In theaters: October 31, 2008
Copyright © 2008 Freestyle Media
The Haunting of Molly Hartley Poster

In this tale of spell binding suspense, something evil lurks just beneath the lush surfaces of teenaged girls private school world – and it holds the rights to her very soul. Now, on the eve of her 18th birthday, Molly Hartley is about to discover the truth of just who, or rather what, it is she is destined to become.

Genre:Thriller

Director:Mickey Liddell

Cast:Haley Bennett, Chace Crawford, Jake Weber, Shannon Marie Woodward, AnnaLynne McCord

In theaters: August 29, 2008
Copyright © 2008 First Look Studios
Sukiyaki Western Django Poster

Famed Japanese auteur Takashi Miike, who is best known for cult classics such as Audition, Ichi: the Killer, and Children of Lost Souls, brings a fresh new look at the beloved spaghetti Western genre in Sukiyaki Western Django. Two clans, Genji, the white clan led by Yoshitsune, and Heike, the red clan led by Kiyomori, battle for a legendary treasure hidden in a poor mountain town. One day a lone gunman, burdened with deep emotional scars but blessed with incredible shooting skills, drifts into town. Expectations reach a boiling point as everyone wonders which gang the gunman will finally decide to join. Dirty tricks, betrayal, desire, and love collide as the situation erupts into a final, explosive showdown.

Genre:Foreign, Action and Adventure

Director:Takashi Miike

Cast:Hideaki Ito, Koichi Sato, Yusuke Iseya, Masanobu Ando, Takaaki Ishibashi

It’s been three weeks, two days, and 23 hours since Tris broke up with Nick. And now here she is at his gig, with a new guy. How could she have moved on so fast? This begins the night of Nick, Norah and Manhattan. The night of stripping nuns, hotel ice rooms, Russian food, psychotic ex-boyfriends and lovingly trashy ex-girlfriends. It’s the night of Julio and Salvatore. The night of holding hands and writing songs and singing in the rain. It’s a night they’ll never forget.

In theaters: September 5, 2008
Copyright © 2008 Kino International
Mommas Man Poster

Azazel Jacobs MOMMAS MAN chronicles the increasingly anxious dilemma of Mikey (Matt Boren), a young husband and father who stops off at his parents loft during a business trip to New York and finds himself emotionally unable to leave. One of the most acclaimed films of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Jacobs’ third feature is both a tribute to his parents (avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs and painter Flo Jacobs, who play Mikeys mother and father) and an acutely perceptive, slyly humorous take on a universal experience: the fear of growing up.

Genre:Drama, Comedy

Director:Azazel Jacobs

Cast:Matt Boren, Ken Jacobs, Flo Jacobs

In theaters: November 21, 2008
Copyright © 2008 Regent Entertainment
I Cant Think Straight Poster

Tala, a London-based Jordanian prepares for an elaborate wedding with her fiancé, when she encounters Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating her best friend Ali. Spirited Christian Tala and shy Muslim Leyla could not be more different from each other but the attraction is immediate. Talas feisty nature provokes Leyla out of her shell and soon both women reveal their feelings for each other. But Tala is not ready to accept the implications of the choice her heart has made and escapes back to Jordan where her chain-smoking high-brow mother finishes preparations for an ostentatious wedding. As family members descend and the wedding day approaches, simmering family tensions come to boiling point and the pressure mounts for Tala to be true to herself. Meanwhile heartbroken Leyla relishes her newly found sense of identity and self-respect and moves on with her new life much to the shock of her tradition-loving Indian parents. Single again, Tala flies back to London but it will take more than just a date set up by Ali and Leylas sister Zara to win Leyla back.

Genre:Comedy

Director:Shamim Sarif

Cast:Lisa Ray, Sheetal Sheth, Antonia Frering, Dalip Tahil, Nina Wadia

In theaters: November 7, 2008
Copyright © 2008 City Lights Pictures
Gardens of the Night Poster

Leslie, a teenage girl, struggles with a hand to mouth existence on the streets of San Diego with only her childhood friend Donnie to look after her, both of them trying to cope with the trauma of having been abducted and held captive by two men nine years earlier.

Genre:Drama

Director:Damian Harris

Cast:Gillian Jacobs, John Malkovich, Ryan Simpkins, Tom Arnold, Kevin Zegers

In theaters: October 15, 2008
Copyright © 2008 Oscilloscope Laboratories
Frontrunners Poster

FRONTRUNNERS is a smart and funny political documentary that follows the student council presidential campaign at one of the countryʼs most prestigious public high schools: Stuyvesant High School in New York City. An entertaining and symbolic campaign film, put forth in classic verité style, we follow four charming and idiosyncratic candidates as they navigate an electoral process that is said to be one of the most competitive at the high school level. These teenaged candidates face the same issues as candidates of any age, such as picking the ʻrightʼ running mate, shaking as many hands as possible, preparing for televised debates, impressing the pundits and journalistic community, addressing sensitive race-related issues, and mobilizing an apathetic voter base. A microcosm of the U.S. Presidential elections, Caroline Suh’s film shows politicking and pluralities through the lens of the adolescent experience.

Genre:Documentary

Director:Caroline Suh

In theaters: August 8, 2008
Copyright © 2008 Samuel Goldwyn Films
Elegy Poster

Driven by Isabel Coixets visually assured and deeply observant direction, Elegy charts the passionate relationship between a celebrated college professor and a young woman whose beauty both ravishes and destabilizes him. As their intimate connection transforms them-more than either could imagine-a charged sexual contest evolves into an indelible love story. With humanistic warmth, wry wit and erotic intensity, Elegy explores the power of beauty to blind, to reveal and to transform. Starring Oscar-nominee Penélope Cruz and Academy Award-winner Ben Kingsley, with extraordinary supporting performances from Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson and Peter Sarsgaard, Elegy is based on Pulitzer Prize-winner Philip Roths short novel The Dying Animal.

Genre:Drama

Director:Isabel Coixet

Cast:Penélope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Peter Sarsgaard, Patricia Clarkson, Dennis Hopper

In theaters: September 19, 2008
Copyright © 2008 Magnolia Pictures
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers Poster

In A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS, elderly Mr. Shi (Henry O) arrives from China to spend time with his divorced daughter, Yilan (Faye Yu), hoping to help her sort out her life in this strange new country. That, after all, is his duty as a parent. Yilan, although polite, doesnt feel like being the dutiful daughter. Unlike Geraldine in DIM SUM, Yilan cant wait to be rid of her parent, whose need to pry into and control her like becomes a nuisance – even if he does lovingly cook up multi-course meals for her at the end of the workday. Where sharing meals served as familial and cultural bonding in DIM SUM, it is seen as an intrusion for Yilan, who longs to have her own private life back again. Despite going through Yilans things while shes at work and trying to pry information from her, Mr. Shi cannot understand his daughter or the rift between them. The only person he shares some connection with in this cold new universe is Madam (Vida Ghahremani), an elderly but vivacious Iranian woman living with her son and his family. They begin to meet regularly on a local park bench. Without a common language, they resort to expressing themselves to one another in a mix of their respective languages and broken English. While they seem to communicate with each other easily, Mr. Shi and his daughter find themselves at an impasse. The problem is generational and geographical; it is also in the language, as one day Yilan reveals to her father that expressing herself in English is far easier than in Chinese. There is wry humor in Mr. Shi trying to understand his daughter, as well as this country she has adopted as her own. There is also a sense of seeking clues to a mystery. As Wang explains, I wanted it to be a mystery that Shi comes to solve. Arriving in a strange land to visit a strange daughter he hasnt seen in many years, Shi begins to peel back the layers of the life like he takes apart the Russian nesting dolls on her dressing table.

Genre:Drama

Director:Wayne Wang

Cast:Faye Yu, Henry O, Vida Ghahremani, Pasha Lychnikoff