Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe, Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Don McKellar
Set in the near-future, eXistenZ depicts a society in which game designers are worshipped as superstars and players can organically enter inside the games. At the center of the story is Allegra Geller whose latest games system eXistenZ taps so deeply into its users fears and desires that it blurs the boundaries between reality and escapism. When fanatics attempt to assassinate Allegra, she is forced to flee. Her sole ally is Ted Pikul, a novice security guard who is sworn to protect her. Persuading Ted into playing the game, Allegra draws them both into a phantasmagoric world where existence ends and eXistenZ begins.
Starring: Desmond Askew, Katie Holmes, Sarah Polley, Taye Diggs, Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr
Eighteen-year-old Ronna, accompanied by reluctant partner-in-crime and fellow supermarket checkout clerk Claire, is desperately looking to score some rent money before she’s evicted. Simon, an impulsive Brit, is driving a stolen car with buddy Marcus during a wild night of partying on the Las Vegas strip. Adam and Zack, a pair of TV stars, find themselves in the middle of a real-life drug sting-and a very creepy Christmas dinner. Where are we? Who are these people? Welcome to the edgy comedy Go, in which the outrageous misadventures of a group of young people collide in Los Angeles’ raucous underground scene.
Starring: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Stephen Spinella, David Arquette, Jeffrey Jones, Jeremy Davies
Captain John Boyd receives a promotion after defeating the enemy command in a battle of the Mexican-American War, but because the general realizes it was an act of cowardice that got him there, he is given a backhanded promotion to Fort Spencer, where he is third in command. The others at the fort are two Indians, George and his sister, Martha, who came with the place, Chaplain Toffler, Reich, the soldier; Cleaves, a drugged-up cook; and Knox, who is frequently drunk.
When a Scottish stranger named Colquhoun appears and recovers from frostbite almost instantly after being bathed, he tells a story about his party leader, Ives, eating members of the party to survive. As part of their duty, they must go up to the cave where this occurred to see if any have survived. Only Martha, Knox, and Cleaves stay behind. George warns that since Colquhoun admits to eating human flesh, he must be a Windigo, a ravenous cannibalistic creature.
Starring: John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Donna Pescow, Barry Miller, Joseph Cali, Paul Pape
The soundtrack, the dancing, the chin – Saturday Night Fever is THE cultural touchstone of the disco era. This seemingly fluff disco depiction we’ve all grown to love houses a deep dark tale, one that shows a desperation to succeed, the desire to move onto better things, and the fear of failure. In his defining role John Travolta, with his polyester pants and thrusting hips, deals with the harsh reality of trying to make it big when you come from so little. But he’ll make it happen across the bridge in New York City but, whatever you do, don’t touch the hair!
Starring: Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, Veronica Lazar
The Deuce does Mother’s Day this May with gusto when Bernardo Bertolucci’s gutsy virtuoso melodrama LUNA lights up the darkness of our lives – just as it once lit up the dank environs of 42nd street’s Apollo Theater – after opening the 17th New York Film Festival on September 28, 1979!
Recently widowed opera super-diva ditches Brooklyn for Italy with teen-aged son in tow – only to discover that her semi-self-absorbed “life-style” has led him to a semi-hidden heroin addiction… and she will do all a mother can to bring him back to her bosom! Soufflé’s and disco-dancin! Skateboarding and Un Ballo in Maschera! A fever-dream of Freudian tom-foolery and outré Oedipal desires!
Slyly self-referential to Bertolucci’s own previous work and rife with rampant shifts in tone – at turns hilarious and horrifying – as tear-jerking as it is squirm-inducing – deliriously surreal and painfully real… a tour-de-force of music, mystery, and a mother-lode of emotion – exploding with light and color from Vittorio Storaro’s lens… an operatic feast for all the senses!
With a near career-killer of a role for Jill Clayburgh in possibly her best performance ever… LUNA is a much maligned but masterful film from one of the Masters of Cinema… and on The Deuce!! Bring your mom if you have one!
Starring: Judd Nelson, Robert Loggia, Leo Rossi, Meg Foster
This April, our favorite big-time Deuce-Buddy – Bill Lustig – is back to rock the house with his roller-coaster suspense-shocker RELENTLESS – just like it did when it rolled into Times Square’s Cine 42!
Lackadaisical LA veteran detective, Robert Loggia, gets riled up by Leo Rossi’s Brooklyn-bred “rookie” newcomer into nabbing sicko psycho serial murderer, Judd Nelson… The ex-Breakfast Clubber has Daddy issues with a capital “D” – causing him to do dastardly deeds – like picking people with his own name from the phone-book to provoke into… murdering THEMSELVES!?!
Lustig’s borderline ludicrous foray into “mainstream” movie-making makes the most of its familiar-feeling plot with wild style, weirdo details, and all around wacked-out acting… with a deliriously down-beat and devilishly creepy-crawly performance by the former Brat-Packer! Unsettling!! Uncomfortable!! A sharp and slick action-packed late 80s surprise – a whirlwind of wanton revenge and vengeance… it’s RELENTLESS!
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Ving Rhames, Harvey Keitel
The ultimate post-modern film! Weaving together separate yet interrelated tales of violence, revenge and affection, Tarantino’s seminal Pulp Fiction broke all the rules to become one of the most memorable movies of the 20th century. The film’s intelligent dialogue, non-linear storytelling, pop-cultural meta-ness, and stylized violence captivated audiences in desperate need of something fresh. Today, Pulp Fiction delivers smart entertainment that stands the test of time with its now iconic introspective hitman, washed up boxer, and a mobster’s wife. All these years later though, we still don’t know what’s in that damn briefcase.
Starring: Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Trey Wilson, Robert Wuhl, Jenny Robertson
Former minor leaguer Ron Shelton hit a grand slam with his directorial debut, one of the most revered sports movies of all time. Durham Bulls devotee Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon)—who every year takes a new player under her wing (and into her bed)—has singled out the loose-cannon pitching prospect Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins), a big-league talent with a rock-bottom maturity level. But she’s unable to shake Crash Davis (Kevin Costner), the veteran catcher brought in to give Nuke some on-the-field seasoning. A breakthrough film for all three of its stars and an Oscar nominee for Shelton’s highly quotable screenplay, Bull Durham is a freewheeling hymn to wisdom, experience, and America’s pastime, tipping its cap to all those who grind it out for love of the game.
Starring: Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, Jóhann Sigurðarson, David Thor Jonsson, Magnus Trygvason Eliasen
Halla is a fifty-year-old independent woman. But behind the scenes of a quiet routine, she leads a double life as a passionate environmental activist. Known to others only by her alias “The Woman of the Mountain,” Halla secretly wages a one-woman-war on the local aluminum industry. As Halla’s actions grow bolder, from petty vandalism to outright industrial sabotage, she succeeds in pausing the negotiations between the Icelandic government and the corporation building a new aluminum smelter. But right as she begins planning her biggest and boldest operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that changes everything. Her application to adopt a child has finally been accepted and there is a little girl waiting for her in Ukraine. As Halla prepares to abandon her role as saboteur and savior of the Highlands to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother, she decides to plot one final attack to deal the aluminum industry a crippling blow.
Starring: Keira Knightley, Alexander Skarsgård, Jason Clarke, Alexander Scheer
The Aftermath is set in postwar Germany in 1946. Rachael Morgan (Keira Knightley) arrives in the ruins of Hamburg in the bitter winter, to be reunited with her husband Lewis (Jason Clarke), a British colonel charged with rebuilding the shattered city. But as they set off for their new home, Rachael is stunned to discover that Lewis has made an unexpected decision: they will be sharing the grand house with its previous owners, a German widower (Alexander Skarsgård) and his troubled daughter. In this charged atmosphere, enmity and grief give way to passion and betrayal.
