Three Orphan Kittens (1935)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Animated Short Film

Director: David Hand

Composer: Frank Churchill

Animator: Ken Anderson

On a snowy winter’s night, three orphaned kittens sneak into a warm, dry house, and go in search of food and excitement, but precede to wreck the place, in this mildly amusing Disney cartoon, which was created as part of the Silly Symphonies series. Iain.Stott

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Edmond (2005)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Stuart Gordon

Writer: David Mamet

Cinematographer: Denis Maloney

Composer: Bobby Johnston

Cast: William H. Macy, Julia Stiles, Bokeem Woodbine, Rebecca Pidgeon, Joe Mantegna, Bai Ling, Lionel Mark Smith

Adapted by Mamet from his acclaimed 1982 play, this disturbing and provocative film – in which a mousey businessman leaves his wife and sets off into the Manhattan night in search of sex, encountering prostitutes, pimps, hustlers, and pawnbrokers – proves to be an excellent portrait of a man (and perhaps a society) in the midst of mental breakdown as well as a damning examination of prejudice. Iain.Stott

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Sugar (2008)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Writer/Directors: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck

Cinematographer: Andrij Parekh

Composer: Michael Brook

Cast: Algenis Perez Soto, Rayniel Rufino, Andre Holland, Ellary Porterfield, Jaime Tirelli, Richard Bull, Ann Whitney, Jose Rijo, Michael Gaston

A promising young Dominican (baseball) pitcher at a Caribbean MLB feeder club is transferred to a minor league team in Iowa, where things initially go well, but when his two closest friends are sent elsewhere and his romantic intentions rejected his form begins to dip dramatically, in this constantly surprising, cliché-swerving, and very moving portrait of an innocent abroad. Iain.Stott

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Metropolis (2001)

Recommended

Japan

Animated Feature Film

Original Title: メトロポリス

Director: Rintaro

Writers: Ōtomo Katsuhiro, Tezuka Osamu

Cinematographer: Yamaguchi Hitoshi

Composer: Yamaguchi Hitoshi

Cast: Yuka Imoto, Kei Kobayashi, Kouki Okada, Tarō Ishida, Kousei Tomita, Norio Wakamoto, Junpei Takiguchi

The nefarious leader of Metropolis hires a mad scientist to build a life-like robot to replace his dead daughter Tima, whom he wishes to help him with his plans to rule the world; but an arson attack on the laboratory in which she is being built leads to her meeting with a kindly Japanese boy instead, in this visually stunning and surprisingly moving animated film, which contains at least one sequence (of lyrical destruction, scored to an ironically mellifluous Ray Charles ditty) that will leave an indelible mark upon all those that see it. Iain.Stott

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Hidden Gems

An ever-expanding collection of little-seen should-be classics that have yet to find the audience that their evident quality deserves.

• A Is for Autism (1992)
• Adam Elliot's Family Trilogy (1996-1999)
• Adrift (2009)
• Alexander the Last (2009)
• The Ape (2009)
• The Arbor (2010)
• Asphalt (1929)
• The Baby and the Buddha (2008)
• Back to Normandy (2007)
• Baldwin's Nigger (1968)
• Barren Lives (1963)
• Beautiful City (2004)
• Begone Dull Care (1949)
• The Beiderbecke Affair (1985)
• La Belle Captive (1983)
• Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (1969)
• The Black Stuff (1980)
• Blood (1989)
• Bloody Kids (1979)
• Blue Eyelids (2007)
• Bodysong (2003)
• Boys from the Blackstuff (1982)
• Brother (1999)
• Cathy Come Home (1966)
• Caught on a Train (1980)
• Children (1976)
• The Chorus (1982)
• The Cloud-Capped Star (1960)
• Cold Weather (2010)
• Colin (2008)
• Composition in Blue (1935)
• Comrades (1986)
• Convict 99 (1938)
• Cousin (1998)
• Culloden (1964)
• Dance Party, USA (2006)
• David Holzman's Diary (1967)
• A Day Out (1972)
• Days and Nights in the Forest (1970)
• Death and Transfiguration (1983)
• Decasia (2002)
• Desperate Man Blues (2003)
• Diamonds of the Night (1964)
• Dinner at Noon (1988)
• Dive (2010)
• Dragonflies (2001)
• The Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906)
• L'Eau Froide (1994)
• The Elephants' Graveyard (1976)
• An Englishman Abroad (1983)
• Eva (1948)
• Exhibit A (2007)
• Family Nest (1979)
• Four Days in July (1985)
• Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me (2008)
• The Freebie (2010)
• G.B.H. (1991)
• Gallivant (1997)
• The Ghost Train (1941)
• Ghosts of the 7th Cavalry (2009)
• Going Equipped (1987)
• Grown-Ups (1980)
• Hancock & Joan (2008)
• Hard Labour (1973)
• Her Name Is Sabine (2007)
• The History Man (1981)
• Home (2003)
• Home Sweet Home (1982)
• Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)
• I, Pierre Rivière (1976)
• The Insurance Man (1986)
• It's a Grand Life (1953)
• It's in the Bag! (1945)
• Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960)
• Journey to the Beginning of the World (1997)
• A Killing in a Small Town (1990)
• King & Country (1964)
• Lancement d'un Navire (1896)
• A Light Snack (1975)
• The London Nobody Knows (1967)
• Love (1971)
• Lovely by Surprise (2007)
• The Low Down (2000)
• Madonna and Child (1980)
• The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (1965)
• The Miners' Strike (2004)
• Modern Life (2008)
• The Most Beautiful Man in the World (2002)
• The Munekata Sisters (1950)
• My Joy (2010)
• My Learned Friend (1943)
• Mysterious Object at Noon (2000)
• Nights and Weekends (2008)
• The Only Son (1936)
• People on Sunday (1930)
• The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008)
• Post Mortem (2010)
• Pripyat (1999)
• The Quiet One (1948)
• Radio On (1980)
• Red Angel (1966)
• Repast (1951)
• Roxy (2010)
• Scum (1977)
• Sleep Furiously (2008)
• Something Happened (1987)
• Stand Up, Nigel Barton (1965)
• The Steamie (1988)
• Sunset Across the Bay (1975)
• Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life (1935)
• The Terence Davies Trilogy (1984)
• This Filthy Earth (2001)
• To Sleep with Anger (1990)
• The Trip (2010)
• 21-87 (1964)
• Two Solutions for One Problem (1975)
• Uncle (1996)
• The Unloved (2009)
• A Visit to Peek Frean and Co.'s Biscuit Works (1906)
• VOTE, VOTE, VOTE for Nigel Barton (1965)
• What the Butler Saw (1987)
• Which Way Home (2009)
• Whistle and I'll Come to You (2010)
• Who Cares (1971)
• Will It Snow for Christmas? (1996)
• The Wind of Changes (1996)
• A Woman of No Importance. (1982)
• Women of the Night (1948)
• Young Islands (2011)

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Åke Sandgren

• Miracle in Valby (1989)
• Facklorna (1991)
• The Slingshot (1993)
• Big Men, Little Men (1995)
• Beyond (2000)
• Truly Human (2001)
• Flies on the Wall (2005)
• To Love Someone (2007)

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Joshua Safdie

• Lethargy (2002)
• We're Going to the Zoo (2006)
• The Back of Her Head (2007)
• The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008)
• Daddy Longlegs (2009)

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