jgpeak's - Rented List

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A pre-code film that sneaked onto screens just as the censorious Hays Office began cracking down on Hollywood's racier propositions, Cleopatra is a libertine paean to decadence and depravity that can still send a viewer's mind reeling and pulse thumping - all courtesy of the Golden Age's swampiest

psychosexual auteur, Cecil B. DeMille. Claudette Colbert presides over the most outrageous spectacle this side of The Scarlet Empress as the eponymous pharaoh queen who speeds from Julius Caesar (Warren William) to Marc Antony (Henry Wilcoxon), from Egypt to Rome, from war-room to bedroom...The whiff of incense permeates every scene, with each connected to the next in a veritable matrix of whips, blindfolds, and bindings - the crazed arrangement laying bare all the fetish inklings of the moving-picture dream. Lavishly produced with some of the most inspired waxing-moon photography and unwholesome set-design to come out of the studio system, DeMille's film is an erotic tour-de-force that obliges us to re-examine the appeal of this most popular of Hollywood directors.

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When veteran LAPD detective Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) receives an ink-marked bill in the office mail, she is forced to confront her past, and her connection to murderer and gang leader Silas (Toby Kebbell).

Still haunted by an undercover FBI sting gone horribly wrong, Bell is flooded with painful memories of her old partner Chris (Sebastian Stan) and becomes hell bent on closing the case, whatever it takes.

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On 22 July 2011, more than 500 youths at a political summer camp on the island of Utoya outside Oslo were targeted by an armed, right-wing extremist.

In this first fictional movie about the attack, director Erik Poppe's breathless single-take re-enactment is told entirely from the perspective of a teenage girl Kaja (Andrea Berntzen) and her friends. Minute by minute we watch them trying to escape the gunman as they fight for their survival.

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Award-winning writer/director John Butler (The Stag) returns with a charming story of the unlikely friendship between two boarding school roommates - music-mad Ned (Fionn O'Shea) and macho rugby player Conor (Nicholas Galitzine).

In this funny and observant tale, i the boys take an instant dislike to each other but are/ encouraged by their teacher (Andrew Scott) to find their own voices and defy the status quo.

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From acclaimed director Mike Leigh comes this epic portrayal of events surrounding the infamous 1819 'Peterloo Massacre' in Manchester, when armed government forces charged into a crowd of 60,000 peaceful protesters who were desperate for greater democracy and improved working conditions.

Featuring stellar performances from Maxine Peake and Rory Kinnear, 'Peterloo' is an explosively visceral retelling of a defining moment in British history.

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Based on Peter Rock's novel 'My Abandonment', 'Leave No Trace' revolves around a teenage girl (Thomasin McKenzie) and her father (Ben Foster) who have lived undetected for years in Forest Park, a vast wood on the edge of Portland, Oregon.

A chance encounter leads to their discovery and removal from the park and into the charge of a social service agency. They try to adapt to their new surroundings until a sudden decision sets them on a perilous journey into the wilderness seeking complete independence and forcing them to confront their conflicting desire to be part of a community or a fierce need to live apart.

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In a near-future world, where technology controls everything, technophobe Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) is the victim of a brutal mugging that leaves his wife dead and him paralysed. A reclusive billionaire inventor offers him an experimental cure, an A.I. implant called Stem.

Grey accepts and is immediately transformed into an unstoppable killing machine with enhanced strength and agility. Now it's payback time.

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"Vox Lux" is a powerful and stylish portrait of a troubled pop star from writer-director Brady Corbet, which follows her rise from the ashes of a major national tragedy to global superstardom.

Oscar winner Natalie Portman gives a remarkable performance as pop singer Celeste, who must overcome personal and familial struggles to mount a comeback with the help of her talent manager (Jude Law), after a scandalous incident that nearly derailed her career. Set over a 15 year period, this acclaimed and unique examination of modern celebrity features new songs by Sia and an original score by Scott Walker.

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You only think you know this story. Writer-director Marc Meyers has crafted a haunting and evocative look at one of history's most notorious serial killers.

Shot on location and in Dahmer's (Ross Lynch) childhood home, the film reveals his troubled family life, his increasingly bizarre attempts to make friends and his fascination with the macabre. Based on the critically acclaimed graphic novel by Jeff's classmate Derf Backderf (Alex Wolff), 'My Friend Dahmer' chronicles the origins of the man, the monster...the high school senior.

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India 1947. The final Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, is tasked with overseeing the transition of British India to independence, but meets with conflict as different sides clash in the face of monumental change.

Starring Hugh Bonneville and Gillian Anderson as Lord and Lady Mountbatten, and set against an exotic Indian backdrop at the time of the Raj, 'Viceroy's House' tells the incredible true story of the final months of British rule in India, and of the resilience of the human spirit.

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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While holidaying in Berlin, Australian photojournalist Clare (Teresa Palmer) meets Andi (Max Riemelt), a charismatic local man and there is an instant attraction between them.

But what initially appears to be the start of romance suddenly takes an unexpected and sinister turn when Clare wakes up the following morning to discover Andi has left for work and locked her in his apartment. An easy mistake to make, of course, except Andi has no intention of letting her go again. Ever.

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In 1958, in the state of Virginia, the idea of interracial marriage was not only considered to be immoral to many, it was also illegal. When Richard (Joel Edgerton) and Mildred (Ruth Negga) fall in love, they are aware of the eyes staring at them and the words said behind their backs.

It is when they get married, however, that words and looks become actions, and the two are arrested. The couple decide to take their case all of the way to the Supreme Court in order to fight for their love.

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Jan Nemec's debut feature, "Diamonds of the Night" is one of the most thrilling and startlingly original works of cinema.

Told almost without dialogue, it chronicles the tense and desperate journey of two teenage boys who are trying to stay alive after escaping from a German train bound for a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. With its virtuoso cinematography, inspired editing and brilliantly utilised soundtrack, the film is a landmark of the ill-fated Czech New Wave. Its themes of man's perpetual struggle to preserve human dignity in the face of unimaginable horrors are just as relevant today.

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During the long hot summer of 1947 Dr. Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked.

Hundreds Hall has been home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, but it is now in decline and its inhabitants - mother, son and daughter - are haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life. When he takes on his new patient, Faraday has no idea how closely, and how terrifyingly, the family's story is about to become entwined with his own.