EXPIRED

E X P I R E D

The Story:
Man or woman, the sight of a dark-suited municipal employee dolling out parking violations stirs a primal hate in all but the most enlightened souls. Hypersensitive Claire (Samantha Morton) spends her days doling out parking tickets, and her nights caring for her ailing mother (Teri Garr). Jay (Jason Patric) is a highly intelligent parking enforcement officer whose bitterness over squandered opportunities has grown to border on sociopathic.

In an act of kismet, the two meet and start a roller-coaster ride of a relationship that teaches them love conquers all, even the darkest and most miss-matched of affairs.

Starring:
Samantha Morton, Jason Patric, Teri Garr, Illeana Douglas, Joe Camareno

Directed By:
Cecilia Miniucchi

Release:
2007

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BLACK SNAKE MOAN

The Story:
In rural Mississippi, Lazarus (Samual L. Jackson), a former blues musician who survives by truck farming, has recently had his wife leave him for his younger brother so he is battling his own demons.

Rae (Christina Ricci) the white-trash town tramp, who connects with Ronnie (Justin Timberlake) to fulfill her needs. Ronnie must report to his National Guard unit and leaves Rae all alone. Rae is not alone for long, because she is the town tramp with a powerful need to hook-up with a man. After a party, Rae is taken home by a friend who ends up beating her half to death and throws her on the side of the road.

The next day, he finds Rae, dumped on the road nearby his little farm, drugged, beaten and almost dead. Lazarus brings her home, giving medicine and nurses Rae back to health.

Rae spends the next 2 days in a nearly comatose state waking up only sporadically to fight her crazy dreams and try to climb onto anything rigid. Lazarus decide that in order to protect the girl from herself and possible exorcise her sex demons he should wrap a 40 foot chain around her and confine her to his house.

When her boyfriend Ronnie is discharged from the army due to his anxiety issue, he misunderstands the relationship of Lazarus and Rae, and tries to kill him.

Lazarus, exhibiting a street-smart understanding of violence and its motives, calls Ronnie's bluff, senses that he is as troubled as Rae, and becomes a guiding force in the young couple's resurrection.

Starring:
Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, Justin Timberlake, S. Epatha Merkerson, John Cothran Jr.,

Directed By:
Craig Brewer

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SMART PEOPLE

smart people

The Story:

Carnegie Mellon English Professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) is a depressed middle-aged widower. He is arrogant at work, uninterested in his students, and alienated from his two children. His adopted ne'er-do-well brother Chuck (Thomas Haden Church) arrives to borrow money and stay for a while, and tries to unwind Lawrence's lonely, high-achieving teenage daughter Vanessa (Ellen Page).

Meanwhile, Lawrence suffers a trauma-induced seizure after falling from the top of a fence in an attempt to retrieve his briefcase from inside of his impounded car. After being released from the hospital, Lawrence has a meeting with a sympathetic doctor, Janet (Sarah Jessica Parker), a former student he does not recall. Janet ends up going on a date with Lawrence.

His daughter Vanessa, lonely and friendless, who's been bonding with his brother, tries to sabotage dad and the doctor's relationship, but Lawrence is good at that without help. Is there any way these smart people can get a life? Can happiness be pursued beneath layers of irony?

Starring:

Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page, Ashton Holmes, David Denman, Camille Mana.

Directed By:

Noam Murro

Release:

2008

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VIKAREN (THE SUBSTITUTE)

VIKAREN - The Substitute (Danish)

The Story:
A strange sphere shoots through space and lands in an isolated chicken farm, and an alien takes over the body of the farmer's wife, who then shows up at the local school in the form of Ulla Harms (Paprika Steen).

Ulla is the new sudstitute teacher for the sixth grade class, she then proceeds to humiliate the kids with malicious verbal abuse and mad workouts in the gym. She also seems to possess telekinetic powers in addition to having the ability to read minds.

The kids realize pretty quickly that their teacher is an alien, especially when they catch her eating a live chicken. They denounce Ulla to their parents, and the folks call a meeting to oust teacher, but she uses her sphere to conjure up an automaton Minister of Education, who defends Ulla. She then bursts into tears to show how "hurt" she is by the kid's accusations.

The parents side with the blond bodysnatcher and the children are left with no one to defend them. The stakes are raised again when Ulla announces she will take her class on a school trip to "Paris," which is very likely a metaphor for alien abduction/annihilation, and it all has to do with the chicken farm…

Starring:
Paprika Steen, Emma Juel Justesen, Jonas Wandschneider, Nikolaj Falkenberg-Klok, Ulrich Thomsen

Directed By:
Ole Bornedal

Release:
2007

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SEX AND DEATH 101

SEX and Death 101

The Story:
Roderick Blank’s (Simon Baker) perfect life is turned upside down when he receives an email out of the blue that contains a list of names of women he has had sex with in the past AND will have sex with in the future.

Fiona (Julie Bowen), the girl he is about to merry is the 29th, the first 28 are women Rod has slept with, and the 30th turns out to be the stripper at his bachelor party.
The notion that he will have sex with 70 more people sends Rod into crisis mode, especially after three odd men Alpha (Robert Wisdom), Beta (Tanc Sade) and Fred (Patton Oswalt), in an aseptic office confirm that a celestial machine has made an error. They suggest destroying the list, but Rod finds that easier said than done.

As Rod goes from one woman to the next, he finds he is not the only one on a journey of sorts. A scorned woman, known as ‘Death Nell’ (Winona Ryder), is cruising round Los Angeles punishing men for sex crimes against women, leaving her victims in a coma. It’s inevitable Blank will cross paths with this femme fatale.

Starring:
Simon Baker, Winona Ryder, Julie Bowen, Dash Mihok, Leslie Bibb, Tanc Sade, Patton Oswalt, Mindy Cohn, Neil Flynn, Corinne Reilly, Sophie Monk, Marshall Bell, Robert Patrick Benedict, Frances Fisher

Directed By:
Daniel Waters

Release:
2007

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FRAYED

The Story:

On September 12, 1994, police were called to the home of Sheriff Pat Baker (Tony Doupé) in the rural town of Smith Haven, Washington. What they discovered was the most horrific and disturbing crime they had ever seen. The sheriff’s 8-year-old son, Kurt (Jimmy Castle), had brutally beaten his mother (Jeanette Maus) to death with a baseball bat and it was all captured on a home video camera.

Kurt was committed to the Yellow Glen Rehabilitation Center where he would spend the rest of his adolescent years in solitary silence drawing frightening images conjured from his damaged mind.

Thirteen years later, Sheriff Baker’s worst fears are realized when he learns that Kurt ( has escaped.

Gary (Aaron Blakely), a hospital security guard, sets out into the woods to stop him, but soon finds himself hunted by the deranged psychopath intent on killing him and anyone who crosses his path.

Sheriff Baker launches an intense search to capture Kurt and finds himself torn between protecting his town and saving his son. The situation turns grave when he discovers that his daughter, Sara (Alena Dashiell), her best friend, Veronica, (Tasha Smith) and their boyfriends are camping in the same woods where Kurt has escaped. As the search deepens, the truth behind Kurt’s evil past begins to reveal a dark secret.

Kurt’s psychosis escalates, as does his vengeful killing spree culminating in a terrifying, climactic confrontation with Kurt, the Sheriff and his family.

Starring:

Tony Doupe, Aaron Blakely, Alena Dashiell, Tasha Smith, Jeanette Maus

Directed By:

Norb Caoili and Rob Portmann

Release:

2007

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