| Idlewild A musical act (Outkast) makes a musical starring themselves, and it doesn't end up falling on its face. Bravo. |
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| Beerfest | |
| Miami Vice The updated adaptation of the television show by director Brian DePalma. |
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| Pirates of the Carribean 2 An obscure arthouse flick with Johnny Depp. Actual zombie pirates cast for the film for authenticity. |
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| The OH in Ohio Parker Posey and Paul Rudd carry this movie as a married couple who find out one side of the equation has never had the big "O". The ensuing coping, and dissolution of the marriage makes for great laughs, particularly in Rudd's comedic timing, an opinion on the ending I'll leave up to you, but Danny Devito? |
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| The Beales of Grey Gardens (Criterion) The 1976 cinema vérité classic Grey Gardens, which captured in remarkable close-up the lives of the eccentric East Hampton recluses Big and Little Edie Beale, has spawned everything from a midnight-movie cult following to a Broadway musical, to an upcoming Hollywood adaptation. The filmmakers then went back to their vaults of footage to create part two, The Beales of Grey Gardens, a tribute both to these indomitable women and to the original landmark documentary’s legions of fans, who have made them American counterculture icons. |
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| SymbioPsycho: Taxiplasm Take One (Criterion) In his one-of-a-kind fiction/documentary hybrid Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One, director William Greaves presides over a beleaguered film crew in New York's Central Park, leaving them to try to figure out what kind of movie they're making. A couple enacts a break-up scenario over and over, a documentary crew films a crew filming the crew, locals wander casually into the frame: the project defies easy description. Yet this wildly innovative sixties counterculture landmark remains one of the most tightly focused and insightful movies ever made about making movies. Criterion presents this long-unreleased gem in a special two-disc edition, along with its sequel, Take 2 1/2, made thirty-five years later with executive producers Steven Soderbergh and Steve Buscemi. |
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| Look Both Ways A tender portrait of urban life in Australia, with some subtle observations about our attitudes to race, gender, work and family, all delivered with a deep affection for the struggles of its far-from-perfect characters. |
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| The Conformist (Bertolucci) Directed by Bertolucci in 1970, The Conformist looks back at Italy's fascist past to weave an epic modern tale in which political and psychosexual dysfunction are shown to be inextricably linked. Based on the novel of the same name by Alberto Moravia, the film uses a non-linear narrative to follow the story of Marcello Clerici, an Italian from an upper class family whose childhood brush with homo-sexuality creates a pathological cycle of shame which can only be eradicated by an overzealous conformity to society's political mandates. When Mussolini rises to power, Clerici seizes the opportunity to prove his loyalty to the Fascist regime by volunteering to set up the assassination of an anti-fascist leader and ex-patriot now located in Paris. The story takes a turn when we realize the target of the mission is Professor Quadri, Clerici's mentor and father figure from his days as a university student. |
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| 1900 (Bertolucci/Deniro) 5.5 hours long, plan accordingly. Bernardo Bertolucci's massive epic, a history of Italy from 1900 to 1945 as reflected through the friendship of two men across class lines, is one of the most fascinating, if little seen, of his films. After beginning with Robert DeNiro as wealthy landowner Alfredo, and Gerard Depardieu as labor leader Olmo, the film returns to 1900 with the death of composer Giuseppi Verdi and the birth of the two friends. The opposing class interests of their grandfathers, padrone Burt Lancaster, and laborer Sterling Hayden, is quickly established in the enmity between the characters. As they grow, the boys become friends, mystified by the tensions that separate their families. But as time passes and Alfredo assumes the role of padrone, while Olmo works the land, their relationship becomes strained. With the rise of fascism, the director spells out its complicity with business interests, as the diffident Alfredo falls under the spell of a vicious and degraded fascist farm manager played by Donald Sutherland. |
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| New Year's Day (Henry Jaglom) At a critical mid-life moment. Drew (Henry Jaglom) leaves L.A. and flies to Manhattan in hopes of starting his life anew. He has sublet an apartment beginning January 1, but finds that it is still occupied by three young women who insist that their lease runs through the first. The next 24 hours will have a lifetime's impact on Drew and the women: Annie (Gwen Welles), Winona (Melanie Winters) and most especially Lucy (Maggie Jakobson), as the film explores modern life and love. Watch for David Duchovny in an early role. |
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| Saturday Night Live: Season 1 With relevant satire that's just as funny today as it was in 1975, the first season of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE still triggers giggles from people even if they weren't even born when Gerald Ford was in office. The famous 'Not Ready for Primetime Players' made their debut in this revolutionary sketch comedy show created by Lorne Michaels. Chevy Chase is hilarious as the first anchor of Weekend Update, and John Belushi shines as both Don Corleone and a samurai working at a deli. Whether playing a young girl or confused commentator Emily Latella, Gilda Radner is pitch perfect. Jane Curtin, Dan Aykroyd, and Laraine Newman round out this spectacular cast that has never been equaled in more than three decades of the show. This season began the show's tradition of getting top guest hosts including Richard Pryor, Buck Henry, and Candice Bergen. Musical guests include classic artists such as Simon and Garfunkel, ABBA, and Carly Simon. Each episode is in its original 90-minute format. |
| Talladega Nights, Ballad of Ricky Bobby |
| The Devil wears Prada |
| World Trade Center (Oliver Stone) |
| 4 This Russian film from director Ilya Khrjanovsky centers on three characters who meet in a bar and muse on a vast array of conversational topics as they drink the night away. |
| The House of Sand The landscape looks like the surface of the moon. Set in Brazil's Maranhão desert, House of Sand follows three generations of women, from 1910 to 1969, as they eke out a living from this hostile environment. Oafish Vasco (director Ruy Guerra) brings pregnant wife Áurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother, Dona Maria (Fernanda Montenegro, Central Station), from the city to make a new start. Shortly after they arrive, fate takes him out of the picture. Mother and daughter muddle through with the help of slave descendents. Wary at first, Massu (Seu Jorge, City of God) takes a particular shine to the duo. The story then skips ahead to 1919, when an escape route materializes. There will be two more shifts in time. By 1942, Áurea's daughter, Maria (Torres), has grown into impetuous womanhood, while Áurea (Montenegro) and Massu (Luiz Melodia) have settled into middle age. In the final section, set during the year of the first lunar landing, Áurea (Montenegro) is around the same age as her mother at the start of the film. With the exception of Camilla Facundes as nine-year-old Maria, Torres and her real-life mother assume every female role. What does it all mean? Andrucha Waddington (Me You Them) doesn't burden his enigmatic epic with a singular message, but those who appreciate dust-swept dramas like Woman in the Dunes and Walkabout aren't likely to hold it against him. The point seems to be that the human--especially the female--capacity for survival knows no bounds. |
| Running on Karma (Johnny To) |
| Masters of Horror - Fair-Haired Child (William Malone) Deep within the desperate hearts of the bereaved, there is a pact with the forces of darkness that demands new blood to resurrect the souls of the dead. Lori Petty ( A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN and TANK GIRL) stars as a grieving mother with a remote estate, a ghastly secret, and a locked basement where abducted teen outcasts await an evil that feasts upon their virgin flesh. But to satisfy a parent’s depraved bargain, the beast must feed one final time. And tonight, the ultimate horror will begin for those who do not heed the hunger of THE FAIR HAIRED CHILD. |
| James Bond Collection V. 3 and 4 You
only Live Twice - For your Eyes Only - GoldenEye - Live and let Die -
On Her Majesty's Secret Service - From Russia With Love
Octopussy - Tomorrow Never Dies - Moonraker - Dr.NO |
Factotum The Bukowski novel adapted for the big screen with Matt Dillon as Chinaski, and Lili Taylor. A much different performance than Mickey Rourke's over the top Chinaski of Barfly. Follows Chinaski through the ups and downs of constant revolving phases of employment. |
| Haven |
| The Descent From the director of Equilibrium and Dog Soldiers comes the best horror flick in years. Even Roger Ebert loved it, and he won't give a thumbs up to any old horror movie the way they are churned out these days. Not to be mistaken for the mainstream hollywood horror fluff, this was produced in England on its own and made to give you nightmares. |
| Jackass 2 |
| The Last Kiss Zach Braff leaves the Garden State for a slightly more mature tale about getting married, and love over the years across generations. |
| Black Dahlia (De Palma) |