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Bad Day to Go Fishing
Uruguay, 2009, 110 min.
A droll dark comedy that plays out like a classic Western crossed with the decidedly modern sensibilities of filmmaker such as Jim Jarmusch or Aki Kaurismäki, this quirky tale pits a scamming hustler and his wrestler sidekick against the inhabitants of a small Uruguayan town, circa 1961.... more
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Devil's Town
Serbia, 2009, 82 min.
A stylish black comedy about life in contemporary Belgrade that satirizes the moral malaise clouding Serbia, Devil's Town features a host of top actors as city dwellers whose lives intersect on a hot summer day while the country's tennis stars compete in an important tournament.... more
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Dogtooth
Greece, 2009, 96 min.
In this shocking satire on middle-class mores, the über-controlling parents of three teenage offspring plot to preserve them from worldly contamination. But the introduction of a lusty female security guard into their secluded life acts like a spark to tinder.... more
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Eamon
Ireland, 2009, 85 min.
A family holiday at the Irish seaside brings the tensions between a little boy with behavioral problems, his selfish mother and sexually frustrated father to a blackly comic peak. An entertainingly horrific, confidently stylized vision of the Oedipus complex in action.... more
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Excited
Canada, 2009, 83 min.
In this smart dramatic comedy that impishly bills itself as a relationship movie "about premature ejaculation," successful businessman and sexual sad-sack Kevin learns a thing or two about relationships when he is introduced to the sexy Hayamm. Funny, pithy and profane in equal measure.... more
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I Love You Phillip Morris
USA, 2009, 100 min.
Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor are madly in love in this deliriously daring and hilariously entertaining story of a con man (Carrey) continually breaking out of jail to be with his man (McGregor). Unlike anything else you will see this year. From the writers of the deliciously subversive Bad Santa... more
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Involuntary
Sweden, 2008, 98 min.
A quirky comedy about the nature of group dynamics. Two teenage girls take risqué pictures and get drunk; a group of young men experiment with sex; a righteous teacher tries to set things right; and a bus driver holds a group of passengers prisoner.... more
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Landscape No. 2
Slovenia, 2009, 90 min.
A killer representing an ugly, unresolved and nearly forgotten chapter of post-WWII history confronts a cynical, amoral Everyman in Landscape No. 2. Played realistically yet with a wink to Grand Guignol theatrics, this audacious, superbly crafted, contemporary horror film spiced with humor.... more
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The Last Days of Emma Blank
Netherlands, 2009, 90 min.
Emma Blank is waiting for her death. So are her servants. The staff of Blank's isolated country home has long submitted to her venomous attitude and irrational whims with an eye on an inheritance, but the truth about this way-offbeat household will slowly be revealed in this pitch-black comedy.... more
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Mother
South Korea, 2009, 128 min.
Korean master Bong Joon-Ho's follow-up to The Host is an equally exhilarating and blackly humorous work, this one a jaw-dropping melodrama about an obsessive mother fighting to prove that her emotionally stunted son is innocent of the brutal murder of a local girl.... more
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My Dog Tulip
USA, 2009, 83 min.
This delightful animated adaptation of J.R. Ackerley's quirky 1947 memoir looks at the loving relationship between the author and his muse -- an Alsatian with a huge desire for doggie sex. The film's mordant wit and warmth make a winning combination.... more
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North
Norway, 2009, 78 min.
Aptly billed as "an antidepressive off-road movie," this wry comic drama follows an anxious ex-skiing ace as he reluctantly journeys through spectacular arctic landscapes and reconnects with life. Magnificently visual, with deadpan acting and a quirky economy of style.... more
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OSS 117: Lost in Rio
France, 2009, 100 min.
Twelve years after his adventures in Cairo, agent OSS 117 is back for another mission at the end of the world. He teams up with a sexy Mossad agent to capture a Nazi blackmailer. With a jubilantly retro score and a flair for using 1960s vocabulary to revisit colonial arrogance with biting satire.... more
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Reverse
Poland, 2009, 101 min.
A darkly comic story of three generations of Polish women and the mysterious young man whose presence sparks a series of surprising events that change all of their lives. Best Film, Actress, and Cinematography, Gdynia Film Festival; FIPRESCI Award, Warsaw Film Festival.... more
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Shoot the Hero
USA, 2009, 82 min.
When a young couple shops for wedding rings they accidentally become eyewitnesses to a jewelry store heist gone awry. A mob boss dispatches a mysterious hit man to find the couple and clean up the mess. What follows is an action-packed romp full of thugs, fights, laughs and love.... more
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Terribly Happy
Denmark, 2009, 102 min.
A Danish village hides as many secrets as the nearby bog in this entertaining thriller about the universal nature of compromise and corruption. Full of surprising twists, Terribly Happy plays with genres as expertly as do the Coen brothers or David Lynch.... more
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Time of the Comet
Albania, 2008, 103 min.
Romantic, tragic and profoundly hilarious, this period epic, set shortly before WWI and based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Ismail Kadare, marries the absurdity of war to the utter absurdity that was once Albania.... more
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Will Not Stop There
Croatia, 2008, 112 min.
When a Croatian war vet turned private investigator recognizes an actress in a Serbian porn film, his quest to find her leads to blackly comic complications in this sardonic romantic drama. Vinko Bresan, the leading director of the Young Croatian Film generation, offers an acerbic satire that target... more
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The World is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner
Bulgaria, 2009, 105 min.
This sweet intergenerational drama about an amnesiac helped toward recovery by his charismatic grandfather encompasses over 30 years of social and identity crises, with backgammon as a metaphor for life.... more
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