Friday, April 13, 2012

Surviving Progress (Movie Watch)

Technological advancement, economic development, population increase - are they signs of a thriving society? Or too much of a good thing? Based on the best-selling book A Short History of Progress, this provocative documentary explores the concept of progress in our modern world, guiding us through a sweeping but detailed survey of the major "progress traps" facing our civilization in the arenas of technology, economics, consumption, and the environment. Featuring powerful arguments from such visionaries as Jane Goodall, Margaret Atwood, Stephen Hawking, Craig Venter, Robert Wright, Michael Hudson, and Ronald Wright, this enlightening and visually spectacular film invites us to contemplate the progress traps that destroyed past civilizations & that lie treacherously embedded in our own.

Trailer HERE

American Animal (Movie Watch)

When Jimmy finds out his best friend & roommate is leaving, he sees this as a betrayal of their perfect way of life. Over the course of a night full of drinks, drugs & women, the two men engage in a classic battle of wills as James prepares to enter the real world & Jimmy falls deeper & deeper into his world of isolation & make-believe.

Trailer HERE

Moonrise Kingdom (Graded)

On an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore; and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle.

Grade: A -
Trailer HERE

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

My Winnipeg (Graded)

Have you ever wanted to relive your childhood & do things differently? Guy Maddin casts B-movie icon Ann Savage as his domineering mother in attempt to answer that question in a hilariously wacky & profoundly touching goodbye letter to his childhood hometown. A documentary or “docu-fantasia”, that inventively blends local & personal history with surrealist images and metaphorical myths. Covering everything from the fire at the local park, which lead to a frozen lake of distressed horse heads, to pivotal & factually heightened scenes from Maddin’s own childhood, all laced with a startling emotional honesty to create personal & truly unique cinematic experience.

Grade: A +
Trailer HERE

Keyhole (Movie Watch)

In a house haunted with memories, gangster & father Ulysses Pick arrives home after a long absence tow-ing the body of a teenaged girl & a bound & gagged young man. His gang waits inside his house, having shot their way past police. There is friction in the ranks. Ulysses, however, is focused on one thing: journeying through the house, room by room, & reaching his wife Hyacinth in her bedroom upstairs. The equilibrium of the house has been disturbed & his odyssey eventually becomes an emotional tour, as the ghostly nooks & crannies of the house reveal more about the mysterious Pick family.

Trailer HERE

Looper (Graded)

In the future time travel will be invented, but it will be illegal & only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target 30 years into the past, where a "looper" - a hired gun, like Joe, is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich & life is good... Until the day the mob decides to "close the loop," sending back Joe's future self for assassination.

Grade: B +
Trailer HERE
Teaser HERE