A vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones, a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time by her absent father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo’Nique), a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can neither read nor write. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, where she begins her journey from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self-determination.
This finely wrought drama was inspired by a tuberculosis epidemic that broke out in the Inuit population of Canada’s far north in the 1940s and ‘50s. Natar Ungalaaq stars as a stricken man yanked from his isolated home to a Quebec hospital, where he experiences profound culture shock. He speaks no French, and is therefore alienated within his new home. A kind nurse finds a child patient who speaks the Inuit language, and the pair form a strong and restorative bond. A model of delicate emotional restraint, this handsome film earns its many lump-in-throat moments.
The inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match
Jane (Meryl Streep) is the mother of three grown kids, owns a thriving Santa Barbara bakery/restaurant and has - after a decade of divorce - an amicable relationship with her ex-husband, attorney Jake (Alec Baldwin). But when Jane and Jake find themselves out of town for their son's college graduation, things start to get complicated. An innocent meal together turns into the unimaginable - an affair. With Jake remarried to the much younger Agness (Lake Bell), Jane is now, of all things, the other woman. Caught in the middle of their renewed romance is Adam (Steve Martin), an architect hired to remodel Jane's kitchen. Healing from a divorce of his own, Adam starts to fall for Jane, but soon realizes he's become part of a love triangle. Should Jane and Jake move on with their lives, or is love truly lovelier the second time around? It's…complicated.
After the Oscar-winning success of the adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel No Country For Old Men, another of the author's works arrives on screen. Viggo Mortensen stars in The Road, a thriller that is set in a bare, post-apocalyptic America, where a father and son struggle to survive. Featuring a musical score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and directed by John Hillcoat behind the critically acclaimed Western The Proposition.
It's the summer of 1969 and young Willie is filled with the life of the idyllic old pearling port Broome, in Western Australia - fishing, hanging out with his mates, and when he can, his girl Rosie (Jessica Mauboy). However his mother has great hopes for him and she returns him to the religious mission in Perth for further schooling. After being punished by Father Benedictus (Geoffrey Rush) for an act of youthful rebellion, Willie runs away from the mission. But to where... he's too ashamed to go home. Down on his luck he meets an old fella, who he calls ‘Uncle' Tadpole (Ernie Dingo), and together they con a couple of hippies into taking them on the 2,500 km journey through spectacular landscape back to Broome. Willie learns the hard and funny lessons he needs to get home, all the while pursued by Father Benedictus.
London 1818: a secret love affair begins between 23 year old English poet, John Keats, and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, an outspoken student of fashion. This unlikely pair started at odds; he thinking her a stylish minx, she unimpressed by literature in general. It was the illness of Keats’s younger brother that drew them together. Keats was touched by Fanny’s efforts to help and agreed to teach her poetry.
By the time Fanny’s alarmed mother and Keats’s best friend Brown realised their attachment, the relationship had an unstoppable momentum. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other. Directed by Jane Campion (The Piano), and starring Ben Wishaw and Abbie Cornish.
The US President and UK Prime Minister fancy a war. But not everyone agrees that war is a good thing. The US General Miller doesn't think so and neither does the British Secretary of State for International Development. But, after Simon accidentally backs military action on TV, he suddenly has a lot of friends in Washington, DC. If Simon can get in with the right DC people, if his entourage of one can sleep with the right intern , and if they can both stop the Prime Minister's chief spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker rigging the vote at the UN, they can halt the war. If they don't... well, they can always sack their Director of Communications Judy, who they never liked anyway and who's back home dealing with voters with blocked drains and a man who's angry about a collapsing wall.
Do you smell something burning? Can we be good without god? Is religion a calling or a mental illness? Were Jesus, Moses and Mohammed prophets and visionaries or crackpot nut cases who today would be put away? Is religion an obsessive-compulsive disorder? Comedian, acerbic commentator, raconteur, sceptic, seeker Bill Maher and Larry Charles (director of Borat) set off in search of questions to these answers in a raunchy, rude, disrespectful, outrageous, shocking, non-fiction film about the greatest fiction ever told. From the Western Wall to the Vatican, from self professed messiahs to self professed pariahs they will not only expose the hypocrisy and corruption in organised religion but the absurdly hilarious logic that holds it together.
This international smash hit from the makers of Gomorrah is an wonderfully charming tale of good food, feisty ladies and unlikely friendships during a very Roman holiday. Broke, and armed with only a glass of wine and a wry sense of humor, middle-aged Gianni is forced to entertain his 93-year-old mother and three other lively mamas in their ancient apartment during Italy’s biggest summer holiday. Winner of prizes at international festivals including Best First Film at Venice and the Satyajit Ray Award at London, plus the Golden Snail at the Academy of Food and Film in Bologna, Mid-August Lunch is both warmly vibrant family drama and delicately balanced comedy of manners.
Innovative director Spike Jonze collaborates with celebrated author Maurice Sendak to bring one of the most beloved books of all time to the big screen. The film tells the story of Max, a rambunctious and sensitive boy who feels misunderstood at home and escapes to the land of Wild Things. Max lands on an island where he meets mysterious and strange creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions. The Wild Things desperately long for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy. He soon finds, though, that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships there prove to be more complicated than he originally thought.
In a dynamic new portrayal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous characters, Sherlock Holmes sends Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson on their latest challenge. Revealing fighting skills as lethal as his legendary intellect, Holmes will battle as never before to bring down a new nemesis and unravel a deadly plot that could destroy the country. Directed by Guy Ritchie, starring Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law and Rachel McAdams.
DEPARTURES follows Daigo Kobayashi, a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and who is suddenly left without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled “Departures” thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of “Nokanshi,” acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living. Subtitled
A handful of men set aside their differences to conquer one of Europe's tallest mountains in this period drama inspired by a true story. In 1936, Nazi Germany is looking to shore up its reputation in the eyes of the world, and after a pair of German climbers died in an effort to climb the north face of the Eiger in the Swiss Alps, the state is looking to find another group who can succeed where the earlier team failed. Henry Arau, the publisher of one of Berlin's biggest newspapers, is a loyal son of the Third Reich, and when his editorial secretary tells him she knows some climbers who would be willing to take on the Eiger, Tukur gives her a free hand to assemble a team and make this dream a reality.
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio team up for a fourth time for this adaptation of a novel by Dennis LeHane (Mystic River). DiCaprio plays a U.S. marshal who travels to Shutter Island in search of the person who killed his wife. But when he enters the island's hospital, he discovers that the people there are performing experiments that are in direct violation of the Hippocratic Oath. Also starring Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams and Ben Kingsley.
Based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood. Set in Los Angeles in 1962 at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, it is the story of a British college professor (Colin Firth) who is struggling to find meaning to his life after the death of his long-time partner. The story is a romantic tale of love interrupted, the isolation that is an inherent part of the human condition, and ultimately the importance of the seemingly smaller moments in life.
