saj's - Rented List
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The latest from the unique imagination of Peter Strickland, 'In Fabric' is a delirious retail nightmare that blends Euro-infused horror with absurdist dark humour, to ghostly effect. Set against the backdrop of a busy winter sales period at a mysterious Thames Valley department store, the film follows the journey of a cursed artery-red dress as it passes from person to person with devastating consequences. - Director:
- Peter Strickland
- Cast:
- Gwendoline Christie, Sidse babett Knudsen, Caroline Catz
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Four women, Stony (Jada Pinket), Cleo (Queen Latifah), Frankie (Vivica A. Fox), and Tisean (Kimberly Elsie) have spent a lifetime struggling to move away from the mean streets of their neighbourhood. But the system stole their dreams and now they are determined to steal them back. Targeting the banks of Los Angeles, the four rob the city's most vulnerable financial institutions. Flash with cash, they discover that easy money can inch them towards their elusive goal of escaping LA- but it can't solve their problems. The police are hot on their trail, with Detective Strode determined to pin the crimes on the girls. Soon the four realize that breaking out of prison may be easier that busting free from the 'hood... - Director:
- F. Gary Gray
- Cast:
- Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox
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After spending a tense beach day with their friends, the Tylers (Elizabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon), Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o) and her family return to their vacation home. When darkness falls, the Wilsons discover the silhouette of four figures holding hands as they stand in the driveway. 'Us' pits an endearing American family against a terrifying and uncanny opponent: doppelgängers of themselves. - Director:
- Jordan Peele
- Cast:
- Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss
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If Beale Street Could Talk is the story of Tish (KiKi Layne), a newly engaged Harlem woman who races against the clock to prove her fiancee's innocence. It is a celebration of love told through the story of a young couple, their families and their lives, trying to bring about justice through love, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined. - Director:
- Barry Jenkins
- Cast:
- KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King
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Ray and Liz (2018)Ray & Liz
The renowned photographer Richard Billingham made his feature-film debut with this intricate family portrait, inspired by his own memories of growing up in the West Midlands in the late 70's and early 80's, and then of his father and mother in the late 90's. Billingham revisits the figures of his earlier photographs - his alcoholic father Ray (Justin Salinger / Patrick Romer); his mother Liz (Ella Smith); and his younger brother Jason - with a series of family vignettes where life, lived on the margins of society and societal taboos, can spiral out of control. - Director:
- Richard Billingham
- Cast:
- Richard Ashton, Jamie-Lee Beacher, Michelle Bonnard
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When her estranged rabbi father suddenly passes away, Ronit (played by Oscar-winner and co-producer Rachel Weisz) returns from New York to the north London Orthodox Jewish community that rejected her years previously after a scandalous transgression. Ronit's presence immediately courts further controversy when she runs into Esti (Rachel McAdams), the wife of her strictly religious cousin Dovid (Alessandro Nivola) and the woman for whom she shared an illicit attraction in their childhood. This happy reunion soon reignites the two women's burning, long-unrequited passions, an act of defiance that could alter the course of their lives forever. 'Disobedience' is a timely and emotionally powerful tale set at the crossroads of tradition and modernity, of personal desires and the demands of faith. - Director:
- Sebastián Lelio
- Cast:
- Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, Alessandro Nivola
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A zombie apocalypse threatens the sleepy Scottish town of Little Haven, forcing Anna (Ella Hunt) and her friends to fight, slash and sing their way to survival, facing the undead in a desperate race to reach their loved ones. But they soon discover that no one is safe in this new world, and with civilisation falling apart around them, the only people they can truly rely on are each other. - Director:
- John McPhail
- Cast:
- Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire
- Formats:
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The Brand New Testament (2015)Le tout nouveau testament
"The Brand New Testament" is a magically hilarious comedy in which God is real...and lives in Brussels. On Earth, he is a coward, with dubious morals and an odious antipathy towards his family. His daughter, Ea, decides to revolt against her dad's sadistic ways. Hacking his computer and leaking to the dates of every person's death to the entire world, she causes a global pandemic of anarchy and debauchery. As God loses control, he can only watch as the chaos unfolds. - Director:
- Jaco van Dormael
- Cast:
- Pili Groyne, Benoît Poelvoorde, Catherine Deneuve
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On the streets, cash is called "dead presidents". And that's what down-on-his-luck Vietnam veteran Anthony Curtis is desperate for when he returns home from war - and finds himself drawn into a life of crime. Enlisting the aid of his friends, Anthony plans the ultimate heist - a daring daylight robbery of an armoured car filled with unmarked bills. If successful, he'll never have to worry about money again. - Director:
- Albert Hughes
- Cast:
- Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker
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Shane (Vincent Gallo) and his new wife June (Tricia Vessey) are newlyweds honeymooning in Paris. Although happy, their relationship becomes strained when Shane secretly visits the medical clinic where he was once involved in experimental research on the human libido. Before long, the effect of this research becomes terrifyingly obvious, and Shane seeks self-exile in a desperate effort to find a cure. All the while, Core (Beatrice Dalle), a Parisian woman, preys upon the men she lures with the promise of sexual gratification. This extreme behaviour mirrors Shane's own base instincts, and their mutual desire for carnal violence suggests a deep-seated bond which must be consolidated. Soon the two will enter a realm o experience far beyond anything they have known... Raw, poetic and powerful, this extraordinary film explores the dark side of desire in a way that no other film before it ever dared. - Director:
- Claire Denis
- Cast:
- Vincent Gallo, Tricia Vessey, Béatrice Dalle
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Pandora's Box (1929)Die Buchse der Pandora
Adapted from a pair of plays by Frank Wedekind, 'Pandora's Box' tells the story of sex worker Lulu (Louise Brooks), a free spirit whose open sexuality breeds chaos in its wake. When Lulu's latest lover, the newspaper editor Dr. Ludwig Schdn (Fritz Kortner), announces plans to leave her to marry a more respectable woman, Lulu is devastated. Cast in a musical revue written by Schon's son, Aiwa (Francis Lederer), Lulu seduces Schon once more - only to have their tryst exposed, and Schon's plans for a more socially acceptable marriage shattered. Left with no choice but to marry Lulu, Schon meets with tragedy on their wedding night. Lulu stands trial for the incident, facing years of imprisonment. With the aid of her former pimp (Carl Goetz), an infatuated lesbian countess (Alice Roberts) and Aiwa, she flees toward a fate of increasing squalor and peril, finally crossing paths one Christmas Eve with Jack the Ripper. - Director:
- Georg Wilhelm Pabst
- Cast:
- Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer
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Comedy director John Sullivan (Joel McCrea) decides to give up his life of luxury and sets off on the road to research how the other half live. He plans to make "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?", a somber, social conscious movie inspired by his experiences of poverty and desperation. A chance encounter with failed starlet (Veronica Lake) enables him to escape the studio publicity machine and learn at first hand the true value of entertainment. - Director:
- Preston Sturges
- Cast:
- Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick
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Cria Cuervos (1976)Raise Ravens
Shot in the summer of 1975 as General Franco lay dying, Saura's masterpiece takes its title from a sinister Spanish proverb: 'Raise ravens and they'll pluck out your eyes'. A subtle yet unmistakable indictment of the family as a repressive force in Spanish society, 'Cria cuervos' centres on an eight-year-old orphan (the spellbinding Ana Torrent) who believes herself to have poisoned her cold, authoritarian father (Hector Alterio), a high-ranking military man whom she blames for the death of her adored mother (Geraldine Chaplin). - Director:
- Carlos Saura
- Cast:
- Geraldine Chaplin, Mónica Randall, Florinda Chico
- Formats:
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The Asphalt Jungle (1950)The Asphalt Jungle (The City Under the City)
You have a lot of time to think when you're locked away seven years. So criminal mastermind Doc (Sam Jaffe) conceives what he believes is the perfect heist. As in 'The Maltese Falcon' and 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre', director John Huston explores the feverish grab for the big score and how it unravels in 'The Asphalt Jungle', a renowned tale of dishonour among thieves whose cast includes Sam Jaffe as Doc and Sterling Hayden as Doc's unflappable gundel. Louis Calhern portrays Emmerich, the shady lawyer for whom "crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavour". And rising star Marilyn Monroe grabs everyone's attention as the doxie who briefly provides Emmerich with the most gorgeous alibi ever to reach the screen. - Director:
- John Huston
- Cast:
- Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen
- Formats:
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In an alternate reality of present-day Oakland, California, telemarketer Cassius Green (LaKeith Stanfield), finds himself in a macabre universe after he discovers a magical key that leads to material glory. As Green's career begins to take off, his friends and co-workers organise a protest against corporate oppression. Cassius soon falls under the spell of Steve Lift (Armie Hammer), a cocaine-snorting CEO who offers him a salary beyond his wildest dreams. - Director:
- Boots Riley
- Cast:
- David Cross, Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson
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