The Hammer  is a sports drama depicting the struggles and successes Matt Hamill faces on the way to becoming a champion.  Raised among those with the ability to hear, Matt later finds himself no less an outsider amidst the Deaf Community.  Through sheer determination, he uses his perceived disability as an asset, and becomes both the first deaf wrestler to win a National Collegiate Championship and an inspirational force to the hearing and deaf alike.

Director: Oren Kaplan  
USA, English 
108 minutes  
Rated: PG-13
 

The Hammer  is a sports drama depicting the struggles and successes Matt Hamill faces on the way to becoming a champion.  Raised among those with the ability to hear, Matt later finds himself no less an outsider amidst the Deaf Community.  Through sheer determination, he uses his perceived disability as an asset, and becomes both the first deaf wrestler to win a National Collegiate Championship and an inspirational force to the hearing and deaf alike.

Director: Oren Kaplan  
USA, English 
108 minutes  
Rated: PG-13
 

"The importance of seeing, seeing the world deeply, is at the heart of this quietly devastating, humanist work" wrote Manohla Dargis in the New York Times.  The movie's central figure is a 66-year-old woman who lives on a meager income but enjoys the vanities of looking fashionable, discovers a heart-wrenching crime, and finds strength and purpose when she enrolls in a poetry class.  There are many parts to her story and they flow together like the river seen at the opening and closing of Lee Chang-dong's remarkable movie.

Director: Lee Chang-dong   
South Korea    
Korean, with English subtitles   
139 minutes    
Not Rated
 

"The importance of seeing, seeing the world deeply, is at the heart of this quietly devastating, humanist work" wrote Manohla Dargis in the New York Times.  The movie's central figure is a 66-year-old woman who lives on a meager income but enjoys the vanities of looking fashionable, discovers a heart-wrenching crime, and finds strength and purpose when she enrolls in a poetry class.  There are many parts to her story and they flow together like the river seen at the opening and closing of Lee Chang-dong's remarkable movie.

Director: Lee Chang-dong   
South Korea    
Korean, with English subtitles   
139 minutes    
Not Rated
 

Shortly after his mother's death, Oliver's father Hal announces that he is gay.  At age 76 he embarks on a new life with joy and passion.  Unfortunately he is also dying of cancer.  This film follows Oliver as he processes all this new information and tries to move forward with his own life.  Robert Ebert writes, "Beginners is about how both men find love.  It is a film in which only a dog names Arthur seems to hold everything in perspective."  It isn't a deep drama; it's a hopeful fable with deep optimism and a cheerful style that kids itself.

Director: Mike Mills     
USA   
English  
105 minutes      
Rated  R
 

Shortly after his mother's death, Oliver's father Hal announces that he is gay.  At age 76 he embarks on a new life with joy and passion.  Unfortunately he is also dying of cancer.  This film follows Oliver as he processes all this new information and tries to move forward with his own life.  Robert Ebert writes, "Beginners is about how both men find love.  It is a film in which only a dog names Arthur seems to hold everything in perspective."  It isn't a deep drama; it's a hopeful fable with deep optimism and a cheerful style that kids itself.

Director: Mike Mills     
USA   
English  
105 minutes      
Rated  R
 

A mother's last wish is for her grown children to find the father they never knew and the brother they never knew existed.  The children are French-Canadians who grew up unaware of their mother's experiences in the Christian-Muslim strife of the Middle East.  Their task becomes a dangerous global scavenger hunt in which they learn of their mother's story before her escape to Canada.  Based on a stage play, Denis Veillenerve's film offers novelistic depth and cinematic skill.  Incendies was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film of 2010.

Director:  Denis Veillenerve  
Canada
French and Arabic with English subtitles   
130 minutes 
Rated R

A mother's last wish is for her grown children to find the father they never knew and the brother they never knew existed.  The children are French-Canadians who grew up unaware of their mother's experiences in the Christian-Muslim strife of the Middle East.  Their task becomes a dangerous global scavenger hunt in which they learn of their mother's story before her escape to Canada.  Based on a stage play, Denis Veillenerve's film offers novelistic depth and cinematic skill.  Incendies was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film of 2010.

Director:  Denis Veillenerve  
Canada
French and Arabic with English subtitles   
130 minutes 
Rated R

Filmed in Le Havre, France, the film is Finland's nominee for this year's Foreign Language Oscar.  Marcel Marx is an aging shoeshine man, an ex-bohemian who lives his drink and his saucer-eyed wife Arletty.  At the same time that Arletty takes ill and must be hospitalized, the police discover a shipment of smuggled but misrouted humans from Gabon.  A young boy escapes the authorities.  Marcel encounters him by accident and soon makes it his mission to reunite the boy with his mother, who is waiting in London.  At every turn, it seems the trenchcoat-wearing Detective Monet appears, sniffing for clues.  Aki Kaurismaki's film has no interest in the intricacies of illegal workers and immigration; it's really a story about community and how it unites for something it deems important.

Director: Aki Kaurismaki           
Finland
French with English subtitles            
  93minutes            
Unrated
 

Filmed in Le Havre, France, the film is Finland's nominee for this year's Foreign Language Oscar.  Marcel Marx is an aging shoeshine man, an ex-bohemian who lives his drink and his saucer-eyed wife Arletty.  At the same time that Arletty takes ill and must be hospitalized, the police discover a shipment of smuggled but misrouted humans from Gabon.  A young boy escapes the authorities.  Marcel encounters him by accident and soon makes it his mission to reunite the boy with his mother, who is waiting in London.  At every turn, it seems the trenchcoat-wearing Detective Monet appears, sniffing for clues.  Aki Kaurismaki's film has no interest in the intricacies of illegal workers and immigration; it's really a story about community and how it unites for something it deems important.

Director: Aki Kaurismaki           
Finland
French with English subtitles            
  93minutes            
Unrated
 

The lovely aristocrat of the movie's title is in love with a rakish charmer but her father has promised her hand to the Prince of Montpensier.  It's a story about submission- of man to God and king, daughter to father, wife to husband.  Set in 1592, during the Catholic/Protestant conflict, Bertrand Tavernier's film is quite beautiful in its historical settings and design.  It's based on a 17th century work by Madame de Lafayette, one of France's first novelists.  The film competed at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Director: Bertrand Tavernier      
France
French with English subtitles      
139 minutes     
Unrated

The lovely aristocrat of the movie's title is in love with a rakish charmer but her father has promised her hand to the Prince of Montpensier.  It's a story about submission- of man to God and king, daughter to father, wife to husband.  Set in 1592, during the Catholic/Protestant conflict, Bertrand Tavernier's film is quite beautiful in its historical settings and design.  It's based on a 17th century work by Madame de Lafayette, one of France's first novelists.  The film competed at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Director: Bertrand Tavernier      
France
French with English subtitles      
139 minutes     
Unrated

A romantic thriller involving a chambermaid and an ex-cop who get to know one another at her employer's posh estate.  Their idyll is disrupted by masked thieves who are armed.  Both are struck by the same bullet.  A mystery begins.  The first feature of Giuseppe Capotondi.

Director:  Giuseppe Capotondi
Italy        
Italian with English subtitles       
84 minutes      
Unrated
 

A romantic thriller involving a chambermaid and an ex-cop who get to know one another at her employer's posh estate.  Their idyll is disrupted by masked thieves who are armed.  Both are struck by the same bullet.  A mystery begins.  The first feature of Giuseppe Capotondi.

Director:  Giuseppe Capotondi
Italy        
Italian with English subtitles       
84 minutes      
Unrated