Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Week of July 31

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Serials

Devil Anse Hatfield (Kevin Costner) and Randall McCoy (Bill Paxton) are Confederate soldiers in the History Channel miniseries Hatfields & McCoys. When Hatfield deserts, giving up the Civil War altogether, McCoy and the brigade he left behind are captured and imprisoned by the Union. After the war, Randall McCoy is released and returns home to see Anse and his family doing fine and cannot forgive the betrayal. This kicks off an epic feud between the families that remains legendary to this day. With Matt Barr and Tom Berenger.

The newest DVD release of the cult sci-fi/comedy show, Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 24 has Joel, Mike, and the bots mocking awful films like Fugitive Alien, Star Force: Fugitive Alien II, The Sword and the Dragon, and Samson vs. The Vampire Women.

Telling the stories of classic Marvel comic book heroes in Japanese anime style, Marvel Anime: Blade tells the story of the half-human/half-vampire Blade (Harold Perrineau) and his hunt for Decon Frost, the vampire who killed his mother and made Blade what he is. Similarly, Marvel Anime: Wolverine animates the popular storyline of Wolverine's (Milo Ventimiglia) time in Japan, the woman he loved, and the skills he learned at the hands of martial arts masters. They are both anime series, provided with the original Japanese language tracks as well as English dubs, with optional subtitles.

Ladies

Highschooler Lola (Miley Cyrus) is navigating teen life in the internet age in LOL when her mother (Demi Moore) reads her diary and learns that Lola's life is very different than she thought. Both mother and daughter have comedic misadventures with their friends, ex's, and the men they hope to be with, and find their way to romance is pretty much the same, regardless of any social networking. With Ashley Greene.

Four friends get their own stories in the action/thriller 4.3.2.1. without knowing quite how they affect each other's night. Shannon (Ophelia Lovibond) is an emotional young girl dealing with family troubles when she finds herself being chased by a gang of criminals. Cassandra (Tamsin Egerton) travels to New York to lose her virginity to the man she fell in love with over the internet. Kerrys has her vacation go awry and finds herself and her girlfriend locked in a panic room. Jo (Emma Roberts) gets stuck working a night shift with a demanding boss (Noel Clarke, who also directs) and finds herself in the middle of a robbery. When the girls finally reunite, they find that their stories and their lives are more complete when they're together.

Documentary

The HBO documentary series The Weight of the Nation is a series of detailed episodes and shorts on the obesity problem in America. From the types of food consumed to the constantly rising obesity rates to the epidemic affecting children, the documentary series thoroughly explores America's growing weight problem and the steps that can be taken to combat it.

A fan of the 1970's metal band Pentagram finds and befriends lead singer Bobby Leibling in Don Argott and Demian Fenton's Last Days Here. Living with his parents, 50-something Leibling's life is spent feeding his many drug addictions, surviving paranoia, and maintaining his delusions. The legacy of his band and the tenacity of his fans push Leibling forward, forcing him into rehab, and encouraging him to break the streak of self-sabotage that continually prevented Pentagram from achieving any kind of success.

Killers

Three young professionals (Alice Eve, Josh Peck, and Brian Geraghty) leave their office Christmas party and stop to pick up some cash in ATM, but find themselves trapped in the ATM vestibule with a hooded killer outside. With none of them carrying a cell phone and unable to escape, the mysterious, shadowy figure in a parka waits patiently. They must find a way to escape or fight back if they're to survive while the winter cold makes waiting impossible.

Misfit high school girl Riley is the unlikely target of a movie-themed killer in Detention, but no one believes a murderer would come after someone so unpopular. Her fight for survival sits beside the school's popular slacker (Josh Hutcherson), the 90's-obsessed head cheerleader (Spencer Locke), and the petty principal (Dane Cook) in a pastiche that includes mutant students with fly DNA, an electromagnetic school mascot costume, time travel, aliens, and trips into Cinderhella (the movie series that spawned Riley's would-be killer.)

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Week of July 24

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Weight

Released on DVD and Blu Ray after years of post-production and lawsuits Margaret stars Anna Paquin as Lisa, a 17-year-old girl whose life is dramatically changed by a traffic accident. When she distracts a city bus driver (Mark Ruffalo), he runs a red light, running over a woman who dies in Lisa's arms. Not wanting to destroy the driver's life, Lisa tells the police that the light was green and returns to her normal highschool life: seeing boys (Kieran Culkin) and hanging out with her friends (Olivia Thirby). As time goes on, she begins to question her decision to lie, guilt starts to set in, and though she's profoundly affected by the tragedy, Lisa can only see the world from the perspective of an entitled Manhattan teenager. Margaret's long-awaited release provides the original, un-cut, 3-hour version of the film. With J Smith-Cameron, Matt Damon, and Rosemarie DeWitt.

The Israeli Footnote is the story of a father and son, Eliezer and Uriel Shkolnik, both professors interpreting meanings of passages in the Talmud. While the elder Eliezer is headed for obscurity, only referenced as a footnote in rival researchers' work because of his stubborn adherence to classic research methods, Uriel's work has earned him the Israeli Prize... but the congratulations accidentally go to the wrong Shkolnik. When Uriel learns of the mistake, he keeps it from his father-- taking the prize away would hurt Eliezer-- but the older man's arrogance about his son's (and other modern researchers') work make it hard for Uriel keep the lie alive.

Taken from her Polish home and forced into hard labor on the steppes of 1940s central USSR, Nina struggles for the survival of herself and her infant in Beyond the Steppes. Her journey of hard travel, labor, and escape, time among Soviet soldiers and Kazakh nomads, and fierce determination draw the character study of a woman forced to survive in the unkindest of circumstances.

Based on the critically acclaimed 1950s stage play, The Deep Blue Sea stars Rachel Weisz as Hester, the wife of an older man (Simon Russell Beale) on the day of her failed suicide attempt. Told through a series of flashbacks, the film tells the story of Hester's affectionate but placid marriage and the exciting affair with the handsome pilot (Tom Hiddleston). Putting her tragic day into perspective, the preceding events tell the story of Hester's choices between passion and comfort and the lasting impact on her life. With Harry Hadden-Paton. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Frightening Men

Silent House
Now & Then
Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen) travels to clean out her family's vacation home in Chris Kentis & Laura Lau's Silent House, where the windows are boarded up and the electricity is out. Working with her father (Adam Trese) and uncle (Eric Sheffer Stevens) to get the house ready for sale, Sarah soon finds herself alone in the dark with nothing but a small lantern. Trapped and hearing people in the house with her, Sarah must find a way out before whoever is hiding in the darkness finds her. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Jacob (Zak Kilberg) works as a night watchman in Midnight Son, an awkward twentysomething artist with a sensitivity for bright light and a developing jaundice than can only be treated with fresh blood. When he strikes a connection with Mary, Jacob doesn't explain how or why he's sick... but as he starts to need more and more blood to keep himself looking and feeling normal, the consequences of his need begin to threaten everyone around him. With Larry Cedar.

Fleeing from the violent ex-husband that tried to drown their 8-year-old son, Anna (Noomi Rapace) finds a new, secluded life in the Norwegian The Monitor. Paranoid about her boy's welfare, she buys a baby monitor to hear if anything happens in his room, but she hears screams of abuse as soon as the device is plugged in. Another nearby apartment must have a similar monitor that interferes with Anna's, but the already-terrified single mother may be too shattered by her own troubles to investigate her neighbors.

John (Luke Wilson) gets a ride from a smiling stranger named Richie (Samuel L. Jackson) in Meeting Evil, but he doesn't know that losing his job is far from the worst thing that will happen to him today. Richie is a forceful personality who despises passivity and weakness-- traits John embodies fully-- but by the time he starts killing random people, it's too late: John and his one-time affair (Peyton List) are trapped on a joyride with a madman determined to teach them that it's better to be a lion than a lamb. With Leslie Bibb.

Documentaries

85-year-old Jiro Ono is the subject of the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a legendary sushi chef who endlessly strives for absolute perfection in his work. As a young boy, he ran away from home to apprentice at a restaurant and Jiro has been obsessed ever since. Only happy while making sushi, he works seven days a week, all day long, and the film details the drive of a man whose whole life is sushi. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

A rough history of the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Never Stand Still: Dancing at Jacob's Pillow seeks to reveal America's lack of appreciation for dance as an art form. Interviewing dancers and choreographers, the film captures live performances of modern dance and makes its case for the festival and the form.

To the subjects of Fixation, fixed-wheel bicycles provide the "purest" form of cycling, which they treat with an almost holy reverence The film explores the resurgence of bikes with no free wheel and limited ways to stop or slow down, and the culture of riders that have risen up around them.



Timecrimes director Nacho Vigalondo's Extraterrestrial finds Julio, a mild mannered student, waking up after a drunken one-night stand with a girl named Julia. Upon awakening, they find that Madrid has been evacuated and a giant UFO is hovering above the city. Their cell phones don't work and they have no internet, and while Julia intended to kick Julio out before her boyfriend got home, the empty city changes her mind-- together, they have to figure out the next steps in the city where they've been abandoned. That doesn't mean that Julia's boyfriend isn't coming back, though, making the flying saucer only one of their concerns.

A little steam engine (Alyson Stoner) dreams of being a Dream Hauler in the animated adaptation of the classic children's story The Little Engine That Could. The Dream Haulers carry dreams from Dreamland into the real world, overseen by the tower (Whoopi Goldberg), but when no other engines can get the job done, the littlest engine thinks it can...


New this week in our TV New Releases:
Boss
Season 1
Diagnosed with a degenerative disease, the mayor of Chicago has to run the city and maintain his family without revealing his secret. Children's Hospital
Season 3
The staff of Children's Hospital continues to mine the overblown world of medical soap operas for comedy.
Treasure Island
Now & Then
Treasure Island
Miniseries
The British miniseries tells the classic adventure story of a young man (Toby Regbo) who finds himself serving on a ship along side the mutinous Long John Silver (Eddie Izzard), sailing for treasure on Caribbean seas.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Week of July 17

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Romantic Endeavors

Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt) and Jason (Adam Scott) have been best friends for years in Friends with Kids. They're both single, have no serious relationship prospects, and all of their friends have children... so they decide to platonically have a baby together. Inspired by their friends Alex and Leslie (Maya Rudolph and Chris O'Dowd), whose life has been turned upside-down by toddlers, and Missy and Ben (Kristen Wiig and Jon Hamm) whose once-insatiable sex life turned to coldness and sniping after they had kids, their plan is: if they have a baby outside of a great romance, the child won't cause any relationship damage. They're doing well together, with Jason meeting a dancer (Megan Fox) and Julie dating a stable, handsome professional (Edward Burns), but having a baby together complicates their lives in ways they couldn't predict. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

When Harriet (Emily Blunt), a consultant for a wealthy Yemeni sheikh (Amr Waked), contacts fisheries expert Fred (Ewan McGregor) about populating rivers in Yemen with salmon, he laughs Harriet out of his office in Lasse Hallstrom's Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Unfortunately for Fred, the Prime Minister's press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas) needs a positive British/Middle East story and he finds himself in the middle of a near-impossible task. Working in Yemen distances Fred from the troubled relationship with his wife (Rachael Stirling) and Harriet is separated from her deployed soldier boyfriend (Tom Mison), so all they have is each other. As they start to do what everyone said couldn't be done, they begin to question what is and isn't possible. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

South of the Border

Armando Alvarez (Will Ferrell) is not too bright, but he's earnest, and devoted to his father (Pedro Armendariz Jr) and the family ranch in the Spanish-language Casa de mi Padre. Though the ranch is in financial trouble, Armando's wealthy businessman brother Raul (Diego Luna) comes home to help... but in reality, Raul is a drug dealer, and his return brings the fearsome drug lord Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal) to their doorstep. Set against the campy high drama of the telenovella style, Armando has to rise up and defend his homestead, usually in front of painted backdrops, bad lighting, and terrible special effects, and he's just the kind of underdog hero that could save the day and get the girl (Genesis Rodriguez). On DVD and Blu-Ray.

A veteran thief pursued by the cops, Mel Gibson's getaway car crashes through the border and lands him in the custody of the Mexican authorities in Get the Gringo. Incarcerated in an open-air prison, a kind of walled city, the nameless Gringo has to maneuver to survive, playing alpha-criminal Javi (Dabuek Gimenez Cacho) and his enforcer brother (Jesus Ochoa) against crooked American Frank (Peter Stormare). If he can manage his A Fistful of Dollar schemes, survive the guns and grenades, he might be able to secure his freedom; if he's just a little quicker, he might be able to save his friends on the inside as well. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

PG Comedy

Resurrecting the slapstick trio for a new film outing, The Farrelly Brothers's The Three Stooges drops three infants at the doorstep of an orphanage and has them grow up to become Larry, Moe, and Curly (Sean Hayes, Chris Diamantopoulos, and Will Sasso). Being the Three Stooges makes them unadoptable, and they're still living at the orphanage as grown men when they find out the orphanage will be shut down due to money troubles. The boys head out into the world to raise money, but they've only ever known children and nuns, so they're not prepared for a femme fatale (Sofia Vergara) here scheming boyfriend (Craig Bierko). Luckily, Larry, Moe, and Curly cause enough random destruction to drive away anyone that could hurt them, but they're still not very good at raising money. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Action in Space

In 2079, the president's daughter (Maggie Grace) is reporting on an orbiting prison when the inmates get loose in Lockout. The secret service director (Peter Stormare) has no choice but to send in Snow (Guy Pearce), already on his way to prison for killing another agent, to save the day. Snow is a wise-cracking, unflappable, unkillable operative... but this mission might be too much, even for him. Every murderous, insane, and uncontrollable inmate of the floating prison has been set free, and they're led by a ruthless killer (Vincent Regan) and his loony brother (Joseph Gilgun). Worse, with the prison's crew killed in the riots, the orbiting prison will crash into the Earth in a matter of hours, giving Snow very little time to rescue the first daughter, Snake Plissken-style, and get out before the whole prison comes crashing down. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Darkness

The story of two children who see a faceless tormentor, Intruders juxtaposes 12-year-old Mia and her father John (Clive Owen) in Britain and 8-year-old Juan and his mother Susanna (Carice van Houten) in Spain. As the children are traumatized by the faceless specter called Hollowface, their parents are drawn in, not sure if they can believe the ghost stories until they see the hooded figure themselves. As they investigate further, the truth of Hollowface comes to the surface, and the tragic relationship between Juan and Mia becomes clear. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

On the final day of human life on planet earth, Cisco (Willem Dafoe) and Skye (Shanyn Leigh) spend time in their artist loft in 4:44: Last Day on Earth. With nothing to do and no way out, humanity ticks on like normal... the couple see the occasional jumper, and watch the news go off the air, but Cisco, Sky, and the everyone else embrace the final day, and wait for the end of the world.

Toru (Ken'ichi Matsuyama) is struggling to deal with his best friend's suicide in 1960s Japan in Tran Anh Hung's Norwegian Wood. His troubles are put into perspective by Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi), his friend's widowed girlfriend, a free spirit who sees life very differently from Toru. When she vanishes from his life, Toru discovers the layers of grief and understanding run deeper than he ever imagined.

Set over the course of one night as day breaks into morning, the Turkish Once upon a Time in Anatolia follows a convoy of official vehicles across arid hills. The convoy is transporting murder suspects about to plead guilty, but as they guide their captors to find victims, their destination gets muddled. As the suspects and the police work their way through the night, their greater motives, personalities, and fates begin to emerge.


New this week in our TV New Releases:
Inspector Lewis
Series 2
Promoted from Inspector Morse's sergeant, Detective Inspector Lewis investigates crimes in Oxford, England. Eureka
Season 5
The final season of Eureka concludes the story of the super-science town of Eureka, and the eccentric geniuses that live there.
Alphas
Season 1
Five agents with X-Men-like abilities make up the government group called the Alphas, working on cases involving super-human adversaries. Sanctuary
Season 4
The final season of Sanctuary closes the book on Helen Magnus, the Sanctuary, and the balance between supernatural and normal beings.
The Inbetweeners
Complete
A group of British outcasts tend to fail miserably at their high school attempts at drinking, sex, and other attempts to mix with the cool kids. Gundam Wing
Complete
The pilots of the mecha Gundam units struggle for peace as intergalactic strife threatens to tear the Earth Space Alliance apart.
The Brady Bunch
Season 1
Here's the story of a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls. All of them had hair of gold like their mother, the youngest one in curls...    

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Week of July 10th

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Artists, Fakes, and Old Friends

Aimless twentysomething Nick Flynn (Paul Dano) is between menial jobs when he meets a girl (Olivia Thirlby) who encourages him to join her working at a homeless shelter in Being Flynn. One of the men in the shelter turns out to be Jonathan Flynn (Robert De Niro), the man who abandoned Nick and his mother (Julianne Moore) eighteen years ago. The elder Flynn represents himself as a genius writer and poet... but in person, Jonathan is belligerent, racist, and a bit delusional, drinking to oblivion and living at the shelter. As Nick struggles with being a writer like his father, he discovers he may have more than just a talent in common with the man he resents. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

The American Pie gets back together for the Class of 1999 reunion in American Reunion, reuniting Jim (Jason Biggs), who married Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), Oz (Chris Klein) and his supermodel girlfriend (Katrina Bowden), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nichols), and Paul (Eddie Kaye Thomas). Getting the gang back together and returning to East Great Falls, they bump into Stiffler (Sean William Scott), who decides to join them for the weekend... and adding Stiffler to the mix ensures that their reunion is destined for craziness and debauchery. With Eugene Levy. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Mortician John Miller (Christian Bale) arrives in WWII-era China after the Japanese bombing of Nanjing in Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War. He's there to bury the head of a Catholic girl's convent, but when he arrives in the war zone, he finds the convent has become a sanctuary for not just the girls, but refugees from the nearby red light district. While the Japanese colonel promises to honor the safety of the convent, Miller fears for the girls safety, and has to come up with a scheme to prevent the invaders from taking them as spoils of war. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

15-year-old Josh (Josh Hutcherson) is homeless and living by his wits in The Forger, but when he lands in the art community of Carmel, California, he finds his luck may have changed. Josh is a talented artist, and is brought into the care of Everly (Alfred Molina), a high-profile artist with a secret: he sells forgeries of coveted paintings. Everly uses Josh's talent to fill his clients' demands, but a local art legend (Lauren Bacall) would rather see the young artist flourish without compromise, cons, or criminal activity... but she has secrets of her own. With Hayden Panettiere.


New this week in our TV New Releases:
Warehouse 13
Season 3
The agents assigned to protect the government's supernatural artifacts in Warehouse 13 continue to investigate the strange occurrences that come with the reality-defying items.
Adventure Time
Season 1
Come on, grab your friends, we'll go to very distant lands. Jake the Dog and Finn the Human-- the fun will never end.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Week of July 3

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World War II

Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), a dimestore novelist, arrives in post WWII Vienna looking for a job in Carol Reed's film noir classic The Third Man, available for the first time on Blu Ray this week. He's there because his old friend Harry Lime has an opportunity for him, but he's just in time for Harry's funeral. Drawn into the mystery of Harry's death, Holly finds the two men that carried Harry's body away after his fatal accident... and then he discovers there was a third man on the scene. Aided by Harry's ex (Alida Valli), he begins to suspect foul play, but the police (Bernard Lee and Trevor Howard) aren't interested: Harry was a scoundrel, involved in unscrupulous and possibly illegal activities. Though the DVD of The Third Man has been at Reckless for years, the Blu Ray has just been released. The Newly released older movies are always listed in our New to Reckless section every week, even if they're not often represented on our New Release page.

Based on the story of the First Special Service Force, Battle Force recruits a group of misfits and wild men to go behind enemy lines and fight in ways the regular army can't. When Captain Lewis (Dennis LaValle) and his men are captured on an intelligence mission, Lt. Wright and his band of soldiers have to infiltrate occupied Sicily before the captured men crack under Nazi interrogation. With the Allied invasion just days away, they have to save the Captain before the liberation of Sicily can be compromised.

Black Comedy

Frank (Joel Murray) can't sleep, he's been fired from his job, and his doctor diagnosed him with an inoperable tumor. He's about to kill himself when he gets a better idea in Bobcat Goldthwait's God Bless America: kill the people who deserve to die. After he assassinates a reality TV brat, Frank is joined by an enthusiastic 16-year-old girl who joins him in his crusade to rid America of people who talk in movie theaters, picket gay funerals, fill television with hate-speech, double park... the mean, the rude, and the inconsiderate. With no patience left and nothing to lose, they go on a cross-country murder spree for the sake of kindness and decency. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

JFK High is a rough school, fresh from a student stabbing, being sued for graduating an illiterate student in Arthur Hiller's Teachers. Jaded social studies teacher Alex (Nick Nolte) and his assistant principal friend Roger (Judd Hirsch) don't have much passion for their work and just shuffle students through the system, but the lawyer (JoBeth Williams) is a former JFK student from a time when Alex was an involved, inspiring teacher. Under her influence, Alex starts caring again, mentoring another troubled student (Ralph Macchio), making the school board concerned that he might disregard the school's council (Morgan Freeman) and do something reckless... like tell the truth.

Fathers

A bio-tech company sends Martin (Willem Dafoe) to Australia to track the elusive Tasmanian Tiger in The Hunter. After Jarrah Armstrong, the last person trying to capture a Tasmanian Tiger, goes missing, freelance mercenary Martin is flown in to finish the job. The farmhouse owned by Jarrah's widow Lucy (Frances O'Connor) is the only place that will put him up, and solitary Martin begins to bond with Lucy and Jarrah's two kids. Becoming the man of the house could make history repeat itself, and the hunter is drawn into the mystery of environmentalism, biological research, and disappearances. With Sam Neill. On DVD and Blu-Ray.

Just released from a mental institution, sensitive artist Ken (Kevin Corrigan) keeps his head down, living with the mother (Karen Black) who demeans him, and working a bottom-rung ice cream store job with his only friend (Leo Fitzpatrick) in Some Guy Who Kills People. When he's suddenly stuck with Amy (Ariel Gade), the 11-year-old girl who just discovered Ken is her father, she forces Ken to stop seeing himself as a loser, stand up for himself, and even start seeing Lucy Davis. Though things are getting better with Amy in his life, the people who tormented him and caused his breakdown are being brutally murdered... and the sheriff (Barry Bostwick) investigating the killings is dating Ken's mom.

Rebellious, intelligent, and independent, Patricia (Toni Collette) opts for artificial insemination and has a super-intelligent toddler in Jesus Henry Christ. At the age of 10, Henry (Jason Spevack) is an obvious genius, and though his anti-elitist mother tries to keep him grounded, James is a magnet for wacky hi jinks. Henry's newest adventure is a quest to find his biological father (Michael Sheen), even though Patricia wants nothing to do with him.

Largo Winch is reluctantly brought into the mainstream when his billionaire father is killed in The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch, though he'd rather be living by his wits in the barrios of the third world, saving damsels and fighting fights. Ann Ferguson (Kristin Scott Thomas), the acting head of The Winch Group, locates Largo and brings him to Hong Kong, where he's dropped into a turf war as bad as any he's seen: a corporate one. As his father's company is about to be taken over by a European gun runner (Karel Roden), he's caught between a beautiful fixer (Melanie Thierry) with allegiance to the highest bidder, a hostile board of directors, and W Group's imposing head of security (Steven Waddington). Traveling across the globe while out-running, out-thinking, and out-fighting his enemies, Largo struggles to maintain the family name he's run from all his life.

From France

Gentle giant Germain (Gerard Depardieu) and small, elderly Margueritte (Gisele Casadesus) both know the 14 pigeons that frequent their park in My Afternoons with Margueritte, and they strike up a sweet, gentle friendship. Their afternoons are an oasis away from the troubles in their daily lives, and Margueritte offers Germain the kindness and support his emotionally abusive mother (Claire Maurier) never did, helping to repair his crippling insecurities. With Sophie Guillemin.

Moving into the suburbs with her family, 10-year-old Laure introduces herself to a girl in the neighborhood as "Mikael" in Tomboy. Mikael spends the summer playing boys' games and getting into fights, even though the ruse can't hold... through out the summer, Laure/Mikael's identity is shaped, even if it won't be accepted or understood.