2009 Most Anticipated Movies (Page #17)

Tato (Gael García Bernal) and Beto (Diego Luna), two brothers living a hard life of manual labor in rural Mexico, have a simple dream of saving enough money to build their mother her dream house. But fate has other plans; a friendly game of soccer leads to first one, then the other being taken on by the nation’s top talent scout, Batuta, and gives rise to the first of many emotional head to heads between brothers. Suddenly, they find themselves living the high life of star athletes—fame, riches, fast cars, and beautiful women. But every dream has a dark side, and when they are forced to compete on rival teams, bitterness brews between them. Mutual trust gives way to resentment and betrayal, while the dangers of their wild new lifestyles threaten debt and the safety of their entire family. In the end, all will ride on the one big game between their two clubs. Tato and Beto must face each other on the pitch but also reunite again as brothers before they lose everything they had once dreamed of.

At once a gripping thriller and a tragic drama of nearly Greek proportions, "Revanche" is the stunning, Oscar–nominated, international breakthrough film from Austrian filmmaker Götz Spielmann. In a ragged section of Vienna, hardened ex-con Alex (the mesmerizing Johannes Krisch) works as an assistant in a brothel, where he falls for Ukrainian hooker Tamara (Irina Potapenko). Their desperate plans for escape unexpectedly intersect with the lives of a rural cop (Andreas Lust) and his seemingly content wife (Ursula Strauss). With meticulous, elegant direction, Spielmann creates a tense, existential, and surprising portrait of vengeance and redemption, and a journey into the darkest forest of human nature, in which violence and beauty exist side by side.

A mysterious and intriguing tale of a woman who may have killed someone or something while driving on a dirt road. Dazed and confused, she tries to piece together what happened, while her husband systematically tries to erase her tracks.

Tommy was born and raised on a rocky, drought ridden sheep station in the middle of the Australian Outback. He works at the station and does all he can to appease his demanding father but in his heart wants to be a great musician. That all changes when Tommy meets his new classmate Kat, a bold and brash beauty, who at first doesn't notice him at all. As Tommy tries desperately to get her attention his antics cause him to fall into hot water with the local police. He luckily escapes jail and chooses to do community service at the nearby prison to stay out of trouble. Soon the stakes for Tommy are raised when his music teacher and mentor lands him an audition for the elite music conservatorium. Against all odds, Tommy gains the affections of Kat, finds a way to reconcile with his father and conducts the concert of his life.

In the story, when clearly racist, but anonymous, letters start appearing on the door of one of the college's few African American students, Sarah, the liberal dean of students, is forced to question and explore modern feelings about, and approaches to, racism and political correctness.

A highly eccentric character played by Larry David runs into a young girl from the South and soon after, her mother and soon after, her father. The three of them, along with Larry David's crazy Greenwich Village friends, get into a series of highly improbable, far out, romantic entanglements.

"Yonkers Joe" is an exciting, high-stakes con film and moving family drama written and directed by Robert Celestino, and starring Academy Award-nominee Chazz Palminteri, Academy Award-winner Christine Lahti, Tom Guiry ("The Black Donnellys"), Golden Globe-nominee Linus Roache, and Academy Award-nominee Michael Lerner. An ode to old time gamblers, now outdated in an age of powerful upscale casinos, "Yonkers Joe" tells the story of a dice hustler (Palminteri) whose determination to make one last grab for a big score in Vegas is complicated by the reappearance of his estranged, mentally challenged son into his life.

"The Class" is based on an autobiographical novel by Francois Begaudeau, a drama that follows the year in the life of a French schoolteacher working at a high-school in a tough neighborhood of Paris. Ethnicities, cultures and attitudes often clash in the classroom. As amusing and inspiring as the teenage students can be, their difficult behavior can still jeopardize any teacher's enthusiasm for the low-paying job. Francois insists on an atmosphere of respect and diligence. Neither stuffy nor severe, his extravagant frankness often takes the students by surprise. But his classroom ethics are put to the test when his students begin to challenge his methods.

Maze Prison in Northern Ireland, 1981. The infamous H-Blocks is where Irish republican prisoners are on the Blanket and No-Wash protest. It is a living hell for both prisoner and prison officer as the H-Block leader, Bobby Sands, pursues various tactics to help his fellow republicans re-establish their political status. In order to create real change, Bobby leads a Hunger Strike to protest for special category status for republican prisoners.

The story of a mysterious loner, a stranger (Isaach De Bankolé), whose activities remain meticulously outside the law. He is in the process of completing a job, yet he trusts no one, and his objectives are not initially divulged. The new picture from independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch is set in the striking and varied landscapes of contemporary Spain (both urban and otherwise).

The film revolves around a British sargeant stationed in Palestine after World War II and his relationship with an 11-year-old, who wants the British to leave his land.