| |  In This Issue:December 2010What's New on DVDA Town Called Panic (2009)Family/Foreign. Fast-paced/Offbeat/Witty. Color. 75 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar. Starring Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Bruce Ellison and Jeanne Balibar. Pinpointing the unlikely intersection of child logic and adult humor, Panic has all the sweetness of Gumby, the high-octane absurdism of Peewee's Playhouse, and the winking intellectual playfulness ... Read More > | |  |
Facing Ali (2009)Documentary. Fast-paced/Intense. Color. 100 mins. Rated R. Directed By Pete McCormack. Starring Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier and Larry Holmes. While Ali is the ostensible star here, Director McCormack is so attuned to his interview subjects that the film becomes as much about their lives as about the outsize man who figures so prominently ... Read More > | |  |
Green Zone (2010)Action/Adventure/War/Westerns. Fast-paced/Intense/Spine-tingling. Color. 115 mins. Rated R. Directed By Paul Greengrass. Starring Matt Damon, Jason Isaacs, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson and Amy Ryan. Director Greengrass and star Damon reteam here after making two entries in the Bourne action franchise, but Zone's more topical political bent makes this kinetic collaboration even more intriguing ... Read More > | |  |
Mid-August Lunch (2010)Comedy/Foreign. Farr-cical/Offbeat/Witty. Color. 75 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Gianni di Gregorio. Starring Gianni Di Gregorio, Valeria De Franciscis, Marina Cacciotti and Maria Calì. Brimming with humanity and humor, this warm, totally disarming farce clocks in at a breezy seventy-five minutes, but is so pleasurable you're sorry to see it end so soon. Di Gregorio's prior stint ... Read More > | |  |
The Damned United (2009)Comedy. Intense/Moving/Witty. Color. 98 mins. Rated R. Directed By Tom Hopper. Starring Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall and Colm Meaney. It is no small feat to make a short-tempered, egotistical, repulsively ambitious character like Brian Clough compelling and watchable, but Michael Sheen scores again here, giving a thoroughly ... Read More > | |  |
The Messenger (2009)Drama. Brainy/Intense/Moving. Color. 113 mins. Rated R. Directed By Oren Moverman. Starring Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Jena Malone and Samantha Morton. This downbeat, at times devastating indie feature is propelled forward by director Moverman's penetrating Oscar-nominated script and top-notch performances from Foster, Morton and in particular ... Read More > | |  |
The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)Foreign/Mystery/Suspense. Blood-curdling/Intense/Moving. Color. 129 mins. Rated R. Directed By Juan José Campanella. Starring Ricardo Darín, Pablo Rago and Soledad Villamil. It's no easy feat to balance a decade-spanning police thriller with a romance of suppressed passions. Director Campanella pulls it all off with aplomb, spinning his tale via flashbacks that put past ... Read More > | |  |
Welcome (2009)Drama/Foreign. Moving. Color. 110 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Philippe Lioret. Starring Vincent Lindon, Firat Ayverdi and Audrey Dana. Welcome may cast a critical eye on the cold facelessness of current EU immigration policies, but thankfully it's equally concerned with celebrating the resolve of the human spirit. The film's first ... Read More > | |  |
Theme of the Month: Kwanzaa!! In December, there are many occasions to observe and celebrate, Hanukkah, Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year's Eve are some. This month we'd like to focus on Kwanzaa, the week-long celebration from December 26th to January 1st, honoring African heritage and culture. Our featured movies bring the real Africa right in your living room, so you can do your part to celebrate this magnificent country and its people.
Black Girl (1966)Drama/Foreign. Moving/Offbeat. Black & White. 80 mins. Unrated. Directed By Ousmane Sembene. Starring Robert Fontaine, Therese N'Bissine Diop and Anne-Marie Jelinek. Based on a story by writer-director Ousmane Sembene, the great innovator of African cinema, "Black Girl" is a lean, starkly told tale about the slow emotional devastation of a stylish, illiterate ... Read More > | |  |
Hotel Rwanda (2005)Drama/Foreign/War/Westerns. Blood-curdling/Intense/Moving. Color. 121 mins. Rated PG-13. Directed By Terry George. Starring Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo. Don Cheadle achieves a career peak in Terry George's "Hotel Rwanda," delivering an extraordinary performance as the real-life Rusesabagina, a man not unlike Schindler in his integrity and courage. ... Read More > | |  |
Hyenas (1992)Drama/Foreign. Offbeat/Scenic/Witty. Color. 113 mins. Unrated. Directed By Djibril Diop Mambety. Starring Ami Diakhate and Mansour Diouf. Loosely based on Friedrich Durrenmatt's stage play "The Visit," Mambety's parable of greed and revenge has a bitingly funny edge as it reveals the height of human folly in a remote desert world. It's ... Read More > | |  |
Lumumba (2000)Drama/Foreign Language. Spine-tingling/Intense. Color. 115 mins. Unrated. Directed By Raoul Peck. Starring Eriq Ebouaney, Alex Descas and Theophile Sowie. Raoul Peck's political thriller vibrates with tension, as we see how Lumumba's rise to prominence was punctuated by some extremely rough handling by the prior regime, and that once in power, his ... Read More > | |  |
Moolaade (2004)Drama/Foreign. Moving/Scenic/Witty. Color. 124 mins. Unrated. Directed By Ousmane Sembene. Starring and Fatoumata Coulibaly. Ousmane Sembene, one of cinema's great treasures, brings his characteristically wry sensibility to this moral tale about men and women, tradition and progress. The story revolves around the practice ... Read More > | |  |
The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)Comedy/Foreign Language/Family. Scenic/Offbeat/Farr-cical. Color. 109 mins. Rated PG. Directed By Jamie Uys. Starring N!xau, Marius Weyers and Kate Thompson. One of the highest grossing foreign films ever released in the U.S., Uys's endearing satire of modern life and consumption is a mix of slapstick gags, cross-cultural confusion, and hoot-inducing ... Read More > | |  |
Tsotsi (2005)Drama/Foreign Language. Moving/Intense. Color. 94 mins. Rated R. Directed By Gavin Hood. Starring Presley Chweneyagae and Terry Pheto. Based on a novel by Athol Fugard, Gavin Hood's raw, searing film brings off a tricky premise with just the right balance of sensitivity and force, as the discovery of a baby rekindles in a ... Read More > | |  |
War/Dance (2007)Documentary. Moving/Tuneful. Color. 107 mins. Rated PG-13. Directed By Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine. It's a cliché to say that music is a healing force, but in this incredibly moving doc about three Ugandan war orphans on the road to self-renewal, we bear witness to the role the arts can play in ... Read More > | |  |
Xala (1975)Comedy/Foreign Language. Farr-cical/Intense. Color. 123 mins. Unrated. Directed By Ousmane Sembene. Starring Thierno Leye. Overlooked gem amusingly demonstrates polygamy isn't all it's cracked up to be. It also operates in darker vein as one man benefits from a corrupt government that is then, all too quick to turn ... Read More > | |  |
Spotlight• December 8th - John hosts a special screening of "Waiting for Superman" followed by discussion with co-author Billy Kimball.
• Read the November issue of Quest Magazine featuring John's article "Starring High Society."
• January 2nd - John hosts a screening of "His Girl Friday."  | | | |
