The Wave
Nestled in Norway’s Sunnmøre region, Geiranger is one of the most spectacular tourist draws on the planet. With the mountain Åkerneset overlooking the village — and constantly threatening to collapse into the fjord — it is also a place where cataclysm could strike at any moment. After putting in several years at Geiranger’s warning center, geologist Kristian (Kristoffer Joner) is moving on to a prestigious gig with an oil company. But the very day he’s about to drive his family to their new life in the city, Kristian senses something isn’t right. The substrata are shifting. No one wants to believe that this could be the big one, especially with tourist season at its peak, but when that mountain begins to crumble, every soul in Geiranger has ten minutes to get to high ground before a tsunami hits, consuming everything in its path.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“The filmmakers (the script is by John Kare Raake and Harald Rosenlow Eeg) cook up the sort of unpleasantness that turns the better disaster pictures, like this one, into nail-biters.” – Manohla Dargis, New York Times
“The Wave’s centerpiece is a critical ten-minute span between when the rockslide occurs and the wave reaches civilization. Played out in real time, this is a period of sustained and effective tension. It’s real, raw, and ragged.” – James Berardinelli, ReelViews
“The Wave, Scandinavia’s first-ever disaster film, is the polar opposite of a disaster. It’s a triumph of modest means, a tribute to the power of storytelling on a human scale.” – Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
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Inside the Rain
College film student Benjamin Glass (Aaron Fisher) has it all: ADHD, OCD, borderline personality. And he’s also bipolar. But Glass is more than his diagnoses – he prefers the term “recklessly extravagant” – and he’s determined to prove his genius. When a misunderstanding threatens to expel him from college, Glass pushes back; he plans on recreating the incident on video, with the help of a moonlighting sex worker (Ellen Toland) to clear his name. But how will he raise the money for the film, when his parents dismiss the scheme as another manic episode?
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Aaron Fisher’s debut film is decidedly a comedy, but never draws its laughs by making light or fun of Fisher’s real struggles. He just lays his life out there, and its humorous moments bubble to the surface. Amidst the laughs come genuine and authentic moments from Fisher’s personal experiences.” – Alan Ng, Film Threat
“Aaron Fisher’s semi-autobiographical dramedy about a manic depressive film student gracefully maneuvers through a fair share of mood swings.” – Joe Leydon, Variety
“Inside the Rain can’t help but be a brave piece of filmmaking. But you might not expect it to be as funny as it is. And above all, you may well be caught off-guard by its frequent moments of visual beauty.” – Bill Newcott, The Saturday Evening Post
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Please Stand By
A young autistic woman (Dakota Fanning) runs away from her caregiver in order to boldly go and deliver her 500-page Star Trek script to a writing competition in Hollywood.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It’s a long haul, but Please Stand By, meticulously directed by Ben Lewin (The Sessions), chronicles the pitfalls, terrors and triumphs of the trip with heart-wrenching realism.” – Rex Reed, Observer
“It’s a relief to see an autistic woman played as more than simply a bundle of symptoms.” – Marissa Martinelli, Slate
“[Fanning] plays Wendy as a person and not a condition.” – Stephanie Zacharek, TIME
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Bent
On his latest private investigation, a shamed former cop connects a murder case to a government conspiracy involving rogue agents from a top spy agency.
Description provided by Metacritic.
“Bent is… the Karl Urban Show, a delightful excuse to showcase just how potent the performer is as a leading man.” – Jacob Knight, Birth.Movies.Death.
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Downfall
A portrait of Hitler’s final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Downfall, whatever its shortcomings, bears strong witness to great evil. That is its triumph as a film.” – Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
“One of the best war movies ever made, Downfall is a powerful and artistically masterful re-creation of the last days of the Third Reich.” – Eric Hansen, The Hollywood Reporter
“It’s a bracing reminder that before Hitler took power, it was handed to him. The lesson resonates long after the credits roll.” – Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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Grand Piano
Tom Selznick (Elijah Wood), the most talented pianist of his generation, stopped performing in public because of his stage fright. Years after a catastrophic performance, he reappears in public in a long-awaited concert in Chicago. In a packed theater, in front of the expectant audience, Tom finds a message written on the score: “Play one wrong note and you die.” Without leaving the piano, Tom must discover the anonymous sniper’s motives and look for help without anyone realizing.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“A tidy and tension-filled exercise in terror that takes stage fright to literal extremes.” – Susan Wloszczyna, RogerEbert.com
“An expertly timed, painstakingly assembled and endlessly engaging game of cat and mouse, Grand Piano succeeds as a whole for the same reasons that Selznick does—namely, because Mira brings all of its elements to work together in concert, and then executes them like a virtuoso.” – Todd Gilchrist, The Playlist
“Making this kind of thriller has all but become a lost art, yet Mira clearly believes that high style is worth bothering with.” – Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice
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The Opening Act
Will Chu is stuck in a thankless job while trying to pursue his true passion in life, becoming a stand-up comedian. When he gets the opportunity he’s been waiting for, the emcee slot on the road opening for his hero Billy G., the realities of life on the stage come crashing in. Between relentless hecklers, drunk comedy groupies and hard-to-impress morning radio DJs, things get off to a rough start. Even if he can learn from his idols and overcome the challenges, he’ll have to prove he has what it takes to make his dream a reality.
Description provided by Metacritic.
“It’s a very insightful insider-baseball look at the creative process.” – Sheila O’Malley, RogerEbert.com
“Becoming a successful stand-up comic is an uphill climb, one that not everybody is cut out for, and The Opening Act is a likable ode to those hard knocks.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“Yang generates sympathy with his awkward nervous energy, and the film resonates with behind-the-scenes authenticity.” – Todd Jorgenson, Cinemalogue
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Mags and Julie Go On a Road Trip
Two female friends embark on a comic road trip to the Northwoods of Wisconsin and much more than they bargained for.
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
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In the Fade
Out of nowhere, Katja’s life falls apart when her husband Nuri and little son Rocco are killed in a bomb attack. Her friends and family try to give her the support she needs, and Katja somehow manages to make it through the funeral. But the mind numbing search for the perpetrators and reasons behind the senseless killing complicate Katja’s painful mourning, opening wounds and doubts. Danilo, a lawyer and Nuri’s best friend, represents Katja in the eventual trial against the two suspects: a young couple from the neo-Nazi scene. The trial pushes Katja to the edge, but there’s simply no alternative for her: she wants justice.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Akin holds nothing back, and Kruger, starring in a German film for the first time in her career, brings the grief and anger and pain to life — never overdoing any of it, yet refusing to submerge it.” – Bilge Ebiri, Village Voice
“To say that the many parts of In the Fade are held together by Kruger would be an understatement. As a cocktail of grief, fury and regret, she’s a remarkably original protagonist — a chain-smoking, tattooed mother who, in her trauma, is always a breath away from drowning.” – Jake Coyle, Associated Press
“In The Fade manages to be absorbing character study, courtroom nailbiter and vengeful woman flick, all the while taking the temperature of neo-Nazism in Germany. It’s flawed but powerful, mostly down to a revelatory performance from Diane Kruger.” – Ian Freer, Empire
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The Strange Ones
Mysterious events surround two travelers as they make their way across a remote American landscape. On the surface all seems normal, but what appears to be a simple vacation soon gives way to a dark and complex web of secrets.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Its atmospheric sophistication holds strong throughout, channeling a wonder for the natural world reminiscent of Terrence Malick with an air of existential dread straight out of Andrei Tarkovsky.” – Eric Kohn, IndieWire
“The arty but suspenseful drama The Strange Ones is a perfect demonstration of how the craft of storytelling is also the craft of withholding — of revealing as little as possible in carefully parceled-out amounts.” – David Edelstein, Vulture
“It’s an artful, boundary-pushing debut from Radcliff and Wolkstein, with breakthrough performances from Freedson-Jackson, and Pettyfer, perhaps signaling a new direction in his career.” – Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times
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The Bishop’s Wife
An angel in human form enters the life of a bishop in order to help him build a new cathedral and repair his fractured marriage.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“It is as cheerful and respectful an invasion of the realm of conscience that we have seen. And it comes very close to being the most enchanting picture of the year.” – Bosley Crowther, New York Times
“Grant’s turn is thoroughly convincing because he himself appears to be having a terrific time: He’s expansive, graceful, and seems always on the verge of chuckling with goodwill.” – Caren Weiner Campbell, Entertainment Weekly
“What really sets The Bishop’s Wife apart is its subtlety; it never resorts to ‘what-might-have-been’ magic to convey its message.” – Ted Johnson, Los Angeles Times
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Fitzcarraldo
Opera-loving European Brian Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski) lives in a small Peruvian city. Better known as Fitzcarraldo, this foreigner is obsessed with building an opera house in his town and decides that to make his dream a reality he needs to make a killing in the rubber business. In order to become a successful rubber baron, Fitzcarraldo hatches an elaborate plan that calls for a particularly impressive feat — bringing a massive boat over a mountain with the help of a band of natives.
Description provided by Rotten Tomatoes.
“As a document of a quest and a dream, and as the record of man’s audacity and foolish, visionary heroism, there has never been another movie like it.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“Herzog charts an ironically circular course around an indulged, benevolent Aguirre; perversely illuminates colonialism with surrealism; and demonstrates once again in his always suspect yet somehow irresistible way that ‘only dreamers move mountains’.” – Paul Taylor, Time Out
“Fitzcarraldo is a more objective record of a comparable fever dream, and as such is the preeminent testament of Herzog’s labor as a filmmaker.” – Rumsey Taylor, Slant
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Big Man Japan
A middle-aged slacker living in a rundown, graffiti-ridden slum, Daisato’s job involves being shocked by bolts of electricity that transform him into a stocky, stick-wielding giant several stories high who is entrusted with defending Japan from a host of bizarre monsters. But while his predecessors were national heroes, he is a pariah among the citizens he protects, who bitterly complain about the noise and destruction of property he causes. And Daisato has his own problems –an agent insistent on branding him with sponsor advertisements, an Alzheimer-afflicted grandfather who transforms into a giant in dirty underwear, and a family who is embarrassed by his often cowardly exploits. A wickedly deadpan spin on the giant Japanese superhero, Big Man Japan is an outrageous portrait of a pathetic but truly unique hero.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Decidedly odd, even by Japanese standards, this mockumentary about an electrically charged, skyscraper-high superhero saddled with misfortune, bad press and even worse TV ratings is tears-down-the-face funny and a genuine, jaw-dropping oddity.” – Russell Edwards, Variety
“I hurt myself laughing at this amazingly inventive mockumentary, and because it’s so good, I refuse to give away much more than an insistent recommendation.” – Aaron Hillis, Village Voice
“The most impressive special effect here is Mr. Matsumoto’s hilariously restrained performance, a tour de force of comedic concision in a movie bloated by increasingly surreal developments.” – Nathan Lee, New York Times
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Centurion
Centurion is set during the war between Roman soldiers and Pict tribesmen during the 2nd century Roman conquest of Britain. Quintus Dias is a Roman centurion and son of a legendary gladiator who leads a group of soldiers on a raid of a Pict camp to rescue a captured general. The son of the Pict leader is murdered during the raid, and the Romans find themselves hunted by a seemingly unstoppable group of the Pict’s most vicious and skilled warriors, led by a beautiful and deadly tracker, and hell bent on revenge.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“Centurion has its moments of manly cornpone camaraderie and certainly isn’t blazingly original, but it offers riveting storytelling, gorgeous cinematography and scenery, loads of gore, and a politically complicated history lesson.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon
“Marshall, who helmed the underrated horror film, The Descent, has a flair for the visual. Some of the mountainscapes, captured by use of a helicopter, are nothing short of spectacular.” – James Berardinelli, ReelViews
“If I believed in the concept of ‘guilty pleasures,’ I’d classify Centurion as one, but I think I maybe just kind of enjoyed it.” – M.E. Russell, The Oregonian
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The Two Faces of January
In 1962, the charismatic Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen) and his alluring younger wife Colette (Kirsten Dunst), arrive in Athens by boat via the Corinthian Canal. While sightseeing at the Acropolis they encounter Rydal (Oscar Isaac), a young, Greek-speaking American who is working as a tour guide, scamming tourists on the side. Drawn to Colette’s beauty and impressed by Chester’s wealth and sophistication, Rydal gladly accepts their invitation to dinner. However, all is not as it seems with the MacFarlands, and Chester’s affable exterior hides darker secrets.
Description and score provided by Metacritic.
“This is Highsmith, and so things do not go as planned for her protagonists. The Two Faces of January – drop-dead gorgeous to behold – is not a merry tale, but a murderous one. Murderously good.” – Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
“Carefully directed and gorgeous to look at, with haunting performances and maximum suspense.” – Rex Reed, Observer
“A superior directorial debut for a smart, literate screenwriter delivers both first-class character drama and edge-of-your-seat suspense.” – Angie Errigo, Empire
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Beware of Dog
Alienated in politically-ambiguous Moscow, a young woman deals with severe OCD, while her cousin in Berlin tries to build a romantic relationship ignoring her own condition. In a parallel New York City realm, a heartbroken boxer struggles with addiction, self worth and online anxiety, which connects all the characters on a universal level.
Description provided by IMDb.
“A beautiful and poignant film that tackles mental health, political turmoil, and how people cope. Intelligently written and fantastic camerawork.” – Nathaniel Muir, AIPT
“Beware of Dog is a timely, necessary film. Bedzhanova weaves together an international tapestry of troubled souls while calling attention to some of the worldwide political landscapes we are living through now.” – Amyana Bartley, QBP Reviews
“…original and wildly ambitious… Beware of Dog strives to say something about the universal nature of addiction – be it to technology, alcohol, or our own inhibitions, impulses, and fears – and the importance of basic human connection in an increasingly digitized world. The fact that it even halfway succeeds is a laudable accomplishment.” – Alex Saveliev, Film Threat