Category: Newsletters

“A medieval adventure—part legendary fable, part horror-story—based on the seminal ninth century Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf. Director Sturla Gunnarsson tells the blood-soaked tale of a Norse warriorÂ’s battle against the murderous and vengeful troll Grendel (Ingvar Sigurdsson), who has laid siege to the kingdom of Hrothgar (Stellan SkarsgÃ¥rd), King of the Danes. Beowulf (Gerard Butler) leads a troop of warriors across the sea to rid the village of the marauding troll, but his willingness to kill on behalf of Hrothgar wavers when it becomes clear that the King is responsible for the trollÂ’s rampages. Filmed in Iceland, the drama plays out in a brutish Northern Europe where Beowulf is caught in a battle of vengeance, loyalty and mercy. In English.”

“No one among the Hoovers quite has it together, but it’s not for lack of trying. Father Richard, a hopelessly optimistic motivational speaker, is desperately attempting to sell his 9-step program for success–without much success. Meanwhile, the Hoovers’ pro-honesty mother Sheryl is constantly harried by her family’s eccentric secrets, especially those of her brother, a suicidal Proust scholar fresh out of the hospital after being jilted by his gay lover. Then there are young Hoovers with their unlikely dreams–the four-eyed, slightly pump, seven year-old would-be beauty queen Olive and Dwayne, an anger-fueled, Nietzche-reading teen who has taken a staunch vow of silence until he gets into the Air Force Academy. Topping off the family is the grandfather, a foul-mouthed pleasure-seeker recently kicked out of his retirement home for snorting heroin. They might not be the picture of the perfect mental health, but when a fluke gets Olive invited to compete in the fiercely competitive Little Miss Sunshine competition in California, the whole Hoover family rallies behind her. They pile into their rusted-out VW bus and head West on a three-day tragicomic journey filled with madcap surprises and leading up to Olive’s big debut–which will change the entire misfit family in ways they could never imagine.”

Ricardo Tubbs is urbane and dead smart. He lives with Bronx-born intel analyst Trudy, as they work undercover transporting drug loads into South Florida to identify a group responsible for three murders. Sonny Crockett is charismatic and flirtatious until-while undercover working with the supplier of the South Florida group-he gets romantically entangled with Isabella, the Chinese-Cuban wife of an arms and drugs trafficker. The intensity of this case pushes Crockett and Tubbs out onto the edge where identity and fabrication become blurred, where cop and player become one-especially for Crockett in his romance with Isabella and for Tubbs in the provocation of an assault on those he loves.

A calamity at Dante and Randall’s shops sends them looking for new horizons – but they ultimately settle at Mooby’s, a fictional Disney-McDonald’s-style fast-food empire. Free from his dead-end job (and lodged in a new one), Dante begins to break free of his rut, planning to move away with his clingy fiancé. Dante is ready to leave the horrors of minimum-wage New Jersey behind, but Randal – always the more hostile of the two – starts to become overwhelmed by his own rancor.

Since bursting onto the music scene in 1967, Leonard Cohen has inspired generations with his unique personality and haunting music. Director Lian Lunson documents a series of candid interviews with Cohen, using the musician’s artwork, poetry and photographs to reflect upon his colorful past and his creative process. Also featured is live concert and behind-the-scenes footage from the historic “Came So Far For Beauty” Cohen tribute held in Australia in early 2005, with U2, Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Beth Orton, Jarvis Cocker, Antony, Martha Wainwright, Julie Christensen and others.

AmericaÂ’s endless and futile war on drugs has become one and the same with its war on terror. Reluctant undercover cop Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) follows orders to start spying on his friends, Jim Barris, Ernie Luckman, Donna Hawthorne and Charles Freck. When he is directed to step up the surveillance on himself, he is launched on a paranoid journey into the absurd, where identities and loyalties are impossible to decode.

Based on legendary science-fiction author Philip K. DickÂ’s own experiences, “A Scanner Darkly” tells the darkly comedic, caustic, but deeply tragic tale of drug use in the modern world. The film plays like a graphic novel come to life with live-action photography overlaid with an advanced animation process – a method known as interpolated rotoscoping, first employed in writer/director Richard LinklaterÂ’s 2001 film “Waking Life” – to create a haunting version of America, seven years from now.

The man most associated with crossword puzzles is New York Times puzzle editor and NPR puzzle-master Will Shortz. Director/co-writer Patrick Creadon introduces us to this passionate hero, and to the inner workings of his brilliant and often hilarious contributors, revealing the process and allure of this uniquely American pastime. The odyssey leads to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, an annual challenge founded by Shortz which is as much about community and camaraderie as it is about competition. Featuring interviews with celebrity crossword puzzlers such as Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, Jon Stewart, Ken Burns and Mike Mussina.