Posts Tagged ‘bitterness’

Notes on a Scandal (2006)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Drama
Countries: UK
Actors: Judi Dench | Cate Blanchett | Tom Georgeson | Michael Maloney | Joanna Scanlan | Shaun Parkes | Emma Kennedy | Syreeta Kumar | Andrew Simpson | Philip Davis | Wendy Nottingham | Tameka Empson | Leon Skinner | Bill Nighy | Juno Temple
Directors: Richard Eyre
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Barbara Covett is a veteran and cynical schoolteacher who is close to retirement. She is barely tolerated by her less brilliant and acerbic colleagues who know nothing about her private life which consists mainly of taking care of Portia, her aging cat, and spending countless hours alone. The only means she has found to take the edge off her desperate loneliness is writing in her journal. When Sheba Hart, a younger, attractive woman, joins the faculty as an art teacher, Barbara watches her from afar and has nothing but caustic things to say in her diary about her clothing and her care-free manner. Despite her disdain for this woman, Barbara finds herself reaching out to her. Sheba responds by inviting her to dinner at her house to meet Sheba’s lecturer husband, who is twenty years her senior, and their two children, a sexy and rebellious 16-year-old daughter and a younger boy with Downs Syndrome. Instead of opening herself to these people, Barbara immediately sees them as competition to be beaten in the battle for Sheba’s attention. Later, when Barbara discovers her new friend in a classroom having sex with Steven, a 15-year-old from the school who has artistic talent; she realizes that knowledge of this secret gives her power over Sheba which she can use for her own purposes. Barbara promises to not tell anyone but insists that the affair must end immediately. Sheba says she will but finds herself drawn back to the boy again and again. Sheba seems uneasy with Barbara’s friendship and is appalled when she discovers the older woman might have a sexual interest in her. The tenuous relationship between the two women reaches a crisis point when Barbara’s cat is dying and she asks Sheba to go with her to the vet. She chooses to go with her family to see their son in a play instead. In revenge, Barbara sets in motion the scandal that will rock both their lives in ways they never imagined.

Silent Hill (2006)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Horror | Thriller
Countries: France | Japan | USA
Actors: Radha Mitchell | Sean Bean | Laurie Holden | Deborah Kara Unger | Kim Coates | Tanya Allen | Alice Krige | Jodelle Ferland | Colleen Williams | Ron Gabriel | Eve Crawford | Derek Ritschel | Amanda Hiebert | Maxine Dumont | Christopher Britton
Directors: Christophe Gans
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After the continuous sleep walking episodes of Sharon, the young daughter of Rose Da Silva, the decision is made to take Sharon to the place only mentioned in her restless dreams- Silent Hill. However, the road to Silent Hill is anything but easy to access, and Rose creates a high speed chase between herself and a police officer only to end in a crash for them both. When she wakes up, Sharon has disappeared and Rose is at the entrance to the deserted, dream-like town of Silent Hill. As Rose begins the search for her daughter, she does not realize the terror and mystery surrounding her. Rose is led on a blind search for her beloved daughter, finding herself getting more and more entwined into disturbing past of Silent Hill.

American Splendor (2003)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Biography | Comedy | Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Chris Ambrose | Joey Krajcar | Josh Hutcherson | Cameron Carter | Daniel Tay | Mary Faktor | Paul Giamatti | Harvey Pekar | Larry John Meyers | Vivienne Benesch | Barbara Brown | Earl Billings | Danny Hoch | James Urbaniak
Directors: Shari Springer Berman | Robert Pulcini
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Harvey Pekar is file clerk at the local VA hospital. His interactions with his co-workers offer some relief from the monotony, and their discussions encompass everything from music to the decline of American culture to new flavors of jellybeans and life itself. At home, Harvey fills his days with reading, writing and listening to jazz. His apartment is filled with thousands of books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland’s thrift stores and garage sales for more, savoring the rare joy of a 25-cent find. It is at one of these junk sales that Harvey meets Robert Crumb, a greeting card artist and music enthusiast. When, years later, Crumb finds international success for his underground comics, the idea that comic books can be a valid art form for adults inspires Harvey to write his own brand of comic book. An admirer of naturalist writers like Theodore Dreiser, Harvey makes his American Splendor a truthful, unsentimental record of his working-class life, a warts-and-all self portrait. First published in 1976, the comic earns Harvey cult fame throughout the 1980s and eventually leads him to the sardonic Joyce Barber, a partner in a Delaware comic book store who end ups being Harvey’s true soul mate as they experience the bizarre byproducts of Harvey’s cult celebrity stature.

Casablanca (1942)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Drama | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Humphrey Bogart | Ingrid Bergman | Paul Henreid | Claude Rains | Conrad Veidt | Sydney Greenstreet | Peter Lorre | S.Z. Sakall | Madeleine LeBeau | Dooley Wilson | Joy Page | John Qualen | Leonid Kinskey | Curt Bois
Directors: Michael Curtiz
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During World War II, Europeans who were fleeing from the Germans, sought refuge in America. But to get there they would first have to go Casablanca and once they get there, they have to obtain exit visas which are not very easy to come by. Now the hottest spot in all of Casablanca is Rick’s Cafe which is operated by Rick Blaine, an American expatriate, who for some reason can’t return there, and he is also extremely cynical. Now it seems that two German couriers were killed and the documents they were carrying were taken. Now one of Rick’s regulars, Ugarte entrusts to him some letters of transit, which he intends to sell but before he does he is arrested for killing the couriers. Captain Renault, the Chief of Police, who is neutral in his political views, informs Rick that Victor Laszlo, the European Resistance leader, is in Casablanca and will do anything to get an exit visa but Renault has been “told” by Major Strasser of the SS, to keep Laszlo in Casablanca. Laszlo goes to Rick’s to meet Ugarte, because he was the one Ugarte was going to sell the letters to. But since Ugarte was arrested he has to find another way. Accompanying him is Ilsa Lund, who knew Rick when he was in Paris, and when they meet some of Rick’s old wounds reopen. It is obvious that Rick’s stone heart was because of her leaving him. And when they learn that Rick has the letters, he refuses to give them to him, because “he doesn’t stick his neck out for anyone”.

The Woodsman (2004)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Eve | Kevin Bacon | David Alan Grier | Kyra Sedgwick | Benjamin Bratt | Carlos Leon | Michael Shannon | Kevin Rice | Mos Def | Hannah Pilkes | Jessica Nagle | Liam Daniels | Joey Hazinsky | Clara Infinity Daniels | Ashley C. Coombs
Directors: Nicole Kassell
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After twelve years in prison, Walter arrives in an unnamed city, moves into a small apartment across the street from an elementary school, gets a job at a lumberyard, and mostly keeps to himself. A quiet, guarded man, Walter finds unexpected solace from Vickie, a tough-talking woman who promises not to judge him for his history. But Walter cannot escape his past. A convicted sex offender, Walter is warily eyed by his brother-in-law, shunned by his sister, lives in fear of being discovered at work, and is hounded by a suspicious local police officer, Detective Lucas. After befriending a young girl in a neighborhood park, Walter must also grapple with the terrible prospect of his own reawakened demons.

Scent of a Woman (1992)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Comedy | Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Al Pacino | Chris O'Donnell | James Rebhorn | Gabrielle Anwar | Philip Seymour Hoffman | Richard Venture | Bradley Whitford | Rochelle Oliver | Margaret Eginton | Tom Riis Farrell | Nicholas Sadler | Todd Louiso | Matt Smith | Gene Canfield | Frances Conroy
Directors:
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Frank is a retired Lt Col in the US army. He’s blind and impossible to get along with. Charlie is at school and is looking forward to going to university; to help pay for a trip home for Christmas, he agrees to look after Frank over thanksgiving. Frank’s niece says this will be easy money, but she didn’t reckon on Frank spending his thanksgiving in New York.

Crash (1996)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Drama | Thriller
Countries: Canada | UK
Actors: James Spader | Holly Hunter | Elias Koteas | Deborah Kara Unger | Rosanna Arquette | Peter MacNeill | Yolande Julian | Cheryl Swarts | Judah Katz | Nicky Guadagni | Ronn Sarosiak | Boyd Banks | Markus Parilo | Alice Poon | John Stoneham Jr.
Directors: David Cronenberg
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Since a road accident left him with serious facial and bodily scarring, a former ‘TV scientist’ has become obsessed by the marriage of motor car technology with what he sees as the ‘raw sexuality’ of car-crash victims. The scientist, along with a crash victim he has recently befriended, sets about performing a series of sexual acts in a variety of motor vehicles, either with other crash victims or with prostitutes who they contort into the shape of trapped-corpses. Ultimately, the scientist craves a suicidal union of blood, semen and engine coolant, a union with which he becomes dangerously obsessed.

Alien: Resurrection (1997)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Action | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Sigourney Weaver | Winona Ryder | Dominique Pinon | Ron Perlman | Gary Dourdan | Michael Wincott | Kim Flowers | Dan Hedaya | J. E. Freeman | Brad Dourif | Raymond Cruz | Leland Orser | Carolyn Campbell | Marlene Bush | David St. James
Directors: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
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200 years after the conclusion of Alien 3, the company is able to resurrect Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) through the process of cloning and the scientists successfully take the Queen Alien out of her. But, Ripley’s DNA gets mixed up with the Queen’s and she begins to develop certain alien characteristics. The scientists begin breeding the aliens, but they later escape. Soon the Xeno-morphs are running amok on the ship, which is on course to earth. The Queen then gives birth to a deadly new breed of alien, which could spell disaster for the entire human race. It’s up to Ripley and a band of space pirates to stop the ship before it reaches earth.