Pawn Sacrifice, 2014. Directed by Edward Zwick. Starring Tobey Maguire, Peter Sarsgaard, Liev Schreiber, and Michael Stuhlbarg. SYNOPSIS: American chess phenomenon Bobby Fischer squares off against his Russian rival Boris Spassky in the 1972 “Match of the Century” in Reykjavik, Iceland.   Archival news footage talks about the disappearance of Bobby Fischer who is competing for the […]

Red Army, 2014. Directed by Gabe Polsky. Starring Slava Fetisov, Vladislav Tretiak, Scotty Bowman, and Vladimir Pozner.   SYNOPSIS: Following the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, Red Army tells the story of the nation’s famed Red Army hockey team through the eyes of its captain Slava Fetisov. During the Cold War the Soviet […]

’71, 2014. Directed by Yann Demange. Starring Jack O’Connell, Paul Anderson, Richard Dormer, Sean Harris, Barry Keoghan, Martin McCann, Charlie Murphy, and Sam Reid.   SYNOPSIS: In the divided city of Belfast at the height of The Troubles, a rookie British soldier finds himself separated from his unit and lost in IRA-controlled territory. British soldiers are put […]

Big Game, 2014. Directed by Jalmari Helander. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Onni Tommila, Ray Stevenson, Mehmet Kurtulus, Victor Garber, Ted Levine, Felicity Huffman, and Jim Broadbent. SYNOPSIS: Trapped in the wilderness after Air Force One is forced down by a terrorist attack, the President of the United States must rely on the survival skills of a 13-year-old […]

Nightcrawler, 2014. Directed by Dan Gilroy. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Ann Cusack, Kevin Rahm, Anne McDaniels, Riz Ahmed and Michael Hyatt. SYNOPSIS: A young man stumbles upon the underground world of L.A. freelance crime journalism. A security guard discovers a chain fence being cut by a mysterious individual who assaults him for his watch.  The thief in question is Lou […]

The Price We Pay (La Face cachée de l’impôt), 2014. Directed by Harold Crooks. SYNOPSIS: The  documentary explores the dark history and dire present-day reality of big-business tax avoidance, which has seen multinationals depriving governments of trillions of dollars in tax revenues by harbouring profits in offshore havens. Corporations like individuals try to avoid paying taxes […]

Coming Home (Gui lai), 2014. Directed by Zhang Yimou. Starring Gong Li, Chen Daoming, and Zhang Huiwen.   SYNOPSIS: In the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, an amnesiac woman (superstar Gong Li) struggles to regain her memory and reconnect with her long-imprisoned husband. A Chinese academic escapes from political prison after a decade of being incarcerated and […]

The Tale of Princess Kaguya (Kaguyahime no monogatari), 2013. Directed by Isao Takahata. Starring Aki Asakura, Kengo Kora, Takeo Chii, and Nobuko Miyamoto. SYNOPSIS: Based on a tenth-century folk tale, an old man finds a princess in a bamboo who is only the size of a finger. A bamboo cutter is out in the forest where he […]

Scarlet Innocence (Madam Ppang-Deok), 2014. Directed by Yim Pil-sung. Starring Woo-sung Jung, Esom, and So-young Park.   SYNOPSIS: Small-town girl Deokee is abandoned by university professor Hak-kyu after a lusty affair, and vengefully approaches him 8 years later when he starts suffering from blindness. A university professor seeks refuge teaching in a small town while a […]

Life in a Fishbowl (Vonarstræti), 2014. Directed by Baldvin Zophoníasson. Starring Hera Hilmar, Thorsteinn Bachmann, and Thor Kristjansson. SYNOPSIS: The lives of a struggling single mother, a former athlete trying to scale the corporate ladder, and a once-acclaimed author turned full-time drunk intersect in surprising ways. All three stories begin on a dark rainy night situated in […]