Monday, May 24, 2010
The Runaways

The Runaways were the ground-breaking, all girl, teenage rock band of the 1970s. Friends, Joan Jett and Cherie Currie went from rebellious Southern California kids to rock stars of the now legendary group that paved the way for future generations of girl bands. Under the Svengali-like influence of rock impresario Kim Fowley the group became an outrageous success and a family of misfits. With its tough-chick image and raw talent, the band quickly earned a name for itself-and so did its two leads.
The Yellow Handkerchief

Brett Hanson is an ex-convict, just released from prison after serving six years for manslaughter and now adrift in a world of new freedoms and responsibilities. Finding initial difficulties in reconciling himself to a troubled past, Brett crosses paths with lonely and troubled teenager Martine and her new 'ride' Gordy. The trio head
out in the same car and direction--Martine to cut loose and get away from her family, Gordy to get closer to Martine, and Brett who must decide whether he wants to return to his troubled past and an uncertainty with May, the woman that he left
behind. Once on the road, the trio find their relationships forging and changing in myriad ways, but it is Brett's story and his need to reconcile his past to his future that drives the two young people to reassess their own passages as well. 
Cake Eaters
Two dysfunctional families are thrown together by the return of one family's prodigal son, forcing the clans' members to battle old ghosts and work through emotional issues as they search for love at any cost. "Nice to meet you." Georgia
"Yeah, um, I've seen you around. You go to my school." Beagle
"You go to Lincoln?" Georgia
"No, no I work there in the cafeteria. I make your lunch." Beagle
"If you want to call it lunch." Georgia
"Yeah, well, school food gets a bad rep I guess." Beagle

"So what's wrong with you anyway?" Beagle
"I have Frederick's Ataxia. It's a neuromuscular disease." Georgia
"Is that why you talk kind of like you're drunk?" Beagle
"I do?" Georgia
"I mean, um, you, it, just slurred a little..." Beagle
"No, I get it all the time." Georgia
"I just didn't know. I didn't know anything about it. I didn't mean to offend you." Beagle
"No, you didn't. It's a genetic disorder of some kind." Georgia
"Are you gonna get better?" Beagle
"No, this is pretty much as good as it's gonna get until my heart gives out. I don't know when that's going to be." Georgia
Adventureland
Welcome to Adventureland, where the worst job imaginable is about to inadvertently turn into the summer that changes everything. Adventureland, a self-professedly "funtastic" Pennsylvania amusement park, appears to be the bane of recent college graduate's James Brennan's existence. He previously had big plans to 
spend the summer on a life-altering trek through Europe that would initiate him into real adult life. But when his family suffers an economic downturn in the middle of the Reagan 80s, James' only summer trip is straight to a minimum wage job manning a game booth so existentially bankrupt, no one is even allowed to win the giant stuffed panda. Yet, Adventureland isn't quite what it seems on the surface. For behind the cloying
cotton candy aroma, the grating disco songs and the near pathological customers, there's a whole other world of misfit friends, hidden dreams and most incredibly, after-work encounters with the alluringly sharp-tongued arcade girl, Em Lewin. And when James discovers the hard-won courage to go to battle for Em, the result is a savagely funny yet sweetly heart-felt and unexpected encounter with "real adult life."
Breakthrough of the Year
Harper's Bazaar

"Kristen doesn't take any slack," Rob says. "She sticks to her guns -- and that's difficult to do." He also thinks she's a better actor than he is. "I don't really know how to act. I'm kind of guessing everything. ... Even though I can conceptualize stuff, she can actually do it. I can make something so complex and then be like, That was pout 27." He reckons she's a better judge of character too. "She'll decide on someone a lot quicker. She has a lot more self-esteem than I do, so she's like, 'You're an idiot and I don't want to talk to you,' and I'm like, 'I'm an idiot too!' So I'll talk to an idiot for like three days before deciding."

Who spends more time on their hair?
"Rob." Kristen
"I have weird personal-space issues, and so I can't stand people -- um, I'll do anything to not have any touch-ups." Rob
Competitive?
"Rob. In a very childish way, in every aspect of his life. He'll literally start talking in a different voice if he's won something. He sounds like a five-year-old." Kristen
"I'd say it was even. She said me? Really? When I really win things, it's just like..." Rob

Athletic?
"I'm definitely claiming that one. Rob can barely jump rope. I call him Flippy because when he does his stunt rehearsals, he flips around [makes a gesture like a penguin]. And, God, when he tries to run ..." Kristen
"Kristen. You notice it in the film; she looks so much more athletic than I do. And I'm supposed to be the superhero." Rob

Who Googles themselves more?
"Rob." Kristen
"She would say me, but I reckon it's her. If either one of us catches the other one doing it, we're like, Jesus Christ, is that what you're looking at? And the other one's on their phone pretending to text. I look up my competition more than she does. I'm incredibly shallow. I think she just looks at herself." Rob
Who's the better musician?
"Rob. He's a great singer. Heartbreaking." Kristen

The most outgoing?
"I was once, but not so much anymore. Kristen's a little more open now." Rob
Better sport?
"Who can hang? Definitely me. He's very sensitive. He's got a fragile ego." Kristen
Superstitious?
"Rob. He's a little bit more paranoid, so that feeds into superstition more." Kristen
"I am. I believe a lot in karma and stuff. Like when I end up with egg on my face, I'm like, Fate! I was born doomed. But I think it's more being an idiot than superstitious." Rob

But perhaps it pays to be a little paranoid. Whatever it takes for Rob and Kristen to live their hothouse lives as normally as they can -- until the November 20 opening of New Moon, anyway. In the interim, CNN will report whenever Rob gets a haircut (it already has), and girls will get mad at Kristen for not wearing pink tube tops and taking their dream man away. They both fantasize about what they would do if nobody could see them. "I'd like to say something noble," Rob says, fiddling with his hair, "but I'd probably spy on people to hear what they think of me -- and then hate them for it afterward." Kristen is, as ever, a little blunter: "I'd go for a walk."
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Jumper...
What Just Happened...
Two nail-biting, back-stabbing, roller-coaster weeks in the world of a middle-aged Hollywood producer as he tries to juggle an actual life with an outrageous series of crises in his day job. Ben is besieged by people who want him all to be sorts of things -- a money maker, an ego buster, a bad news breaker, an artistic champion, a loyal husband, an all-knowing father, not to mention sexy, youthful and tuned-in -- everything except for the one thing he and all the preposterously behaved people he's surrounded by really are: bumbling human beings just trying to survive by any means necessary.
Fierce People...

When 16-year-old Finn is caught buying cocaine for his junkie but well intentioned mother Liz, his plans of spending the summer away from NYC with his anthropologist father studying the Ishkanani in the jungle are abruptly changed. In an attempt to get both of their lives back on track, Liz moves the two of them out to a cottage on
the country estate of her sugar daddy, Mr. Osborne. Finn immediately makes his way into the 'tribe' of wealthy country clubbers that inhabit his new home. Soon Finn is
dating Mr.Osborne's granddaughter Maya and has found a best friend in her brother Bryce. Finn adjusts quickly to their life of fancy clothes, cars, horses, sex and drugs. Liz begins attending AA meetings and begins to establish herself as a loving mother working to correct her mistakes and win back Finn's love and trust. Unfortunately things begin to spiral out of control, and he begins to see that the wealth and friendships bestowed upon him come at a price.
Into the Land of Women...
For as long as he could remember, Carter Webb had been falling in love with women. And for as long as he could remember, he'd been searching for the right one. He found everything he was looking for in Sophia and for a little while he was happy. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. When Carter is dumped by Sophia in a North Hollywood coffee shop, he sees his entire life flash before his eyes. Heartbroken and depressed, Carter escapes Los Angeles, heading across the country to suburban Michigan to care for his ailing grandmother. An eccentric and complicated personality, Grandma offers Carter a uniquely different perspective on life and especially death. Soon after his arrival, Carter stumbles into the lives of the family living directly across the street, Sarah Hardwicke, the mother of two daughters: Paige, a precocious, effervescent eleven-year-old and her older sister Lucy, an angst ridden teenager. While Sarah faces her own personal crisis, Lucy
wrestles with the fears that define her. Through his relationships with these women, as well as his grandmother, Carter begins to discover that what felt like the end was really only just the beginning of his adventure.
Into the Wild...

Freshly graduated from college with a promising future, 22 year-old Christopher McCandless instead walked out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure. What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless people. Was Christopher McCandless a heroic adventurer

or a naive idealist, a rebellious 1990s Thoreau or another lost American son, a fearless risk-taker or a tragic figure who wrestled with the precarious balance between man and nature? McCandless' quest took him from the wheat fields of South

Dakota to a renegade trip down the Colorado River to the non-conformists' refuge of Slab City, California, and beyond. Along the way, he encountered a series of colorful characters at the very edges of American society

who shaped his understanding of life and whose lives he, in turn, changed. In the end, he tested himself by heading alone into the wilds of the great North, where everything he had seen and learned and felt came to a head in ways he never could have expected.
The Messangers...

A family moves into a run-down sunflower farm. As the farm begins to revive after years of disrepair, the family begins to notice uncomfortable and alarming changes in their father's

behavior.
"You see them too... don't you? Where are they? What do you see?" Jess

"Dad, I'm really scared. Can't we just go home?" Jess
"Jessica, this is home. You need to get used to that." Roy
Speak...

Melina Sordino is entering the notoriously difficult time that is the freshman year of high school. She is no average troubled youth, however, for she refuses to utter a word, ever since a party to celebrate
the end of 8th grade resulted in a violent encounter for the young girl. Now, ostracized by her schoolmates, alienated from her mother and father and feeling entirely alone, she retreats into an interior world. But hope presents itself in the form of empathetic art teacher Mr. Freeman who accepts Melinda's silence but pushes her towards other means of self-expression. With his aid and understanding, Melinda is able to discover her voice and talent, as well as regain her joy in life. Based on the award-winning novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, this official Sundance selection offers a sensitive portrayal of a hugely important issue, and features a stunning performance by the talented Stewart.
Game over
Danger
Disbelief
The game
Sister
Zathura

After their father leaves for work, leaving them in the care of their older sister, six-year-old Danny and ten-year old Walter discover an old tattered metal board game, "Zathura." After trying unsuccessfully to get his brother to play the game with him, Danny starts to play on his own. From his first move, Danny realizes this is no ordinary board game. His spaceship marker moves by itself and when it lands on a space, a card is ejected, which reads: "Meteor shower, take evasive action." The house is immediately pummeled from above by hot, molten meteors. When Danny and Walter look up through the gaping hole in their roof, they discover, to their horror that they have propelled into deepest, darkest outer space. And they are not alone. Danny and Walter realize that unless they finish the game they'll be trapped in outer space forever. With every turn, they confront one incredible obstacle after another: They accidentally put their sister Lisa into a deep cryonic sleep, are chased by a crazed, malfunctioning six-foot robot, rescue a stranded astronaut and are besieged by lizard-like, carnivorous creatures called Zorgons. With the help of the astronaut, Danny and Walter begin to put their petty fraternal differences aside, work together to overcome the obstacles they encounter and attempt to finish the game so they can go home. But all their efforts may be in vain when they face their biggest challenge of all--a battle against an intense gravitational pull into the void of the dark planet Zathura.
Catch that Kid

Twelve-year-old Maddy and her adventurous father have always shared a love for mountain climbing. Their hobby, however, has a disastrous effect when a devastating accident on Mount Everest injures his spine, paralyzing him forever--unless he gets a very expensive operation. Determined to procure the money to pay for his surgery, Maddy decides to recruit two of her friends, a computer genius and a mechanical whiz kid, to help her pull off a risky heist. They plan to break into the local super-high-tech bank, which holds a vault suspended 100 feet off the floor, and get to its safe. To complicate matters even further, Maddy's mother works as the security chief at that very bank. Regardless of what obstacles she faces, Maddy is determined to get to the funds her father needs, by using the amazing climbing skills he taught her.
Undertow
Cold Creek Manor

Finally putting an end to their days as slaves to the hustle-bustle of city life, Gothamites Cooper Tilson and his wife, Leah, pack up their kids and all their possessions, and move into a recently repossessed mansion in the 'sticks' of New York State. Once a grand and elegant manor, the house at Cold Creek is now in shambles, but Cooper and Leah have unlimited time to show the house the tender loving care that it desperately needs. All's well until Dale Massie, the house's former owner, gets out of prison, looking to reclaim his birthright place, by any means necessary. There are two kinds of people in Cold Creek--those who come there, and those who are born there--and Dale quickly shows that one kind of resident always comes out on top. This challenged truth is particularly accurate, in this case, because Dale's house hides a deep, dark secret.
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