Film-Forward

Crime

Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery

Written and Directed by Arne Birkenstock Produced by Birkenstock, Helmut G. Weber, Thomas Springer & Edward MacLiam Released by KimStim German with English subtitles Germany. 93 min. Not rated Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery is more straightforward than earlier explorations of skullduggery in the art market, from Harry Moses’s Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? […]

Cop Car

Directed by Jon Watts Produced by Cody Ryder, Alicia Van Couvering, Sam Bisbee, Andrew Kortschak and Watts Written by Watts and Christopher Ford Released by Focus World USA. 88 min Rated R With Kevin Bacon, James Freedson-Jackson, Hays Wellford, Camryn Manheim and Shea Whigham One of the ballsiest young figures in film today, writer-director Jon […]

Two Step

Written, Produced, and Directed by Alex R. Johnson Produced by Johnson, Paul Biedrzycki, Pat Cassidy, Charles Mulford Released by Traverse Media USA.  93 min. Not rated With Beth Broderick, James Landry Hébert, Skyy Moore, Jason Douglas, and Ashley Rai Spillers “I don’t live in a world of maybe, I live in Texas.” This is just […]

A Hard Day

Written and Directed by Kim Seong-hun Produced by Cha Ji-hyun and Billy Acumen Released by Kino Lorber Korean with English subtitles South Korea 110 min. Not rated With Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Jin-woong, Jeong Man-sik, Shin Jung-keun, Jang In-sub To say that homicide detective Gun-soo (Lee Sun-kyun) isn’t having a great day would be an understatement. […]

Irrational Man

Written and Directed by Woody Allen Produced by Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum and Edward Walson Released by Sony Pictures Classics USA. 94 min. Rated R With Jamie Blackley, Joaquin Phoenix, Parker Posey, and Emma Stone Philosophy professor Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) causes a stir by arriving at Braylin College just in time for the summer […]

Cartel Land

Directed by Matthew Heineman Produced by Heineman and Tom Yellin Released by the Orchard English and Spanish with English subtitles USA/Mexico. 100 min. Not Rated Organized vigilantes have arisen on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border out of frustration with what they see as inadequate government response to the violent cartels terrorizing farmers and ranchers […]

Escobar: Paradise Lost

Written and Directed by Andrea di Stefano, Produced by Dimitri Rassam Released by Radius-TWC English and Spanish with English subtitles France/Spain/Belgium. 119 min. Rated R With Benicio Del Toro, Josh Hutcherson, Claudia Traisac, Brady Corbet, Carlos Bardem, Ana Girardot, and Micke Moreno Pablo Escobar is probably history’s most successful, and notorious, drug dealer/narcoterrorist. At its […]

A Murder in the Park

Directed by Shawn Rech and Brandon Kimber Produced by Rech and Andrew Hale Released by Sundance Selects USA. 93 min. Not rated A death row prisoner walks free from jail in a surprise exoneration nearly 48 hours before his scheduled execution. New evidence proving his innocence has come to light thanks to a university journalism […]

3 ½ Minutes, Ten Bullets

Directed by Marc Silver Produced by Minette Nelson and Carolyn Hepburn Released by Participant Media USA. 98 min. Not rated On the Friday after Thanksgiving in 2012, four African-American teens pulled into a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, for gum and cigarettes. Michael Dunn, a middle-aged white man, and his fiancée pulled into the space […]