ajb's - Rented List
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After her debut feature Wadjda (2012) broke new ground as the first-ever film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia - and the first made by a Saudi woman - director Haifaa Al Mansour returns to the kingdom with The Perfect Candidate. A determined young Saudi doctor's surprise run for office in the local city elections sweeps up her family and community as they struggle to accept their town's first female candidate. - Director:
- Haifaa Al-Mansour
- Cast:
- Mila Al Zahrani, Reema Mohammed, Dae Al Hilali
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With his eighth and most personal film, Alfonso Cuaron recreated the early-1970's Mexico City of his childhood, narrating a tumultuous period in the life of a middle-class family through the experiences of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio, in a revelatory screen debut), the indigenous domestic worker who keeps the household running. Charged with the care of four small children abandoned by their father, Cleo tends to the family even as her own life is shaken by personal and political upheavals. Written, directed, shot, and coedited by Cuaron, 'Roma' is a labor of love with few parallels in the history of cinema, deploying monumental black-and-white cinematography, an immersive soundtrack, and a mixture of professional and nonprofessional performances to shape its author's memories into a world of enveloping texture, and to pay tribute to the woman who nurtured him. - Director:
- Alfonso Cuarón
- Cast:
- Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Diego Cortina Autrey
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As three civil rights activists drive down a desolate stretch of highway, headlights ominously draw near. Telling each other to stay calm, they have no way of knowing that in minutes they will disappear into the night and spark one of the most explosive murder investigations in history. Enter straight-laced Ward (Willem Dafoe) and deceptively easy-going Anderson (Gene Hackman). Can these two philosophically opposed FBI agents overcome their differences and uncover the chilling mystery of a small Ku Klux Klan - ridden community before an entire town is torn apart by racism? - Director:
- Alan Parker
- Cast:
- Gene Hackman, Jack Buck, Willem Dafoe
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Power, Politics, Money... in this provocative, bitingly funny drama series about a dysfunctional dynasty led by the ageing and ailing - Logan Roy (Brian Cox), whose four grown children (Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, Alan Ruck) challenge his waning dominance while others in their orbit position themselves for the looming post-Logan world. - Director:
- Adam McKay
- Cast:
- Hiam Abbass, Nicholas Braun, Brian Cox
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When Daniel attends an extraordinary family reunion with his parents, he discovers a world he hardly knew existed. Before long Daniel finds that his skills as a surveyor can be used in surprising ways. However, when Daniel adopts the role of go-between for his glamorous Aunt Alice and dazzling cousins Rebecca and Charles, his honourable intentions have the potential to go disastrously wrong. - Director:
- Stephen Poliakoff
- Cast:
- Michael Gambon, Lindsay Duncan, Matthew Macfadyen
- Formats:
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Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) is a fussy angel. Crowley (David Tennant) is a loose-living demon. They've both been on Earth for over 6,000 years. During that time they've grown quite fond of it, and, against all odds, each other. But there's a problem - the Antichrist has arrived here on Earth, which means the world they have become too fond of will end in flames, if they don't manage to save it. This wildly imaginative and gloriously funny drama follows Aziraphale and Crowley as they join forces in an attempt to find an 11-year-old Antichrist (and his dog) and avert the Apocalypse. Armageddon is coming - but it doesn't have to be the end of the world. - Director:
- Douglas Mackinnon
- Cast:
- David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Frances McDormand
- Formats:
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South Dakota rodeo star Brady Blackburn (Brady Jandreau) awakens from a severe head injury after a horse stamped on his skull. The doctors tell him he must give up the sport - one that is his passion but also his lifeline - for fear it may kill him. While his sister Lily is mentally disabled and his father drinks, gambles and womanises, Brady is the crutch that supports the family - but without the rodeo, he's facing a life of misery. - Director:
- Chloé Zhao
- Cast:
- Brady Jandreau, Mooney, Tim Jandreau
- Formats:
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"Letters from Baghdad" is the story of a true original, Gertrude Bell, sometimes called the "female" Lawrence of Arabia. The film tells the dramatic story of this British spy, explorer and political powerhouse. Using stunning, never-seen-before footage of the region, the film chronicles her extraordinary journey into both the uncharted Arabian desert and the inner sanctum of British colonial power. The story is told entirely in the words of Gertrude Beil and her contemporaries, excerpted from their intimate letters, private diaries and official documents. It is a unique look at both a remarkable woman and the tangled history of Iraq. The film takes us into a past that is eerily current. - Director:
- Sabine Krayenbühl
- Cast:
- Rose Leslie, Ammar Haj Ahmad, Adam Astill
- Formats:
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In 1970, the Miss World competition took place in London, hosted by US comedy legend, Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear). At the time, Miss World was the most-watched TV show on the planet with over 100 million viewers. Claiming that beauty competitions demeaned women, the newly formed Women's Liberation Movement achieved overnight fame by invading the stage and disrupting the live broadcast of the competition. Not only that, when the show resumed, the result caused uproar: the winner was not the Swedish favourite but Miss Grenada, the first black woman to be crowned Miss World. In a matter of hours, a global audience had witnessed the patriarchy driven from the stage and the Western ideal of beauty turned on its head. - Director:
- Philippa Lowthorpe
- Cast:
- Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jessie Buckley
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Newly promoted Detective Chief Superintendent Elizabeth Bancroft (Sarah Parish) returns to head up a new merged police service. Revered by colleagues and delivering impressively low crime figures. Bancroft is riding a professional high. However, this success comes at a great cost as Bancroft is left isolated and estranged from her beloved son, Joe, and facing increasing pressure from her dangerous pact with crime boss, Daanish Kamara (Ryan McKen). When a disturbing double murder brings her personal and professional life crashing together, she is forced to confront a chilling new enemy. With threats closing in from all sides, the repercussions of her past actions will come back to haunt her in ways she could never have expected. - Director:
- Lawrence Gough
- Cast:
- Paul Adeyefa, Sarah Parish, Charles Babalola
- Formats:
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The County (2020)Héraðið
Inga (Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir) runs a dairy farm with her husband in a remote valley of Iceland where they work long hours for a tight income due to their buyers, a money-grubbing monopoly known as the co-op. However, when Inga's husband tragically dies she learns her debts are even greater than she thought and takes it upon herself not to repay them but to expose the co-op's greed and corruption by any means necessary. - Director:
- Grímur Hákonarson
- Cast:
- Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir, Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson, Þorsteinn Bachmann
- Formats:
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A dark and compelling thriller exploring what happens when heinous crimes, long buried in the past, come back to haunt us. Created and written by Kate Brooke, leading actress Sarah Parish plays respected police officer Detective Superintendent Elizabeth Bancroft. Ruthless and courageous, Bancroft is a brilliant copper. She has given her life to the police force. But when ambitious fast-tracked recruit, Katherine Stevens joins the force, played by acclaimed actress Faye Marsay, Katherine takes on a cold case and unwittingly disturbs the ghosts of Bancroft's devastating past. With strong female characters at its heart and a detective with an explosive secret, this original crime drama is packed full of twists. - Director:
- John Hayes
- Cast:
- Sarah Parish, Faye Marsay, Ryan McKen
- Formats:
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A love story about divorce. A marriage coming apart and a family coming together. 'Marriage Story' is a hilarious and harrowing, sharply observed and deeply compassionate film from the acclaimed writer-director Noah Baumbach. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson deliver tour-de-force performances as Charlie, a charismatic New York theater director wedded to his work, and Nicole, an actor, who is ready to change her own life. Their hopes for an amicable divorce fade as they are drawn into a system that pits them against each other and forces them to redefine their relationship and their family. Featuring bravura, finely drawn supporting turns from Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, and Laura Dern - who won an Academy Award for her performance here - as the trio of lawyers who preside over the legal battle, 'Marriage Story' (nominated for six Academy Awards including best picture) is a work of both intimacy and scope that ultimately invokes hope amid the ruins. - Director:
- Noah Baumbach
- Cast:
- Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Julia Greer
- Formats:
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Read My Lips (2001)Sur Mes Lèvres
Deaf secretary Carla is bullied by her mean spirited male colleagues. When they suggest she needs an assistant it seems like the final insult, but, when the first applicant is ex-con Paul she seizes the chance to change her life. Carla covers his mistakes and he, anxious to go straight, reluctantly helps her take revenge on her colleagues. When Paul asks Carla to return the favour, she finds herself drawn into the criminal underworld, ruled by ruthless loan shark Marchand. Recognising her ability to lip-read as a weapon no one will have bargained for, the two set out to see justice done. - Director:
- Jacques Audiard
- Cast:
- Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Devos, Olivier Gourmet
- Formats:
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'Woman in Cold' is the remarkable true story of one woman's journey to reclaim her heritage and seek justice for what happened to her family. Sixty years after she fled Vienna during World War II, an elderly Jewish woman, Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), starts her journey to retrieve family possessions seized by the Nazis, among them Gustav Klimt's famous painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. Together with her inexperienced but plucky young lawyer Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), she embarks upon a major battle which takes them all the way to the heart of the Austrian establishment and the U.S. Supreme Court, and forces her to confront difficult truths about the past along the way. - Director:
- Simon Curtis
- Cast:
- Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Brühl
- Formats:
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