2003 Least Anticipated Movies (Page #11)

Set in Los Angeles at home of the middle-class Hong family, a drama thriller in which many layers of deception in a bi-cultural clan are unraveled--upon the arrival of an intruder brandishing a gun.

In this romantic triangle teen drama set in modern Taipei, high school students Ke-Rou (Lun-Mei Guey) and Yueh-Chen (Shu-Hui Liang) are best friends. When Yueh-Chen asks Ke-Rou to approach a boy, Shih-Hao (Bo-Lin Chen) that she has a crush on (but is too shy to ask), Shih-Hao unexpectedly asks Ke-Rou out instead. She excepts, but with a warning, because she has a secret: she thinks she might be a lesbian because she's actually in love with Yueh-Chen. Going out with Shih-Hao, however, is her chance to test herself to see if she is, or if she isn't...

Harry Mayfield (Baker Hall) was once an extremely successful Los Angeles architect. Today, he is an aging, charming but cantankerous idealist who teaches rather than practices architecture. Decades earlier, he had started work on a magnificent house for his family on a hillside site overlooking the city and the sea. A rich young couple, Kate and Richard Banks, see the charred remains of what was once his house, and decide they want Mayfield to come out of retirement and re-build the house for them. Mayfield, flattered by the attention and attracted by the challenge, agrees. Kate hires him to redesign the house and asks a young Hollywood friend, Gaby (Sangiacomo), to make a documentary record, a film of the building of the house. She learns that Mayfield's work made considerable impact on his colleagues and experts in the field, but for some reason he never achieved great public fame. The house was not finished, and the incidents surrounding its failure to be completed caused the tragic death of his young son, and possibly the end of his career. Mayfield works hard to make a new design. After getting it approved by Kate he starts construction with the contractor he has hired to rebuild the house.

This homage to the golden era of 1950s Technicolor musicals tells the story of a cabaret singer, Billie Golden (Isabel Rose), living with her mother in Queens who aspires to get out of the "airport circuit" (she sings at a dingy lounge at JFK Airport). Meanwhile, Billie is also trying to choose between two men who represent different paths her life could take next: a corporate attorney (Cameron Bancroft) she knew in high school, who could provide her with money and security; or her piano teacher (Andrew McCarthy) who doesn't have much money but understands her passion for music. In addition to the songs Billie performs on stage, there are also occasional musical numbers that represent Billie's daydream fantasies.

This documentary examines the short life of Australian-born Leigh Bowery (1961-1994) whose resume included being a famous fashion designer, a 1980s gay nightclub icon in London (as host of the Taboo nightclub), outrageous performance artist, lead singer of the art rock group Minty and the costume designer for the Michael Clarke Dance Company.

This concert documentary captures the performances of the "Concert for George" on November 29th, 2002 at Royal Albert Hall in London, as a celebration of the life and career of the Beatles' "quiet one," George Harrison. That day was the 1st anniversary of Harrison's death. The concert featured performances of Harrison's songs by the other two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as other friends and contemporaries of his like Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, and fellow Traveling Wilburys Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty. These performances include Jeff Lynne singing "I Want to Tell You," "Inner Light" and "Give Me Love"; Tom Petty singing "Taxman," "I Need You" and "Handle with Care"; Ringo Starr singing "Photograph" and Paul McCartney singing "For You Blue" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." There is also a performance of a special composition by Ravi Shankar, performed by his daughter Anoushka Shankar and a 16-piece Indian orchestra. The other Harrison songs that were performed were: "All Things Must Pass," "Here Comes the Sun," "Honey Don't," "Isn't it a Pity," "My Sweet Lord" and "Something." Finally, the musical performances are accompanied by some of George's favorite skits by his good friends, the Monty Python troupe, accompanied by Tom Hanks, including "The Lumberjack Song" and "Sit on My Face."

In the small, rural town of Sandusky, Ohio, two goth kids are each other's best friends, sharing their experiences of being the town outsiders. Teenage photography enthusiast Clive (Kett Turton) is on his way towards coming fully out of the closet, and Gypsy (Sara Rue) is an overweight 25-year-old girl with a love of Stevie Nicks music and a low-pay job at the photo hut in the parking lot of the local mall. When the duo hears about a "Night of a Thousand Stevies" karaoke show in New York City, they decide to make a road trip of it as a way to escape the drudgery of small-town Ohio in the heady nightlife of NYC.

Normally, the mantis shrimp only grows to about a foot long or so, but in this movie, a seven-foot-long one shows up in England (by way of the Philippines). Pub owner and failed boxer Bill (Kevin McNally) buys the creature, seeing it as his chance to become rich and famous, training the ferocious crustacean to box. Hitting the road with his amateur boxer best friend, Steve (Perry Fitzpatrick), a trainee hairdresser (Louise Mardenborough) and the giant sea creature, Bill heads to London to convince a TV network to feature the crustacean on an 'American Gladiators'-style event hosted by Ulrika Jonsson.

Adopted by his grandmother, Madame Souza, Champion is a lonely little boy. Noticing that this lad is never happier than on a bicycle, Madame Souza puts him through a rigorous training process. Years go by and Champion becomes worthy of his name. Now his ready to enter the world-famous cycling race, the Tour de France. However during this cycling contest two mysterious men in black kidnap Champion. Madame Souza and her faithful dog Bruno set out to rescue him. Their quest takes them across the ocean to a giant Megalopolis called Belleville where they encounter the renowned "Triplets of Belleville", three eccentric female music-hall stars from the 30's who decide to take Madame Souza and Bruno under their wing. Thanks to Bruno's brilliant sense of smell, the brave duo are soon on to Champion's trail. But will they succeed in beating the devilish plans of the evil French mafia?

This ensemble drama portraits the life of several dancers of a Chicago troupe, focusing on a young dancer who's on the verge of becoming a principal dancer, but finds herself distracted by other interests.

A small cabin, hidden deep in the snow-covered hills of Northern Michigan is Hollywood animator Tom Kempton's only refuge after getting separated from his friends on a snowmobile trip. What started out as a relaxing getaway, becomes a waking nightmare when Tom finds himself at the hands of two psychotic sisters who plan to make him their next victim. A last minute rescue leaves both sisters presumably dead and Tom narrowly escaping with his life. Upon his return to Hollywood, however, Tom develops an unhealthy obsession with one of his captors that ultimately threatens the life and welfare of his family.

Through a chronological history of the liberation struggle in South Africa, the documentary cites examples of the way music was used in the fight for freedom. Songs united those being oppressed and gave those fighting a way to express their plight. The music consoled the incarcerated and created an effective underground form of communication inside the prisons.

Set shortly after World War II in Berlin, this is the story of an American officer's (Harvey Keitel) prosecution of German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler (Stellan Skarsgard) as part of the Allied Forces' de-Nazification trials. As the investigation progresses, the American, wanting to convict a man he sees as a Jew-killing Nazi is brought face-to-face into conflict with a man consumed entirely by his art, not politics.

This movie is an anthology of four gay-themed short films that have been recent hits on the film festival circuit: "Bumping Heads"; "L.T.R."; "O' Beautiful"; and "This Car Up". "Bumping Heads" is the story of two gay men trying to figure out if they want to become boyfriends who find themselves working through issues one night at a hospital emergency room. "L.T.R." is the story of a young gay couple in a "long-term relationship" who allow a documentary film crew to follow them around. "O Beautiful" shows what happens after a gay bashing in a corn field, when one of the attackers returns to reveal a secret, and express remorse for what he did. "This Car Up" uses a split-screen to follow the synchronized lives of two lovers.

Three individual employees (Paulo Costanzo, Woody Harrelson, Alicia Silverstone) of a bank in a small desert town (managed by Joshua Leonard) all make plans to rob it on the same weekend... except, none of them knows about the others. Meanwhile, a clothing store employee (Rachael Leigh Cook) has plans for revenge against a local millionaire (John Cleese).

Legendary criminal. Proud homosexual. Cabaret star. Passionate lover. Killer. Devoted father of seven adopted children. Saint or devil? Madame Satã. Born to slaves in the arid wasteland of Northern Brazil and sold by his mother at the age of 7, he pursued his freedom on the mean streets of Lapa, Rio de Janeiro. Jet-black, six feet tall, 180 pounds of proud muscle in a silk shirt and tight pants, a cutthroat razor in his back pocket. Karim Aïnouz's extraordinary portrait of the triumphs and tragedy of this explosive and paradoxical personality unfolds against the vibrant, sordid background of Lapa: thronging underworld of pimps and whores, of cut-throats, queers and artists, of dark bars and brothels thick with smoke, drenched in sweat and cheap perfume. A world run through with violence and raw desire, where desperate dreams spring from poverty and squalor.

Television made him famous, but his biggest hits happened off screen. "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" is the story of a legendary showman's double life - television producer by day, CIA assassin by night. At the height of his TV career, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA and trained to become a covert operative.

A Portuguese woman is convinced by her teen daughter to become romantically involved with a businessman who has become wealthy in the fishing industry. The woman becomes more and more attached to him, little knowing that her paramour is really a professional gambler pretending to be a legitimate businessman.

After it is killed in a bullfight, a bull's body parts are transported across Europe, in Spain, France, Italy and Belgium, with this ensemble drama showing us the people who are the recipients of the remains in one way or another, like an Italian actress (Chiara Mastroianni) selling the bones in a supermarket promotion, a Spanish woman (Angela Molina) who dines on its steaks, a little girl (Raphaelle Molinier) in northern France who imagines a world where animals are much larger than humans, and a taxidermist (Jacques Gamblin) whose wife is simultaneously giving birth to quintuplets.