Month: January 2024

NEW MOVIES: Feb. 1-7, 2024, “The Monk and the Gun,” “The Jungle Bunch: Operation Meltdown,” “Driving Madeleine (2022),” “Skin Deep”

THE MONK AND THE GUN

THE MONK AND THE GUN

The Monk and the Gun is a 2023 drama film directed, written and co-produced by Pawo Choyning Dorji.[4] Starring Tandin Wangchuk, Deki Lhamo, Pema Zangmo Sherpa, Tandin Sonam, Harry Einhorn, Choeying Jatsho, Tandin Phubz, Yuphel Lhendup Selden and Kelsang Choejay.[5] It is a co-production between Bhutan, France, United States and Taiwan.[6]

It was selected as the Bhutanese entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards,[7] and was one of the 15 finalist films in the December shortlist.[8]

Synopsis

Set in 2006, the Kingdom of Bhutan is looking to become a democracy, so looking to hold an election, government officials organize a mock election as a training exercise. In the town of Ura, an old lama orders a monk to get a pair of weapons to face the imminent change in the kingdom. Meanwhile, an American antique weapons collector lands in Bhutan in search of a valuable rifle that falls into the monk’s hands.[9][10]

Cast

  • Harry Einhorn as Ron Colman
  • Tandin Wangchuk as Tashi
  • Deki Lhamo as Tshomo
  • Pema Zangmo Sherpa as Tshering Yangden
  • Tandin Sonam as Benji
  • Choeying Jatsho as Choephel
  • Tandin Phubz as Phurba
  • Yuphel Lhendup Selden
  • Kelsang Choejay

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THE JUNGLE BUNCH: OPERATION MELTDOWN

THE JUNGLE BUNCH: OPERATION MELTDOWN

When a mysterious toxic foam starts spreading in the jungle, there’s only one team brave enough to stop it. The Jungle Bunch. With no time to spare, it’s time to start sailing boats on their journey across the world to find the antidote.

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DRIVING MADELEINE (2022)

DRIVING MADELEINE (2022)

Driving Madeleine (French: Une belle course) is a 2022 French-Belgian drama film directed by Christian Carion.[2]

Premise

The film stars Line Renaud as Madeleine, a very old lady in Paris who is moving into a nursing home; en route, she asks taxi driver Charles (Dany Boon) to detour to various locations around the city that have meant something to her in her life.

Cast

  • Line Renaud as Madeleine
  • Dany Boon as Charles
  • Alice Isaaz as Young Madeleine
  • Jérémie Laheurte as Ray
  • Gwendoline Hamon as Denise
  • Julie Delarme as Karine
  • Thomas Alden as Mathieu
  • Hadriel Roure as Young Mathieu

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SKIN DEEP

SKIN DEEP

Plot: What’s the story about?

Seeking a retreat where they can salvage their struggling relationship, young couple Leyla (Mala Emde) and Tristan (Jonas Dassler) travel to a remote island at the invitation of Leyla’s childhood friend Stella, where it soon becomes clear that what the island offers is more mysterious than a simple vacation. Leyla and Tristan join another couple in a ritual to exchange bodies and see the world through the eyes of someone else – a chance to find themselves or, for some of them, a chance at escape. Free from the constraints of her former body, Leyla quickly finds she has never been happier, with a fresh outlook on life and a new sense of release and fulfillment. But when she refuses to return to her old self, the situation threatens to spiral out of control. Subverting genre and gender as it toggles from body swap thriller to intimate relationship drama, Skin Deep tells a story that transcends bodies, embracing the endless fluid possibilities in the question of what it means to truly love someone.

Who stars in Skin Deep: Cast List

Mala Emde

Jonas Dassler

Bonhoeffer, Berlin Nobody

Dimitrij Schaad

Maryam Zaree

Undine, Transit

Who’s making Skin Deep: Crew List

A look at the Skin Deep behind-the-scenes crew and production team.

Director/Screenwriter

Alex Schaad

Production Company

Kino Lorber

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1/30/2024#”The Monk and the Gun,” “The Jungle Bunch: Operation Meltdown,” “Driving Madeleine (2022),” “Skin Deep”

NEW MOVIES: Jan. 25-31, 2024, “Argylle,” “Miller’s Girl,” “The Promised Land (2023),” “American Star”

ARGYLLE

ARGYLLE

Argylle is an upcoming spy action comedy film directed and produced by Matthew Vaughn, and written by Jason Fuchs. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Premise

Elly Conway, an introverted spy novelist who seldom leaves her home, is drawn into the real world of espionage when the plots of her books get a little too close to the activities of a sinister underground syndicate. When Aidan, an undercover spy, shows up to save her from being kidnapped or killed, Elly and her beloved cat Alfie are plunged into a covert world where nothing, and no one, is what it seems.[3]

Cast

Sequels

In July 2021, it was stated that Argylle is intended to serve as the start of a franchise consisting of at least a trilogy of films.[4] In March 2022, it was confirmed that the first film would be followed by two sequels to complete a film trilogy.[24] In October 2023, Vaughn confirmed plans to create additional movies, while stating that the second movie will be based on the first Argylle novel.[25] Vaughn later confirmed that the second film will be based on the first novel,[25] with the plot exploring the origins of Argylle becoming a spy; while the third movie will follow additional installments of the book series.[26]

 

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MILLER’S GIRL

MILLER’S GIRL

Miller’s Girl is a 2024 American thriller drama film written and directed by Jade Halley Bartlett. The film stars Jenna Ortega and Martin Freeman as a student and teacher who enter into a complicated relationship after a creative writing assignment.

Premise

A creative writing assignment yields complex results between a teacher and his talented student.[2]

Cast

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THE PROMISED LAND (2023)

THE PROMISED LAND (2023)

The Promised Land (Danish: Bastarden, lit. ’The Bastard’) is a 2023 epic historical drama film directed by Nikolaj Arcel from a screenplay by Arcel & Anders Thomas Jensen.[3] Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, and Simon Bennebjerg, and with Kristine Kujath Thorp, Gustav Lindh, Jakob Lohmann, Morten Hee Andersen, Magnus Krepper and Felix Kramer in supporting roles,[4] the film is based on the book The Captain and Ann Barbara by Ida Jessen,[5] and is a joint Danish-German-Swedish co-production.[6]

Synopsis

In 1755, Captain Ludvig Kahlen, an impoverished Danish officer of humble birth, retires after 25 years of service from the German Army with a measly pension to his native Denmark and obtains permission from the Royal Danish Court to build a property on the barren Jutland moorland for land cultivation. He hopes to establish a settlement on that property, and in return for that, he requests from the Court a privilege of a noble title with an associated manor. Soon after arriving at the site of his prospective homestead, he comes into conflict with Frederik de Schinkel, a local magistrate at the nearby Hald Manor and a merciless landowner who has been trying to monopolize ownership of the moorland.[1

De Schinkel does his utmost to make the workforce unavailable to Kahlen, who covertly employs and harbors Johannes Eriksen and his wife Ann Barbara, two of de Schinkel’s indentured serf farmers serfs who broke their contract and fled Frederik’s mistreatment. He also hires the “Tatere” Romani Travellers as workers, though that practice is illegal. In the meantime, de Schinkel’s cousin and betrothed Edel Helene, is not interested in marrying him, but her father insists on the marriage due to de Schinkel’s substantial wealth, unless she can come up with an alternative suitor within a year. She meets Kahlen secretly and the two share an understanding that if Kahlen can acquire a noble title within the year, they will marry, offering her an escape from the unwanted union with her cousin.

Cast

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AMERICAN STAR

AMERICAN STAR

American Star is an upcoming thriller film directed by Gonzalo López-Gallego,[2] written by Nacho Faerna,[3] and produced by Ian McShane and Michael Elliott.[4] The film stars McShane,[5] Thomas Kretschmann, Nora Arnezeder, Adam Nagaitis, Fanny Ardant, and Oscar Coleman.[6]

Premise

Wilson, an assassin, goes to the island of Fuerteventura to kill a man he has never seen before. Upon going to the island, Wilson decides to stay at the island until his target arrives. When his target arrives, Wilson must figure out who he is.

Cast

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1/23/2024#”Argylle,” “Miller’s Girl,” “The Promised Land,” “American Star”

 

NEW MOVIES: Jan. 18-24, 2024, “I.S.S.,” “Origin,” “Freud’s Last Session,” “Which Brings Me to You”

I.S.S.

I.S.S.

I.S.S. is a 2023 American science fiction thriller film directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and written by Nick Shafir. The film stars Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina, John Gallagher Jr., Maria Mashkova, Costa Ronin, and Pilou Asbæk.

Premise

The film centers on a group of astronauts and cosmonauts living aboard the International Space Station.[2][3] Tensions flare as a worldwide conflict breaks out on Earth.[3] Reeling from this, the astronauts receive orders from the ground: take control of the station by any means necessary.[3]

Cast

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ORIGIN

ORIGIN

Origin is a 2023 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ava DuVernay. It is based on the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, which describes racism in the United States as an aspect of a caste system.

The film stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Wilkerson, alongside Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Niecy Nash-Betts, Nick Offerman, and Blair Underwood.

Premise

Grappling with tremendous personal tragedy, writer Isabel Wilkerson sets herself on a path of global investigation and discovery as she writes Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.

Cast

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FREUD’S LAST SESSION

FREUD’S LAST SESSION

Freud’s Last Session is a 2023 drama film starring Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode, Liv Lisa Fries, Jodi Balfour, Jeremy Northam, and Orla Brady. It is based on the stage play of the same name by Mark St. Germain, which itself is based on the book The Question of God by Armand Nicholi. The film was directed by Matthew Brown and written by St. Germain.

Plot

A fictional meeting occurs between C. S. Lewis, nicknamed “Jack”, and Sigmund Freud, two days after the start of World War II, and a debate on God and other matters follows. The two men discuss issues such as Lewis’ trauma as a World War I soldier, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Inklings, and the nature of Freud’s and Lewis’ relationships with other people, such as Freud’s daughter Anna, who is pathologically dependent on her father. However, she eventually breaks free and introduces her lesbian partner, Dorothy Burlingham, to him.

Freud dies by suicide several weeks after the start of the war due to the intense pain from his oral cancer. C.S. Lewis goes on to become a famous author, and the children he takes in as refugees during the war serve as inspiration for his Narnia series. Anna and Dorothy live together for decades, and Anna becomes known as the founder of child psychology. The film notes that Freud met with an unidentified Oxford don in the last days of Freud’s life, who could possibly have been Lewis.[3]

Cast

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WHICH BRINGS ME TO YOU (2023)

WHICH BRINGS ME TO YOU (2023)

Two romantic burnouts meet at a wedding and almost hook up in the coatroom before putting the brakes on. They agree to exchange candid confessions about their pasts on the off chance that this might be the real thing.

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1/16/2024#”I.S.S.,” “Origin,” “Freud’s Last Session,” “Which Brings Me to You”

NEW MOVIES: Jan. 11-17, 2024, “Mean Girls” (2024), “All of Us Strangers,” “Memory” (2023), “The Book of Clarence”

MEAN GIRLS (2024)

MEAN GIRLS (2024)

Mean Girls is a 2024 American musical teen comedy film directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. in their feature film directorial debut, from a screenplay by Tina Fey. It is based on the Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was based on Mark Waters‘s 2004 comedy film, both written by Fey and based on Rosalind Wiseman‘s 2002 book Queen Bees and Wannabes. It features an ensemble cast that includes Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auliʻi Cravalho, and Christopher Briney, while Fey and Tim Meadows reprise their roles from the original film.

Cast

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ALL OF US STRANGERS

ALL OF US STRANGERS

All of Us Strangers is a 2023 British romantic fantasy film written and directed by Andrew Haigh and based on the 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. It is the second feature adaptation of the novel after the Japanese film The Discarnates (1988). The film stars Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, and Claire Foy.

Plot

Lonely London screenwriter Adam is flirted with by his drunk neighbor Harry, whom he rebuffs. He visits his unoccupied childhood home and finds his parents, who died in a car accident when he was twelve. Returning to his apartment, he reciprocates Harry’s interest, and they have sex. Adam comes out as gay to his mother, who accepts him but reacts with concern. He has sex with Harry again, and then Harry describes his own feelings of distance from his family.

Cast

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MEMORY (2024)

MEMORY (2023)

Memory is a 2023 drama film written and directed by Michel Franco. It stars Jessica Chastain, Peter Sarsgaard, Merritt Wever, Brooke Timber, Elsie Fisher, Josh Charles and Jessica Harper. The film is a Mexican-American production.[4]

Plot

Sylvia, a single mother, social worker, and recovering alcoholic, reluctantly attends a high school reunion with her younger sister, Olivia. Sylvia is perturbed by a man who sits next to and smiles at her. She leaves the event and is followed home by the man, who waits outside in the rain.

In the morning, Sylvia finds him sleeping outside, wet and barely responsive. She finds out his name is Saul and phones his brother, Isaac, to retrieve him. At Saul and Isaac’s home, she is offered an apology: Saul suffers from early onset dementia, causing him to get disoriented and confused and hindering his ability to recall or create memories.

Cast

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THE BOOK OF CLARENCE

THE BOOK OF CLARENCE

The Book of Clarence is a 2023 American biblical comedy-drama film written and directed by Jeymes Samuel, and produced by Samuel, Jay-Z, James Lassiter, and Tendo Nagenda. It stars LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy, RJ Cyler, Anna Diop, David Oyelowo, Micheal Ward, Alfre Woodard, Teyana Taylor, Caleb McLaughlin, Eric Kofi-Abrefa, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, James McAvoy and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Premise

A struggling down-on-his-luck man named Clarence living in A.D. 33 Jerusalem looks to capitalize on the rise of Jesus Christ by claiming to be a new Messiah sent by God, in an attempt to free himself of debt and start a life of glory for himself.

Cast

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1/10/2024#”Mean Girls” (2024), “All of Us Strangers,” “Memory” (2023), “The Book of Clarence”

 

NEW MOVIES: Jan. 4-10, 2024, “Night Swim,” “The Beekeeper,” “Society of the Snow,” “Menus Plaisir Les Troisgros”

NIGHT SWIM

NIGHT SWIM

Night Swim is an upcoming American supernatural horror film written and directed by Bryce McGuire (in his feature directorial debut), and based on the 2014 short film of the same name by McGuire and Rod Blackhurst. The film stars Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferle and Gavin Warren, as a family whose backyard swimming pool is haunted.

Premise

After the Waller family moves into a new house, they find an unknown supernatural presence that haunts the backyard swimming pool.[3]

Cast

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THE BEEKEEPER

THE BEEKEEPER

The Beekeeper is an upcoming American action thriller film directed by David Ayer and written by Kurt Wimmer. It stars Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Bobby Naderi, Minnie Driver, Phylicia Rashad and Jeremy Irons.

Synopsis

Mr. Clay is a former operative of a clandestine organization called “Beekeepers”. After his friend and neighbor dies by suicide after falling for a phishing scam, Mr. Clay sets out to exact revenge against the company responsible.[3]

Cast

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SOCIETY OF THE SNOW

SOCIETY OF THE SNOW

Society of the Snow (Spanish: La sociedad de la nieve) is a 2023 survival thriller film directed by J. A. Bayona about the Uruguayan 1972 Andes flight disaster.[4] It is an adaptation of Pablo Vierci‘s book of the same name,[5] which documents accounts of all 16 survivors of the crash, many of whom Vierci knew from childhood.[6] The cast is composed of Uruguayan and Argentine actors, most of whom are newcomers.

It received critical acclaim, with several critics calling it Bayona’s best work ever. The film was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards,[13] and was one of the 15 finalist films in the December shortlist.[14]

Cast

The cast is as follows:[15][16][17][18]

  • Enzo Vogrincic Roldán as Numa Turcatti
  • Matías Recalt as Roberto Canessa
  • Agustín Pardella as Nando Parrado
  • Tomas Wolf as Gustavo Zerbino
  • Diego Vegezzi as Marcelo Pérez del Castillo
  • Esteban Kukuriczka as Adolfo “Fito” Strauch
  • Francisco Romero as Daniel Fernández Strauch
  • Rafael Federman as Eduardo Strauch
  • Felipe González Otaño as Carlitos Páez
  • Agustín Della Corte as Antonio “Tintín” Vizintín
  • Valentino Alonso as Alfredo “Pancho” Delgado
  • Simón Hempe as José Luis “Coche” Inciarte
  • Fernando Contigiani García as Arturo Nogueira
  • Benjamín Segura as Rafael “el Vasco” Echavarren
  • Rocco Posca as Ramón “Moncho” Sabella
  • Luciano Chatton as Pedro Algorta
  • Agustín Berruti as Bobby François
  • Juan Caruso as Álvaro Mangino
  • Andy Pruss as Roy Harley
  • Santiago Vaca Narvaja as Daniel Maspons
  • Esteban Bigliardi as Javier Methol
  • Paula Baldini as Liliana Methol
  • Federico Aznarez as Enrique Platero
  • Alfonsina Carrocio as Susana Parrado
  • Silvia Giselle Pereyra as Eugenia Parrado
  • Virginia Kaufmann as Esther Nicola
  • Felipe Ramusio as Diego Storm
  • Blas Polidori as Gustavo Nicolich
  • Emanuel Parga as Carlos Roque
  • Iair Said as Julio César Ferradas
  • Louta as Gastón Costemalle
  • Carlos “Carlitos” Páez as his father, Carlos Páez Vilaró[19]
  • Maximiliano de la Cruz as Lt Col Dante Lagurara

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MENUS PLAISIR LES TROISGROS

Founded in 1930 in central France, the Troisgros family restaurant has been holding 3 Michelin stars for 55 years over four generations. Michel Troisgros, the third generation to head the restaurant, has turned over the responsibility for the cuisine to his son César, the 4th generation of Troisgros chefs. From the market to pick fresh vegetables, to a cheese processing plant, a vineyard, an organic cattle ranch to the backyard garden supplying the restaurant, Wiseman embarks us on a mouthwatering and sense-pleasing journey into the family’s three restaurant kitchens. An immersive experience, showing the great artistry, ingenuity, imagination, and hard work of the restaurant staff in creating, preparing, and presenting meals of the highest quality.

  • GENRE:  Documentary
Directed by Frederick Wiseman
Produced by Olivier Giel · Karen Konicek

MENUS PLAISIR LES TROISGROS

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1/2/2024#”Night Swim,” “The Beekeeper,” “Society of the Snow,” “Menus Plaisir Les Troisgros”

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