chris-5's - Rented List

Melissa McCarthy is masterful in the captivating account - based on a true story - of a down-and-out writer who resorts to lies, deceit and outright crime to get back on top.

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Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) is a veteran film director, afflicted by multiple ailments, the worst of which is his inability to continue filming. His physical condition doesn't allow it and, if he can't film, his life has no meaning.

His mixture of medications, along with the occasional flirtation with heroin, means that Salvador spends most of his days prostrate and forlorn. This drowsy state transports him back to reflect on his childhood in the 60's, when his family emigrated to Paterna, a village in Valencia, in search of prosperity, through to the appearance of his first desire and his first adult love in the Madrid of the 80's. In recovering his past, Salvador finds the urgent need to recount it, and in that need he may also find his salvation.

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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.

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The final part of his highly acclaimed 'Living' trilogy, Roy Andersson's 'A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence' takes another sly, humorous and wholly original look at the absurdity of life.

Two travelling salesman who trade novelty items traipse glumly from one joke shop to another failing to make a living, teacher-student relationships repeatedly become inappropriate at a flamenco dance lesson, and King Charles XII of Sweden drops by a bar with an 18th century army in tow, looking for a lover and a modern day peasant to punish. This is the skewed and unique world of Roy Andersson where disparate segments of humanity are exhibited and coalesce to form a poignant and darkly funny commentary on society and how we should ultimately embrace it.

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What if the most important story in your life was not your own? Billie Holiday, one of the greatest voices of all time, was always considered controversial: a black artist who was exploited; a volatile drug addict who achieved great heights; and a woman who stood firm while performing the seminal

protest song Strange Fruit, making her an enemy of the state. Bringing Billie Holiday to life in colour for the first time and drawing on nearly 200 hours of never-before-heard taped interviews with musicians like Count Basie and Tony Bennett, as well as friends, lovers, pimps and the FBI agents who were sent to hunt her down, 'Billie' is the definitive story of a jazz icon and of the journalist who died trying to tell it.

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Trapped behind the high walls of an austere orphanage in suburban Paris, Paul (Jean Scandel) has only ever known one home.

His chance to discover the great wide world comes when a bohemian couple, Celestine (Valérie Karsenti) and Borel (Eric Elmosnino), take him back to their countryside home on a vast estate in Sologne, where Borel is the gamekeeper. Paul starts to explore his new home among the huge forests, misty ponds and liclds, which all belong to the taciturn estate owner, Count de la Fresnaye, who Paul soon discovers has a fractious relationship with Borel due to the Count's toleration of poachers on his estate. Borel relentlessly hunts down these welcome trespassers, particularly Totoche (François Cluzet), the most wily and elusive among them, who has befriended Paul unbeknownst to his adoptive parents. In the heart of Sologne, Paul will learn about die forest, its mysteries and the complexities of life alongside Totoche, but a heavier secret weighs down the estate as Paul's arrival seems to be no accident...

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Produced by Metallica's Robert Trujillo, "Jaco" tells the story of one on the greatest bass guitarists of all time.

With incredible insights from an array of artists including Flea, Joni Mitchell, Sting, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Geddy Lee, Bootsy Collins, Carlos Santana and others, as well as Jaco's family and friends, it unveils the story of his music, his life, his demise, and ultimately the fragility of great artistic genius. There are few musicians who fundamentally change their instrument, and even fewer still who transcend their instrument altogether. Jaco Pastorius did both. Now over 25 years since his violent and untimely death, his story will teach the world about true musicianship, family, and the indestructible power of the human spirit.

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To her friends, Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) leads a quiet and routine life. But her happy and upbeat exterior hides a secret double life as a committed environmental activist.

Known to others as "The Mountain Woman", she wages a one-woman-war on the local aluminium industry to protect the stunning highland landscape that is under threat. Just as she begins planning her biggest and boldest operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that will change everything. She will be forced to choose between her environmental crusade and the chance of fulfilling her dream of becoming a mother. Funny, moving and utterly unique, 'Woman at War' follows Halla as she juggles the adoption of a beautiful little girl whilst planning her final act of industrial sabotage.

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"His music inspires you, his life will surprise you", 'Rocketman' is a one-of-a-kind musical celebration set to Elton John's most beloved songs. Discover how a shy boy growing up in the suburbs of London becomes one of the most iconic figures in rock and roll.

Featuring an all-star cast, this truly spectacular and utterly electrifying ride is filled with show-stopping musical performances and is "unlike anything you've ever seen".

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Kim Ki Taek's (Song Kang Ho) family are all unemployed and living in a squalid basement. When his son, Ki Woo, gets a tutoring job at the lavish home of the Park family, the Kim family's luck changes.

One by one they gradually infiltrate the wealthy Park's home, attempting to take over their affluent lifestyle, but as their deception unravels events begin to get increasingly out of hand in ways you simply cannot imagine.

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A group of 40-something guys, all on the verge of a mid-life crisis, decide to form their local pool's first ever synchronized swimming team - for men.

Braving the scepticism and ridicule of those around them, and trained by a fallen champion trying to pull herself together, the group set out on an unlikely adventure, and on the way will rediscover a little self-esteem and a lot about themselves and each other.

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In August of 1958, in front of a Harlem brownstone, first-time photographer Art Kane assembled 57 of the greatest jazz stars of all time and snapped a picture that would live forever.

Narrated by Quincy Jones, this "irresistible", Academy Award-nominated documentary (1995) examines the fascinating lives of the musicians who showed up that day to make history. Through remarkable interviews with nearly 30 jazz greats (including Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins and Art Blakey), home movies shot by Milt and Mona Hinton, and rare, archival performance footage, feature tells the story behind a legendary photograph that is still alive and kicking - and jammin'!

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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.

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Patrick McGoohan stars in this hip, cool reworking of Shakespeare's Othello, set amongst the jazz clubs of the early 1960's.

A steamy tale of jealousy, passion and brooding menace, McGoohan gives a strong performance as the manipulative, treacherous Johnny Cousin - a talented drummer who wields music as a weapon in his quest to draw a jazz diva out of her retirement. Directed by the BAFTA-winning Basil Dearden and with strong support from Keith Michell, Betsy Blair and Richard Attenborough, 'All Night Long' also showcases premiere jazz musicians of the fifties and sixties, including Dave Brubeck, Johnny Scott, Johnny Dankworth, Tubby Hayes and the legendary Charles Mingus. In London's East End the high, blank walls of warehouses tower on either side, giving the street an air of menace. But from one warehouse comes the cool sounds of jazz, the clink of glasses and the buzz of intelligent conversation. It's a party and the occasion is the first wedding anniversary of famous Jazzman Aurelius Rex and his wife Delia, who abandoned a highly successful singing career when she married him. Demon drummer John Cousin arrives, complete with drum kit, and he has ideas about Delia's retirement...

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Esteemed art auctioneer Virgil Oldman, renowned for his appraisal skills and the ability to spot forgeries, routinely scams the auction world out of the masterpieces he deliberately undervalues with the help of an old friend.

When the dishonest critique with an acid tongue is hired by Claire, a beautiful young heiress, to valuate the contents of the creepy mansion left to her by her parents, the two strike up an unlikely friendship. Terrified to leave the confides of her own home or even show her face, due to a mysterious condition, Oldman engages in his own deception as his obsession for her grows.