Surveillance


Director Jennifer Lynch (Boxing Helena) returns to the big screen after sixteen years with the thriller Surveillance, her second feature film.  While it is flawed and oftentimes silly, the delivery of this film's terror hits hard, usually with a scream or a splatter.      Bill Pulman and Julia Ormond (The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button) play two FBI agents whose case is a string of serial killings.  Concurrently, a horrible accident has just occured involving two sadistic and larcenous cops, an All-American family on a road trip, a doped-up pair of twentysomethings, and a van with a corpse behind the wheel.  Via closed circuit TV, agent Hallaway (Pullman) watches three survivors tell their version of what happened.  His oversight in the case borders on fetishistic fascination, and... READ MORE >>>

Downloading Nancy


Downloading Nancy is the feature directing debut of Swedish director Johan Renck who also directed an episode of AMC's Breaking Bad.  Since B.B. is one of my current favorites on television, I really had high hopes for this film.      This dark and tragic film follows a desperate and alone woman (Maria Bello) who meets a man over the internet (jason Patric) to not only kill her, but kill her in such a sadistic way that she will get off on it.  But as the two spend time together, the man slowly discovers that Nancy is his soul mate.  At the heart of the film, a dark love story emerges. Nancy's husband (Rufus Sewell) is clueless to her self-inflicted pain habits and he becomes suspicious after she... READ MORE >>>

The Stoning Of Soraya M.


How do those expressions go?  "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones"?  "Let he without sin cast the first stone"?  Well, those time worn phrases along with many other thoughts and ideas will come to mind if you watch The Stoning Of Soraya M.  And you should.      Based on the best seller of the same name by author Freidoune Sahebjam, The Stoning Of Soraya M. tells the tragic story of a young wife and mother accused by her husband of marital transgressions in 1980's rural Iran.  Co-writers Betsy and Cyrus Nowrasteh (who also directed) adapted screenplay unfolds a heart-wrenching tale of what happens when religion, mob rule, and oppression become insurmountable forces.     As told through the eyes of her Aunt Zahra (superbly... READ MORE >>>

Whatever Works


Whatever Works celebrates Woody Allen's return to his New York roots after his extended road trip to Europe.  For those of you who are fans of the "New European" Woody, complete with a sultry Scarlett Johansson engaging in steamy love scenes in the countryside, you are advised to stay away.      This film is old school, bitter, cynical, neurotic-to-the-core Woody.  It's Annie Hall, Manhattan, Woody.  Entire sequences presented on a single, static, wide shot, fixated on a group of middle-aged, upper-class intellectuals who banter on about the meaninglessness of their lives.  There are constant, unapologetic jabs at modern society, government and above all, religion.  His love of jazz.  His fear of death.    It even has the main character, a hopeless misanthrope chess teacher named Boris Yellnikoff... READ MORE >>>

Moon


     In "Moon", set sometime in the near future, a non-toxic substance called Helium 3 has been discovered on the Moon that can provide a cheap source of energy for Earth.  The Lunar Company sets up a station on the Moon to extract this material and send it back to Earth.  The company uses one person, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) to do this job, plus a talking computer named Gerty (voice of Kevin Spacey), who sounds eerily like HAL from "2001", but with a touch more personality.  All Sam has to do is collect the mined He3 and send it back to Earth.  He is nearing the end of his three-year contract when puzzling events begin to occur, leading him to a realization of the... READ MORE >>>