Browse Movies : 2012 : NR : C

A documentary about pop music, spirituality and celebrity, Ben Lee: Catch my Disease is an acerbic, playful yet profoundly intimate portrait of a unique child pop star who stepped through the looking glass of fame.

LACHLAN MacALDONICH (Robert Carlyle) is former Britpop rocker who has settled into a comfortably numb existence in farm country just outside Los Angeles. By day, he works on an organic farm and travels regularly to the city's farmers' markets to sell produce. By night, he retreats to his crummy apartment to record "Flame-Outs," his podcast that recounts the tragic deaths of great musicians. The only spark in his humdrum existence is BEAU (Alexia Rasmussen), a lovely struggling actress and amateur chef who frequents the Silver Lake farmers' market. One night, Lachlan gets pulled over for a DUI, a charge that dredges up his past drug offense and threatens him with deportation. Lachlan's only hope of staying in the U.S. is proving that his removal would cause "extreme hardship" to a U.S. citizen spouse or relative. Lachlan contacts his estranged ex-wife and daughter, raising past demons that he must finally confront.

In central China, a Master coach recruits poor rural teenagers and turns them into Western-style boxing champions. Through hard work and discipline, these boys and girls come of age, trained in the art of boxing and the game of life. They are filled with Olympic dreams, hoping to become China's next amateur heroes. But the pull of professionalism also weighs upon their shoulders. Their coach hopes to show them the way. The top student boxers face dramatic choices as they graduate--should they fight for the collective good as amateurs or for themselves and their own personal gain as professionals? It's a metaphor for the choices that everyone faces now, in the New China.

Chely Wright: Wish Me Away is the story of Chely Wright, the first Nashville music star to come out as gay. Over three years, the filmmakers were given extraordinary access to Chely's struggle and her unfolding plan to come out publicly. Using interviews with Chely, her family, her pastor, and key players in the music world, alongside Chely's intimate private video diaries, the film goes deep into her back story as an established star and then forward as she steps into the national spotlight to reveal her secret. Chronicling the aftermath in Nashville and within the LGBT community, Chely Wright: Wish Me Away reveals both the devastation of her own internalized homophobia and the transformational power of living an authentic life.

Robert Longfellow (Martin Donovan) is a famous playwright who can't seem to catch a break. His recent Broadway play was met with horrible reviews and an early cancellation, and his marriage is being tested as an old flame (Olivia Williams) has reentered his life during a particular moment of weakness. Retreating back to his childhood home to visit his mother (Katherine Helmond), Robert crosses paths with his childhood neighbor, Gus (David Morse). A right-wing, ex-con who still lives at home with his mother, Gus is Robert's polar opposite in every possible way. When Gus holds Robert hostage at gunpoint during a drunken reunion gone terribly wrong.

Set in 1970s Texas, Cellmates tells the story of hardened Ku Klux Klansman, Leroy Lowe (Tom Sizemore), who has risen through the ranks to be crowned 'Grand Dragon' of the local Klan chapter. Unfortunately for him, the government has started cracking down on the organization's activities and it isn't long before Leroy is sent to the Low Lee Tuna Prison Work Farm to serve time... harvesting potatoes. Worlds quickly collide when farm owner Warden Merville (Stacy Keach) forces Leroy to share a prison cell with eccentric Mexican field laborer Emilio (Hector Jimenez) as part of his penitence. None too happy with the arrangement, Leroy sets out to make things very difficult for Emilio in the cramped quarters, but Emilio's chatty disposition slowly chips away at Leroy's gruff exterior. When an unlikely friendship develops, Leroy comes to realize how his ignorant past has distorted his view of the world, and what he must now do to make things right.