September 2013

Enough Said

Starring: James Gandolfini, Toni Collette, Ben Falcone, Catherine Keener and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Directed by: Nicole Holofcener

Synopsis: A divorced and single parent, Eva spends her days enjoying work as a masseuse but dreading her daughter’s impending departure for college. She meets Albert – a sweet, funny and like-minded man also facing an empty nest. As their romance quickly blossoms, Eva befriends Marianne, her new massage client. Marianne is a beautiful poet who seems “almost perfect” except for one prominent quality: she rags on her ex-husband way too much. Suddenly, Eva finds herself doubting her own relationship with Albert as she learns the truth about Marianne’s Ex. This film is a sharp, insightful comedy that humorously explores the mess that often comes with getting involved again.

August 2013

Short Term 12 

Starring: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Stephanie Beatriz, Kaitlyn Dever, Alex Calloway, Kevin Hernandez, Lydia Du Veaux, Keith Stanfield

Directed by: Destin Cretton

South by Southwest Film Festival Award Winner

Synopsis: The story is told through the eyes of Grace, a twenty- something supervisor at a foster-care facility for at-risk teenagers. Passionate and tough, Grace is a formidable caretaker of the kids in her charge – and in love with her long-term boyfriend and co-worker, Mason.But Grace’s own difficult past – and the surprising future that suddenly presents itself – throw her into unforeseen confusion, made all the sharper with the arrival of a new intake at the facility – Jayden, a gifted but troubled teenage girl with whom Grace has a charged connection.She and Mason also struggle to help Marcus – an intense, quiet kid who is about to turn 18 – manage through the difficulty of having to leave the facility.Grace comes to find – in both her work and the new teenager in her care – surprising sources of redemption. And while the subject matter is complex and often dark, this lovingly realized film finds truth – and humor – in unexpected places.

August 2013

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints 

Starring: Rooney Mara, Ben Foster, Casey Affleck, Nate Parker, Keith Carradine

Directed by: David Lowery

Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of 1970’s Texas Hill Country, this is a romantic American story that follows three characters on various sides of the law – outlaw Bob Muldoon, his wife Ruth Guthrie, and a local sheriff named Patrick Wheeler, who gets caught in their crosshairs.

July 2013

The Act of Killing

Directed by: Joshua Oppenheimer

Berlin International Film Festival Audience Award Winner

Synopsis: The filmmakers examine a country where death squad leaders are celebrated as heroes, challenging them to reenact their real-life mass-killings in the style of the American movies they love. The hallucinatory result is a cinematic fever dream, an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of mass-murderers and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit.

June 2013

Dirty Wars

Starring: Jeremy Scahill

Directed by: Richard Rowley

Synopsis: It’s the dirty little secret of the War on Terror: all bets are off, and almost anything goes. We have fundamentally changed the rules of the game and the rules of engagement. Today drone strikes, night raids, and U.S. government–condoned torture occur in corners across the globe, generating unprecedented civilian casualties. Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill (author of BLACKWATER: The Rise of the World’s Most Mercenary Army) traces the rise of the Joint Special Operations Command, the most secret fighting force in U.S. history, exposing operations carried out by men who do not exist on paper and will never appear before Congress. No target is off-limits for the JSOC “kill list,” even a U.S. citizen. Director Richard Rowley takes us on a chilling ride with whistle-blower Scahill. Dirty Wars is a battle cry for the soul and conscience of an America few of us know exists.

June 2013

Don Jon

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza

Directed by: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Synopsis: Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a strong, handsome, good old fashioned guy. His buddies call him Don Jon due to his ability to “pull” a different woman every weekend, but even the finest fling doesn’t compare to the bliss he finds alone in front of the computer watching pornography. Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson) is a bright, beautiful, good old fashioned girl. Raised on romantic Hollywood movies, she’s determined to find her Prince Charming and ride off into the sunset. Wrestling with good old fashioned expectations of the opposite sex, Jon and Barbara struggle against a media culture full of false fantasies to try and find true intimacy in this unexpected comedy written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

May 2013

Kings of Summer

Starring: Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Moises Arias, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Erin Moriarty, Nick Robinson, Angela Trimbur, Gabriel Basso

Directed by: Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Synopsis: Joe, Patrick and the eccentric and unpredictable Biaggio – who, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land. Free from their parents’ rules, their idyllic summer quickly becomes a test of friendship as each boy learns to appreciate the fact that family – whether it is the one you’re born into or the one you create – is something you can’t run away from.

March 2013

The Story of Luke

Starring: Lou Taylor Pucci, Seth Green, Cary Elwes and Kristin Bauer

Directed by: Alonso Mayo

Synopsis:

Luke, 25, is autistic and has lived a sheltered life with his grandparents. But his world is turned upside down when his grandmother dies and he is forced to live with his dysfunctional relatives who have no patience for him or his senile grandfather, who they quickly force into a nursing home. Luke is left with his grandfather’s final semi-coherent words: ‘Get a job. Find a girl. Live your own life. Be a man!’ For the first time in his life, Luke has a mission. He is about to embark on a quest.

February 2013

Old Goats

Starring: Britton Crosley, Bob Burkholder, David VanderWal, Benita Staadecker, Gail Shackel, Steve Stolee

Directed by: Taylor Guterson

Synopsis: Old Goats is the often hilarious and always heartfelt story of three older men who refuse to go quietly into the night of retirement and old age. Cantankerous and set in their ways, each man must come to terms with the sunset years in his own unique fashion. Shot in and around Seattle, Old Goats finds humor in the everyday foibles of retirement life, providing a refreshing perspective on the golden years through the eyes of three men who don’t feel (or act) anywhere close to as old as they look.

February 2013

Emperor

Starring: Matthew Fox, Tommy Lee Jones, Eriko Hatsune, Toshiyuki Nishida

Directed by: Peter Webber

Synopsis: A gripping tale of love and honor forged between fierce enemies of war, Emperor unfolds the story, inspired by true events, of the bold and secret moves that won the peace in the shadows of postwar Japan.

Matthew Fox (World War Z, Alex Cross, “Lost”) joins with Academy Award® winner Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln, No Country for Old Men, The Fugitive, Hope Springs), newcomer Eriko Hatsune, and award-winning Japanese star Toshiyuki Nishida to bring to life the American occupation of Japan in the perilous and unpredictable days just after Emperor Hirohito’s World War II surrender. As General Douglas MacArthur (Jones) suddenly finds himself the de facto ruler of a foreign nation, he assigns an expert in Japanese culture – and psychological warfare – General Bonner Fellers (Fox), to covertly investigate the looming question hanging over the country: should the Japanese Emperor, worshiped by his people but accused of war crimes, be punished or saved? Caught between the high-wire political intrigue of his urgent mission and his own impassioned search for the mysterious school teacher (Hatsune) who first drew him to Japan, Fellers can be certain only that the tricky subterfuge about to play out will forever change the history of two nations and his heart.

January 2013

Side Effects

Starring: Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones,

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Synopsis: A provocative thriller about Emily and Martin, a successful New York couple whose world unravels when a new drug prescribed by Emily’s psychiatrist – intended to treat anxiety – has unexpected side effects.

January 2013

Stand Up Guys

Starring: Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Julianna Margulie and Alan Arkin

Directed by: Fisher Stevens

Synopsis: Val is released from prison after serving 28 years for refusing to give up one of his close criminal associates. His best friend, Doc, is there to pick him up, and the two soon reunite with another old pal, Hirsch. Their bond is as strong as ever, and they reflect on glories gone by. And despite their age, their capacity for mayhem is still very much alive and well, and bullets fly as they make a valiant effort to compensate for the decades of crime, drugs and sex they’ve missed. But one of the friends is keeping a dangerous secret: he’s been put in an impossible quandary by a former mob boss, and the time for him to find an acceptable alternative is running out. As the sun rises on the guys’ reunion, their position becomes more and more desperate and they finally confront their past once and for all.