The Red Bike 2011
12min | Short , Drama , Family | 10 September 2011 (UK)
Storyline:
One boy, one bike, one day.
Director: Andrew Steggall
Writers: Andrew Steggall, Cynthia De Souza (development executive)
Stars: Joe Mulcrone, Dido Miles, Guy Blofeld
Country: UK
Language: English
Release Date: 10 September 2011 (UK)
Filming Locations: Bath, Somerset, England, UK
800 Balas 2002
R | 2h 4min | Action , Comedy , Drama | 18 October 2002 (Spain)
Storyline:
Julián Torralba is a former movie stuntman in Almeria, Spain. He and several of his colleagues, who once made a living in American Westerns shot in Spain, now are reduced to doing stunt shows for minuscule audiences on the decaying set built for those old Westerns. Julián wrestles with dark memories of the death of his son, also a stuntman, and with estrangement from his daughter-in-law Laura and her son Carlos. Carlos, a young boy, becomes intrigued with his late father's life and runs away to join Julián and his band of has-beens. There Carlos is initiated into the rambunctious life of these hard-drinking faux cowboys. But when Laura, a powerful executive looking for a new site for a tourist resort, learns that Carlos has joined the hated Julián, she moves to destroy even this remnant of Julián's once-proud career. Julián and the cowboys decide to fight back the only way they know how.
Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated R for sexual content/nudity and some violence
User review:
I liked 800 Balas despite the sentimental pap; I think it proves that Iglesias has the heart and balls to make it big in Hollywood if he wants to. He has this ability to be so entertaining, accessible and deeply felt at the same time.
Growing Up Smith 2015
PG-13 | 1h 42min | Comedy , Drama , Family | 3 February 2017 (USA)
Storyline:
GOOD OL' BOY is the story of Smith, a ten-year-old boy from India growing up in Small Town, America in 1979. While the boy's family straddles the fine line between embracing the American Dream and preserving their Indian heritage, there are barbecues, Halloween and hunting. And as Smith falls for Amy, the girl-next-door, he finds in Amy's father Butch the cowboy he wishes his own father could be. But alas, when Smith's father Bhaaskar sees Smith is quickly losing any hope of remaining a respectable Indian boy, he banishes him back to India. Nineteen years later Smith will return to America, back to a place he once called home.
Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated PG-13 for some language and brief drug use
User review:
Just saw this film and had to say something! THESE are the kinds of films we've been missing all these years. Growing up Smith is the perfect combination of a family-kid friendly film with some teeth to it. Lighthearted with a message, funny, exuberant and most timely in today's America.
Rascal 1969
1h 25min | Drama , Family | 11 June 1969 (USA)
Storyline:
A comedy filled with tenderness as a baby raccoon snuggles his way into the life of a lonely boy. He becomes the boy's only companion during his father's frequent absences. Because of Rascal, both father and son realize their responsibility to each other.
User review:
Comedy-drama from the Disney company about a youngster (Bill Mumy, of TV's "Lost in Space") in the 1900s adopting a baby raccoon who quickly becomes the town menace. Impossibly warm and treacly saga that Walt himself might have been proud of (it seems a direct product of the late 1950s, not 1969!). However, the animals involved are consistently interesting, far more so than the hysterical grown-ups, and Mumy is solid if unspectacular (he wasn't in the same league as, say, Johnny Whitaker, though he's competent). Steve Forrest and Elsa Lanchester are unable to add much sparkle to the proceedings, and Buddy Baker's music score is teeth-grindingly sweet.
Director: Norman Tokar
Writers: Harold Swanton (screenplay), Sterling North (book)
Stars: Steve Forrest, Bill Mumy, Pamela Toll
Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 11 June 1969 (USA)
Also Known As: Ein Frechdachs im Maisbeet
The Apple Tree 2012
30min | Short , Drama , Romance | 15 January 2012 (USA)
Storyline:
When Gabe and Jonathan fall in love in the 1940s, they decide to spend their life together in secret. But when Jonathan unexpectedly passes away years later, Gabe is faced with the fact that many Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender elders face when they move into retirement homes…he must return into the closet.
User review:
This movie is only half an hour long, but it seems like hours, or days. It reminds me of when I had measles for about two weeks as a child (before there was a vaccine), with a persistent, very high fever.
Time stopped, all senses were intensified so much they hurt, colors were hyper-saturated, and everything looked shimmery like it was baking in a desert. Nothing seemed real, and it was horrifying. It was like living in a nightmare that would never end, but the fever was so high I couldn't sleep. That was 60 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.
The Boy Who Cried Werewolf 1973
1h 33min | Horror | 23 November 1973 (Finland)
Storyline:
Richie Bridgestone (whose parents are divorced) goes to spend the weekend with his father at his secluded mountain cabin. During a moonlight hike, they are attacked in the darkness by a creature that he recognizes as a werewolf. During the struggle, the werewolf falls into a ravine and is impaled by a wooden fence, but not before biting his father. Upon investigation, they find their attacker to be human and the sheriff concludes their attacker was an insane drifter. He spends the rest of the film trying to convince his mother, and his therapist that his father is now a werewolf.
User review:
So bad it becomes good again. The acting in this one is horrible,the transformations are horrible,the make up is horrible.Actually everything is horrible.But it still is fun to watch, especially if you enjoy older horror flicks.Watch it when it airs on tv,it's not worth renting or even buying it.I'm not sure whether the producers of this flick were trying to mock werewolf movies or they were trying to make a serious movie.It looks more like a comedy then anything else.
Director: Nathan Juran (as Nathan H. Juran)
Writer: Bob Homel
Stars: Kerwin Mathews, Elaine Devry, Scott Sealey
Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 23 November 1973 (Finland)
Also Known As: A Maldição da Lua Cheia
Filming Locations: Redwood City, California
Belle Salope 2010
9min | Short | 14 November 2010 (France)
"Beautiful Bitch" / Super 16 / 9′ / 2010 / English subtitles
Directed by Phillipe Roger
Written by Morgan Simon
Produced by Ben Deiß and Simon Rey for Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg & La fémis
Broadcasted on Arte
"While with one of his clients, the young male prostitute Cédric receives a voicemail from his mother. She is going through detoxification and desperately wants him to come and visit her. Cédric embarks on a journey through Paris, attempting to get to her as fast as he can against all the odds."
"Lors d'une passe chez un client, Cédric, un jeune prostitué, reçoit un appel de sa mère. Séjournant dans une clinique psychiatrique, elle le prie de venir la chercher. Cédric va se battre contre le temps et contre l'argent pour la rejoindre au plus vite."
Dresden International Short Film Festival
Festival du film gay et lesbien Chéries-Chéris
San Sebastian Film Festival
Barcelona International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/avc1)
File size : 166 MiB
Duration : 8 min 44 s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 650 kb/s
Tree Without Leaves 1986
Rakuyôju (original title)
1h 45min | Drama | 15 November 1986 (Japan)
Storyline:
Haru, an aging scriptwriter, has isolated himself somewhere in the woods of Nagano to work on his first novel. As the last surviving member of his kin, he intends to chronicle the family he grew up in.
User review:
Its a common story: a human damaged by parents. Its common enough in life to resonate with nearly every viewer, which is a plus. But its so common that it needs some novelty with the similarly required depth. I do not know whether this is from Shindo's life or not, but I suspect so from the rich details that can only have been pulled from life as obvious memories.
The story is simple. A boy has a mother who is dedicated to him in every way, emotionally engaged and prepared for extreme sacrifice for the smallest pleasure for him. On the other side is a father so stern he makes Bergman's Scandinavian Lutherans seem mild. The mother dies when the boy is 11; all the siblings have fled and the boy at the end is stuck with his father, penniless. The thing is framed as the book the boy writes, now old and missing key parts of his soul. Lots of snow. Lots of lonely stares that contrast with the wide eyes of the boy, selfish and demanding.
Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song 1971
1h 37min | Crime , Drama , Thriller | 22 March 1973 (Netherlands)
Storyline:
Melvin Van Peebles wrote, directed, produced, edited, composed and starred in this powerful and inflammatory attack on White America. After the body of a black man is discovered, Sweetback helps two white 'acquaintances' in the police force to look good by agreeing to go with them to the station as a suspect. But he is forced to go on the run after brutally attacking the two policemen when they arrest and beat up a young black man.
User review:
Considered the first blaxploitation film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song features Melvin Van Peebles (who also directed, wrote, produced, edited and did music for the film) as Sweetback, a Los Angeles-area "male prostitute"/"sex performer" (who only has relations with females). He agrees to be taken in to a police station as a suspect just to make a couple cops look good (because they are tolerant towards the cathouse he lives in). On the way, they pick up a Black Panther and start beating him senseless. Sweetback bludgeons and stabs the two cops with his handcuffs (one end is open) and the bulk of the film has him on the run. Can he make it to Mexico before he's caught?
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song has a lot of historical significance. It is an early independent film in what's considered the current "modern" style, it is one of the earliest mostly black films of its era (there were all black films earlier, such as Oscar Micheaux's work, but they disappeared for awhile), it was controversial (it initially earned an X rating (later changed to an R) and touted that fact proudly as a tagline), it was made for $150 thousand but grossed $15 million, and most importantly perhaps for some film lovers, it is credited with starting the blaxploitation craze in the 1970s. It is worth watching for students of film on those merits alone.
Sleepaway Camp 1983
1h 24min | Horror | 18 November 1983 (USA)
Storyline:
After a horrible boating accident kills her family, Angela, a shy and sullen young girl, moves in with her eccentric aunt Martha, alongside her protective cousin Ricky. One summer, Martha sends the kids to Camp Arawak. Soon after their arrival, a series of bizarre and increasingly violent accidents begins to claim the lives of various campers. Who is the twisted individual behind these murders? The disclosure of the murderer's identity is one of the most shocking climaxes in the history of American cinema.
User review:
Slightly disturbed and painfully shy Angela Baker (Felissa Rose) is sent away to summer camp with her foul-mouthed cousin Ricky Thomas (Jonathan Tiersten). Not long after Angela's arrival, things start to go horribly wrong for anyone with sinister or less than honorable intentions.
This film is either loved or hated, and with good reason, but it has been embraced more and more as the years go on by fans of the horror genre. The acting is excessively cheesy, especially from Desiree Gould, but purposely so. The kills are grisly and nasty, even if not always shown on screen. When that curling iron strikes, you know the situation. And the pedophile cook? Oh man… that is pushing boundaries that even horror films dare not cross (Freddy Krueger can be a child killer, but not a child molester).
The Fool Killer 1965
1h 39min | Adventure , Drama | 28 April 1965 (USA)
Storyline:
12-year-old George Mellish, tired of beatings for both real and fancied misdeeds at the hands of his foster parents,runs away from home by hopping a freight train and lands somewhere east of the Mississippi River. The first person he meets is Dirty Jim Helliman who lives in a fantastically filthy hovel and with whom George feels a kindred spirit, both having "suffered" at the hands of a clean woman. It is (really dirty) Dirty Jim that tells George of the mythical, eight-foot bogey man called "The Fool Killer." George gets sick and Dirty Jim takes him to town where Mrs.Ova Faversham takes charge of the feverish boy. When Blessing Angeline, Mrs. Faversham's 10-year-old daughter, tells George that her mother intends to return him to his foster parents, George hits the road again. He meets Milo Bogardus, a young Civil War veteran, who has been robbed of his memory by a war wound, and is as lost in his own way as George. THey come upon a camp meeting, where the fanatical Reverend Spotts is conducting a revivalist meeting and during the religious frenzy, George blacks out. He comes to and is alone, and is unaware that the Reverend has been murdered, and starts in his search to find Milo. He finds a home with the Dodds, small town store keepers. When, at supper, Dodds makes mention of the murder of the Reverend Spotts, George blurts out that "The Fool Killer done it" and tells them the legend as told to him by Dirty Jim. That evening, while George lies in bed, a shadow appears at his window. It is the figure of a tall, gaunt apparition, ax in hand ready to strike—"The Fool Killer!"
User review:
I was a part of the filming of this movie.I appeared in at least one scene as an "extra" and was there for the filming of many other scenes.It was filmed on location in Knox County and Blount County in Tennessee in 1963 and premiered at Tennessee Theater in Knoxville TN in April 1965.The outside of Dirty Jim's house was filmed at my home place at Concord Tennessee.The cast did an excellent job.My rating is high for the cast.The plot is good but could have been handled a bit better in my opinion.Overall,this movie is worth seeing.This movie portrays a young boy befriending people while he is on his own and shows a scared but loving kid.
Director: Servando González
Writers: Helen Eustis (novel), Morton S. Fine (screenplay) (as Morton Fine)
Stars: Anthony Perkins, Dana Elcar, Henry Hull
Country: Mexico | USA
Language: English
Release Date: 28 April 1965 (USA)
Also Known As: Violent Journey
Filming Locations: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
The Kid and the Killers 1974
1h 30min | Adventure , Western
Storyline:
Two men who have robbed a bank end up in a deadly pursuit of one another after one of them kills an innocent victim in attempt to steal the other's half.
User review:
The Kid and the Killers was shot and originally edited by Irv Rudley. a cinematographer/Editor in South Florida. The film producer, Mr. Dan Ross, took the film to New York for distribution, where some hot shot editor convinced him to re-edit the film prior to distribution. This editor chopped the film up into a disjointed mess which was then not good enough to be distributed at all. What a shame! The cast and crew spent 10 weeks in the mountains of Columbia, South America, using mostly local crew, along with the technical crew from the US. They lived on a ranch, deep in the mountains, where they had soldiers for protection from the local bandits. In fact, on one return to the ranch from a distant location, higher up in the mountains, the prop truck was followed and almost attacked by a bandit band. The crew defended itself, with prop guns and blanks, from the truck. The views in those mountains were spectacular, and Mr. Rudley took every advantage of that fact throughout the film.
Director: Ralph C. Bluemke
Writer: Ralph C. Bluemke
Stars: Jon Cypher, John Garces, Gerry Ross
Country: USA | Colombia
Language: English | Spanish
Also Known As: Drifter
Reincarnate 2010
1h 13min | Drama | 2010 (Netherlands)
Storyline:
A teacher and his student go on a trip to a magical island where there is urban life and tourist attractions as well as a palace and temples. Moreover, a haunting past still gnaws, spreads, mates and mutates in a loop that cannot be eliminated. It dissolves and mixes with memories affecting the present and possessing a power that can destroy the future. In this vague atmosphere, the place slowly becomes deserted like a nightmare you want to wake from but cannot resist.
Director: Thunska Pansittivorakul
Writer: Thunska Pansittivorakul
Stars: Tharapong Buasai, Ratikorn Jaruswutthiwong, Lhong
Country: Thailand
Language: Thai
Release Date: 2010 (Netherlands)
Also Known As: Jutti
Filming Locations: Ko Sichang, Thailand
Mon voyage d'hiver 2003
1h 44min | Drama | 19 November 2003 (France)
Storyline:
German filmmaker Vincent Dieutre is accompanied by a close friend's teenage son on a trip to Berlin and in the process reminisces about his life as a gay man in his 2003 autobiographical documentary entitled Mon Voyage d'Hiver (My Voyage in Winter). Dieutre and his traveling companion, Itvan, visit numerous friends and landmarks, all holding special meaning to the 40-year-old filmmaker as they make their way to the German capital. As the pair grows closer as friends, Dieutre also takes on a paternalistic relationship with the boy as he details his own journey of self discovery — partially to assist Itvan with his own adult transformation, but also as a means for Dieutre's own legacy to endure. My Voyage in Winter was selected for inclusion into the Forum Program of the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival.
User review:
I've seen this movie recently, and was very surprised to see nobody commented on it yet. The point of this movie are, so obviously, not the story, the characters or the plot, but simply "the atmosphere". I'm not saying it's a good film, simply that I liked it. At the show I was attending almost everyone walked out of the theater, but I decided to just sit back and enjoy this strange "winter journey" film. It was hard to understand what it was about, but I didn't care: pointless art movie or not, it was much more bearable than "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle". Now, they didn't walk out of the that one, right?
Director: Vincent Dieutre
Writer: Vincent Dieutre
Stars: Itvan Kebadian, Vincent Dieutre, Andreas Staier
Country: France
Language: French | German
Release Date: 19 November 2003 (France)
Also Known As: My Winter Journey
Filming Locations: Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany
Heartstone 2016
Hjartasteinn (original title)
2h 9min | Drama | 28 December 2016 (Iceland)
Storyline:
A remote fishing village in Iceland. Teenage boys Thor and Christian experience a turbulent summer as one tries to win the heart of a girl while the other discovers new feelings toward his best friend. When summer ends and the harsh nature of Iceland takes back its rights, it's time to leave the playground and face adulthood.
User review:
Hjartasteinn (Heartstone) Iceland, Viewed at 2016 Venice Film Festival Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, 34, Debut film. It's been a while since the films of Friðrik Þór Friðriksson put Iceland on the Cinema map in the eighties and nineties. This epic scale coming of age drama set in a remote fishing village far from the capital Reykjavik looks like the start of a new Icelandic wave. Fresh energy and a keen re-observing of what it's like to be a teenager on the verge of puberty, even dabbling a bit in homosexuality, makes this coming of age story something else. Against a magnificent backdrop of sea and mountains Guðmundur follows the entanglements of two simple outback families and their kids.
The film centers mainly on Thor, a sensitive twelve year old boy and his slightly older, taller, buddy Kristján who is probably gay, but also on their rough friendship with a couple of teenage girls and their problems with rough hewn parents. The performances of the two boys is astounding and Guðmundur's direction is totally assured. Given the setting this is a one of a kind new film experience on a set of old themes. Bravo! The two teenage actors, Baldur Einsasson (Thor) and Blær Hinriksson, (Kristján) are both talents to watch for in upcoming films from the Land of Geysers.
Underage 2013
De Menor (original title)
1h 17min | Drama , Family | 4 September 2014 (Brazil)
Storyline:
Helena is a recently graduated attorney that shares her routine between her job as a Public Defender of children and adolescents in the Forum of the city of Santos, Brazil, and the care of the teenager Caio, with whom she lives a harmonic and honest life. Their relationship is put to the test when Caio commits a felony.
User review:
The movie does has a pretty photography, until you realize it looks pretty much as shaky camera movements and cheap instagram filters. Acting from many characters is simply poor. Caio is not wearing a shirt 90% of the time. OK, OK, we get it. He is hot. And has a huge line of pubes coming from his groin. The story is told in the synopsis of the movie. Girl has that strange sexually tense relationship with Caio. He is a junkie with a predilection for an easy life. He does actually wear more handcuffs than shirts. There are some stories inside the movie. Believable stuff as a homeless underage kid with a full sleeve tattoo. It looks like he will be more important for the story, mostly because he takes one third of the movie and another instagram still shot of a mirror. All of a sudden the story takes a spin (that was stated on the synopsis). We get a LOT of bad acting from random people. After some nonsense that seemed to be based on detective movies. One of the last and most important characters for the storyline act on such a terrible way that you really can't say if she is lying or telling the truth.
Director: Caru Alves de Souza
Writers: Fabio Meira, Caru Alves de Souza (story)
Stars: Rita Batata, Giovanni Gallo, Caco Ciocler
Country: Brazil
Language: Portuguese
Release Date: 4 September 2014 (Brazil)
Also Known As: De menor
Filming Locations: Santos, São Paulo, Brazil
Beat the Drum 2003
1h 54min | Drama | 2 November 2006 (Hong Kong)
Storyline:
Young Musa is orphaned after a mysterious illness strikes his village in KwaZulu Natal. To help his grandmother, Musa sets out for Johannesburg with his father's last gift, a tribal drum, in search of work and his uncle. The journey confronts him with the stark realities of urban life, but his indomitable spirit never wavers; he returns with a truth and understanding his elders have failed to grasp.
User review:
I saw Beat the Drum at a festival and talked with the producer and writer David McBrayer about this movie. He is the one who actually created the movie and it was his brainchild. The audience asked questions and he explained how he came up with the idea for the script and that it took him several years to produce because it is an inde film. Everyone loved it and applauded at the end, it was the best movie in the festival. I still think about this amazing movie and look forward to when it will be in theaters and on DVD. Why isn't it out there already? If you know anybody in the movie distribution business tell them to check it out. Beat the Drum is an amazing and moving movie experience and I highly recommend it.
Director: David Hickson
Writer: David McBrayer (as W. David McBrayer)
Stars: Junior Singo, Owen Sejake, Mary Twala
Country: South Africa | USA
Language: English | Zulu
Release Date: 2 November 2006 (Hong Kong)
Filming Locations: South Africa
Good Boy! 2003
PG | 1h 27min | Comedy , Drama , Family | 10 October 2003 (Canada)
Storyline:
Owen Baker is a 12-year-old loner who has been working as a neighborhood dog-walker so he can earn the privilege of getting a dog of his own. His hard work pays off when his parents let him adopt a scruffy mutt he names Hubble. Both boy and dog get more than they bargained for when Owen wakes up one morning to discover he can understand every word Hubble says, including the ominous phrase: "Take me to your leaders." Owen learns that dogs came to Earth thousands of years ago to colonize and dominate the planet. Hubble (who is really named Canid 3942) has been sent by the powerful Greater Dane on a mission from the Dog Star Sirius to make sure dogs have fulfilled this destiny. Despite the best efforts of Owen's rag-tag group of neighborhood dogs to convince him otherwise, Hubble soon discovers the awful truth about Earth dogs: "You're all pets!" Now Owen (a boy who never had a friend) and Hubble (a dog who never needed one) must work together to prepare the neighborhood dogs for a visit from The Greater Dane–or all dogs will be removed from the planet! The fate of Earth dogs hangs in the balance, and it's up to Owen, Hubble, and their canine companions to save man's best friend.
Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated PG for some mild crude humor
User review:
I noticed this film got a low rating, maybe these people were not dog lovers. I thought the plot, if it was a plot, about the the "alien" dog was a little thin but the dogs were wonderful, the boy was great. Sometimes it's just good to go to the movies the enjoy a sweet little no-nonsense film that's just there for pure entertainment. I was entertained.
Far West 2003
17min | Comedy , Short | 21 January 2003 (France)
Storyline:
In the desert no one can hear you scream.
User review:
Eric (though he prefers Ricky) is unhappy that he has to leave Paris for a week to visit his grandfather on the farm. He'd much rather practice his dance routines with the boys he hangs out with.
His grandfather is a rough no-nonsense farmer who's got little patience for a spoiled boy from the city. Plus Ricky is gay and has never come out to his grandfather and doesn't like the idea of having to be closeted for the week.