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Paradise: Faith

Directed by Ulrich SeidlProduced by Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion Written by Veronika Franz & Ulrich Seidl Released by Strand Releasing German & Arabic with English subtitles Austria/France,/Germany, 113 min.  Not rated With Maria Hofstätten & Nabil Saleh Ulrich Seidl’s “Paradise Trilogy” was originally conceived as a single film of interwoven stories following three female family […]

Sparrows Dance

Written & Directed by Noah Buschel Produced by Savantha Housman & Louise Runge Released by Tribeca Film USA. 81 min. Not rated With Marin Ireland & Paul Sparks Sparrows Dance may be the sweetest and simplest film I’ve seen in years. Taking place almost entirely in one small New York City apartment, the film follows […]

You Will Be My Son

Directed by Gilles Legrand Produced by Legrand & Frédéric Brillon Written by Legrand & Delphine de Vigan Released by Cohen Media Group France. 101 min. Rated R With Niels Arestrup, Loránt Deutsch, Patrick Chesnais, Nicolas Bridet, Anne Marivin & Valérie Mairesse You Will Be My Son isn’t just a dramatic vacation to the wine country […]

The Patience Stone

Directed by Atiq Rahimi Produced by Michael Gentile Written by Rahimi & Jean-Claude Carriére, based on Rahimi’s novel Released by Sony Pictures Classics Farsi with English subtitles Afghanistan/France/Germany/UK. 102 min. Rated R With Golshifteh Farahani, Hamidrez Javdan, Hassina Burgan & Massi Mrowat The Patience Stone is as specific as it is mythic. Set in an […]

In A World…

Written & Directed by Lake Bell Produced by Bell & Jett Steiger Released by Roadside Attractions USA. 93 min. Rated R With Lake Bell, Fred Melamed, Demetri Martin, Michaela Watkins, Ken Marino, Rob Corddry, Nick Offerman, Tig Notaro, Alexandra Holden & Eva Longoria In A World… poses a very intriguing concept. On the peripheries of […]

Smash & Grab

Directed by Havana Marking Produced by Mike Lerner Released by Doppelgänger Releasing UK. 90 min. Not rated Wow. Talk about free publicity. The July 28th robbery of an estimated $137 million worth of jewelry on the French Riviera (at the Carlton International hotel, coincidentally a location in Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief) occurred just days […]

Terms and Conditions May Apply

Written & Directed by Cullen Hoback Produced by Hoback, John Ramos & Nitin Khanna Released by Variance Films USA. 79 min. Not rated You know those things you click on all the time when you download a new app, establish an online banking, open a new social media account—“I Agree,” “Create an Account,” “Submit Information”—the […]

Blue Jasmine

Written & Directed by Woody Allen Produced by Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum & Edward Walson Released by Sony Pictures Classics USA. 96 min. Rated PG-13 With Alec Baldwin, Cate Blanchett, Louis C. K., Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Dice Clay, Sally Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard & Michael Stuhlbarg Spot the reference. That’s part of the appeal of movies […]

The Act of Killing

Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer Produced by Signe Byrge Sorensen, Joram ten Brink, Anne Köhncke, Michael Uwemedimo, Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn & Anonymous Released by Drafthouse Films Denmark/Norway/UK/Sweden/Finland. 122 min. Not rated You may or may not remember a little movie from 1980 called Cannibal Holocaust about the discovery of film shot by a documentary team in […]