Manda Bala, a penetrating new documentary by Jason Kohn about Brazil's recent slew of kidnappings and the intricate net of contradictions animating Brazilian society is a tortured study in tightrope walking. The story is similar everywhere in South and Central America: kids from rich families are plucked from standing traffic at gunpoint and soon a ransom is demanded. Sometimes, an earlobe will follow by mail, and other body parts, until the money is received.

What's the life of a gay teenager from the Midwest like and why should you care? Fat Girls isn’t about heavyset munchkins hobbling about Wal-Marts. It’s more zen-like, a yardstick by which your claim to existence among the cool clique is measured. Films centered around lifestyle choices can quickly turn to yawn-inducing half-truths but writer-director Ash Christian uses the ‘fat girls’ tenet to raise the ante and helps to give an otherwise anodine yarn like high-school life in rural America substance and wit.

(BY HAL CROWTHER) Nashville, by any reckoning one of the [...]

(BY ALI NADERZAD) SONY CLASSICS will release Man From Plains, [...]

(BY ALI NADERZAD) Posters, banners and ads everywhere beckon: the [...]

(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) Europa Cinemas will return once again to [...]

tar Trek is looming upon us, again. Slated for release in 2008 and directed by J.J. Abrams (Mission Impossible III), it promises more dazzling special effects, mind-boggling CGI effects and Leonard Nimoy in a supporting role! Cast and crew were in high spirits during a press conference held at Comic Con (an annual comic books and popular entertainment expo held last month in San Diego, California as J.J. Abrams discussed the finer points of adapting the story while respecting the Star Trek cannon.