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The Fall
In 1915 Los Angeles, stuntman Roy Walker is hospitalized, bedridden and possibly paralyzed after taking a jump in his first film. He meets Alexandria, a young Romanian-born patient in the hospital who is recovering from a broken arm, and begins to tell her a story about her namesake, Alexander the Great. Alexandria is told she…
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Do The Right Thing
The story explores a Brooklyn neighbourhood’s simmering racial tension between its African-American residents and the Italian-American owners of a local pizzeria, culminating in tragedy and violence on a hot summer day. The film was a critical and commercial success and received numerous accolades, including Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor…
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Frances Ha
Woody Allen meets French new wave as Frances (Gerwig) bluffs her way through tough times to follow her dreams. Frances Halladay is a 27-year-old dancer who lives in New York City with her best friend from college, Sophie. Her life is upended when Sophie tells her she plans to relocate from Brooklyn to Tribeca, which…
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Nebraska
This bittersweet, tragicomic but unsentimental road movie from a distinguished director and star at the top of their game depicts a crotchety, senile old man and his harassed son’s quest for riches in Lincoln, Nebraska. Panoramic shots in grainy black and white of the American mid-west are accompanied by an elegiac, plaintive soundtrack. Distinguished actor…
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Besa: the Promise
Besa: The Promise tells the remarkable and never-before-told story of how Albania opened its borders to shelter Jewish refugees during its brutal Nazi occupation. The action is witnessed through the prism of two men: Norman H. Gershman, a renowned Jewish-American photographer determined to record the bravery and compassion of the Albanians; and Rexhep Hoxha, a…
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Fruitvale Station
This recounting of the circumstances running up to the shooting of Oscar Grant III at Fruitvale Station in Oakland, California makes for an engrossing docu-drama rooted in standout performances from Jordan as Oscar Grant and Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer as his mother. For his first feature Coogler had unfettered access both to the legal documents surrounding…
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The Palm Beach Story
‘The Palm Beach Story’ is a fast-paced, witty and light-hearted ‘screwball’ comedy from the early 1940s, about a married couple down on their luck financially. It stars two of the great stars of the golden Hollywood era, Claudette Colbert (who won the Best Actress Oscar for ‘ It Happened One Night’) and Joel McCrea (star…
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Whiplash
Whiplash focuses on Andrew (a standout performance by up and coming young actor Miles Teller), an ambitious and single–minded young jazz drummer inspired by his terrifying teacher Terence Fletcher (a deservedly multi-awarded performance from character actor JK Simmons). Writer-director Damien Chazelle’s second feature film draws on his own experiences as a young drummer in love…
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Listen Up Philip
Up and coming young New York novelist Philip (Rushmore’s Jason Schwartzman) suffers a crisis of confidence on the eve of the publication of his second novel. He finds solace in a burgeoning friendship with his Philip Roth-like hero, played by Jonathan Pryce (Ike Zimmerman – echoes of Roth’s alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman). This dry, misanthropic…
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The Good Lie
Based on a true story, three orphans flee war-torn Sudan and make the appalling journey to a Kenyan refugee centre. Jump ahead 13 years and Mamere, Jeremiah and Paul gain entry to the US. Enter Reese Witherspoon to play the brisk charity worker who helps them find employment and understand Western society. Happily this is…