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Martha Marcy May Marlene

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  • Title: Martha Marcy May Marlene
  • IMDB: link

martha-marcy-may-marlene-dvdElizabeth Olsen stars in writer/director Sean Durkin‘s story of a woman’s struggles to reassmilate with the outside world after living in a cult for two years. Durkin’s tale is a slow burn thriller that jumps between flashbacks of Martha’s (Olsen) time in the Catskill Mountains and her present paranoia and uncertainty now that she’s left that world behind.

Out of the blue Lucy (Sarah Paulson), receives a phone call from a phone call from her younger sister and brings Martha home to live with her and her husband Ted (Hugh Dancy). The longer Martha stays with the couple the more obvious it becomes that there is something seriously wrong with her.

Not only does Martha not understand basic boundaries (like not coming into her sister’s room and laying down on the bed when Lucy is having sex with her husband), but she’s also haunted by memories of the cult, which she will not discuss with her sister, and feels increasingly suspicious that they are still watching her and laying in wait to bring her back into their family.

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Tower Heist

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  • Title: Tower Heist
  • IMDB: link

tower-heist-blu-rayDirector Brett Ratner hasn’t had what I would call a distinguished career. Other than the fun, but increasingly dumb, Rush Hour series the director’s filmography mostly contains movies which are best left forgotten.

However, at least for me, the true highlight of Ratner’s career was a heist film he made back in 2004 starring Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Woody Harrelson, and Don Cheadle. After the Sunset isn’t a great film by any definition, but it is a pretty good heist flick that’s far more fun than it has any right to be.

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Waste of Time

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  • Title: In Time
  • IMDB: link

in-time-dvdIn a world where the population is genetically engineered to stop aging at 25, time becomes a commodity to be bartered, traded, and stolen. Without acquiring more time those who have already reached their 25th birthday begin to see the final year of their limited life start to fade away.

When a wealthy benefactor (Matt Bomer) looking to die bequeaths Will (Justin Timberlake) a century of time the young man from the ghetto learns the truth about how time is horded by the wealthiest class and decides to do something about it.

Kidnapping a young girl (Amanda Seyfried) and persued by a time cop (Cillian Murphy), Will does his best by living day to day with a limited amount of time by committing the worst crime in the world, the same thing that got his father killed – giving away time.

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Project Nim

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  • Title: Project Nim
  • IMDB: link

project-nim-dvdFrom director James Marsh, Project Nim examines the study undertaken in the 1970’s which was an attempt to prove a chimpanzee, raised by humans, could be taught to act human and communicate through Sign Language.

The documentary includes interviews from several of those involved in the project including Herbert S. Terrace who led and championed the study for years but eventually concluded Nim only learned signs tied to certain rewards but never developed a full understanding of the language he was using.

Project Nim has an amazing wealth of documentary footage taken from the study. With this footage, and the interviews, Marsh puts together a film that not only documents the study but captures the emotional experiences of those involved with Nim including those who only saw him as an experiment, those who thought of him as part of their family, and those who were physically attacked by a chimpanzee they had come to view as a friend.

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Drive

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  • Title: Drive
  • IMDB: link

drive-blu-rayBased on James Sallis‘ 2005 novel, adapted for the screen by Hossein Amini, Drive stars Ryan Gosling as a getaway driver with no name who finds himself in a sticky situation when he breaks his own rules. If this sounds a little like The Transporter franchise, well it is, but director Nicolas Winding Refn decides to treat a rather ordinary action tale as an art house film drawing comparisons to dramatic action films of the late 60’s and 70’s like Steve McQueen‘s Bullit.

The Driver has everything he needs. His evident skill gets him consistant stunt car work and the far more lucrative (though far less legal) jobs no one else can do. His business partner (Bryan Cranston) has just closed a deal with a mobster (Albert Brooks) to buy a stock car which will allow the Driver to finally hit the big time. But when the Driver allows himself to be sucked into the troubles of an attractive neighbor (Carey Mulligan) and her young son (Kaden Leos) by agreeing to help her husband (Oscar Isaac) pull off a big score things go horribly wrong.

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