Short Eyes

R

2010 · ★ 6.8

The R of the title stands for the young protagonist, Rune, fearlessly played by Pilou Asbæk. Imprisoned for violent assault, he's a cocky, good-looking young man placed in the hardcore ward, where his survival depends on quickly learning the prison's parallel world of rules, honor, and obligations. R also stands for Rachid, a young Muslim prisoner who becomes Rune's friend and accomplice, defying the rigid racial stratifications among the inmates.

Hostile Advances: The Kerry Ellison Story

1996 · ★ 6

Kerry Ellison, a vibrant young woman working as a senior accountant at the IRS, finds her life threatened by a disturbed, married co-worker who starts stalking her—following her, and writing her sexually tense notes. She makes it clear multiple times that she is not interested in him, but he is unstoppable. There's no one who can help her, so her only option is to file a sexual harassment suit against her employer and go to court, a decision that will surely cost her job. Based on a true story.

Love and Anger

1969 · ★ 5.3

Five short stories with contemporary settings. In New York, people are indifferent to derelicts sleeping on sidewalks, to a woman's assault in front of an apartment building, and to a couple injured in a car crash. A man, stripped of his identity, dies in bed with actors expressing his agony. A cheerful, innocent young man walking a city street in a time of war pays a price for this innocence. A couple talks about cinema while it watches another couple talk of love and truth on the eve of one character's return to Cuba. Striking students take over a university classroom; an argument follows about revolution or incremental change.

Chinese Coffee

2000 · ★ 6.8

When Harry Levine, an aging, unsuccessful Greenwich Village writer, is fired from his job as restaurant doorman, he calls on friend and mentor Jake, ostensibly to collect a long-standing debt.

Premium Rush

2012 · ★ 6.4

In Manhattan, a bike messenger picks up an envelope that attracts the interest of a dirty cop, who pursues the cyclist throughout the city.

Man on a Ledge

2012 · ★ 6.4

An ex-cop turned con threatens to jump to his death from a Manhattan hotel rooftop. The NYPD dispatch a female police psychologist to talk him down. However, unbeknownst to the police on the scene, the suicide attempt is a cover for the biggest diamond heist ever pulled.

Release

2010 · ★ 5.4

A prison story. Father Jack finds love with a male guard in the prison. Some of the other inmates suspect he's been sentenced for paedophilia.

The Passion of Ayn Rand

1999 · ★ 5

Author Ayn Rand becomes involved with a much younger and married man, to the dismay of those close to her.

On the Edge

2006 · ★ 5.5

Three flatmates in Mexico City face uncertainties: Lucía who has a great job as an art director for TV commercials is abusing alcohol and cocaine. She risks losing her job, going to prison for assault, and she's woefully in love with a bullfighter who may be two-timing her. Carmen, an artist without income, can be manic - snorting lots of cocaine and hanging out with a gay man and a transvestite. What's her future? Hanna contemplates divorce from Abraham, a wealthy momma's boy, and she's disoriented by feelings of attraction to Sandra, a customer at her jewelry store. Can any of these poor little rich girls sort things out in a world of excess?

Stuck!

2009 · ★ 2.6

Beautiful young Daisy feels stuck working as a shopgirl by day and caring for her ailing mother by night. A suicide gone wrong leaves Daisy wrongly imprisoned, while the neighbor whose testimony put her away struggles with guilt. A tongue-in-cheek homage to 1950s women-in-prison films.

Stoner's Night Out

Presented by Voices in Society and Travelers Insurance Indemnity, this untitled PSA-style film from the 1970s is a compilation of various anti-drug use PSAs from National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Information (NCADI). The films were assembled by a film collector who did public screenings of cult films; he often showed this compilation under the moniker “Stoner’s Night Out”. NCADI is the information service for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The PSAs that comprise this film combine footage of drug use as well as interviews. Overall, this film warns of the short-term and long-term effects of drug use with the later segments of the film focusing on marijuana use specifically.

Gurov and Anna

2014 · ★ 4.8

With his marriage to Audrey almost at an end, Ben begins a torrid affair with Mercedes, a young French student in his writing class. The affair soon spins out of control, their emotions and Ben and Audrey's family hanging in the balance.