Playlists > 💎BLEAK BUT BRILLIANT💎

💎BLEAK BUT BRILLIANT💎
Description:

No Hollywood happy dappy here, just some f*cking great films.
This playlist is entirely subjective, and I’ll only include films I’ve actually watched. Having said that, I’m totally not into torture porn, or gratuitous hack n slash shite. But… If it’s on this list, I’ve watched it and think it has merit. That doesn’t mean I enjoyed them all, hahahaha… even though I did.😎

🛠 Still under construction…


Creator: Merrigan Able
Posted: 3 years ago
 
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Movie: The Unquiet Death of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg ( 1978 )
An examination of the Rosenbergs, who were executed at Sing Sing Prison in 1953 after being convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the United States.
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Movie: The Hole ( 2001 )
Four teenagers at a British private school secretly uncover and explore the depths of a sealed underground hole created decades ago as a possible bomb shelter.
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Movie: Atonement ( 2007 )
Fledgling writer Briony Tallis, as a thirteen-year-old, irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
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Movie: Never Let Me Go ( 2010 )
The lives of three friends, from their early school days into young adulthood, when the reality of the world they live in comes knocking.
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Movie: The Last King of Scotland ( 2007 )
Having graduated recently from the University of Edinburgh, the Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, flies to Uganda to work at a missionary clinic run by Dr David Merrit and his wife, Sarah. Before long, Garrigan has a chance encounter with the new President, General Idi Amin, who, right from the start, feels an immediate sympathy for him. As one thing leads to another, after a while, Idi Amin invites Nicholas to become his physician and modernise Uganda's health care system: a once-in-a-lifetime offer that the doctor cannot refuse. However, more and more, Garrigan finds himself trapped in the moral abyss of Idi Amin's murderous megalomania, putting his very soul at risk. When Nicholas finally summons up the courage to rise above the madness, he becomes embroiled in a desperate fight for survival.
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Movie: Helter Skelter ( 1976 )
Chilling story of the investigation and trial of Charles Manson, leader of a strange cult which under his direction and 'control' committed numerous murders.
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Movie: Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones ( 1982 )
The real-life story of the Peoples Temple cult led by Reverend Jim Jones and the events involving its move to Guyana and its eventual mass suicide.
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Movie: Caligula ( 1979 )
Details the graphic and shocking, yet undeniably tragic story of Rome's most infamous Caesar, Gaius Germanicus Caligula.
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Movie: Beyond the Gates ( 2006 )
A Catholic Priest and an English teacher get stranded in a school in Kigali during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
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Movie: Hotel Rwanda ( 2005 )
Paul Rusesabagina was a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda.
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Movie: Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire ( 2004 )
The story of Canadian Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire, and his controversial command of the United Nations mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.
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Movie: Shake Hands with the Devil ( 2007 )
The story of General Romeo Dallaire's frustrated efforts to stop the madness of the Rwandan Genocide, despite the complete indifference of his superiors.
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Movie: Ammonite ( 2020 )
1840s England, acclaimed but overlooked fossil hunter Mary Anning and a young woman sent to convalesce by the sea develop an intense relationship, altering both of their lives forever.
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Movie: Byzantium ( 2013 )
Residents of a coastal town learn, with deathly consequences, the secret shared by the two mysterious women who have sought shelter at a local resort.
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Movie: The Lovely Bones ( 2009 )
Centers on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family - and her killer - from purgatory. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.
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Movie: Boy A ( 2008 )
The story of a young Jack, newly released from serving a prison sentence for a violent crime he committed as a child.
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Movie: Ken Park ( 2003 )
Ken Park is about several Californian skateboarders' lives and relationships with and without their parents.
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Movie: Trash Humpers ( 2011 )
Follows the lives of a small group of sociopathic elderly people in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Movie: Zoo ( 2008 )
A look at the life of an Enumclaw, Washington man who died as a result of an unusual encounter with a horse.
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Movie: Equus ( 1977 )
A psychiatrist attempts to uncover a troubled stable boy's disturbing obsession with horses.
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Movie: Hungry Hearts ( 2015 )
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life-or-death circumstance.
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Movie: The Portrait of a Lady ( 1996 )
An American girl inherits a fortune and falls into a misguided relationship with a gentleman confidence artist whose true nature, including a barbed and covetous disposition, turns her life into a nightmare.
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Movie: The Sheltering Sky ( 1990 )
An American couple travel abroad to revitalize their relationship. But as the trip drags on, their attempt at recovering what they once had seems futile.
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Movie: Heart of Darkness ( 1994 )
A trading company manager travels up an African river to find a missing outpost head and discovers the depth of evil in humanity's soul.
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Movie: The Help ( 2011 )
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
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Movie: Happiness ( 1998 )
The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.
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Movie: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead ( 2007 )
When two brothers organize the robbery of their parent's jewelry store the job goes horribly wrong, triggering a series of events that sends them, their father and one brother's wife hurtling towards a shattering climax.
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Movie: Magnolia ( 1999 )
An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
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Movie: Owning Mahowny ( 2003 )
A bank manager with: (a) a gambling problem and (b) access to a multimillion dollar account gets into a messy situation. Based on the story of the largest one-man bank fraud in Canadian history.
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Movie: The Master ( 2012 )
A Naval veteran arrives home from war unsettled and uncertain of his future - until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader.
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Movie: The Homesman ( 2014 )
Three women who have been driven mad by pioneer life are to be transported across the country by covered wagon by the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy, who in turn employs low-life drifter George Briggs to assist her.
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Movie: Shattered Glass ( 2003 )
The story of a young journalist who fell from grace when it was discovered he fabricated over half of his articles from the publication The New Republic magazine.
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Movie: Mystic River ( 2003 )
The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them has a family tragedy.
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Movie: The Thin Red Line ( 1999 )
Adaptation of James Jones' autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War.
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Movie: Dallas Buyers Club ( 2013 )
Dallas 1985. Electrician and sometimes rodeo bull rider Ron Woodroof lives hard, which includes heavy smoking, drinking, drug use (primarily cocaine) and casual sex. He is racist and homophobic. While in the hospital on a work related injury, the doctors discover and inform him that he is HIV+, and that he will most-likely die within thirty days. Ron is initially in angry denial that he would have a disease that only "faggots" have, but upon quick reflection comes to the realization that the diagnosis is probably true. He begins to read whatever research is available about the disease, which at this time seems to be most effectively treated by the drug AZT. AZT, however, is only in the clinical trials stage within the US. Incredulous that he, as a dying man, cannot pay for any drug which may save or at least prolong his life, he goes searching for it by whatever means possible. It eventually leads him to Mexico and a "Dr." Vass, an American physician whose license was revoked in the US because of his AIDS related work against US regulations. Dr. Vass leads Ron to a cocktail of other drugs, some vitamins, he believes are more effective in treating the symptoms, since the virus, as Ron learns, will always be in the system of those who have been exposed to it. Ron begins to smuggle these drugs not approved by the FDA into the US, not only for his own use but for sale to other HIV+ persons. In this venture, he goes into an unlikely partnership with a HIV+ transgender woman named Rayon, who he met in the hospital and who has greater contact with AIDS patients through the gay community. As they try to work both above ground to get the meds to those that need them and underground to avoid detection by especially the FDA, Ron comes up with an idea to circumvent the fact of selling the drugs - which are not considered drugs yet since they are not FDA approved - directly to the HIV+ population, which then should should not be against the law. Richard Barkley and Dr. Sevard, the FDA's lead man on the file and one of Ron's doctors respectively, the latter who sees clinical trials as the only way to determine the efficacy of drugs despite the fact that Ron and others would have probably died already without these drugs, try to stop Ron and Rayon at every turn. Caught in the middle is Dr. Eve Saks, another of Ron's doctors, who understands why policies are in place, but who can sympathize with Ron, Rayon and others - all her patients, directly or indirectly - in their situation.
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Movie: There Will Be Blood ( 2008 )
A story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.
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Movie: No Country for Old Men ( 2007 )
Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and more than two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
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Movie: Moon ( 2009 )
Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.
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Movie: Only the Brave ( 2017 )
Based on the true story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a group of elite firefighters who risk everything to protect a town from a historic wildfire.
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Movie: Shelter ( 2015 )
Hannah and Tahir fall in love while homeless on the streets of New York. Shelter explores how they got there, and as we learn about their pasts we realize they need each other to build a future.
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Movie: Oldboy ( 2003 )
After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in five days.
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Movie: Lizzie ( 2018 )
A psychological thriller based on the infamous 1892 murders of the Borden family.
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Movie: Small Sacrifices ( 1989 )
On the 19th of May 1983 Diane Downs stops at the McKenzie-Williamette-Hospital and cries for help. She is wounded on her arm and her three children are also wounded seriously. She says that a stranger shot at them but the investigation of detective Welch bring out that Diane is a liar.
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Movie: The Burning Bed ( 1984 )
An abused battered wife has had enough of husband beating up on her. Everywhere she turns for help, there's not much anyone will do. After he rapes her one night, she sets the bed on fire with him in it asleep.
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Movie: Pay It Forward ( 2000 )
A young boy attempts to make the world a better place after his teacher gives him that chance.
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Movie: 1922 ( 2017 )
A simple yet proud farmer in the year 1922 conspires to murder his wife for financial gain, convincing his teenage son to assist. But their actions have unintended consequences.
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Movie: The Accused ( 1988 )
After a young woman suffers a brutal gang rape in a bar one night, a prosecutor assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice, including the ones who encouraged and cheered on the attack.
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Movie: Taxi Driver ( 1976 )
A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.
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Movie: The Deer Hunter ( 1979 )
An in-depth examination of the ways in which the U.S. Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of people in a small industrial town in Pennsylvania.
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Movie: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ( 1975 )
A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients.
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Movie: Boogie Nights ( 1997 )
The story of a young man's adventures in the California pornography industry of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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Movie: Jonestown: Paradise Lost ( 2007 )
Cult leader Jim Jones leads his followers to a mass-suicide.
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Movie: Escobar: Paradise Lost ( 2014 )
In Colombia, a young surfer meets the woman of his dreams - and then meets her uncle, Pablo Escobar.
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Movie: Sicario ( 2015 )
An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.
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Movie: Blow ( 2001 )
The story of how George Jung, along with the Medellín Cartel headed by Pablo Escobar, established the American cocaine market in the 1970s in the United States.
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Movie: I Melt with You ( 2012 )
When four 40-something college friends meet up for their annual reunion, things start to spiral out of control, and a pact they made as young men is revisited.
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Movie: The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane ( 1976 )
13-year-old Rynn Jacobs lives alone in a high-class Quebec small town, but unknown to the neighbors, she is leading a secret and dangerous life.
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Movie: Star 80 ( 1983 )
A successful young model finds trouble when her obsessive manager-turned-husband becomes dangerously jealous. Based on the true story of 1980 Playmate of the Year Dorothy Stratten.
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Movie: The Brave One ( 2007 )
Struggling to recover emotionally from a brutal assault that killed her fiancé and left her in a coma, a radio personality begins a quest for vengeance against the perpetrators that leaves a bloody trail across New York City.
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Movie: The Beaver ( 2011 )
A troubled husband and executive adopts a beaver hand-puppet as his sole means of communication.
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Movie: Patty Hearst ( 1988 )
In the 1970s, Patricia Hearst is abducted by American revolutionaries, but eventually joins their cause instead.
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Movie: The White Countess ( 2006 )
Set in 1930s Shanghai, where a blind American diplomat develops a curious relationship with a young Russian refugee who works odd -- and sometimes illicit -- jobs to support members of her dead husband's aristocratic family.
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Movie: The Handmaid's Tale ( 1990 )
In a dystopian, polluted right wing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.
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Movie: 1984 ( 1985 )
Longing for freedom, the lowly bureaucrat of the Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith, summons up the courage to write down his unspoken desires in his little secret diary. Serving silently at the pleasure of the grim, autocratic hyper-state of Oceania, Smith knows that the English Socialist Party's supreme leader, the omnipotent Big Brother, watches his every move, condemning the already terrified people into a life of slavery. Under those dire circumstances--as the totalitarian government's suffocating stranglehold tightens more and more--Julia, another equally seditious party member, crosses paths with Winston, and a dangerous clandestine affair begins. Now, there's no turning back, and, sooner or later, the illicit couple will have to pay for its hideous crimes against the dictatorial state. What makes a good citizen?
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Movie: Gummo ( 1997 )
Lonely residents of a tornado-stricken Ohio town wander the deserted landscape trying to fulfill their boring, nihilistic lives.
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Movie: My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done ( 2010 )
Inspired by a true crime, a man begins to experience mystifying events that lead him to slay his mother with a sword.
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Movie: The Comfort of Strangers ( 1990 )
A couple retreat to Venice to work on their relationship, but an encounter with a stranger leads them into a world of intrigue - where their darkest desires are in reach.
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Movie: Panic Room ( 2002 )
A divorced woman and her diabetic daughter take refuge in their newly-purchased house's safe room when three men break-in, searching for a missing fortune.
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Movie: Children of Men ( 2006 )
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have become somehow infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.
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Movie: Five Corners ( 1987 )
A psychotic young man returns to his old neighborhood after release from prison. He seeks out the woman he previously tried to rape and the man who protected her, with twisted ideas of love for her and hate for him.
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Movie: Hobo ( 1992 )
Part-time hobos and full time philosophers, who narrates their way through the incredible scenery of the Northwest and gives us his views on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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Movie: Phaedra ( 1962 )
The powerful Greek shipowner and constructor Thanos proposes to marry Phaedra during the baptism of a ship with her name. Phaedra, who is the daughter of Thanos'greatest competitor, is a bored woman. Thanos gives an expensive ring to Phaedra and soon she learns that his estranged son from his first marriage, Alexis, has left the London School of Economics (LSE) in London to dedicate himself to painting. Thanos asks Phaedra to travel to London to bring Alexis to meet him in Greece. When Phaedra meets Alexis, she falls in love with her stepson and seduces him. Their doomed love affair leads the family to a tragedy.
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Movie: The Hotel New Hampshire ( 1984 )
The film talks about a family that weathers all sorts of disasters and keeps going in spite of it all. It is noted for its wonderful assortment of oddball characters.
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Movie: Foxes ( 1980 )
Four best friends, with four different personalities, have issues of their own. Deidre is fascinated by her sexuality and has many boyfriend problems. Madge is unhappily overweight and has overprotective parents. Annie boozes and does drugs, and runs away from her abusive father, a policeman. Jeanie has to take care of them and is fighting with her divorced mother. The only way to loosen up, and forget all the bad things happening in their lives, is to party and have fun. Jeanie is ready to grow up and wants to stop acting like a child. Annie is the worst of them all and Jeanie is worried about her the most. She risks her neck more than once trying to keep Annie clean and free from trouble. However, Annie's unstable behavior and flare ups keeps everyone on edge.
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Movie: Smooth Talk ( 1985 )
A free-spirited 15-year-old girl flirts with a dangerous stranger in the Northern California suburbs and must prepare herself for the frightening and traumatic consequences.
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Movie: Carny ( 1980 )
Tired of her dull job as a waitress, Donna decides to join two carnival hustlers and see what life in their field is like.
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Movie: A.I. Artificial Intelligence ( 2001 )
A highly advanced robotic boy longs to become "real" so that he can regain the love of his human mother.
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Movie: Waterland ( 1992 )
In 1974 Pittsburgh, a high-school history teacher seeking closure tells his class about his experiences as teenager in England during World War II.
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Movie: Prisoners ( 2013 )
When Keller Dover's daughter and her friend go missing, he takes matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts.
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Movie: L.I.E. ( 2002 )
A 15-year-old Long Island boy loses everything and everyone he knows, soon becoming involved in a relationship with a much older man.
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Movie: The Osterman Weekend ( 1983 )
In this adaptation of the Robert Ludlum novel, the host of an investigative news program has been convinced by the C.I.A. that the friends and associates he's invited to weekend with him in the country are actually engaged in a nefarious conspiracy which threatens national security,
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Movie: The Blood of Heroes ( 1989 )
In a future, where most of mankind and technology is wiped out, 6 people travel from place to place playing a brutal form of football with a dog skull. They hope one day to play in the league in a city.
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Movie: At Play in the Fields of the Lord ( 1991 )
Martin and Hazel Quarrier are small-town fundamentalist missionaries sent to the jungles of South America to convert the Indians. Their remote mission was previously run by the Catholics, before the natives murdered them all. They are sent by the pompous Leslie Huben, who runs the missionary effort in the area but who seems more concerned about competing with his Cath...Read all
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Movie: A Thousand Acres ( 1997 )
"King Lear" set on a farm in Iowa.
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Movie: Harold and Maude ( 1971 )
Young, rich, and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral.
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Movie: Splendor in the Grass ( 1961 )
A fragile Kansas girl's love for a handsome young man from the town's most powerful family drives her to heartbreak and madness.
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Movie: Cool Hand Luke ( 1967 )
A laid back Southern man is sentenced to two years in a rural prison, but refuses to conform.
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Movie: This Property Is Condemned ( 1966 )
The dramatic love story of small-town Mississippi girl Alva Starr and railroad official Owen Legate, set during the Great Depression.
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Movie: Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here ( 1969 )
In 1909, when young Paiute Indian Willie Boy returns to his California reservation to be with Lola, whose father disapproves of him, a killing in self defense takes place, triggering a massive man hunt for Willie.
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Movie: Jeremiah Johnson ( 1972 )
During the mid-nineteenth century, Jeremiah Johnson, after a stint in the US Army, decides that he would prefer a life of solitude and more importantly peace by living with nature in the mountains of the frontier of the American west. This plan entails finding a piece of land upon which to build a house. This quest ends up being not quite what he envisioned as he does require the assistance of others to find his footing, and in turn, he amasses friends and acquaintances along the way, some who become more a part of his life than he would have imagined. Perhaps most importantly, some of those people provide him with the knowledge of how to co-exist with some of the many Indian tribes, most importantly the Crow, on whose land in Colorado Jeremiah ultimately decides to build his home. But an act by Jeremiah upon a request by the US Cavalry leads to a chain of events that may forever change the peaceful relationship he worked so hard to achieve with his neighbors and their land.
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Movie: The Donner Party ( 2009 )
Based on the real events of The Donner Party tragedy. The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American settlers caught up in the western expansion of the 1840s. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada during the winter of 1846-1847, a number of the trapped settlers joined together in a final effort to reach California and organize a rescue party.
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Movie: Dead of Winter: The Donner Party ( 2015 )
What starts as a call to the West quickly turns to a deadly journey for three families and their compatriots on a quest for the American Dream. Trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, they fall prey to sub-zero temperatures, torrential rainfalls, floods and ten foot snow drifts, and are eventually forced to turn on each other in order to survive. Using a hybrid, multi-media approach we set out to explore one of the most macabre and sensational stories in American history through first-person narration, dramatic reenactment, expert interviews, green screen, CGI, and archival materials. Through the scope of the landscape and the weather encountered, the audience will be brought closer to the emotional and mental anguish these settlers experienced in this timeless battle of Man vs. Nature.
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Movie: Alive ( 1993 )
After crash-landing in the snowswept Andes, a Uruguayan rugby team has no choice but to turn to desperate measures in order to survive.
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Movie: The Prince of Tides ( 1991 )
A troubled man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her in the process.
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Movie: Easy Rider ( 1969 )
Two bikers head from L.A. to New Orleans through the open country and desert lands, and along the way they meet a man who bridges a counter-culture gap of which they had been unaware.
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Movie: Under the Skin ( 2014 )
A mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.
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Movie: Longford ( 2006 )
A portrait of Lord Longford, a tireless British campaigner whose controversial beliefs often resulted in furious political debate and personal conflict.
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Movie: Van Diemen's Land ( 2009 )
The true story of Alexander Pearce, Australia's most notorious convict. In 1822, Pearce and seven fellow convicts escaped from Macquarie Harbour, a place of ultra banishment and punishment, only to find a world less forgiving.. the Australian wilderness. Abandon all hope you who enter.
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Movie: Alison ( 2016 )
When the going gets really tough, we need ordinary people of extraordinary strength and courage to jolt us into action and offer us hope. In December 1994 Alison Botha became such an individual. She needed a hero that night, so that's what she became.
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Movie: City of Joy ( 1992 )
Independent of each other, the Pal family - parents Hazari and Kamla, and their three offspring Amrita, Shambu and Manooj - and Max Lowe arrive in Calcutta, their initial dealings there being less than positive. After losing their farm in the nearby countryside to the "money lender", the Pals are in the city in search of a better life, especially in wanting to build a dowry for Amrita who is now of marrying age. Max, a Houston based surgeon who fell into the career as a matter of family obligation, quit his job unable to cope with the emotional toll especially of losing patients, and has come to Calcutta in search of spiritual enlightenment.