2006 Most Anticipated Movies (Page #12)

"Neil Young: Heart of Gold" is filmmaker Jonathan Demme's intimate musical portrait of legendary singer/songwriter Neil Young, filmed on the occasion of the world premiere of Young's Prairie Wind concert at Nashville's hallowed Ryman auditorium last summer. Young's music provides an emotionally rich view into this unique artist's relationship to family, friends, mortality and the passage of time. Young is accompanied on stage by many long time musical companions, including country star Emmylou Harris, Neil's wife Pegi Young, and band leader/ steel guitarist Ben Keith.

Based on a true story, the film recreates one Christmas night during WWI when enemies were able to lay aside their differences, visit each others trenches and celebrate the holiday.

Set in 1938 Colonial India, against Mahatma Gandhi's rise to power, "Water" begins when 8-year-old Chuyia is widowed and sent to a home where Hindu widows must live in penitence. Chuyia's feisty presence deeply affects the lives of the other residents, including a young widow, who falls for a Gandhian idealist.

In South Africa, Patrick Chamusso is a charming and loving husband to his wife Precious, and a caring father to his two young daughters. He works as a foreman at the centrally located Secunda oil refinery, which is a symbol of South Africa's self-sufficiency at a time when the world was protesting the country's oppressive apartheid system. In his spare time, Patrick coaches a local boys' soccer team. Carefully toeing the hard line imposed on blacks by apartheid, Patrick is completely apolitical. Nic Vos is a Colonel in the country's Police Security Branch. The shrewd and charismatic Vos strives to maintain order in volatile situations, which have become more and more frequent as the outlawed activist organization African National Congress (ANC) rallies blacks against apartheid. Vos is also concerned for the safety of his wife and two daughters. He and his family live a world away from the Chamusso family--until the innocent Patrick comes under suspicion and is arrested (in June 1980) for sabotage of the Secunda oil refinery. His alibi is compromised, and Patrick is desperate to shield Precious from a past indiscretion and keep his job. But he is ill-prepared to withstand brutal interrogations by Vos' men. As Vos further insinuates himself into the lives of the Chamussos, to Patrick's shock and shame, Precious herself is jailed and tortured. Although he and Precious are soon released from custody, Patrick is stunned into action and completely reorients his sense of self and purpose. He leaves his family to join up with the ANC. Becoming a rebel fighter and political operative, Patrick is radicalized on behalf of his people and his country. He ultimately envisions a formidable and dangerous follow-up strike against the Secunda refinery, risking his own life and future. Change must and will come, for Patrick and his family, and for South Africa itself.

Four siblings struggle to banish the ghost of their dead father and create some semblance of harmony using a college on New York's Upper East Side as their surrogate home. Flashing between the chaos of Manhattan and the seemingly perfect sanctuary of Charleston, this unflinchingly honest drama with comedy explores and explodes the myths of family and friendship. As three sisters and a brother recall the simpler life the family left in their childhood home, they peel back the layers of their pretensions and self-deceptions with wit and candor escalating to moments of shocking power. Their final realization is that chaos and violence lie within the heart, and the only defenses are love and honesty.

Pierre Dulaine is a Manhattan ballroom teacher and competitor who volunteers his time to teach ballroom dancing to a group of New York inner city high school kids. Initially forced to participate as a form of detention, the kids reject Mr. Dulaine's efforts until his unwavering commitment and dedication finally inspires them to embrace the program, infusing it with their own unique hip-hop style while subconsciously learning valuable life lessons about pride, respect, self-esteem and honor.

A tale which centers around four best friends and their relationships with one another, the men in their lives, and their checkbooks. However one of them, who is unsettled and unattached, decides to clean houses to make ends meet.

Set in New York, this is the story of a writer, "Harry Lesser" (Dylan McDermott), struggling to finish his third novel, which he believes will restore his literary reputation. In the nearly abandoned apartment building in which he lives, another writer, "Willie Spearmint" (Snoop Dogg), moves in as a squatter and begins to write his first novel with an unmatched fervor. The two develop a tenuous friendship until a woman (Rose Byrne) and their own demons come between them.

In a role Aaron Eckhart seems born to play, the hero of "Thank You for Smoking" is Nick Naylor, chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, who makes his living defending the rights of smokers and cigarette makers in today's neo-puritanical culture. Confronted by health zealots out to ban tobacco and an opportunistic senator (Macy) who wants to put poison labels on cigarette packs, Nick goes on a PR offensive, spinning away the dangers of cigarettes on TV talk shows and enlisting a Hollywood super-agent (Rob Lowe) to promote smoking in movies. Nick's newfound notoriety attracts the attention of both tobacco's head honcho (Duvall) and an investigative reporter for an influential Washington daily (Holmes). Nick says he is just doing what it takes to pay the mortgage, but he begins to think about how his work makes him look in the eyes of his young son Joey (Bright).

Jeff Bridges will play the coach of a team of rule-abiding gymnasts who develop a taste for rebellion after a renegade member (Missy Peregrym) joins the crew. Vanessa Lengies co-stars as Peregrym's rival.

A biopic about the life of photographer Diane Arbus, considered one of the most mysterious, enigmatic, and frighteningly bold artists of the 20th century. Most known for her obsession with 'freak' subject-matter, her haunting work emerged from a deeply private place. Arbus' death was as mysteriously tragic as was the aura surrounding some of her most piercing portraits.

A man is shot and quickly buried in the high desert of west Texas. The body is found and reburied in Van Horn's town cemetery. Pete Perkins, a local ranch foreman kidnaps a Border Patrolman and forces him to disinter the body. With his captive in tow and the body tied to a mule Pete undertakes a dangerous and quixotic journey into Mexico.

A student journalist, for a college paper, visiting friends in contemporary London happens upon the scoop of a lifetime. Along the investigative trail, she finds magic, murder, mystery - and perhaps love, with a British aristocrat.

The true story of celebrated Scottish cyclist Graeme Obree, a former world champion who broke the world one-hour record on a bike of his own design, made partly out of sections of a washing machine. It follows his life's victories as well as his debilitating battles with mental health problems.

"The Matador" is a comedic adventure about a traveling salesman, Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear), who accidentally meets up with Julian (Pierce Brosnan), "a facilitator of fatalities," at a Mexico City bar, where their subsequent evening together intertwines their lives in an unexpected, but lasting, bond. Each one is facing what could be a life-changing moment, and though they ostensibly have nothing in common, they're drawn together.

"CSA: The Confederate States of America", through the eyes of a faux documentary, takes a look at an America where the South won the Civil War. Supposedly produced by a British broadcasting company, the feature film is presented as a production being shown, controversially, for the first time on television in the States. Beginning with the British and French forces joining the battle with the Confederacy, thus assuring the defeat of the North at Gettysburg and ensuing battles, the South takes the battle northward and form one country out of the two. Lincoln attempts escape to Canada but is captured in blackface. This moment is captured in the clip of a silent film that might have been. Through the use of other fabricated movie segments, old government information films, television commercials, newsbreaks, along with actual stock footage from our own history, a provocative and humorous story is told of a country, which, in many ways, frighteningly follows a parallel with our own. After victory, President Davis brings slavery back to the northern states by offering a tax rebate to businesses and households who will buy and own them. Liberals move to Canada. The nation chooses an expansionist policy and conquers Mexico and South America. As world war looms, the CSA takes a non-aggressive stance toward the Third Reich and their move toward racial purity (although not condoning their wasting of possible slave stock by the Final Solution) and makes a preemptive strike on Japan on December 7, 1941. Kennedy is assassinated soon after being elected, as it appears he will not only emancipate but also give women the vote. A growing black terrorist base stems from Canada and a Cold War breaks out...complete with the Cotton Curtain being built between the two countries. Through it all, including a contemporary run for the presidency, we follow a political dynasty, the Fauntroy family, who lead the country through its triumphs and tragedies. We arrive to a today that, in many ways, we recognize. Although a nation that is content and prosperous, there is a tremendous divide within and suspicious eye without. Current politicians refer to us as two countries and perhaps, other than geographically, there is no difference between Red and Blue or North and South states. We have always struggled as to whether we are the United or Confederate States of America.

A young couple who have Asperger's syndrome, a kind of autism, fall in love, but their talents are offset by an inability to relate to one another, which threatens to undermine their relationship.

"Don't Tell" is the story of Sabina (GiovannaMezzogiorno), a young woman whose peaceful existence is shattered by nightmares caused by memories of her childhood. Seeking answers, she flies to the U.S. to see her older brother, Daniele (Lugio Lo Cascio), but realizes that he, too, has been traumatized.

A reclusive novelist (Ed Harris) hasn't seen his daughter (Zooey Deschanel) in years. When she returns home after the long absence, she finds a house full of strangers, including a wandering loner (Will Ferrell) and one of her father's ex-students (Amelia Warner).