jwc's - Rented List

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From Oscar winning writer/director Adam McKay (The Big Short) comes 'Vice', an audacious and darkly comedic look at former US Vice President Dick Cheney's stealthy rise from Washington intern to the most powerful man on the planet.

Oscar winner Christian Bale leads an all-star cast that includes Oscar nominees Steve Carell as the affable, yet steely Donald Rumsfeld, Amy Adams as Cheney's ambitious wife, and Oscar winner Sam Rockwell as the malleable George W. Bush. Spanning a half-century, Cheney's journey from rural Wyoming electrical worker to de facto President of the United States is a hilariously terrifying true tale of the use and misuse of institutional power.

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"The Hunt" unfolds in a small provincial town in the days leading up to Christmas. Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), a forty year old divorcee, is finally getting his life under control.

He's got himself a new girlfriend, a new job and is in the process of re-building his relationship with his teenage son, Marcus. But things soon start to unravel. Nothing significant, just a slight comment here, a random lie there. And as the snow falls and the Christmas lights are lit, the lie spreads like an invisible virus. The shock and mistrust gets out of hand, and the small community suddenly finds itself in a collective state of hysteria, while Lucas fights a lonely fight for his life and dignity. "The Hunt" is a disturbing depiction of how a lie can quickly become truth - a modern tale of a witch-hunt, injustice, guilt and, ultimately, forgiveness. A fable on how fragile a community can become when gossip, doubt and malice are allowed to flourish. It is a stirring portrait of a man struggling to exonerate himself, and a father and a son reaching out for one another as their world crumbles.

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Emil Forester (Matthew Macfadyen) is an award winning film director in the midst of a long creative block when he receives an invite to the first film festival of the Autonomous Republic of Karastan.

After meeting the enigmatic dictator (Richard van Weyden) he soon finds himself directing an epic film about Karastan's medieval founder, played by a drunken Hollywood actor (Noah Taylor). Despite the help of the President's aide (MyAnna Buring) Forester soon finds himself well out of his depth trying to make a blockbuster in a language he doesn't understand, with a questionable cast and crew, against a concerning political backdrop...

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Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, an ageing silent film queen, and William Holden as the struggling writer who is held in thrall by her madness, created two of the screen's most memorable characters in Sunset Boulevard.

Winner of three Academy Awards, director Billy Wilder's orchestration of the bizarre tale is a true cinematic classic. From the unforgettable opening sequence through the inevitable unfolding of tragic destiny, the film is the definitive statement on the dark and desperate side of Hollywood. Erich von Stroheim as Desmond's discoverer, ex-husband and butler, and Nancy Olson as the bright spot in unrelenting ominousness, are equally celebrated for their masterful performances.

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When her husband jumped out of a plane without a parachute, Grace Trevethen (Brenda Blethyn) knew life would get tough, but she had no idea just how tough. Left with a manor on the Cornish coast, a mountain of debt and dozens of creditors on her heels, she is about to lose everything.

But with Matthew (Craig Ferguson), the manor's caretaker, Grace hatches an outrageous idea: why not use her renowned green thumb to plant a cash crop and pay off her debts? Soon her greenhouse becomes a hot bed of illegal activity - and business starts blooming. But if the buzz gets too big, these budding entrepreneurs just might have to watch their dreams go up in smoke!

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Hugh Jackman leads an all-star cast in this bold and original musical filled with infectious showstopping performances that will bring you to your feet time and time again. Inspired by the story of P.T.

Barnum (Hugh Jackman) and celebrating the birth of show business, the film follows the visionary who rose from nothing to create a mesmerising spectacle.

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After avenging his family's brutal murder, Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood) is on the run, pursued by a pack of killers.

He travels alone, but a ragtag group of outcasts Laura Lee and Lone Watie (Sondra Locke and Chief Dan George) is drawn to him - and Wales can't leave his motley surrogate family unprotected.

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The first ever Inuit film to receive a theatrical release, whereupon It Instantly became one of the most critically lauded films of the year, Atanarjuat Is a truly epic piece of storytelling and a wonderfully lyrical cinematic experience.

The film Is a recreation of the ancient Inult legend of Atanarjuat - a classic quest story set In the Arctic at the dawn of the first millennium. Evil In the form of an unknown shaman divides a small community; two brothers, Amaqjuaq (the Strong One) and Atanarjuat (the Fast Runner) rise up to challenge this order. However, when his brother Is murdered, Atanarjuat must flee the community - can the Fast Runner end his exile and vanquish the evil that haunts his community? Zacharias Kunuk's film was shot using digital cameras entirely on sea Ice in Arctic conditions and utilised local cast and crew from the Inult community of Igloolik. Dealing with universal themes and emotions with a rare Insight and compassion, Atanarjuat Is both an extremely Idiosyncratic and yet utterly universal work that truly rivals Lord of the Rings for its epic qualities and sheer visual mastery.

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In early 18th-century England, a frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne, and her closest friend, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz), governs the country while tending to Anne's ill health and volatile temper.

When new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, Sarah takes Abigail under her wing as she cunningly schemes to return to her aristocratic roots, setting off an outrageous rivalry to become the Queen's favourite.

Emmi (Brigitte Mira), a widowed cleaning lady in her sixties, meets Ali (El Hedi ben Salem), a Moroccan immigrant in his thirties. Seeking companionship, the pair marry to the outrage Emmi's family (including Fassbinder himself as her aggressive son-in-law), herfriends and her colleagues.

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Fascinating and imaginative. "The Company of Wolves" directed by Neil Jordan brings together the timeless Little Red Riding Hood and werewolf fables with a haunting, compelling, eerie and erotic difference.

This movie is a magical bag of symbolic folklore about werewolves or rather their sexual connotation. Grandmother Angela Lansbury tells her granddaughter Sarah Patterson, disturbing tales about innocent maidens falling in love with handsome, heavily eyebrowed strangers that have a smouldering look in their eyes. She also tells of her sudden disappearances of spouses when the moon is round and the wolves are howling in the woods.

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Alvy Singer (Woody Allen), is one of Manhattan's most brilliant comedians, but when it comes to romance, his delivery needs a little work.

Introduced by his best friend, Rob (Tony Roberts), to the ditzy but delightful nightclub singer, Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), no sooner is Alvy in love, when his own insecurities sabotage the affair, forcing Annie to leave Alvy for a new life - and lover (Paul Simon) - in Los Angeles. Knowing he may have lost Annie forever, Alvy's willing to go to any lengths - even driving L.A.'s freeways - to recapture the only thing that ever mattered...true love.

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Enter the magical world of Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland), an unusual child with an even more unusual story. Here is world where squirrels talk, where fireflies have names, and where the heads of the dolls, long since separated from their bodies, are closest friends.

After the sudden death of her junkie mother (Jennifer Tilly), Jeliza embarks on a strange journey with her father (Jeff Bridges), a rock-and-roll musician well past his prime. But this journey offers little for Jeliza by way of consolation and as the vast loneliness of her new existence grows she falls deeper and deeper into the twisted world of fantasy that she created in her mind.

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Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert) teaches philosophy at a high school in Paris and divides her remaining time between her family, former students and her eccentric mother.

But when her husband announces he is leaving her for another woman she finds a newfound freedom suddenly thrust upon her that is simultaneously liberating and disconcerting. Featuring a remarkable performance from Huppert, 'Things to Come' is an intelligent, poetic and naturalistic exploration of one woman's pursuit of contentment in the face of adversity.

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"Life, Animated" tells the remarkable story of how a young boy, Owen Suskind, found in Disney animation a pathway to language and a framework for making sense of the world.

By evocatively interweaving classic Disney sequences with verite scenes from Owen's life, the film explores how identification and empathy like lago, Sbastian and Timon forge a conduit for him to understand his feelings and interpret reality. Beautiful, original animations further give form to Owen's fruitful dialogue with the Disney oeuvre as he imagines himself heroically facing adversity in a tribe of sidekicks. With an arsenal of narratives at his disposal, Owen rises to meet the challenges of adulthood in this moving coming-of-age tale.