blackmail and intrigue, as the long-buried secrets of high-powered corporate executives threaten to bring them down.
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Blind Mountain
March 12, 2008
Bax Xuemei is a young college graduate who yearns for a life as a budding urban capitalist but ends up drugged and sold as the bride of a rural brute. Beaten and raped by her new husband with the help of his parents, she tries desperately to escape but is trapped both by the closed culture and by the very remote location of the village. Unlike other kidnapped brides, she refuses to accept her fate even when she becomes pregnant, but her repeated escape attempts lead only to continuing brutality and betrayal. (Kino International)
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10,000 BC
March 7, 2008
In a remote mountain tribe, the young hunter D'Leh has found his heart's passion: the beautiful Evolet. But when a band of mysterious warlords raid his village and kidnap Evolet, D'Leh leads a small group of hunters to pursue the warlords to the end of the world to save her. As they venture into unknown lands for the first time, the group discovers there are civilizations beyond their own and that humankind's reach is far greater than they ever knew. At each encounter, the group is joined by other tribes who have been attacked by the slave raiders, which turns D'Leh's once-small band into an army. Driven by destiny, the unlikely warriors must battle prehistoric predators while braving the harshest elements. At their heroic journey's end, they uncover a lost civilization and learn their ultimate fate lies in an empire beyond imagination, where great pyramids reach into the skies. Here they will take their stand against a tyrannical god who has brutally enslaved their own. And it is here that D'Leh finally comes to understand that he has been called to save not only Evolet but all of civilization. (Warner Bros.)
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The Bank Job
March 7, 2008
A car dealer with a dodgy past and new family, Terry has always avoided major-league scams. But when Martine, a beautiful model from his old neighborhood, offers him a lead on a foolproof bank hit on London's Baker Street, Terry recognizes the opportunity of a lifetime. Martine targets a roomful of safe-deposit boxes worth millions in cash and jewelry. But Terry and his crew don't realize the boxes also contain a treasure trove of dirty secrets--secrets that will thrust them into a deadly web of corruption and illicit scandal that spans London's criminal underworld, the highest echelons of the British government, and the Royal Family itself. This is the true story of a heist gone wrong in all the right ways.
(Lionsgate)
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College Road Trip
March 7, 2008
Choosing which college to attend can be the most exciting and thrilling time of a young woman's life... unless your overprotective father isn't quite ready to let you go. In the Disney family comedy College Road Trip, Melanie is eagerly looking forward to her first big step toward independence when she plans a "girls only" road trip to check out prospective universities. But when her overbearing police-chief father insists on escorting her instead, she soon finds her dream trip has turned into a hilarious nightmare adventure full of comical misfortune and turmoil. (Walt Disney Pictures)
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Married Life
March 7, 2008
A wry blend of dark humor, romantic deception, and stylish melodrama--with an invigorating dash of suspense--Married Life is an unconventional fable for grown-ups about the irresistible power and utter madness of love. After decades of marital contentment, Harry concludes that he must kill his wife Pat because he loves her too much to let her suffer when he leaves her. Harry has fallen hard for the young and lovely Kay, but his best friend Richard wants to win Kay for himself. As Harry implements his maladroit plans for murdering his wife, the other characters are entangled with their own deceptions. Like Harry, they race toward their passions but trip over their scruples, seemingly well-intended toward all, but truthful to none. Married Life is an uncommonly adult film that surprises and confounds expectations. Although it plays with mystery, comedy, and intrigue, its ultimate concern is: "What is married life?" In its sly way, Married Life poses perceptive questions about the seasonal discontents and unforeseen joys of all long-term relationships. (Sony Pictures Classics)
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Paranoid Park
March 7, 2008
An unsolved murder at Portland's infamous Paranoid Park brings detectives to a local high school, propelling a young skater into a moral odyssey in which he must not only deal with the pain and disconnect of adolescence but also the consequences of his own actions.[IFC First Take]
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Snow Angels
March 7, 2008
A story of love lost and found in a small town, Snow Angels is a heartrending portrayal of three couples in various stages of life orbiting around each other in search of connection and meaning. An unexpected act of violence disrupts the lives of these intertwined couples and reveals the profound moments in which they each realize how precarious and remarkable life can be. High-school student Arthur plays trombone in the marching band, busses tables at the local Chinese restaurant, and avoids his squabbling parents. At work, he flirts with Annie, who used to be his babysitter. Annie is trying to build a new life for herself and her daughter after splitting with high-school sweetheart Glenn. A man with a troubled past, Glenn hopes to make a new start by getting a job and reconnecting with his family. At school, Arthur meets a pretty girl, Lila, who is just as nerdy as he is, and they quickly develop a crush on one another. Though Lila makes her feelings for Arthur painfully obvious, Arthur is reluctant to accept her advances as he watches his father move out of the family home while his mother struggles to keep things together. Determined to find happiness, Arthur begins to fall for the irresistible Lila, even as he witnesses Annie and Glenn tear one another apart in a series of distressing encounters that occur at the same time as his parents begin separate lives. Then, on a cold winter morning, Glenn and Annie's past catches up with their future. In one shocking moment, all of the pain and struggle comes to a screeching halt. For them, and for everyone who knows them, nothing will ever be the same. (Warner Independent Pictures)
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CJ7
March 7, 2008
Ti is a poor father who works all day, every day at a construction site to make sure his son Dicky Chow can attend an elite private school. Despite his father's good intentions to give his son the opportunities he never had, Dicky, with his dirty and tattered clothes and none of the "cool" toys, stands out from his schoolmates like a sore thumb. Ti can't afford to buy Dicky any expensive toys and goes to the best place he knows to get new stuff for Dicky: the junkyard! While out "shopping" for a new toy for his son, Ti finds a mysterious orb and brings it home for Dicky to play with. To his surprise and disbelief, the orb reveals itself to Dicky as a bizarre "pet" with extraordinary powers. Armed with his "CJ7," Dicky seizes this chance to overcome his poor background and shabby clothes and impress his fellow schoolmates for the first time in his life. But CJ7 has other ideas, and when Dicky brings it to class, chaos ensues. [Sony Pictures]
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Vivere
February 29, 2008
On Christmas Eve, Francesca's little sister, Antonietta, runs away to Rotterdam with her musician boyfriend. On the way to find her, Francesca picks up Gerlinde, a suicidal lovesick woman. Now she has two lives to save. With the paths of three lost souls criss-crossing in Rotterdam, it soon is hard to tell who is saving whom. (Regent Releasing)
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Jar City
February 29, 2008
While a desperate, young father tries to find out what led to the death of his five-year-old girl, Inspector Erlendur investigates the murder of an elderly loner in a run-down basement flat. The inspector and his crew don't have much to go by in the investigation, but a photograph of a young girl's grave gives them a lead. They discover that many years ago, the victim was accused, though not convicted, of horrible crimes. Did the old man's past come back to haunt him? As Erlendur reopens this very cold case, he follows a trail of unusual forensic evidence, uncovering secrets that are much larger than the murder of one old man--with clues knit into the genetic bloodline of an entire country. (Blueeyes Productions)
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Bonneville
February 29, 2008
Three friends "come of age" for a second time on a trip across the great American West. Faced with the decision of a lifetime, Arvilla Holden loads up her 1966 Bonneville convertible and, with her friends in tow, sets out from Pocatello, Idaho, en route to Santa Barbara, California. As they make detours to such spots as Bryce Canyon and Las Vegas, it doesn't take long for the women to realize Arvilla has something unexpected in store. But no one realizes that what began as a simple trip will end up becoming a chance to rediscover themselves, their friendships, the importance of promises--and of letting go. (SenArt Films)
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Coming Soon
-
Girls Lost
- Runtime: 106 min
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Maktub
- Runtime: 100 min
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Based on a True Story
- Runtime: 110 min
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