Two chess players face off at a busy café, studying both the pieces on the board and the unfolding dramas at the neighboring tables. While a young couple fumbles through an uncomfortable blind date, a longtime marriage begins to crumble. Meanwhile, a pair of film noir fans suspect they're witnessing a real-life murder. This is an ensemble drama about conversations overheard in a bustling New York City bistro. With every whispered word, we gain a greater understanding of the big picture being formed all around us. From lovers' quarrels to artistic musings and hushed confessions, a crowded restaurant is the perfect place to discover just what strangers will say when they think no one else is listening.
Lisbon Story is Wim Wenders' homage to Lisbon and films. A sound engineer obtains a mysterious postcard from a friend who at the moment is filming a film in Lisbon. He sets out across Europe to find him and help him.
Lisbon Story
1994
7
A disillusioned filmmaker has an encounter with a young woman who has a ritual of repeating "Tomorrow is my birthday" everyday. He tries to communicate with her through his video camera.
式日
2000
7
Happy Tears
2009
5
After decades of laboring as a Glasgow shipbuilder, Frank Redmond, a no-nonsense 55-year-old working-class man, suddenly finds himself laid off. For the first time in his life, he is without a job or a sense of direction, and he's too proud to ask for guidance. His best mates - rascally Danny, timid Norman and cynical Eddie - are there for him, but Frank still feels desperately alone. An offhand remark from Danny inspires Frank to challenge himself. Already contemplating the state of his relationships with loving wife Joan and all-but-estranged son Rob, Frank is determined to shore up his own self-confidence. He will attempt the near impossible - swimming the English Channel.
On a Clear Day
2005
6
Traces over three generations an immigrant family's trials, tribulations, tragedies, and triumphs. Maria and Jose, the first generation, come to Los Angeles, meet, marry, face deportation all in the 1930s. They establish their family in East L.A., and their children Chucho, Paco, Memo, Irene, Toni, and Jimmy deal with youth culture and the L.A. police in the '50s. As the second generation become adults in the '60s, the focus shifts to Jimmy, his marriage to Isabel (a Salvadorian refugee), their son, and Jimmy's journey to becoming a responsible parent.
My Family
1995
7
The Dukes,a Doo Wop group, were on top of the world at 17, now are struggling for survival in 2008. Their manager is desperately trying to get them work but is met with failure at every turn. Finally pushed to the extreme , they pull a heist only a fool would attempt, which leaves them even more desperate. When all seems lost, they find themselves.
The Dukes
2007
4
Rich Bower is an up-and-coming star in the hip-hop world. Everyone wants to be around him, including Raven and her fellow upper-class white high school friends. The growing appeal of black culture among white teens fascinates documentary filmmaker Sam Donager, who sets out to chronicle it with her husband, Terry. But before Bower was a rapper, he was a gangster, and his criminal past comes back to haunt him and all those around him.
Black and White
1999
4
In 1971, air-conditioner repairman and boat enthusiast Jim McCormick entertains his desire to 'go down' as a legend in the record books when the Gold Cup hydroplane boat race improbably comes to his small town of Madison, Indiana. Immediately, Jim seizes his opportunity to enter the contest. With a motley crew of fellow mechanics and friends at his side, Jim fixes up his old boat and brings hope to the blighted industrial city. Written by Sujit R. Varma
Madison
2005
5
A coming-of-middle-age comedy that chronicles the unlikely friendship between failed author Richard Dunne and a Long Island teen who teaches him a thing or two about growing up, all under the disapproving eye of his long-suffering wife and his imaginary Superhero friend.
Paper Man
2009
6
A moody romantic comedy exploring fetishism, addiction and love in the information age. As Lewis struggles to integrate his public and private personas, he realizes he may not be the only one harboring a dirty little secret.
Control Alt Delete
2010
3
In the middle of the Mojave desert rests an abandoned phone booth, riddled with bullet holes, graffiti, its windows broken, but otherwise functioning. Its identity was born on the Internet and for years, travelers would make the trek down a lonely dirt road and camp next to the booth, in the hopes that it might suddenly ring, and they could connect with a stranger (often from another country) on the other end of the line. This is the story of four disparate people whose lives intersect with this mystical outpost, and the comfort they seek from a stranger's voice: There is Beth, a troubled woman facing dilemmas with her love-life and a recurring, baffling crime; Mary, a young South African, who is contemplating selling her body for the funds to escape her dreadful existence; Alex, a woman who is losing her lover, Glory, to the belief she is plagued by aliens, and Richard, driven into desperation by a separation from his wife, who happens upon the booth after his failed suicide attempt.
Mojave Phone Booth
2006
5
Nick Gunar is a burnt-out, jaded and hard-up former mercenary who is having a difficult time adjusting to civilian life. At the end of his rope, he is hired by the Nitro Mine Corporation to strong-arm the natives of a South China Sea island into giving up their rights to its valuable mineral resources. Nick loathes the thought of another mission, but this seemingly easy job will earn him enough money to get back with his estranged family. He recruits some of his former mercenary buddies to help him with the job. The island people refuse to give up their land and Nick decides to help them fight the greedy corporation that hired him. As greed and treachery begin to unravel, Nick's band of mercenaries choose sides.
Men of War
1994
5
An eccentric drifter claiming to be Elvis Presley hitches a ride with a young man and they find themselves on an adventurous road trip to Memphis.
Finding Graceland
1998
5
It's San Francisco in 1957, and an American masterpiece is put on trial. Howl, the film, recounts this dark moment using three interwoven threads: the tumultuous life events that led a young Allen Ginsberg to find his true voice as an artist, society's reaction (the obscenity trial), and mind-expanding animation that echoes the startling originality of the poem itself. All three coalesce in a genre-bending hybrid that brilliantly captures a pivotal moment-the birth of a counterculture.
Howl
2010
6
Neal Cassady is living the beat life during the 1940s, working at The Tire Yard and philandering around town. However, he has visions of a happy life with kids and a white picket fence. When his girlfried, Joan, tries to kill herself he gets scared and runs away. But when Joan reappears will he take the chance at that happiness, or will he turn his back on it?
The Last Time I Committed Suicide
1997
5
Using almost no dialogue, the film follows a number of residents (both human and animal) of a small rural community in Hungary – an old man with hiccups, a shepherdess and her sheep, an old woman who may or may not be up to no good, some folk-singers at a wedding, etc. While most of the film is a series of vignettes, there is a sinister and often barely perceptible subplot involving murder.
Hukkle
2002
6
After ten years, Sheldon returns from New York City to Paris, Georgia. His mother Evelyn, a laundress who is stubborn, ornery, opinionated, mean-spirited, insulting, and inflexible, has sent a ten-year-old boy who says he's Sheldon's son up to see Sheldon. Sheldon comes home to straighten things out. Old arguments flare up - between mother and son and between brothers. Sheldon wants no part of fatherhood or family. Then, someone else from New York shows up at Evelyn's door, bringing a new set of challenges. Will this family ever stop airing its dirty laundry? And what of Sheldon: where is his pride? Can he, in the words of James Baldwin, go where his blood beats and live the life he has?
Dirty Laundry
2006
6
A tale about Vietnamese refugees sent to an orientation camp on the Camp Pendleton Marine Base in California, 'Green Dragon' focuses on a young boy and his sister. Set in 1975, the film chronicles the stories told to the two children by other refugees in the camp and of Tai Tran, who dares to introduce himself to Sergeant Jim Lance. In developing a relationship with Lance, Tran is able to improve
Green Dragon
2001
6
HOW I GOT LOST is the heartbreaking yet hopeful story of Andrew and Jake, two friends dealing with loss amidst events bigger than them. Andrew is the friend we all have, the one who convinces you to come along despite your better judgment. Talented but with seemingly nothing to lose, his tailspin is balanced only by his professional drive to succeed as a trader on Wall Street. His best friend Jake, broken-hearted and writing sports instead of fiction, does his best to clean up the mess his friend creates until he runs into his capricious ex, Sarah again. So Andrew convinces him to ditch New York and hit the road, going nowhere. They commandeer a cab to Philadelphia, where they borrow Andrews moms station wagon. But when their car runs out of gas in the middle of Pennsylvania, Andrew reveals the real reason for the trip -- his father has died, and he doesn't think he can make it through the funeral alone.
How I Got Lost
2009
4
An English teacher sells encyclopedias while searching for the meaning of life.
The Sensation of Sight
2006
7