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A lonely woman tells her life story to her pet snail in Memoir of a Snail. After the death of her last remaining friend friend Pinky (Jacki Weaver), Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook) goes into the garden and releases her longtime pet snail Sylvia. As Sylvia inches her way to her final destination, recounts her sad …

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The highs and lows of a young couple’s relationship are depicted non-linearly in We Live in Time. As he is finalizing the divorce from his failed marriage, Tobias (Andrew Garfield) ends up being hit by a car driven by Almut (Florence Pugh), a former figure skater turned Bavarian fusion chef. The two begin a passionate …

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A recovering alcoholic returns home to a remote Scottish island in The Outrun. The life of 29-year-old Rona (Saoirse Ronan) has been derailed by her alcoholism, which destroyed both her career and relationship with her boyfriend Daynin (Paapa Essiedu). After undergoing 90 days of rehab, Rona returns home to the Orkney Islands of Scotland, where …

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A grieving man develops a burial shroud that allows him to observe the decaying body of his deceased wife in The Shrouds. Karsh (Vincent Cassell) has been grieving the death of his wife Becca (Diane Kruger), who died four years prior from cancer. Through his company GraveTech, Karsh has developed burial shrouds that can allow …

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A couple undergo a weeklong series of tests that decides if they are appropriate to have a child in The Assessment. In a dystopian future with heavy population control, married couple Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) have applied for a weeklong assessment to decide if they can become parents. They are greeted by their …

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Belfast hoodlums form an Irish Gaelic rap group in Kneecap. Liam Óg “Mo Chara” Ó Hannaidh and Naoise “Móglaí Bap” Ó Cairealláin are two Belfast drug dealers, who insist on speaking the Irish language as taught to them by Naoise’s Irish Republican father Arlo (Michael Fassbender). While Liam is detained and questioned by Detective Ellis …

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A serial killer stalks Hollywood in MaXXXine. Six years after being the sole survivor of the massacre in Texas, adult film star Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) plans to crossover into the mainstream by being cast in the horror film The Puritan II, directed by Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki). However, Maxine is tracked down by Louisiana …

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A seaside English town is thrown into chaos as neighbours feud over potty-mouthed letters in Wicked Little Letters. Inspired by a true story from the 1920s, Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) is a deeply conservative woman living with her disapproving father Edward (Timothy Spall) and mother Victoria (Gemma Jones) in the seaside town of Littlehampton. Edith …

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A gym manager falls for a bodybuilder in Love Lies Bleeding. Lou (Kristen Stewart) is a manager of a gym trying to escape her past relationship with her gun smuggler father, and beetle enthusiast, Lou Sr. (Ed Harris). Despite her estrangement from her father, Lou still maintains a relationship with her sister Beth (Jena Malone), …

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A romance blossoms between a cook and the gourmet she worked for the past twenty years in The Taste of Things. Set in 1885 France, Eugénie Chatagne (Juliette Binoche) has been working for gourmet Dodin Bouffant (Benoît Magimel), cooking exquisite meals for Dodin’s friends. Though the latter has rebuffed multiple marriage proposals, Dodin and Eugénie …

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A veteran theatre critic concocts a blackmail scheme involving a young starlet in The Critic. Jimmy Erskine (Ian McKellen) is the longtime drama critic for The Daily Chronicle, recently inherited by David Brooke (Mark Strong). David wants to restore The Chronicle to being London’s most-read family newspaper and earmarks Jimmy for the chopping block, both …

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A 30-something woman balances her life with her multiple BDSM relationships in The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed. During the day, Ann (Joanna Arnow) works an increasingly directionless job at a real estate company or gets together with her Jewish family. However, at night, partakes in master/slave relationships with multiple partners, …

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A family of murderous carnies travel the circuit in Depression-era American in Where the Devil Roams. Maggie (Toby Poser), Seven (John Adams) and Eve (Zelda Adams) are family of travelling performers, barely making due in the dying carnival circuit. The family makes stops along the way looking for food and shelter, often resulting in bloodshed. …

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An escaped cult member helps a police officer locate his kidnapped daughter in God is a Bullet. One Christmas, desk jockey police officer Bob Hightower (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is distraught to discover his ex-wife murdered and his teenage daughter Gabi (Chloe Guy) kidnapped by a Satanic cult led by the sadistic Cyrus (Karl Glusman). Bob is …

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A cash-strapped woman takes a job to seduce an awkward teenager in No Hard Feelings. Maddie Barker (Jennifer Lawrence) is a 32-year-old Uber driver and bartender in Montauk, New York, who is on the verge of losing her mother’s house, due to rising property taxes. After her car is towed away by ex-boyfriend Gary (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), …

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A teenage girl and her sick little sister stay at the house of their possible witch of a grandmother in Evil Eye. Nala (Paola Miguel) is a 13-year-old girl who lives in scorn at the attention given by her parents Rebecca (Samantha Castillo) and Guillermo (Arap Bethke), towards Nala’s terminally ill younger sister Luna (Ivanna …

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A fictionalized version of the life of Marilyn Monroe is told in Blonde. As a child, Norma Jeane Mortenson was traumatized by the mental breakdown of her mother, Gladys Baker (Julianne Nicholson), leaving Norma to pine for the father she never knew. A decade later, Norma (Ana de Armas) is on the rise as blonde …

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A police detective goes undercover an a phone-sex app to catch a killer in Nightalk. Brenda (Ashley Bryant) is the lead investigator of a murder case where a woman was found strangled in her apartment. Brenda discovers that was a regular user of a phone-sex app called Nightalk and Brenda goes undercover to see if …

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A lonely scholar uncovers a Djinn who proceeds to tell her his life story in Three Thousand Years of Longing. Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) is a British scholar content with her isolated lifestyle, though she occasionally finds herself plagued by visions of fantastical beings. While in Istanbul, giving a lecture, Alithea purchases a glass bottle …

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A group of “sonic caterers” go into residences at a remote artistic institution in Flux Gourmet. Elle di Elle (Fatma Mohamed), Billy Rubin (Asa Butterfield), and Lamina Propria (Ariane Labed) are a trio of performance artists who take residence at a culinary art institute run by Jan Stevens (Gwendoline Christie). The residency is being documented …

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A young shape-shifting witch tries to live a normal human life in an isolated mountain village in You Won’t Be Alone. Nevena (Sara Klimoska) is a teenager in 19th century Macedonia, who is kidnapped by the “Wolf Eateress” Old Maid Maria (Anamaria Marinca). Nevena is turned into a follow Wolf Eateress, which is a shape-shifting …

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A woman goes about at night killing people with a straight razor in Girl with a Straight Razor. Dressed all in red with a straight razor in hand, a woman (Ali Chappell) prowls during the night looking for victims to feed her blade. However, the woman finds herself haunted by both memories of her past …

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On a planet occupied entirely by women, a mother and daughter are sent to assassinate a dangerous criminal in After Blue (Dirty Paradise). Far into the future, humanity has left Earth for the planet After Blue, with the male population dying off early on. Roxy (Paula Luna), nicknamed Toxic by the village girls, is a lonely …

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The horrible accident mars a Polish couple’s Italian vacation in Silent Land. Adam (Dobromir Dymecki) and Anna (Agnieszka Zulewska) are a bourgeois Polish couple, who arrive at their vacation home near an Italian island town. One of the first things that the couple notices is that the house’s pool is empty and their landlord Fabio (Marcello …

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A filmmaker confronts her demons at a rural retreat in Black Bear. Alison (Aubrey Plaza) is a filmmaker suffering from writer’s block, who rents a room at an isolated cabin owned by Gabe (Christopher Abbott) and his pregnant girlfriend Blair (Sarah Gadon). While hoping to find inspiration for her next film, Alison gets to know her …

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A nurse finds herself in the middle of an organ harvesting operation gone wrong in 12 Hour Shift. Set in 1999 Arkansas, Mandy (Angela Bettis) is a nurse preparing to work a double shift. Aside from stealing drugs from her patients, Mandy is involved in an organ harvesting operation with her co-worker Karen (Nikea Gamby-Turner) …

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Full Disclosure: I was classmates at York University with both Space & Time‘s writer/director Shawn Gerrard and producer Cameron MacLaren A longtime couple begins to find their paths drifting apart in Space & Time. As they celebrate their anniversary, Sean (Steven Yaffee) and Siobhan (Victoria Kucher) contemplate the existence of alternate versions of themselves with the …

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A grieving father wants answers about the events that lead to his son’s death in Idol. Councilor Koo Myung-hui is a candidate for governor, who returns home one day to find out that his son Johan was involved in a hit and run and brought the bloody body home with him. Koo convinces his son …

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A group of friends befriend a middle-aged black woman with sinister intentions in Ma. Maggie (Diana Silvers) is a teenager, who has moved to small town, where her mother Erica (Juliette Lewis) grew up. At school, Maggie quickly befriends Haley (McKaley Miller), Andy (Corey Fogelmanis), Chaz (Gianni Paolo), and Darrell (Dante Brown), who invite Maggie …

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A teenage girl undergoes some unexpected changes in Blue My Mind. Mia (Luna Wedler) is a 15 year old girl, who has just moved to a new town and has lived for much of her life under the strict control of her parents. This results in Mia getting a bit of a rebellious streak, as she begins …

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A taxi driver is pursued by a demon in Luz. One night, Luz Carrara (Luana Velis) stumbles into a police station, in fear of a demon that is pursuing her. Elsewhere, the mysterious Nora (Julia Riedler) seduces Dr. Rossini (Jan Bluthardt) and talks about her history with Luz. Later, Dr. Rossini comes to the police station to help …

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An actress working on a horror film develops a connection with her deformed co-star in Chained for Life. Mabel (Jess Weixler) is the lead in a horror film directed by a pretentious German director (Charlie Korsmo), which has a number of deformed individuals in the cast, particularly Mabel’s main co-star Rosenthal (Adam Pearson). At first Mabel struggles to …

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This review was originally published as part of my coverage of Hot Docs 2018 The development of a video game is followed from start to finish in Playing Hard. Jason Vandenberghe has worked in the video game industry for two decades. In 2013, Vandenberghe goes to Ubisoft’s studio in Montreal to pitch his dream game, a medieval …

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A man who’s slowly going invisible tries to save his daughter in The Unseen. Bob Langmore (Aden Young) is an ex hockey player, who is now a struggling mill worker in a quiet town. Bob abandoned his family 8 years earlier, partly due to the fact that he has a condition that is slowly turning him …

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From Troma Entertainment comes the conclusion of the two part re-imagining of the original 1986 film with Return to… Return to Nuke ‘Em High AKA. Vol 2. Picking up directly where the first volume leaves off, Tromaville High School students Chrissy Goldberg (Asta Paredes) and Lauren (Catherine Corcoran) become privy to a plan by the evil Tromorganic Foodstuffs Conglomerate …

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