Author Archive | Alex Kamody

Hortense Laborie (Catherine Frot), a renowned chef from Perigord, is astonished when the President of the Republic (Jean d’Ormesson) appoints her his personal cook, responsible for creating all his meals at the Elysée Palace. Despite jealous resentment from the other kitchen staff, Hortense quickly establishes herself, thanks to her indomitable spirit. The authenticity of her cooking soon seduces the President, but the corridors of power are littered with traps…

“Haute Cuisine is an epicurean dream where the dishes conjured up by the characters are as essential to the experience as the characters themselves.”-Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

“Writer-director Christian Vincent and co-writer Étienne Comar, aided by Frot’s quiet intensity, imbue Hortense’s quest to pull off culinary miracles with an urgency that’s almost absurdly compelling, and all the more entertaining for it.”-Chuck Wilson, Village Voice

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95 MIN

WADJDA is a movie of firsts. This first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia is the story of a young girl living in a suburb of Riyadh determined to raise enough money to buy a bike in a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl’s virtue. Even more impressive, WADJDA is the first feature film made by a female Saudi filmmaker. In a country where cinemas are banned and women cannot drive or vote, writer- director Haifaa Al Mansour has broken many barriers with her new film.

“This is not just the first feature by Haifaa Al Mansour but the first feature to be directed by a woman from Saudi Arabia. That is quite a burden, and yet by some miracle the movie bears it with lightness and grace.”-Anthony Lane, New Yorker

“A simple, solid, deeply affecting film, Wadjda is something rare: the work of a female Saudi filmmaker, Haifaa Al Mansour, and a feature from a country that has long outlawed cinemas.”-Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice

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98 MIN

MUSCLE SHOALS is a documentary about a place filled with magic and music, legend and folklore, where the river is inhabited by a Native American spirit who has lured some of the greatest Rock and Roll and Soul legends of all time, and drawn from them some of the most uplifting, defiant, and important music ever created. In Muscle Shoals, Alabama, music runs through the hills, the river, and the spirit of the people. It is a place where, even before the Civil Rights Movement really took shape, the color of your skin didn’t matter inside the studio.

“It is hands down one of the best music documentaries ever made.”-Paul de Barros, Seattle Times

“Just as “Sweet Home Alabama” speaks for itself without revealing its meaning, so does this American story of ferment and feuding and amazing pop music.”-Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com

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111 MIN

The sensation of the Cannes Film Festival and the most controversial film of the year, Blue is the Warmest Color made cinema history as the first film ever awarded the Palme d’Or to both its director and its actresses. In a star-making role, Adèle Exarchopoulos is Adèle, a passionate young woman who has a yearning she doesn’t quite understand until a chance encounter with the blue-haired Emma ignites a flame and brings her to life. Léa Seydoux (Midnight in Paris) gives a fearless performance as Emma, the older woman who excites Adèle’s desire and becomes the love of her life. Abdellatif Kechiche’s (The Secret of the Grain) intimate epic of tenderness and passion charts their relationship over the course of several years, from the ecstasy of a first kiss to the agony of heartbreak. Pulsing with gestures, embraces, furtive exchanges, and arias of joy and devastation, Blue is the Warmest Color is a profoundly moving hymn to both love and life.

“Remarkable…the first great love story of the 21st century”-Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com

“From the moment when Adèle first catches sight of Emma, on a busy crosswalk, the movie restores your faith in the power of the coup de foudre and yet redoubles your fear of its effect; love, like lightning, can both illuminate and scorch.”–Anthony Lane, New Yorker

“Somehow Seydoux and Exarchopoulos manifest an idea of desire, a mood that performers and directors often fail to capture even when there’s good on-set chemistry.”-Stephanie Zacharek ,Village Voice

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179 MIN

One Night Only! Gideon’s Army will be screened on Tuesday, January 21st at 7:00 PM as part of the MLK Jr. Celebration Week. FREE Admission.

Gideon’s Army follows Travis Williams, Brandy Alexander and June Hardwick, three young public defenders who are part of a small group of idealistic lawyers in the Deep South challenging the assumptions that drive a criminal justice system strained to the breaking point. Backed by mentor Jonathan “Rap” Rapping, a charismatic leader who heads the Southern Public Defender Training Center, they struggle against long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads so common that even the most committed often give up in their first year. Nearly 50 years since the landmark Supreme Court ruling Gideon vs. Wainwright that established the right to counsel, can these courageous lawyers revolutionize the way America thinks about indigent defense and make “justice for all” a reality?

“Gideon’s Army does what the best documentaries have always done: It makes us think about something we’d rather not.” -David Hinckley, New York Daily News

“Compelling insight into the staggering pressures faced by court-appointed public defenders.” -Duane Byrge, Hollywood Reporter

“Like the film itself, Porter’s handful of devoted, charismatic attorneys do a righteous job of reminding people that the accused are innocent until proven guilty, and that the criminal justice system seems otherwise disposed.” -John Anderson, Variety

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96 MIN

Rating: Unrated

After a blow to the head, Abby (Robin Weigert) decides she can’t do it anymore. Her life just can’t be only about the house, the kids and the wife. She needs more. She needs to be Eleanor.

“The near-imperceptible finesse of Abby’s characterization reflects writer-director Stacie Passon’s effortless, interesting mix of richness and economy.” – R. Kurt Osenlund, Slant Magazine

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93 MIN

A passionate argument on behalf of the middle class, Inequality For All features Robert Reich—professor, best-selling author, and former U.S. Labor Secretary—as he demonstrates how the widening income gap has a devastating impact on the American economy.

Smart, funny and articulate, Robert Reich is the university professor we all wish we’d had. He’s so accessible and entertaining he takes a subject that sounds soporific and makes it come alive like you wouldn’t believe in “Inequality for All.” -Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

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89 MIN

An ageless story from the world’s most renowned author is reimagined for the 21st Century. This adaptation is told in the lush traditional setting it was written, but gives a new generation the chance to fall in love with the enduring legend. With an all-star cast including Hailee Steinfeld, Douglas Booth, Paul Giamatti and Stellan Skarsgard, it affords those unfamiliar with the tale the chance to put faces to the two names they’ve undoubtedly heard innumerable times: Romeo and Juliet. Every generation deserves to discover this lasting love.

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118 MIN

The Office of Research and the Graduate College, in conjunction with the Athena Cinema, will be hosting a free screening of the film, Border Post by internationally renowned filmmaker and Eminent Scholar in film at Ohio University, Rajko Grlic as part of the International Educational Week.  Professor Grlic will introduce his film prior to the screening. ONE NIGHT ONLY, November 14th at 7:30

BORDER POST

At a small border-post on the Yugoslav-Albanian border, yet another generation of soldiers suffering the usual amount of boredom awaits the end of their service, counting days to the moment when they should take their uniforms off for good. It is the spring of 1987 and the thought never even crosses their mind that they would, in fact, put them back on quite soon and go to war. These are the last days of the country called Yugoslavia. Yet no one knew at the time.

Daily routine of the army is disrupted by unusual circumstances. Frustrated and always drunk, lieutenant Safet Pasic feels a strange pain in his groins. He seeks help from the only doctor among the soldiers, Sinisa Sircevic, who finds out, very discretely, that it’s a sexually transmitted disease. Not wishing his wife to know about it and trying to find excuses not to go home, Pasic declares a state of emergency, claiming that the Albanian army is preparing an attack against Yugoslavia. A joke transforms into war hysteria: soldiers dig trenches, Pasic grows wilder as days go by, Sinisa embarks on a dangerous liaison, and his best friend Ljuba Paunovic makes an unconditional decision to leave the army. The situation slowly runs out of control…

Speaking about not so distant past with no nostalgia and no hatred, Border Post is a comedy about people on the verge of tragedy.

“Rajko Grlic’s film is a sometimes wistful, sometimes farcical comedy, in the honorable Eastern European tradition, set along the Yugoslav-Albanian border in the halcyon days of 1987.”-Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com

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94 MIN