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To embody the spirit of a culture and custom, Dweck and Kershaw immersed themselves into an intriguing and mystifying world. By doing this, the filmmakers honor the area’s innate poetic beauty, so they decided to make the film in black and white, which elevates the film as a distinguished story about a place and people all to its own. Guada Gonza and Tati Gonza appear in Gaucho Gaucho by Gregory Kershaw and Michael Dweck, an official selection of the U....

In this film, the teenagers are able to secure Israeli passports in order to travel to meet family in their respective family homelands – in this case, Congo, Peru and the Philippines. Despite the geographic differences, all three countries share the same burdens of grueling poverty, a virtually non-existent infrastructure and dead-end lives for those who are unable to emigrate. Each teenager concludes their travels with bittersweet emotions – they have no attachment to their parents’ homelands, but they still feel like strangers in their place of birth....

While a kidnapping victim being menaced by video or otherwise separated-by-technology tormentor is nothing new, there is a sheen to the short’s presentation that elevates the overall endeavor. The way it is shot and edited, coupled with the power of the sound mix and design, goes a long way to make it more interesting than its more familiar narrative elements could do otherwise. That said, even at roughly ten minutes, the short lingers, though probably by design....

Being a more intimate film along the lines of Van Sant’s last two pictures, “Elephant” and “Gerry”, “Last Days” takes its time in showing the viewer Blake (Michael Pitt) as he shuffles through his life. He and his bandmates (played by Scott Green, Asia Argento, Lukas Haas and Nicole Vicius) are holed up in a large house in the woods hiding from the outside world and the increasing pressures of an upcoming tour....

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, a severe hurricane is about to pound the Florida coast, and the glaciers of Greenland are collapsing. Cut back to Sofia in her car, stuck in Montreal traffic and mentally preparing to work the entire weekend. Of course, she forgot about meeting her friend, Daniela (Meliza Lejeune), that night for dinner and her brother’s party the next day. After a much-needed shower, Sofia gets dressed for dinner with Daniela....

After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him. The Kid’s rage was formed in his youth when he witnessed the death of his mother, whose town was being overrun by corruption and greed by those living in the highest level of the caste....

Before getting to the DVD, I would like to share some things about Chapman that I read while researching his life. He pursued medical studies at Cambridge’s Emmanuel College in 1961, met John Cleese, and they joined the Cambridge Footlights. Chapman was not a closeted homosexual. He died of spinal cancer in October of 1989, one year after he spoke at colleges across the United States. Chapman doesn’t explicitly discuss his childhood, his sexual orientation or that his vices (tobacco and gin) contributed to deteriorating health, but in the seventy-six minutes of “Looks like a Brown Trouser Job” that he spends talking about his life, you learn more than just a series of biographical facts....

Jessie (Hayley Erin) befriends a stray dog while camping with her husband Ian (Nick George). Unbeknownst to her, the dog escaped from a nearby corporate laboratory. Ian wakes up coughing and is rushed to the hospital. In the isolation ward, he mutates into a cross between the decaying portrait of Dorian Gray and the titular character from The Incredible Melting Man. Jessie is discovered to be a carrier but has no symptoms, so she decides to go on the run....

Maxine’s life keeps smashing into asphalt, largely thanks to Max. She is so desperate she has to cut in half the pills that keep her kid, Ezra (Christopher Convery), from having seizures. Maxine has to raise him alone as his father, Tyler (Tyson Ritter), is a drug-addict musician living in a homeless squat with other narcotic enthusiasts. When he has a dope-fueled outburst at Maxine’s job and gets her fired, she is looking at a fast-approaching brick wall....

That October evening that started so inauspiciously ended with Zardoz, dawn breaking to a very serious Sean Connery waving a revolver while wearing swimming trunks. It was a hundred times more tripped out and rock and roll than what we set out to see. The misery of the evening was history. It’s just a pity Pete died*. You don’t like my Scala story? Fine. But there are many interesting tales curated within Scala!...

This film shows us Lewis’s whole life, from early childhood to the strong influence of her magician father to the very end. The film makes a parallel to the legendary children’s entertainment innovator Mr. Rogers (whom I grew up watching). It shows that Lewis was actually doing some of those same things before he got started. Lewis was amazingly doing multiple hours of live television every week. All those shows starred just her and her puppets....

It’s pretty easy to determine where the movie screws up, and that’s with the storyline involving Colorado gubernatorial candidate Dickie Pilager (Chris Cooper). Pilager is the dimwitted scion of an influential family who spent a good deal of his youth screwing around before getting groomed for a run at the governor’s mansion (sound like anyone we know?) Pilager is almost more George W. Bush than Bush himself, though without even the latter’s ability to work a crowd....

Coming to his aid are Jill and Carl Miller, who help Frimpong prepare for the exam. Said test’s questions are all about one’s understanding of the founding of the United States, its government branches, and operations. It is a challenging task and a commitment to knowledge that even most U.S. citizens don’t know. Through this experience, Frimpong finds a sense of home through the Millers, even referring to Jill as a mom, which she embraces wholeheartedly....

What starts off as a cold transaction soon takes a very real turn when Lenny asks, “How are you doing?” Here, Rodger unloads about his lonely life, how Lenny was the first person that day to wish him a happy birthday, and how maybe life isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. As a film, Two Cents & A Footlong is a simple two-hander with its lead character communicating across a fast-food counter....

At times interesting, most often nonsensical, I’m going to have to admit that this one went over my head. I know little about Walt Whitman beyond the broad strokes, so I can’t say I have an interpretation about what reflecting upon him as a little girl could mean. I will say that I was shocked that Little Girl Walt was a Washington Nationals fan but, to be fair, I’m often shocked that anyone is....

Why watch movies to gain inspiration? However you look at it, listening to a good story is a cool thing to do. Some of the best stories can actually be found in movies, and movies have the added advantage where they combine multiple forms of media to accentuate the message they’re trying to pass on. It’s not just the words in the dialog, but the images and sounds that help us to feel the emotions expressed in the story....

We recently spoke with filmmaker A.J. Schnack to find out what it was like to work with these Gigantic pop heroes. What are some of the struggles you encountered in getting this documentary produced? The hardest thing for me was the edit – writing the script in post. We had all this footage and it was much more challenging than I thought it would be to shape it, to decide which quotes to use, which songs....

The cultural divide is vividly illustrated on this day, which the Israelis consider a celebration of their independence as a state. On the other hand, the Palestinians use the Arabic word “Nakba” (disaster) to describe the same event. Wikipedia describes this moment in 1948 as “…approximately half of Palestine’s predominantly Arab population, or around 750,000 people, were expelled from their homes or made to flee, at first by Zionist paramilitaries through various violent means, and after the establishment of the State of Israel, by the Israel Defense Forces....

Halfway into the 1,500-mile trip, Rasheed realizes he forgot to bring money. So he is forced to live in his car. To scrap together some cash in the meantime, he offers pick-up services using his vehicle. Effectively a taxi driver, Rasheed’s new job is the launchpad for many of the jokes. Along the way, he dances with social media influencers and attends open mic events with other comedians. Rasheed talks business with a store owner....

Cliff, exhausted from chasing the elusive “American Dream,” decides to get in on this action and finally have a nest egg. The salesman’s hairs immediately start tingling as their boss, John (Josh Lucas), is unscrupulous and mad, a dangerous combination. Soon, Cliff is driving his Oldsmobile on the same roads as always, using the same payphones to check in with home, but he now realizes how much danger lurks at every darkened intersection and seedy hotel....