The twenty five year-old title character in Carolina Cavelli’s debut feature “Amanda” is something of a heroine.

Played by Benedetta Porcaroli, Amanda is from an upper-middle-class family who are cold and seem to fear any semblance of emotion who are closed off from the world, safe in their country manor. Every relationship between the women of the family overflows with conflict.

From the opening moments, writer/director Anubys Lopez sets an unnerving tone for his Texas-set horror/thriller “Aged,” the tale of a young caregiver who discovers a house of dark and dangerous secrets.

The film begins in a coffee shop where Veronica (Morgan Boss-Maltais) is meeting with potential employer Charles (Dave McClain), a man looking for in-home care for mother Mrs. Bloom (Carla Kidd) who may be suffering from dementia.

Immediately, something seems off kilter. Charles seems too determined to have Veronica take the job. After her initial refusal, he tells her that he will “pay anything” if she would say yes.

With a haunting Warhol-esque presentation of imagery and an artful gaze worthy of comparison to Peter Greenway and Derek Jarman Georden West’s “Playland” is an unquestionably unique experience. 

The film is, at once, a documentary and an avant-garde reenactment that examines Boston’s Playland Café; a haven to the city’s gay community and one where

Beginning with an intoxicating narration that sets the story on its path (and even sneaking a quote from Leonard Cohen into the first few minutes) “The Secret Kingdom” (helmed by former visual effects artist turned writer/director Matt Drummond) does something special, it takes viewers through a sweet but exciting tale that takes its audience seriously. Twelve-year-old Peter (a very natural Sam Everingham)

With the documentary “Playing with Fire: Jeannette Sorrell and the Mysteries of Conducting” Oscar-winning director Allan Miller explores the career of a woman who bleeds with a complete love of music and works to bring the vibrancy and stories of classical music to life.

When she was young Jeannette Sorrell was told by the Juilliard School and The Cleveland Orchestra that no orchestra would hire

Director Jesse V. Johnson makes the type of action thrillers that would’ve allowed him to be a force in the action cinema flicks that flooded theaters in the eighties. Johnson’s latest, “One Ranger,” is a mildly-entertaining thriller that would make the ghost of the Cannon Film Group proud.

Thomas Jane is Alex Tyree, an rugged Texas Ranger tough who is recruited by

Moody and always intriguing, Cristian Mungiu’s “R.M.N.” is a tense parable focusing on social unrest and racist intolerance in Romania. 

Written by Mungiu, this a film that focuses on those who set out to hate almost any identity that is different from theirs. These are communities in racial crisis.

Matthias (Marin Grigore), a German