Emmanuelle Bercot cowrites and directs this tale of troubled French youth and the dedicated French authorities who try to help them.
In 1971, Stanford professor Philip Zimbardo decided to investigate "how an institution affects individual behavior" by hiring a bunch of students to portray guards and prisoners in a mock prison. This is the story of that, albeit in well-acted, fictionalized form. The goings-on "inside" are queasily fascinating at first, as …
The kind view — the uncynical view, the generous view — is that director J.J. Abrams just wants to give the joy of childhood back to a generation that fell in love with Star Wars back in 1977. (Plus maybe win a new generation over to that story’s mythological power.) …
Documentary that sets out to discover what goes into producing the world’s best steak, directed by Frank Ribiere.
Having treated the man who put life online — Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg — screenwriter Aaron Sorkin now turns his attention to the man who put it into the machine. (Not for nothing is the Apple co-founder so desperate to have the Mac say "Hello" at its unveiling.) Once again, …
When Apple co-founder/mastermind/personification Steve Jobs died in 2011, documentarian Alex Gibney (The Armstrong Lie) found himself marveling at the massive outpouring of public grief and love. Why, he wondered, were we so upset that a rich, ungenerous businessman had left us? As the resulting documentary makes clear, he wasn't a …
Something about the ratio between money and problems? Five young African-Americans (played by O'Shea Jackson, Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown, Jr., and Aldis Hodge) find their way out of variously difficult situations in mid-'80s Los Angeles — police brutality, gang violence, financial hardship, social and racial roadblocks, thwarted …
From a story by George Lucas, inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream. The director pitched it as Beauty and the Beast where the Beast doesn't change. But don't worry, there are musical numbers galore, mostly involving older Top 40 hits.
Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes play the recently transplanted parents of two in small-town Australia. Their son is given to walking around town late at night; their daughter, to more horizontal activities. (See also: the reason for the recent move.) When the kids disappear, the family's business becomes everybody's business …
Action! Romance! Deception! Comedy!
Director Sarah Gavron and writer Abi Morgan can’t find a story amidst the forest of directives so instead mount a stern, monochrome, relentlessly depressing video lecture to supplant the historical fundamentals our parents and public school teachers failed to instill within us. Sufferin’ Suffragette! Were it not for this picture, …
High fructose corn syrup is terrible for your well-being, as are cute documentaries that saccharine coat an important message. Adorable, chipmunk-toothed writer-director Damon Gameau embarked on a 60-day diet of government regulated so-called “healthy” foods, and the end result plays on like an informative, albeit Super Size Me-ish audition reel …
There are currently more than 65 races of native maize in Mexico, thanks to the labor and knowledge of indigenous people and farming communities who have cultivated maize for centuries. This documentary discusses the food sovereignty movement in northern Mexico and the different realities of maize, offering a cinematic message …