Directed by Ric Roman Waugh and written by Chris Sparling, Greenland follows a family that struggles for survival in the face of a cataclysmic natural disaster. The movie stars Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, and Scott Glenn. It is now streaming on Amazon.
Waugh’s credits include stunt work on such movies as True Romance, Days of Thunder, and Gone in Sixty Seconds. His other credits include screenplays for Snitch, Felon, and Angel Has Fallen, which starred Gerard Butler.
Based on the acclaimed Jerzy Kosiński novel, The Painted Bird is a fastidious 35mm black and white summoning of wild, primitive Eastern Europe at the bloody close of World War II.
The film follows the boy’s journey, entrusted by his persecuted parents to an elderly foster mother. The older woman soon dies, and the boy is on his own, wandering through the countryside, from village to village, farmhouse to farmhouse. As he struggles for survival, he suffers through extraordinary brutality meted out by the ignorant, superstitious peasants. He witnesses the terrifying violence of the efficient, ruthless soldiers, both Russian and German.
In a defining scene, one of the peasants shows him the flight of a captive bird, whom the man has painted and then released back into its flock. Immediately, the bird gets attached and ripped apart because it is different from its fellows. That lesson reinforces all he already knows and will soon know better: the difference is fatal.
But there are rare moments of compassion: a German soldier spares him, a priest intervenes on his behalf, and finally, he becomes the protégé of a Russian sniper, who is kind to the child, but ruthless with the enemy. And there are signs of love. He is seduced by an older girl, finally rediscovering the comfort of intimacy, only to realize that he has been used. When he is miraculously reunited with his weakened father at the end of the war, the boy is cold and impenetrable, hardened by his ordeal. Yet we can still glimpse something of the old, sensitive boy behind the eyes of the new. Perhaps there is hope.
The cast includes Petr Kotlár, Udo Kier, Lech Dyblik, Jitka Čvančarová, Stellan Skarsgård, Harvey Keitel, Julian Sands, Aleksey Kravchenko, and Barry Pepper.
Written, directed and co-produced by Natalie Krinsky, The Broken Hearts Gallery follows Lucy, played by Geraldine Viswanathan, who, for every relationship she had, saves a souvenir from that relationship.
The story follows the always unique Lucy, a 20-something art gallery assistant living in New York City who is also an emotional hoarder.
After being dumped by her latest boyfriend, Lucy becomes inspired to create The Broken Heart Gallery, a pop-up space for the items love has left behind.
The idea of a broken heart gallery spreads to other romantic people. They become a part of the movement, making a fresh start, including Lucy, by leaving a trinket of a former relationship.
You will notice Nick, played by Dacre Montgomery, who is cute and a possible love interest for Lucy as they partner up and create the art gallery.
Krinsky wrote for TV episodic shows like Gossip Girl and Grey’s Anatomy. The Broken Hearts Gallery appears to be her first feature.
The rest of the cast in this romantic comedy includes Utkarsh Ambudkar, Molly Gordon, Phillipa Soo, Suki Waterhouse, Arturo Castro, Ego Nwodim, Taylor Hill and Bernadette Peters.
You can also catch Viswanathan in Ethan Cohen’s Drive-Away Dolls, a comedy caper also starring Margaret Qualleyan.
Directed by Patrick Vollrath, 7500 starts as a routine day at work for Tobias, a soft-spoken young American co-pilot on a flight from Berlin to Paris. He runs through the preflight checklist with Michael, the pilot, and chats with Gökce, his flight-attendant girlfriend.
But shortly after takeoff, terrorists armed with makeshift knives suddenly storm the cockpit, seriously wounding Michael and slashing Tobias’ arm. Temporarily managing to fend off the attackers, a terrified Tobias contacts ground control to plan an emergency landing.
But when the hijackers kill a passenger and threaten to murder more innocent people if he doesn’t let them back into the cockpit, this ordinary man faces an excruciating test.
The movie is available on Amazon and will not be in movie theaters.
Here is an intense clip, giving you and idea of how the movie plays out.
Directed by filmmaker Dawn Porter, John Lewis: Good Trouble chronicles the life and career of the legendary civil rights activist and Democratic Representative from Georgia.
Using interviews and rare archival footage, Porter chronicles John Robert Lewis’s 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, healthcare reform, and immigration.
Using present-day interviews with Lewis, now 80 years old, Porter explores his childhood experiences, inspiring family and his fateful meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957. In addition to her interviews with Lewis and his family, Porter’s film includes interviews with political leaders, Congressional colleagues, and others who figure prominently in his life.
Directed by Dean Parisot, the franchise returns with writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon—Bill and Ted Face the Music. The film will continue to track the time-traveling exploits of William “Bill” S. Preston Esq. and Theodore “Ted” Logan. Yet to fulfill their rock and roll destiny, the now middle-aged best friends set out on a new adventure when a visitor from the future warns them that only their song can save life as we know it.
They will also include their daughters, who help them along the way. A new batch of historical figures join the fantasy, and a few music legends seek the song that will set their world right and bring harmony to the universe.
Dean Parisot also directed Galaxy Quest, and as mentioned earlier, the second installment script is by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon.
These two guys seem like they are having too much fun time traveling.
The featurette moves quickly through clips of the original movie and the sequel. There are interviews with the director and producers who explain what happens when Bill and Ted are older with daughters a lot like them.
This featurette is fun to watch and talks about the large cast.
Written and directed by David Koepp is a new psychological thriller called You Should Have Left. Koepp is a legendary screenwriter of popular moneymakers: Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, and Panic Room. The thriller stars Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried as a couple seeking a restful vacation. They pick an isolated location on the edge of the world, only to discover that secrets demand a reckoning and travel with you.
It is a terrifying, mind-twisting tale about a father who fights desperately to save his family from a beautiful home that refuses to let them leave. The story suggests Stephen King’s The Shining, where a family settles in at a private resort, isolated and with tons of history and ghosts.
Theo Conroy, played by Bacon, is a successful middle-aged man whose marriage to his much younger actress wife, Susanna, played by Seyfried, is shredding at the seams, frayed by her secretiveness, his jealousy and the shadow of his past.
To repair their relationship, Theo and Susanna book a vacation at a stunning, remote modern home in the Welsh countryside for themselves and their six-year-old daughter, Ella, played by Avery Essex. What initially seems like a perfect retreat distorts into a complete nightmare when Theo’s grasp on reality unravels. He suspects that a sinister force within the house knows more than he or Susanna has revealed, even to each other.
The featurette tells us more about the movie and the sense that Bacon’s character is not to be trusted.