A satire, psychological drama and comedy rolled into one, director Erik Clausen’s Villa Paranoia adeptly draws upon rich characters, who demonstrate the values and strength of the human heart, to create a portrait of Denmark today.
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Tag Archives: 2000s
Synth Britannia (2009) Benjamin Whalley, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Richard H. Kirk, Documentary, Music
Following a generation of post-punk musicians who went to form successful electronic bands in the 70s and 80s and had a profound impact on present day music.
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0.5 miri / 0.5 mm (2014) Momoko Andô, Sakura Andô, Miyoko Asada, Bengal, Drama
Sawa Yamagishi (Sakura Ando) worked as a nursing-care helper. The family of an old man asked Sawa to sleep with him, which led her to eventually lose her job and house. Now, she has nowhere to go. Sawa finds elderly people in trouble and gets involved in their lives. Meeting them, their lives change and Sawa’s own wounds start to heal.
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Abbas Kiarostami: A Report (2013) Bahman Maghsoudlou, Kurosh Afsharpanah, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Godfrey Cheshire, Documentary, History
An analysis of the style and vision of Abbas Kiarostami, the world’s most iconic Iranian filmmaker, through the lens of his earliest work, including his first short film (Bread & Alley, 1970) and, particularly, his first feature, The Report. This early example of Kiarostami’s work gives insight into his poetic, humanistic tendencies, combining allegorical storytelling with a documentary, neo-realist sensibility, and often exploring the very nature of film as fiction, that have pervaded his work ever since, including such recent international sensations as A Taste of Cherry and Certified Copy. Exclusive interviews with film critics, historians and scholars (including the late great Andrew Sarris) and those directly involved in the making of The Report provide a look at how the career of this master independent auteur began and was shaped.
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Eldfjall / Volcano (2011) Rúnar Rúnarsson, Auður Drauma Bachmann, Þorsteinn Bachmann, Kristín Davíðsdóttir, Drama
Hannes is an old man who has grown apart from his children. Recently retired when his wife gets ill he tries to reconcile with them and to atone for his cold demeanor in the past.
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Warriors of Terra (2006) Robert Wilson, Edward Furlong, Ellen Furey, Andrea Lui, Horror, Sci-Fi
A headstrong animal-rights activist group plans a raid on a bio-tech company to stop the cruelty. They discover the true nature of the experiments that are really taking place. As they break into a biotech lab only to have their idealism crushed by the terrifying things they find inside. But when a genetically mutated human with a taste for human flesh gets released, they all struggle to survive!
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The Reef (2010) Andrew Traucki, Damian Walshe-Howling, Gyton Grantley, Adrienne Pickering, Horror, Thriller
Luke welcomes his friend Matt and his girlfriend Suzie that come from London and Matt’s sister and Luke’s former girlfriend Kate that comes from Sydney to sail with him and the sailor Warren in a sailboat. However, the vessel hits an underwater rock and capsizes with an opening on her bottom. Luke advises that they should swim in the north direction to reach the Turtle Island, in Queensland, Australia, while they have strength since there is a current moving the boat in the opposite direction of land but Warren prefers to stay on the hull waiting for help since there are sharks in the water. The quartet swims, but they are hunted by a great white shark.
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Tomcats (2001) Gregory Poirier, Shannon Elizabeth, Jerry O’Connell, Jake Busey, Comedy
Seven years ago, a bunch of friends make a bet that’ll give the last remaining bachelor a ton of money. Now, after losing a ton of money at a Vegas Casino, Michael Delaney has to quickly get his friend Kyle married so that he can collect the prize money to pay back his debt.
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Down in the Valley (2005) David Jacobson, Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, David Morse, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Tobe is a teenage girl in a dysfunctional American family, but one that appears both realistically normal and deeply embedded in suburbia. This is the landscape of Spielberg, but the family, inadequate father, rebellious daughter and quasi-autistic stepson, seems alienated and distant from the world around it. Into this milieu drifts Harlan, a young man whose roots are at least partially fantasised, part cowboy part movie cliche, and whose reality remains unclear. The pair embark on a romance that threatens her father, captivates her little brother and is destructive to them all. The sparse writing avoids cliche in this subtle, ethereal, independent film that is thought provoking in its mock simplicity.
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Smoking Room (2002) Roger Gual, Julio D. Wallovits, Miguel Ángel González, Francesc Orella, Francesc Garrido, Drama
A man tries to get a smoking room approved at the company he works at. While there is initial support from other employees, many end up backing out and change their opinions towards how the company should be run.
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Des Filles en Noir (2010) Jean-Paul Civeyrac, Elise Lhomeau, Léa Tissier, Elise Caron, Drama
Noémie and Priscilla, two teenagers from a modest background, nurture the same violence, the same revolt. They seriously worry their families, who feel that these girls are capable of anything.
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Le doux amour des hommes (2002) Jean-Paul Civeyrac, Renaud Bécard, Claire Pérot, Marie-Joséphine Crenn, Drama
It’s a story about Raoul, a young man living at the beginning of the 21st century, who is part of the most fragile, unnecessary and appealing fragment of society. He goes from woman to woman, looking for love that seems unobtainable. But then he meets Jeanne, destined for freedom and tragedy…
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Virgem Margarida / Virgin Margarida (2012) Licinio Azevedo, Iva Mugalela, Hermelinda Cimela, Sumeia Maculuva, Drama
1975, Mozambique’s rebirth. The young revolution sweeps the streets of Maputo from prostitutes and bad habits. Sent to re-education camps deep in the countryside, they will become «new women». Margarida, a sixteen year-old girl, was mistakenly taken. This is their story. Women bounded by adversity.
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Saving Grace (2000) Nigel Cole, Brenda Blethyn, Craig Ferguson, Martin Clunes, Comedy, Crime
Unexpectedly widowed, prim and proper housewife Grace Trevethyn finds herself in dire financial straits when she inherits massive debts her late husband had been accruing for years. Faced with losing her house, she decides to use her talent for horticulture and hatches a plan to grow potent marijuana which can be sold at an astronomical price, thus solving her financial crisis. Grace and her gardener’s efforts to hide their illegal enterprise from the quaint and curious townsfolk and market their product comprise the remainder of the film.
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Syngué sabour, pierre de patience / The Patience Stone (2012) Atiq Rahimi, Golshifteh Farahani, Hamid Djavadan, Hassina Burgan, Drama, War
Author Atiq Rahimi’s adapts his own bestselling novel about a Muslim woman whose paralyzed husband unconsciously assumes the role of syngué sabour, which shields her from the sorrows of life in her war-torn village. Her unnamed Middle Eastern country caught up in the insurrection, the loyal, thirty-something wife faithfully sits watch over her vegetative husband, who has been all-but forgotten by his brothers and fellow Jihadists. Over time, she gathers the courage to tell her husband all of the things she had remained silent about during their 10 years of marriage. Throughout the course of their conversations, she speaks frankly of the disappointments, sorrows, and sacrifices that have made her life so difficult throughout the previous decade.
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