New Movie Releases

By: Mass

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

Release Date: June 22, 2011 (limited) 

Studio: Oscilloscope Pictures
Director: Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman
Screenwriter: Matthew Hamachek, Marshall Curry
Starring: Not Available
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Plot Summary: On December 7th, 2005, federal agents conducted a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front -- an organization the FBI has called America's "number one domestic terrorism threat." "If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" is the remarkable story of the group's rise and fall, told through the transformation and radicalization of one of its members, Daniel McGowan. Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a chronicle of McGowan facing life in prison with a dramatic investigation of the events that led to his involvement with the ELF. Using never-before-seen archival footage and intimate interviews -- with cell members and with the prosecutor and detective who were chasing them -- "If a Tree Falls" asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.

Passione

Release Date: June 22, 2011 (limited) 

Studio: Squeezed Heart
Director: John Turturro
Screenwriter: John Turturro, Federico Vacalebre
Starring: John Turturro, Mina, Spakka-Neapolis 55, Avion Travel, Misia, Pietra Montecorvino, Massimo Ranieri, Lina Sastri, M’barka Ben Taleb, Gennaro Cosmo Parlato, Peppe Barra, Angela Luce, Max Casella, Raiz, James Senese, Fausto Cigliano, Fiorello, Enzo Avitabile
Genre: Documentary, Music
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Plot Summary: This wild, colorful, sexy ode to the music and people of Naples - A brilliant actor in film, theater, and television, Turturro is also the director, a man whose talents are fueled by an unquenchable zest for life. He describes his new film as “a musical adventure that comes directly out of the people and the volcanic land they inhabit. Conjuring ancient stories and myths that still live — of love, sex, jealousy, and social protest — each song is a small screenplay, an emotional postcard. I tried to see if I could understand in a small way, a little bit of the soul of the city, while at the same time killing clichés about it. There are places you go and once is enough. Then, there’s Napoli.” 

A Better Life

Release Date: June 24, 2011 (limited) 

Studio: Summit Entertainment
Director: Chris Weitz
Screenwriter: Eric Eason
Starring: Demian Bichir, José Julián, Dolores Heredia, Joaquín Cosio, Carlos Linares
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some violence, language and brief drug use)
Plot Summary: Carlos Galindo dreamed of good things for his wife and future son when they crossed the border into the US. But when his wife left him, wanting more than he could give, Carlos’ only goal became to make sure his son Luis was given the opportunities he never had. After years of hard work and trying to set an example for his child, he still finds himself drifting apart from Luis, now a teenager, who is susceptible to peer pressures that could lead him down a dangerous path. Seeing a way to control their own destiny, Carlos borrows what little money he can and invests it all into his own gardening business, hoping to finally achieve the better life he always envisioned for his son.
However, after an unexpected turn of events, when everything he’s worked for is suddenly taken away, it is Luis, despite years of growing apart, who teams up with Carlos to take it back. Together, father and son embark on a physical and spiritual journey where they discover something more important – that family is the most important part of the American dream.

A Love Affair of Sorts

Release Date: June 24, 2011 (NY; LA release: July 2011) 

Studio: Paladin
Director: David Guy Levy
Screenwriter: David Guy Levy
Starring: David Guy Levy, Lili Bordán, Jonathan Beckerman, Iván Kamarás
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Plot Summary: Blurring the edges between reality and fiction, and in an era where we all live in public to a certain extent, "A Love Affair of Sorts" is a modern twist on a love affair in the digital age.
The first feature film to be shot entirely on a flip camera, its narrative follows two lonely strangers in modern day Los Angeles, during the holiday season. The film begins with David (Director David Guy Levy), a painter, and Enci (Lili Bordán), a Hungarian nanny, who meet in a bookstore when he catches her shoplifting on his ever-present flip camera. As they start a tentative relationship, he captures it all on his digital camera, though nothing about the situation is as straightforward as it seems.
Things are complicated further with the addition of Enci's boyfriend, Boris (Iván Kamarás), and David's brutally honest friend, Jonathan (Jonathan Beckerman as himself, and unaware until the end of the shoot that the film he was in was fictional).
Chronicling the couple's desire to be constantly filmed, and their need to really connect in the lonely landscape of Los Angeles at Christmastime, "A Love Affair of Sorts" takes a wry look at the way technology brings us together while also keeping us at a distance, and how it may have changed what it is to love and be loved.

Bad Teacher

Release Date: June 24, 2011 

Studio: Columbia Pictures (Sony)
Director: Jake Kasdan
Screenwriter: Gene Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Lucy Punch, John Michael Higgins, Jason Segel, Phyllis Smith, Thomas Lennon, Eric Stonestreet
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: R (for sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use)
Plot Summary: Some teachers just don't give an F. For example, there's Elizabeth (Cameron Diaz). She's foul-mouthed, ruthless, and inappropriate. She drinks, she gets high, and she can't wait to marry her meal ticket and get out of her bogus day job. When she's dumped by her fiancé, she sets her plan in motion to win over a rich, handsome substitute (Justin Timberlake) – competing for his affections with an overly energetic colleague, Amy (Lucy Punch). When Elizabeth also finds herself fighting off the advances of a sarcastic, irreverent gym teacher (Jason Segel), the consequences of her wild and outrageous schemes give her students, her coworkers, and even herself an education like no other.

The Best and the Brightest

Release Date: June 24, 2011 (NY, LA) 

Studio: High Treason Pictures, Wellfleet Phantasy Productions, Big Indie Pictures
Director: Josh Shelov
Screenwriter: Josh Shelov, Michael Jaeger
Starring: Neil Patrick, Bonnie Somerville, Amy Sedaris, Jenna Stern, Christopher McDonald, Peter Serafinowicz, Bridget Regan, John Hodgman
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: R (for pervasive language, sexual content and some nudity)
Plot Summary: Jeff and Samantha Jasinski (Neil Patrick Harris and Bonnie Somerville) are a middle class married couple that move from Delaware to New York City with their five-year-old daughter for a last chance at "the big time." When they arrive to New York, they realize that there is a huge problem: they can't get their daughter into a single private kindergarten, all of which have been booked solid for months. The couple is immediately laughed at by every New York school administrator before desperately turning to a kindergarten consultant who believes Jeff should pose as a high-profile poet to have his child accepted. Jeff pawns off his friend's filthy e-mails and text messages as his poetry, which the school principal loves. Through sexual blackmail and creative persuasion, the Jasinskis battle to enroll their child for the fall semester.

Cars 2

Release Date: June 24, 2011 (3D/2D theaters and IMAX 3D) 

Studio: Disney•Pixar
Director: John Lasseter, Brad Lewis
Screenwriter: Ben Queen
Starring: Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Jason Isaacs, Joe Mantegna, Peter Jacobson, Thomas Kretschmann, Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, Guido Quaroni, Lloyd Sherr, Paul Dooley, John Ratzenberger, Jenifer Lewis, Michael Wallis, Katherine Helmond, John Turturro, Franco Nero, Vanessa Redgrave, Eddie Izzard, Bruce Campbell, Michel Michelis, Jeff Gordon, Darrell Waltrip, Lewis Hamilton, David Hobbs
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Comedy
MPAA Rating: G
Plot Summary: Star racecar Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) and the incomparable tow truck Mater (voice of Larry the Cable Guy) take their friendship to exciting new places in "Cars 2" when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world's fastest car. But the road to the championship is filled with plenty of potholes, detours and hilarious surprises when Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage. Torn between assisting Lightning McQueen in the high-profile race and towing the line in a top-secret spy mission, Mater’s action-packed journey leads him on an explosive chase through the streets of Japan and Europe, trailed by his friends and watched by the whole world. Adding to the fast-paced fun is a colorful new all-car cast that includes secret agents, menacing villains and international racing competitors.

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop

Release Date: June 24, 2011 (limited) 

Studio: Abramorama
Director: Rodman Flender
Screenwriter: Not Available
Starring: Conan O'Brien, Andy Richter, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: R (for language)
Plot Summary: After a much-publicized departure from hosting NBC's "Tonight Show" - and the severing of a 22-year relationship with the network - O'Brien hit the road with a 32-city music-and-comedy show to exercise his performing chops and exorcise a few demons. The "Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour" was O'Brien's answer to a contractual stipulation that banned his appearance on television, radio and the Internet for six months following his last show. Filmmaker Rodman Flender's resulting documentary, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, is an intimate portrait of an artist trained in improvisation, captured at the most improvisational time of his career. It offers a window into the private writers room and rehearsal halls as O'Brien's "half-assed show" (his words) is almost instantly assembled and mounted to an adoring fan base. At times angry, mostly hilarious, O'Brien works out his feelings about the very-public separation with comedy and rockabilly music, engaging in bits with on-stage guests such as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and Jim Carrey, duetting with Jack White and sweating out manic Elvis Presley covers with his band and back-up singers. We see a comic who does not stop -- performing, singing, pushing his staff and himself. Did Conan O'Brien hit the road to give something back to his loyal fans, or did he travel across the continent, stopping at cities large (New York, Las Vegas) and remote (Enoch, Alberta) to fill a void within himself?

General Orders No. 9

Release Date: June 24, 2011 (NY) 

Studio: Variance Films
Director: Robert Persons
Screenwriter: Not Available
Starring: Not Available
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Plot Summary: Awarded for its visionary cinematography, "General Orders No. 9" breaks from the constraints of the documentary form as it contemplates the signs of loss and change in the American South. The stunning culmination of over eleven years' work from first time writer-director Bob Persons, "General Orders No. 9" marries experimental filmmaking with an accessible, naturalist sensibility to tell the epic story of the clash between nature and man's progress, and reaches a bittersweet reconciliation all its own. Told entirely with images, poetry, and music, "General Orders No. 9" is unlike any film you have ever seen. A story told in maps, dreams, and prayers, it is one last trip down the rabbit hole before it's paved over.

Leap Year (Ano bisiesto)

Release Date: June 24, 2011 (NY; LA release: July 1,) 

Studio: Strand Releasing
Director: Michael Rowe
Screenwriter: Lucia Carreras, Michael Rowe
Starring: Monica del Carmen, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Armando Hernández
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Plot Summary: Laura, a young journalist living an isolated life in a cramped Mexico City flat, is not lucky in love. The banality of her daily life stands in stark contrast to her nightly pursuit of sex and love. These short-lived affairs barely take the edge off her isolation, but then she meets the brooding, would-be actor Arturo. Their chemistry ignites feelings in Laura that leave her deeply troubled. The two embark on an increasingly dangerous sadomasochistic relationship in which pleasure, pain and love merge. Their physical relationship seems headed for a very dark place as her secret past resurfaces, pushing Arturo to the limit in this intense, powerful and at times deeply unsettling movie.

The Names of Love

Release Date: June 24, 2011 (limited) 

Studio: Music Box Films
Director: Michel Leclerc
Screenwriter: Michel Leclerc, Baya Kasmi
Starring: Jacques Gamblin, Sara Forestier, Zinedine Soualem
Genre: Comedy, Romance
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Plot Summary: Baya Benmahmoud, a young, extroverted liberal, lives by the old hippie slogan: "Make love, not war" to convert right-wing men to her left-wing political causes by sleeping with them. She seduces many and so far has received exceptional results - until she meets Arthur Martin, a Jewish middle aged, middle-of-the road scientist. Bound by common tragic family histories (the Algerian War and Holocaust under Vichy), the duo improbably fall in love.

Turtle: The Incredible Journey

Release Date: June 24, 2011 (limited) 

Studio: Hannover House
Director: Nick Stringer
Screenwriter: Nick Stringer
Starring: Miranda Richardson
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Plot Summary: The award-winning documentary that follows the life and migration of a loggerhead turtle from hatching to maturity and a return to its original Florida nesting grounds – 25 years later!
The loggerhead turtle, a threatened species, has one of the longest and most difficult migratory patterns of any marine animal: Sea turtles newly hatched on the East Coast of the United States (usually in Florida) make their way from the sand into the ocean, and then begin a voyage that can span the entire Atlantic Ocean, only to return decades later to that same beach.
Award-winning filmmaker Nick Stringer follows the loggerhead turtle on an adventure of more than 9,000 miles guided only by instinct. Stringer and his camera crew spent two years following loggerhead turtles on their trips across the ocean, and have captured on film the remarkable life cycle of a beautiful creature that struggles to survive in an increasingly unforgiving environment.