The Listener

Steve Buscemi

Directed by Steve Buscemi and starring Tessa Thompson as Beth, a helpline volunteer who is part of the small army that gets on the phone every night across America, fielding calls from all kinds of people feeling lonely, broken, hopeless. Over the last year, the tide has become a tsunami. As Beth goes through her shift, the stakes rise: is this the night she will lose someone? Save someone? Eventually, Beth’s own story comes to light, revealing why she does it. All along we remain with her: listening, comforting, connecting – patching the world back together, one stitch at a time.


Jesus' Son

Alison Maclean

Based on the critically acclaimed book of short stories by Denis Johnson, Jesus’ Son chronicles the life of a young man, known only as F**khead (Billy Crudup), as he careens through the underbelly of American culture. Often addicted to heroin or alcohol, he nevertheless greets life with compassion, humor, grace, and hope. Told as a remembrance of a time gone by, FH recounts a few years of his life in the mid-west, introducing us to the people he knew, the woman he loved. Starkly real yet gorgeously hallucinatory, FH’s stories move through time ignoring chronology, but they’re far from aimless, painting a picture of a lost soul clearly on his way to recovery and redemption.


The Dinner

Oren Moverman

Based on Herman Koch’s international bestselling novel, Oren Moverman’s THE DINNER is a dark psychological thriller about a fierce showdown between two couples during the course of an ornately prepared meal at a fancy restaurant. When Stan Lohman (Richard Gere), a popular congressman running for governor, invites his troubled younger brother Paul (Steve Coogan) and his wife Claire (Laura Linney) to join him and his wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall) for dinner at one of the town’s most fashionable restaurants, the stage is set for a tense night. While Stan and Paul have been estranged since childhood, their 16-year- old sons are friends, and the two of them have committed a horrible crime that has shocked the country. While their sons’ identities have not yet been discovered and may never be, their parents must now decide what action to take. As the night proceeds, beliefs about the true natures of the four people at the table are upended, relationships shatter, and each person reveals just how far they are willing to go to protect those they love. A riveting story filled with many shocking twists and turns, THE DINNER is a chilling parable about the savage reality hidden beneath the surface of middle-class lives.


Bad Education (2019)

Cory Finley

It was a true-life lesson in corruption. Dr. Frank Tassone was a smooth, charismatic Superintendent whose leadership guided Roslyn High School to the highest levels of education. He also happened to be part of an $11 million embezzling scheme that rocked the upscale Long Island town. Hugh Jackman stars as Tassone with Allison Janney as his business manager and colleague in crime as they coordinated the biggest public-school embezzlement in American history--which would be uncovered by a tenacious young reporter with the high-school newspaper. Co-starring Ray Romano and Geraldine Viswanathan. Directed by Cory Finley; written by Mike Makowsky who was a student at Roslyn during the scandal; based on the New York magazine article "The Bad Superintendent" by Robert Kolker.


Diane

Kent Jones

For Diane (Mary Kay Place), everyone else comes first. Generous but with little patience for self-pity, she spends her days checking in on sick friends, volunteering at her local soup kitchen, and trying valiantly to save her troubled, drug-addicted adult son (Jake Lacy) from himself. But beneath her relentless routine of self-sacrifice, Diane is fighting a desperate internal battle, haunted by a past she can't forget and which threatens to tear her increasingly chaotic world apart. Built around an extraordinary, fearless performance from Mary Kay Place, the narrative debut from Kent Jones is a profound, beautifully human portrait of a woman rifling through the wreckage of her life in search of redemption.


Wildlife

Paul Dano

14-year-old Joe is the only child of Jeanette and Jerry — a housewife and a golf pro — in a small town in 1960s Montana. Nearby, an uncontrolled forest fire rages close to the Canadian border, and when Jerry loses his job — and his sense of purpose — he decides to join the cause of fighting the fire, leaving his wife and son to fend for themselves. Suddenly forced into the role of an adult, Joe witnesses his mother's struggle as she tries to keep her head above water.


Puzzle

Marc Turtletaub

Agnes, taken for granted as a suburban mother, discovers a passion for solving jigsaw puzzles which unexpectedly draws her into a new world - where her life unfolds in ways she could never have imagined.


Time Out of Mind

Oren Moverman

Time Out Of Mind, from Academy Award(R) nominated writer/director Oren Moverman (The Messenger), is a haunting look at life on the streets immersing viewers in one man's daily quest to survive. Richard Gere delivers a soul-baring performance as George, a man whose struggle to find food and a place to sleep in New York City is beautifully captured with remarkable realism and heartrending compassion. Shuffled into the unforgiving bureaucracy of a men's shelter, George seems destined to wind up as just another lost soul swallowed up by the system --until he meets a gregarious, down-and-out ex-jazzman (played by Broadway legend Ben Vereen) who inspires George to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Jena Malone). Cinematically stunning and shot in an eloquently observational style, Time Out of Mind is an unforgettable plunge into a world that is all too easily overlooked.


Love & Mercy

Bill Pohlad

LOVE & MERCY is an unconventional portrait of Brian Wilson (portrayed by both John Cusack and Paul Dano), singer and songwriter for The Beach Boys. The film intimately examines the unique journey and ultimate salvation of this musical icon, whose success came at an extraordinary personal cost. Also starring Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti.


The Quiet Ones

John Pogue

Inspired by terrifying real experiments. When a crazed university professor (Jared Harris) and his team of students set out to cure a disturbed patient, the unthinkable happens. Trusting in their leader and his motives, Brian (Sam Claflin) and his fellow students find themselves far from help...and all too close to a sinister force they never suspected.


The Messenger

Oren Moverman

U.S Army officer Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) has just returned home from Iraq and is assigned to the Army's Casualty Notification service. Ordered to bear the bad news to families of fallen soldiers, and partnered with officer Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson), Will faces this formidable mission while still reeling from his own war experiences. Against protocol, Will is drawn to a recently fallen soldiers's wife (Samantha Morton) to whom he has just notified of her husband's death. In this emotionally charged landscape, THE MESSENGER brings us into the inner lives of these outwardly steely heroes to reveal their fragility with compassion and authenticity.


Married Life

Ira Sachs

A meek man falls for a beautiful, younger woman. His main obstacles are his good friend with an equally strong attraction to her and his controlling wife, whom he'd like to spare the agony of divorce by poisoning her.