Fragrant Night 2023
1h 20m | Comedy, Horror | Release date: March 1, 2023 (Canada)
Storyline:
15-year-old Dylan finds out he has a terminal heart defect. He uses his friends to carry out a ritual that will potentially extend his life indefinitely. What he doesn’t realize is that there will be only one person standing in the end.
Tall Tale 1995
1h 36m | Adventure, Family, Fantasy | Release date: March 24, 1995 (United States)
Storyline:
A young boy draws on the inspiration of legendary western characters to find the strength to fight an evil land baron in the old west who wants to steal his family’s farm and destroy their idyllic community. When Daniel Hackett sees his father Jonas gravely wounded by the villainous Stiles, his first urge is for his family to flee the danger, and give up their life on a farm which Daniel has come to despise anyway. Going alone to a lake to try to decide what to do, he falls asleep on a boat and wakes to find himself in the wild west, in the company of such “tall tale” legends as Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and Calamity Jane. Together, they battle the same villains Daniel is facing in his “real” world.
My Family and Other Animals 2005
1h 30m | Comedy, Drama | Release date: December 27, 2005 (United Kingdom)
Storyline:
Feeling the depressing effects of a gloomy English summer, the Durrell family decides to pack up and move to the Greek island of Corfu in 1935. Lead by their widowed mother, 13-year old future naturalist Gerald Durrell, his two older brothers and older sister move into a series of villas. Gerald indulges his passion for nature by filling his room with local fauna, while his brothers fill their time with writing or hunting and his sister sunbathes and flirts.
Using his own terminology, Billy Pilgrim is “unstuck in time”, which means he is moving between different points in his life uncontrollably, although he is aware of it at certain of those points as witnessed by the letter to the editor he writes to the Ilium Daily News about his situation. Primarily, he is moving between three general time periods and locations. The first is his stint as a GI during WWII, when, as a pacifist, he was acting as a Chaplain’s assistant for his unit. This time is largely as a POW, where he was in Dresden the day of the bombing, spending it with among others an older compassionate GI named Edgar Derby, and a brash loudmouth GI named Paul Lazzaro. The second is his life as an optometrist in Ilium in upstate New York, eventually married to the wealthy and overbearing Valencia Merble, and having two offspring, Robert, who would spend his teen-aged years as a semi-delinquent, and Barbara, who would end up much like her mother. And the third is as an abductee on the planet Tralfamadore, along with his devoted dog Spot, and Hollywood starlet Montana Wildhack – who was not averse to taking off her clothes to further her career – the Tralfamadorians who have put them on display. The more time he spends on Tralfamadore, the more he understands the meaning of what is happening to him.
Cherry Bomb follows teenagers Luke, Malachy, and Michelle as they embark on a wild weekend of drink, drugs, shoplifting and car-stealing. But what starts out as a game turns deadly serious when the three discover that they can’t get off the wild ride they’ve set in motion.
Storm Boy 1976
1h 28m | Drama, Family | Release date: November 18, 1976 (Australia)
Storyline:
Storm Boy tells the story of a 10-year-old boy, called Mick by his father Tom, and Storm Boy by the Aboriginal loner Fingerbone he befriends. This boy is growing up in an isolated corrugated iron shed next to a wildlife sanctuary. He lives with his father, who supports them by fishing alone. He is not attending school; he is illiterate and ignorant. Mick’s father resents any intrusion of their secluded life, be it a washed-up radio or a mob of idiot bird shooters who kill a number of birds before they are scared off by Fingerbone. Amongst the dead are some pelicans whose chicks are still in the nest. The boy brings them home to care for. His father isn’t keen, but permits it. Three pelicans become a lot to feed when they reach maturity, so his father insists on releasing them. Two are never seen again, but one, Mr Percival, keeps coming back. Another intruder is the new primary school teacher, brought by the park ranger. She is concerned about the boy’s education, and pushes hard for him to be sent to school, or at least to do schoolwork by correspondence. She means well, but she is resented by the father – he doesn’t want anything to change in their reclusive life.
Manic 2001
1h 40m | Drama | Release date: May 23, 2003 (United States)
Storyline:
Lyle Jensen is subject to sudden and violent outbursts, and he is committed to the juvenile wing of the Northwood Mental Institution. Several other youths are there with a variety of serious problems. Lyle interacts with other patients and staff on a human, and sometimes not so human level. The psychological problems of the patients also forms the fabric by which we see what’s right with them, and what’s wrong with the society that affects them.
All the Wilderness 2014
1h 25m | Drama | Release date: February 20, 2015 (United States)
Storyline:
James has shut himself off from his surroundings, falling into a world of imagination and darkness. Visits with his psychiatrist have proven unhelpful – though he takes a liking to fellow patient, Val. As James begins to rebel against his single mother, he ventures into the night where he meets a mysterious kid who welcomes him into an eccentric city. Relationships are put to the test as James navigates unfamiliar territory, wrestling with the reality of his own personal wilderness.
Bogus 1996
1h 50m | Comedy, Family, Fantasy | Release date: September 6, 1996 (United States)
Storyline:
Seven year-old Albert is the son of a Las Vegas circus performer. When she is killed in a car wreck, Albert is sent to live with his mother’s foster sister, Harriet Franklin, a no-nonsense businesswoman struggling in New Jersey. Albert hates it with the dour Harriet, but takes refuge in the company of Bogus, a flamboyant, gentle, loving, and altogether imaginary Frenchman. With Bogus’s help, Albert can perhaps come to terms with his mother’s death, and Harriet with her own loss of childhood innocence.