Paul F. Tompkins: Laboring Under Delusions

The Great Buck Howard

2008 · ★ 6

When a law school dropout answers an advertisement to be a personal assistant he unknowingly signs on to work for a belligerent has-been magician struggling to resurrect his career. This leads to a journey across the country staging the comeback of a lifetime.

Meet the Browns

2008 · ★ 6.7

A single mother living in inner city Chicago, Brenda has been struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street. When she's laid off with no warning, she starts losing hope for the first time - until a letter arrives announcing the death of a father she's never met. Desperate for any kind of help, Brenda takes her family to Georgia for the funeral, but nothing could have prepared her for the Browns, her father's fun-loving, crass Southern clan. In a small-town world full of long afternoons and country fairs, Brenda struggles to get to know the family she never knew existed... and finds a brand new romance that just might change her life.

VILM

Summer 2001: young Gregor works at the small Berlin video store "VILM". When he falls in love with the shy "Betty", he has to keep a clear head handling the major catalogue change from VHS to DVD, his disillusioned co-worker Beni, quirky customers and the upcoming shoot of his next big short film ...

Gardener of Eden

2007 · ★ 5.2

When a young deli-counter clerk and general slacker in New Jersey accidentally saves a young woman from a serial rapist, he becomes convinced that his new role in life is to become a vigilante.

Kicking and Screaming

1995 · ★ 6.2

After college graduation, Grover's girlfriend Jane tells him she's moving to Prague to study writing. Grover declines to accompany her, deciding instead to move in with several friends, all of whom can't quite work up the inertia to escape their university's pull. Nobody wants to make any big decisions that would radically alter his life, yet none of them wants to end up like Chet, the professional student who tends bar and is in his tenth year of university studies.

Tarkovsky

2010 · ★ 3.7

A man enters a video rental store where some arcane beings as Goran Paskaljevich, Michael Cacoyannis, Ferzan Ozpetek or Andrei Tarkovsky stalk him from the shelves, while the shop manager is reading a book by James Joyce; but he just wants to rent a blockbuster.

Hometown Boy Makes Good

1990 · ★ 9

A med school burnout returns to his small home town, but when he decides against telling his mother that he dropped out, complications ensue.

Steve Jobless

2023 · ★ 6.5

An introverted office drone tries to navigate through corporate America, and one tragic day he meets his match. He then realizes he needs to play the capitalistic game in order to survive.

Clerks

1994 · ★ 7.4

Convenience and video store clerks Dante and Randal are sharp-witted, potty-mouthed and bored out of their minds. So in between needling customers, the counter jockeys play hockey on the roof, visit a funeral home and deal with their love lives.

Fun with Dick and Jane

2005 · ★ 6.2

After Dick Harper loses his job at Globodyne in an Enron-esque collapse, he and his wife, Jane, turn to crime in order to handle the massive debt they now face. Two intelligent people, Dick and Jane actually get pretty good at robbing people and even enjoy it -- but they have second thoughts when they're reminded that crime can hurt innocent people. When the couple hears that Globodyne boss Jack McCallister actually swindled the company, they plot revenge.

Be Kind Rewind

2008 · ★ 6.3

A man whose brain becomes magnetized unintentionally destroys every tape in his friend's video store. In order to satisfy the store's most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films.

Video Kings

2007 · ★ 5.9

Flo und sein Kumpel Hotte arbeiten in der mies gehenden Neuköllner Videothek Video König. Kein Wunder, denn Hotte glänzt mit null Filmwissen, und Flo muss mit damit fertig werden, von seiner Freundin verlassen worden zu sein. Die beiden Unglücksvögel lassen sich vom Kiez-Gauner Bernhardt abzocken, von Schlägern die Fresse polieren und Inkasso-Unternehmen drangsalieren. Ein Glück, dass für Flo wenigstens wieder die Liebe in Form von Nachbarin Ramona lacht, auch wenn diese möglicherweise eine Prostituierte ist.