Living most of his adult life in Chicago, Franek (Ireneusz Czop), developed a fondness for throwing the word “Yid” around. But upon returning to Poland after a 20 year absence, Franek discovers the town he grew up in harbors a bulwark of genuine, old-school anti-Semites. Schindler’s Light. Writer-director Wladyslaw Pasikowski’s …
It wasn’t a random act of violence like the ones that hit classrooms with greater frequency, but rather a broken spring of nature. More than 6000 parents whose children perished in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake were inspired by the government to cut their losses and have another one. (Those who …
“New friends at my age mean one thing — more funerals,” scoffs Yoshiko (Kirin Kiki), the matriarch of the Shinoda family, as she attempts to work past the recent death of her husband. If American filmmakers could write characters half as observant and compelling as Hirokazu Koreeda, you’d never again …
Isabel (Michelle Williams), the manager of an Indian orphanage, travels to New York to pick up a generous endowment check. She soon learns that the daughter she thought was put up for adoption at birth by her ex Oscar (Billy Crudup) is alive and well and living with her father …
A fair-haired Danish do-gooder at an insolvent Bombay orphanage is summoned against his will to his native Copenhagen on a hat-in-hand fundraising mission, and upon arrival is summoned additionally to the wedding of Mr. Moneybags's daughter. To our surprise (and who else's?), Mrs. Moneybags turns out to be an old …
A young prostitute (with child in tow) is bounced from her “house” by the same law enforcement officers sworn to help keep her off the streets. In this case, writer-director Anahí Berneri’s fly on the wall technique frequently translates into long takes from a fixed camera giving ample time, if …
A relentless gallery of raillery aimed at introducing Steve Coogan and company’s Alan Partridge -the quick-witted and eminently inflated fictional radio and television host - to American multiplexes. The corporatization of a British radio station causes the recently axed overnight man (Colm Meany) to flip out: he ends up taking …
Alex Cross is a detective whose powers of deduction border on the clairvoyant; he can look at your shirt and tell you what you're having for dinner tomorrow night. But the third big-screen outing for novelist James Patterson's celebrated Washington D.C. come solver will probably be best remembered as a …
A 13-year-old soldier, María (Karen Torres), is ordered to carry her commanding officer’s baby into battle with her. (The advantaged birth-mother is a fellow platoon-member.) Never once questioning the assignment is either an indication of María’s extreme loyalty to duty or a preoccupation with keeping secret her own pregnancy by …
Whether he's dancing on top of a car or madly tapping a coffee spoon, Ali (Adeel Akhtar) has enough nervous energy in him to power all of Bradford. Ava’s (Claire Rushbrook) work as a teacher’s assistant introduces the Irish born immigrant to her Indian counterpart, the landlord of a student …
A pre-credit disclaimer brings us up to speed: what follows is a fictionalized biopic inspired by the life of Céline Dion that’s “been modified in keeping with the filmmaker’s vision.” Regrettably, writer-director-star Valérie Lemercier never makes good on her promise of a triple threat. When drained, the script contains enough …
Why did Robert Rodriguez bother giving Rosa Salazar the CG Margaret Keane treatment when Hollywood already had tumescently-eyed young actresses like Anya Taylor-Joy or Bel Powley eager to report for duty? It’s Ex Machina for teenagers when a futuristic sawbones (Christoph Waltz in cruise control) fuses together the upper-torso of …
There’s a gay, black BFF living down the hall, a suffocatingly adorable mom, a handsome Jewish doctor, the obligatory Hallmark greeting card romantic interlude (parasailing, anyone?), characters who break out into spontaneous sing-alongs, and Whoopi Goldberg as God. What separates this from all the other chick flicks out there? Colon …
Scheduled to open at around this time last year, the film was pulled and forgotten until the Digital Gym decided the time was at last right for Nina Geld (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to have her say. If Sarah Silverman and Sam Kinison conceived a love child, it might look something …
It’s all about the pacing in first-time director Neto Villalobos’ leisurely unfolding of a (game)cock and bull tale about a Costa Rican broomstick in security guard’s clothing and the friendships he derives after bantering a bantam out of his landlord. Chalo (Allan Cascante) is the type of charmer who’ll sit …