set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with ... See full summary »
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An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African-American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
Director:
Tate Taylor
Stars:
Emma Stone,
Viola Davis,
Bryce Dallas Howard
A mentally retarded man fights for custody of his 7-year-old daughter, and in the process teaches his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family.
Director:
Jessie Nelson
Stars:
Sean Penn,
Michelle Pfeiffer,
Dakota Fanning
Anna Fitzgerald looks to earn medical emancipation from her parents who until now have relied on their youngest child to help their leukemia-stricken daughter Kate remain alive.
Director:
Nick Cassavetes
Stars:
Abigail Breslin,
Walter Raney,
Cameron Diaz
After a blurred trauma over the summer, Melinda enters high school a selective mute. Struggling with school, friends, and family, she tells the dark tale of her experiences, and why she has chosen not to speak.
Director:
Jessica Sharzer
Stars:
Kristen Stewart,
Michael Angarano,
Robert John Burke
Katniss Everdeen voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in the Hunger Games, a televised fight to the death in which two teenagers from each of the twelve Districts of Panem are chosen at random to compete.
Director:
Gary Ross
Stars:
Stanley Tucci,
Jennifer Lawrence,
Liam Hemsworth
In New York City's Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.
Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier's, documents the tense interaction between Olivier and Marilyn Monroe during production of The Prince and the Showgirl.
Director:
Simon Curtis
Stars:
Michelle Williams,
Eddie Redmayne,
Julia Ormond
set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters, Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping. Written by
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Jennifer Hudson said in an interview that director Gina Prince-Bythewood had sent her to a store to get several items and while she was there, the staff and the customers verbally and racially abused her. The incident was, in fact staged by actors under Bythewood's direction in order for Hudson to get the feel of a racially tense environment, the time and setting of the film, and to help her with her characterization. See more »
Goofs
Lily's knees are all red after her father punished her by making her kneel on grits. The next scene, her knees were fine. The scene after, Lily's knees are red again. See more »
Quotes
Lily Owens:
You think something being an impossibility makes you think about it even more?
May Boatwright:
Like what?
Lily Owens:
I don't know. Like... kissin'.
May Boatwright:
That ain't impossible. When I was 15, I made a 7UP cake for this boy. After that, he kissed me all the time.
Lily Owens:
What'd it feel like?
May Boatwright:
Like I was gonna burst.
Lily Owens:
Miss May, I know you get real sad sometimes. My daddy never feels. He never felt anything. I had rather be like you.
May Boatwright:
A worker bee weigh less than a flower petal, but she can fly with a load heavier than her. But she only ...
[...] See more »
"Keep Marching"
(2008)
Written and Performed by Raphael Saadiq
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By Arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment See more »
This film is wonderful, exhilarating, joyful. The cast are all spectacularly talented, and this film is another of those 'secret classics' which don't get the Oscars but actually deserve them. Gina Prince-Bythewood, the woman director, has made an intensely sensitive film about women, and it ain't no chick flic, it is serious stuff. I was knocked out by the sheer talent of the actresses. An eye opener to me was the incredible Queen Latifah. Apparently she is some kind of 'hip hop queen', but I wouldn't know about that, preferring Bach myself. She also 'raps', and I am one of those people who does not like or understand what they call 'rapping' at all, so I am glad she spared us that in the film. I notice from her bio that she was a basketball star in high school. Now that I can well believe, as she has the same 'body confidence' that another basketball player, Barack Obama, has. The director made a feature film about basketball earlier, so maybe that is how she and Miss Hip Hop the Rapper came together. But this woman Queen Latifah is a major example of Something Else. She has super-star quality. Really, I wanted to just rush up and hug her, that is how wonderful I think she was. However, the finest job of acting in this film full of genius is to my mind undoubtedly that of Sophie Okonedo, who plays the character May Boatwright, whose older sister and protector is Queen Latifah. She portrays a girl so tormented by 'not being quite right in the head', and so over-sensitive that she bursts into tears at the slightest thing, that it is hard to believe she is acting. It is a poignant performance, expressing to perfection the desperation of such a person who knows there is something wrong with her but can do nothing about it. The third sister is played by Alicia Keys, in real life a talented musician as well, and she portrays an over-intense hard-as-nails young woman terrified of marital commitment. Into this family comes the now teenaged Dakota Fanning, 'running away from home' as it were. She is making some progress with her speaking. Instead of 80 percent of her words being mumbled it is now down to about 20 percent. If she could ever master speech so that everything she said was comprehensible and audible, she could become a major actress, as her acting abilities are coming along nicely, and she effortlessly dominates scenes as long as Queen Latifah is not around (who has a greater command of the camera). I must say however that Dakota Fanning looked very tired to me, and maybe she ought to take a few months off, as she could burn out if she doesn't watch it, having worked non-stop practically since she was in the womb (I'm amazed she didn't star in something as a foetus). As for the story, it is very moving and emotional, a study in human conflicts, traumas, and feelings. This is the kind of film that women make, whereas men prefer making films where everybody gets killed. There's a gender lesson there somewhere! In this film, not even hope gets killed. So that means there is still hope. Jennifer Hudson gives wonderful support as the character Rosaleen, who accompanies Dakota Fanning as she flees from her father to take refuge with these women who had once known her dead mother. This is a happy-sad story that tears and warms the heart at the same time. Any woman would love it, and even some men might like it in between all the crime movies and battle scenes which they normally watch, where the quality is so often judged quantitatively, i.e. by the body count or by the sizes of the explosions. Here the only quantities involved are the degrees of emotion, which are in the upper nineties at least.
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This film is wonderful, exhilarating, joyful. The cast are all spectacularly talented, and this film is another of those 'secret classics' which don't get the Oscars but actually deserve them. Gina Prince-Bythewood, the woman director, has made an intensely sensitive film about women, and it ain't no chick flic, it is serious stuff. I was knocked out by the sheer talent of the actresses. An eye opener to me was the incredible Queen Latifah. Apparently she is some kind of 'hip hop queen', but I wouldn't know about that, preferring Bach myself. She also 'raps', and I am one of those people who does not like or understand what they call 'rapping' at all, so I am glad she spared us that in the film. I notice from her bio that she was a basketball star in high school. Now that I can well believe, as she has the same 'body confidence' that another basketball player, Barack Obama, has. The director made a feature film about basketball earlier, so maybe that is how she and Miss Hip Hop the Rapper came together. But this woman Queen Latifah is a major example of Something Else. She has super-star quality. Really, I wanted to just rush up and hug her, that is how wonderful I think she was. However, the finest job of acting in this film full of genius is to my mind undoubtedly that of Sophie Okonedo, who plays the character May Boatwright, whose older sister and protector is Queen Latifah. She portrays a girl so tormented by 'not being quite right in the head', and so over-sensitive that she bursts into tears at the slightest thing, that it is hard to believe she is acting. It is a poignant performance, expressing to perfection the desperation of such a person who knows there is something wrong with her but can do nothing about it. The third sister is played by Alicia Keys, in real life a talented musician as well, and she portrays an over-intense hard-as-nails young woman terrified of marital commitment. Into this family comes the now teenaged Dakota Fanning, 'running away from home' as it were. She is making some progress with her speaking. Instead of 80 percent of her words being mumbled it is now down to about 20 percent. If she could ever master speech so that everything she said was comprehensible and audible, she could become a major actress, as her acting abilities are coming along nicely, and she effortlessly dominates scenes as long as Queen Latifah is not around (who has a greater command of the camera). I must say however that Dakota Fanning looked very tired to me, and maybe she ought to take a few months off, as she could burn out if she doesn't watch it, having worked non-stop practically since she was in the womb (I'm amazed she didn't star in something as a foetus). As for the story, it is very moving and emotional, a study in human conflicts, traumas, and feelings. This is the kind of film that women make, whereas men prefer making films where everybody gets killed. There's a gender lesson there somewhere! In this film, not even hope gets killed. So that means there is still hope. Jennifer Hudson gives wonderful support as the character Rosaleen, who accompanies Dakota Fanning as she flees from her father to take refuge with these women who had once known her dead mother. This is a happy-sad story that tears and warms the heart at the same time. Any woman would love it, and even some men might like it in between all the crime movies and battle scenes which they normally watch, where the quality is so often judged quantitatively, i.e. by the body count or by the sizes of the explosions. Here the only quantities involved are the degrees of emotion, which are in the upper nineties at least.