The Way Way Back 2013

The Way Way Back 2013

The Way Way Back 2013
PG-13 | 1h 43min | Comedy, Drama | 26 July 2013 (USA)

Storyline:

Duncan (Liam James) is not a popular kid and it doesn’t look like the summer is going to offer anything better for him. His mother’s boyfriend has invited them to his beach house where Duncan is expected to improve his personality and physical appearance, and meet girls. But his would-be step-sister doesn’t want anything to do with him and his shy demeanor makes it difficult for him to meet anybody new. When Duncan wanders into the Water Wizz, the local water park, he meets adult employees who are just having fun. Owen (Sam Rockwell) lets Duncan work with him and their new-found bond will help each other mature and find their place in life. Which for Duncan means standing up to his would-be step-father, having a conversation with the girl next door and being more comfortable with who he is.

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The Art of Crying 2006

The Art of Crying 2006

The Art of Crying 2006
Kunsten at græde i kor (original title)
1h 46min | Comedy, Drama | 27 April 2007 (Denmark)

Storyline:

Follows a precocious, eleven-year-old Allan, who tries desperately to keep his dysfunctional, rural family together during the social upheavals of the early seventies. Allan reveres his father, Henry, the local milkman, and can’t understand why others don’t feel the same way. His family life is so twisted he thinks it’s perfectly normal to stay awake all night dealing with his father’s hysterics and suicidal threats. Allan’s older brother left town several years ago, and his mother gave up long before that, relying on sleeping pills to escape Henry’s tantrums. Allan then becomes obsessed with a rival family, whom he considers foolish white trash until they start taking away Henry’s customers. He is frustrated that his mother doesn’t take his father’s complaints seriously, and is perplexed by the increasingly rebellious and bizarre behavior of his sister, Sanne. Incapable of understanding what’s going on and heavily influenced by his father, Allan commits appalling acts, unaware of their import.

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X+Y 2014

X+Y 2014

X+Y 2014
PG-13 | 1h 51min | Drama | 13 March 2015 (UK)

Storyline:

In a world difficult to comprehend, Nathan struggles to connect with those around him – most of all his loving mother – but finds comfort in numbers. When Nathan is taken under the wing of unconventional and anarchic teacher, Mr. Humphreys, the pair forge an unusual friendship and Nathan’s talents win him a place on the UK team at the International Mathematics Olympiad. From suburban England to bustling Taipei and back again, Nathan builds complex relationships as he is confronted by the irrational nature of love.

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Scales: Mermaids Are Real 2017

Scales: Mermaids Are Real 2017

Scales: Mermaids Are Real 2017
PG | 1h 32min | Fantasy | 21 July 2017 (USA)

Storyline:

Siren Phillips has lived her life thinking she’s an ordinary girl, in an ordinary town. On the eve of her twelfth birthday, however, she learns that she is far from ordinary. Destined to turn into a Mermaid at the age of twelve, Siren must struggle with her new reality, saying good bye to her mother and friends, while she transitions into the water. To make matters worse, a group of Hunters are after her, trying to catch her. She soon becomes friends with Adam Wilts, a new boy at school, who she turns to for help. He agrees to help her, but finds himself caught in the middle, when it’s his own father who is after Siren. When Siren’s mother is taken, the town must rally behind her, and help her make a peaceful transition into the water, before the hunters can find out where she is.

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Towelhead 2007

Towelhead 2007

Towelhead 2007
Nothing Is Private (original title)
R | 2h 4min | Drama | 11 December 2008 (Hungary)

Storyline:

Against the backdrop of the first Gulf War, Jasira Maroun is 13, physically well developed but naïve and unable to say no. As puberty arrives, her mother sends her from Syracuse to Houston to her curt, up-tight, Lebanese-born father. Over the next few months, Jasira must navigate her father’s strict indifference, her discovery of sexual pleasure, the casual racism of a neighbor boy and her classmates, the sexual advances of the boy’s father, the proffered friendship of a pregnant neighbor, and her attraction to Thomas, an African-American classmate whom her father forbids her to see. Things happen to her, but can she take responsibility and control, or is tragedy inevitable?

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Harold and Maude 1971

Harold and Maude 1971

Harold and Maude 1971
1h 31min | Comedy, Drama, Romance | 20 December 1971 (USA)

Storyline:

Young adult Harold Chasen, solitary and friendless by choice, is obsessed with death, this fascination manifesting itself in he staging his own fake suicides, driving a hearse, and attending funerals, even of people he doesn’t know, all to the chagrin of his exasperated wealthy mother with who he lives. Mrs. Chasen is determined for Harold to be “normal”, including she sending him into therapy to deal with his issues and finding him a girlfriend through a computer dating service. It is at a series of funerals that Harold meets Maude, on the cusp of her eightieth birthday, she who too attends funerals of strangers. Unlike Harold, Maude is obsessed with life – her own life to be more precise – she doing whatever she wants to please herself, damned what others may think or how they may be affected. Since she can’t take material possessions with her, she is more interested in experiences, with whatever material possessions she has – often “borrowed” without asking – only to further those experiences. Their friendship is initially based on how the other can further their own priority. But as Maude shows Harold how to truly live, Harold falls in love with her. Their relationship, already limited in time by the sheer math, is curtailed even more as Maude shows him only not how to live well, but die well.

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Boys in the Trees 2016

Boys in the Trees 2016

Boys in the Trees 2016
1h 52min | Drama, Thriller | 20 October 2016 (Australia)

Storyline:

It’s Halloween 1997 – the last night of high school for Corey, Jango and their skater gang, The Gromits. Childhood is over and adult life beckons. But for Corey, his past has some unfinished business. When he encounters Jonah, a former childhood friend but now victimized by Jango’s cruel streak, Corey takes pity on him and agrees to walk him home for old time’s sake. What starts off as a normal walk through empty suburban streets descends into something darker and magical as they tell each other ghost stories, drawing upon their fears of the world around them. As they walk through their memories and ghosts of the past, Corey is surprised to discover how much he still has in common with his abandoned friend. But on the night of the grave’s delight, even the most buried truths will find a way of coming to life.

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