In my first blog, A as in Anticipation, I was guessing that one of the new movies of interest for us might be Blessed Is the Match: the Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, a documentary about the World War II-era poet and diarist who became a paratrooper, resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of Arc. Lo and behold, it's being screened this Sunday, February 1st, at the Shaar Hashomayim, 425 Metcalfe, at 3:45 pm. No indication as to whether it's in movie form or dvd. Thanks Stanley, for the tip!
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Latest - January 30 Update
Registrees:
First of all, thanks for signing up. Over 50 are now registered, short of my target for 100, but supercalifragilistically amazing, given only one week on line. Here's the plan: even though I'm well short of 100, I assume that we'll get there. And so am assuming our first date will be February 22nd. I have several updates since we first went online last Friday.
- If u want to forward the evite to friends, neighbors etc, just click it open, click on Forward and it will become your email.
- Here's how the mechanics of my-pov.ca will work: on Feb. 22nd, you will come to the AMC with a cheque. Time TBA. Movie TBA. We will have an envelope for you with ten AMC movie vouchers + a membership card.
- U will remit the voucher at the AMC box office. Portable vouchers, instead of tickets, mean that will never be out-of-pocket, should you miss one week.
- One of the attractions of my-pov.ca is that we don't all have to screen the same movie at the same time. You're not be locked into screenings with the my-pov.ca group. You can come to the Sunday movies, but go to a completely different AMC movie. We just all reconvene for debriefing after our respective movies in the Comedy Nest. More on all that later.
- Or you can attend our designated movie-of-our-week well before, or even after (or not at all). And still attend the Comedy Nest debriefing. With your vouchers, you can also invite friends. I'm also devising ways that you can buy supplemental vouchers. More on that, later,
- Public response has been very positive. (See attached Westmount Examiner article.) http://www.westmountexaminer.com/article-297388-Weekly-movie-club-starts-up-at-AMC.html/ (this button seems unresponsive & whimsical...)
- I have been invited to speak to the Rotary Club about my-pov.ca on February 11th. I'll post my text here, when I have it. U will probably see other press as well.
- I don't know about you, but for me this website/blog is shimmeringly brand new technologically intimidating stuff. So what? After a week, I've come to think of my-pov.ca as a new castle, freshly painted, never occupied. For a week now, I've been fooling round, opening (and closing) doors, unlocking rooms. I'm not going to wreck any chandeliers. And now that you're pov members, please feel free to enjoy the same privileges. You will break nothing. You will destroy nothing. So add comments to my blogs, open your own line of comment in REEL TALK.
- • At some point, I will find a world class expert, who will provide specific online instruction for all of us on how to navigate the site, but in the meantime, you have the run-of-the-site privileges. Check out the trailers.
- A question: more than a few (townshippers, church goers, Laurentidians) have said they would join, were it not for the Sunday time. So I'm canvassing opinion on a proposed 2nd screening, Monday evening. This would be as well, not instead of the Sunday brunch event. Would there be enough interest for two separate sessions? I will be floating the idea in a general mailing. If I get enough interest for the Monday screenings, subscribers could use their vouchers for either event.
- That's it for now. Thanx for your encouragement and help in getting out the word. We're getting there.
peter
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Oscars - 2009
Here are my three best movie pick guesses for the 2009 Oscars: Best Foreign: Waltz with Bashir; Best Animated: Wall-E; Best Movie: Slumdog Millionaire. All fine movies, to be sure, but together they present as bleak a panorama of humanity’s failings as I can ever remember: greed, squalor, mindlessness, fatuity, slaughter. Collectively, they conjure up Bushie II and his meretricious, greed-motivated, hallucinatory, soulless eight years: Gitmo, Bernie Madoff, waterboarding, New Orleans, (Anyone notice that, at the Inauguration, Vice-President Cheney, in his wheelchair, looked strikingly like Dr. Strangelove?) Even though Bushie’s been gone less than a week, he already feels ancient history.
Here’s my point: Wall-E presents a portrait of a planet, devoid of life, suffocating in its own garbage; Slumdog Millionaire’s hero lives forever in Mumbai squalor. Waltz with Bashir’s Israeli soldiers have blocked out all memory of their role in Phalangiste massacre of Palestinians, in an infested Lebanese refugee camp.
In seeking out a movie to start the movie club, I had tentatively penciled in Feb. 22nd, Oscar night, for our first day, thinking we might dissect one of Oscar’s possible winners. Yet Hollywood movies this year conjure up - for me - dismal sniveling Detroit, unable to turn out a competent Chevrolet, and yet – hat in hand - groveling for compassion and understanding. No Hollywood oeuvre made my own top ten list for best movies of 2008. Even Oscar’s also-rans are unlikable exposés of such triviality: The Reader (you’re asking me to shed a tear for an implacable Auschwitz guard who seduces a teen?); Frost/Nixon (You mean Tricky Dick was lying to us???); Doubt (A Bing Crosby priest may have been diddling one little boy? Surely not!) Milk (Bigots killed a gay activist? Is that what you’re saying?) Dark Knight (Great! Another comic book vigilante, making the world safe for all of us.)
So I anticipate Feb.22nd and Oscars 2009 with the same fervour I would the Detroit Chamber of Commerce awarding craft statuettes: Best tail fin; Best turn-signal indicator; Most humungous gas-guzzler.
And yet, away from Hollywood, thoughtful, talented moviemakers gave us a 2008 cornucopia of movies treats: remember those two wonderful tales of lives thrown into disarray when illegal immigrants were deported: (Edge of Heaven and The Visitor); and two felicitous wedding movies (the Danish After the Wedding and Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married); the compassionate Latimeresque story (Il y a Longtemps que je t’aime), the shimmering Mike Leigh-Sally Hawkins offering (Happy-Go-Lucky). These movies were wondrous, albeit not honoured at the Oscars. Tant pis for the Oscars. I could (and will some time in the future) go on.
So we are seeing more and better movies than ever before (check my posted blog, A as in Anticipated below, for upcoming 2009 movies). President Obama talks forever of a shimmering technological future. And, when it comes to movies and their future, I believe him. We now see movies, thanks to a bountiful Montreal video chain, Boîte Noire; we get them delivered to our door through the mail, thanks to a website delivery service, zip.ca, or for the technically adroit, we download them directly off the Internet through bit torrents.
Take heart, Cinephiles. Great movies are out there in abundance. They may not be celebrated with golden statuettes, but we’ll find them, screen them, admire and discuss them.
peter
Here’s my point: Wall-E presents a portrait of a planet, devoid of life, suffocating in its own garbage; Slumdog Millionaire’s hero lives forever in Mumbai squalor. Waltz with Bashir’s Israeli soldiers have blocked out all memory of their role in Phalangiste massacre of Palestinians, in an infested Lebanese refugee camp.
In seeking out a movie to start the movie club, I had tentatively penciled in Feb. 22nd, Oscar night, for our first day, thinking we might dissect one of Oscar’s possible winners. Yet Hollywood movies this year conjure up - for me - dismal sniveling Detroit, unable to turn out a competent Chevrolet, and yet – hat in hand - groveling for compassion and understanding. No Hollywood oeuvre made my own top ten list for best movies of 2008. Even Oscar’s also-rans are unlikable exposés of such triviality: The Reader (you’re asking me to shed a tear for an implacable Auschwitz guard who seduces a teen?); Frost/Nixon (You mean Tricky Dick was lying to us???); Doubt (A Bing Crosby priest may have been diddling one little boy? Surely not!) Milk (Bigots killed a gay activist? Is that what you’re saying?) Dark Knight (Great! Another comic book vigilante, making the world safe for all of us.)
So I anticipate Feb.22nd and Oscars 2009 with the same fervour I would the Detroit Chamber of Commerce awarding craft statuettes: Best tail fin; Best turn-signal indicator; Most humungous gas-guzzler.
And yet, away from Hollywood, thoughtful, talented moviemakers gave us a 2008 cornucopia of movies treats: remember those two wonderful tales of lives thrown into disarray when illegal immigrants were deported: (Edge of Heaven and The Visitor); and two felicitous wedding movies (the Danish After the Wedding and Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married); the compassionate Latimeresque story (Il y a Longtemps que je t’aime), the shimmering Mike Leigh-Sally Hawkins offering (Happy-Go-Lucky). These movies were wondrous, albeit not honoured at the Oscars. Tant pis for the Oscars. I could (and will some time in the future) go on.
So we are seeing more and better movies than ever before (check my posted blog, A as in Anticipated below, for upcoming 2009 movies). President Obama talks forever of a shimmering technological future. And, when it comes to movies and their future, I believe him. We now see movies, thanks to a bountiful Montreal video chain, Boîte Noire; we get them delivered to our door through the mail, thanks to a website delivery service, zip.ca, or for the technically adroit, we download them directly off the Internet through bit torrents.
Take heart, Cinephiles. Great movies are out there in abundance. They may not be celebrated with golden statuettes, but we’ll find them, screen them, admire and discuss them.
peter
Saturday, January 17, 2009
A as in Anticipated
IMDB.com lists 3,496 upcoming films for 2009 so I’m sure we’ll find nine my-pov.ca goodies up to our standards. Here, alphabetically, is a feckless sampling. Some of the below have trailers, available for viewing on Youtube, film.com or IMDB.
Blessed Is the Match: the Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
A documentary about Hannah Senesh, the World War II-era poet and diarist who became a paratrooper, resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of Arc. Safe in Palestine in 1944, Hannah joined a mission to rescue Jews in her native Hungary, parachuted behind enemy lines, was captured, tortured and ultimately executed. Incredibly, her mother Catherine witnessed the entire ordeal - first as a prisoner with Hannah and later as her advocate, braving the bombed-out streets of Budapest in a desperate attempt to save her daughter. Blessed Is the Match recreates Hannah's mission and imprisonment.
Big Man Japan
A film crew follows Masaru Dai Saito (Hitoshi Matsumoto) as he waits to be called into action by Japan's Department of Monster Defense. Mild mannered Dai Saito is actually Dai Nipponjin ("Big Man Japan") the sixth in a line of giant villain vanquishers employed by the government to fend off monster attacks. When the time comes, he locates the nearest power plant for a healthy jolt of electricity that transforms him into a humongous taiko drumstick wielding hero, with serious Eraserhead/Don King hair. As a satire, Big Man Japan revels in absurdity - a cult classic waiting to happen.
Bruno
Another Sacha Baron Cohen alter ego, the swishy Bruno claims to be from Austrian television, interviewing unsuspecting fashionistas about clothing, entertainment, celebrities and homosexuality. Baron Cohen provoked headlines while filming.
Cherry Blossoms
A tender tale of cultural crossings and a double portrait of grief. A long-married provincial German couple, each must confront the other’s death, one in prospect, the other in fact. The conceit that makes this reciprocity possible — one of those symptom-free incurable diseases that so frequently befall movie characters — may be hard to swallow, but once you accept it you can be charmed and touched by the way it plays out.
Che
Nearly four and a half hours long, spanning a decade, reconstructing a pair of brutal insurgencies, Che deserves the misapplied name of epic. Steven Soderbergh’s new film, a two-part portrait of the Argentine doctor-turned-international revolutionary Ernesto Guevara plants itself squarely in an old tradition of martial poetry: it sings of arms and the man. But in chronicling the deeds of their hero, Soderbergh and screenwriter, Peter Buchman, restrict themselves to a narrow register of themes and effects.
Children of Invention
Dir. Tze Chun’s film tells of a Chinese-American family living illegally in suburban Boston. Presenting parallel stories of a young boy who seeks to end his family’s hardships by selling his inventions and his mother, who struggles to find work and ultimately gets caught up in a nast pyramid scheme that puts her family at risk. Sometimes the most delightful surprises come from Sundance.
Faded Memories
Director- Writer Anne-Sophie Dutoit’s story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra, who has a rare phobia: fear of physical contact with others - a condition that has haunted her all her life. She and her aunt, Maggie May drift from town to town in a beat-up trailer, while Maggie May looks for the next man in her life and her next bottle of booze. A former detective uncovers evidence which sets off a chain of events. Cassandra is sent to a mental health facility.
La Fille de Monaco
Bertrand, a brilliant lawyer, highly cultured and very media-savvy, loves women -- but only for conversational reasons. In Monaco to defend a septuagenarian accused of murder, he encounters Audrey, a weather-girl for a cable TV channel, who had no intention of spending the rest of her career on the Riviera. It would have been far better if these three had never met...
New York, I Love You
Following the successful Paris, je t'aime that opened the 2006 Cannes Film Festival New York, I Love You has 12 filmmakers: the Coen brothers, Alexander Payne, Gus Van Sant, Alfonso Cuaron, Wes Craven et alia and movie stars among which Elijah Wood, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Natalie Portman, Nick Nolte, Gena Rowlands, Gérard Depardieu will each a direct short film (5 minutes) of encountering love within New York City.
Nine
Rob Marshall (Chicago) directs the musical, Nine, inspired by Fellini’s 8½, focusing on Guido (Daniel Day-Lewis) a film director stuck in neutral as he tries to make a film while haunted by the demands of all the women in his life: wife, mistress and even his deceased mother. Cast includes Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Daniel Day-Lewis.
Nothing But the Truth
Newspaper reporter, Rachel Armstrong outs a CIA agent, is imprisoned for refusing to reveal her source. Her husband initially supports his wife's decision not to name names but as time goes by, resent her choosing principle over family.
Director: Rod Lurie Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Vera Farmiga, Matt Dillon, David Schwimmer, Angela Bassett, Edie Falco.
Of Time and the City
Both a love song and a eulogy to Liverpool, it is also a response to memory, reflection and the experience of losing a sense of place as the skyline changes and time takes it's toll. British film-maker Terence Davies gained a rapturous reception at Cannes film festival with a documentary about the magic of football results, northern humour and how the home city he remembers is disappearing.
Paris 36
Three out-of-work dance hall stagehands put on their own show at their newly defunct place of employment, the Chansonia dance hall, in 1936. Nora Arnezeder is like a movie star of the thirties: beautiful, charming, she can sing, dance, act... Star quality ! You laugh, cry, you care about that Pigoil who loses his job, his wife and even his son. You'll love the homage to Busby Berkeley, Jacky's lousy jokes and secondary characters played by first-rate comedians like François Morel and the great Pierre Richard. What's not to like ?
Sin Nombre
Cary Joji Fukunaga’s feature debut is so accomplished, its visual style so crisp, and its heightened naturalism and performances so textured. Sin Nombre is set on the border, where Mexico becomes the crucible and the fearsome gangs of today’s Mexican countryside, the gauntlet, to freedom. Sayra, a teenager living in Honduras and hungering for a brighter future, becomes interlaced on the train to the border, a journey that will determine the future of their lives. Sin Nombre is a portrait of hope and desperation and announces the launching of a shining new filmmaking career.
Sugar
Miguel Santos, a Dominican pitcher from San Pedro de Macoris, struggles to pull himself and his family out of poverty. At age 19, Miguel travels to a small town in Iowa, corn country, where he is the only Spanish-speaking person. Despite the welcoming efforts of his host, he is faced with an isolation he never before experienced. When his play on the mound falters, he begins examining more closely his place and questions the single-mindedness of his life's ambition.
The Class (Entre Les Murs)
Francois is a tough but fair teacher working in one of France's toughest schools, and his honest demeanor in the classroom has made him a great success with the students. But this year things are different, because when the students begin to challenge his methods Francois will find his classroom ethics put to the ultimate test. — A. O. Scott, The New York Times
The Informers
Who isn’t trying to find every new project of Mickey Rourke since his “resurgence” over the past few months? Informers is a gritty exposé of movie executives, rock stars and other Hollywood lowlifes in the early 1980s, where too much was never enough. Kim Bassinger, Billy Bob Thornton, Winona Ryder Based on cast, writer and director, The Informers might just be the one movie not to be missed.
The Informant
Directed by Stephen Soderbergh. What was Mark Whitacre thinking? A rising star at agri-industry giant, Archer Daniels Midland, Whitacre exposes his company's multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI. He envisions himself a hero of the common man. But before that can happen, the FBI needs evidence, so Whitacre wears a wire, carries a hidden tape recorder. Unfortunately, the FBI lead witness hasn't been quite so forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers. Whitacre's ever-changing account threatens the case against ADM as it becomes almost impossible to decipher what is real and what is the product of Whitacre's rambling imagination. Based on the true story of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history.
The Soloist
Life has a mind of its own. A drama about the redemptive power of music. Journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a former prodigy, playing his cello on the streets of L.A. As Lopez endeavors to help the homeless man find his way back, a friendship transforms both their lives. "The Soloist" is directed by Joe Wright (Atonement).
This Side of Truth
With the hilarious Ricky Gervais as writer-director, a cast of Jason Bateman, Tina Fey and Rob Lowe, imagine a world without lies. A world where the very thought of telling a lie has never even occurred to anyone. A world where movies are simply footage of “actors” reading historical non-fiction to the camera. Now Gervais decides to make up a story… to lie… and the potential hilarity follows as he exploits his newfound celebrity as the best actor in the world.
Up
A Red Balloon, for seniors. Is there any character Pixar can’t make lovable? Carl Fredricksen, a septuagenarian (voiced by Edward Asner) ties thousands of balloons to his house in order to to see the jungles of South America. After liftoff, he discovers a stowaway: an eager explorer 70 years his junior. Ed Asner did voice. It’s a win-win for everybody. And Pixar made it. Yup, that's all I need.
Where God Left His Shoes
When Frank, Angela, and their two children are evicted from their New York City apartment, they move into a homeless shelter. Good news comes their way on Christmas Eve: a nearby housing project has an apartment available immediately--however, Frank needs a job on the books in order to qualify. While the rest of the city prepares for Christmas, Frank and his ten-year-old stepson, Justin, roam the cold streets of New York trying to find a job by day's end.
12
A Russian Rashômon story, directed by Nikita Mikhalkov. 12 characters – 12 truths. 12 Jurors discuss a verdict to pass on an 18 year-old Chechen boy whether he is guilty of the 1st degree murder of his step-father – an officer of the Russian army. The film is thinks aloud about today’s life, about the need to hear the next of kin and help that person before its too late. The action of the picture unveils in one room - a gym adjusted for jury deliberations.
Blessed Is the Match: the Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
A documentary about Hannah Senesh, the World War II-era poet and diarist who became a paratrooper, resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of Arc. Safe in Palestine in 1944, Hannah joined a mission to rescue Jews in her native Hungary, parachuted behind enemy lines, was captured, tortured and ultimately executed. Incredibly, her mother Catherine witnessed the entire ordeal - first as a prisoner with Hannah and later as her advocate, braving the bombed-out streets of Budapest in a desperate attempt to save her daughter. Blessed Is the Match recreates Hannah's mission and imprisonment.
Big Man Japan
A film crew follows Masaru Dai Saito (Hitoshi Matsumoto) as he waits to be called into action by Japan's Department of Monster Defense. Mild mannered Dai Saito is actually Dai Nipponjin ("Big Man Japan") the sixth in a line of giant villain vanquishers employed by the government to fend off monster attacks. When the time comes, he locates the nearest power plant for a healthy jolt of electricity that transforms him into a humongous taiko drumstick wielding hero, with serious Eraserhead/Don King hair. As a satire, Big Man Japan revels in absurdity - a cult classic waiting to happen.
Bruno
Another Sacha Baron Cohen alter ego, the swishy Bruno claims to be from Austrian television, interviewing unsuspecting fashionistas about clothing, entertainment, celebrities and homosexuality. Baron Cohen provoked headlines while filming.
Cherry Blossoms
A tender tale of cultural crossings and a double portrait of grief. A long-married provincial German couple, each must confront the other’s death, one in prospect, the other in fact. The conceit that makes this reciprocity possible — one of those symptom-free incurable diseases that so frequently befall movie characters — may be hard to swallow, but once you accept it you can be charmed and touched by the way it plays out.
Che
Nearly four and a half hours long, spanning a decade, reconstructing a pair of brutal insurgencies, Che deserves the misapplied name of epic. Steven Soderbergh’s new film, a two-part portrait of the Argentine doctor-turned-international revolutionary Ernesto Guevara plants itself squarely in an old tradition of martial poetry: it sings of arms and the man. But in chronicling the deeds of their hero, Soderbergh and screenwriter, Peter Buchman, restrict themselves to a narrow register of themes and effects.
Children of Invention
Dir. Tze Chun’s film tells of a Chinese-American family living illegally in suburban Boston. Presenting parallel stories of a young boy who seeks to end his family’s hardships by selling his inventions and his mother, who struggles to find work and ultimately gets caught up in a nast pyramid scheme that puts her family at risk. Sometimes the most delightful surprises come from Sundance.
Faded Memories
Director- Writer Anne-Sophie Dutoit’s story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra, who has a rare phobia: fear of physical contact with others - a condition that has haunted her all her life. She and her aunt, Maggie May drift from town to town in a beat-up trailer, while Maggie May looks for the next man in her life and her next bottle of booze. A former detective uncovers evidence which sets off a chain of events. Cassandra is sent to a mental health facility.
La Fille de Monaco
Bertrand, a brilliant lawyer, highly cultured and very media-savvy, loves women -- but only for conversational reasons. In Monaco to defend a septuagenarian accused of murder, he encounters Audrey, a weather-girl for a cable TV channel, who had no intention of spending the rest of her career on the Riviera. It would have been far better if these three had never met...
New York, I Love You
Following the successful Paris, je t'aime that opened the 2006 Cannes Film Festival New York, I Love You has 12 filmmakers: the Coen brothers, Alexander Payne, Gus Van Sant, Alfonso Cuaron, Wes Craven et alia and movie stars among which Elijah Wood, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Natalie Portman, Nick Nolte, Gena Rowlands, Gérard Depardieu will each a direct short film (5 minutes) of encountering love within New York City.
Nine
Rob Marshall (Chicago) directs the musical, Nine, inspired by Fellini’s 8½, focusing on Guido (Daniel Day-Lewis) a film director stuck in neutral as he tries to make a film while haunted by the demands of all the women in his life: wife, mistress and even his deceased mother. Cast includes Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Daniel Day-Lewis.
Nothing But the Truth
Newspaper reporter, Rachel Armstrong outs a CIA agent, is imprisoned for refusing to reveal her source. Her husband initially supports his wife's decision not to name names but as time goes by, resent her choosing principle over family.
Director: Rod Lurie Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Vera Farmiga, Matt Dillon, David Schwimmer, Angela Bassett, Edie Falco.
Of Time and the City
Both a love song and a eulogy to Liverpool, it is also a response to memory, reflection and the experience of losing a sense of place as the skyline changes and time takes it's toll. British film-maker Terence Davies gained a rapturous reception at Cannes film festival with a documentary about the magic of football results, northern humour and how the home city he remembers is disappearing.
Paris 36
Three out-of-work dance hall stagehands put on their own show at their newly defunct place of employment, the Chansonia dance hall, in 1936. Nora Arnezeder is like a movie star of the thirties: beautiful, charming, she can sing, dance, act... Star quality ! You laugh, cry, you care about that Pigoil who loses his job, his wife and even his son. You'll love the homage to Busby Berkeley, Jacky's lousy jokes and secondary characters played by first-rate comedians like François Morel and the great Pierre Richard. What's not to like ?
Sin Nombre
Cary Joji Fukunaga’s feature debut is so accomplished, its visual style so crisp, and its heightened naturalism and performances so textured. Sin Nombre is set on the border, where Mexico becomes the crucible and the fearsome gangs of today’s Mexican countryside, the gauntlet, to freedom. Sayra, a teenager living in Honduras and hungering for a brighter future, becomes interlaced on the train to the border, a journey that will determine the future of their lives. Sin Nombre is a portrait of hope and desperation and announces the launching of a shining new filmmaking career.
Sugar
Miguel Santos, a Dominican pitcher from San Pedro de Macoris, struggles to pull himself and his family out of poverty. At age 19, Miguel travels to a small town in Iowa, corn country, where he is the only Spanish-speaking person. Despite the welcoming efforts of his host, he is faced with an isolation he never before experienced. When his play on the mound falters, he begins examining more closely his place and questions the single-mindedness of his life's ambition.
The Class (Entre Les Murs)
Francois is a tough but fair teacher working in one of France's toughest schools, and his honest demeanor in the classroom has made him a great success with the students. But this year things are different, because when the students begin to challenge his methods Francois will find his classroom ethics put to the ultimate test. — A. O. Scott, The New York Times
The Informers
Who isn’t trying to find every new project of Mickey Rourke since his “resurgence” over the past few months? Informers is a gritty exposé of movie executives, rock stars and other Hollywood lowlifes in the early 1980s, where too much was never enough. Kim Bassinger, Billy Bob Thornton, Winona Ryder Based on cast, writer and director, The Informers might just be the one movie not to be missed.
The Informant
Directed by Stephen Soderbergh. What was Mark Whitacre thinking? A rising star at agri-industry giant, Archer Daniels Midland, Whitacre exposes his company's multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI. He envisions himself a hero of the common man. But before that can happen, the FBI needs evidence, so Whitacre wears a wire, carries a hidden tape recorder. Unfortunately, the FBI lead witness hasn't been quite so forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers. Whitacre's ever-changing account threatens the case against ADM as it becomes almost impossible to decipher what is real and what is the product of Whitacre's rambling imagination. Based on the true story of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history.
The Soloist
Life has a mind of its own. A drama about the redemptive power of music. Journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a former prodigy, playing his cello on the streets of L.A. As Lopez endeavors to help the homeless man find his way back, a friendship transforms both their lives. "The Soloist" is directed by Joe Wright (Atonement).
This Side of Truth
With the hilarious Ricky Gervais as writer-director, a cast of Jason Bateman, Tina Fey and Rob Lowe, imagine a world without lies. A world where the very thought of telling a lie has never even occurred to anyone. A world where movies are simply footage of “actors” reading historical non-fiction to the camera. Now Gervais decides to make up a story… to lie… and the potential hilarity follows as he exploits his newfound celebrity as the best actor in the world.
Up
A Red Balloon, for seniors. Is there any character Pixar can’t make lovable? Carl Fredricksen, a septuagenarian (voiced by Edward Asner) ties thousands of balloons to his house in order to to see the jungles of South America. After liftoff, he discovers a stowaway: an eager explorer 70 years his junior. Ed Asner did voice. It’s a win-win for everybody. And Pixar made it. Yup, that's all I need.
Where God Left His Shoes
When Frank, Angela, and their two children are evicted from their New York City apartment, they move into a homeless shelter. Good news comes their way on Christmas Eve: a nearby housing project has an apartment available immediately--however, Frank needs a job on the books in order to qualify. While the rest of the city prepares for Christmas, Frank and his ten-year-old stepson, Justin, roam the cold streets of New York trying to find a job by day's end.
12
A Russian Rashômon story, directed by Nikita Mikhalkov. 12 characters – 12 truths. 12 Jurors discuss a verdict to pass on an 18 year-old Chechen boy whether he is guilty of the 1st degree murder of his step-father – an officer of the Russian army. The film is thinks aloud about today’s life, about the need to hear the next of kin and help that person before its too late. The action of the picture unveils in one room - a gym adjusted for jury deliberations.
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