jjb's - Rented List
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After the critical triumphs of Stranger Than Paradise and Down By Law, director Jim Jarmusch was heralded as one of the most arresting filmmaker to surface in the American cinema. Mystery train is a smart and curiously affecting comedy, that is funny and thoroughly satisfying! Named after the Elvis Presley hit, 'Mystery Train'interweaves three engrossing stories, all centering around the Elvis Presley legend and his beloved hometown of Memphis. As the characters' path collide - through laughter, fear and fate - you can practically feel the presence of the King himself in every scene...and his legacy impressed on a generation of equally lost souls in this wry, brilliantly structured comedy. - Director:
- Jim Jarmusch
- Cast:
- Masatoshi Nagase, Youki Kudoh, Screamin' Jay Hawkins
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Pushing Hands (1992)Tui Shou
Ang Lee's directorial debut established him as a world-class filmmaker and truly unique talent. "Pushing Hands" is a deeply moving and funny examination of Chinese respect for their elders and the cultural differences between the East and the West. Mr. Chu is an elderly man who has devoted himself to a lifetime of study and teaching Tai Chi but in old age wishes a closer relationship with his family and so decides to leave his native Beijing to live with his son Alex (Bo Z. Wang), and his frustrated writer wife Alex (Deb Snyder) in New York. Adapting to a new culture, bonding with his new wider American family and adjusting to his dwindling independence in old age, Chu soon discovers there is still much to learn. - Director:
- Ang Lee
- Cast:
- Bozhao Wang, Sihung Lung, Lai Wang
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Martin Scorsese directs this true story of New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio). From the American dream to corporate greed, Belfort goes from penny stocks and righteousness to IPOs and a life of corruption in the late 80s - earning him the title "The Wolf of Wall Street". Money. Power. Women. Drugs. Temptations were for the taking and the threat of authority was irrelevant. For Jordan and his wolf pack, more was never enough. - Director:
- Martin Scorsese
- Cast:
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Edward Herrmann, Jonah Hill
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Edge of Tomorrow (2014)Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow
An alien race, undefeatable by any existing military unit, has launched a relentless attack on Earth, and Major Wiiliam Cage (Tom Cruise) finds himself dropped into a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage is thrown into a time loop, forced to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again and again. Training alongside warrior Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), his skills slowly evolve, and each battle moves them one step closer to defeating the enemy in this intense action thriller. - Director:
- Doug Liman
- Cast:
- Tom Cruise, David Kaye, Emily Blunt
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Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara star as a young couple who – after being separated by loss – discover an eternal connection and a love that is infinite. An unforgettable meditation on love and grief, A Ghost Story emerges ecstatic and surreal – a wholly unique experience that lingers long after the credits roll. - Director:
- David Lowery
- Cast:
- Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, McColm Cephas Jr.
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Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 1994 Academy Awards, "The Wedding Banquet" brought Ang Lee to international prominence in this warm-hearted comedy depicting the farce behind a life led by deception. Wei-Tung and Simon are a gay couple living together in Manhattan. To deter the suspicions of Wei-Tung's parents, Simon suggests a marriage of convenience between Wei-Tung and Wei-Wei, an immigrant in need of a green card. When Wei-Tung's parents arrive in America insisting upon an elaborate wedding banquet, plans spiral out of control and ultimately threaten every one of Wei-Tung's relationships. - Director:
- Ang Lee
- Cast:
- Winston Chao, May Chin, Ya-lei Kuei
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Why Don't You Just Die! (2018)Papa, Sdokhni
Matvey (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) has just one objective: to gain entry to his girlfriend's parents' apartment and kill her father Andrey (Vitaliy Khaev) with a hammer to restore her honour. But all is not as it initially seems, and Matvey's attempts to bludgeon the family patriarch to death don't quite go to plan as Andrey proves a more formidable - not to mention ruthless - opponent than he anticipated...and Matvey, for his part, proves stubbornly unwilling to die. - Director:
- Kirill Sokolov
- Cast:
- Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Vitaliy Khaev, Evgeniya Kregzhde
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Everyone knows that growing up is hard, and no one can relate to this more than Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), who is already at peak awkwardness when her popular older brother starts dating her best friend. All at once, Nadine feels more alone than ever, until she seeks the help of her reluctant teacher (Woody Harrelson), who helps her discover that what feels like the end of the world may just be the beginning of growing up. - Director:
- Kelly Fremon
- Cast:
- Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner
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His Majesty was all powerful and all knowing. But he wasn't quite all there. 1788 - King George IIl (Nigel Hawthorne) is almost 30 years into his reign and is once again preparing for the Opening of Parliament. Queen Charlotte (Helen Mirren) skillfully divides her role as both devoted wife and mother to their 15 children. Yet, despite the apparent veneer of respectability, something is going sadly awry within the walls of Windsor Castle. The King's behaviour is becoming increasingly irrational, he is babbling ceaselessly, spewing obscenities and attacking the Queen's Mistress of Robes, Lady Pembroke (Amanda Donohoe). Has the King of England gone...mad? As the King's condition deteriorates, his son, the Prince of Wales (Rupert Everett) sets out to have his father declared unfit in order that he should be proclaimed Regent. The Queen is denied access to her husband and the King consequently becomes an isolated figure at the mercy of his own inept physicians. Not until he is persuaded to engage a new doctor, Dr Willis (Ian Holm) does the King show any signs of improvement. Yet the King's only true salvation relies on the support of the most potent of medicines - the Queen herself. - Director:
- Nicholas Hytner
- Cast:
- Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Rupert Graves
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"The Secret Life of Pets 2" continues the story of Max (voice of Patton Oswalt), Gidget (voice of Jenny Slate), Snowball (voice of Kevin Hart) and the rest of the gang as they take on new adventures and are pushed to find the courage to become their own heroes. Explore the emotional lives of our pets - the deep bond between them, the families that love them - and find out what your pets are really doing when you're not at home. - Director:
- Chris Renaud
- Cast:
- Patton Oswalt, Kevin Hart, Harrison Ford
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Tampopo (1985)Dandelion
The tale of an eccentric band of culinary ronin who guide the widow of a noodle-shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, this rapturous "ramen western" by Japanese director Juzo Itami is an entertaining, genre bending adventure underpinned by a deft satire of the way social conventions distort the most natural of human urges - our appetites. Interspersing the efforts of Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto) and friends to make her cafe a success with the erotic exploits of a gastronome gangster and glimpses of food culture both high and low, the sweet, sexy, and surreal 'Tampopo' is a lavishly inclusive paean to the sensual joys of nourishment, and one of the most mouthwatering examples of food on film ever made. - Director:
- Jûzô Itami
- Cast:
- Ken Watanabe, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto
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Wild Tales (2014)Relatos Salvajes
From director Damian Szifron and producer Pedro Almodovar comes six stories, each exploring a different facet of revenge and the various brilliant, mad, toe-curling and hilarious flavours in which it can be dished out. Whether it's taking out a belligerent crime lord, getting even with officious parking enforcement, retribution for infidelity, or good old fashioned road rage, 'Wild Tales' takes acts of vengeance for infuriating, often all too familiar situations and blows them out to a bitter and hysterical end in this outrageous, tense and ferociously funny dark comedy. - Director:
- Damián Szifrón
- Cast:
- Darío Grandinetti, María Marull, Mónica Villa
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Film recounts the adventures of Gustave H., a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars; and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting; a raging battle for an enormous family fortune; a desperate chase on motorcycles, trains, sleds, and skis; and the sweetest confection of a love affair - all against the backdrop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent. - Director:
- Wes Anderson
- Cast:
- Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric
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Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)Yin shi nan nu
Director Ang Lee's follow-up to his surprise box-office hit 'The Wedding Banquet', and nominated for 11 Academy Awards including Best Foreign Film, "Eat Drink Man Woman" is an unrivalled bitter sweet comedy about food, the senses and gender politics in modern China. Senior Master Chef Chu lives in a large house in Taipei with his three unmarried daughters; Jia-Jen, an unmarried chemistry teacher cynical about men; Jia-Chien, who has ambitions to become a great chef in a male dominated world and Jia-Ning, a sexually expressive college student who falls pregnant. Life in the house revolves around the ritual of an elaborate dinner each Sunday, lovingly cooked by Chef Chu but may be all too traditional for the next generation of the family. As each meal passes the relationships between the daughters and the family as a whole evolve and change in many unexpected ways. - Director:
- Ang Lee
- Cast:
- Sihung Lung, Yu-Wen Wang, Chien-lien Wu
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Drunken Master (1978)Zui quan
Jackie Chan plays Wong Fei-hung (a legendary Chinese folk hero who has also been portrayed on screen by Jet Li, Gordon Liu and Donnie Yen amongst many others), who is punished for his frequent troublemaking by being forced to study under the martial arts master Su Hua Chi (Yuen Siu-tien), notorious for his drinking as much as he is for leaving his students crippled. Wong proves himself an adept pupil, but his new skills are soon put to the test when his own father is targeted by a brutal assassin (Hwang Jang Lee). - Director:
- Woo-ping Yuen
- Cast:
- Jackie Chan, Siu Tin Yuen, Jang Lee Hwang
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