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Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a Jiu-Jitsu teacher who has avoided the
prize fighting circuit, choosing instead to pursue an honorable life by operating
a self-defense studio with a samurai's code. He and his wife Sondra (Alice
Braga) struggle to keep the business running to make ends meet. An accident
at the Academy between an off duty officer (Max Martini) and a distraught
lawyer (Emily Mortimer) puts in motion a series of events that will change
Terry's life dramatically, introducing him to a world of promoters (Ricky
Jay, Joe Mantegna) and a movie star (Tim Allen). To pay off his debts and
regain his honor, Terry must step into the ring for the first time in his
life. Written and directed by David Mamet (Spartan, The Spanish Prisoner). Official Web Site Ty Burr's Boston Globe review... |
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In 1980s Britain, young Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is raised in isolation
among The Brethren, a puritanical religious sect in which music and TV are
strictly forbidden. When Will encounters his first movie, a pirated copy of
Rambo: First Blood, his imagination is blown wide open. Now, Will sets
out to join forces with the seemingly diabolical school bully (Will Poulter)
to make their own action epic, devising wildly creative, on-the-fly stunts,
not to mention equally elaborate schemes for creating a movie of total commitment
and non-stop thrills while hiding out from The Brethren. Written and directed
by Garth Jennings (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), who captures
the agony and the giddy ecstasy of a camcorder childhood with inventive humor,
poignancy and a rousing dose of cinematic panache. Official
Web Site James Verniere's Boston Herald review... |

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Only Harmony Korine (writer of Kids, auteur of Gummo and
Julien Donkey-Boy) could weave Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, her daughter
Shirley Temple and flying nuns into a hypnotically funny and truly poignant
tale of the instability behind fanaticism and the redemption we can hope to
find in one another. The film follows a lonely Michael Jackson impersonator
(Diego Luna) who is invited by a beautiful Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton)
to a commune full of other impersonatorsincluding the Queen of England,
Madonna, Sammy Davis Jr. and James Deanin the Scottish Highlands. In
a parallel story line, the incomparable Werner Herzog plays a Latin American
priest who learns his missionary of nuns can literally fly. Official
Web Site Wesley Morris's Boston Globe review... |

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| A poignant and witty story of three very different Tel Aviv women whose lives intersect at a wedding. Batya (Sarah Adler), a catering waitress, takes in a mysterious child apparently abandoned at a local beach. She's one of the servers at the wedding reception of Keren (Noa Knoller), a bride who breaks her leg escaping a locked toilet stall. Attending the event with an employer is Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), a non Hebrew-speaking domestic worker who has guiltily left her son behind in her native Philippines. As this distaff trio separately wends their way through Israel's most cosmopolitan city, they struggle with issues of communication, affection and destiny—but at times find uneasy refuge in its tranquil seas. The directing debut of husband-and-wife team Shira Geffen, who wrote the screenplay, and famed novelist Etgar Keret. Official Web Site |
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| Born to race cars, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is aggressive, instinctive and, most of all, fearless. His only real competition is the memory of the brother he idolizedthe legendary Rex Racer, whose death has left behind a legacy that Speed is driven to fulfill. Speed is loyal to the family racing business, led by his father (John Goodman), the designer of Speed's thundering Mach 5. When Speed turns down a lucrative offer from Royalton Industries, he not only infuriates the company's maniacal owner (Roger Allam) but uncovers a terrible secretsome of the biggest races are being fixed by a handful of ruthless moguls. If Speed won't drive for Royalton, Royalton will see to it that the Mach 5 never crosses another finish line. With the support of his family and his loyal girlfriend, Trixie (Christina Ricci), Speed teams with his one-time rivalthe mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox)to win the race that had taken his brother's life: the death-defying, cross-country rally known as The Crucible. Written and directed by Larry & Andy Wachowski (The Matrix trilogy). Official Web Site |

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Helen Hunt makes her feature directing debut with the touching story of schoolteacher
April Epner (Hunt) and her very unlikely path towards personal fulfillment.
Following the separation from her husband (Matthew Broderick) and the death
of her adopted mother, April is contacted by her apparent birth mother (Bette
Midler), who turns out to be a local talk show host Bernice Graves. As Bernice
tries to become the mother to April that she was never able to be, April seems
to find solace in the arms of the parent of one of her students (Colin Firth),
only to find that the mystery to life's questions cannot be solved by a simple
revelation. Adapted from Elinor Lipman's novel of the same name. Official
Web Site James Verniere's Boston Herald review... |

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Is it possible for a photograph to change the world? Photographs taken by
soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison changed the war in Iraq and changed America's
image of itself. Yet, a central mystery remains: Did the notorious Abu Ghraib
photographs constitute evidence of systematic abuse by the American military,
or were they documenting the aberrant behavior of a few "bad apples"?
Director Errol Morris (The Fog of War) set out to examine the context
of these photographs, talking directly to the soldiers who took them and who
were in them. After two years of investigation, he amassed a million
and a half words of interview transcript, thousands of pages of unredacted
reports, and hundreds of photographs. The story of Abu Ghraib is still shrouded
in moral ambiguity, but it is now clear what happened there. Official
Web Site Ty Burr's Boston Globe review... |

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A smash hit in its native Italy, director/co-writer Daniele Luchetti's intensely
cinematic and incisive comedy-drama looks at the dreams and disillusionments
of the 1960s and '70s. In a small Italian town, two brothers want to change
the worldbut in completely different ways. The elder, Manrico (Riccardo
Scarmaccio), is a handsome, charismatic firebrand who becomes the prime mover
in the local Communist party. Accio (Elio Germano), the younger and more rebellious
brother, finds his own contrarian voice by joining the reactionary Fascists.
What starts as a typical tale of sibling rivalry becomes the story of the
polarizing and paralyzing politics of those turbulent times, and the rift
between the brothers when Accio realizes that he loves his brothers
girlfriend, Francesca (Diane Fleri). Official
Web Site Stephen Schaefer's Boston Herald review... |
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Having lost his passion for teaching and writing, 62-year-old Walter
Vale (Richard Jenkins) fills the void by trying to learn to play classical
piano. Sent to Manhattan to attend a conference, Walter is surprised to find
a young couple has taken up residence in his apartment. Victims of a real
estate scam, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian man, and Zainab (Danai Gurira),
his Senegalese girlfriend, have nowhere else to go. In the first of a series
of tests of the heart, Walter reluctantly allows the couple to stay with him.
Touched by his kindness, the talented Tarek insists on teaching the aging
academic to play the African drum. The instrument's exuberant rhythms revitalize
Walter's faltering spirit and open his eyes to a vibrant world of local jazz
clubs and Central Park drum circles. When Tarek is arrested as an undocumented
citizen and held for deportation, Walter finds himself compelled to help his
new friend with a passion he thought he had long ago lost. Written and directed
by Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent). Official Web Site Director Tom McCarthy is fascinated by how and why people connect James Verniere's Boston Herald review... |
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Jean (Gad Elmaleh), a shy young bartender, is mistaken for a millionaire
by a beautiful seductress named Irene (Audrey Tautou, Amélie).
When Irene discovers his true identity, she abandons him, only to find that
a love-struck Jean has no intention of letting her get away. Jean's comical
attempts to gain her affections gradually evolve into setting himself up as
a gigolo at a luxury hotel, until Irene finally starts to warm to her persistent,
persuasive suitor. Against the wildly atmospheric backdrop of the south of
France, Pierre Salvadori (Après Vous) directs this sexy and
thoroughly charming romantic comedy, which is a fresh re-imagining of the
cinema classic Breakfast at Tiffany's. Official
Web Site Director Salvadori on meeting the right person at the wrong time |
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| This gentle culture-clash comedy, the debut feature of writer/director Eran Kolirin, is winner of 8 Israeli Film Academy Awards. When the Alexandria, Egypt police band gets lost on their way to inaugurate an Arab Cultural Center, they end up stranded in a remote Israeli town, where the residents reluctantly put them up for the night. Sasson Gabai plays the band's stoic conductor, Saleh Bakri a suave ladies man, and Ronit Elkabetz a sexy café owner who finds them a challenge. With a deadpan humor reminiscent of Jacques Tati and Jim Jarmusch, the film sweetly embraces a hope for peace and understanding. Official Web Site |
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The English-language debut of acclaimed Indian director Santosh Sivan (Asoka,
The Terrorist) is set in 1930s southern India against the backdrop
of a growing nationalist movement. Rahul Bose stars as an idealistic young
Indian man who finds himself torn between his ambitions for the future and
his loyalty to the past when people in his village learn of an affair between
his British boss (Linus Roache) and a village woman (Nandita Das). Co-starring
Jennifer Ehle and John Standing. Presented by Merchant Ivory, creators of
A Room With a View, Howards End and The Remains of the Day. Official Web Site |
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| In the still of the night, three lives are about to cross a woman abandoned, a stranger awaiting his chance and a best-selling author who imagines the thriller of the year. Deceptively layered and intriguingly misleading, this highly anticipated new feature from writer/director Claude Lelouch (Oscar winner for A Man and a Woman) stars Dominique Pinon and Fanny Ardant as an unlikely couple caught up in a game with high stakesand deadly consequences. The thriller takes its title from the name given to pulp fictions sold in French train stations. Co-starring Audrey Dana. Official Web Site |
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| The characters of C.S. Lewis' timeless fantasy come to life once again as the Pevensie siblings are magically transported back from England to the world of Narnia, where a thrilling, perilous new adventure awaits them. One year after the incredible events of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the Kings and Queens of Narnia discover that more than 1300 years have passed in Narnian time. During their absence, the Golden Age of Narnia has become extinct, Narnia has been conquered by the Telmarines and is now under the control of the evil King Miraz, who rules the land without mercy. The four children will soon meet an intriguing new character: Narnia's rightful heir to the throne, the young Prince Caspian, who has been forced into hiding as his uncle Miraz plots to kill him in order to place his own newborn son on the throne. Official Web Site |

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| Colorful and action-packed, this jubilant film endearingly spoofs James Bond-style spy adventures from the 1960s. The setting is Egypt, 1955. Cairo is a veritable nest of spies, with everyone wary of everyone and plotting against everyone: the English, French, Soviets—even the radical Eagles of Kheops brotherhood. To bring order to this desert at the edge of chaos, the French Secret Service sends their main weapon: Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath (Jean Dujardin), a super agent and ladies man otherwise known as OSS 117. His mission: investigate the death of a friend and fellow spy, control the Suez Canal and establish peace in the Middle East! Directed by Michel Hazanavicius. Official Web Site |

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| "Let the manhunt begin!" When Luke (co-writer Jesse Archer) enters the gay bar flanked by his sidekicks, he doesn't know that he is about to meet his matchin hot macho man Stephen (Charlie David). Awakening in a twisted heap of naked strangers, Luke heads to work at a Chelsea sex store where he is forced to face his lifestyle by his co-worker Zeke (Cory Grant), a confrontational gay crusader who will stop at nothing short of changing the world. Smitten with Stephen, Luke considers giving monogamy a chance. He attends a sexual compulsives meeting where he discovers he is not the only "nympho" in New York. Luke is falling for Stephen, but it soon turns out that Stephen's cash doesn't flow from a trust fund; he works hard for his moneyas a hustler! A sexy, romantic gay comedy from director/co-writer Casper Andreas (Slutty Summer). Official Web Site |
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| This sexy, playful, poignant tale kicks off just as Phillip (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Erik (Espen Klouman-Høiner)two cocky, grinning rebels full of the verve and dreams of 20-year-olds everywhereship off their first novels to publishers, each hoping to become a wildly influential "cult author." Fast-forward six months. These reveries have crashed, hard, into reality. Phillip, whose novel garnered instant acclaim and turned him into a mini-celebrity, has had a terrifying breakdown. Erik, who never sold his novel, is still pecking away, determined to follow in the footsteps of his undying hero, a reclusive but idolized writing genius. Nimbly moving both backwards and forwards in timevia a dazzling mix of flashbacks, rapid-fire editing, philosophical voiceovers and comical flights of fancythe film traces how Erik and Phillip arrived at this precipice where exuberant youth runs into the harsh light of day and witnesses the emotionally gripping aftermath. Directed and co-written by Joachim Trier. Official Web Site |

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| Like many American outsider-adventurers, Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz set out to realize a utopian dream. Abandoning a successful medical practice, he sought self-fulfillment by taking up the nomadic life of a surfer. But unlike other American searchers like Thoreau or Kerouac, Paskowitz took his wife and nine children along for the ride, all eleven of them living in a 24-foot camper. Together, they lived a life that would be unfathomable to most, but enviable to anyone who ever relinquished their dreams for a straight job. The Paskowitz Family proves that America may be running out of frontiers, but it hasn't run out of frontiersmen. Written and directed by Doug Pray (Scratch, Hype!). Official Web Site |
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| Sophie (Vera Farmiga), along with her second-generation Korean American husband (David L. McInnis), is forced to acknowledge that they are unable to bear children. Moved by her husband's despair, Sophie resolves to do whatever it takes to conceive a child and restore their relationship. Sophie initiates a bold and clandestine sexual affair with Jihah (Jung-Woo Ha), an illegal immigrant from Korea, who bears more than a passing resemblance to her husband. Sophie proposes the relationship to Jihah as a business matter, to pay him for each meeting until she conceives. In this relationship, sex is tolerated as part of a business arrangement and personal feelings are forbidden. But Sophie soon finds this new arrangement spiraling into a situation that may actually destroy what it was meant to restore. Music by Michael Nyman. Written and directed by Gina Kim. Official Web Site |