Perhaps the most prominent coming-of-age comedy of the early aughts, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE chronicles the listless life of an awkward boy from Idaho and his egregious grandma, poindexter brother, philanthropic best friend, raucous uncle and salivating pet llama.
From master filmmaker Roy Andersson, a simple yet emotionally honest tale of two young lovers set in relief against the chronically dysfunctional adults in their lives.
The ’70s at their grungiest are captured by Uli Edel’s 1981 film with Natja Brunckhorst as 14-year-old David Bowie-obsessed junkie crashing in West Berlin’s Zoo Station. Bowie himself appears in a concert performance, and the film’s soundtrack is a virtual compendium of the epochal musician’s celebrated “Berlin period” — and a perfect sonic evocation of nightclubbing’s dark side.
Charlie (Logan Lerman) is sweet, shy, and suffers from psychiatric distress. Determined to not let PTSD ruin his freshman year, he hits the highschool hallways with one goal in mind — to find a friend.
Shout! Studios and GKIDS present Hong Kong Cinema Classics (HKCC), a retrospective of essential titles produced in the creative epicenter of Hong Kong, newly scanned in 4K and restored from original camera elements. Featuring works from directors John Woo, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and Ching Siu-tung, these stories of cops and criminals, Chinese opera, and supernatural forces showcase one of the most explosively inventive eras in modern filmmaking.
A gripping slow-burn tale about the thin line between devoted fandom and dangerous obsession, LURKER worms its way under the viewer’s skin as a fan insinuates himself within the inner circle of a musician on a meteoric rise. Writer and director Alex Russell, who has produced and written for critically acclaimed series The Bear and Beef, marks his feature debut with this sharp critique of modern fame.
A vivid, visceral Macbeth adaptation, THRONE OF BLOOD sets Shakespeare’s definitive tale of ambition and duplicity in a ghostly, fog-enshrouded landscape in feudal Japan, fusing classical Western tragedy with formal elements taken from Noh theater to create an unforgettable cinematic experience.
Toshiro Mifune is unforgettable as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy industrialist whose family becomes the target of a cold-blooded kidnapper in Akira Kurosawa’s highly influential domestic drama and police procedural.
Considered by some to be Kurosawa’s greatest achievement, IKIRU presents the director at his most compassionate — affirming life through an exploration of a man’s death. Takashi Shimura portrays Kanji Watanabe, an aging bureaucrat who is forced to strip the veneer off his existence and find meaning in his final days.
In Akira Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed companion piece to YOJIMBO (Aug 10-11), jaded samurai Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune) helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a "proper" samurai on its ear.