RSS

Category Archives: Drama

The Hunger Games (2012)

30 Aug

142m; U.S.

Director: Gary Ross

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland

Synopsis: In a dystopic future North America called Panem, the wealthy elite who live in the central city (known as the Capitol) exploit the impoverished workers of the rest of the country who are divided into twelve districts.  The Capitol employs a range of social controls, including the Hunger Games, an annual event where two children from each district are thrown into an arena and fight until only one is left alive.

Into these games is thrust Katniss Everdeen, the daughter of a coal miner, who must use her wits and skills to survive while trying to maintain her humanity, even as her examples of resistance and solidarity begin to inspire some of the districts towards rebellion.

Trailer

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 30, 2012 in Children, Cities-Urban, Class, Crime-Action, Drama, Politics, SciFi, Women, Working Class

 

Tags:

Neighboring Sounds (2012)

27 Aug

KLEBER MENDONÇA FILHO 
Brazil, 2012, 124 minutes, 35mm, Color, film’s website

Cast: Irandhir Santos (Clodoaldo), Gustavo Jahn (João), Meve Jinkings (Bia), W. J. Solha (Francisco), Irma Brown (Sofia), Lula Terra (Anco), Yuri Holanda (Dinho) and Clébia Souza (Luciene).

The setting is the city of Recife, Brazil, on a seaside street, much of it owned by Francisco (W.J. Solha), an old-school paterfamilias. Director Kleber Mendonca Filho divides the film into three chapters, effortlessly weaving together his characters while slipping in small details that cumulatively speak of class, race, and the nation’s uneasy past. Beatriz (Maeve Jinkings) is almost always seen in her apartment, an airy setup with all the appurtenances of the middle class. She has certain needs, of course. Just arrived on the street is a private security team, which convinces residents that its services are needed. Viewers know the protection required is from inner demons, not outer ones. That Filho can juggle so many important issues without being heavy-handed or dropping a single one speaks volumes about his strengths. Neighboring Sounds captures the very fabric of Brazilian society, whose seemingly porous hierarchies prove to be prohibitively rigid. —Variety

Trailer

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 27, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Class, Drama

 

American Karoshi

13 Jul

14m; U.S.

Director: Alex Willemin

Cast: John Iovino, Cyril Serrao and Drew Daly

Synopsis (IMDB): After being fired from his job, Lee is given a second chance by his boss and CEO of the company, Scott Anderson III. Unfortunately, instead of filling out forms, Lee must save Scott’s life.

Trailer

Available here: http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi1264557337/

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on July 13, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, White Collar

 

The Front (1976)

13 Jun

95m; U.S.

Director: Martin Ritt

Cast: Woody Allen, Zero Mostel and Herschel Bernardi

Synopsis (IMDB): In the early 1950s Howard Prince, who works in a restaurant, helps out a black-listed writer friend by selling a TV station a script under his own name. The money is useful in paying off gambling debts, so he takes on three more such clients. Howard is politically pretty innocent, but involvement with Florence – who quits TV in disgust over things – and friendship with the show’s ex-star – now himself blacklisted – make him start to think about what is really going on.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Comedy, Communism/Socialism, Drama, Entertainment Industry

 

Tags:

The Gatekeeper (2002)

13 Jun

103m; U.S.

Director: John Carlos Frey

Cast: John Carlos Frey, Michelle Agnew and Anne Betancourt

Synopsis (IMDB): Adam Fields is a rage-filled U.S. Border Patrol Agent who often crosses the line in his job. A member of a vigilante group, Fields decides to go undercover with a hidden camera and cross with a group of undocumented immigrants. His plan goes awry, however, when the group is forced to work for a drug ring. Suddenly, Fields realizes that he has more in common with the migrants and their search for home, family and freedom than he thought.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Immigrants/Immigration, Legal System, Migrant workers

 

Tags: ,

The Girl from Monday (2005)

13 Jun

84m; U.S.

Director: Hal Hartley

Cast: Bill Sage, Sabrina Lloyd and Tatiana Abracos

Synopsis (IMDB): In the not-distant-future, the market has taken over everything, thanks to the marketers. The consumer is king, and those who see value outside of the marketplace are “enemies of the consumer”, terrorists, and “partisan” enemies that the state must dispose of. Protagonist Jack seems to be at one with the media corporations (after all, his marketing ideas led to the institutionalization of the exchange of sex for enhanced buying power), but is he somehow involved with the feeble and pathetic resistance movement? Does he love Cecile, his colleague, or is she a pawn in his game? And what of the mysterious girl from Monday? Are immigrants from the star system “Monday” really assisting the partisans?

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Crime-Action, Drama, Finance, Immigrants/Immigration, SciFi, Technology

 

The Help (2011)

13 Jun

146m; U.S.

Director: Tate Taylor

Cast: Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer

Synopsis (IMDB): Set in Mississippi during the 1960s, Skeeter (Stone) is a southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends’ lives — and a Mississippi town — upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families. Aibileen (Davis), Skeeter’s best friend’s housekeeper, is the first to open up — to the dismay of her friends in the tight-knit black community. Despite Skeeter’s life-long friendships hanging in the balance, she and Aibileen continue their collaboration and soon more women come forward to tell their stories — and as it turns out, they have a lot to say. Along the way, unlikely friendships are forged and a new sisterhood emerges, but not before everyone in town has a thing or two to say themselves when they become unwittingly — and unwillingly — caught up in the changing times.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Blacks, Drama, Service Workers

 

The Herd (SURU) [1978]

13 Jun

118m; Turkey

Director: Yilmaz Guney

Cast: Tarik Akan, Melike Demirag and Erol Demiröz

Synopsis (IMDB): Because of a local blood feud, a peasant family decides to sell its sheep – a most precious commodity – in far away Ankara. During their long train ride, bribes must be paid to petty officials, sheep are stolen or die in the packed, airless wagons, and the sick wife of one of the family’s sons becomes deathly ill.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Cities-Urban, Drama, Farm & Food

 

The Informant (2009)

13 Jun

108m; U.S.

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Matt Damon, Tony Hale and Patton Oswalt

Synopsis: “The Informant” is a true story that parallels a mixture of “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Insider” — where real life Ph.D.s had done something extraordinary. Based on Kurt Eichenwald’s 2000 book, “The Informant” is the tale of Mark Whitacre (played by Matt Damon), an Ivy League Ph.D. who was a rising star at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the early 1990s. The bipolar hero wound up blowing the whistle on the company’s price fixing tactics and became the highest-ranked executive to ever turn whistleblower in US history. Whitacre secretly gathered hundreds of hours of video and audio tapes over several years to present to the FBI which became one of the largest price fixing cases in history. In the story — a dark comedy / thriller in director Steven Soderbergh’s hands — Whitacre’s good deed dovetails with his own major infractions and struggle with severe bipolar disorder.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, Whistleblowers, White Collar

 

The Inheritors (1998)

13 Jun

95m; Germany

Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky

Contact: Simon Schwarz, Sophie Rois and Lars Rudolph

Synopsis (IMDB): Austria, a little farming valley. Beginning of the century. When one of the farmers is found murdered one day, his labourers know of nothing, but are relieved, as the tyranny has ended. Then, something new happens for the first time in history: The farm workers inherit the whole farm together, as the farmer himself was childless. Now, conflicts come up, as nobody is the boss and nobody has to obey

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Farm & Food, Working Class

 
← Older posts
Newer posts →