Paul F. Tompkins: Laboring Under Delusions (2012)

The Perfect Match

In this romantic comedy, a lonely man meets a lonely woman after they each post ads in the lonely-hearts section of the classified ads. Unfortunately, neither one is totally honest about themselves and merry mix-ups ensue until a romance finally blossoms.

Be Kind Rewind

A man whose brain becomes magnetized unintentionally destroys every tape in his friend's video store. In order to satisfy the store's most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films.

Clerks

Convenience and video store clerks Dante and Randal are sharp-witted, potty-mouthed and bored out of their minds. So in between needling customers, the counter jockeys play hockey on the roof, visit a funeral home and deal with their love lives.

Baby Boom

J.C. Wiatt is a talented and ambitious New York City career woman who is married to her job and working towards partner at her firm. She has a live-in relationship with Steven, a successful investment broker who, along with J.C., agreed children aren't part of the plan. J.C.'s life takes an unexpected turn when a distant relative dies and the will appoints her the caretaker of their baby girl, Elizabeth. The baby's sudden arrival causes Steven to leave, breaking off their relationship. Juggling power lunches and powdered formula, she is soon forced off the fast track by a conniving colleague and a bigoted boss. But she won't stay down for long. She'll prove to the world that a woman can have it all and on her own terms too!

Masquerade Mix-Up

Ashton, an overworked junior editor, develops romantic feelings for the author of the novel that she's editing, as her job is threatened by jealous co-workers.

Fun with Dick and Jane

After Dick Harper loses his job at Globodyne in an Enron-esque collapse, he and his wife, Jane, turn to crime in order to handle the massive debt they now face. Two intelligent people, Dick and Jane actually get pretty good at robbing people and even enjoy it -- but they have second thoughts when they're reminded that crime can hurt innocent people. When the couple hears that Globodyne boss Jack McCallister actually swindled the company, they plot revenge.

The Big Hit

Affable hit man Melvin Smiley is constantly being scammed by his cutthroat colleagues in the life-ending business. So, when he and his fellow assassins kidnap the daughter of an electronics mogul, it's naturally Melvin who takes the fall when their prime score turns sour. That's because the girl is the goddaughter of the gang's ruthless crime boss. But, even while dodging bullets, Melvin has to keep his real job secret from his unsuspecting fiancée, Pam.

The Benchwarmers

A trio of guys try and make up for missed opportunities in childhood by forming a three-player baseball team to compete against standard little league squads.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

The Herdmans – Gladys, Claude, Imogene, Leroy, Ollie and Ralph – are undeniably the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, cheat, bully and overall terrorize their small community. But this Christmas, they’re taking over their local church Pageant – and they just might unwittingly teach a shocked little town the true meaning of Christmas.

Meet the Browns

A single mother living in inner city Chicago, Brenda has been struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street. When she's laid off with no warning, she starts losing hope for the first time - until a letter arrives announcing the death of a father she's never met. Desperate for any kind of help, Brenda takes her family to Georgia for the funeral, but nothing could have prepared her for the Browns, her father's fun-loving, crass Southern clan. In a small-town world full of long afternoons and country fairs, Brenda struggles to get to know the family she never knew existed... and finds a brand new romance that just might change her life.

The Great Buck Howard

When a law school dropout answers an advertisement to be a personal assistant he unknowingly signs on to work for a belligerent has-been magician struggling to resurrect his career. This leads to a journey across the country staging the comeback of a lifetime.

Kicking and Screaming

After college graduation, Grover's girlfriend Jane tells him she's moving to Prague to study writing. Grover declines to accompany her, deciding instead to move in with several friends, all of whom can't quite work up the inertia to escape their university's pull. Nobody wants to make any big decisions that would radically alter his life, yet none of them wants to end up like Chet, the professional student who tends bar and is in his tenth year of university studies.

There's Nothing Out There

Mike's obsession with horror movies means he can't help but expect to find a monster lurking around every corner. When he joins his friends for a weekend away at a remote lodge, Mike instantly senses that something isn't right. Can Mike use his movie knowledge to save his pals from a bloody end?

Gardener of Eden

When a young deli-counter clerk and general slacker in New Jersey accidentally saves a young woman from a serial rapist, he becomes convinced that his new role in life is to become a vigilante.

Borderline

An attorney stumbles upon a suitcase filled with cocaine.

The Sitter

Noah, is not your typical entertain-the-kids-no-matter-how-boring-it-is kind of sitter. He's reluctant to take a sitting gig; he'd rather, well, be doing anything else, especially if it involves slacking. When Noah is watching the neighbor's kid he gets a booty call from his girlfriend in the city. To hook up with her, Noah takes to the streets, but his urban adventure spins out of control as he finds himself on the run from a maniacal drug lord.

Purl

Purl, an earnest ball of yarn, gets a job at a fast-paced, male-centered startup company. Things start to unravel as Purl tries to fit in with this tight-knit group, but she must ask herself how far is she willing to go to get the acceptance she yearns for and if, in the end, it is worth it.

Larry Crowne

When he suddenly finds himself without his long-standing blue-collar job, Larry Crowne enrolls at his local college to start over. There, he becomes part of an eclectic community of students and develops a crush on his teacher.

Misery Loves Comedy

Do you have to be miserable to be funny? More than sixty comedians—including stand-ups, writers, actors, and directors from the US, Canada, and abroad—take on this question, sharing anecdotes and insights with lively enthusiasm.

Custody of the Heart

Claire's number one priority is her family. When her husband Dennis loses his stockbroker job, the couple's traditional family roles switch. As Dennis takes on his new stay-at-home role, Claire's furniture design business takes off. Just as she's beginning to master the art of balancing her home and work life, Dennis serves her with divorce papers and charges her with being an unfit mother. Claire discovers that in a modern courtroom there are still traditional biases unsympathetic to the idea of a woman working three jobs, as a wife, an entrepreneur and a mother.

Good Burger 2

Dexter Reed is down on his luck after another one of his inventions fails. Ed welcomes Dex back to Good Burger with open arms and gives him his old job back. With a new crew working at Good Burger, Dex devises a plan to get back on his feet but unfortunately puts the fate of Good Burger at risk once again.

What Happened to Our Nest Egg!?

Atsuko and Akira are a husband and wife duo with a daughter and a son. Atsuko is in charge of the retirement finances. She saves from money given to her by her husband and also earns money herself by working part-time. She stretches every yen by leading a frugal life. yet, expenses come up. These include their daughter's upcoming wedding and the funeral expenses of the husband's father. Then, and at exactly the worst time, the couple finds itself unemployed.

Wilma will mehr

Wilma has many qualifications and talents, yet suffers just as many disappointments in life. After she catches her husband cheating, she runs away to Vienna in search of a new life. There she lives with bustling bohemians, tries her luck at a variety of jobs and perhaps... at love again.

Lady Bird

Lady Bird McPherson, a strong willed, deeply opinionated, artistic 17 year old comes of age in Sacramento. Her relationship with her mother and her upbringing are questioned and tested as she plans to head off to college.

Go-Go Reject

A skinny, naive go go dancer meets with unexpected rejection when he attempts to fulfill his childhood 'Flashdance' fantasy.

I Like Movies

Socially inept 17-year-old cinephile Lawrence Kweller gets a job at a video store, where he forms a complicated friendship with his older female manager.

Fukri

An engineering dropout who traps himself in one trouble or the other, meets a wonderful woman and her cousin who changes his life.

Kudumbasthan

Naveen's relationship with his parents becomes strained after he marries a oppressed-caste girl. Though they eventually reconcile, his sudden unemployment puts him in a difficult position. As financial pressures mount, Naveen must navigate societal challenges and personal struggles to regain stability and rebuild harmony within his middle-class family.

Someone Marry Barry

A trio of friends scheme to find a wife for their socially inappropriate friend Barry, and end up finding a girl just like him.

Lilo & Stitch

The wildly funny and touching story of a lonely Hawaiian girl and the fugitive alien who helps to mend her broken family.

Video Kings

Flo und sein Kumpel Hotte arbeiten in der mies gehenden Neuköllner Videothek Video König. Kein Wunder, denn Hotte glänzt mit null Filmwissen, und Flo muss mit damit fertig werden, von seiner Freundin verlassen worden zu sein. Die beiden Unglücksvögel lassen sich vom Kiez-Gauner Bernhardt abzocken, von Schlägern die Fresse polieren und Inkasso-Unternehmen drangsalieren. Ein Glück, dass für Flo wenigstens wieder die Liebe in Form von Nachbarin Ramona lacht, auch wenn diese möglicherweise eine Prostituierte ist.

Nightslave

Enter the bizarre world of Thraxton Hall, where Jarvis, Lord of the Manor, indulges in his wildest, darkest fantasies! Part torture chamber, part Turkish bath, part homicidal nightmare, this ramshackle monstrosity is actually his imaginary creation, his escape from a dead-end existence, fueled by his passion for silent horror films. But maybe his fantasies are real… this passive video geek turns out to be a bit more then we bargained for! And to this crazy mix a beautiful, buxom blond, scantily clad in black lace and garter belt, who is terrorizes by Jarvis, and Nightslave explodes into reality with terrifying results. A black comedy with an edge, this is one-of-a-kind thriller takes you on a sexy horror ride you don’t want to miss.

Steve Jobless

An introverted office drone tries to navigate through corporate America, and one tragic day he meets his match. He then realizes he needs to play the capitalistic game in order to survive. His pain and confusion is your laughter.

March of the Spring Hare

Henry, an apathetic file clerk at the All-State Collection Agency in New York City, spends most of his working hours sitting in the file room, daydreaming about leading the life of a Buddhist monk. In his free time, Henry roams Greenwich Village with his girl friend Sandy and roommate Solly. One day, Henry convinces Sandy that she should move in with him and Solly. When the time comes for Sandy to move in her belongings, however, Henry is unavailable to help her because he is having sex with his co-worker Rhoda. As Sandy and Solly drift into an affair, Henry tries to convince Rhoda that he does not love her. Soon after, Martin Axborough, his boss at the collection agency, tries to instill some initiative in Henry, a professed anti-materialist, by letting him make some collections over the telephone. Through his phone contacts, Henry discovers that Axborough has been swindling his clients, prompting Henry to become even more alienated and disillusioned.

La pequeña señora de Pérez

A student secretly goes back to school after getting married to one of her teachers.

Screening Party

When journalist Dennis gets assigned to write about Pretty Woman for Marquee magazine's “Hooray for Hollywood Hookers” issue, he invites five friends over to screen, celebrate and skewer the modern-day Cinderella story. The partiers include his roommate Tony, a burnt-out cruise ship crooner who's desperately looking for a new gig on land; Lauren, a relationship-challenged aspiring stand-up comic; Marcos, a sweet-natured attorney who never met a tangent he couldn't go off on; Ross, an Opera-loving video clerk with multiple tattoos and arsenal of movie fun facts at the ready; and Dr. Beverly Beaverman, the shrink next door who finds Freudian psychological meanings in everything she sees. Together, they do their best to make sense of the 1990 Richard Gere-Julia Roberts romantic comedy classic while discovering that the movie's themes—sex, money, sex for money—resonate in their lives in ways both ridiculous and profound.

The Middle Men

Two newly hired video store clerks are asked by their new boss to deliver a package to a theater across town. Unbeknownst to them, the package is truly a shipment of cocaine for a local drug kingpin.

Someone's Can

The journey of a single Pringles Can, being passed down from one person to another, all in order to reach it's correct customer.

L'Amour vache

Plot unavailable

American Video Rental

When a sleazy businessman threatens an aging video store with closure, Kelly, Mike, and Gerald, the store's three employees, do everything they can to stay in business— even the most drastic of measures.

Nous paysans

In barely a century, French peasants have seen their world profoundly turned upside down. While they once made up the vast majority of the country, today they are only a tiny minority and are faced with an immense challenge: to continue to feed France. From the figure of the simple tenant farmer described by Emile Guillaumin at the beginning of the 20th century to the heavy toll paid by peasants during the Great War, from the beginnings of mechanization in the inter-war period to the ambivalent figure of the peasant under the Occupation, From the unbridled race to industrialization in post-war France to the realization that it is now necessary to rethink the agricultural model and invent the agriculture of tomorrow, the film looks back at the long march of French peasants.

Benny's Video

A 14-year-old video enthusiast obsessed with violent films decides to make one of his own and show it to his parents, with tragic results.

The Last Laugh

An aging doorman, after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel, is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbours and society.

Hamlet

Modern day adaptation of Shakespeare's immortal story about Hamlet's plight to avenge his father's murder in New York City.

Tokyo Refugees

When his father flees from debt, carefree college student Osamu sees his life turn upside-down. Expelled from school and evicted from his apartment, he becomes one of Japan’s many ‘net cafe refugees’, barely scraping by each day with temporary and part-time work. Even though he’s still in Tokyo, his circumstances drive him to see and experience his home city in new ways. Trying to survive, Osamu gradually acquaints himself with the ‘invisible’ spaces occupied by the wanderers and homeless of Tokyo… people just like himself.

Bleeder

Two stories for the price of one: a video store clerk tries to get acquainted with a waitress; a man beats his pregnant wife, unaware that her brother is a violent racist.

Liam

A morality tale of xenophobia, religious prejudice, mob violence, poverty, and their effect on two children in Liverpool during the Depression. When a shipyard closes, Liam and Teresa's dad loses his job. Liam, who's about 8, making his first Holy Communion, gets a regular dose of fire and brimstone at church. Teresa, about 13, has a job as a maid to the Jewish family that owns the closed shipyard. The lady of that house is having an affair, and Teresa becomes an accomplice. Liam stutters terribly, especially when troubled. Dad comes under the sway of the Fascists, who blame cheap Irish labor and Jewish owners. A Molotov cocktail brings things to a head.

MaXXXine

In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.

Stand and Deliver

Jaime Escalante is a mathematics teacher in a school in a hispanic neighbourhood. Convinced that his students have potential, he adopts unconventional teaching methods to try and turn gang members and no-hopers into some of the country's top algebra and calculus students.

Night Key

The inventor of a new top-of-the-line burglar alarm system is kidnapped by a gang in order to get him to help them commit robberies.

Lucky Chan-sil

With the death of her long-time director, Chan-sil, a film producer, is now unemployed. While working as a cleaning lady at an actress' house, she meets a young man. Attracted to him, Chan-sil realises old anxieties are about to emerge: her already gone-youth, messed-up love life, and broken career.

The Navigators

In South Yorkshire, a small group of railway maintenance men discover that because of privatization, their lives will never be the same. When the trusty British Rail sign is replaced by one reading East Midland Infrastructure, it is clear that there will be the inevitable winners and losers as downsizing and efficiency become the new buzzwords.

No Place to Go

Michiko used to work as a live-in part-timer at an izakaya, but suddenly lost her job and her house at the same time due to COVID-19 pandemic. There are no new jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and diners and internet cafes are closed. Michiko is at her wits' end, but there in front of her is a bus stop that stands slightly brightly in the darkness, illuminated only by the streetlights.

Raising the Bar: The Alma Richards Story

In 1908, eighth grader Alma Richards quits school to work as a ranch hand. A chance meeting with a professor motivates him to resume his education, leading him to compete in high jump at the Stockholm Olympics and win a gold medal.

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop

A documentary that follows the former Tonight Show host. Filmed during Conan’s ”Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television” comedy tour, after his departure from the Tonight Show, taking viewers on an intimate journey of O’Brien’s life.

The True Cost

Film from Andrew Morgan. The True Cost is a documentary film exploring the impact of fashion on people and the planet.

Colossal

A woman discovers that severe catastrophic events are somehow connected to the mental breakdown from which she's suffering.

Footsteps

A young man called Andrew is forced to endure a bitter encounter with a man known as the Cameraman, who enjoys filming beatings, murders and rapes in an abandoned underpass.