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Title:
Machete
Stars:
Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, Robert De Niro
Studio:
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Plot:
After being betrayed by the organization who hired him, an ex-Federale (Trejo) launches a brutal rampage of revenge against the people who double-crossed him.
Buzz:
Historically, Labor Day tends to be a snoozefest in terms of new releases, but not this year, since Robert Rodriguez's long-awaited Planet Terror spin-off is finally set for release, in the wake of The Expendables' success, no less ... Danny Trejo's knife-wielding character was generating his own folklore, as it appeared the project was just another one of Rodriguez's great genre ideas, but everything came together in mid-2009 as cameras rolled that July in Austin. We're psyched for the Lindsay Lohanness, but really we're primed for more Cherry Darling and Jessica Alba playing opposing twin sisters. We hope the franchise talk -- both Rodriguez and Trejo have a trilogy in mind -- comes to fruition. Can we start to dream about Sin City 2 again?
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Title:
The American
Stars:
George Clooney, Paolo Bonacelli, Violante Placido
Studio:
Focus Entertainment
Plot:
An assassin hiding out in an Italian village while he anticipates his last-ever assignment tempts fate by seeking out the friendship of a priest (Bonacelli) as well as the affection of a local woman (Placido).
Buzz:
Renown music-video director Anton Corbijn created an art-scene frenzy with his Joy Division biography, Control, back in 2007/08. Without any intended irony, we love that this production is so non-American (Hollywood) in its casting. All of the players surrounding Clooney should vie for the spotlight here, especially Thekla Reuten (if you've seen In Bruges, you'll know who she is) and the sensation-causing Violante Placido. Meanwhile, screenwriter Rowan Joffe has our attention, but more so for another 2010 film, Brighton Rock, his adaptation of Graham Greene's novel, which also finds him making his debut as director.
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Title:
The Tillman Story
Stars:
Pat Tillman
Studio:
Weinstein Company, The
Plot:
Pro football player Pat Tillman left the NFL to enlist in the U.S. Army after 9/11. Upon his death two years later, the U.S. military opted to reward him with the Purple Heart and other posthumous honors; meanwhile, his family set out to reveal the truth behind the events that claimed his life.
Buzz:
Amir Bar-Lev (director of My Kid Could Paint That, producer of Trouble the Water) quickly is becoming a premiere documentarian -- though he's looking to make the jump to features with a Jerry Garcia biopic as his potential next project. We'll see what next step he takes after Tillman wins the Best Documentary Oscar. We're predicting the victory now! It'll battle it out with Restrepo.
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Title:
Going the Distance
Stars:
Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Ron Livingston
Studio:
Warner Bros. Pictures
Plot:
A romantic comedy centered on a guy (Long) and a gal (Barrymore) who try to keep their love alive as they shuttle back and forth between Chicago and Los Angeles to see one another.
Buzz:
Drew Barrymore and Justin Long's on/off/on romance is like a real-life Paper Heart. Maybe that's what attracted documentarian Nanette Burstein (American Teen, The Kid Stays in the Picture) to make the jump to feature filmmaking.
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Title:
Mesrine: Public Enemy #1
Stars:
Vincent Cassel, Ludivine Sagnier, Mathieu Amalric
Studio:
Music Box Films
Plot:
In the second half of this biopic, internationally known criminal Jacques Mesrine (Cassel) returns to France to stand trial. What follows is an incredible true story of courtroom escapes, imprisonment, the publishing of his memoirs, reinvention, and ultimate downfall.
Buzz:
Mesrine: Killer Instinct was the highest grossing specialty release in its debut frame, and distributor Music Box Films keeps us interested by releasing part two a mere week later.
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Title:
A Simple Noodle Story
Stars:
Dahong Ni, Ni Yan, Xiao Shen-Yang
Studio:
Sony Pictures Classics
Plot:
The owner of a Chinese noodle shop's scheme to murder his adulterous wife and her lover goes awry.
Buzz:
Unfortunately, renown director Yimou Zhang's remake of Blood Simple. initially has been received as well as Joel and Ethan Coen's version of The Ladykillers. We'll still see it, but our eyes are on the filmmaker's next project, The Love of the Hawthorn Tree.
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Title:
The Winning Season
Stars:
Sam Rockwell, Emma Roberts, Rob Corddry
Studio:
Lionsgate
Plot:
An alcoholic, has-been coach (Rockwell) is given a second chance when he's asked to run his local high school's girls basketball team.
Buzz:
Writer-director James C. Strouse's unexpected follow-up to Grace Is Gone is an alumnus of Sundance's Class of '99, when Moon was the Sam Rockwell movie to see and co-star Rooney Mara probably had yet to hear of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I imagine the young actresses here benefitted from a Rockwell clinic; he is, after all, the Lebron James of acting (minus the unappealing ego).
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Title:
White Wedding
Stars:
Kenneth Nkosi, Rapulana Seiphemo, Jodie Whittaker
Studio:
Plot:
Elvis (Nkosi) sets off from Johannesburg to travel the hundreds of miles that lie between him and his bride to be. Stopping first in Durban to pick up his best man (Seiphemo), their road trip goes off-track, and they pick up an English doctor (Whittaker) who questions the institution of marriage.
Buzz:
I'm somewhat surprised this road movie didn't travel more of the festival circuit in the U.S., it radiates the term "crowd-pleaser".
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Title:
Last Train Home
Stars:
Changhua Zhan, Yang Zhang, Suqin Chen
Studio:
Zeitgeist Films
Plot:
A family embarks on an annual tormenting journey along with 200 other million peasant workers to reunite with their distant family.
Buzz:
Lixin Fan was one of the producers of the excellent documentary Up the Yangtze and here he makes his directorial debut, another look at China as an emerging superpower. Read Slant Magazine's review.
Film Reviews 
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