Friday, August 29, 2008

Momma’s Man

Azazel Jacobs’ MOMMA’S MAN chronicles the increasingly anxious dilemma of Mikey (Matt Boren), a young husband and father who stops off at his parents’ loft during a business trip to New York and finds himself emotionally unable to leave. One of the most acclaimed films of this year's Sundance Film Festival, Jacobs' third feature is both a tribute to his parents (avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs and painter Flo Jacobs, who play Mikey’s mother and father) and an acutely perceptive, slyly humorous take on a universal experience: the fear of growing up.

Ghost Town

In the comedy "Ghost Town," Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) is a man whose people skills leave much to be desired. When Pincus dies unexpectedly, but is miraculously revived after seven minutes, he wakes up to discover that he now has the annoying ability to see ghosts. Even worse, they all want something from him, particularly Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear), who pesters him into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen (Téa Leoni).

Real Time

REAL TIME is about a hit man (Randy Quaid) who gives a compulsive gambler (Jay Baruchel) one hour to live. The movie takes place in real time and its ultimate subject is what we do with the time we have in this world. The film begins when Andy, a hyperactive compulsive gambler, is plucked off the street by the calm yet imposing Reuban. Reuban tells Andy that he’s been dispatched to kill him. Andy doesn’t believe him at first. He figures it’s just another one of Reuban’s scare tactics to get him to pay off his gambling debt. After a few punches to the head and a gun held to his face, Andy finally gets it. Reuban is really going to kill him - but not before Andy gets an hour to do whatever he’d like before he dies. Reuban is a little surprised when Andy chooses to spend his hour looking for a hooker, seeking revenge on a former boss and trying to find his old Playdough barber shop toy at Grandma’s. But as we move closer to the deadline, we see there is more to Andy than we first thought and Reuban turns out to have a secret or two of his own. REAL TIME is produced by January Films, Devonshire Productions and APB Pictures. The film is financed by Serendipity Point Films, Telefilm Canada, Corus Entertainment, Astral Media, Ontario Media Development Corporation and Rogers Telefund. Maximum Films willdistribute the film in Canada and act as worldwide sales agent.

Allah Made Me Funny

This landmark concert film follows three acclaimed comedians on stage and off as they lift the veil to reveal the humorous side of what it’s really like to be American and Muslim. Mo Amer, Azhar Usman, and Preacher Moss poke fun at themselves, their communities, government, human nature and the tricky predicament of living in post- 9/11 America. Featuring music of rising indie scene artists, Allah Made Me Funny: Live in Concert is rollicking good fun and gives people of all cultural backgrounds an opportunity to laugh hard, drop their guard, and open their minds.

Sukiyaki Western Django

Famed Japanese auteur Takashi Miike, who is best known for cult classics such as Audition, Ichi: the Killer, and Children of Lost Souls, brings a fresh new look at the beloved spaghetti Western genre in Sukiyaki Western Django. Two clans, Genji, the white clan led by Yoshitsune, and Heike, the red clan led by Kiyomori, battle for a legendary treasure hidden in a poor mountain town. One day a lone gunman, burdened with deep emotional scars but blessed with incredible shooting skills, drifts into town. Expectations reach a boiling point as everyone wonders which gang the gunman will finally decide to join. Dirty tricks, betrayal, desire, and love collide as the situation erupts into a final, explosive showdown.

An American Carol

The American spirit is celebrated in the outrageous and totally irreverent comedy An American Carol from David Zucker, the master of movie satire (Airplane!, The Naked Gun, Scary Movie 3 and 4).

Local Color

A successful artist looks back with loving memories on the summer of his defining year, 1974. A talented, but troubled eighteen year old art student befriends an elderly alcoholic genius painter who has turned his back on not only art, but life. The two form, what appears to be at first a tenuous relationship. The kid wants to learn all the secrets the master has locked away inside his head and heart. Time has not been kind to the old master. His life appears pointless to him until the kid rekindles his interest in his work and ultimately gives him the will to live. Together, they give one another a priceless gift. The kid learns to see the world through the master’s eyes. And the master learns to see life through the eyes of innocence again. This story is based on a real life experience.

Humboldt County

At the edge of the continent and on the margins of society is a region of California known to some as “The Lost Coast.” It is there, in HUMBOLDT COUNTY, that Peter Hadley (Jeremy Strong) - a promising yet disillusioned medical student failed by his professor (Peter Bogdanovich) - stumbles upon a remote community of counterculture marijuana farmers and a warmly embracing, yet eccentric family played by Frances Conroy, Fairuza Balk, Chris Messina, Brad Dourif, and newcomer Madison Davenport. From directors Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs, who also co-wrote the screenplay, HUMBOLDT COUNTY is a story of the human soul in search of happiness, and the unexpected places we can sometimes call home.

The Secret Life of Bees

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, based on the New York Times best selling novel and set in South Carolina in 1964, is the moving tale of Lily Owens (Fanning) a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother (Burton). To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father (Bettany), Lily flees with Rosaleen (Hudson), her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters (Latifah, Okonedo and Keys), Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping.

Ping Pong Playa

Christopher “C-DUB” Wang is a suburban guy who sports an urban swagger, waxes political on all things Asian American, and clings to pipe dreams of a career as a pro basketball player. Blaming genetics for his failure to make the NBA, C-dub lives at home, works a dead- end job, and squirms in the shadow of his older brother, Michael, a doctor and ping pong champion. With a family-run store devoted to all things ping pong and a mom who teaches it at the local Chinese Community Center, the Wang’s entire world revolves around the sport. But despite the family legacy, C- dub opts to spend his free time playing video games and daydreaming about get-rich quick schemes with his best friend JP Money. C-dub is kicked back into reality when his mom and Michael are hurt in a car accident, leaving his father to watch over the store and forcing C-dub to take over his mom’s ping pong class of misfits. C- dub starts to appreciate the benefits of ping pong when he starts using the class to make some extra money on the side and befriending one of the kids who happen to have a beautiful older sister. But when the Wang family livelihood is threatened by a rival ping pong player’s attempt to lure the kids away, C-dub begins to take things more seriously. With the National Golden Cock coming up and an injured Michael unable to defend his title, C-dub must become the player he pretends to be and defend his family’s ping pong dynasty.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Year of the Fish

In this modern-day adaptation of Cinderella, newcomer David Kaplan transposes the fairytale’s archetypical characters to a vibrant urban setting: a massage parlor in New York’s Chinatown specializing in ‘happy endings’. An optimistic young girl travels alone to New York City where she hopes to earn money to send home to her ailing father. Expecting work in a beauty salon, the girl is instead delivered into the hands of her father’s distant cousin, an embittered woman who runs a seedy massage parlor. The girl surrenders her passport as collateral for her ‘debt’ and is informed of her duties. When she refuses to do the requisite sex work, the girl accepts her fate as the operation’s browbeaten servant, her only solace a magical goldfish given to her by a sidewalk fortuneteller. Sprinkled with fantasy, romance and suspense, YEAR OF THE FISH is presented in a delicately layered animation style that evokes a painting come to life. The film’s first-rate ensemble cast includes Ken Leung (LOST, X-MEN 3, RUSH HOUR), Tsai Chin (THE JOY LUCK CLUB), acclaimed Broadway veteran Randall Duk Kim (THE MATRIX RELOADED, the upcoming DRAGONBALL), and introduces An Nguyen.

Stealing America Vote by Vote

For more than thirty years, exit polls accurately predicted election results. Over the last ten years that reliability has disappeared. What’s going on? The last two presidential elections both came down to a relatively small number of votes, and in both elections the integrity of the voting process has been called into question. With the upcoming election looking to be similarly close, the time has come to ask the questions: What happened in 2000 and 2004? What, if anything, has changed since? And what can be done to ensure a fair and honest tabulation of votes in 2008? This film brings together behind-the-scenes perspectives from the U.S presidential election of 2004 - plus startling stories from key races in 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2006. The film sheds light on a decade of vote counts that don’t match votes cast - uncounted ballots, vote switching, under-votes, an many other examples of election totals that warrant serious investigation. This film unveils patterns of anomalies at every level of the electoral process. Controversial partnerships perpetuate a secretive environment, as relevant facts and figures remain hidden from view. As a result, most Americans have no real sense of the threat to fair elections. As seemingly unrelated pieces of the puzzle come together, a chilling picture emerges: of widespread, artfully crafted “glitches” that, in the final tallies, have the capacity to alter election results.

The Boy In the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a fictional story that offers a unique perspective on how prejudice, hatred and violence affect innocent people, particularly children, during wartime. Through the lens of an eight-year-old boy largely shielded from the reality of World War II, we witness a forbidden friendship that forms between Bruno, the son of Nazi commandant, and Schmuel, a Jewish boy held captive in a concentration camp. Though the two are separated physically by a barbed wire fence, their lives become inescapably intertwined. The imagined story of Bruno and Shmuel sheds light on the brutality, senselessness and devastating consequences of war from an unusual point of view. Together, their tragic journey helps recall the millions of innocent victims of the Holocaust.

The Brothers Bloom

Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener), Academy Award winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist), Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac), and Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) star in The Brothers Bloom, a globe-trotting comedy about the last great adventure of the world’s best con men. Welcome to the world of The Brothers Bloom, where deception is an art and nothing is as it seems. The brothers have perfected the art of swindling fortunes through years of fraternal teamwork. Now they’ve decided to take on one last spectacular job—luring a beautiful and eccentric heiress into an elaborate plot that takes them around the world. For as long as they can remember, the Brothers Bloom have had only each other to depend on. From their childhood in a long series of gloomy foster homes to their highflying lives as international con artists, Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and Bloom (Adrien Brody) have shared everything. Stephen brilliantly concocts intricate stories that the brothers live out, but he’s still searching for the perfect con, the one where “everyone gets what they want.” Meanwhile, Bloom yearns for “an unwritten life”—a real adventure, one not dreamed up by his old brother. Eager to retire, Bloom agrees to take part in one last grand scam. He insinuates himself into the life of Penelope (Rachel Wiesz), a bored, single New Jersey heiress. When a genuine romance begins to blossom between them, he is reluctant to exploit her naiveté, but Penelope has already taken the bait: She impulsively joins Bloom, Stephen and their “associate,” a sexy Japanese explosives expert named Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi), on an ocean liner to Greece. Penelope is convinced she’s happened upon the adventure of a lifetime and offers to bankroll a million dollar deal. As the quartet makes their way from Athens to Prague to Mexico to St. Petersburg, Penelope quickly becomes addicted to the illicit thrills. But as Stephen’s elaborate web of deceit pulls tighter, Bloom begins to wonder if his brother has devised the most dangerous con of his life.

Forever Strong

Rick Penning (Sean Faris, *Never Back Down*) lives life just like he plays rugby; fast, hard-hitting and intense. When life on the edge lands him in jail, prison ward Marcus Tate (Sean Astin, *The Lord of the Rings*) offers him a chance to get back in the game by playing for his rival, Highland Rugby. Reluctantly Rick joins the team where he must adopt the grueling training schedule and unique code of conduct that Coach Gelwix (Gary Cole, *Office Space*) enforces, or finish out the season behind bars. Egos clash as bitter competitors struggle to become a team. An unlikely brotherhood is formed with his Highland teammates, just as Rick is released from jail and sent back home to rejoin his former team, coached by his overbearing father (Neal McDonough, *Minority Report*). Heading into a faceoff with Highland at the National Championship, Rick is forced to choose where his loyalty lies.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Battle In Seattle

In 1999, five days rocked the world as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Seattle in protest of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Environmentalists, consumer advocates, labor unions, students, anarchists and pacifists all converged, bringing attention to how the WTO’s laws were affecting democracy around the world. Among them are Django (Andre Benjamin), Sam (Jennifer Carpenter), Lou (Michelle Rodriguez) and Jay (Martin Henderson). United in their desire to be heard and to make a difference, for these protesters, this is very personal and the stakes are higher than mere politics. A peaceful demonstration to stop the WTO talks quickly escalates into a full-scale riot and an eventual State of Emergency results. The streets are mayhem, the WTO is paralyzed. Caught in the crossfire are Seattle residents, including its beleaguered mayor (Ray Liotta), a riot cop on the streets (Woody Harrelson) and his pregnant wife (Charlize Theron). The choices they make will change their lives forever and prove, ultimately, that ordinary people can change the world. With his ensemble cast writer/director Stuart Townsend intertwines different points of view from a cross section of society – from protestors and police to delegates and doctors – who intentionally or accidentally find themselves on the streets of Seattle in those last days of the millennium. Townsend merges footage of the real event with his fictional narrative and, ultimately, Battle in Seattle illustrates that, even against incredible odds, ordinary people can change the world.

Harold

As a young teenager suffering from really early male-pattern baldness, Harold has never had it easy. Despite the efforts of his scattered mother —- and aggravated by his beauty-queen-mean sister - life is a trial for Harold. And now his teen angst is topping out: He’s facing his first day at a new high school in a new town. He’s not only going to be the “new kid,” but the “new weird bald kid.”

Friday, August 8, 2008

Death Race

Terminal Island: The very near future. The world’s hunger for extreme sports and reality competitions has grown into reality TV bloodlust. Now, the most extreme racing competition has emerged and its contestants are murderous prisoners. Tricked-out cars, caged thugs and smoking-hot navigators combine to create a juggernaut series with bigger ratings than the Super Bowl. The rules of the Death Race are simple: Win five events, and you’re set free. Lose and you’re road kill splashed across the Internet. International action star Jason Statham leads the action-thriller’s cast as three-time speedway champion Jensen Ames, an ex-con framed for a gruesome murder. Forced to don the mask of the mythical driver Frankenstein, a Death Race crowd favorite who seems impossible to kill, Ames is given an easy choice by Terminal Island’s ruthless Warden Hennessey (Joan Allen): Suit up and drive or never see his little girl again. His face hidden by a hideous mask, one convict will enter an insane three-day challenge in order to gain freedom. But to claim the prize, Ames must survive a gauntlet of the most vicious criminals—including nemesis Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson)—in the country’s toughest prison. Trained by his coach (Ian McShane) to drive a monster Mustang V8 Fastback outfitted with 2 mounted mini-guns, flamethrowers and napalm, an innocent man will destroy everything in his path to win the most twisted spectator sport on Earth.

Cthulhu

Adapted from a story by H.P. Lovecraft. A Seattle history professor, drawn back to his estranged family on the Oregon coast to execute his late mother’s estate, is reacquainted with his best friend from childhood, with whom he has a long-awaited tryst. Caught in an accelerating series of events, he discovers aspects of his father’s New Age cult which take on a dangerous and apocalyptic significance.

Twilight

TWILIGHT is an action-packed, modern day love story between a vampire and a human. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has always been a little bit different, never caring about fitting in with the trendy girls at her Phoenix high school. When her mother remarries and sends Bella to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she doesn’t expect much of anything to change. Then she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a boy unlike any she’s ever met. Intelligent and witty, he sees straight into her soul. Soon, Bella and Edward are swept up in a passionate and decidedly unorthodox romance. Edward can run faster than a mountain lion, he can stop a moving car with his bare hands - and he hasn’t aged since 1918. Like all vampires, he’s immortal. But he doesn’t have fangs, and he doesn’t drink human blood; Edward and his family are unique among vampires in their lifestyle choice. To Edward, Bella is that thing he has waited 90 years for - a soul mate. But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal pull of her scent, which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy. But what will Edward & Bella do when James (Cam Gigandet), Laurent (Edi Gathegi) and Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre), the Cullens’ mortal vampire enemies, come to town, looking for her?

In Search of a Midnight Kiss

From emerging, award-winning filmmaker Alex Holdridge and the producer of BEFORE SUNRISE and DAZED AND CONFUSED, IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS is a funny and bittersweet look at love, sex, and modern romance. With an unsold script, no concrete plans, and a love life reduced to getting caught in compromising positions (alone!), a twenty-nine-year aspiring writer, Wilson (Scoot McNairy) just had the worst year of his life. That is until his best friend, Jacob (Brian Matthew McGuire), browbeats him into posting a personal ad for New Year’s Eve on Craig’s List. When Vivian (Sara Simmonds), a sexy, sarcastic, and seemingly blind-date-from-hell responds, the two strangers embark on an unexpected, chaotic, and hilariously awkward journey through the black-and-white streets of Los Angeles hoping to meet the right one before the stroke of midnight. A truly original love letter to Los Angeles, IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS captures a lost downtown rarely seen on screen along with the hearts of critics and audiences alike.

Everybody Wants To Be Italian

Jake, a lovelorn fishmonger who has spent nearly a decade trying to win back his ex-girlfriend gets involved in a romantic case of mistaken ethnicity. It’s been eight years since Jake’s girlfriend left him, and despite the fact that she’s now married with three children, he refuses to move on. Fed up with their depressive pal’s unwillingness to let go of the past, Jake’s friends set him up on a blind date with a beautiful Italian woman from Boston’s North End. Though Jake is convinced that such a woman would never consider dating a non-Italian, a quick crash course in how to fake it may prove just the trick to helping him learn to love once again.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Patti Smith - Dream of Life

Dream of Life is a plunge into the philosophy and artistry of cult rocker Patti Smith. This portrait of the legendary singer, artist and poet explores themes of spirituality, history and self expression. Known as the godmother of punk, she emerged in the 1970’s, galvanizing the music scene with her unique style of poetic rage, music and trademark swagger. We follow this multitalented and private artist over 11 years of international travel, through her spoken words, performances, lyrics, interviews, paintings, and photographs. Dream of Life reveals a complicat ...

Sunday, July 27, 2008

CSNY - Deja Vu

Since their debut in the late ‘sixties, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young have functioned as the “town criers” of their generation. With songs like “Ohio” and “Find the Cost of Freedom”, CSNY were in the forefront of Vietnam-era protest and anti-war sentiment. Though fondly remembered for their harmonies and love songs, the band has never lost their political edge. “CSNY: Deja Vu” finds the band heading out on their “Freedom of Speech 2006” of North America, featuring music from Neil Young’s controversial “Living With War” CD. With “Embedded” reporter Mike Cerre aboard, the film documents audience reactions to the music and the band’s ongoing connection with its fans, all against the backdrop of the Iraq/Afghanistan War. The film also examines events surrounding the Tour in the crucial election season of 2006. Songs from the Tour are woven together with archival material, news footage, and audience reaction and observations, as the film examines the issues surrounding the integration of politics and art.

Take

The lives of two strangers - a struggling mother (Minnie Driver) and a gambling addict (Jeremy Renner) - converge in unspeakable tragedy. Years later, they must come to terms with themselves and one another. As two pivotal days, one past and one present, unfold in a non-linear mosaic, Take explores the corrosive effects of resentment and hatred.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Sixty Six

England, the summer of ‘66 and the country is about to be consumed by World Cup Fever. For 12-year-old Bernie (GREGG SULKIN), the biggest day of his life is looming, the day he becomes a man - his Bar Mitzvah. However Bernie’s North London family seems a little distracted. His father Manny (EDDIE MARSAN) is concerned about the giant supermarket opening opposite his grocery shop, a business he shares with his more charismatic younger brother, Jimmy (PETER SERAFINOWICZ) — and it’s making Manny’s bizarre obsessive compulsive disorder even worse than usual. Between worrying about Manny and Bernie’s older brother Alvie (BEN NEWTON), mother Esther (HELENA BONHAM CARTER) barely has time to notice her better behaved younger son, and the only attention Bernie ever gets from Alvie is a punch for stepping onto the wrong side of their shared bedroom. Bernie believes his Bar Mitzvah is about to change all this. He’ll no longer be the kid everyone ignores, and he envisions and begins to plan the perfect ceremony and reception, where everyone assembled will acknowledge his new status as a man. Unfortunately for Bernie, things don’t quite go according to plan.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Disaster Movie


In DISASTER MOVIE, the filmmaking team behind the hits “Scary Movie,” “Date Movie,” “Epic Movie” and “Meet The Spartans” this time puts its unique, inimitable stamp on one of the biggest and most bloated movie genres of all time – the disaster film. DISASTER MOVIE follows the comic misadventures of a group of ridiculously attractive twenty-somethings during one fateful night as they try to make their way to safety while every known natural disaster and catastrophic event - asteroids, twisters, earthquakes, the works – hits the city and their path as they try to solve a series of mysteries to end the rampant destruction. Taking aim at everything and everyone, from "Indiana Jones" and "Iron Man" to Amy Winehouse and “High School Musical,” DISASTER MOVIE lampoons the blockbuster movie, pop culture icons and public figures along the way as Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer satirize everything as only they can.

Man on Wire

On August 7th 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York's twin towers, then the world’s tallest buildings. After nearly an hour dancing on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and brought to jail before he was finally released. James Marsh’s documentary brings Petit’s extraordinary adventure to life through the testimony of Philippe himself, and some of the co-conspirators who helped him create the unique and magnificent spectacle that became known as “the artistic crime of the century.”

Felon

Val Kilmer (Columbus Day, Conspiracy), Stephen Dorff (Black Water Transit, World Trade Center), Harold Perrineau, Jr. (The Matrix Revolutions, TV’s “Lost”) and Sam Shepard (The Accidental Husband, Stealth) star in the high-action and edge-of-your-seat prison film, Felon, the story of a family man who is convicted of murder for killing an intruder who enters his home, threatening the lives of his wife and son. As he struggles to survive the violent penal system which includes a maximum-security state prison in which a corrupt lieutenant tries to maintain power and order, even if it means crossing the line. Also starring Anne Archer (End Game, Man of the House).

Red

Avery Allan Ludlow (Brian Cox), a Korean War vet with a tragic past, lives alone in a small town, where he runs the local hardware store. Av’s only companion is a 14 year-old ginger-haired dog, aptly named Red by Av’s late wife. One day, Av and Red are enjoying a placid outing at their favorite fishing spot when three boys and a shotgun come along. In an instant, Av’s lifelong friend is gone, the victim of a cruel, senseless act. Devastated, Av determines to find out who the boys are and why they did it. Helped by a local reporter (Dickens), Av tries to expose the truth, but his efforts are ignored by authorities and mocked by the teenagers. The boys’ parents, a rich local businessman (Sizemore) and, across town, a hardscrabble laborer (Englund) and his wife (Plummer), are just as determined to keep Av down. But, faithful to the memory of his best friend, Av single-mindedly presses for justice-with or without the law on his side.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Burn After Reading

World-premiering as the opening-night film of the 2008 Venice International Film Festival; a dark spy-comedy from Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen. An ousted CIA official’s (John Malkovich) memoir accidentally falls into the hands of two gym employees (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand) intent on exploiting their find. George Clooney and Tilda Swinton also star.

In Search of a Midnight Kiss

From emerging, award-winning filmmaker Alex Holdridge and the producer of BEFORE SUNRISE and DAZED AND CONFUSED, IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS is a funny and bittersweet look at love, sex, and modern romance. With an unsold script, no concrete plans, and a love life reduced to getting caught in compromising positions (alone!), a twenty-nine-year aspiring writer, Wilson (Scoot McNairy) just had the worst year of his life. That is until his best friend, Jacob (Brian Matthew McGuire), browbeats him into posting a personal ad for New Year’s Eve on Craig’s List. When Vivian (Sara Simmonds), a sexy, sarcastic, and seemingly blind-date-from-hell responds, the two strangers embark on an unexpected, chaotic, and hilariously awkward journey through the black-and-white streets of Los Angeles hoping to meet the right one before the stroke of midnight. A truly original love letter to Los Angeles, IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS captures a lost downtown rarely seen on screen along with the hearts of critics and audiences alike.

Elegy

Driven by Isabel Coixet's visually assured and deeply observant direction, Elegy charts the passionate relationship between a celebrated college professor and a young woman whose beauty both ravishes and destabilizes him. As their intimate connection transforms them-more than either could imagine-a charged sexual contest evolves into an indelible love story. With humanistic warmth, wry wit and erotic intensity, Elegy explores the power of beauty to blind, to reveal and to transform. Starring Oscar-nominee Penélope Cruz and Academy Award-winner Ben Kingsley, with extraordinary supporting performances from Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson and Peter Sarsgaard, Elegy is based on Pulitzer Prize-winner Philip Roth's short novel The Dying Animal.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Miracle At St. Anna

Directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay written by James McBride, the author of the acclaimed novel of the same name, the film chronicles the story of four black American soldiers who are members of the US Army as part of the all-black 92nd “Buffalo Soldier” Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy, during World War II. They experience the tragedy and triumph of the war as they find themselves trapped behind enemy lines and separated from their unit after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy. MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA explores a deeply inspiring story that transcends national boundaries, race and class to touch the goodness within us all.

Mad Detective

Cinematic action masters Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai return with the explosive MAD DETECTIVE, an incendiary adventure full of delightfully off-kilter events and a fascinating journey into the human psyche. When a missing detective’s gun is implicated in a recent series of heists and murders, a hot shot inspector HO (Andy On) seeks out his former boss, BUN (Lau Ching Wan), a gifted criminal profiler now living in seclusion with his wife MAY (Kelly Lin). Bun has a truly unique gift: he can see the inner personalities of the people he meets. As Bun travels further into the psychosis of a prime suspect his unorthodox approach begins to wear on Hos mind. What begins as a quest for answers has now taken a schizophrenic turn where truth and lies, reality and delusions intertwine…

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Journey To the Center of the Earth

An exciting adventure based on the classic Jules Verne novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” Journey to the Center of the Earth stars Brendan Fraser (Crash, The Mummy) as a science professor whose untraditional hypotheses have made him the laughing stock of the academic community. But on an expedition in Iceland, he and his nephew stumble upon a major discovery that launches them on a thrilling journey deep beneath the Earth’s surface, where they travel through never-before-seen worlds and encounter a variety of unusual creatures. Journey to the Center of the Earth is directed by Academy Award-winning visual effects veteran Eric Brevig (Total Recall, Pearl Harbor) from a screenplay by Michael Weiss and Jennifer Flackett & Mark Levin. The film is a co-venture between New Line Cinema and Walden Media.

August

AUGUST follows Tom Sterling (Josh Hartnett) as an aggressive, young dot-com entrepreneur who fights to keep his start-up company afloat. Tom finds himself on a personal and professional downward spiral as he struggles to reunite with girlfriend, Sarrah (Naomie Harris), regain control of his company from his apathetic investor Ogilvie (David Bowie), and deal with age-old family wounds with his father, David (Rip Torn) and his brother Joshua (Adam Scott). The film also stars Emmanuelle Chriqui as Morela and Andre Royo as Dylan.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Hellboy 2: the Golden Army

With a signature blend of action, humor and character-based spectacle, the saga of the world’s toughest, kitten-loving hero from Hell continues to unfold in Hellboy II: The Golden Army.Bigger muscle, badder weapons and more ungodly villains arrive in an epic vision of imagination from Oscar-nominated director Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy). After an ancient truce existing between humankind and the invisible realm of the fantastic is broken, hell on Earth is ready to erupt.A ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below defies his bloodline and awakens an unstoppable army of creatures.Now, it’s up to the planet’s toughest, roughest superhero to battle the merciless dictator and his marauders.He may be red.He may be horned.He may be misunderstood.But when you need the job done right, it’s time to call in Hellboy (Ron Perlman). Along with his expanding team in the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense—pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair), aquatic empath Abe (Doug Jones) and protoplasmic mystic Johann—the BPRD will travel between the surface strata and the unseen magical one, where creatures of fantasy become corporeal.And Hellboy, a creature of two worlds who’s accepted by neither, must choose between the life he knows and an unknown destiny that beckons him.

Friday, July 4, 2008

The Wackness

It’s the summer of 1994, and the streets of New York are pulsing with hip-hop and wafting with the sweet aroma of marijuana—but change is in the air. The newly-inaugurated mayor, Rudy Giuliani, is beginning to implement his anti-fun initiatives against “crimes” like noisy portable radios, graffiti and public drunkenness. Set against this backdrop, Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) spends his last summer before college selling dope throughout New York City, trading it with his shrink (Ben Kingsley) for therapy, while crushing on his step daughter (Olivia Thirlby). Famke Janssen, Mary Kate Olsen,and Method Man round out the cast in this edgy, bittersweet, and funny coming of age story.

Frozen River

Frozen River is the story of Ray Eddy, an upstate New York trailer mom who is lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling when she meets a Mohawk girl who lives on a reservation that straddles the US-Canadian border. Broke after her husband takes off with the down payment for their new doublewide, Ray reluctantly teams up with Lila, a smuggler, and the two begin making runs across the frozen St. Lawrence River carrying illegal Chinese and Pakistani immigrants in the trunk of Ray’s Dodge Spirit.

Traitor


Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Crash) and Guy Pearce (Memento, L.A. Confidential) star in Traitor, a taut international thriller set against a jigsaw puzzle of covert counter- espionage operations. Traitor is written and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (screenwriter of The Day After Tomorrow). When straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer, Samir Horn (Don Cheadle). A mysterious figure with a web of connections to terrorist organizations, Horn has a knack for emerging on the scene just as a major operation goes down. The inter-agency task force looking into the case meets with Carter (Jeff Daniels), a veteran CIA contractor who seemingly has his own agenda and Max Archer (Neal McDonough), a fellow FBI agent. The task force links Horn to a prison break in Yemen, a bombing in Nice and a raid in London, but a tangle of contradictory evidence emerges, forcing Clayton to question whether his quarry is a disaffected former military operative — or something far more complicated. Obsessed with discovering the truth, Clayton tracks Horn across the globe as the elusive ex-soldier burrows deeper and deeper into a world of shadows and intrigue.

Diminished Capacity


Director Terry Kinney’s delightfully poignant and bittersweet comedy poses the question: How much is a good memory worth? That’s the question that faces newspaper editor Cooper (Matthew Broderick) after a debilitating concussion takes him from the political pages to comic strip detail. Looking for answers, he travels home to Missouri where his now senile Uncle Rollie (Alan Alda) is on the verge of losing his home. When a valuable baseball card is thrown into the mix, these two men along with a motley group of hometown friends, including Cooper’s high school sweetheart, Charlotte (Virginia Madsen) , head to a memorabilia expo to make the deal of a century, diving headfirst into a snakepit of slick salesmen, crooked dealers, and rabid fans revealing that there are some things in life that you can’t put a price on. Diminished Capacity also stars Dylan Baker, Louis C.K. and Bobby Cannavale in hilarious supporting roles.

Kabluey

Inept Salman (Scott Prendergast) comes to help his sister-in-law (Lisa Kudrow) tend to her homicidal toddlers while Salman’s brother is off fighting in Iraq. Salman must take a humiliating job as a giant blue corporate mascot to help make ends meet and hold the family together. Packed with a parade of delightful comedy character actors, KABLUEY is a hilarious, unique and heartfelt comedy.

Garden Party


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. But the going is tough. SALLY ST. CLAIR is a realtor whose business has been built upon her sex appeal and secret past. Success has hardened Sally and rendered her disconnected, but it has given her a great eye for spotting lost souls in need of direction. One such soul is her assistant, NATHAN, who 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. In exchange, Sally helps Todd live out his fantasy. Blazing his own path is SAMMY, a cunning, off the bus musician/street kid with his eyes on stardom. When Nathan meets SAMMY, Nathan sees a light at the end of the tunnel and maybe more than just a friend, while Sammy sees a much-needed roof over his head When a local erotic photographer introduces April to Nathan, the dominoes fall on a series of chance encounters. And after everyone has met just about everyone else, each comes away changed in the strangest of ways.

College

A new outrageous comedy, COLLEGE is the story of three high school seniors (Drake Bell, Andrew Caldwell and Kevin Covais) who visit a local college campus as prospective freshman anticipating the best weekend of their lives. Once there, the rowdiest fraternity on campus (featuring Nick Zano, Gary Owen and Zach Cregger) decides to recruit the boys as pledges, subjecting them to endless humiliations, in return for granting them access to the no-holds-barred college party scene. But once the boys catch the eye of some of the older sorority girls (Haley Bennett, Camille Mana and Natalie Walker), the threatened Frat-boys increase the pre-frosh humiliation and blackmail them by threatening to expose their age. The boys decide to fight back, retaliating with a major revenge scheme that lands them on top. What began as the weekend-from-hell turns into the BEST. WEEKEND. EVER.

Monday, June 30, 2008

The Love Guru

In the comedy “The Love Guru,” Pitka (Mike Myers in his first original character since Austin Powers) is an American who was left at the gates of an ashram in India as a child and raised by gurus. He moves back to the U.S. to seek fame and fortune in the world of self-help and spirituality. His unorthodox methods are put to the test when he must settle a rift between Toronto Maple Leafs star hockey player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) and his estranged wife. After the split, Roanoke’s wife starts dating L.A. Kings star Jacques Grande (Justin Timberlake) out of revenge, sending her husband into a major professional skid - to the horror of the teams’ owner Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba) and Coach Cherkov (Verne Troyer). Pitka must return the couple to marital nirvana and get Roanoke back on his game so the team can break the 40-year-old “Bullard Curse” and win the Stanley Cup.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Get Smart

In the all-new action comedy “Get Smart,” Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is on a mission to thwart the latest plot for world domination by the evil crime syndicate known as KAOS. When the headquarters of U.S. spy agency Control is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, the Chief (Alan Arkin) has no choice but to promote his ever-eager analyst Maxwell Smart, who has always dreamt of working in the field alongside stalwart superstar Agent 23 (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). Smart is partnered instead with the only other agent whose identity has not been compromised: the lovely-but-lethal veteran Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). As Smart and 99 get closer to unraveling KAOS’ master plan—and each other—they discover that key KAOS operative Siegfried (Terence Stamp) and his sidekick Shtarker (Kenneth Davitian) are scheming to cash in with their network of terror. Given little field experience and even less time, Smart—armed with nothing but a few spy-tech gadgets and his unbridled enthusiasm—must defeat KAOS if he is to save the day.

Trumbo

TRUMBO is the story of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo’s remarkable journey from Hollywood royalty to blacklisted writer to Academy Award winner. Focusing on the writer’s own indelible words, the film features performances of some of his extraordinary letters, clips from his films and, archival and contemporary interviews with those who knew him best. The film illustrates how one man’s unerring belief in the First Amendment and the power of the written word-plus a drink or two-empowered him to fight back after being blacklisted by HUAC. Forced to write underground, letter writing became the chief repository of Trumbo’s extraordinary talents, and they serve as a wonderfully entertaining testament to his boundless intellect, acerbic humor, and staggering resilience.

Finding Amanda

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.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Elsa and Fred

Elsa &Fred is a story about two people who, at the end of the road, discover that it’s never too late to love. or to dream. Elsa is 82 years-old and for the past 60 years she’s dreamt of a moment that Fellini had already envisaged: the scene of “La Dolce Vita” at the Fontana di Trevi. The same scene without Anita Ekberg in it but Elsa instead. Without Marcello Mastroiani but with that love that took so long to arrive. Alfredo is a bit younger than Elsa and was always a good man who did everything he was supposed to do. After losing his wife, he feels disturbed and confused and his daughter decides that it would be best if he moved into a smaller apartment where he’ll meet Elsa. From that moment on, everything changes. Elsa bursts into his life like a whirlwind, determined to teach him that the time he has left to live - be it more or less - is precious and that he should enjoy it as he pleases. Fred surrenders to Elsa’s frenzy, to her youth, to her boldness, to her beautiful madness. And this is how Alfredo (or Fred, as Elsa calls him), learns how to live.