Directed by Alberto Arvelo and written by Timothy J. Sexton, The Liberator introduces us to Simon Bolivar, the military and political leader who played a key role in Latin America’s successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire in the 1800s. Bolivar was said to have fought over 100 battles in South America and ridden over 70,000 miles on horseback. But while his military campaigns covered twice the territory of Alexander the Great, he and his army were liberators instead of conquerors.
From Laika, the animation studio that gave us Coraline and ParaNorman, comes The Boxtrolls, a movie that's been years in the making. Based on the novel Here Be Monsters by Alan Snow, it tells the tale of a young orphaned boy who is raised by a group of underground cave-dwelling trash collecting trolls who identify themselves to each other with the cardboard boxes they were.
Claudia Myers’ Fort Bliss sees Michelle Monaghan star as Maggie Swan, a decorated Army medic who has just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan to discover that the bond between her and her five-year old son, Paul (Oakes Fegley), has been broken. Since Maggie has been away for a good portion of Paul’s life, he doesn’t recognize her when she arrives at the home of her ex-husband ,Richard (Ron Livingston). From there, Maggie works hard to rebuild her relationship with Paul, but her continued military duties threaten to break them apart forever when the possibility of another deployment comes up.
After having a great deal of twisted fun with the horror genre in You’re Next, writer Simon Barrett and director Adam Wingard team up once again for the psychological thriller The Guest. An homage to the thrillers of the 1980s, the film stars Dan Stevens as David Collins, a recently discharged soldier who takes it upon himself to visit the family of Caleb, one of his fellow soldiers who was killed in combat.
In No Good Deed, a new crime thriller from Screen Gems, Idris Elba plays a man named Colin, who crosses paths with former assistant District Attorney Terri (Taraji P. Henson) on an especially stormy night, claiming that his car has broken down and he needs to use a phone. Feeling bad for the handsome stranger, Terry lets him in and offers assistance. Soon, however, things take a dangerous turn, as it turns out that Colin has a dark secret and before she knows it, Terri finds herself, along with her children, being terrorized by the mysterious man, who clearly has sadistic intentions.
For those of you who have been missing Pierce Brosnan’s portrayal of James Bond, you'll be in for quite a treat this week as he returns to the spy genre in The November Man. Directed by Roger Donaldson, the former 007 star plays ex-CIA agent Peter Devereaux, who is enjoying retirement in Switzerland when he is encouraged by an old friend to take on one last mission. It involves protecting a valuable witness named Alice Fournier (Olga Kurylenko), whom we discover knows more than she is letting on.
When The Game Stands Tall, based on the non-fiction book by Neil Hayes, tells the story of the De La Salle High School football team and their record-setting winning streak of 151 games. Their coach, Bob Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel), aims to teach his players more about life than just winning football games, and he's aided throughout by his assistant coach Terry Eidson (Michael Chiklis).
John Lithgow and Alfred Molina prove to be quite the couple in Ira Sachs’ latest movie, Love Is Strange. The two actors play Ben and George, respectively, who, after having been together for 39 years, finally get to tie the knot once New York’s new marriage laws take effect, culminating in a wonderful ceremony which they share with family and friends.
Writer/director John Michael McDonagh follows up his critically acclaimed debut The Guard with another winner, Calvary. The film tells the story of a priest (played by Brendan Gleeson) in a small Irish town who is told by one of his parishioners that he will be murdered in a week. In the process of Gleeson’s character trying to help the town’s inhabitants, any of which could be the killer, McDonagh explores themes of faith and the darkness of humanity, and he looks deeply into what it means to be a good person in this day and age.
Life After Beth is definitely one of the more inspired black comedies to come out in recent months. The movie starts with Zach Orfman (Dane DeHaan) feeling utterly devastated due to the death of his girlfriend Beth (Aubrey Plaza), who passed away after succumbing to a snake bite. While visiting her parents’ house one day though, he discovers that she has somehow come back to life.
