Overview
A TV network cynically exploits a deranged ex-TV anchor's ravings and revelations about the media for their own profit.
Archives
Batman Begins
Overview
Driven by tragedy, billionaire Bruce Wayne dedicates his life to uncovering and defeating the corruption that plagues his home, Gotham City. Unable to work within the system, he instead creates a new identity, a symbol of fear for the criminal underworld - The Batman.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Overview
Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.
The Wrestler
Overview
Aging wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson is long past his prime but still ready and rarin' to go on the pro-wrestling circuit. After a particularly brutal beating, however, Randy hangs up his tights, pursues a serious relationship with a long-in-the-tooth stripper, and tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter. But he can't resist the lure of the ring and readies himself for a comeback.
Twilight
Overview
When Bella Swan moves to a small town in the Pacific Northwest to live with her father, she starts school and meets the reclusive Edward Cullen, a mysterious classmate who reveals himself to be a 108-year-old vampire. Despite Edward's repeated cautions, Bella can't help but fall in love with him, a fatal move that endangers her own life when a coven of bloodsuckers try to challenge the Cullen clan.
Valkyrie
Overview
Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.
Waltz with Bashir
Overview
Much awarded animated documentary, in which director and Israeli army veteran Ari Folman interviews friends and former soldiers about their memories of the 1982 Lebanon war and especially the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut. The usage on animation enabled Folman to illustrate their personal memories and dreams.
Synecdoche, New York
Overview
A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.
From the insanely creative mind of Charlie Kaufman comes a film that I’ve seen labeled as the saddest of all time. This utterly unique filmmaker has given us Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Anomalisa. He is creative in a way that most filmmakers can only imagine and all of his stories are so deep and personal.
Synecdoche is not exception to that rule. This movie defies explanation, but it is the story of the life and love of a theater director. He is so absorbed in his own story that he keeps missing the stores of everyone else around him. Upon recieving a grant he decides to create a huge stage play upon which he attempts to tell the twisted story of his own sad life.
There are glimpses of genius on the part of Kaufman, the character which seems to be playing a version of him, and the actor playing that character (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). He was such a sad loss for Hollywood as you could feel the emotion dripping off of him in this film.
This is not a movie that you will be able to “explain” or tie up in a neat little bow, it is beautifully melancholic, and emotionally rich. You don’t see movies like this everyday and it is amazing that we have one here.
There are nearly 13 million people in the world, none of them are an extra. They all play the leads in their own story.
Kaufman is here telling his own sad story and the only hope is that the play goes on and someone else takes the lead. That is a very dark silver lining. This film reminded me of the depths of sadness of King Solomon in Ecclesiastes who spoke of the futility of life under the sun, specifically life without God.
Kaufman is known for this bleak hopeless storytelling. It will force you to look for hope if you can find it or into despair if you can’t. Either way, it is a great film from a master of the medium.
The Reader
Overview
Tells the story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who as a teenager in the late 1950s had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that at the expense of her freedom.
Revolutionary Road
Overview
A young couple living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s struggle to come to terms with their personal problems while trying to raise their two children. Based on a novel by Richard Yates.