Category: Movie Review

SEARCHING (2018)

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Directed By: Aneesh Chaganty
Written By: Aneesh Chaganty & Sev Ohanian
Cinematography: Juan Sebastian Barron
Director Of Virtual Photography & Editor: Nicholas D. Johnson & Will Merrick 


Cast: John Cho, Debra Messing, Michelle La, Joseph Lee, Dominic Hoffman, Briana McLean 


After David Kim’s 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. But 37 hours later and without a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter’s laptop. In a hyper-modern thriller told via the technology devices we use every day to communicate, David must trace his daughter’s digital footprints before she disappears forever.

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DANS PARIS (2006)

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Written & Directed By: Christopher Honore
Cinematography: Jean-Louis Vialard
Editor: Chantal Hymans 


Cast: Roman Duris, Joanna Priess, Louis Garrel, Guy Merchand, Alice Butand, Marie-France Pisier 

Anna has just left Paul who, annihilated by the separation, moves back with his father in Paris. His younger brother Jonathan, a casual student, still lives in his father’s apartment and spends most of his time womanizing and fooling around. But what this apparent lightness conceals is a deep wound. Jonathan, in fact, has never been able to overcome the death of his beloved sister. Meanwhile Paul sinks into depression.

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AVA’S POSESSIONS (2016)

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AvasPossessions

 

Written & Directed By: Jordan Galland
Cinematography By: Adrian Correia
Editor: Jordan Galland & Daniel Hahn 

Music By: Sean Lennon 


Cast: Louisa Krause, Lou Taylor Pucci, Whitney Able, John Ventimiglia, Deborah Rush, Zachary Booth, Jemima Kirke, Carol Kane, Alysia Reiner, William Sadler, Dan Fogler, Annabelle Dexter-Jones

Ava Dobkins is recovering from demonic possession. With no memory of the past month, she is forced to attend a Spirit Possession Anonymous support group. As Ava struggles to reconnect with her friends, get her job back, and figure out where the huge bloodstain in her apartment came from, she’s plagued by nightmarish visions – the demon is trying to come back.

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DROP ZONE (1994)

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Directed By: John Badham
Written By: Peter Barsocchini & John Bishop
Story By: Tony Griffin, Guy Manos & Peter Barsocchini
Cinematography By: Roy H. Wagner
Editor: Frank Morriss 


Cast: Wesley Snipes, Yancy Butler, Gary Busey, Michael Jeter, Grace Zabriskie, Corin Nemec, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Kyle Secor, Mickey Jones, Clark Johnson, Melanie Mayron

A team of skydiving crooks led by DEA-agent-turned-bad specialize in landing on police roofs and breaking in so their evil computer nerd can steal undercover agents’ files and sell them to drug lords. Federal Marshal Snipes lost a brother to this crew and learns skydiving with the help of tough-but-lovable instructor Butler so he can track them down. DIE HARD meets PASSENGER 57 meets CLIFFHANGER.

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YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (2018)

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YOUWERE

Written & Directed By: Lynn Ramsay
Based on the Novel By: Jonathan Ames
Cinematography By: Tom Townend
Editor: Joe Bini
Music By: Johnny Greenwood 


Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Alessandro Nivola, Judith Roberts, John Doman, Alex Mannette 


Balancing between feverish dreamlike hallucinations of a tormented past and a grim disoriented reality, the grizzled Joe–a traumatised Gulf War veteran and now an unflinching hired gun who lives with his frail elderly mother–has just finished successfully yet another job. With an infernal reputation of being a brutal man of results, the specialised in recovering missing teens enforcer will embark on a blood-drenched rescue mission, when Nina, the innocent 13-year-old daughter of an ambitious New York senator, never returns home. But amidst half-baked leads and a desperate desire to shake off his shoulders the heavy burden of a personal hell, Joe’s frenzied plummet into the depths of Tartarus is inevitable, and every step Joe takes to flee the pain, brings him closer to the horrors of insanity. In the end, what is real, and what is a dream? Can there be a new chapter in Joe’s life when he keeps running around in circles?

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MIDSOMMAR (2019)

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Written & Directed By: Ari Aster
Cinematography By: Pawel Pogorzelski
Editor: Lucian Johntson 


Cast: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Will Poulter, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, Ellora Torchia 

Dani and Christian are a young American couple with a relationship on the brink of falling apart. But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani invites herself to join Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that render the pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing.

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TEEN SPIRIT (2019)

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teen-spirit

Written & Directed By: Max Minghella
Cinematography: Autumn Durald
Editor: Cam McLauchlin 


Cast: Elle Fanning, Agnieszka Grochowska, Archie Madekwe, Zlatko Buric, Millie Brady, Vivian Oparah, Rebecca Hall 


Violet is a shy teenager who dreams of escaping her small town and pursuing her passion to sing. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a local singing competition that will test her integrity, talent and ambition. Driven by a pop-fueled soundtrack, Teen Spirit is a visceral and stylish spin on the Cinderella story.

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DIRTY GIRL (2010)

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Written & Directed By: Abe Sylvia
Cinematography By: Steve Gainer
Editor: Jonathan Lucas


Cast: Juno Temple, Jeremy Dozier, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Jack Kelher, Milla Jovovich, Pat Healy, Brent Briscoe, William H. Macy, Nicholas D’Agosto, Tim McGraw, Elsie Fisher

A comedic story of the search for identity and the redemptive power of unexpected friendship. Danielle is the dirty girl of Norman High School. When Danielle’s misbehavior gets her banished to special ed, she teams up with an innocent closet-case and together they head out on a road trip to discover each other and themselves through a funny and serendipitous friendship.

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THE RAID 2: BERANDAL (2014)

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Written, Directed & Edited By: Gareth Evans
Cinematography By: Matt Flannery & Dimas Imam Subhono
Music By: Aria Prayogi, Joseph Trapenese & Fajar Yuskemal
Fight Choregraphy By: Iwo Uwais & Yayan Ruhain 


Cast: Iwo Uwais, Julie Estelle, Yayan Ruhain, Arifin Putra, Donny Alamsyah, Oka Antara, Alex Abbad, Tio Pakusodewo, Very Tri Yulisman

He thought it was over. After fighting his way out of a building filled with gangsters and madmen – a fight that left the bodies of police and gangsters alike piled in the halls – rookie Jakarta cop Rama thought it was done and he could resume a normal life. He couldn’t have been more wrong. Formidable though they may have been, Rama’s opponents in that fateful building were nothing more than small fish swimming in a pond much larger than he ever dreamed possible. And his triumph over the small fry has attracted the attention of the predators farther up the food chain. His family at risk, Rama has only one choice to protect his infant son and wife: He must go undercover to enter the criminal underworld himself and climb through the hierarchy of competing forces until it leads him to the corrupt politicians and police pulling the strings at the top of the heap. And so Rama begins a new odyssey of violence, a journey that will force him to set aside his own life and history.

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NORMA RAE (1979)

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Directed By: Martin Ritt
Written By: Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr.
Cinematography By: John A. Alonzo
Editor: Sidney Levin 


Cast: Sally Field, Ron Liebman, Beau Bridges, Pat Hingle, Barbara Baxley, Gail Strickland, Noble Willingham, Bob Minor, Grace Zabriskie, Frank McRae, 

Like a lot of her family before her, Norma Rae works at the local textile mill, where the pay is hardly commensurate with the long hours and lousy working conditions. But after hearing a rousing speech by labor activist Reuben, Norma is inspired to rally her fellow workers behind the cause of unionism. Her decision rankles her family, especially her fiancé, Sonny, and provokes no shortage of contempt from her employers.

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