Winged Creatures

Winged Creatures: Kate Beckinsale

Winged Creatures

Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Forest Whitaker, Jennifer Hudson, Embeth Davidtz, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Josh Hutcherson

While in a restaurant, Carla Davenport (Kate Beckinsale), Charlie Archenault (Forest Whitaker), Bruce Laraby (Guy Pearce), Anne Hagen (Dakota Fanning) and her best friend Jimmy Jasperson (Josh Hutcherson) suddenly hear gunshots. Anne's father, Anne and Jimmy retreat under a table to watch a suicidal gunman shoot several people (including Anne's father) and then himself. This is what causes the trauma between the five that survived the murder. Struggling to understand her father's death, Anne forms some sort of religious hysteria. Jimmy becomes mute, protecting a secret that he and Anne share until it nearly destroys him and his already fractured family.

Charlie, who was grazed by a bullet and is a driving-school teacher, attempts to make his incredible luck work for him at the casino. Carla, the restaurant cashier, loses her ability to take care of herself and her infant son. (Ron Abler), a psychologist, attempts to help the survivors but is met with suspicion and little response from any of them. Dr. Laraby (Guy Pearce), an ER physician who failed to save two of the shooting victims, turns to his wife as someone to 'save.' The movie follows these five traumatized people as they struggle to regain their trust in the ordinary world.

The Air I Breathe

The Air I Breathe

Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kevin Bacon, Forest Whitaker, Andy Garcia

Forever linked together by ruthless crime boss Fingers (Andy Garcia) and a series of unpredictable twists of fate, the characters of The Air I Breathe weave together in an existential study in luck, both good and bad.

Sarah Michelle Gellar

Director Jieho Lee divides this vast tale into four distinct threads: a timid businessman (Forest Whitaker) bets his life on a horse race after he discovers the fix is in; a fragile pop star (Sarah Michelle Gellar) finds her management contract unexpectedly in jeopardy; a gangster (Brendan Fraser) who sees the future must decide whether to follow his visions; and an doctor (Kevin Bacon) tries to save the love of his life from a deadly injury.

As the world keeps spinning and these individual tales give way to hidden connections and underlying similarities, The Air I Breathe uses this unlikely mix of drama and characters to dramatize an ancient Chinese proverb that evokes life’s four emotional cornerstones: happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love. It’s when these four overlapping stories come to a head, however, and these emotions unexpectedly surface, collide and explode, that the movie suggests our destiny whether it is steeped in sweet sorrow or tragic happiness may ultimately be something we bring on ourselves. Lee fluidly maneuvers between the storylines, letting the pieces fall together organically until the final climax. The phenomenal ensemble cast, including Julie Delpy and Emile Hirsch, moves through all the twists and turns with ease as the cleverly constructed vignettes unite in an emotionally resonant whole.

Powder Blue

Powder Blue: Jessica Biel

Powder Blue

Cast: Ray Liotta, Forest Whitaker, Jessica Biel, Patrick Swayze, Kris Kristofferson, Eddie Redmayne, Alejandro Romero, Riki Lindhome

Los Angeles, a city of over 10 million inhabitants, is fabled the world over for a flashy landscape punctuated by the promise of fame and glamour. But beneath the tabloid headlines and the flashing bulbs lies a city whose people clamor every day to simply find a place for themselves.

In Powder Blue, four people embark on different journeys that lead them through the same place. A place where loneliness abounds and everything wrings the heart, but where truths are revealed and human connections are found.

Charlie Bishop, a former priest, has lost his faith and sets out on an unspeakable mission. He struggles to free himself of his religious training and ethical beliefs, which have become profoundly ingrained in his physical and emotional existence. He loads two bullets into a gun, and with fifty thousand dollars in the trunk of his car, roams the city streets searching for someone desperate enough to pull the trigger in exchange for the money. But even desperation is finite, and there are lines that even those who live on the periphery won’t cross.

On the other side of town, a former hit-man drifts in an out of consciousness on a city bus. Jack Doheny, recently released from a twenty-five year sentence in prison, has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Knowing that any breath could be his last, he sets out to find redemption in a now unfamiliar world where the only familiar things are faded mementos of a past love found through a young woman named Rose-Johnny.

Like thousands before and after her, Rose-Johnny moved to L.A. with dreams of becoming a screen star. But her dreams are crushed when her son falls into a coma after a serious accident. She lives alone in a motel and out of desperation and need, dances at a bar to cover the staggering hospital bills. Her only prayer is that her son will awake, and her only comfort is her beloved dog Rudy. One night, after another awkward and unsuccessful date, she returns to the motel to find her dog missing. Grief stricken and panicked at the thought of losing everything, she combs the streets searching for her lost companion.

Meanwhile, Charlie the priest encounters Qwerty Doolittle, a young eccentric mortician who spends his days helping the less fortunate in their time of need. Qwerty’s unusual empathy and charitable tendencies have put him in serious debt and in grave danger of losing his business. With Charlie’s gun and offer of money, Qwerty has a decision to make that could change his life forever.

Fate and synchronicity cause these four strangers to intersect through extraordinary and serendipitous circumstances. Even in a city that shatters dreams as casually as it fulfills them, fear and courage can slip open a door to the one thing everybody in any city dreams of finding… love.

Repo Men

Repo Men

Repo Men

Cast: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Liev Schreiber, RZA, Alice Braga, Carice van Houten

Humans have extended and improved our lives through highly sophisticated and expensive mechanical organs created by a company called The Union. The dark side of these medical breakthroughs is that if you don’t pay your bill, The Union sends its highly skilled repo men to take back its property…with no concern for your comfort or survival.

Jude Law plays Remy, one of the best organ repo men in the business. But when he suffers a cardiac failure on the job, he awakens to find himself fitted with the company’s top-of-the-line heart-replacement…as well as a hefty debt. But a side effect of the procedure is that his heart’s no longer in the job. When he can’t make the payments, The Union sends its toughest enforcer, Remy’s former partner Jake to track him down.

Now that the hunter has become the hunted, Remy joins Beth (Alice Braga), another debtor who teaches him how to vanish from the system. And as he and Jake embark on a chase across a landscape populated by maniacal friends and foes, one man will become a reluctant champion for thousands on the run.