Marc Webb In this quirky romantic comedy about love and fate, a young greeting card writer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is hopelessly, helplessly searching for the girl of his dreams...and his new co-worker, Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel), may just be “the one.” But the 500 days of their offbeat relationship reveal (in no particular order) that the road to happiness can be unpredictable, uncontrollable—and unbelievably funny!

Audio: English: 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio / Spanish & French: 5.1 Dolby DigitalLanguage: Dubbed & Subtitled: English, French & SpanishTheatrical Aspect Ratio: Widescreen: 2.40:1

Sébastien Betbeder Arman is 33 and ready to make a change, starting with a run in the park. When he literally bumps into Amélie - slightly cynical but nevertheless lovely - on the jogging path, he's dead-set on making a connection with her. As a bit of contrived fate brings them together, Arman's best friend Benjamin suffers an unexpected stroke, relegating him to the hospital for weeks where he falls for his doting young physical therapist. Over the course of two autumns and three winters, Arman, Amélie and Benjamin share the incidental moments, unexpected accidents, unconventional love stories and unforgettable memories that will define who they are.

Ki-duk Kim The story of a young man who makes a hobby out of breaking into strangers homes, encounters a battered young woman who after the death of her husband by his hands, runs away with him.Genre: Foreign Film - OtherRating: RRelease Date: 4-APR-2006Media Type: DVD

In Arnaud Desplechin The Vuillard family gathers: Junon and Abel, a daughter Elizabeth and her son Paul, Henri and a girlfriend, Ivan, his wife Sylvia and their young sons, and cousin Simon. Six years before, Elizabeth paid Henri's debts and demanded he never see her again or visit their parents' home. Paul, at 16, has mental problems and faces a clinical exam. Junon learns she needs a bone marrow transplant if she's to live beyond a few months: thus the détente bringing all together. Two family members have compatible marrow, but the spats, fights, cruel words, drunken toasts, and somewhat civilized bad behavior threaten all; plus Junon may simply refuse treatment. Do we know ourselves?

Mike Leigh ABIGAIL'S PARTY features Beverly (Alison Steadman) a bitingly funny hostess of a dainty evening party at which her husband has the ultimate bad taste of having a heart attack on her new living room carpet. Unable to decide which is more important, her dying husband or her new, very expensive, carpet, Abigail must come to terms with where her true priorities lay. One of Mike Leigh's greatest works, ABIGAIL'S PARTY reaches a moment when the unbearable and hopeless fuse to create an explosion of incredible humor and tremendous insight into the state of human affairs.

Atom Egoyan Noah, an insurance adjuster (Elias Koteas), takes victims of material devastation to a place of comfort: he has sex with his clients (while explaining the insurance policies). His wife Hera (Arsinee Khanjian), a film censor, videotapes the pornography she rates—to help her sister understand what she does at work. Yet at home, these edgy communicators have no relationship at all. Like David Lynch, director Atom Egoyan pursues a cinema of unsettling moods and quirky characters engaged in inexplicable activities, devoting more energy to posing questions than providing answers. That, coupled with a repertory of painfully sensitive actors, orchestrates a universe of endemic alienation. The result? A provocative drama that will stay with you for days. —Lloyd Chesley

Susanne Bier Jacob Pederson lives in shanty surroundings in Bombay, India, and assists in the running of Anand Orphanage and School. He had attempted a number of projects to assist orphans, including child prostitutes - all quite in vain. He has adopted a young male orphan, Pramod, and takes special care of him. With growing pressure on the facilities, which is on the verge bankruptcy, the orphanage receives an offer of funding from wealthy Danish citizen, Jörgen, which may put an end to its problems. In order to obtain the money, Jacob must travel to Copenhagen, meet with Jörgen, get financial assistance, and be back to celebrate Pramod's 8th birthday. He sets forth, is received by Christian Refner, an employee and future son-in-law of Jörgen. Jacob is shown all possible courtesy and even housed in a posh apartment. He subsequently meets with Jörgen, shows him video-tapes and submits that a few Kroner could really save several lives which would otherwise succumb to minor illnesses and infections....

Pedro González-Rubio Before their inevitable farewell, a young man of Mayan roots and Natan, his half Italian son, embark on an epic journey into the open sea.

David Crowther, Ridley Scott The terror begins when the crew of a spaceship investigates a transmission from a desolate planet, and discovers a life form that is perfectly evolved to annihilate mankind. One by one, each crew member is slain until only Ripley is left, leading to an explosive conclusion that sets the stage for its stunning sequel, "Aliens."

James Cameron In this action-packed sequel to Alien, Sigourney Weaver returns as Ripley, the only survivor from mankind's first encounter with the monstrous Alien. Her account of the Alien and the fate of her crew are received with skepticism - until the mysterious disappearance of colonists on LV-426 leads her to join a team of high-tech colonial marines sent in to investigate.

Personally supervised by director James Cameron, this special edition includes scenes eliminated prior to the film's 1986 release which broaden the narrative scope and enrich the emotional impact of the film.

Luca Guadagnino Academy Award® winner Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) stars in this gorgeously composed Italian drama as Emma: dutiful wife, loving mother, and the heart of an affluent Milanese family. While shifting control and internal strife threaten the future of the family business, Emma experiences a sexual and emotional awakening when she falls for her son's friend and business partner, a gifted chef named Antonio, sparking a passionate affair that will change the lives of her family forever.

Andrei Tarkovsky Tracing the life of a renowned icon painter, the second feature by Andrei Tarkovsky vividly conjures the murky world of medieval Russia. This dreamlike and remarkably tactile film follows Andrei Rublev as he passes through a series of poetically linked scenes—snow falls inside an unfinished church, naked pagans stream through a thicket during a torchlit ritual, a boy oversees the clearing away of muddy earth for the forging of a gigantic bell—gradually emerging as a man struggling mightily to preserve his creative and religious integrity. Appearing here in the director’s preferred 183-minute cut as well as the version that was originally suppressed by Soviet authorities, the masterwork Andrei Rublev is one of Tarkovsky’s most revered films, an arresting meditation on art, faith, and endurance.

Despite Canada's numerous internationally respected writers, it is surprisingly rare for a "classic" Canadian novel to be made into a Canadian feature film, let alone a box office hit. Mordecai Richler's famous serio-comic novel, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, is an exception. Made when the English Canadian film industry was just starting out, it's a decent adaptation of the classic novel directed by Canadian expatriate, Ted Kotcheff. Richard Dreyfuss stars as Duddy, a young hustler bred in Montreal's Jewish ghetto, who is determined to be somebody, no matter the cost. Jack Warden plays his working-class dad and Randy Quaid plays a good-natured simpleton who Duddy takes under his wing. Canadian actress Micheline Lanctot portrays Duddy's good hearted love interest and British actor Denholm Elliott has a turn as a down-on-his-luck filmmaker Duddy befriends. Adapted by Richler himself (in conjunction with Lionel Chetwynd) it is not surprising that the result is a fairly faithful rendition of its source material, complete with the novel's moral ambivalence. Energetic and well-acted, the movie's a little rough around the edges, but remains an edgy and amusing drama. —D.K. Latta

Atom Egoyan People tell stories. In Toronto, an art historian lectures on Arshile Gorky (1904 -1948), an Armenian painter who lived through the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. A director invites the historian to help him include Gorky's story in a film about the genocide and Turkish assault on the town of Van. The historian's family is under stress: her son is in love with his step-sister, who blames the historian for the death of her father. The daughter wants to revisit her father's death and change that story. An aging customs agent tells his son about his long interview with the historian's son, who has returned from Turkey with canisters of film. All the stories connect.

Joe Penna A man stranded in the Arctic after a plane crash must decide whether to remain in the relative safety of his makeshift camp or to embark on a deadly trek through the unknown in hopes of making it out alive.

Hsiao-Hsien Hou In 8th century China, 10-year-old general's daughter Nie Yinniang is handed over to a nun who initiates her into the martial arts, transforming her into an exceptional assassin charged with eliminating cruel and corrupt local governors. One day, having failed in a task, she is sent back by her mistress to the land of her birth, with orders to kill the man to whom she was betrothed - a cousin who now leads the largest independent military region in North China. After 13 years of exile, the young woman must confront her parents, her memories and her long-repressed feelings. A slave to the orders of her mistress, Nie Yinniang must choose: sacrifice the man she loves or break forever with the sacred way of the righteous assassins.

Bruce Alcock Al Purdy, the man of modern Canadian poetry, strings together beautiful phrases from rough, brazen words in this recount of a bar fight. In At The Quinte Hotel, a man sits at a bar pontificating the “beautiful yellow flowers” of beer when a fight breaks out. He watches innocently with the other customers until beer is spilled. “You shouldn’t have wasted that good beer and them beautiful flowers.” Soon this “sensitive man” knocks the fighter to the floor and sits on him while telling him “violence will get you nowhere.” Both a brash drinker and a tender thinker—the contrast dances wonderfully.

A live-action short of the same name was released in 2003 starring Gord Downie. Technically, it’s done well, but the format is all wrong—the images give too much away and the power behind Purdy’s words are lost. Watch one, then the other—you’ll see what I mean.

On the topic of visuals, lets not forget the superb animation done here by Bruce Alcock. I love his choice of a collage-style animation that combines painting, stop-motion, typography, etc. Every object adds greater depth to Al’s words like the “sensitive” gun and axe we see with the timing synced to his rhythm of speech. At The Quinte Hotel is truly one of the best marriages of image and word. Often conflicting, but always harmonizing.

Try this on for a deeper message: the way one sees oneself and the way one is perceived by others are often two very different views. But a certain harmony comes from it. This is true not only in our main character but also in the value of the things we call beautiful. In his usual brazen style, Al makes this very clear near the end—”A poem will not really buy you beer, or flowers, or a goddam thing.” Al Purdy, never a rich man, was cynically commenting on the world of poetry—ever important, yet unnecessary—the harmony of his discordant universe.

Zacharias Kunuk Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner is the first feature film made in the Inuktitut language. Based on an ancient Inuit legend, it's an epic tale of love, betrayal, family, and survival played out against the harsh and barren white landscape of the Far North. Noteworthy for its cinematography, performances, and verisimilitude of the Inuit way of life before their exposure to Europeans. Also notable for how accomplished the film is considering its basic production values.

Sarah Polley Married for almost 50 years, Grant's (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona's (Julie Christie) commitment to each other appears unwavering. Their daily life is filled with tenderness and humor; yet this serenity is broken by Fiona's increasingly evident memory loss - and her restrained references to a past betrayal. For a while, the couple is able to casually dismiss these unwelcome changes. But when neither Fiona nor her husband can deny any longer that she is being consumed by Alzheimer's disease, the couple is forced to wrenchingly redefine the limits of their love and loyalty - and face the complex, inevitable transition from lovers to strangers.

David Hartford Based on James Oliver Curwood's novel, Wapi the Walrus, Back to God's Country is the story of a free-spirited, nature-loving woman (Nell Shipman) and her run-ins with a nasty thug (Wellington A. Playter) who continually pursues her. This flapper-era silent movie holds up surprisingly well and benefits from some location filming. It is also notable because it remains the most commercially successful Canadian movie of all time—in eighty years Canadian filmmakers have yet to top it (and, unlike so many, it was actually set in Canada!). What's more, it's believed to be the only film left in existence from Canada's burgeoning silent-film era. Unlike many American silent movies, it remained unavailable to TV or video until 1997 when the Canadian Bravo! TV network presented a surprisingly well-restored version with an effective piano score by Gabriel Thibaudeau. Shipman, who was also a producer, appeared in a number of movies derived from American writer Curwood's Canadian-set stories, though the others were for Hollywood. None, however, matched the success of this one. —D.K. Latta

Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho Bacurau, a small settlement in Brazil's remote backcountry, is shaken by the death of its elderly matriarch. But something strange is happening in the village, and there's little time for mourning. The water supply has been cut off, animals are stampeding through the streets, and empty coffins are turning up on the roadside. One morning, the villagers wake up to find their home has disappeared from satellite maps completely. Under threat from an unknown enemy, Bacurau braces itself for a bloody, brutal fight for survival.

Lance Hammer SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
WINNER: BEST DIRECTOR / BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
NOMINATED: GRAND JURY PRIZE
INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS (6 NOMINATIONS)
BEST FEATURE / BEST DIRECTOR / BEST FEMALE LEAD / BEST SUPPORTING MALE / FIRST SCREENPLAY / BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
NAACP IMAGE AWARD
NOMINATED: OUTSTANDING INDEPENDENT MOTION PICTURE
GOTHAM AWARDS
WINNER: BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR
NOMINATED: BEST FILM / BEST ENSEMBLE CAST / BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR
TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL
WINNER: TFCA AWARD (BEST FIRST FEATURE)
BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL
NOMINATED: GOLDEN BEAR AWARD (BEST FEATURE FILM)

A double prize winner at the Sundance Film Festival and one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2008, Ballast is a stunningly evocative story of personal catastrophe and communal redemption. In the cold winter light of the Mississippi Delta, three lonely people stumble under the weight of a shared tragedy. Lawrence (Micheal J. Smith, Sr.) is paralyzed with grief after the loss of his twin brother. Twelve-year-old James (Jim Myron Ross) drifts into the perilous orbit of local teenagers while his single mother, Marlee (Tarra Riggs), is too exhausted from her menial job to interpret the clues. When sudden violence forces mother and son to flee their home in the night, they alight desperately on Lawrence s property. Though this provides safe harbor, it rekindles the fury of a bitter, longstanding conflict. Writer-director Lance Hammer and his gifted cast of local, non-professional actors have created an unflinching, profoundly humane story of lost souls forced by circumstance to seek solace in the most unlikely of places.

SPECIAL FEATURES
- Director supervised high-definition digital transfer from the 35mm interpositive.
- Ballast Scene Development - A 37-minute making-of feature charting the evolution of several scenes through the improvisational conflict sessions and two-month rehearsal process that gave form to the final film.
- Original theatrical trailer.
- Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.
- A new essay by film critic Amy Taubin.

Barry Levinson Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett. The famed Sleepover Bandits" get a new partner in a housewife who they initially took as a hostage. 2001/color/123 min/PG-13/widescreen.

Richard J. Lewis The publication of a book accusing him of murder leads schlock television producer Barney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti) to reflect on his tumultuous life—from his troubled first marriage to his best friend sleeping with his second wife to his one true love… and how he destroyed the happiest time in his life. By turns comic and self-lacerating, Panofsky is a richly drawn character given vivid life by Giamatti, who's built a remarkable career on prickly people (Sideways, American Splendor, John Adams). Regrettably, the women in his life aren't as fully realized, but the strong performances from the actresses playing them (Rachelle Lefevre, Minnie Driver, and Rosamund Pike) do a lot to make up for the thinness of how they're written. Rounding out the cast is Dustin Hoffman as Panofsky's father, a crude but vigorous ex-cop who loves his son unreservedly. Adapted from an award-winning Canadian book, Barney's Version feels, in the best sense, like a novel; small details and incidents build up to the picture of a man's life. The movie depicts that life without judgment, never manipulating the audience for cheap laughs or sentiment—and yet it is by turns wildly funny and achingly sad, largely due to Giamatti. He holds the viewer's attention effortlessly, quietly, never showboating his emotions or flaunting his intelligence. He's simply a superb actor, and this is a superb performance. —Bret Fetzer

Scott Kalvert UPC: 660000000000

Film adaptation of street tough Jim Carroll's epistle about his kaleidoscopic free fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction. As a member of a seemingly unbeatable high school basketball squad; Jim's life centers around the basketball court and the court becomes a metaphor for the world in his mind. A best friend who is dying of leukemia; a coach (Swifty") who takes unacceptable liberties with the boys on his team; teenage sexual angst; and an unhealthy appetite for heroin — all of these begin to encroach on young Jim's dream of becoming a basketball star. Soon; the dark streets of New York become a refuge from his mother's mounting concern for her son. He can't go home and his only escape from the reality of the streets is heroin for which he steals; robs and prostitutes himself. Only with the help of Reggie; an older neighborhood friend with whom Jim "picked up a game" now and then; is he able to begin the long journey back to sanity."

Benh Zeitlin Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink, in the Bathtub, a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink's tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe; for a time when he's no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack, temperatures rise, and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink's health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.

Julian Schnabel Javier Bardem, Johnny Depp, Olivier Martinez. From Basquiat director Julian Schnabel comes this powerful portrait of Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas, who drew inspiration from Castro's revolution only to end up in prison for his sexuality. 2000/color/133 min/R/widescreen.

Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Ivalu Two isolated families meet for a summertime celebration. Food is abundant and the future seems bright, but Ningiuq, a strong and wise old woman, sees her world as fragile and moves through it with a pervasive sense of dread.
Ningiuq and her grandson Maniq are dropped off on a remote island, where, every year, the family dries the catch and stores it for winter.
The task is soon finished. As summer turns to fall, they wait in vain for the others to pick them up.

DVD An oddball love story about a fey loner named Sam (Johnny Depp), who falls in love with the mentally unbalanced Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson), who lives in the care of her protective brother Benny (Aidan Quinn). This 1993 story is hard to swallow, with its message that love can conquer a brand of mental illness that manifests itself in pyromania: Joon has a bad habit of going a bit around the bend and setting fires, but Sam's tender care apparently has the cure for what ails her. Still, if you want proof that Depp has significant chops as a physical comedian, give this film a try: He does note-perfect renditions of slapstick routines made famous by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. —Marshall Fine

Jacopo Quadri, Bernardo Bertolucci From acclaimed director Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor Last Tango In Paris) comes a breathtaking film rich in passion desire and intrigue about a reclusive British pianists infatuation with an African exile housemaid.Running Time: 95 min.System Requirements: Running Time 95 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:�DRAMA Rating:�R UPC:�794043485923

Luca Guadagnino In A BIGGER SPLASH, the lives of a high profile couple, a famous rock star (Tilda Swinton) and a filmmaker (Matthias Schoenaerts), vacationing and recovering on the idyllic sun-drenched and remote Italian island of Pantelleria, are disrupted by the unexpected visit of an old friend (Ralph Fiennes) and his daughter (Dakota Johnson) - creating a whirlwind of jealousy, passion and, ultimately, danger for everyone involved.

Alfred Hitchcock Nothing equals The Birds for sheer terror when Alfred Hitchcock unleashes his foul friends in one of his most shocking and memorable masterpieces. As beautiful blonde Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) rolls into Bodega Bay in pursuit of eligible bachelor Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), she is inexplicably attacked by a seagull. Suddenly thousands of birds are flocking into town, preying on schoolchildren and residents in a terrifying series of attacks. Soon Mitch and Melanie are fighting for their lives against a deadly force that can't be explained and can't be stopped in one of Hollywood's most horrific films of nature gone berserk.

Alejandro González Iñárritu Academy Award® nominee Javier Bardem is Uxbal, a man on the wrong side of the law who struggles to provide for his children on the dangerous streets of Barcelona. As fate encircles him, Uxbal learns to accept the realities of life, whether bright, bad — or biutiful — in this unforgettable Academy Award®-nominated film from director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel).

Ridley Scott From acclaimed director Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Hannibal) and renowned producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pearl Harbor, Armageddon) comes a gripping true story about bravery, camaradarie and the complex reality of war. Black Hawk Down stars an exceptional cast including Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbor), Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge!), Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan), Eric Bana (Chopper), William Fichtner (The Perfect Storm), Ewen Bremner (Snatch) and Sam Shepard (All The Pretty Horses). In 1993, an elite group of American Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are sent to Somalia on a critical mission to capture a violent warlord whose corrupt regime has lead to the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Somalis. When the mission goes terribly wrong, the men find themselves outnumbered and literally fighting for their lives.

Spike Lee Ron Stallworth, an African American police officer from Colorado Springs, CO, successfully manages to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan branch with the help of a Jewish surrogate who eventually becomes its leader. Based on actual events.

Ridley Scott Deckard, a blade runner, has to track down and terminate 4 replicants who hijacked a ship in space and have returned to earth seeking their maker.

Fernando Meirelles A city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant "white blindness". Those first afflicted are quarantined by the authorities in an abandoned mental hospital where the newly created "society of the blind" quickly breaks down. Criminals and the physically powerful prey upon the weak, hoarding the meager food rations and committing horrific acts. There is, however, one eyewitness to the nightmare. A woman whose sight is unaffected by the plague follows her afflicted husband to quarantine. There, keeping her sight a secret, she guides seven strangers who have become, in essence, a family. She leads them out of quarantine and onto the ravaged streets of the city, which has seen all vestiges of civilization crumble.

Edward Zwick An ex-mercenary turned smuggler (Leonardo DiCaprio). A Mende fisherman (Djimon Hounsou). Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed across the alternately beautiful and ravaged countryside. Directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai), this urgent, intensely moving adventure shapes gripping human stories and heart-pounding action into a modern epic of profound impact.

Paul Hirsch, Brian De Palma John Travolta (Pulp Fiction, Face/Off) stars in this riveting mystery/thriller filledwith powerful performances, intense action and an "engrossing web of suspense and intrigue" (Blockbuster Entertainment Guide). Written and directed by master filmmaker Brian De Palma (Mission: Impossible), Blow Out is a heart-stopping adventure hailed by Rolling Stone as"an American moviemaking triumph!" Jack Terri (Travolta) is a talented audio technician who makes his living by recording unique sounds for horror movies. But when he accidentally tapes an automobile crash that kills a presidential candidate and injures his young mistress, Sally (Nancy Allen), Jack is hurled into a mystery far more terrifying than any of his films! Soon he and Sally mustfight to stay alive as they uncover an explosive political conspiracy that will send shockwaves to the highest levels of government.

Michelangelo Antonioni A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. Then he meets a mysterious beauty, and also notices something frightfully suspicious on one of his photographs of her taken in a park. The fact that he may have photographed a murder does not occur to him until he studies and then blows up his negatives, uncovering details, blowing up smaller and smaller elements, and finally putting the puzzle together.

Blue Rodeo Sensitive Californian adolescent Peter Yearwood loosing his hearing in a pool accident after one of the family rows leading to his parents' divorce. He attends a rural special school in Arizona near Blue Dog reservation, where Leo Hidalgo's native family, with two deaf daughters, takes better care of him. His ma Maggie moves into a nearby farm to be around, but Peter bitterly refuses contact, even with then puppy Echo, whose waking got him out of his coma. She paints and gets acquainted with lonely cowboy neighbor Owen Whister. She ignores his dark reason for being a recluse when they become friends. It concerns the rodeo, which also provides an occasion for Peter to visit 'home', in order to be with his girl friend.

Colm Feore If the phrase "Canadian action thriller" doesn't send you running to the video store, Bon Cop Bad Cop is hoping to change your mind. When a body is found straddling the Ontario/Quebec border, a detective from each province must partner up to solve the case. Naturally, in the grand tradition of buddy-cop movies, one (Colm Feore, Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould) is straight-laced and by the book while the other (Patrick Huard, Les Boys) is a chain-smoking loose cannon. The mystery escalates as more bodies pile up, all connected to the world of hockey (and based on real-life hockey figures) and all marked with mysterious tattoos. Gags about French vs. English pile up as well, along with other Canadian in-jokes, but despite that, Bon Cop Bad Cop is accessible and entertaining, a preposterous, over-the-top blend of Lethal Weapon and Saw. It has all the classic elements—an eccentric coroner, women throwing themselves at the heroes, a brawl in a bar, a time-bomb on an innocent victim, a detective clinging to the roof of speeding car—as well as a number of unique bits, like some creepy bobble-heads and a killer in a sports mascot costume doing a De Niro impression. (Be warned that the violence is sometimes extreme, though usually for comic effect, and there's a steady flow of strong language.) —Bret Fetzer

Larry Charles Previously Enjoyed and Fully Guaranteed

Ali Abbasi A customs officer who can smell fear develops an unusual attraction to a strange traveler while aiding a police investigation which will call into question her entire existence.

Herbert Ross A perfect entertainment (New York Daily News) teams Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore and Mary Louise Parker as the unlikeliest of friends on a cross-country journey of discovery.

Rachel Perkins In the summer of 1969 a young man is filled with the life of the idyllic old pearling port Broome - fishing, hanging out with his mates and his girl. However his mother returns him to the religious mission for further schooling. After being punished for an act of youthful rebellion, he runs away from the mission on a journey that ultimately leads him back home.

Brand Upon the Brain! Canadian director Guy Maddin's "Brand Upon the Brain" is a silent film that reveals the shocking truth about his hellish childhood on a remote island under the watchful eye of a crazed mother hellbent on restoring her youth and a diabolically distant scientist-father, proprietors of a mom-and-pop orphanage that surreptitiously operate within the dank confines of the family lighthouse. Watch! as the sex instinct grabs hold of young Maddin and his sister! Thrill! as the Mysteries of the Light House are divined by teen detectives! Reel! at the headstrong invention and heart-stopping rhythms of the elder Maddin's heroic silent moviemaking!!

Neil Jordan "Why don‘t they stop me?" Erica Bain wonders. Bain, a popular N.Y radio host, watched her fiancé die and nearly lost her own life to a vicious, random attack. Now she discovers a stranger within herself, an armed wanderer in the urban night, out for vengeance and at war with her own soul. Two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster, as Erica, joins Oscar nominee Terrence Howard, as a determined cop hot on her trail. Erica?s future is uncertain, but one thing is not: THE BRAVE ONE is a high- tension thriller that packs a visceral and emotional punch.

Peter Yates A small-town boy obsessed with the Italian cycling team vies for the affections of a college girl.

Ang Lee A sad, melancholy ache pervades Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee's haunting, moving film that, like his other movies, explores societal constraints and the passions that lurk underneath. This time, however, instead of taking on ancient China, 19th-century England, or '70s suburbia, Lee uses the tableau of the American West in the early '60s to show how two lovers are bound by their expected roles, how they rebel against them, and the repercussions for each of doing so—but the romance here is between two men. Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) are two itinerant ranchers looking for work in Wyoming when they meet and embark on a summer sheepherding job in the shadow of titular Brokeback Mountain. The taciturn Ennis, uncommunicative in the extreme, finds himself opening up around the gregarious Jack, and the two form a bond that surprisingly catches fire one cold night out in the wilderness. Separating at the end of the summer, each goes on to marry and have children, but a reunion years later proves that, if anything, their passion for each other has grown significantly. And while Jack harbors dreams of a life together, the tight-lipped Ennis is unable to bring himself to even consider something so revolutionary.

Its open, unforced depiction of love between two men made Brokeback an instant cultural touchstone, for both good and bad, as it was tagged derisively as the "gay cowboy movie," but also heralded as a breakthrough for mainstream cinema. Amidst all the hoopla of various agendas, though, was a quiet, heartbreaking love story that was both of its time and universal—it was the quintessential tale of star-crossed lovers, but grounded in an ever-changing America that promised both hope and despair. Adapted by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana from Annie Proulx's short story, the movie echoes the sparse bleakness of McMurtry's The Last Picture Show with its fading of the once-glorious West; but with Lee at the helm, it also resembles The Ice Storm, as it showed the ripple effects of a singular event over a number of people. As always, Lee's work with actors is unparalleled, as he elicits graceful, nuanced performances from Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway as the wives affected overtly and subliminally by their husbands' affair, and Gyllenhaal brings surprising dimensions to a character that could have easily just been a puppy dog of a boy. It's Ledger, however, who's the breakthrough in the film, and his portrait of an emotionally repressed man both undone and liberated by his feelings is mesmerizing and devastating. Spare in style but rich with emotion, Brokeback Mountain earns its place as a classic modern love story. —Mark Englehart

Brand new and factory sealed

Michael Haneke A married couple is terrorized by a series of surveillance videotapes left on their front porch.

Jean-Marc Vallée A love story between a man and woman. And between a mother and her son. A mystical and fantastical odyssey on love.

Ruba Nadda In Cairo on her own as she waits for her husband, Juliette finds herself caught in a whirlwind romance with his friend Tareq, a retired cop. As Tareq escorts Juliette around the city, they find themselves in the middle of a brief affair that catches them both unawares.

Atom Egoyan Teenager Cassandra is locked up against her will unable to contact her family to let them know she's still alive. Flashback to eight years ago when 9-year-old Cass was abducted from her father's truck and he goes straight to the authorities who immediately peg him as the prime suspect. Eight years later, her father, Matthew, is still being investigated by the police who are also trying to crack the bigger problem of crimes against children, Matthew's marriage has deteriorated and leads in the case are hard to come by. So much time but so little has changed and it's going to be up to Matthew and Cassandra herself to repair the estranged family.

Guy Maddin A self-styled "pro-incest" movie about a town in the Alps where the fear of avalanches means that no one speaks above a whisper? When Winnipeg's Prairie surrealist Guy Maddin, slowly working his way through the forgotten genres of early film, decided to turn to the German Alpine pictures of the 1930s, he created what is so far his masterpiece. Awash with colour and filled [ds1]with forbidden whispers, Careful finds the perfect balance between Maddin's senses of kitsch and tragedy.

Kelly Reichardt IThe lives of three women intersect in small-town America, where each is imperfectly blazing a trail.

Jean-Paul Salomé

Tim Burton Long isolated from his own family, Willy Wonka launches a worldwide contest to select an heir to his candy empire. Five lucky children from around the world, including Charlie Bucket, draw Golden Tickets from Wonka chocolate bars and win a guided tour of the legendary candy making facility that no outsider has seen in 15 years.

DVD Features:
Biographies:The Fantastic Mr. Dahl: Learn about Dahl's life story and extraordinary body of work.
Challenges: 4 SCRUMPTIOUS Challenges for kids to play!
1) Oompa-Loompa Dance Machine 2) The Inventing Machine 3) The Bad Nut 4) Search For the Golden Ticket
DVD ROM Features
Documentaries:Attack of the Squirrels: See how they trained live squirrels to perform in the film.
5 Making-Of Featurettes!
Becoming Oomp-Loompa: See how one actor, Deep Roy, was turned into a multi-talented army of Oompa's.

The Chronicles of Narnia, a seven-volume, Bible-based children's fantasy series written in the 1950s by British theologian C.S. Lewis, draws young readers into the magical, dangerous land of Narnia and plunges them into the age-old battle of good and evil. Lewis envisioned these stories as pictures before he wrote them, so it seems only proper that the books would eventually make it to the small screen. In the late 1980s and early '90s, three adventures in this series—The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (169 minutes), Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (168 minutes), and The Silver Chair (168 minutes)—were faithfully adapted into a TV series by the BBC and Home Vision Entertainment, then edited to feature-length productions. All three of these discs (nine hours of viewing!) are included in this boxed set of DVDs, along with interactive trivia games and more.

Youngsters expecting special effects like those found in The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone may miss the subtler charms of these sweet but rather homespun productions, with humans dressed as woodland creatures and patched-in animation. And kids expecting fast-paced action adventures may snooze after a few hours of these relatively slow-moving scripts. But those who want a refresher course in all things Narnia will be thrilled to see these well-loved fantasies come to life in gorgeous snowy landscapes—the good lion Aslan (played by a large, talking stuffed animal), the horrible White Queen (performed with deliciously over-the-top zeal by actress Barbara Kellerman), the four siblings, fauns, dwarves, deadly sea monsters, and all. —Karin Snelson

Andrew Adamson Prepare to enter another world when Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media present C.S. Lewis' timeless and beloved adventure. With the stunningly realistic special effects, you'll experience the exploits of Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter, four siblings who find the world of Narnia through a magical wardrobe while playing a game of "hide-and-seek" at the country estate of a mysterious professor. Once there, the children discover a charming, once peaceful land inhabited by talking beasts, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs, and giants that has been turned into a world of eternal winter by the evil White Witch, Jadis. Aided by the wise and magnificent lion Aslan, the children lead Narnia into a spectacular climactic battle to be free of the Witch's glacial powers forever! The Chronicles of Narnia, Narnia, and all other book titles, characters and locales original thereto are trademarks of C.S. Lewis Pte Ltd. and are used with permission. © Disney/Walden

Giuseppe Tornatore Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Cinema Paradiso is the beautiful, enchanting story of a young boy's lifelong love affair with the movies. Set in an Italian village, Salvatore finds himself enchanted by the flickering images at the Cinema Paradiso, yearning for the secret of the cinema's magic. When the projectionist, Alfredo, agrees to reveal the mysteries of moviemaking, a deep friendship is born. The day comes for Salvatore to leave the village and pursue his dream of making movies of his own. Thirty years later he receives a message that beckons him back home to a secret, beautiful discovery that awaits him in this acclaimed film from director Giuseppe Tornatore.

Maryam Keshavarz A wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager's growing sexual rebellion and her brother's dangerous obsession.

Laurent Cantet Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood,

Clara McBride When distance brings you closer... After suffering a nervous breakdown in her adopted city of Paris, Cleo receives a visit from her sister Celine.

Jim Jarmusch Eleven separate vignettes are presented. In each, celebrities, playing semi-fictionalized versions of themselves (with the exception of the characters of various wait staff, and one actor playing a lookalike cousin of herself), meet in a food service establishment with coffee/tea and cigarettes involved. Beyond the topic of discussion that brought them together, they often talk directly about coffee and cigarettes, more often that coffee and cigarettes, and by association caffeine and nicotine, are not healthy, especially if they are the only things constituting lunch. Other recurring themes include the Lee family, cousinhood, celebrity worship, the connection between the medical and musical careers, and Nikola Tesla's belief that the Earth is a conductor of acoustic resonance. In all cases, the coming together for coffee/tea and smokes acts as a bridge to overcome disagreements, and/or makes uncomfortable situations less uncomfortable.

Pawel Pawlikowski A passionate love story between two people of different backgrounds and temperaments, who are fatefully mismatched and yet condemned to each other. Set against the background of the Cold War in the 1950s in Poland, Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris, the film depicts an impossible love story in impossible times.

Carl Bessai Do you ever feel like everyone in the world is counting on you?
22-year-old Cole Chambers is a talented young writer with dreams to big for his small town. Frustrated and trapped, Cole has spent his entire life picking up the pieces of his shattered family.
When Cole gets the opportunity to take a creative writing class at a university in the city, he sees his potential for the first time – that he can get out of his small town and actually make something out of his life. But at what cost?

Agnès Guillemot, Lila Lakshmanan, Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard's subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a star-studded Cinemascope epic. Contempt (Le M pris) stars Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European director (played by legendary director Fritz Lang), a crude and arrogant American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife, Camille (Brigitte Bardot) as he attempts to doctor the script for a new film version of The Odyssey.

Anton Corbijn A profile of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to commit suicide at the age of 23.

Francis Ford Coppola A paranoid and personally-secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that a couple he is spying on will be murdered.

Brian Petersen J. and Steve, best friends forever, inadvertently stumble into an incredible opportunity when a Mexican buddy is deported and needs their help to get back across the border. Surprised at how easy it is to fool the Border Patrol in Nogales, the guys see it as a chance to corner the market promoting themselves as the Kinder, Gentler People Smugglers . While trying to beat the minute men at their own game they learn the danger of crossing boundaries.

Carole Laure Seventeen-year-old Rachel is a rebellious teen — full of defiance and despair. From a broken home, her life is devoid of love and she has no outlet for expressing herself. When Jeanne, a modern dance teacher, enters her life, Rachel changes. She finally finds a concrete way to express her uncertainty and rage towards a world which never provided her with positive attention. Recently released from prison, Jeanne, who was involved in a minor case of theft, was able to get a glimpse into the world of women behind bars, who drown in hopelessness and often resort to violence or self destructive behavior. Jeanne share her experiences not only with Rachel, but also with Odile, an unemployed single mother. Jeanne's professional eye and Odile's sensitive intellect cannot fail to see that Rachel has a real talent for dance. Will it turn out that thanks to this new interest and the people around her, she finds a path to a new life?

David Cronenberg A Psycho-Sexual Journey Into Oblivion In This Controversial Film From Acclaimed Director David Cronenberg. James Spader Is A Bored Film Director Who Explores New Realms After A Near-Fatal Car Accident Introduces Him To A World Of Sexually Obsessed Car Cradvd Features:Featuretteotherproduction Notestheatrical Trailer

Vincenzo Natali If Clive Barker had written an episode of The Twilight Zone, it might have looked something like Cube. A handful of strangers wake up inside a bizarre maze, having been spirited there during the night. They quickly learn that they have to navigate their way through a series of chambers if they have any hope of escape, but the problem is that there are lethal traps awaiting if they choose their route unwisely. Having established some imaginative and grisly punishments in store for the hostages, cowriter and director Vincenzo Natali turns his attention to the characters, for whom being trapped amplifies their best and worst qualities. The film is, in fact, similar to a famous episode of Rod Serling's old television series, though Natali's explanation for why these poor people are being put through hell is a lot closer to the spirit of The X-Files. Cube has some solid moments of suspense and drama, and the sets are appropriately striking: one is tempted to believe at first the characters are lost inside a computer chip. —Tom Keogh

David Fincher 'I was born under unusual circumstances.' And so begins The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. We follow his story, set in New Orleans, from the end of World War I in 1918 into the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual as any man's life can be. Directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett with Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas and Julia Ormond, Benjamin Button, is a grand tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.

DVD Kevin Costner's 1990 epic won a bundle of Oscars for a moving, engrossing story of a white soldier (Costner) who singlehandedly mans a post in the 1870 Dakotas, and becomes a part of the Lakota Sioux community who live nearby. The film may not be a masterpiece, but it is far more than the sum of good intentions. The characters are strong, the development of relationships is both ambitious and careful, the love story between Costner and Mary McDonnell's character is captivating. Only the third-act portrait of white intruders as morons feels overbearing, but even that leads to a terribly moving conclusion. Costner's direction is assured, the balance of action and intimacy is perfect—what more could anyone want outside of an unqualified masterpiece? —Tom Keogh

Wes Anderson Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman star as three brothers who have drifted apart over the years and try to re-forge their sibling bonds on a hilarious adventure across India. The Royal Tennenbaums meets Lost in Translation.

Christopher Nolan 3 Disc Bluray

Todd Haynes A corporate defense attorney takes on an environmental lawsuit against a chemical company that exposes a lengthy history of pollution.

William Reynolds, Robert Wise DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: G
Release Date: 0000-00-00
Media Type: DVD

SKU:GMDB2217961

Billy Weber, Terrence Malick Considered to be one of the most beautifully photographed films ever made, this majestic film focuses on the relationships among Texas farmworkers during the early part of the 20th century. Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard and Linda Manz are the principals enhanced by Nestor Alemandros and Haskell Wexler's acclaimed cinematography; directed by Terrence Malick. 95 min. Widescreen; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Surround, French Dolby Digital mono; theatrical trailer. NOTE: This Title Is Out Of Print; Limit One Per Customer.

Richard Linklater You remember high school? Really remember? If you think you do, watch this film: it'll all really come racing back. After changing the world with the generation-defining Slacker, director Richard Linklater turned his free-range vérité sensibility on the 1970s. As before, his all-seeing camera meanders across a landscape studded with goofy pop culture references and poignant glimpses of human nature. Only this time around, he's spreading a thick layer of nostalgia over the lens (and across the soundtrack). It's as if Fast Times at Ridgemont High was directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The story deals with a group of friends on the last day of high school, 1976. Good-natured football star Randall "Pink" Floyd navigates effortlessly between the warring worlds of jocks, stoners, wannabes, and rockers with girlfriend and new-freshman buddy in tow. Surprisingly, it's not a coming-of-age movie, but a film that dares ask the eternal, overwhelming, adolescent question, "What happens next?" It's a little too honest to be a light comedy (representative quote: "If I ever say these were the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself."). But it's also way too much fun (remember souped-up Corvettes and bicentennial madness?) to be just another existential-essay-on-celluloid. —Grant Balfour

Jim Jarmusch

DVD Winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, The Deer Hunter is simultaneously an audacious directorial conceit and one of the greatest films ever made about friendship and the personal impact of war. Like Apocalypse Now, it's hardly a conventional battle film—the soldier's experience was handled with greater authenticity in Platoon—but its depiction of war on an intimate scale packs a devastatingly dramatic punch. Director Michael Cimino may be manipulating our emotions with masterful skill, but he does it in a way that stirs the soul and pinches our collective nerves with graphic, high-intensity scenes of men under life-threatening duress. Although Russian-roulette gambling games were not a common occurrence during the Vietnam war, they're used here as a metaphor for the futility of the war itself. To the viewer, they become unforgettably intense rites of passage for the best friends—Pennsylvania steelworkers played by Robert De Niro, John Savage, and Oscar winner Christopher Walken—who may survive or perish during their tour through a tropical landscape of hell. Back home, their loved ones must cope with the war's domestic impact, and in doing so they allow The Deer Hunter to achieve a rare combination of epic storytelling and intimate, heart-rending drama. —Jeff Shannon

Tchavdar Georgiev, Amanda Pope The Desert of Forbidden Art tells the incredible story of how a treasure trove of banned Soviet art worth millions of dollars was found in the desert of Uzbekistan.

During the reign of the Soviet Union, a small group of artists remain true to their vision despite threats of torture, imprisonment and death. Their plight inspires a young archeologist (and frustrated painter) Igor Savitsky. Pretending to buy State-approved art, Stavisky instead daringly rescues 40,000 forbidden fellow artist's works and creates a museum in the desert of Uzbekistan, far from the watchful eyes of the KGB. Though a penniless artist himself, he cajoles the cash to pay for the art from the same authorities who are banning it. He amasses an eclectic mix of Russian Avant-Garde art. But his greatest discovery is an unknown school of artists who settle in Uzbekistan after the Russian revolution of 1917, encountering a unique Islamic culture, as exotic to them as Tahiti was for Gauguin. They develop a startlingly original style, fusing European modernism with centuries-old Eastern traditions.

Ben Kingsley, Sally Field and Ed Asner voice the diaries and letters of Savitsky and the artists. Intercut with recollections of the artists' children and rare archival footage, the film takes us on a dramatic journey of sacrifice for the sake of creative freedom. Described as one of the most remarkable collections of 20th century Russian art and located in one of the world's poorest regions, today these priceless paintings are a lucrative target for Islamic fundamentalists, corrupt bureaucrats and art profiteers. The collection is as endangered as when Savitsky first created it, posing the question whose responsibility is it to preserve this cultural treasure.

Winner of many film festival awards. Official Selection PBS Independent Lens. Critic's Pick New York Magazine. Rave reviews in New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post and NPR.

Kathryn Bigelow A police raid in Detroit in 1967 results in one of the largest RACE riots in United States history. The story is centred around the Algiers Motel incident, which occurred in Detroit, Michigan on July 25, 1967, during the racially charged 12th Street Riot. It involves the death of three black men and the brutal beatings of nine other people: seven black men and two white women.

John McTiernan Bruce Willi stars as New York City Detective John McClane, newly arrived in Los Angeles to spend the Christmas holiday with his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia). But as Mclane waits for his wife's office party to break up, terrorist take control of the building. While the terrorist leader, Hans gruber (Alexander Godunov) round up hostages, McClane slips away unnoticed. Armed with only a service revolver and his cunning, McClane launches his own one-man war. A crackling thriller from beginning to end, Die Hard explodes with heart-stopping suspense.

Barry Levinson The film that launched successful careers for Kevin Bacon, Ellen Barkin, Paul Reiser, Mickey Rourke and more! It's a lively, poignant tale of friends trying to recapture their lost innocence in 1959 Baltimore.

Andrew V. McLaglen, Robert Aldrich Two-DVD Special Edition. Further details as they become available.

James Franco Aspiring actor Greg Sestero befriends the eccentric Tommy Wiseau. The two travel to L.A, and when Hollywood rejects them, Tommy decides to write, direct, produce and star in their own movie. That movie is The Room, which has attained cult status as the "Citizen Kane" of bad movies.

Julian Schnabel Forty-three year old Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby - Jean-Do to his friends - awakens not knowing where he is. He is in a Berck-sur-Mer hospital, where he has been for the past several weeks in a coma after suffering a massive stroke. Although his cognitive facilities are in tact, he quickly learns that he has what is called locked-in syndrome which has resulted in him being almost completely paralyzed, including not being able to speak. One of his few functioning muscles is his left eye. His physical situation and hospitalization uncomfortably bring together the many people in his life, including: Céline Desmoulins, his ex-lover and mother of his children; Inès, his current lover; and his aged father who he calls Papinou. Among his compassionate recuperative team are his physical therapist Marie, and his speech therapist Henriette. Henriette eventually teaches him to communicate using a system where he spells out words: she reads out the letters of the alphabet in descending order of their use in the French language, and he blinks his functioning left eye when she reaches the appropriate letter. Although frustrating at start, he learns to communicate effectively but slowly using this method, so much so that with the help of Claude, a full time translator, he decides on the monumental and seemingly impossible task to keep to his pre-injury commitment of writing a book, changing its focus to life in his current state.

Spike Lee This film looks at life in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn on a hot summer Sunday. As he does everyday, Sal Fragione opens the pizza parlor he's owned for 25 years. The neighborhood has changed considerably in the time he's been there and is now composed primarily of African-Americans and Hispanics. His son Pino hates it there and would like nothing better than to relocate the eatery to their own neighborhood. For Sal however, the restaurant represents something that is part of his life and sees it as a part of the community. What begins as a simple complaint by one of his customers, Buggin Out - who wonders why he has only pictures of famous Italian-Americans on the wall when most of his customers are black - eventually disintegrates into violence as frustration seemingly brings out the worst in everyone.

Scott Derrickson While on a journey of physical and spiritual healing, a brilliant neurosurgeon is drawn into the world of the mystic arts.

Richard Kelly In the tradition of Urban Legends and Final Destination, Donnie Darko is an edgy, psychological thriller about a suburban teen coming face-to-face wit his dark destiny. Jake Gyllenhaal leads a star-filled cast (including Drew Barrymore, Noah Wyle, Jena Malone, Patrick Swayze and Mary McDonnell) as a delusional high-school student visited by a demonic rabbit with eerie visions of the past - and deadly predictions for the future. This "excitingly original" (Entertainment Weekly) nail-biter will keep you on the edge of your seat until the mind-bending climax.

Jim Cliffe In late 1994, former physicist Donovan Matheson returns to his hometown to live in the house he abandoned almost thirty years ago following the deaths of his wife and then eleven year old daughter, Jasmine Matheson and Magnolia Matheson respectively, in a car accident caused by Christopher Bailey, an underage driver who stole a car for a joyride. Donovan, who focused his work on cold fusion, believes he is at fault for their deaths as he believes he could have saved them if not for other things in his life, including his excessive drinking which has only worsened in his grief. The house had been kept up by Donovan's friend, police sergeant Finnley Boyd, who Donovan had only sporadically kept in touch with in the intervening years. Although not clear why he moved back, Donovan comes to believe, in a sense of déjà vu, that the purpose of his return ultimately is to save an eleven year old girl he meets, Maggie Walgrave, in his constant encounters with her, her bookstore owner mother Sarah Walgrave, and Sarah's mechanic brother Kit, an alcoholic who too has just recently returned to town. That family too had just suffered a loss when Sarah's husband/Maggie's father, Jason Walgrave, the owner of the garage where Kit works, was killed in chasing someone - that person unknown and not apprehended - who broke into the garage. As Donovan begins further to believe that his purpose is tied to premonitions he had exactly thirty years ago to the second but at the time did not understand what those visions meant, he begins to alienate Finn as well as Sarah, the former who believes Donovan is solely trying to justify the painful things that have happened in his life. But as Donovan tries to place all the pieces of the puzzle together, he believes it is all meant to come to a head exactly thirty years following Jasmine and Magnolia's deaths.

Debra Granik Down to the Bone has the unpredictability of life. Vera Farmiga gives a fearless performance as Irene, a working class mother living in upstate New York. She struggles to keep her marriage together and raise two sons while keeping her cocaine addiction a secret. Director Debra Granik was the winner at the Sundance Film Festival, Director's Award. Vera Farmiga was the winner at the Sundance Film Festival, Special Jury Prize. Bonus features include film commentary with director Debra Granik & star Vera Farmiga and the award-winning short ''Snake Feed'' on which the movie was based.

Oliver Hirschbiegel Called dramatic, accurate and harrowing by the San Francisco Chronicle and nominated for the Oscar(r)for Best Foreign Film, Downfall takes you into Hitler's bunker during the brutal and harrowing last days of the Third Reich. Seen through the eyes of Hitler's infamous secretary Traudl Junge, optimism crumbles into grim realization and terror as it becomes clear that Germany's defeat is inevitable. As the Russian army circles the city, the dimly lit halls of the underground refuge become an execution chamber for the Fuhrer and his closest advisors.

Deepa Mehta Indian-born Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta returns to his roots (cinematically speaking) for this, the second of three theme-related, but otherwise unconnected films about India. Taking their titles from the elements, the first was Fire, the third Water. Earth is set in 1947 on the verge of India's independence from British rule and its division into India and Pakistan. The story takes place in a city caught in the middle, as erstwhile friends of various religious stripes find themselves being torn apart by the greater ethnic conflicts. It focuses on a wealthy family of ethnically neutral Parsees and is told, at least nominally, from the point of view of their young daughter (Maia Sethna). Her beautiful nanny (Nandita Das) is a Hindu but her circle of twentysomething friends includes Muslims and Sikhs, and she is the object of adoration of two Muslim men, one (Aamir Khan) initially carefree and flamboyant, but who gets caught up in the bitterness, and the other (Rahul Khanna) who is more studious and thoughtful. Adapted by Mehta from the book Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa, this is a handsomely mounted, well-intentioned drama. It's certainly provocative and disturbing in its portrait of a society torn apart by prejudice, but Mehta seems so intent on chronicling the bigger social and political upheavals that she kind of short changes the characters and the human drama, not really following through on certain ideas. Sethna's adult self (played briefly by novelist Sidhwa) opens and closes the film, implying she's the focal character, but Mehta doesn't entirely stick with the theme of the story being filtered entirely through that child's perceptions. While the romantic triangle is unevenly developed, even perfunctory, with Das one moment seeming to be with one character, then the next moment with the other. And surely that's the point of tackling real events in a fictional narrative, to put a human face on, and therefore demand viewer emotional involvement in, what otherwise might seem like distant and abstract conflicts. —D.K. Latta

Igor Cobileanski Two friends begin a journey full of adventures in Eastern Europe, trying to make it in business and fulfill their long-time dreams.

Stefan Czapsky, Tim Burton Edward D. Wood Jr. was an actor writer-director-producer, occasionally in drag, who combined meager bursts of talent with an undying optimism to create some of the most bizarrely memorable "B" movies to ever come out of Tinseltown. Though Wood died in obscurity as an alcoholic in 1978, his films have been considered cult classics for years. He is consistently voted the worst director who ever lived. You would think this an odd subject, but director Tim Burton harnesses the undying hopefulness that made Wood such a character. Shot in black and white, just like Wood's creations, this stylized, witty production captures the poetic absurdity of Wood's films and his unconventional life. Burton's recreation of Wood's wonderfully awful Plan 9 from Outer Space looks much better than the original low-budget quickie. Burton tackled an extremely strange subject matter for a biopic, but Wood is presented as naive almost to the point of delusion, so the story works. The pace sags in the middle, as the weirdness starts to wear thin, but Depp proves himself an adroit actor, even while wearing angora and a blonde wig. Wood's unconventional repertoire company is faithfully reproduced, including an Academy Award-winning Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi. Landau is pathetic, droll, and charismatic as the elderly junkie who made his last screen appearances in Wood's films. —Rochelle O'Gorman

Fatih Akin

Lone Scherfig When Jenny (Academy Awardr and Golden Glober Nominee Carey Mulligan), a bright young school girl who longs for adulthood, meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), a dashing older man, he introduces her to his vibrant world of glamorous friends, chic jazz clubs and her own sexual awakening. Will she let this affair ruin her dreams of attending Oxford, as her headmistress (Emma Thompson) fears? This captivating film sparkles with wit, charm and style of 1960s Britain.

Tim Burton An artificial man, who was incompletely constructed and has scissors for hands, leads a solitary life. Then one day, a suburban lady meets him and introduces him to her world.

David Lynch A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man who is mistreated while scraping a living as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of kindness, intelligence and sophistication.

DJames Fargo Trapped by his image in 1976, Clint Eastwood resurrected his Dirty Harry character for a third go-round (out of a total of five) in The Enforcer, a potboiler of a story in which the San Francisco detective takes on a group of revolutionary kids. Tyne Daly costars as a female cop who partners with the reluctant Harry Callahan, and she does very well by a role created merely to underscore and articulate the hero's various virtues. It's a dull package all around, but inside the wrapping are good performances by the two leads. —Tom Keogh

David Cronenberg Exciting stars Jennifer Jason Leigh (DOLORES CLAIBORNE), Jude Law (GATTACA), and Willem Dafoe (SPEED 2, AFFLICTION) challenge the boundaries of reality in this futuristic, critically acclaimed adventure thriller! During the first closed-door demonstration of an amazing new virtual reality game called eXistenZ, the system's brilliant designer, Allegra Geller (Leigh), is violently attacked by a crazed assassin intent on killing her and destroying her creation! Forced to flee into hiding, Allegra enlists a young assistant (Law) to help her in testing the damaged system ... by convincing him to join her inside eXistenZ! The action then explodes as their world's real-life dangers begin to merge with the fantasy of the game! If you're ready to play, it's now your turn to plug into this powerfully entertaining hit!

George McCowan Hockey player Billy Duke (Art Hindle) joins the Toronto Maple Leafs who must adapt to the major league with assistance from his room-mate (George Armstrong, a Leafs player portraying himself). Meanwhile, Duke is involved in a relationship with rock singer Sherri Lee Nelson (Trudy Young) who objects to Duke's often rough hockey playing.

Wes Anderson The visually ravishing animated movie The Fantastic Mr. Fox follows a fox, voiced by George Clooney and dressed in a natty brown corduroy suit, as he cheerfully and recklessly takes his thieving ways a little too far and brings down the wrath of some sour-faced poultry farmers on his family and friends. Based on a lesser-known book by children's author Roald Dahl (who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach), the movie is the work of Wes Anderson (writer-director of Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums), who expanded and elaborated on the original story; the combination is inspired. Anderson's sensibility—his fondness for meticulous compositions, coordinated colors, and narrative filigree—can sometimes seem finicky and stiff in live-action movies, but it's exquisitely suited to the painstaking art of stop-motion animation. Every corner of the screen crackles with visual invention and whimsical humor. The top-notch vocal cast (which also features Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Owen Wilson, and others) create vivid personalities that perfectly mesh with the movie's lush colors and luscious textures. The Fantastic Mr. Fox is an off-beat gem, a giddy mix of adult emotional issues, wild animal behavior, and childlike delight. —Bret Fetzer Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of the few animated features that is hilariously great entertainment for kids, and absolutely engaging entertainment for adults. From the animation to the story to the direction (by Wes Anderson) to the acting of the voice-over stars, Fantastic Mr. Fox ranks with the likes of Toy Story or the Wallace & Gromit films as robustly entertaining for movie lovers of all ages. George Clooney lends his voice and talents to the character of Mr. Fox, who's recently retired from his long, successful career of stealing poultry to become a journalist. His wife (Meryl Streep) is pregnant, and his son, Ash (the Anderson staple Jason Schwartzman), and nephew, the golden-boy Kristofferson (Eric Anderson), have a low-level rivalry that feels all too human. The story, based on the Roald Dahl tale, is slim, involving the return, just one more time, of Mr. Fox to his old profession—and the repercussions that may befall his pals from the mean farmers as a result. But the true charms of Fantastic Mr. Fox are in the smart dialogue, in the immersive animation that keeps the characters' faces just as expressive as humans', and in the very believable family and friend dynamics we can all relate to. When Clooney's Fox and Bill Murray's Badger get into "cussin'" matches, you can't help but crack up. Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of the all-time best films for the whole family. —A.T. Hurley

Todd Haynes Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert. Upon learning that her husband is secretly having a homosexual affair, a 1957 Connecticut housewife finds herself attracted to her African-American gardener in this reinterpretation of the classic All that Heaven Allows . 2002/color/108 min/PG-13/widescreen.

Robert Lepage A quiet film by French-Canadian Robert Lepage (creator of Cirque du Soleil's hit "Ka" production), Far Side of the Moon is a thoughtful look at a middle-aged man who is lonely, underemployed, and respected by no one—not even his twin brother. Lepage plays the dual roles of outcast Phillippe, a fortysomething telemarketer trying to earn his doctorate, and Andre, a selfish and lazy weatherman. When their mother dies, Phillippe is heartbroken. Andre is more pragmatic—she was sick, it was her time to go. Some of the film's best moments are of a somber Phillippe having a conversation with his unseen brother. When he calls Andre to ask if he'll take care of their mom's goldfish, the viewer can extrapolate exactly what Andre said by Phillippe's comment: "You're allergic when you eat fish, not when you feed it." Spoken in French, the film's most poignant and dynamic vignettes aren't of Phillippe's recollections of his mother, but his moments alone videotaping all the things that mean the most to him, which he hopes will be archived for any extraterrestrials who may be curious about earth. The film moves at a slow pace that belies its running time of 106 minutes. But it's a charming film, with a surreal ending that befits a dreamer like Phillippe. —Jae-Ha Kim

David Cronenberg Director David Cronenberg immersed himself in the gritty world of top-fuel dragsters to make this fast & furious film. William SMith, Joh Saxon, Claudia Jennings (in her final role) star in this surprising story of a corporate-sponsored racing team and t

Terry Gilliam An oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychadelic escapades.

John Waters A spoiled schoolgirl runs away from home, gets pregnant while hitch-hiking, and ends up as a fashion model for a pair of beauticians who like to photograph women committing crimes.

David Fincher "'Fight Club' pulls you in, challenges your prejudices, rocks your world and leaves you laughing" (Rolling Stone). Brad Pitt ("12 Monkeys", "Seven"), Edward Norton ("Primal Fear," "American History X") and Helena Bonham Carter ("Mighty Aphrodite," "A Room With A View") turn in powerful "performances of which movie legends are made" (Chicago Tribune) in this action-packed hit. A ticking-time-bomb insomniac (Norton) and a slippery soap salesman (Pitt) channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until a sensuous eccentric (Bonham Carter) gets in the way and ignites an out-of control spiral toward oblivion.

Jean-Luc Godard A symphony in three movements. Things such as a Mediterranean cruise, numerous conversations, in numerous languages, between the passengers, almost all of whom are on holiday... Our Europe. At night, a sister and her younger brother have summoned their parents to appear before the court of their childhood. The children demand serious explanations of the themes of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Our humanities. Visits to six sites of true or false myths: Egypt, Palestine, Odessa, Hellas, Naples and Barcelona.

James M. Barrie finds his career at a crossroad when his latest play flops and doubters question his future. Then by chance he meets a widow and her four adventurous boys. Together they form a friendship that ignites the imagination needed to produce Barrie s greatest work!. Actors: Dustin Hoffman - Ian Hart - Johnny Depp - Julie Christie. Director: Marc Forster. Format: DVD. Format Size: Widescreen. Runtime: 101 mins. Language: English. Subtitle: English Subtitles. Region code: Region 1 (United States Canada Bermuda U.S. territories). Discs: 1. Rating: PG. Genre: TV. Subgenre: Drama. Release Year: 2004.

Damien Chazelle A Biopic on the life of the legendary American Astronaut Neil Armstrong from 1961-1969, on his journey to becoming the first human to walk the moon. Exploring the sacrifices and costs on the Nation and Neil himself, during one of the most dangerous missions in the history of space travel

Sergio Leone Clint Eastwood's legendary "Man With No Name" makes his powerful debut in this thrilling, action-packed "new breed of western" (Motion Picture Herald) from the acclaimed director of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and For a Few Dollars More. Exploding with blistering shootouts, dynamic performances and atmospheric cinematography, it's an undisputed classic of the genre. A mysterious gunman (Eastwood) has just arrived in San Miguel, a grim, dusty border town where two rival bands of smugglers are terrorizing the impoverished citizens. A master of the "quick-draw,"the stranger soon receives offers of employment from each gang. But his loyalty cannot be bought; he accepts both jobs...and sets in motion a plan to destroy both groups of criminals, pitting one against the other in a series of brilliantly orchestrated setups, showdowns and deadly confrontations.

Werner Herzog Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski), known as Fitzcarraldo to the native Peruvians, is an avid opera lover and rubber baron who dreams of building an opera house in the Peruvian jungle. To accomplish this, he plans to reach an isolated patch of rubber trees and make his fortune. But these trees are not directly accessible by river because of dangerous rapids, so Fitzcarraldo runs his ship as close as possible via an alternate river and then enlists the aid of the native Peruvians to drag his ship over a mountain to the desired area. However, the natives seem to have their own agenda in so mysteriously acceding to Fitzcarraldo's wishes. The results manage to both mock and affirm the dreams of determined figures like Fitzcarraldo, making absurdity out of the stuff of human endeavor without negating the beauty of that effort. There is hardly a more awe-inspiring or arresting image than that of Fitzcarraldo's ship pulling itself up the mountain with cables and pulleys, or of the ship resting in mid-ascent as seen through the thick morning fog of the jungle.

The tortured production history of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo (ably recorded in Les Blank's documentary Burden of Dreams) tends to take the spotlight away from this deeply mesmerizing film. And that's unfortunate, because the film itself is even more fascinating than the trials and tribulations, amazing though they might be, that led to its being made. Part of the problem is the film's deliberate, some might say ponderous, pace, which invites the viewer to experience the slow immersion into the jungle that Fitzcarraldo and company experience. Herzog did something similar in Aguirre, the Wrath of God, sometimes aiming his camera at the river rapids for extended periods of time, with hypnotic results. This could never happen in a Hollywood film, and it should be treasured. —Jim Gay

Keith Behrman NTSC/Region 0. This film is getting a lot of press in Vancouver. This is not only because it is locally made, but also because it is very well executed. I was tempted to dismiss it as just another Canadian slice-of-life film. It is that, but it is a superb example of the genre. The characters grew on me and a lot is communicated from the looks on their faces. This film is worth seeing, even if you're not Canadian. Directed by Keith Behrman. 2005.

Christopher Nolan Before he became a sensation with the twisty revenge story Memento, Christopher Nolan fashioned this low-budget, 16 mm black-and-white neonoir with comparable precision and cunning. Providing irrefutable evidence of Nolan’s directorial bravura, Following is the fragmented tale of an unemployed young writer who trails strangers through London, hoping that they will provide inspiration for his first novel. He gets more than he bargained for when one of his unwitting subjects leads him down a dark criminal path. With gritty aesthetics and a made-on-the-fly vibe (many shots were simply stolen on the streets, unbeknownst to passersby), Following is a mind- bending psychological journey that shows the remarkable beginnings of one of today’s most acclaimed filmmakers.

Sergio Leone "The leading icon of a generation" (Roger Ebert), Academy AwardÂ(r) winner* Clint Eastwood continues his trademark role as the legendary "Man With No Name" in this second installment of the famous Sergio Leone trilogy. Scripted by Luciano Vincenzoni and featuring Ennio Morricone's haunting musical score, For A Few Dollars More is a modern classicone of the greatest Westerns evermade. Eastwood is a keen-eyed, quick-witted bounty hunter on the bloody trail of Indio, the territory's most treacherous bandit. But his ruthless rival, Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef, High Noon), is determined to bring Indio in first...dead or alive! Failing to capture their preyor eliminate each otherthe two are left with only one option: team up, or face certain death atthe hands of Indio and his band of murderous outlaws.

Garry Marshall Johnny has just been released from prison, and gets a job in a cafe beside waitress Frankie. Frankie is a bit of a loner, but Johnny is determined their romance will blossom.

Robert Rodriguez It's nonstop thrills when George Clooney (THE PERFECT STORM, THREE KINGS) and Quentin Tarantino (PULP FICTION) star as the Gecko brothers — two dangerous outlaws on a wild crime spree! After kidnapping a father (Harvey Keitel — U-571) and his two kids (including Juliette Lewis — NATURAL BORN KILLERS), the Geckos head south to a seedy Mexican bar to hide out in safety. But when they face the bar's truly notorious clientele, they're forced to team up with their hostages in order to make it out alive!

Ron Howard From Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard comes the electrifying, untold story behind one of the most unforgettable moments in history. When disgraced President Richard Nixon agreed to an interview with jet-setting television personality, David Frost, he thought he’d found the key to saving his tarnished legacy. But, with a name to make and a reputation to overcome, Frost became one of Nixon’s most formidable adversaries and engaged the leader in a charged battle of wits that changed the face of politics forever. Featuring brilliant portrayals by Frank Langella and Michael Sheen, Frost/Nixon is the fascinating and suspenseful story of truth, accountability, secrets and lies.

Courtney Hunt Frozen River is a dramatic feature film which takes place in the days before Christmas near a little-known border crossing on the Mohawk reservation between New York State and Quebec. Here, the lure of fast money from smuggling presents a daily challenge to single moms who would otherwise be earning minimum wage. Two women- one white, one Mohawk, both single mothers faced with desperate circumstances- are drawn into the world of border smuggling across the frozen water of the St. Lawrence River. Melissa Leo (21 Grams, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, television's Homicide: Life on the Street) plays Ray, Misty Upham (Edge of America, DreamKeeper, Skins) plays Lila, and Oscar nominee Michael O'Keefe (The Great Santini, Caddyshack, Ironweed) plays the New York State Trooper who ultimately brings the two to justice.

Ryan Coogler This is the true story of Oscar, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and feels something in the air. Not sure what it is, he takes it as a sign to get a head start on his resolutions: being a better son to his mother, whose birthday falls on New Year's Eve, being a better partner to his girlfriend, who he hasn't been completely honest with as of late, and being a better father to T, their beautiful 4 year old daughter. He starts out well, but as the day goes on, he realizes that change is not going to come easy. He crosses paths with friends, family, and strangers, each exchange showing us that there is much more to Oscar than meets the eye. But it would be his final encounter of the day, with police officers at the Fruitvale BART station that would shake the Bay Area to its very core, and cause the entire nation to be witnesses to the story of Oscar Grant

Michael Dowse The story starts in Calgary where the boys are tiRed of trying to give r while barely scraping by when their old buddy and party leader Tron (Andrew Sparacino) hooks them up with jobs in Fort McMurray. Before Long they are rolling in dough and good times. Flush with money and confidence Terry starts dating Trish (Terra Hazelton) a local waitress and things get serious in a hurry. Meanwhile Dean is playing up the part of the cancer survivor and upon hearing about the glories of workers compensation purposely bungs up his leg in an attempt to qualify. When Terry moves in with Trish Dean does his best to save his buddy from swapping the banger life for domestic captivity. Actors: David Lawrence - Gordon Skilling - Mark Meer - Paul Spence - S.C. Lim. Director: Michael Dowse. Format: Blu-ray. Runtime: 85 mins. Language: English. Subtitle: English Subtitles. Region code: Region 1 (United States Canada Bermuda U.S. territories). Discs: 2. Rating: R. Genre: Comedy. Release Year: 2010.

Aaron Schneider Felix Bush (Robert Duvall) is a hermit who has no regard for anybody in the town or anyone who wants to get to know him. But one day, after a fellow old hermit has died and he hears people in the town telling stories about him, he decides that he needs to get these stories out in the public. He recruits Frank (Bill Murray), the local funeral home director, to host his own funeral. This way he can hear what everyone is saying about him, and get the truth to his past out in the open. But will he be able to get anybody to come? And will he be able to reveal his secrets?

Jim Jarmusch A hitman who lives by the code of the samurai, works for the mafia and finds himself in their crosshairs when his recent job doesn't go according to plan. Now he must find a way to defend himself and his honor while retaining the code he lives by.

Ivan Reitman Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the script, but Bill Murray gets all the best lines and moments in this 1984 comedy directed by Ivan Reitman (Meatballs). The three comics, plus Ernie Hudson, play the New York City-based team that provides supernatural pest control, and Sigourney Weaver is the love interest possessed by an ancient demon. Reitman and company are full of original ideas about hobgoblins—who knew they could "slime" people with green plasma goo?—but hovering above the plot is Murray's patented ironic view of all the action. Still a lot of fun, and an obvious model for sci-fi comedies such as Men in Black. —Tom Keogh

William Hornbeck, George Stevens Giant is a movie of huge scale and grandeur in which three generations of land-rich Texans love, swagger, connive and clash in a saga of family strife, racial bigotry and conflict between cattle barons and newly rich oil tycoons. It's also one of the most beloved works of director George Stevens, who won an Academy AwardO* for this film, one of 10 Oscar nominations** the film earned.

John Fawcett Two death-obsessed sisters, outcasts in their suburban neighborhood, must deal with the tragic consequences when one of them is bitten by a deadly werewolf.

Buster Keaton A fascinating alternative to the manic stunt work and elaborate sight gags that distinguish the films of Buster Keaton. "Go West" (1925, 69 min.) offers a rare and satisfying glimpse of his talent for more expressive comedy: charming moments of intimate humor flavored with rich pathos. Setting traditional ideas of romance and masculinity on their ears, "Go West" is uniquely graceful and characteristically hilarious especially in the film's dynamic finale as hundreds of cows are unleashed upon downtown Los Angeles. Included on this DVD is one of Keaton's most mind-boggling mechanical comedies, "The Scarecrow" (1920, 19 min.), which follows two roommates vying for the affection of a young lady. Also added is "The Paleface" (1921, 20 min.), in which Buster helps a Native American tribe defend their land from greedy developers.

Sergio Leone By far the most ambitious, unflinchingly graphic and stylistically influential western ever mounted, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is an engrossing actioner shot through with a volatile mix of myth and realism. Clint Eastwood returns as the "Man With No Name," this time teaming with two gunslingers (Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef) to pursue a cache of $200,000and letting no one, not even warring factions in a civil war, stand in their way. From sun-drenched panoramas to bold,hard close-ups, exceptional camera work captures the beauty and cruelty of the barren landscape andthe hardened characters who stride unwaveringly through it. Forging a vibrant and yet detached style of action that had not been seen before, and has never been matched since, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly shatters the western mold in true Clint Eastwood style.

Michael Apted Sigourney Weaver stars as Dian Fossey, in this true story about Fossey's study of gorillas, and her efforts to stop the decimation of the endangered apes.

Mike Leigh Dick and Mandy, a young working class couple, move into a council house in Canterbury, and find Mr. Butcher, one of their former teachers, living next door. Mandy's unmarried sister, Gloria, is constantly dropping in, and will not take any hints that the couple would prefer to be left alone, until her presence finally goads them into action. The entire film comes to a head when both couples are found wrestling in the hall while trying to oust the poor sister from the Mr. Butcher's bathroom.

Jean-François Pouliot

Ryan Fleck Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a young inner-city junior high school teacher whose ideals wither and die in the face of reality. Day after day in his shabby Brooklyn classroom, he somehow finds the energy to inspire his 13 and 14-year-olds to examine everything from civil rights to the Civil War with a new enthusiasm. Rejecting the standard curriculum in favor of an edgier approach, Dan teaches his students how change works ' on both a historical and personal scale ' and how to think for themselves.

Though Dan is brilliant, dynamic, and in control in the classroom, he spends his time outside school on the edge of consciousness. His disappointments and disillusionment have led to a serious drug habit. He juggles his hangovers and his homework, keeping his lives separated, until one of his troubled students, Drey (Shareeka Epps), catches him getting high after school.

From this awkward beginning, Dan and Drey stumble into an unexpected friendship. Despite the differences in their ages and situations, they are both at an important intersection. Depending on which way they turn ' and which choices they make ' their lives will change.

Mike Leigh Poppy Cross is happy-go-lucky. At 30, she lives in Camden: cheeky, playful, frank while funny, and talkative to strangers. She's a conscientious and exuberant primary-school teacher, flatmates with Zoe, her long-time friend; she's close to one sister, and not so close to another. In this slice of life story, we watch her take driving lessons from Scott, a dour and tightly-wound instructor, take classes in flamenco dance from a fiery Spaniard, encounter a tramp in the night, and sort out a student's aggressive behavior with a social worker's help. Along the way, we wonder if her open attitude puts her at risk of misunderstanding or worse. What is the root of happiness? 

Bruce McDonald Hard Core Logo is often compared to This Is Spinal Tap—and for marketing purposes, that makes sense: both are pretend documentaries about rock bands (a self-important heavy metal crew in Spinal Tap, a self-destructing punk mob in Hard Core Logo). But though Hard Core Logo can be cuttingly funny, it's not really a comedy; it's a piercing examination of friendship and betrayal, success and self-hatred, and everything that fueled punk rock. Lead singer Joe Dick (Hugh Dillon) uses false pretenses to convince guitarist Billy Tallent (Callum Keith Rennie) to reform Hard Core Logo for a reunion tour across Canada, followed by a film crew (featuring director Bruce McDonald, whose other films include Roadkill and Highway 61, as himself). Tallent agrees, but only because he expects to be joining a much more successful rock group very shortly and sees this as a favor to Dick. As they travel from town to town, their relationship unravels, as does the psyche of bass player John Oxenberger (John Pyper-Ferguson). The performances are astonishingly genuine; even the oafish drummer Pipefitter (Bernie Coulson) becomes three-dimensional. By the end, you'll believe in them so much as people that the band's disintegration is truly wrenching. A remarkable film, both comic and sad. —Bret Fetzer

Mike Leigh Mrs. Thornley works very hard without notice or appreciation. Every day she keeps her own house clean, attends to her husband and unmarried daughter, Ann, then cleans other women's houses. She looks tired and has little affect. Mrs. Thornley's husband works nights, except for Saturdays, when he expects conjugal attention. Ann's worried about pregnancy and talks tot her mum about labor and childbirth. Emotionally horrific yet oddly amusing, HARD LABOUR is a scathing indictment of classism and sexism made all the more powerful by a surprising appearance by Ben Kingsley as a friendly cab driver.

Various WITH A PIECE IN HIS HAND HE TAKES ON THE MAN! Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff stars as Ivanhoe "Ivan" Martin, an aspiring young singer who leaves his rural village for the city of Kingston, hoping to make a name for himself. Robbed of his money and possessions his first day in town, he finds work with a self-righteous, bullying preacher, and an unscrupulous music mogul who exploits young hopefuls. In desperation, the simple country boy turns outlaw, at war with both the police and his rivals in the ganja trade. Ivan's dream of stardom soon becomes reality as he rises to the top of the pop charts and the most-wanted lists. This gritty, groundbreaking film brought reggae music to the international stage, made Jimmy Cliff a star, and demonstrated that music and art can change the world.

David Mackenzie

Hal Hartley A garbage man becomes a poetic prodigy after a mysterious writer shows up at his house.

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Gordon Pinsent The final days of WWII are turbulent ones for 16-year-old Terry Fleming - a sharp young man who fantasizes about working at the Airlines Hotel in Gander, Newfoundland where pilots and movie starlets rub shoulders with locals. Boasting the world's longest runway and poised on the eastern tip of the continent, Gander was the "Gateway to the World At War" and provided an unlikely outpost for Hollywood stars, dignitaries and servicemen en route overseas.

When his mother becomes gravely ill and their house is quarantined, it is Terry's brilliant imagination that carries him on a poignant journey of love and longing. As he and his father (Peter MacNeill) wait out the verdict on his mother's health, big bands, bombers and babes alight in his mind. With a war outside and death rattling around upstairs, youth straddles adulthood when conjured-up love and laughter provide an antidote to Terry's fears.

Bruce McDonald A naive Canadian barber who knows US popular culture inside and out meets a flamboyant roadie who needs someone to drive her and her "brother's" corpse to New Orleans. Chaos ensues after the barber agrees to drive her, the corpse, and the drugs stashed within all the way.

Robert Redford Academy Award(R)-winner Robert Redford (Best Director, 1980, ORDINARY PEOPLE) stars with Adademy Award(R)-nominee Kristin Scott Thomas (Best Actress, 1996, THE ENGLISH PATIENT) in this landmark epic adapated from one of the most acclaimed novels of our time! After a devastating riding accident, a young girl and her beloved horse are both left with serious physical and emotional scars. Determined to help, the girl's desperate mother (Thomas) puts her busy, big-city life on hold and travels west to seek out the "Horse Whisperer." When she meets this rugged, down-to-earth rancher (Redford), she discovers his extraordinary gift with animals also touches the lives of the people around him! Featuring Hollywood favorites Sam Neill (JURASSIC PARK) and Oscar(R)-winner Dianne Wiest (Best Supporting Actress, 1994, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY) in a superb cast — critics and moviegoers alike were captivated by this powerful motion picture event!

Alexei Popogrebsky On a desolate island in the Arctic Circle, two men work at a small meteorological station, taking readings from their radioactive surroundings. Sergei, a gruff professional in his fifties, takes his job very seriously. His new partner, bright eyed college grad Pavel, retreats to his MP3 player and video games to avoid Sergei's imposing presence. One day while Sergei is out, inexperienced Pavel receives terrible news for Sergei from HQ. Intimidated, Pavel can't bring himself to disclose the information. When the truth is finally revealed, the consequences explode against a chilling backdrop of thick fog, sharp rocks, and the merciless Arctic Sea.

Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

Hayao Miyazaki Like a dream, Howl's Moving Castle carries audiences to vistas beyond their imaginations where they experience excitement, adventure, terror, humor, and romance. With domestic box office receipts of over $210 million, Howl passed Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke to become the #3 film in Japanese history, behind his Spirited Away and James Cameron's Titanic. Based on a juvenile novel by Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle marks the first time Miyazaki has adapted another writer's work since Kiki's Delivery Service (1989). Sophie, a 19-year-old girl who believes she is plain, has resigned herself to a drab life in her family's hat shop—until the Witch of the Waste transforms her into a 90-year-old woman. In her aged guise, Sophie searches for a way to break the Witch's spell and finds unexpected adventures. Like Chihiro, the heroine of Spirited Away, Sophie discovers her hidden potential in a magical environment—the castle of the title. Using CG, Miyazaki creates a ramshackle structure that looks like it might disintegrate at any moment. Sophie's honesty and determination win her some valuable new friends: Markl, Howl's young apprentice; a jaunty scarecrow; Calcifer, a temperamental fire demon; and Heen, a hilarious, wheezing dog. She wins the heart of the dashing, irresponsible wizard Howl, and brings an end an unnecessary and destructive war. The film overflows with eclipsing visuals that range from frightening aerial battles to serene landscapes, and few recent features—animated or live action—offer as much magic as Howl's Moving Castle. —Charles Solomon

Christian Camargo The making of honest action movies has become so rare that Kathryn Bigelow's magnificent The Hurt Locker was shown mostly in art cinemas rather than multiplexes. That's fine; the picture is a work of art. But it also delivers more kinetic excitement, more breath-bating suspense, more putting-you-right-there in the danger zone than all the brain-dead, visually incoherent wrecking derbies hogging mall screens. Partly it's a matter of subject. The movie focuses on an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, the guys whose more or less daily job is to disarm the homemade bombs that have accounted for most U.S. casualties in Iraq. But even more, the film's extraordinary tension derives from the precision and intelligence of Bigelow's direction. She gets every sweaty detail and tactical nuance in the close-up confrontation of man and bomb, while keeping us alert to the volatile wraparound reality of an ineluctably foreign environment—hot streets and blank-walled buildings full of onlookers, some merely curious and some hostile, perhaps thumbing a cellphone that could become a trigger. This is exemplary moviemaking. You don't need CGI, just a human eye, and the imagination to realize that, say, the sight of dust and scale popped off a derelict car by an explosion half a block away delivers more shock value than a pixelated fireball.
The setting may be Iraq in 2004, but it could just as well be Thermopylae; The Hurt Locker is no "Iraq War movie." Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal—who did time as a journalist embed with an EOD unit—align themselves with neither supporters nor opponents of the U.S. involvement. There's no politics here. War is just the job the characters in the movie do. One in particular, the supremely resourceful staff sergeant played by Jeremy Renner, is addicted to the almost nonstop adrenaline rush and the opportunity to express his esoteric, life-on-the-edge genius. The hurt locker of the title is a box he keeps under his bunk, filled with bomb parts and other signatory memorabilia of "things that could have killed me." That none of it has killed him so far is no real consolation. In this movie, you never know who's going to go and when; even high-profile talent (we won't name names here) is no guarantee. But one thing can be guaranteed, and that is that almost every sequence in the movie becomes a riveting, often fiercely enigmatic set piece. This is Kathryn Bigelow's best film since 1987's Near Dark. It could also be the best film of 2009. —Richard T. Jameson

Dede Allen, Robert Rossen Paul Newman shines as cocky poolroom hustler "Fast" Eddie Felson in Robert Rossen's atmospheric adaptation of the Walter Tevis novel. Newman's Felson is a swaggering pool shark punk who takes on the king of the poolroom, Minnesota Fats (a cool, assured Jackie Gleason in his most understated performance). After losing big and crashing into a void of self-pity, Eddie meets down-and-out Sarah (Piper Laurie in a delicate performance), an alcoholic blue blood who's dropped into Eddie's world of dingy bars and seedy poolrooms. Eddie regains his confidence and attracts the attention of a shifty, calculating promoter, Bert Gordon (George C. Scott at his most heartless), who offers to bring Eddie into the big money—but at what cost? Rossen brings his film to life with the easy pace of a pool game, giving his actors room to explore their characters and develop into a razor-sharp ensemble. Eugen Schüfftan earned an Academy Award for his shadowing black-and-white cinematography, as did art directors Harry Horner and Gene Callahan for their deceivingly simple set designs. Even in the daylight this film seems to be smothered by night, lit by the dim glow of a bar lamp or the overhead glare of a pool-table light, an appropriate environment for this tale of one man's struggle with his soul and his self-esteem. Newman returned as an older, wiser, cagier Felson 25 years later in Martin Scorsese's Color of Money. —Sean Axmaker

Bruce Wagner Nearing his 60th birthday, a movie producer discovers that he may have less than a year to live as a result of inoperable cancer. The effects of his disease take the toll on him and his distressed wife. However, his dysfunctional family are not told and their soap opera-ish life goes on. His son, a has-been actor, has to deal with a precocious daughter and a drug-addled ex-wife and sells AIDS patients insurance policies until he becomes attracted to one. His step-sister learns that her real father murdered her mother & then committed suicide.

Bruce Wagner Rosanna Arquette, Frank Langellla, Elizabeth Perkins. Powerful story of living and dying set in a dystopic Los Angeles. 1998/color/103 min/R.

DVD Patricia Rozema, "Award of the Youth," Cannes Film Festival winner Foreign Film Category, 1987. Genie Awards: 1.Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Sheila McCarthy. 2. Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Paule Baillargeon.

Ken Loach A 59 year old carpenter recovering from a heart attack befriends a single mother and her two kids as they navigate their way through the impersonal, Kafkaesque benefits system. With equal amounts of humor, warmth and despair, the journey is heartfelt and emotional until the end.

George C. Wolfe An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.

Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are polite and formal-until a discovery about their respective spouses sparks an intimate bond. At once delicately mannered and visually stunning, Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments in time.

Malgorzata Szumowska Gay priest with talent to straighten out delinquent lads can remain effectual only so long as not even a hint of his orientation is revealed or suggested.

Werner Herzog Incident at Loch Ness chronicles the story of the making (an unmaking) of acclaimed director, Werner Herzog's film. Herzog's stated intent was "to explore the origin and the necessity of the monster" rather than to look for the creature itself. Shocking, controversial and strangely humorous, the film raises many questions about where reality ends and fiction begins.

DVD Steven Spielberg and George Lucas's 1981 resurrection of the Saturday-matinee adventure genre was deservedly popular, and kicked off a successful trilogy. Set in 1936, this first feature introduces Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, an archaeologist and adventurer whose quests for rare antiquities frequently find him running from one menace or another. Raiders finds Dr. Jones in the middle of a Nazi plot to use the mysterious powers of the Ark of the Covenant to win the war. Karen Allen plays the love interest with an old-fashioned "man's woman" appeal (she can drink anybody under the table and is free with her fists). The constant, cliffhanger appeal of the movie is great fun—one is always wondering how Indy will get out of one scrape after another—and Ford's career got a big boost with his self-effacing but masculine portrayal of the hero. —Tom Keogh

Steven Spielberg Steven Spielberg and George Lucas's 1981 resurrection of the Saturday-matinee adventure genre was deservedly popular, and kicked off a successful trilogy. Set in 1936, this first feature introduces Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, an archaeologist and adventurer whose quests for rare antiquities frequently find him running from one menace or another. Raiders finds Dr. Jones in the middle of a Nazi plot to use the mysterious powers of the Ark of the Covenant to win the war. Karen Allen plays the love interest with an old-fashioned "man's woman" appeal (she can drink anybody under the table and is free with her fists). The constant, cliffhanger appeal of the movie is great fun—one is always wondering how Indy will get out of one scrape after another—and Ford's career got a big boost with his self-effacing but masculine portrayal of the hero. —Tom Keogh

DVD The Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) adventure after Raiders of the Lost Ark is more violent than its predecessor, but also looser, more imaginative, and finally more satisfying. Still organized like a series of connected cliffhangers, the story (set 10 years before Raiders) involves Indy's attempted rescue of stolen children from a pagan cult. Director Steven Spielberg draws upon sundry cinematic influences, particularly Gunga Din, for an air of classic adventure, though one can also find traces of John Wayne movies in Jones's relationship with a woman (Kate Capshaw) who's come along for the bumpy ride. The film's opening bit, in which the antidote to a poison Jones has swallowed keeps bouncing around a nightclub just out of his reach, is a blast. —Tom Keogh

Douglas McGrath 1959 Manhattan was a party, and none of the glitterati glittered brighter than Truman Capote. Then he saw a story in The New York Times: "Wealthy Farmer, 3 of Family Slain," and the party ended for Capote. He plunged into the murder case that inspired his great "nonfiction novel" In Cold Blood and led him into a fevered relationship with one of the two doomed killers. But there's more to the story than you know. Toby Jones leads Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Sigourney Weaver and many more stars in a witty, moving and astonishing tale of obsession. What happened to the extraordinary literary talent that burned within Truman Capote? The answer may be found in a story at once famous and Infamous. Special Features: Commentary by writer/director Douglas McGrath Theatrical trailer "Infamous is inevitably compared to Capote, since it also chronicles author Truman Capote's spiral into chaos while composing his masterpiece, In Cold Blood, a breakthrough non-fictional tale told as fiction. It's a shame that Capote's critical acclaim eclipsed this film's, as Toby Jones is perfectly convincing as Capote, with his small stature and eccentric manner. Stressing Capote's relationships with Lee, the film justifies Capote's marginal behavior by Lee's speaking about Capote's childhood neglect, which she also wrote into To Kill A Mockingbird. Capote's own description of his rough childhood then serves as a barrier breaker between himself and Perry Smith, the half of the Perry Smith-Dick Hickock killing team who is at first unwilling to talk. Infamous makes much of the sexual tension between Capote and Smith, implying that Capote persevered through his project for Smith's love. Based on George Plimpton's oral biography, Infamous deserves a stellar place in Capote-lore, as there is ample room for both competing films." —Trinie Dalton

Spike Lee Academy Award winner Denzel Washington, Academy Award nominee Clive Owen and Academy Award winner Jodie Foster star in this intense and explosive crime thriller. The perfect bank robbery quickly spirals into an unstable and deadly game of cat-and-mouse between a criminal mastermind (Owen), a determined detective (Washington), and a power broker with a hidden agenda (Foster). As the minutes tick by and the situation becomes increasingly tense, one wrong move could mean disaster for any one of them. From acclaimed director Spike Lee comes the edge-of-your-seat, action-packed thriller that The Wall Street Journal calls "a heist film that's right on the money."

Steve Buscemi Self-destructive journalist Pierre Peders (Buscemi) is no stranger to violence and inhumanity. Having made his name as a war reporter, he has traveled the world seeing some of the most horrifying sights imaginable. So he feels that his current puff-piece assignment, an interview with pop diva, TV and movie star Katya (Miller), is beneath his dignity. The two meet in a restaurant and, instantly, it's a collision of two worlds: Pierre's serious political focus and Katya's superficial world of celebrity. But perhaps all is not as it appears. When Pierre is slightly injured in a traffic accident inadvertently caused by Katya, she's the proverbial girl who causes traffic accidents, they end up in Katya's spacious loft for a long night of talking, drinking, sparring, and coming close to a sort of embattled intimacy. Each is scarred in their own way, aching from deep, hidden pain. But honest revelations give way to punishing deceptions. Their confrontation evolves into a passionate verbal chess game spiked with wit, intrigue and sexual tension, capped with a riveting twist ending.

Sean Penn This is the true story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch). Freshly graduated from college with a promising future ahead, McCandless instead walked out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure. What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless people — a fearless risk-taker who wrestled with the precarious balance between man and nature.

Brad Bird Iron Giant ~ Iron Giant

David Wu In 1882, Alfred Nichol, owner of the Nichol Railway Company, is building a railroad through the Canadian Rockies. He sends his irresponsible playboy son, James Nichol, to Hong Kong to check on the company's recruitment of Chinese laborers to work on the railroad's construction. One of the laborers James brings back is a orphan boy named Little Tiger. Unknown to James, Little Tiger is actually a young woman, who is masquerading as a boy to eke out a better living for herself. She is desperate to make it to Canada to find her missing father. Professionally, Little Tiger is tasked with being a tea boy to the other laborers on the construction crew, although she really wants to work on the more lucrative explosives team as, working at a firecracker factory in Hong Kong, she learned the finer details of explosives from a master. She also learns of some improprieties within the construction camp. Personally, Little Tiger falls in love with James, an unforbidden love even if she exposes her ...

Michael Dowse Its All Gone Pete Tong is a comedy following the tragic life of legendary Frankie Wilde. The story takes us through Frankie's life from one of the best DJ's alive, through subsequent battle with a hearing disorder, culminating in his mysterious disappearance from the scene. A genius in his own right, he clawed his way to the top of the DJ ranks, now living the opulent life of a superstar, he resides in his trophy villa in Ibiza with his trophy wife. This is when tragedy hits. Due to a hearing disorder he is rapidly going deaf with only one functioning ear to complete the new Ibiza season. How is he doing behind the decks? Horrible. How is he doing in the studio where he produces his remixes? Frankie dives into a low period, struggling with deafness in utter depression. After a year of locking himself away he emerges on the other side with a fresh attitude towards his affliction. He accepts his deafness and learns to function without sound. Will Frankie make it back to the DJ booth? Will his new single be any good? Will he get back his opulent old life or does he even want it back? When you can't hear, things look very different.

Quentin Tarantino The curiosity of Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown is Robert Forster's worldly wise bail bondsman Max Cherry, the most alive character in this adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch. The Academy Awards saw it the same way, giving Forster the film's only nomination. The film is more "rum" than "punch" and will certainly disappoint those who are looking for Tarantino's trademark style. This movie is a slow, decaffeinated story of six characters glued to a half million dollars brought illegally into the country. The money belongs to Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson), a gunrunner just bright enough to control his universe and do his own dirty work. His just-paroled friend—a loose term with Ordell—Louis (Robert De Niro) is just taking up space and could be interested in the money. However, his loyalties are in question between his old partner and Ordell's doped-up girl (Bridget Fonda). Certainly Fed Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton) wants to arrest Ordell with the illegal money. The key is the title character, a late-40s-ish flight attendant (Pam Grier) who can pull her own weight and soon has both sides believing she's working for them. The end result is rarely in doubt, and what is left is two hours of Tarantino's expert dialogue as he moves his characters around town.

Tarantino changed the race of Jackie and Ordell, a move that means little except that it allows Tarantino to heap on black culture and language, something he has a gift and passion for. He said this film is for an older audience although the language and drug use may put them off. The film is not a salute to Grier's blaxploitation films beyond the musical score. Unexpectedly the most fascinating scenes are between Grier and Forster: two neo-stars glowing in the limelight of their first major Hollywood film after decades of work. —Doug Thomas

Gerald Packer Salmon Confidential portrays the government cover-up of what is killing BC’s wild salmon. When biologist Alexandra Morton discovers salmon in BC are testing positive for dangerous European viruses, a chain of events is is set off by government to suppress these findings. Tracking viruses, Morton moves from courtrooms into British Columbia’s most remote rivers, Vancouver grocery stores and sushi restaurants. The film documents Morton’s journey as she attempts to overcome government and industry roadblocks thrown in her path and works to bring critical information to the public in time to save BC’s wild salmon. The film provides surprising insight into the workings of government agencies, and rare footage of bureaucrats tasked with managing the safety of our fish and food supply.

Don Chaffey Jason has been prophesied to take the throne of Thessaly. When he saves Pelias from drowning, but does not recognize him as the man who had earlier killed his father, Pelias tells Jason to travel to Colchis to find the Golden Fleece. Jason follows his advice and assembles a sailing crew of the finest men in Greece, including Hercules. They are under the protection of Hera, queen of the gods. Their voyage is replete with battles against harpies, a giant bronze Talos, a hydra, and an animated skeleton army, all brought to life by the special effects wizardry of Ray Harryhausen.

Laurent Bouzereau, Steven Spielberg Filled with terror and adventure, Jaws remains an immersive experience that continues to make entire generations afraid to go into the water.

Taika Waititi A World War II satire that follows a lonely German boy named Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a young Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi), Jojo must confront his blind nationalism.

Norman Cohn, Zacharias Kunuk A portrayal of the lives of the last great Inuit shaman, Avva, and his beautiful and headstrong daughter, Apak. Based on the journals of 1920s Danish ethnographer Knud Rasmussen.

Jon Favreau Living among the wolves in the jungle, young man cub Mowgli quickly learns to live life among his wolf pack and all the animals that inhabit the jungle, but when the villainous tiger Shere Khan threatens Mowgli's life, black panther Bagheera offers to take Mowgli to a nearby man village where he will be safe from the tiger's wrath. Along the way, Mowgli gets tangled up in a series of encounters with a sly snake named Kaa, a swimmingly ruthless gigantopithecus named King Louie and a lazy bear named Baloo, who quickly becomes his guide to the 'bear necessities' of life.

DVD Nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, this $117.5 million-grossing hit stars Ellen Page as a pregnant teenager trying to find caring adoptive parents (Jason Batman, Jennifer Garner). Bonuses: commentary, deleted scenes, gag reel, cast and crew jam, screen tests. The word "quirky" has become the quick and easy way to describe films such as LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE and LARS AND THE REAL GIRL that straddle the lines between indie and studio films and comedy and drama. While JUNO fits into that same category, this distinctive dramedy is in a class all its own. Ellen Page (X-MEN: THE LAST STAND) stars as Juno, a witty teenage girl whose boredom doesn't lead her to the mall. Instead, she makes a one-time trip into the arms of her best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). When Juno discovers that she's pregnant, she's forced to grow up fast as she tries to find adoptive parents for her quickly growing child.

Franc Roddam A U.S. climbing team, funded by millionaire Clairborne is determined to conquer K2.

Matthew Vaughn Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who one day decides to become a super-hero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so.

Quentin Tarantino Kill Bill: Volume 1
Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1, is trash for connoisseurs. From his opening gambit (including a "Shaw-Scope" logo and gaudy '70s-vintage "Our Feature Presentation" title card) to his cliffhanger finale (a teasing lead-in to 2004's Vol. 2), Tarantino pays loving tribute to grindhouse cinema, specifically the Hong Kong action flicks and spaghetti Westerns that fill his fervent brain—and this frequently breathtaking movie—with enough cinematic references and cleverly pilfered soundtrack cues to send cinephiles running for their reference books. Everything old is new again in Tarantino's humor-laced vision: he steals from the best while injecting his own oft-copied, never-duplicated style into what is, quite simply, a revenge flick, beginning with the near-murder of the Bride (Uma Thurman), pregnant on her wedding day and left for dead by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (or DiVAS)—including Lucy Liu and the unseen David Carradine (as Bill)—who become targets for the Bride's lethal vengeance. Culminating in an ultraviolent, ultra-stylized tour-de-force showdown, Tarantino's fourth film is either brilliantly (and brutally) innovative or one of the most blatant acts of plagiarism ever conceived. Either way, it's hyperkinetic eye-candy from a passionate film-lover who clearly knows what he's doing. —Jeff Shannon

Kill Bill: Volume 2
"The Bride" (Uma Thurman) gets her satisfaction—and so do we—in Quentin Tarantino's "roaring rampage of revenge," Kill Bill: Volume 2. Where Vol. 1 was a hyper-kinetic tribute to the Asian chop-socky grindhouse flicks that have been thoroughly cross-referenced in Tarantino's film-loving brain, Vol. 2—not a sequel, but Part Two of a breathtakingly cinematic epic—is Tarantino's contemporary martial-arts Western, fueled by iconic images, music, and themes lifted from any source that Tarantino holds dear, from the action-packed cheapies of William Witney (one of several filmmakers Tarantino gratefully honors in the closing credits) to the spaghetti epics of Sergio Leone. Tarantino doesn't copy so much as elevate the genres he loves, and the entirety of Kill Bill is clearly the product of a singular artistic vision, even as it careens from one influence to another. Violence erupts with dynamic impact, but unlike Vol. 1, this slower grand finale revels in Tarantino's trademark dialogue and loopy longueurs, reviving the career of David Carradine (who plays Bill for what he is: a snake charmer), and giving Thurman's Bride an outlet for maternal love and well-earned happiness. Has any actress endured so much for the sake of a unique collaboration? As the credits remind us, "The Bride" was jointly created by "Q&U," and she's become an unforgettable heroine in a pair of delirious movie-movies (Vol. 3 awaits, some 15 years hence) that Tarantino fans will study and love for decades to come. —Jeff Shannon

Stanley Kubrick After just being released from a five year stint in prison, Johnny Clay has assembled a five man team, including two insiders, to carry out what he estimates will be a $2 million heist at Lansdowne Racetrack, that take, minus expenses, to be split five ways. Besides Johnny, none of the men truly are criminals in the typical sense. In addition to the other four team members, Johnny has hired two men external to the team to carry out specific functions for a flat fee, the other four who will not meet the two men for hire or know who they are, while the two men for hire will not be told of the bigger picture of the heist. None involved are to tell anyone, even their loved ones, about the job, each of the five who has a specific reason for wanting his share of the money: Johnny, in wanting to get married to his longtime girlfriend Fay, the two who have known each other since they were kids, realizes that to live comfortably, he has to shoot for the moon instead of carrying out the penny ...

Michel Ocelot In a little village somewhere in Africa, a boy named Kirikou is born. But he's not a normal boy, because he knows what he wants very well. Also he already can speak and walk. His mother tells him how an evil sorceress has dried up their spring and devoured all males of the village except one. Hence little Kirikou decides, he will accompany the last warrior to the sorceress. Due to his intrepidity he may be the last hope of the village.

Jan Sverák Winner of the 1997 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, this charming Czech drama uses the backdrop of the Russian military occupation in Prague for its funny, sad, and ultimately delightful story of a 55-year-old man's friendship with a 5-year-old boy. It doesn't exactly start out as friendship: Louka is a cellist who lost his symphony job after writing a sarcastic remark on an official form, and although he's struggling financially he still enjoys the company of several young women who find him irresistibly sexy. The last thing he needs is a surrogate child, but that's what he gets when young Kolya is abandoned by his mother, a Russian woman Louka had agreed to marry so she could avoid being sent back to Russia. The mother runs off to her boyfriend in Germany, leaving Louka with a 5-year-old kid who only speaks Russian! As directed by Jan Sverák (whose father, Zdenek Sverák, plays Louka), this predicament offers a lovingly detailed account of how Louka and Kolya discover each other, and how their mutual awkwardness evolves into a heartwarming father-son relationship. While the Russian presence creates an atmosphere of suspicion and restriction, the deepening connection between Louka and Kolya turns this into an unforgettable film, beautifully photographed, sensitively performed, and directed with just the right combination of subtle sentiment and harsh reality. Its Oscar was definitely well deserved. —Jeff Shannon

Fernand Dansereau Se sachant atteinte de la maladie d'Alzheimer, la fière Madeleine, 72 ans, se rend au bord du fleuve Saint-Laurent dans l'intention de s'y jeter. Au même moment, Zoé, chanteuse paumée de 35 ans, tente d'échapper à des types qui la poursuivent pour une dette de drogue. Madeleine intervient de façon inespérée et la tire de ce mauvais pas. Peu après, Zoé se laisse convaincre d'accompagner la septuagénaire dans sa dernière visite des lieux et des gens qui l'ont marquée. Au gré des escales et des rencontres, entre Montréal et Percé, les deux femmes développent une intimité de plus en plus forte. Mais alors que Zoé semble avoir enfin tiré un trait sur son passé, celui de Madeleine commence à s'éroder dans sa mémoire.

Marcello Mastroianni/Anouk Aim At three brief hours, La Dolce Vita, a piece of cynical, engrossing social commentary, stands as Federico Fellini's timeless masterpiece. A rich, detailed panorama of Rome's modern decadence and sophisticated immorality, the film is episodic in structure but held tightly in focus by the wandering protagonist through whom we witness the sordid action. Marcello Rubini (extraordinarily played by Marcello Mastroianni) is a tabloid reporter trapped in a shallow high-society existence. A man of paradoxical emotional juxtapositions (cool but tortured, sexy but impotent), he dreams about writing something important but remains seduced by the money and prestige that accompany his shallow position. He romanticizes finding true love but acts unfazed upon finding that his girlfriend has taken an overdose of sleeping pills. Instead, he engages in an ménage à trois, then frolics in a fountain with a giggling American starlet (bombshell Anita Ekberg), and in the film's unforgettably inspired finale, attends a wild orgy that ends, symbolically, with its participants finding a rotting sea animal while wandering the beach at dawn. Fellini saw his film as life affirming (thus its title, The Sweet Life), but it's impossible to take him seriously. While Mastroianni drifts from one worldly pleasure to another, be it sex, drink, glamorous parties, or rich foods, they are presented, through his detached eyes, are merely momentary distractions. His existence, an endless series of wild evenings and lonely mornings, is ultimately soulless and facile. Because he lacks the courage to change, Mastroianni is left with no alternative but to wearily accept and enjoy this "sweet" life. —Dave McCoy

Federico Fellini LA STRADA - DVD Movie

Don McKellar At the turn of the century the end of the world is known to be coming to an end. This modest comedy-drama examines how the impending doom affects its cast. McKellar plays an architect who plans to meet the end alone at dinner. Others (Sandra Oh David Cronenberg) make a suicide pact but are caught apart and struggle to get together before the end. Another man (Callum Keith Rennie) pursues final sexual conquests and a milquetoast woman (Tracy Wright) strives to gain courage. Of course the group ends up interacting. Actors: Callum Keith Rennie - David Cronenberg - Don McKellar - Sandra Oh - Sarah Polley - Tracy Wright. Director: Don McKellar. Format: DVD. Format Size: Widescreen. Runtime: 96 mins. Language: English. Subtitle: English Subtitles. Region code: Region 1 (United States Canada Bermuda U.S. territories). Discs: 1. Rating: PG-13. Genre: Drama. Subgenre: Sci-Fi. Release Year: 1998.

Sexual revelations emerge when a group of academics and their partners spend a weekend at a country retreat.

Robert Carlyle Barney Thomson (Robert Carlyle) is a sad sack of a man. He identifies himself mostly as a barber, Hendersons' Barbers in a working class neighborhood of Glasgow, Scotland, where he's worked for twenty years. More introspective than extroverted, which does not work well for the business, he has fewer and fewer customers, and as such his current boss, Wullie Henderson (Stephen McCole), son of the retired owner James Henderson (James Cosmo), who originally hired him, is moving him further and further away from the spotlight of the shop. Meanwhile, five men so far have been killed by who the general public is nicknaming the "Body Parts Killer", as the murderer sends through the post body parts of the victims to the victims' loved ones. Lead investigator, Detective Inspector Holdall (Ray Winstone), assisted by Detective Inspector Callum MacPherson (Kevin Guthrie), is no closer now to discovering the Body Parts Killer's identity than when the murders started two months ago. Wanting results, Chief Superintendent McManaman (Sir Tom Courtenay) takes Holdall and MacPherson off of the case, instead assigning it to Detective Inspector June Robertson (Ashley Jensen), an A-type personality who believes she can do no wrong, and will take credit for others doing right, which places her and Holdall at odds with each other. What were so far these two unrelated paths start to merge when Wullie tells Barney that he is giving his chair to a new barber, effectively firing him. In an ensuing altercation of sorts, Barney accidentally kills Wullie. When Wullie is reported as missing, Holdall and MacPherson are sent to investigate, and increasingly believe that Barney not only killed Wullie, whose body has not been discovered, but that he is the Body Parts Killer, both which Robertson believes are nonsense. The matter gets more complicated when Barney's self-absorbed, chain smoking and dispassionate mother, Cemolina (Dame Emma Thompson), gets involved, she who would never be considered Mother of the Year.

Jean-Claude Lauzon Second et dernier long métrage, après Un zoo la nuit, de la comète Jean-Claude Lauzon, Léolo est un vigoureux poème visuel, jamais sentimental, toujours dense et touchant. Entre une mère monumentale de tendresse (Ginette Reno), un père toujours là et toujours absent, un grand-père libidineux (Julien Guiomar) et des frères et soeurs marqués par la peur et la folie, le petit Léo (Maxime Collin) rêve. Il rêve d’Italie, d’une famille inventée et d’improbables trésors au fond de l’eau. Il rêve sa vie parce que, répète-t-il constamment : “Je rêve, donc je ne suis pas”.

Présenté en compétition officielle au Festival de Cannes en 1992, Léolo a causé un émoi dans le cinéma québécois. Entre la poésie de Forcier et la virulence de Kusturica, Lauzon a su créer de toutes pièces un univers unique dans notre paysage cinématographique. Sa grande force réside dans les images : images-chocs (le garçon se masturbant dans du foie de veau !), images simples (la mère et son fils dans la salle d’attente d’un cabinet de médecin) et images fortes (la “naissance” de Léo), qui composent le véritable vocabulaire de ce cinéaste surdoué. Si l’enchaînement de ces vignettes apparaît parfois décousu, et si la narration, superbement dite par Gilbert Sicotte, est souvent redondante, Léolo reste une oeuvre vibrante, un formidable hommage à l’enfance.

À l’instar des 400 Coups ou de Ma vie de chien, Léolo montre, sous le couvert d’une autobiographie fantasmée, la naissance d’un grand réalisateur, dont la mort prématurée a laissé un grand vide dans une cinématographie souvent trop sage… —Éric Fourlanty

The Libertine

Robert Eggers As the wavering cry of the foghorn fills the air, the taciturn former lumberjack, Ephraim Winslow, and the grizzled lighthouse keeper, Thomas Wake, set foot in a secluded and perpetually grey islet off the coast of late-19th-century New England. For the following four weeks of back-breaking work and unfavourable conditions, the tight-lipped men will have no one else for company except for each other, forced to endure irritating idiosyncrasies, bottled-up resentment, and burgeoning hatred. Then, amid bad omens, a furious and unending squall maroons the pale beacon's keepers in the already inhospitable volcanic rock, paving the way for a prolonged period of feral hunger; excruciating agony; manic isolation, and horrible booze-addled visions. Now, the eerie stranglehold of insanity tightens. Is there an escape from the wall-less prison of the mind?

Hirokazu Kore-Eda Would you choose your natural son, or the son you believed was yours after spending 6 years together? Kore-eda Hirokazu, the globally acclaimed director of "Nobody Knows", "Still Walking" and "I Wish", returns to the big screen with another family - a family thrown into torment after a phone call from the hospital where the son was born... Ryota has earned everything he has by his hard work, and believes nothing can stop him from pursuing his perfect life as a winner. Then one day, he and his wife, Midori, get an unexpected phone call from the hospital. Their 6-year-old son, Keita, is not 'their' son - the hospital gave them the wrong baby. Ryota is forced to make a life-changing decision, to choose between 'nature' and 'nurture.' Seeing Midori's devotion to Keita even after learning his origin, and communicating with the rough yet caring family that has raised his natural son for the last six years, Ryota also starts to question himself: has he really been a 'father' all these years...

Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris Take a hilarious ride with the Hoovers, one of the most endearingly fractured families in comedy history.Father Richard (Greg Kinnear) is desperately trying to sell his motivational success program... with no success. Meanwhile, pro-honesty mom Sher

Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.

Greta Gerwig In the years after the Civil War, Jo March (Saoirse Ronan) lives in New York City and makes her living as a writer, while her sister Amy March (Florence Pugh) studies painting in Paris. Amy has a chance encounter with Theodore "Laurie" Laurence (Timothée Chalamet), a childhood crush who proposed to Jo, but was ultimately rejected. Their oldest sibling, Meg March (Emma Watson), is married to a schoolteacher, while shy sister Beth (Eliza Scanlen) develops a devastating illness that brings the family back together. 

Guy Ritchie This 108 minute feature film is a DVD starring Jayson Flem ing, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran, Jason Statham and others.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Ten years after the war, West Germany's market economy is booming. Into an unnamed city that's rife with corruption comes a new building commissioner, Herr von Bohm, committed to progress but also upright. He's smitten by Marie-Louise, a single mother who's his landlady's daughter. Von Bohm does not realize she is also Lola, a singer at a bordello and the mistress of Schuckert, a local builder whose profits depend on von Bohm's projects. When von Bohm discovers Marie-Louise's real vocation and looks closely at Schuckert's work, will this social satire play out as a remake of "Blue Angel," a visit of Chekhov to West Germany, or an update of Jean Renoir's "Rules of the Game"?

Billy Wilder "I'm not a drinker—I'm a drunk." These words, and the serious message behind them, were still potent enough in 1945 to shock audiences flocking to The Lost Weekend. The speaker is Don Birnam (Ray Milland), a handsome, talented, articulate alcoholic. The writing team of producer Charles Brackett and director Billy Wilder pull no punches in their depiction of Birnam's massive weekend bender, a tailspin that finds him reeling from his favorite watering hole to Bellevue Hospital. Location shooting in New York helps the street-level atmosphere, especially a sequence in which Birnam, a budding writer, tries to hock his typewriter for booze money. He desperately staggers past shuttered storefronts—it's Yom Kippur, and the pawnshops are closed. Milland, previously known as a lightweight leading man (he'd starred in Wilder's hilarious The Major and the Minor three years earlier), burrows convincingly under the skin of the character, whether waxing poetic about the escape of drinking or screaming his lungs out in the D.T.'s sequence. Wilder, having just made the ultra-noir Double Indemnity, brought a new kind of frankness and darkness to Hollywood's treatment of a social problem. At first the film may have seemed too bold; Paramount Pictures nearly killed the release of the picture after it tested poorly with preview audiences. But once in release, The Lost Weekend became a substantial hit, and won four Oscars: for picture, director, screenplay, and actor. —Robert Horton

Lotte Reiniger German animator, a pioneer in silhouette cartoons whose work was based on the traditions of the oriental shadow theatre. Started with the Max Reinhardt Theatre Company in the late 1910's. Made her first full-length animated feature, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). During the 1930's, worked in Canada and in Britain (for the GPO Film Unit). Most of her output consisted of short films. Among many shadow plays for the BBC, she turned out her first silhouette colour work with Jack and the Beanstalk (1955). She absented herself from the cinema for ten years following the death of her husband and collaborator, Carl Koch. In her later years, she lectured in shadow animation in Europe and the U.S

Fritz Lang A simple, haunting musical phrase whistled offscreen tells us that a young girl will be killed. “Who Is the Murderer?” pleads a nearby placard as serial killer Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) closes in on little Elsie Beckmann . . . In his harrowing masterwork M, Fritz Lang merges trenchant social commentary with chilling suspense, creating a panorama of private madness and public hysteria that to this day remains the blueprint for the psychological thriller.

Who would think a movie about an autoworkers strike could be so entertaining and even moving? Made in Dagenham is simply brilliant. Rita O'Grady (Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky) finds herself unexpectedly thrust into the limelight when she becomes the leader of a strike by the women who sew the upholstery for a Ford factory in Dagenham, England—a strike that, thanks largely to the efforts of management and unions alike to dismiss it, turns into a struggle over equal pay for women. But because of a smart and subtle screenplay, understated direction, and above all outstanding performances by the entire cast—also featuring Rosamund Pike (An Education), Miranda Richardson (The Crying Game), and Bob Hoskins (Who Framed Roger Rabbit)—Made in Dagenham never stops being about people, even as its political scope widens. Every step is grounded in human relationships, among the striking women, between Rita and her husband, between the wife of a factory manager and a floor worker. The movie skillfully balances issues of class and gender equality and makes you care deeply about them—and about these people struggling for basic fairness. And it's funny, sad, and genuinely stirring. Simply a marvelous movie, not to be missed. —Bret Fetzer

Ted Post This first sequel to Dirty Harry was written by a couple of strong voices, writer-directors Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter) and John Milius (Farewell to the King). But that doesn't mean the film is particularly good. After Don Siegel's ferociously dark style in the first movie, Ted Post's blocky, television-ish direction in Magnum Force is a huge letdown. The story doesn't win any prizes, either. Eastwood's San Francisco detective Harry Callahan (apparently having retrieved his badge after throwing it away at the end of Dirty Harry) takes on a vigilante squad within the city's police force. David Soul is pretty convincing as the major spokesman for these right-wing avengers. Eastwood, on the other hand, had already turned Callahan from fascinating outsider in Siegel's film to purveyor of tough-guy shtick in this one. —Tom Keogh

Kenneth Lonergan Bothersome New York City high-school student Lisa Cohen (17), who consistently messes up her life and that of boy classmates, searches New York in vain for a fit cowboy hat to wear at an excursion with her separated father and stepmother. Spotting one on bus driver Maretti's head but failing to board, she stubbornly runs along and keeps claiming his confused attention, until the bus hits a blind senior, who is wounded fatally The NYPD quickly closes the case as an accident, but Lisa, duly consumed by guilt and spared any charge, starts bothering everyone and making a mean pest of herself, not only at home, as self-absorbed actress mother may deserve, but also in the precinct, tracking down the victim's uninterested kin out of town and even Maretti at home. A family friend lawyer gets involved in the case, digging in to compromising circumstances and causing real trouble to people who were of the hook.

George Tomasini, Alfred Hitchcock You could call this one Hoot Along with Hitch. With the possible exceptions of Topaz and Family Plot, this is Hitchcock's cheesiest movie, visually and psychologically crass in comparison with a peak achievement like Vertigo—although it shares some of that film's characteristic obsessive themes. Sean Connery, fresh from the second Bond picture, From Russia with Love, is a Philadelphia playboy who begins to fall for Tippi Hedren's blonde ice goddess only when he realizes that she's a professional thief; she's come to work in his upper-crust insurance office in order to embezzle mass quantities. His patient program of investigation and surveillance has a creepy, voyeuristic quality that's pure Hitchcock, but all's lost when it emerges that the root of Marnie's problem is phobic sexual frigidity, induced by a childhood trauma. Luckily, Sean is up to the challenge. As it were. Not even D.H. Lawrence believed as fervently as Hitchcock in the curative properties of sexual release. —David Chute

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Hanna Schygulla was a true star in this remarkable, semi-allegorical drama by Rainer Werner Fassbinder about a woman whose new marriage soon becomes a long history of waiting for reunification with her husband as he goes off to war, gets lost on the Russian front, ends up in prison, and goes to America. Meanwhile, the phantom marriage suspends the title character in a destiny that leads to power and wealth while still anticipating his return. One of several cinematic metaphors by Fassbinder for the identity and experience of post-war Germany, this 1978 film looks more than ever like a masterpiece. —Tom Keogh

Peter Weir When a sudden attack by a French warship inflicts casualities and severe damage upon his vessel, Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey (Crowe) of the British Royal Navy is torn between duty and friendship as he embarks on a thrilling, high-stakes chase across two oceans to intercept and capture the enemy at any cost. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture!

Jacob Aaron Estes When Sam (Culkin) continually gets picked on by the school bully, he and his protective older brother decide to teach the bully a lesson he will never forget. Together, they come up with a plan that involves inviting the bully on a special river trip for his birthday where they will make sure he is humiliated for all to see. Deciding that he no longer wants to go through with the plan, Sam tries to call it off but it's too late and he must live with the resulting consequences.

Kelly Reichardt The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon team of three families has hired the mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a short cut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants must face the scourges of hunger, thirst and their own lack of faith in each other's instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses their path, the emigrants are torn between their trust in a guide who has proven himself unreliable and a man who has always been seen as the natural enemy.

Christopher Nolan Sony Pictures Memento (Blu-Ray)
Point blank in the head a man shoots another. In flashbacks, each one earlier in time than what we've just seen, the two men's past unfolds. Leonard, as a result of a blow to thehead during an assault on his wife, has no short-term memory. He's looking for his wife's killer, compensating for his disability by taking Polaroids, annotating them, and tattooing important facts on his body. We meet the loquacious Teddy and the seductive Natalie (a barmaid who promises to help),and we glimpse Leonard's wife through memories from before the assault. Leonard also talks about Sammy Jankis, a man he knew with a similar condition. Has Leonard found the killer? What's going on?

Christopher Nolan A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife's murderer.

Fritz Lang Fritz Lang's expressionistic masterwork continues to exert its influence today, from Chaplin's Modern Times to Dr. Strangelove, and into the late 1990s with Dark City. In the stratified society of the future (2000, no less), the son of a capitalist discovers the atrocious conditions of the factory slaves, falling in love with the charismatic Maria in the bargain, who preaches nonviolence to the workers. But even the benevolent leadership of Maria is a challenge to the privileged class, so they have the mad scientist Rotwang concoct a robot double to take her place and incite the workers to riot. The story is melodrama, but it's the powerful imagery that is so memorable. One of the most arresting images has legions of cowed workers filing listlessly into the great maw of the all-consuming machine-god Moloch. Metropolis is a visionary masterpiece. —Jim Gay

The first, and only, X-rated film to win a best picture Academy Award®, John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy seems a lot less daring today (and has been reclassified as an R), but remains a fascinating time capsule of late-1960s sexual decadence in mainstream American cinema. In a career-making performance, Jon Voight plays Joe Buck, a naive Texas dishwasher who goes to the big city (New York) to make his fortune as a sexual hustler. Although enthusiastic about selling himself to rich ladies for stud services, he quickly finds it hard to make a living and eventually crashes in a seedy dump with a crippled petty thief named Ratzo Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman, doing one of his more effective "stupid acting tricks," with a limp and a high-pitch rasp of a voice). Schlesinger's quick-cut, semi-psychedelic style has dated severely, as has his ruthlessly cynical approach to almost everybody but the lead characters. But at its heart the movie is a sad tale of friendship between a couple of losers lost in the big city, and with an ending no studio would approve today. It's a bit like an urban Of Mice and Men, but where both guys are Lenny. —Jim Emerson

Gus Van Sant His life changed history. His courage changed lives. Academy Awardr winner Sean Penn stars in this stirring celebration of Harvey Milk, a true man of the people. Based on the inspiring true story of the first openly gay man elected to major public office, this compelling film follows Milk's powerful journey to inspire hope for equal rights during one of the least tolerant times in our nation's history. With a stunning all-star cast including Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna and James Franco, it's the emotionally charged story that critics are hailing as the 'best film of the year!' (Clay Smith, The Insider).

A six-year-old has doubts about childhood s most enduring miracle... Santa Claus. The arrival of one Kris Kringle, a department store Santa who believes he s the genuine article, turns the skeptical child s world upside down. Running Time: 1 hr. 14 min. Rating: PG Studio: 20th Century Fox

Harmony Korine In Paris, a young American who works as a Michael Jackson lookalike meets Marilyn Monroe, who invites him to her commune in Scotland, where she lives with Charlie Chaplin and her daughter, Shirley Temple.

Charles Chaplin Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin’s last outing as the Little Tramp, puts the iconic character to work as a giddily inept factory employee who becomes smitten with a gorgeous gamine (Paulette Goddard). With its barrage of unforgettable gags and sly commentary on class struggle during the Great Depression, Modern Times—though made almost a decade into the talkie era and containing moments of sound (even song!)—is a timeless showcase of Chaplin’s untouchable genius as a director of silent comedy.

Claude Jutra Mon Oncle Antoine is Claude Jutra's masterpiece: A poignant, starkly honest, but humane film, shot through with authenticity from beginning to end. Realized with an unflagging artistic vision, Mon Oncle Antoine poetically portrays a young boy's coming of age, vividly capturing the 1940s Quebec mining town in which he lives. Along with winning many awards in the 33 years since its release, this film has also left a visible influence on succeeding generations of Canadian filmmakers like Atom Egoyan.

Philippe Falardeau

Wes Anderson Set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s, as a young boy and girl fall in love they are moved to run away together. Various factions of the town mobilize to search for them and the town is turned upside down - which might not be such a bad thing.

Paul W.S. Anderson based on the best-selling home video game, this action adventuretells of a group of expert fighters who compete in a dangerous tournament for the fate of mankind on a mysterious island.

Darren Aronofsky Amidst a wild flat meadow encircled by an Edenic lush forest, a couple have cocooned themselves in a secluded mansion that was not so long ago burned to the ground, devotedly restored by the supportive wife. Within this safe environment, the once famous middle-aged poet husband is desirous of creating his magnum opus; however, he seems unable to break out of the persistent creative rut that haunts him. Then, unexpectedly, a knock at the door, the sudden arrival of a cryptic late-night visitor and his intrusive wife will stimulate the writer's stagnant imagination. Little by little, much to the perplexed wife's surprise, the more chaos he lets in their haven, the better for his punctured male ego. In the end, will this incremental mess blemish, irreparably, the couple's inviolable sanctuary?

Carl Bessai Mothers & Daughters is a comedic drama that blends elements of narrative and documentary film. It follows three mother/daughter pairs as they unknowingly approach a pivotal moment in their lives.

Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre The story of Roman Coleman, a violent convict, who is given the chance to participate in a rehabilitation therapy program involving the training of wild mustangs.

Hayao Miyazaki Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki made this gorgeous, delightful feature about two young sisters who move to rural Japan and start having magical advenures with a giant, friendly forest spirit called Totoro. The enchantment spreads as the girls are introduced to such wonders as a "cat bus" (a big bus that looks like a cat), but the film is also just as winning for the ordinary things Miyazaki captures: meeting neighbors, getting to know a new house from the perspective of excited children, etc. Little kids love this movie, and adults can easily appreciate it, too. Voices have been dubbed into English. —Tom Keogh

Werner Herzog, David Lynch The film takes place in Southern California, the story comes from an actual case, and the cast includes Willem Dafoe and Grace Zabriskie. It sounds like a David Lynch picture, except it isn't. Instead Lynch produced, while Werner Herzog directed. If Bad Lieutenant was Herzog's swamp noir, My Son, My Son is his desert noir. In another Lynchian touch, two cops (Dafoe and Michael Peña) provide entry into the San Diego-set story. Called to the scene of a murder, they meet actor Brad McCullum (Michael Shannon), who utters "Razzle dazzle" as they enter the flamingo-pink ranch house to find Mrs. McCullum (Zabriskie), dead by sword. Before Brad's fiancée, Ingrid (Chloë Sevigny), arrives, Herzog flashes back to Brad's days in Peru, where he found his "inner voice." The flashbacks continue to his participation in the famously matricidal Oresteia (Udo Kier plays the director). Combined with Ernst Reijseger's off-kilter score and Peter Zeitlinger's sun-bleached cinematography, it all exerts a certain queasy fascination, but Herzog's "whydunit" never really takes flight. Unlike Nicolas Cage's loopy lieutenant, Shannon invests Brad with a more recessive quality, which gives his madman greater credibility—at the expense of empathy. And yet… there's a scene with Shannon, Brad Dourif, and a tiny man in a tuxedo that offers the sort of what-the-heck magic that makes even the lesser films of Herzog and Lynch more interesting than most. Fortunately, there are enough of those moments to make the movie worthwhile, though not quite the messed-up masterpiece it might've been. —Kathleen C. Fennessy

Simon Curtis Anyone doubting the layered, nuanced, and heartbreaking acting abilities of Michelle Williams will find My Week with Marilyn a tremendous revelation. And Williams fans will enjoy it even more. In My Week with Marilyn Williams takes on the formidable challenge of playing Marilyn Monroe, and does so with depth and assuredness, and without resorting to caricature. Williams's Marilyn commands the screen with pain and delicacy, and doesn't let go until the final credits. My Week with Marilyn focuses on a small time frame in Monroe's life, right after her marriage to Arthur Miller. Monroe, already "the world's most famous woman," still feels the need for validation as an actress. What better way to achieve that, she believes, than committing to costarring with Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the Showgirl, a film she firmly believed would finally cement her reputation as a serious actress. My Week with Marilyn is based on the short memoir of Colin Clark, a crew member on The Prince and the Showgirl, who quickly became the confidant of the wildly insecure Monroe and watched a train wreck of egos—mostly Olivier's and Monroe's—collide in a fiery near-disaster. Kenneth Branagh gives an uncharacteristically restrained performance as the exasperated Olivier, resentful of the "new blood" in Hollywood that the young Monroe represents, and disdainful of her cult-like devotion to Method acting. (And of Monroe's chronic tardiness, which threatens to undermine the veddy, veddy strict British work schedule.) Eddie Redmayne plays Clark with a sweet, gentle veneer, someone who grows to care genuinely about the complex Monroe. Julia Ormond is clipped and proper as Olivier's then-wife, Vivien Leigh, and Emma Watson shows a lovely gravitas as Lucy, Monroe's acting coach. But it's Williams who gives the revelatory performance, capturing with painful intensity the insecurity that begins to seep out of Monroe like a fearful sweat. "Excuse my horrible face," she blurts out, while looking nothing less than her usual radiant self. Where does this tragic insecurity come from? My Week with Marilyn doesn't attempt to answer the unanswerable, but instead shines a light on the very real woman who became lost in the giant shadow of legend. —A.T. Hurley

Jon Gregory, Mike Leigh One of the essential films of the 1990s, Mike Leigh's brilliant and controversial "Naked" stars David Thewlis as Johnny, a charming, eloquent, and relentlessly vicious drifter in London. Rejecting all those who would care for him, the volcanic Johnny hurls himself into a nocturnal odyssey through the city, colliding with a succession of the desperate and the dispossessed and scorching everyone in his path. With a virtuoso script and raw performances by Thewlis and costars Katrin Cartlidge and Lesley Sharp, Leigh's panorama of England's crumbling underbelly is a showcase of black comedy and doomsday prophecy, and was the winner of the best director and actor prizes at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

David Cronenberg After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally murders his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in an Islamic port town in Africa.

Alexander Payne "NEBRASKA" is a father and son road trip, from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska that gets waylaid at a small town in central Nebraska, where the father grew up and has scores to settle. Told with deadpan humor and a unique visual style, it's ultimately the story of a son trying to get through to a father he doesn't understand.

Benoît Pilon NTSC/Region 1. It's the beginning of the 1950s and Tivii, an Inuit hunter, is flown to a Quebec sanatorium to be treated for tuberculosis. Weak, unable to communicate or to understand others, and far from his loved ones, Tivii decides to give up and to give in to death. His nurse, Carole, however, understanding Tivii's desolation, refuses to let him slip away and arranges for a young Inuit named Kaki, to be transferred to his sanatorium. Kaki knows white society well and helps Tivii decode his situation. Tivii's pride and will to live are further helped by his teaching Kaki about the ways of their land and of the Inuit people.

David Hartford, Patricia Phillips

George Hill, Wolfgang Petersen When 10-year-old Bastian opens the mysterious, ornately bound book entitled The NeverEnding Story, he never imagines he will be transported into its amazing world of Fantasia - and become the hero of its even more amazing tale. Now you can go there too in this magical film full of astonishing creatures and directed by Wolfgang Petersen (The Perfect Storm). Bastian, the Luckdragon and the genial Rock Biter return for more adventure in the spellbinding The NeverEnding Story II The Next Chapter from director George Miller (The Man from Snowy River). This time, new forces threaten the world of imagination. But they aren't the only foes Bastian faces. He must also overcome problems at home!

Note: This is a double sided disc. One side of the disc contains "The NeverEnding Story" and other side contains "The NeverEnding Story 2".

Allan Moyle Filmed on location in damp, windswept Nova Scotia and set in the 1970s, New Waterford Girl centers around the attempts of Moonie (newcomer Liane Balaban) to flee the constraints of small-town life. The lanky lass would like to be an artist and is encouraged by her teacher, Sweeney (Andrew McCarthy), to apply for a scholarship that will take her out of Cape Breton. In the meantime, she befriends Lou (Tara Spencer-Nairn), the tough girl next door, who helps her to devise an alternate plan. As in his previous features, Times Square and Pump Up the Volume, director Allen Moyle is interested in pop culture and teens who don't quite fit in. Despite the presence of better-known actors like Cathy Moriarty (Raging Bull) and Mark McKinney (Kids in the Hall</>), this is Balaban's film and she carries it with an awkward, yet endearing grace. —Kathleen C. Fennessy

Thom Eberhardt A comet wipes out most of life on Earth, leaving two Valley Girls fighting against cannibal zombies and a sinister group of scientists.

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen The Coen brothers make their finest thriller since Fargo with a restrained adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel. Not that there aren't moments of intense violence, but No Country for Old Men is their quietest, most existential film yet. In this modern-day Western, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a Vietnam vet who could use a break. One morning while hunting antelope, he spies several trucks surrounded by dead bodies (both human and canine). In examining the site, he finds a case filled with $2 million. Moss takes it with him, tells his wife (Kelly Macdonald) he's going away for awhile, and hits the road until he can determine his next move. On the way from El Paso to Mexico, he discovers he's being followed by ex-special ops agent Chigurh (an eerily calm Javier Bardem). Chigurh's weapon of choice is a cattle gun, and he uses it on everyone who gets in his way—or loses a coin toss (as far as he's concerned, bad luck is grounds for death). Just as Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a World War II vet, is on Moss's trail, Chigurh's former colleague, Wells (Woody Harrelson), is on his. For most of the movie, Moss remains one step ahead of his nemesis. Both men are clever and resourceful—except Moss has a conscience, Chigurh does not (he is, as McCarthy puts it, "a prophet of destruction"). At times, the film plays like an old horror movie, with Chigurh as its lumbering Frankenstein monster. Like the taciturn terminator, No Country for Old Men doesn't move quickly, but the tension never dissipates. This minimalist masterwork represents Joel and Ethan Coen and their entire cast, particularly Brolin and Jones, at the peak of their powers. —Kathleen C. Fennessy

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and more than two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.

Rune Denstad Langlo Following a nervous breakdown, ski athlete Jomar has isolated himself in a lonely existence as the guard of a ski park. When he learns that he might be the father of a child way up north, he sets on a strange and poetic journey through Norway on a snowmobile, with 5 liters of alcohol as sole provisions. On this trip through amazing arctic landscapes, Jomar seems to do everything in his power to avoid reaching his destination. He meets other tender and confused souls, who will all contribute to push Jomar further along his reluctant journey towards the brighter side of life.

Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Niki Caro This melodrama for the modern age is based on the true story of the first successful sexual harassment case in America. Niki Caro's (WHALE RIDER) inspirational tale traces one woman's determined struggle for independence and equality in a male-dominated environment—a struggle that set a precedent for improved working conditions for women across the country. Charlize Theron plays Josey Aimes, a young mother of two who has just left her abusive husband and returned home to live with her parents (Sissy Spacek and Richard Jenkins). Reconnecting with her old friend Glory (Frances McDormand), she learns of a well-paid job at the mines that would allow her a modicum of independence for the first time in her life. But Josey soon finds out about the drawbacks to the job, as the men mount a war of escalating cruelty against the women, who are expected to "take it like a man." Dildos in lunch boxes, obscene graffiti, and a harrowing episode in a Porta-Potty are just some of the indignities the women have to suffer in silence. Finally, Josey is pushed too far and decides to fight back, but she finds herself hard-pressed to find allies willing to sacrifice their bread and butter. Vilified by her former friends, increasingly abused by male colleagues, and estranged from her son and also from Glory, Josey nonetheless decides to sue the company. She is aided by exiled New York lawyer and former local sports star Bill White (Woody Harrelson). As in all successful melodrama, good and evil are clearly marked, with the powerful corporation and the male workers the unmitigated bad guys. However, this makes Josey's courage and strength, as well as the scope of what she accomplished, stand out in even starker contrast.

Michael Polish Following their super-quirky films Twin Falls Idaho and Jackpot, the Polish brothers take a leap of faith with their third picture, Northfork. And it pays off handsomely. Somewhere in the desolate Midwest, the town of Northfork is about to be drowned in the waters held back by a new dam. It's up to a group of men (in identical black suits and fedoras) to clear out the last stubborn landowners. Meanwhile, a deathly ill boy bargains with a delegation of heaven-sent searchers—at least that's what they seem to be. Is this Fargo meets Touched by an Angel? That's the peculiar feel of this otherwise unclassifiable movie, which veers from academic artiness to wacky blackout humor. Who can explain the restaurant where diners must guess the lone menu item? And who would want to? James Woods and Nick Nolte lead a game cast through this oddly winning enterprise. —Robert Horton

Bent Hamer The moment the train leaves the station without train driver Odd Horten aboard, he realizes that the path ahead is a journey without printed timetables and well-known stations. Horten has retired, and the platform does not feel like a safe place anymore.

DVD In the realm of revenge thrillers, you'd be hard pressed to find more ultra-violent vengeance and psycho thrills than in the creepy story of Oldboy. This Korean import made a pop splash at the Cannes Film Festival and during its limited theatrical run thanks to the imprimatur of Quentin Tarantino, who raved about it and its visionary director, Chan-wook Park, to anyone who would listen. It's easy to see why QT fell in love with the grindhouse attitude, fast-paced action, violent imagery, and icy-black humor, but it's a disservice to think of Oldboy as another Tarantino homage or knockoff. The darkly existential undercurrent in the themes that Oldboy traces over its life-long narrative arc is much more complex and deeply disturbing than anything of its kind. The movie's tagline is, "15 years of imprisonment... 5 days of vengeance." The imprisonee is Oh Dae-Su, an ordinary Joe who is snatched off a Seoul street corner and locked away in a dank, windowless fleabag hotel room for the aforementioned 15 years. Just as abruptly he is released, and thus the five days begin. Why did this happen to Oh Dae-Su? Ah, but that would be telling, and in fact we don't know ourselves until the final wrenching scenes.

Oldboy breaks into a classic three-act saga, the first of which details the hallucinatory period of imprisonment in which Oh Dae-Su wades from mild insanity to outright psychosis in the hands of unseen yet attentive captors. Act 2 is the revenge, when an entirely different tone takes over and Oh Dae-Su moves with single-minded purpose and clarity. It's this section that has gained the most notoriety, primarily for the claw-hammer dentistry scene, the one-man-army tracking shot, and the wriggling octopus that Oh Dae-Su consumes in a sushi bar (he's been dead so long he simply needs life back inside him in any way possible). In act 3, answers finally start to emerge and the sinister atmosphere grows even more profound—not without a healthy dose of extra bloodletting, of course. Oldboy is an undeniably poetic masterpiece of tension, fury, and dynamic craft. Ultimately, its epic cycle of tragedy is of the sort that mankind has been inflicting upon itself for all time. Some of the images may be gruesome, but all converge into a kind of beauty. It's in the telling of this lurid tale that these details become one and the memories of pain ultimately heal. —Ted Fry

John Carney A serendipitous meeting on the streets of Dublin between a down on his luck Irish street performer and a poor Czech immigrant sparks a bond that plays out in this hip, modern day music film. 'Once' follows the two as they write, rehearse and record the songs that reveal their unique love story.

Ingrid Veninger Daniel lives in a motel, managed by his parents, in northern Ontario. People come, people go, Daniel hardly notices. Until one day a girl arrives and changes his world.
ONLY is a glimpse into the heightened impressions and dreams of two unlikely 12-year-olds. Over the course of a single day, they venture on a journey, exploring deep secrets, dark fears, and first love in a pure and powerful meeting of young hearts and minds.

Juan Antonio Bayona Academy-Award nominated filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro (director of Pan's Labyrinth) presents The Orphanage, a chilling ghost story about a woman who discovers dark and horrific secrets hidden within her cherished childhood home and her desperate attempt to rescue her family from the nightmare into which she unwittingly led them.

James Bridges Serious, hard-working student James T. Hart faces the rigors of his first year at Harvard Law School. The pressure to succeed is tremendous and some of the students form study groups while also spending a great many hours studying. Hart's greatest challenge is contract law and his professor, Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. Using the Socratic method, Kingsfield challenges his students with questions demanding accuracy and creativity in their responses and often humiliating those who are unable to respond. As the school year progresses, Hart faces many challenges but befriends Susan Fields - unaware that she has a connection that affects their relationship. Finally, Hart accommodates himself to whatever might come his way, accepting a new set of priorities in his life.

Vic Sarin Even in a land ravaged by hatred, fear and intolerance, the seeds of love can still find nourishment to take root and blossom. It is 1947, and amidst the chaos and bloodshed unleashed when India and Pakistan are split into separate states, Sikh and former soldier Gian (Jimi Mistry) risks everything to save Naseem (Kristin Kreuk) a young Muslim woman, from a violent mob. Soon, love builds a bridge between their two worlds, healing the wounds in both their hearts. But how long can their joy last when religious zealots try to tear them apart forever? With its rich tapestry of stories and characters based on real people and events, Partition is a moving and timeless tale of innocent people struggling to find happiness in treacherous times.

Franklin J. Schaffner "Patton" tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with Patton's career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Europe and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton's numerous faults such his temper and tendency toward insubordination, faults that would prevent him from becoming the lead American general in the Normandy Invasion as well as to his being relieved as Occupation Commander of Germany.

Richard Halsey, Daryl Duke

Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own. With Marji dangerously refusing to remain silent at this injustice, her parents send her abroad to Vienna to study for a better life. However, this change proves an equally difficult trial with the young woman finding herself in a different culture loaded with abrasive characters and profound disappointments that deeply trouble her. Even when she returns home, Marji finds that both she and homeland have changed too much and the young woman and her loving family must decide where she truly belongs.

Robert Bresson's masterful investigation of crime and redemption tells the story of arrogant, young Michel, who spends his days learning the art of picking pockets in the streets, subway cars, and train stations of Paris. As Michel grows bolder and more a

Oliver Stone brand new factory sealed.

Robert Altman PLAYER - DVD Movie

Denis Villeneuve A dramatization of the 1989 Montréal Massacre, during which several female engineering students were murdered by an unstable misogynist.

Steven Spielberg When American military analyst, Daniel Ellsberg, realizes to his disgust the depths of the US government's deceptions about the futility of the Vietnam War, he takes action by copying top-secret documents that would become the Pentagon Papers. Later, Washington Post owner, Kay Graham, is still adjusting to taking over her late husband's business when editor Ben Bradlee discovers the New York Times has scooped them with an explosive expose on those papers. Determined to compete, Post reporters find Ellsberg himself and a complete copy of those papers. However, the Post's plans to publish their findings are put in jeopardy with a Federal restraining order that could get them all indicted for Contempt. Now, Kay Graham must decide whether to back down for the safety of her paper or publish and fight for the Freedom of the Press. In doing so, Graham and her staff join a fight that would have America's democratic ideals in the balance.

Jonathan Wacks Gary Farmer (Smoke Signals) is the standout in a fine film by Jonathan Wacks about an oversized Cheyenne man-child (Farmer) who decides to go on a spiritual quest, while simultaneously giving a ride to his lifelong Indian activist friend (A. Martinez). The film takes us through some pretty desolate Indian communities, but while Wacks makes a point of revealing harsher aspects of life on some reservations, the emphasis is on Farmer's delightful performance. A bonus: among the cast are Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves) and Wes Studi (The Last of the Mohicans), neither of whom were well-known in 1989, the year this film was released. —Tom Keogh

Peter Mettler Peter Mettler is known as a director, cinematographer and editor whose films bridge the gap between experimental, narrative, personal essay and documentary. PRELUDES provides a fascinating example of the wide variation of genres in which he works, as well as an exploration of the roots of his inspiration as an artist. Features 3 films: Scissere (Canada, 1982, Colour/B&W, 87 minutes), Eastern Avenue (Canada, 1985, Colour/B&W, 58 minutes), and Balifilm (Canada, 1997, Colour/B&W, 28 minutes).

Rob Reiner While home sick in bed, a young boy's grandfather reads him the story of a farmboy-turned-pirate who encounters numerous obstacles, enemies and allies in his quest to be reunited with his true love.

Hayao Miyazaki As of 2001, PRINCESS MONONOKE is one of only two films to ever break $150 million at the Japanese box office — the other is TITANIC.

Quentin Tarantino With the knockout one-two punch of 1992's Reservoir Dogs and 1994's Pulp Fiction writer-director Quentin Tarantino stunned the filmmaking world, exploding into prominence as a cinematic heavyweight contender. But Pulp Fiction was more than just the follow-up to an impressive first feature, or the winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival, or a script stuffed with the sort of juicy bubblegum dialogue actors just love to chew, or the vehicle that reestablished John Travolta on the A-list, or the relatively low-budget ($8 million) independent showcase for an ultrahip mixture of established marquee names and rising stars from the indie scene (among them Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Walken, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Julia Sweeney, Kathy Griffin, and Phil Lamar). It was more, even, than an unprecedented $100-million-plus hit for indie distributor Miramax. Pulp Fiction was a sensation. No, it was not the Second Coming (I actually think Reservoir Dogs is a more substantial film; and P.T. Anderson outdid Tarantino in 1997 by making his directorial debut with two even more mature and accomplished pictures, Hard Eight and Boogie Nights). But Pulp Fiction packs so much energy and invention into telling its nonchronologically interwoven short stories (all about temptation, corruption, and redemption among modern criminals, large and small) it leaves viewers both exhilarated and exhausted—hearts racing and knuckles white from the ride. (Oh, and the infectious, surf-guitar-based soundtrack is tastier than a Royale with Cheese.) —Jim Emerson

Robert Redford Academy Award(R)-winner Robert Redford's (1981, Best Director, ORIDINARY PEOPLE) critically acclaimed triumph, QUIZ SHOW, was cheered as one of the year's 10 best films by more than 80 critics nationwide. It's an exciting look behind the scenes at the thrills and high-stakes competition of TV's hottest big-money game show! But fame and fortune become a hotbed of scandal when a Washington investigator (Rob Morrow — NORTHERN EXPOSURE) uncovers corruption beneath the quiz show's glittering facade. The scandal implicates both the wildly popular champion (Ralph Fiennes — 1996 Academy Award(R) Best Actor nominee, THE ENGLISH PATIENT) and the disgruntled ex-champ (John Turturro, O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?). A powerful story with unforgettable performances — don't miss this suspense-filled hit!

Martin Scorsese Robert De Niro teams with director Martin Scorsese in this "extraordinarily compelling" (Leonard Maltin) film that introduced unflinching realism to stunned audiences in 1980. An "exceedingly violentas well as poetic" fight picture that maps "the landscape of the soul" (The New York Times),Raging Bull garnered eight OscarÂ(r) nominations* and won two, including Best Actor for De Niro. De Niro gives the performance of his career as Jake La Motta, a boxer whose psychological and sexual complexities erupt into violence both in and out of the ring. Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty are unforgettable as the brother who falls prey to Jake's mounting paranoia and jealousy, and the fifteen-year-old girl who becomes his most prized trophy. A "brilliantly photographed film of extraordinary power and rare distinction" (The Wall Street Journal), Raging Bullis filmmaking at its riveting best. *1980: Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Pesci), Supporting Actress (Moriarty), Cinematography, Sound, Editing (won)

Alfred Hitchcock Rebecca is an ageless, timeless adult movie about a woman who marries a widower but fears she lives in the shadow of her predecessor. This was Hitchcock's first American feature, and it garnered the Best Picture statue at the 1941 Academy Awards. In today's films, most twists and surprises are ridiculous or just gratuitous, so it's sobering to look back on this film where every revelation not only shocks, but makes organic sense with the story line. Laurence Olivier is dashing and weak, fierce and cowed. Joan Fontaine is strong yet submissive, defiant yet accommodating. There isn't a false moment or misstep, but the film must have killed the employment outlook of any women named Danvers for about 20 years. Brilliant stuff. —Keith Simanton

Pierre Gillette, Albert Lamorisse Newly restored and available for the first time on DVD, Albert Lamorisse s exquisite The Red Balloon remains one of the most beloved children s films of all time. In this deceptively simple, nearly wordless tale, a young boy discovers a stray balloon, which seems to have a mind of its own, on the streets of Paris. The two become inseparable, yet the world s harsh realities finally interfere. With its glorious palette and allegorical purity, the Academy Award winning The Red Balloon has enchanted movie lovers, young and old, for generations.

Various A clown with a heart of gold, Red Skelton's mission in life was to make people laugh. A first-class comedian, Skelton won the world over with his legendary alter-egos including Junior the Mean Widdle Kid (famous for the expression, "I dood it"); country bumpkin Clem Kadiddlehopper; clown hobo Freddie the Freeloader; con man San Fernando Red; henpecked husband George Appleby; drunkard Willie Lump Lump; boxer Cauliflower McPugg; and the not-so-honest lawman, Sheriff Deadeye. These characters and more made appearances on his popular television series The Red Skelton Show—the second longest running TV show in history at twenty years of broadcasting. For the duration of this time, Skelton's series maintained top ten and top twenty ratings and won several awards. Packed with celebrity guests, pratfalls, pranks, and silly sketches, The Red Skelton Show continues to delight audiences time and time again, proving that Red Skelton is indeed "America's favorite funnyman."

FEATURING 10 EPISODES
Clem the Dentist
Clem the Painter
Deadeye and the Indians
Look Awards Show
Freddie and the Spies
Halloween Show
How to Make a Salad
Mr. Lasagna
Bolivar Goes Hollywood
The U.N. Show

Warren Beatty Reds is the story of the love affair of John Reed and Louise Bryant in a war-torn world and how the Russian Revolution shook their lives.

Louis J. Gasnier Cautionary tale features a fictionalized take on the use of marijuana. A trio of drug dealers lead innocent teenagers to become addicted to "reefer" cigarettes by holding wild parties with jazz music.

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Tarantino came out of nowhere (ie, a video store in Manhattan Beach, California) and turned Hollywood on its ear in 1992 with his explosive first feature, Reservoir Dogs. Like Tarantino's mainstream breakthrough Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs has an unconventional structure, cleverly shuffling back and forth in time to reveal details about the characters, experienced criminals who know next to nothing about each other. Joe (Lawrence Tierney) has assembled them to pull off a simple heist, and has gruffly assigned them colour-coded aliases (Mr Orange, Mr Pink, Mr White) to conceal their identities from being known even to each other. But something has gone wrong, and the plan has blown up in their faces. One by one, the surviving robbers find their way back to their prearranged warehouse hideout. There, they try to piece together the chronology of this bloody fiasco—and to identify the traitor among them who tipped off the police. Pressure mounts, blood flows, accusations and bullets fly. In the combustible atmosphere these men are forced to confront life-and-death questions of trust, loyalty, professionalism, deception, and betrayal. As many critics have observed, it is a movie about "honor among thieves" (just as Pulp Fiction is about redemption, and Jackie Brown is about survival). Along with everything else, the movie provides a showcase for a terrific ensemble of actors: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Christopher Penn, and Tarantino himself, offering a fervent dissection of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" over breakfast. Reservoir Dogs is violent (though the violence is implied rather than explicit), clever, gabby, harrowing, funny, suspenseful, and even—in the end—unexpectedly moving. (Don't forget that "Super Sounds of the Seventies" soundtrack, either.) Reservoir Dogs deserves just as much acclaim and attention as its follow-up, Pulp Fiction, would receive two years later. —Jim Emerson

Vladimir Mogilevsky, Andrei Zvyagintsev In the remote Russian wilderness, two brothers face a range of new, conflicting emotions when their father—a man they only know through a single photograph—resurfaces.

Bruce McDonald Kingston, Ontario's, Bruce McDonald cut his indie teeth directing this rock & roll road movie seven years before making Hard Core Logo. Roadkill traverses the back roads and wilds of Canada following the odyssey of Valerie, a concert promoter searching for a lost band in hopes of staging a comeback tour. It's an effective, low-budget (shot on 8mm) film that showcases McDonald as an emerging force in Canadian independent cinema. McDonald then made a sequel to Roadkill with Highway 61 (not currently available on DVD).

Graeme Clifford, Jim Sharman

Bill Murphy, Geoffrey Wright The controversial film drew rave reviews for its visceral look at how the seeds of racial hatred, fueled by fear and paranoia, can explode into raw violence. Winner of three Australian Film Institute Awards, including Best Actor for Crowe, Romper Stomper is "exhilarating and utterly brilliant" (Preview Magazine).

A modern filmmaker magically finds himself transported to the 18th century, where he embarks on a time-traveling journey through 300 years of Russian history in Alexander Sokurov’s masterpiece. Filmed in HD with directors commentary

Caelum Vatnsdal, Guy Maddin, Matt Holm The dark days of the Depression set the stage for surreal black comedy in this "intoxicating" (Time) musical melodrama from acclaimed director Guy Maddin. When a legless beer baroness (Isabella Rossellini) in Winnipeg announces a contest to find the world's saddest tune, a pint of trouble brews among a fractured family competing for the $25,000 prize. As the disturbing depths of the linksbetween each other, the baroness and an amnesiac nymphomaniac are exposed, one thing becomes clear:It will take more than a pool of alcohol to drown their sorrows!

Journaliste sans famille, Flavien Juste gagne sa vie avec des reportages bidons pour un journal à sensation. Son patron et père putatif l'envoie avec le photographe Armand Despas couvrir des phénomènes étranges qui se produisent dans un village de l'arrière-pays. Chemin faisant, Flavien est le seul à voir le fantôme d'une jeune mariée exsangue se dresser sur la route. Puis les deux hommes descendent à l'auberge, où vivent deux vieilles jumelles au passé obscur. Le soir même, Armand disparaît mystérieusement. Pour enquêter parmi des villageois souvent hostiles, Flavien obtient l'aide du fils trisomique de la tenancière du bar local et d'une jeune mère célibataire dont il s'éprend. Mais de troublantes découvertes attendent le journaliste.

Harold Young Based on the novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, Leslie Howard stars as the dashing superhero who rescues innocent victims of the French Revolution by night, and assumes the identity of Sir Percy Blakeney, a foppish British aristocrat, by day. Co-starring as his wife is the beguiling Merle Oberson, whom Sir Percy still finds time to romance in between his heroic night-time adventures. Raymond Massey plays Citizen Chauvelin, of the French Secret Police, and principle antagonist in the film.

The influence of this story cannot be understated, as all modern day tales of heroic avengers who fight on behalf of their beleaguered citizens owe a sizable debt to this classic character and his motivations.

Academy Award®-winning directors Joel and Ethan Coen return to their comedy roots with this original and darkly humorous story about one ordinary man’s quest to become a serious man. Physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) can’t believe his life: His wife is leaving him for his best friend, his unemployed brother won’t move off the couch, someone is threatening his career, his kids are a mystery and his neighbor is tormenting him by sunbathing nude. Struggling to make sense of it all, Larry consults three different rabbis and their answers lead him on a twisted journey of faith, family, delinquent behavior and mortality in the film critics rave is “seriously awesome!” (Michael Hogan, Vanity Fair)

Guylaine Dionne This is a film about two women who struggle to endure lousy working conditions they face as strippers.

David Fincher SEVEN - Blu-Ray Movie

Martin McDonagh A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster's beloved Shih Tzu.

Hark Tsui

Roger Spottiswoode As genocide rages in Rwanda, Lt. Roméo Dallaire (Roy Dupuis) is assigned to lead the United Nations peacekeeping force. Fighting for his own survival as well as the millions of innocents threatened by the war, Lt. Dallaire finds himself torn between duty and conscience in his efforts to prevent the country’s descent into hell.

BONUS FEATURES:
Making-of Featurette, Audio commentary with director Roger Spottiswoode and Lt. General Dallaire, Additional commentary track with the filmmakers.

Ewa Smal, Krzysztof Kieslowski Based on an epic poem by Henrik Ibsen, A Man There Was is commonly cited as the film that launced Sweden's first golden age of filmmaking. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, it tells the story of a fisherman so desperate to obtain food for his starving family taht he tries to break through a British blackade, only to find himself at the mercy of extraordinary forces. Victor Sjostrom (The Outlaw And His Wife), who not only directs but also plays the leading role, was renowned for his ability to exploit Sweden's incredible locations. A Man There Was is no exception, and Julius Janenzon's cinematography stunningly captures the harsh, unforgiving quailty of the ever present sea. Critic Andrew Sarris once speculated, "It is possible that Victor Sjostrom was the world's first great director, even before Chaplin and Griffith." Sjostrom would later have a notable career in Hollywood, directing Lillian Gish in such silent classics as The Scarlet Letter And The Wind.

Destin Daniel Cretton At a foster-care facility for at-risk teenagers, Grace is a young counselor trying to do her best for kids who often have been pulled from the worst kinds of home situations. Even then, life is not easy as Grace and her colleagues care for kids who are too often profoundly scarred, even as they try to have lives of their own. Now, things are coming to a head as Grace readies for marriage even as some her charges are coming to major turning points in their lives. To cope, Grace will have to make difficult perceptions and decisions that could put her career, and more importantly her charges, at dire risk

Douglas Trumbull In a future Earth barren of all flora and fauna, the planet's ecosystems exist only in large pods attached to spacecraft. When word comes in that the pods are to be jettisoned into space and destroyed, most of the crew of the Valley Forge rejoice at the prospect of going home. Not so for botanist Freeman Lowell, who loves the forest and its creatures. He kills his colleagues taking the ship deep into space. Alone on the craft with his only companions being three small robots, Lowell revels in joys of nature. When colleagues appear to "rescue" him, he realizes he has only one option available to him.

DVD

Jacques Audiard Based on Patrick DeWitt's novel, This movie revolves around the colorfully named gold prospector Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed), who's being pursued across one thousand miles of 1850s Oregon desert to San Francisco, California by the notorious assassins Eli Sisters (John C. Reilly) and Charlie Sisters (Joaquin Phoenix). Except Eli is having a personal crisis and beginning to doubt the longevity of his chosen career. And Hermann might have a better offer.

Johnny Depp Christina Ricci. New York Constable Ichabod Crane is sent to the village of Sleepy Hollow in 1799 to investigate a series of murders in which the victims have all been decapitated. When Crane arrives he is told that the killings were perpetrated by headless horseman. Crane a non-believer at first soon changes his mind when he encounters the murdering headless horseman for himself. 1999/color/110 min/R/widescreen.

Derick Martini, Kevin Jordan Two brothers share a house in LA's Fairfax district: Tony's a feckless actor, Chris is an accountant. Both are in relationships on rocky ground. As these emotions swirl, Tony meets his US Postal Service letter carrier, a single mom named Kathy who's come to LA from Wyoming with her daughter, a budding actress. Chris meets Anna, an Italian beauty working in the States for a few months wrangling animals on movie sets. Chris also befriends Clive, an aging and crusty man whose longing for his recently-deceased wife is a portrait of true love. Can Clive's example help Chris sort out his love life, and can Tony grow up enough to see the possibilities with Kathy and her daughter?

In a future where a failed climate-change experiment has killed all life except for the lucky few who boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, a new class system emerges.

Andrei Tarkovsky The Solaris mission has established a base on a planet that appears to host some kind of intelligence, but the details are hazy and very secret. After the mysterious demise of one of the three scientists on the base, the main character is sent out to replace him. He finds the station run-down and the two remaining scientists cold and secretive. When he also encounters his wife who has been dead for ten years, he begins to appreciate the baffling nature of the alien intelligence.

Sofia Coppola After withdrawing to the Chateau Marmont, a passionless Hollywood actor reexamines his life when his eleven-year-old daughter surprises him with a visit.

Marc Rothemund The Final Days is the true story of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine brought to life. Sophie Scholl is the fearless activist of the underground student resistance group, The White Rose. Using historical records of her incarceration, the film re-creates the last six days of Sophie Scholl's life: a journey from arrest to interrogation, trial and sentence in 1943 Munich. Unwavering in her convictions and loyalty to her comrades, her cross-examination by the Gestapo quickly escalates into a searing test of wills as Scholl delivers a passionate call to freedom and personal responsibility that is both haunting and timeless.

When Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos, Head-On) hires a gourmet chef for his struggling Hamburg restaurant, it only serves to drive away his low-life regulars. Meanwhile, Zinos' girlfriend, Nadine, has moved to Shanghai to take a reporting job. A new hip clientele helps bring the restaurant back, but Zinos' heart still needs fixing, so he flies to China, leaving Soul Kitchen in the hands of his criminal brother, Illias (Moritz Bleibtreu, Run Lola Run). Bad move: Illias gambles the eatery away and Nadine has a new lover. But the brothers have a chance to repair the damage if they can stop arguing and work as a team. Directed by the acclaimed Fatih Akin (Head-On, The Edge of Heaven), the hilarious and heartfelt Soul Kitchen, set to an infectious soul and funk soundtrack, won two prizes at the Venice Film Festival.

David Cronenberg Spider has been allowed a second chance at life after a long stay in a mental institution and sent to a halfway house under the stern watch of Mrs. Ilkenson.

Revisiting his old neighborhood reawakens memories of where his mother and his father raised him. He soon begins to uncover the real truth shifting seamlessly back and forth between the tragic events that polarized a boy's adolescence to the shell of a man enduring the surreal plausible reality of today.

Academy Award winner Spike Lee is one of the most influential filmmakers in modern cinema. His groundbreaking and often controversial films have sparked conversation while simultaneously entertaining audiences across the world. The Spike Lee 7 Joints collection features a selection of the director's most notable films including Do the Right Thing, whose message still resonates today, along with Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Crooklyn, Clockers, Inside Man and BlacKkKlansman, for which Spike won an Academy Award. With performances from Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Mekhi Phifer, Alfre Woodard, Jodie Foster, Rosie Perez, Danny Aiello, John David Washington, Adam Driver, Harvey Keitel, John Turturro and so many more, including Spike himself, this unforgettable collection captures the essence of a truly visionary artist.

Dorothy Spencer, Otho Lovering, John Ford This landmark 1939 Western began the legendary relationship between John Ford and John Wayne, and became the standard for all subsequent Westerns. It solidified Ford as a major director and established Wayne as a charismatic screen presence. Seen today, Stagecoach still impresses as the first mature instance of a Western that is both mythic and poetic. The story about a cross-section of troubled passengers unraveling under the strain of Indian attack contains all of Ford's incomparable storytelling trademarks—particularly swift action and social introspection—underscored by the painterly landscape of Monument Valley. And what an ensemble of actors: Thomas Mitchell (who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as the drunken doctor), Claire Trevor, Donald Meek, Andy Devine, and the magical John Carradine. Due to the film's striking use of chiaroscuro lighting and low ceilings, Orson Welles watched Stagecoach over and over while preparing for Citizen Kane. —Bill Desowitz

Andrei Tarkovsky

A unique behind the scenes look at the classic trilogy.

Peter Haddon, Daniel Gordon Billed as "a complex exploration of one of the world's most closed nations," A State of Mind purports to offer unprecedented insight into life in North Korea, a country infamously cited by George W. Bush as a member of "the axis of evil." British filmmaker Daniel Gordon's beautifully photographed 2003 documentary certainly takes us deeper into the culture of this isolated land that any Westerner has been in the past half century. In focusing on two female gymnasts, aged 11 and 13, and their preparations for the "socialist realism extravaganza" known as the Mass Games, Gordon shines a light on their daily existence; although the people are hardly prosperous, life in Pyongyang, the capital city, seems reasonably normal (except perhaps for the state radio broadcasts that are pumped into every resident's home and can be turned down, but not off). What's more, the discipline and dedication of young Kim Song Yun and Pak Hyon Sun, as well as the thousands of others who participate in the Mass Games, results in a performance of astonishing skill and splendor (captured in A State of Mind's final and most impressive sequence). Still, it's safe to say that a government as secretive as North Korea's wouldn't have granted "unrestricted access" to a foreign film crew if they anticipated that anything controversial might be revealed. Indeed, what Gordon refers to as "an all-encompassing belief structure imposed on the people"—based on an unquestioning devotion to dictator Kim Jong Il (known as "the General") and the sublimation of the individual for the good of the state—comes through loud and clear in every interview. Even the few problems mentioned, like food shortages or nightly power blackouts in Pyongyang, are attributed to various national disasters or, most often, the wickedness of American "imperialist aggressors." Of course, with Bush's foreign policy having aroused the enmity of most of the rest of the world, it's getting harder for Americans to be scornful of those whom we have alienated. If anything, especially considering their nascent nuclear capability, A State of Mind shows us that North Korea is not a country to be taken lightly. —Sam Graham

Bernardo Bertolucci After her mother commits suicide, nineteen year old Lucy Harmon travels to Italy to have her picture painted. However, she has other reasons for wanting to go. She wants to renew her acquaintance with Nicolo Donati, a young boy with whom she fell in love on her last visit four years ago. She also is trying to solve the riddle left in a diary written by her dead mother, Sara.

Michael McGowan After years of stability, the lives of octogenarian couple, Craig and Irene Morrison, are slowly beginning to change. Because of changing times and regulations, they are no longer able to make a living from their small coastal New Brunswick farm. And Irene has begun to show signs of early dementia. Against the wishes of their two offspring who still reside in the area and who would like to see more standard care provided for Irene, Craig, the son of a master shipbuilder who inherited his father's building abilities, decides to mill lumber from trees on their property and with it build a more suitable, small one story house on the property in which he and Irene can live. Beginning this project with only a design in his mind, he is encouraged by friends at least to go through the regulatory process of building permits and the like. Despite being able to complete this project to more than exacting centuries old standards, Craig ends up hitting one roadblock after another in this

Jonathan Demme The GREATEST CONCERT MOVIE OF ALL TIME... Rolling Stone Magazine
Talking Heads WILDLY ENTERTAINING concert SPECTACULAR is among the GREATEST music films EVER MADE... Entertainment Weekly
The movie rates with Woodstock as the GREATEST ROCK CONCERT FILM one that can be watched as frequently as an aerobics tape. - USA Today
Palm Pictures is proud to present the Blu-ray premiere of the groundbreaking Talking Heads concert film STOP MAKING SENSE directed by Academy Award ® Winner Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs). Entertainment Weekly described, the DVD s generous extras go a long way toward explaining the film s visual appeal: David Byrne and director Jonathan Demme contribute a smart audio commentary. The film has been remastered from the original 35mm source, allowing the brilliance of the visuals to take full advantage of Blu-ray technology.

Todd Solondz Storytelling is comprised of two separate stories set against the sadly comical terrain of college and high school, past and present. Following the paths of its young hopeful/ troubled characters, it explores issues of sex, race, celebrity and exploitation

Paul Dinello Forty-seven-year-old Jerri Blank is a socially unaware ex-con junkie alcoholic prostitute. After being released from her latest stint behind bars, Jerri wants to clean up her life and decides the best way to do so is to go home, where she left thirty-two years earlier when she began her depraved life. She arrives home to find that her mother has died, and her father has remarried a much younger woman and has fallen into a stress-induced coma in part because she disappeared. She takes that cleaning up her life one step further when Dr. Putney, her father's doctor, tells her that he may emerge from his coma if life were to return to the way it was before she left, but better, as she has to make her father proud. So she decides to go back to her old high school, Flatpoint, to get her high school diploma. She quickly decides the best way to be the best student possible is to participate in and win the state science fair. In her quest, she gets caught up in the competing agendas of: Principal Onyx Blackman, who needs a winning science fair team so as not to have to return discretionary school board funding, which he obtained through fraud and which he has since misappropriated; science teacher Chuck Noblet, a married born-again Christian closet homosexual who tries quietly or not so quietly to win back the affections of his lover, Geoffrey Jellineck, the sensitive art teacher; and Roger Beekman, the winning teacher of the past nine science fairs whom Blackman brings into Flatpoint as a ringer, much to Noblet's chagrin. Jerri also has to keep her focus on the end goal of her father, which may not be easy to do for a socially unaware middle-aged libidinous junkie prostitute who wants to be one of the popular kids, and do it with the big man and the innocent virginal girl on campus.

Richard Rush Richard Rush leads a joyous ensemble of cast members recollecting the making of the prized and maligned production on the DVD's commentary track. Two deleted scenes are included along with production photos. Production and ad art is also shown from initia

Clint Eastwood The fourth Dirty Harry film is a complete embarrassment to memories of the stunning Don Siegel movie that started the franchise. Gratuitous and somehow sleazy, this cop flick finds Eastwood's Harry Callahan searching for a female serial killer (Sondra Locke) who happens to be a vengeful rape victim ridding the world of guys who can't take "no" for an answer. The whole silly Callahan myth—the way he'll just stand in the shadows with his big gun until the bad guys realize they're going to die—almost makes one wonder how Eastwood survived this junk to become an A-list director in his winter years. —Tom Keogh

John Sayles Real estate developers descend upon a sleepy coastal Florida community with the promise of big money and bigger changes. Torn between honoring family obligations and the lure of quick cash, the locals greet the outsiders with a wildly mixed reception. Marly Temple is eager to give in and sell the family business to start over her life. As caretaker of her father's motel and cafe, she has grown resentful of missed opportunities. However, she finds a glimmer of hope in a tentative romance with a visiting landscape architect. Desiree Perry left town many years ago to escape a scandal and make a name for herself as an actress. Reluctantly returning home, she finds her strong willed mother unwilling to let go of the past.

Jeff Nichols Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.

Sarah Polley While on a plane ride back to Toronto from a writing assignment, Margot meets Daniel, a handsome stranger. An immediate attraction is formed and Margot is able to open up and discuss some of her fears and longings. A taxi ride back home causes Daniel and Margot to realize that they are neighbours and Margot admits she's married. The summer-time heat and her increasing fascination with the handsome artist who lives across the street starts getting to her, and Margot is no longer sure if she's happy in her marriage or if she'd be happier with her fantasies with Daniel.

Omar Majeed Yusef, a first-generation Pakistani engineering student, moves off-campus with a group of Muslim punks in Buffalo, New York. His new "un-orthodox" house mates soon introduce him to Taqwacore- a hardcore, Muslim punk rock scene that only exists out west. As the seasons change, Taqwacore influences the house more and more. The living room becomes a mosque during the day, while it continues to host punk parties at night. Ultimately, Yusef is influenced by Taqwacore too, as he begins to challenge his own faith and ideologies. The Taqwacores deals with the complexities of being young and Muslim in modern-day America.

Ioana Uricaru, Hanno Höfer, Razvan Marculescu, Constantin Popescu Cristian Mungiu

Sandra Adair, Richard Linklater Twenty-eight year olds Jon and Vince, friends from high school, meet in Vince's seedy motel room in Lansing, Michigan. Jon had invited Vince to town from his current residence of Oakland to help celebrate the fact of his latest movie, independently shot, having a screening at the local film festival the following day, the first public screening of one of his movies. While Jon seems to have grown up in having this career path and a nice room in an upscale hotel provided by the festival, Vince, who, in preparing for the evening has already had a few beer by the time Jon arrives, hasn't, he who deals drugs for a living with no change on the horizon, and his girlfriend, who was supposed to accompany him to Lansing, having broken up with him, indirectly because of his immaturity. This divergence quickly becomes an issue of contention between the two. But as Vince's behavior is seemingly more and more substance affected, he having broken out the weed and coke, his intention with Jon may be ...

Various EASTER PARADE Strolling along 5th Avenue or bumming around as A Couple of Swells, Judy Garland and Fred Astaire lead a parade of music (17 Irving Berlin tunes and an Academy Award-winning adaptation score) and gotta-dance fun in this neverending delight co-starring Ann Miller and Peter Lawford. MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS She's in love with the boy next door. And movie fans are forever in love with her Judy Garland in a nostalgia and humor-filled tale of life with the Smith family in 1903 St. Louis. Songs include The Boy Next Door, The Trolley Song and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. SINGIN IN THE RAIN Considered by many to be the greatest movie musical ever! Silent movies are giving way to the advent of sound and a Hollywood matinee idol (Gene Kelly) is caught in that bumpy transition, as well as his buddy (Donald O'Connor), prospective sweetheart (Debbie Reynolds) and vocally-challenged co-star (Jean Hagen). THE BAND WAGON Fred Astaire dazzles in a train station (By Myself), a penny arcade (A Shine on Your Shoes), a back-lot Central Park (Dancing in the Dark) and a smoky café (Girl Hunt), the latter two with incomparable Cyd Charisse. Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan and Oscar Levant co-star, and as the movies hallmark song goes, That's Entertainment!

Michael Almereyda A freewheeling take on visionary inventor Nikola Tesla, his interactions with Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan's daughter Anne, and his breakthroughs in transmitting electrical power and light.

Miranda July When a couple decides to adopt a stray cat their perspective on life changes radically, literally altering the course of time and space and testing their faith in each other and themselves.

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck This critically-acclaimed, Oscar®-winning film (Best Foreign Language Film, 2006) is the erotic, emotionally-charged experience Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly) calls "a nail-biter of a thriller!" Before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, East Germany’s population was closely monitored by the State Secret Police (Stasi). Only a few citizens above suspicion, like renowned pro-Socialist playwright Georg Dreyman, were permitted to lead private lives. But when a corrupt government official falls for Georg’s stunning actress-girlfriend, Christa, an ambitious Stasi policeman is ordered to bug the writer’s apartment to gain incriminating evidence against the rival. Now, what the officer discovers is about to dramatically change their lives - as well as his - in this seductive political thriller Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) proclaims is "the best kind of movie: one you can’t get out of your head."

Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom, Jorgen Lindstrom, Hakan Jahnberg, Birger Malmstem, Ingmar Bergman Screen Formats:B&W Sound:Dolby Digital Mono Aspect Ratio:1.33:1 Features: New high-definition digital transfer of the original, uncensored Swedish version, with restored image and sound Exploring the Film: video discussion with Ingmar Bergman biographer Peter Cowie Poster gallery for the trilogy films Essay by film scholar Leo Braudy Original U.S. theatrical trailer Optional English-dubbed soundtrack New and improved English subtitle translation Optional image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition. —————- Synopsis: The third entry in Ingmar Bergman's trilogy about faith and redemption (with Through A Glass Darkly and Winter Light) is a stark and enigmatic allegory fueled by subtle performances from Ingrid Thulin and Gunnel Lindblom. Thulin plays Ester, a translator and intellectual, who is traveling back to Sweden on a train with her younger sister Anna (Linblom) and Anna's son Johan (Jorgen Lindstrom). They stop in the town of Timuku and check into an old hotel in a foreign land where the language cannot be understood by the three travelers. Ester, who suffers from a terminal lung disease, is very protective towards Anna; but Anna resents being tied down by her sickly sister, and she leaves the hotel room, picking up a waiter (Birger Malmsten in a nearby café. Returning to the hotel room, Anna tells Ester about her sexual encounter with the waiter, and Ester becomes sexually aroused. Anna leaves for another room in the hotel to continue making love with the waiter. Johan helps Ester track Anna down Anna, and Anna and the waiter proceed to make love a third time. This provokes a violent and biter argument between the two sisters. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Bruce McDonald TRACEY FRAGMENTS - DVD Movie

Michael Haneke From July, 1913 to the outbreak of World War I, a series of incidents take place in a German village. A horse trips on a wire and throws the rider; a woman falls to her death through rotted planks; the local baron's son is hung upside down in a mill; parents slap and bully their children; a man is cruel to his long-suffering lover; another sexually abuses his daughter. People disappear. A callow teacher, who courts a nanny in the baron's household, narrates the story and tries to investigate the connections among these accidents and crimes. What is foreshadowed? Are the children holy innocents? God may be in His heaven, but all is not right with the world; the center cannot hold. 

Ciro Guerra For most of his life, Ignacio Carrillo traveled the villages of northern Colombia, playing traditional songs on his accordion, a legendary instrument said to have once belonged to the devil. He eventually married and settled in a small town, leaving the nomadic life behind. But after the traumatic death of his wife, he vows to never play the accursed accordion again, and embarks on one last journey to return the instrument to its rightful owner. On the way, Ignacio is followed by Fermín, a spirited teenager determined to become his apprentice. Tired of loneliness, Ignacio accepts the young man as his pupil and together they traverse the vast Colombian terrain, discovering the musical diversity of Caribbean culture. Hardened by a life of solitude, Ignacio tries to discourage Fermín from following in his footsteps, but destiny has different plans for them.

Paul Thomas Anderson A story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.

Errol Morris Academy AwardÂ(r)-winner* Errol Morris broke new ground with the "riveting" (LA Weekly) film that dramatically reenacts the crime scene and investigation of a police officer's murder in Dallas. So powerful and convincing that it helped free an innocent man from prison, The Thin Blue Line is "one of the finest documentary features ever made" (Boxoffice). On November 28, 1976, when drifter Randall Dale Adams was picked up by teenage runaway David Harris, his fate was sealed. That night, a police officer was shot in cold blood. And though all the facts pointed to Harris, a sociopath with a lengthy rap sheet, Adams was convicted of capital murder. Was Adamsguilty? And if not, can Morris unlock the secrets of this baffling case? *2003: Documentary Feature, The Fog of War (with Michael Williams)

Terrence Malick U.S. Army Private Witt (AWOL) is found and imprisoned on a troop carrier by his company First Sergeant, Welsh.The men of C Company,1st Battalion,27th Infantry Regiment,25th Infantry Division have been brought to Guadalcanal as reinforcements in the campaign to secure Henderson Field and seize the island from the Japanese. They arrive near Hill 210, a key Japanese position. Their task is to capture the hill at all costs. What happens next is a story of redemption and the meaninglessness of war. Regardless of the outcome.

Susanne Bier Academy Award winners Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro star in director Susanne Bier’s (the Oscar-nominated "After the Wedding") powerful new drama "Things We Lost in the Fire" Audrey Burke (Berry) is reeling from the shock of the news that has just been delivered to her door by the local police: her warm and loving husband Brian (David Duchovny), the father of their two young children, has been killed in a random act of violence. Once anchored by the love and comforts of their 11-year marriage, Audrey is now adrift. Impulsively, she turns to Jerry Sunborne (Del Toro), a down-and-out addict who has been her husband’s close friend since childhood. Desperate to fill the painful void caused by her husband’s death, Audrey invites Jerry to move into the room adjacent to their garage in the hope that he can help her and her children cope with their sudden loss. Jerry is facing a daily battle to stay off drugs, but in his unexpected role as surrogate parent and friend to Audrey’s son and daughter he finds a core of inner resilience. As Jerry and Audrey navigate grief and denial, their fragile bonds are constantly tested. Working together, however, they discover the strength to move forward.

Rob Reiner You're about to get personal with one of music history's greatest and loudest heavy metal bands, Spinal Tap! Whether or not you're a die-hard fan of the group, you'll love this detailed "rockumentary" of Engand's legendary Spinal Tap. Acclaimed commercial director Marty DiBergi takes you behind the scenes for an intimate look at a band whose time has come and gone and come again and.... Through interviews, rare footage and lots of musicincluding classic Tap tunes like "Big Bottom" and "Hell Hole"you'll get acquainted with David St. Hubbins (lead guitar), Nigel Tufnel (lead guitar), Derek Smalls (lead bass) and every drummer who ever livedand diedfor this renowned rock band. Be a part of the sights, sounds and smells of this celebrated heavy metal phenomenon. It's an experience you'll never forget.

Various

Ching-Song Liao, Hsiao-hsien Hou Three Times is a Hou Hsiao masterpiece. A rapturous and beautiful love story set in three different eras, a pool hall in 1966, a 1911 brothel and present day Taipei. Stylistic and true to life of the times, Hou Hsiao Hsien brings to life the culture of each period as the tale unfolds. Critically acclaimed for its wisdom, cineamatic style and storytelling it is a must see for any true lover of cinema

Ingmar Bergman Sweden 1961 91 minutes Black and White 1.33:1 Synopsis: While vacationing on a remote island retreat, a family's already fragile ties are tested when daughter Karin (Harriet Andersson) discovers her father has been using her schizophrenia for his own literary means. As she drifts in and out of lucidity, the father (Gunnar Björnstrand), along with Karin's husband (Max von Sydow) and her younger brother (Lars Passgård) are unable to prevent Karin's harrowing descent into the abyss of mental illness. Winner of the 1962 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and featuring an astonishing lead performance by Andersson, Through a Glass Darkly presents an unflinching vision of a family's near disintegration and a tortured psyche further taunted by God's intangible presence. Cast Karin Harriet Andersson Martin Max von Sydow David Gunnar Bjornstrand Minus Lars Passgård Credits Director Ingmar Bergman Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman Assistant director Lenn Hjortzberg Cinematography Sven Nykvist Assistant photographer Rolf Holmqvist and Peter Wester Production manager Lars-Owe Carlberg Editing Ulla Ryghe Sound Stig Flodin Music Johann Sebastian Bach Music performed by Erling Blöndal Bengtsson Sets P.A. Lundgren Costumes Mago Makeup Börje Lundh Disc Features * New high-definition digital transfer * Exploring the film: Video discussion with Ingmar Bergman biographer Peter Cowie * New essay by film scholar Peter Matthews * Original theatrical trailer * Optional English-dubbed soundtrack * New and improved English subtitle translation * Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

Terry Gilliam Pre-teen Jeliza-Rose's parents are hopeless drug addicts. When pa, rocker Noah, finds ma's OD'd, he fears to be charged with homicide and takes Jeliza along to his ma's place, in a desolate country region. With Noah passed out, the girl mentally transfers to a fantasy world she and her doll heads enter magically. Jeliza's adventures also star the crazy locals, notably Dell, and Dell's grown but intellectually disabled brother Dickens.

Louis Bélanger Martin Bishop, an innocent eighteen year-old, joins a crew of wild rail workers and challenges the foreman's brutal authority. After his father's death, innocent Martin Bishop is left with nothing financially. He is however left with his father's belief that "if a man loses everything but still chooses to do what's right, then he's lost nothing at all", a belief to which Martin clings. He decides to head north to take a job on one of the Great Slave Lake Railroad's remote construction crews, working as its timekeeper, the person who keeps the records of hours worked for payroll. Martin quickly learns of the rampant corruption at his camp, led by the sadistic foreman, Fisk, who orders Martin to inflate his hours worked, and keep on the payroll those men who he has banished from the camp in order to pocket their wages. Those banished men are left to fend for themselves since they are provided no means of transportation out and have no money. They survive living off the scraps of food from the camp's dump, which is why they're referred to as the "garbage eaters". After Martin thinks that Fisk has killed one of ...

Leos Carax, Michel Gondry, Bong Joon Ho Tokyo is a city of transitions in three short films. A young woman who finds her life useless experiences a metamorphosis. A disheveled Caucasian emerges from a manhole to face arrest, trial, and execution; he calls himself "Merde" and speaks a language only his look-alike attorney understands. Is he human? A recluse experiences human contact when a pizza-delivery girl faints at his door during an earthquake. He conquers fear to seek her out. A chair, a corpse, a hermit: sources of urban connection?

Peter Mettler A satellite dish salesman desperately attempts to find the radical woman he has fallen in love with while both of them are being pursued by the police.

Scott Simpson Darcy McManus is 28 going on 15, and he has it all: a great circle of friends, good looks and charm to spare, and a carefree summer job as a tour guide. But it’s all coming to an end. His best friends are moving on to real-life careers, he’s noticing his first gray hairs, and his tour business is going under. To make matters worse, Darcy’s long-buried infatuation with his best friend Lynn threatens to destroy the circle of friends. With time running out on his perpetual adolescence, Darcy tries desperately to fight the onset of adulthood and avoid taking the risks he needs to grow up. Through an unpredictable series of events, he inadvertently hurts those he holds most dear, but finally confronts the truth about life and about himself.

Bruce McDonald Trigger is the story of two rock n' roll women who once shared a friendship, a band and a whole lot of chaos. Now a dozen years later they meet again, and over the course of one evening rediscover friendship, remember rock n'roll and reignite chaos.

David Byrne Musically comic look at \true life" in a Texas town"

Sergei Dvortsevoy On the steppes of Kazakhstan, Asa lives in a yurt with his sister Samal, her husband Ondas, and their three children. Ondas is a herdsman, tough and strong. It's dry, dusty, and windy; too many lambs are stillborn. Against this backdrop, Asa, a dreamer who's slight of build and recently finished with a stint in the Russian Navy, tries to establish a life on the steppes. He, his friend Boni, and Ondas call on Tulpan, the only single girl in the area. The men talk to her parents while she listens out of sight. Her answer and Asa's later trips to talk to her form an arc of hope against the harsh land. Is this the place of Asa's dreams? What about the other lambs?

Francois Delisle The story of Catherine, who, after her violent husband puts her life in serious danger one night, decides to run away with her son and start a new life under a fresh identity.

The definitive 7-disc DVD set, The Ultimate Matrix Collection features all three films in the trilogy together for the first time ever with a newly remastered picture and sound for The Matrix. Also included is the companion piece The Matrix Revisited and the best-selling The Animatrix, plus five entirely new DVDs packed solid with brand-new supplemental materials that encompass every aspect of the Matrix universe, including two new audio commentaries on each film, Enter the Matrix video game footage, 106 deep-delving featurettes/ documentaries and much more!

Vf DVD In April 1994, the middle-aged Canadian journalist Bernard Valcourt is making a documentary in Kigali about AIDS. He secretly falls in love for the Tutsi waitress of his hotel Gentille, who is younger than him, in a period of violent racial conflicts. When the genocide of the Tutsis by the Hutus in Rwanda begins, Bernard does not succeed in escaping with Gentille to Canada. When the genocide finishes in July 1994, Bernard returns to the chaotic Kigali seeking out Gentille in the middle of destruction and dead bodies

Clint Eastwood Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired, down-on-their-luck outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty offered by the vengeful prostitutes of the remote Wyoming town of Big Whiskey. Richard Harris is an ill-fated interloper, a colorful killer-for-hire called English Bob. And Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner Gene Hackman is the sly and brutal local sheriff whose brand of law enforcement ranges from unconventional to ruthless.

Pete Docter, Bob Peterson At a time when too many animated films consist of anthropomorphized animals cracking sitcom one-liners and flatulence jokes, the warmth, originality, humor, and unflagging imagination of Up feel as welcome as rain in a desert. Carl Fredericksen (voice by Ed Asner) ranks among the most unlikely heroes in recent animation history. A 78- year-old curmudgeon, he enjoyed his modest life as a balloon seller because he shared it with his adventurous wife Ellie (Ellie Docter). But she died, leaving him with memories and the awareness that they never made their dream journey to Paradise Falls in South America. When well-meaning officials consign Carl to Shady Oaks Retirement Home, he rigs thousands of helium balloons to his house and floats to South America. The journey's scarcely begun when he discovers a stowaway: Russell (Jordan Nagai), a chubby, maladroit Wilderness Explorer Scout who's out to earn his Elderly Assistance Badge. In the tropical jungle, Carl and Russell find more than they bargained for: Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), a crazed explorer whose newsreels once inspired Carl and Ellie; Kevin, an exotic bird with a weakness for chocolate; and Dug (Bob Peterson), an endearingly dim golden retriever fitted with a voice box. More importantly, the travelers discover they need each other: Russell needs a (grand)father figure; Carl needs someone to enliven his life without Ellie. Together, they learn that sharing ice-cream cones and counting the passing cars can be more meaningful than feats of daring-do and distant horizons. Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc. ) and Bob Peterson direct the film with consummate skill and taste, allowing the poignant moments to unfold without dialogue to Michael Giacchnio's vibrant score. Building on their work in The Incredibles and Ratatouille, the Pixar crew offers nuanced animation of the stylized characters. Even by Pixar's elevated standards, Up is an exceptional film that will appeal of audiences of all ages. Rated PG for some peril and action. —Charles Solomon

Stills from Up (Click for larger image)

Shane Carruth A woman (Amy Seimetz) is abducted and hypnotized with an organic material harvested from a specific flower. When she falls for a man (Carruth), the two come to realize he may also have been subjected to the same process. They search urgently for a place of safety within each other and struggle to assemble the fragments of their wrecked lives, unknowingly drawn into the life cycle of a presence that permeates the microscopic world.

Bryan Singer A sole survivor tells of the twisty events leading up to a horrific gun battle on a boat, which began when five criminals met at a seemingly random police lineup.

Bryan Singer Four small-time criminals and a crooked former New York cop, brought together in a police lineup, team up for a multi-million-dollar heist. The caper lands them in California and in the grip of feared and enigmatic crime boss Keyser Soze, who blackmails the quintet into pulling a job that turns into a bloodbath. Wonderfully complex thriller from director Bryan Singer stars Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio Del Toro, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak, Kevin Spacey. 106 min.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Munich, 1955: A sports journalist meets Veronika Voss, an UFA actress who supposedly had an affair with Goebbels. Now declining, Voss is kept by her "kind" doctor, Dr. Katz, supplying her house, food, clean clothes and her favourite: morphine. Voss, trying to come back towards the cinema, cannot perform an absurdly simple scene, but it attracts the attention of the journalist, who suspects that something's very wrong regarding her doctor.

José Salcedo, Pedro Almodóvar Raimunda, her daughter Paula and her sister Sole travel from Madrid to the windy and superstitious village of Alcanfor de las Infantas to visit the grave of their mother Irene, who died years ago in a fire with her husband. Then they visit Irene's sister Paula, an old senile aunt that raised Raimunda after the death of her parents that insists to tell them that Irene is alive and living with her; later, they go to the house of her neighbor and friend Agustina, who gives a support to Paula. They return to Madrid, and after a hard day of work, Raimunda meets her daughter completely distraught at the bus stop waiting for her. When they arrive home, Paula tells her mother that she killed her unemployed father Paco, who was completely drunk and tried to rape her. While Raimunda hides his body, Sole calls her to tell that their beloved aunt Paula has died. The next morning, Sole travels alone to the funeral, and when she returns to Madrid, she finds her mother hidden in the trunk of her car...

Deepa Mehta Extremist groups waged a campaign of death threats, arson and riots to stop the production of this controversial film, but director Deepa Mehta would not be silenced. Set against Gandhi's rise to power, Water tells the profoundly moving story of Chuyia, an Indian girl married and widowed at eight years old, who is sent away to a home where Hindu widows must live in penitence. Chuyia's feisty presence deeply affects the other residents, forcing each to confront their faith and society's prejudices.

Kelly Reichardt A woman's life is derailed en route to a potentially lucrative summer job. When her car breaks down, and her dog is taken to the pound, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes apart, and she is led through a series of increasingly dire economic decisions.

Michael Crichton An amusement park for rich vacationers, it provides its customers a way to live out their fantasies through the use of robots that provide anything they want. Two of the vacationers choose a wild west adventure. However, after a computer breakdown, they find that they are now being stalked by a rogue robot gunslinger.

This is the movie that Leonardo DiCaprio received an Oscar nomination for, five years before Titanic. And, in fact, this is the movie that should have made him a star, he's so good in it. Based on the novel by Peter Hedges (who adapted his own book) and directed by Lasse Hallström (My Life as a Dog), this is the funny, moody tale of a young man named Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) who lives at home in a small town with his 500-pound Momma (beautifully played by nonpro Darlene Cates), his mentally retarded younger brother Arnie (DiCaprio, utterly convincing), and his sisters. Not a lot happens—Arnie keeps climbing a water tower and getting stuck; Gilbert is involved with a married woman (Mary Steenburgen), then meets a nice new girl in town who's closer to his age (Juliette Lewis). And that's exactly what makes this movie so much more than your run-of-the-mill Hollywood product: it's not about some mechanical, formulaic plot; it's about these characters, and it allows you to spend some time with them and get to know them. Depp may have started out as a TV teen idol on 21 Jump Street, but his feature film choices since then—in such wonderfully offbeat and diverse movies as Cry-Baby, Edward Scissorhands, Benny & Joon, Donnie Brasco—have made him one of the most interesting, unpredictable, and risk-taking young actors in American movies. —Jim Emerson

Patricia Rozema Camille and Martin are in love and teachers at a christian college; they get the opportunity to get a better job, but they would have to marry for that. But when Camille's dog dies, she recognizes that her love for Martin is not even as big as the love for her dog. After that, Camille gets to know Petra, and Petra falls in love with Camille. They meet again, but Camille is very unsure about her feelings. When Martin is away for a weekend, Camille and Petra meet in the Circus where Petra is working as an acrobat. They spend the night together, but Martin finds out about it and is shocked. He has an argument with Camille, and she goes burying her dog in the snow, and falls asleep...

Werner Herzog Director Werner Herzog is famous for the deranged physical feats he captures in his movies, but Where the Green Ants Dream tackles an even greater challenge: The gap between the Western mind and Australian aboriginal cosmology. In the Australian outback, a geologist for a mining company (Bruce Spence, The Road Warrior, Aquamarine) finds his work obstructed by aborigines who tell him that his explosive tests will disrupt the dreaming of the green ants and wreak havoc on humanity. The mining company tries to mollify the aborigines, but they implacably resist. The confrontation escalates to a lawsuit argued before the Australian supreme court (which is based on the first legal battle over aboriginal land rights). This may sound dry—and much of the film is bathed in gusts of red Australian dust—but throughout the film, the geologist struggles to communicate with the aborigines and grasp the fundamentally different perception of the world. His glimpse (and ours) of this other worldview turns Western civilization on its side and leads the geologist to question his whole life. Herzog (Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Grizzly Man) isn't subtle, but that doesn't diminish the often hypnotic power of his images, from footage of tornados to the faces of the aborigines, gentle as water yet as firm as stones. This is a worthy addition to Herzog's difficult, thrilling, maddening, and ultimately rewarding body of work. —Bret Fetzer

Atom Egoyan Karen O'Connor tells the story about two distinct but related periods in her life. In 1972, she is an up-and-coming Los Angeles based journalist who has been given the lucrative assignment of convincing once successful comic Vince Collins, who is at the tail end of his career, to allow her to ghost write his memoirs. Most specifically, she has the task from her publishers of discovering the reason behind two issues in Vince's life from 1957: why he and his former on-stage partner Lanny Morris, who is still active and well known within the entertainment business, broke up their professional partnership shortly after they hosted a successful thirty-nine hour telethon for polio research in Miami, there not having been any indication of problems between the two before that; and how did the dead body of Maureen O'Flaherty end up in the water filled bathtub in Vince and Lanny's New Jersey hotel suite, the opening of that New Jersey hotel owned by mobster Sally Sanmarco which was Lanny and ...

From legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Fitzcarraldo, Nosferatu) comes an inspired vision: as humans search for a new planet to colonize, aliens attempt to settle on the nearly-uninhabitable Earth. Oscar-nominee Brad Dourif (Deadwood, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Seed of Chucky) delivers a remarkable performance as he tells the aliens' story.

Herzog has combined original NASA footage with Henry Kieser's incredible documentary images from beneath the Antarctic Ocean, as well as interviews with respected scientists, that culminate in his personal plea to save our planet.

The Wild Blue Yonder has fans, critics and skeptics alike in a furor. This unique cinematic experience comes in a limited edition DVD release including hours of special features.

WINNER: FRIPESCI Award, Bienalle Venice 2005

Ken Loach In 1920, rural Ireland is the vicious battlefield of republican rebels against the British security forces and Irish Unionist population who oppose them, a recipe for mutual cruelty. Medical graduate Damien O'Donovan always gave priority to his socialist ideals and simply helping people in need. Just when he's leaving Ireland to work in a highly reputed London hospital, witnessing gross abuse of commoners changes his mind. he returns and joins the local IRA brigade, commanded by his brother Teddy, and adopts the merciless logic of civil war, while Teddy mellows by experiencing first-hand endless suffering. When IRA leaders negotiate an autonomous Free State under the British crown, Teddy defends the pragmatic best possible deal at this stage. Damien however joins the large seceding faction which holds nothing less than a socialist republic will do. The result is another civil war, bloodily opposing former Irish comrades in arms, even the brothers.

Ingmar Bergman On a cold winter's Sunday, the pastor of a small rural church (Tomas Ericsson) performs service for a tiny congregation; though he is suffering from a cold and a severe crisis of faith. After the service, he attempts to console a fisherman (Jonas Persson) who is tormented by anxiety, but Tomas can only speak about his own troubled relationship with God. A school teacher (Maerta Lundberg) offers Tomas her love as consolation for his loss of faith. But Tomas resists her love as desperately as she offers it to him. This is the second in Bergman's trilogy of films dealing with man's relationship with God.

Bruce Robinson London, 1969 - two 'resting' (unemployed and unemployable) actors, Withnail and Marwood, fed up with damp, cold, piles of washing-up, mad drug dealers and psychotic Irishmen, decide to leave their squalid Camden flat for an idyllic holiday in the countryside, courtesy of Withnail's uncle Monty's country cottage. But when they get there, it rains non-stop, there's no food, and their basic survival skills turn out to be somewhat limited. Matters are not helped by the arrival of Uncle Monty, who shows an uncomfortably keen interest in Marwood...

When a nasty neighbor tries to have her dog put to sleep, Dorothy takes her dog Toto, to run away. A tornado appears and carries her to the magical land of oz. Wishing to return, she begins to travel to the city of Oz where a great wizard lives.

Woody Allen Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Radio Days (1987), Zelig (1983).

Darren Aronofsky A faded professional wrestler must retire, but finds his quest for a new life outside the ring a dispiriting struggle.

Mary Walsh

Lynn Shelton Director Lynn Shelton (Humpday) proves a worthy heir to the fresh, improvisational style of John Cassavetes in Your Sister's Sister, a charming, offbeat drama that feels like a true snapshot of the lives of real people. The cast is excellent, including Emily Blunt as Iris, a longtime good friend of Jack (the quirky and appealing Mark Duplass). The premise of Your Sister's Sister is simple: Iris insists that Jack go off to her family's cabin on a picturesque island in Puget Sound, Washington, to recuperate from his grief over the death of his brother (Iris's boyfriend). Unexpectedly, Iris's sister, Hannah (the touching Rosemarie DeWitt of United States of Tara and Rachel Getting Married), arrives at the cabin with a broken heart of her own. The final touch is Iris's surprise visit the next morning—so that the three characters, all bruised in their own ways, seek solace yet unintentionally crash even harder into each other in the process. Shelton's direction is deft and light, perfectly suited to this kind of character study. All three characters are thoroughly relatable, if not always completely likable. Their chemistry suggests true relationships of many years—a testament to the actors' talents as well as to Shelton's direction. Shelton has been called an "indie darling" for her intimate filmmaking style, but the truth is, she is an honest, captivating director whose work has more impact than most blockbusters with several times her films' budgets. And that is a treat, rare or not, for film lovers. —A.T. Hurley