How much would you sacrifice for your brother? Offer him a place to stay if he got kicked out of his house? Lend him some money if he was out of work? How about taking a law degree if you knew he’d got himself into some legal trouble? This incredible true story of sibling love sees Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell deliver heart breaking performances in a brilliantly engaging film.
What would you do if you woke up in a cell during violent riots on your first day as a prison official? This is the terrifying premise behind Daniel Monzón’s prison drama, Cell 211. With fine perfomances from Alberto Ammann as the quick thinking official, and Luis Tosar as the menacing ‘Malamadre’, or ‘Badass’, little wonder that the Spanish thriller picked up eight Goya awards.
A brand spanking new South London film from the fresh faced Sam Holland, Zebra Crossing is far from pedestrian.
Dog Pound details the lives of Davis, Angel and Butch as they try unsuccessfully to stay out of trouble in a Montana detention facility. Director Kim Shapiron addresses gang violence, corrupt prison guards and rape in this brutal drama, which contains haunting moments in spite of the ubiquitous nature of the genre.
Director Kim Sung-Hong treads an oft-travelled path with this vicious tale “inspired” by true events. That claim could well be disputed but Missing does boast a genuinely creepy central performance by Moon Sung-Keun as a farmer with an eye for the ladies and an original idea on what constitutes quality chicken feed. No wonder their eggs taste so good!
Johannes Roberts’ F is definitely heading the right way for an ASBO. A teacher who’s lost his bottle after a particularly nasty run in with a classroom thug finds himself on the wrong end of some corporal punishment from some hooded slashers. Desperately searching the deserted school for his daughter, Mr. Anderson (not that Mr. Anderson) embarks upon some extra curricular activities that will leave your skin crawling.
For his first film since Master and Commander, Peter Weir has taken on the challenge of a road movie unlike any other – the protagonists travel 4,000 miles on foot and offroad, with not nearly enough food and far too many creaking Russian accents. There are dozens of things waiting to go wrong with just such a film, but most of them don’t.
In the wake of critical and commercial successes such as The Queen and The Young Victoria, director Tom Hooper has taken on one of the most obscure dramas in recent British royal history – the titanic struggle which King George VI faced whenever he was called upon to speak in public. In doing so, he has categorically made the best film of both his own and Colin Firth’s career. The King’s Speech is perfect.
Excellent performances from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams carry Derek Cianfrance’s romantic drama Blue Valentine; an intense and saddening portrayal of a couple’s courtship told in conjunction with scenes of their marriage’s potential breakdown. If only some time had been spared to show us what happened in between…
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