The Finest Cinema (2024)

L'Esprit de famille

A writer must face the sudden death of his father, but after the burial, the latter reappears to him. He will have to learn to live with this facetious companion, but difficult to explain the situation to his family, because he is the only one who can see him. This disturbing presence will create an earthquake in the family.

Babylon

A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters in an era of unbridled decadence and depravity during Hollywood's transition from silent films to sound films in the late 1920s.

110% Honest

Former pro cyclist Kim Karlsen (39) holds a press conference admitting use of performance enhancing drugs in her career. Rather than accepting the consequences of her actions, our antiheroine sticks to her guns and refuses to alter her mindset.

I Love You

In another indictment of the flaws of our so-called civilization, this satire from the late director Marco Ferreri features Christopher Lambert as Michel, a miserable man who has failed at love and finds solace in a mechanical key holder.

Knight of the TV-screen

This mocking criticism of public life and the media focuses on a TV series. The protagonist of the film, depicting the battles fought for Hungarian castles during the Ottoman occupation, is chosen to be the amateur Prohászka Feri, a worker in the beer-factory.

The Little Tin Man

Tired of being overlooked for bigger roles, a struggling dwarf actor sets out to be cast as the Tin Man in Martin Scorsese's remake of The Wizard of Oz.

Hunt Angels

Filmmaking partners Rupert Kathner and Alma Brooks are determined to get their films made by almost any means necessary. Set in the 1930s, this docudrama relates the moviemakers' struggles to jump-start Australia's film industry.

Black Bear

At a remote lake house in the Adirondack Mountains, a couple entertains an out-of-town guest looking for inspiration in her filmmaking. The group quickly falls into a calculated game of desire, manipulation, and jealousy, unaware of how dangerously intertwined their lives will soon become.

The Protagonists

An Italian movie crew goes to London to make a documentary about a murder case that took place a few years before.

Bots

A unit of dedicated bots scheme chaos and divisiveness from their office desks in Rich Williamson’s wickedly humorous and sharp satirical take on the absurd amount of power relinquished to the unhinged forces steering world politics.

Mastergate

A "play on words" about a fictional political scandal concerning covert arms deals and double-dealing government operatives, satirizing the Watergate hearings of 1972-1973.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

After the insane General Jack D. Ripper initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, a war room full of politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop it.

Dogma

An abortion clinic worker with a special heritage is called upon to save the existence of humanity from being negated by two renegade angels trying to exploit a loophole and reenter Heaven.

Myth

Lonely college student Alex encounters his favorite filmmaker, JP Smith, stalking around his sleepy town in upstate NY. Together they form a precarious relationship, with Alex becoming the star of JP’s latest flick.

The Personal History of David Copperfield

A fresh and distinctive take on Charles Dickens’ semi-autobiographical masterpiece, The Personal History of David Copperfield, set in the 1840s, chronicles the life of its iconic title character as he navigates a chaotic world to find his elusive place within it. From his unhappy childhood to the discovery of his gift as a storyteller and writer, David’s journey is by turns hilarious and tragic, but always full of life, colour and humanity.

Bodies Bodies Bodies

In an isolated family mansion, a group of rich 20-somethings decides to play Bodies Bodies Bodies, a game where one of them is secretly a "killer" while the rest tries to "escape". Things take a turn for the worse when real bodies start turning up, setting off a paranoid and dangerous chain of events.

Adam's Apples

A neo-nazi sentenced to community service at a church clashes with the blindly devotional priest.

Mr. Bean's Holiday

Mr. Bean wins a trip to Cannes where he unwittingly separates a young boy from his father and must help the two reunite. On the way he discovers France, bicycling and true love, among other things.

American Psycho

A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

Life's questions are 'answered' in a series of outrageous vignettes, beginning with a staid London insurance company which transforms before our eyes into a pirate ship. Then there's the National Health doctors who try to claim a healthy liver from a still-living donor. The world's most voracious glutton brings the art of vomiting to new heights before his spectacular demise.

Heat

Former child star Joe Davis, reduced to living in a cheap Hollywood motel while struggling for acting jobs, is lusted after by nearly every woman he meets, including Jessica Todd, a tightly wound feminist who has recently come out as a lesbian. When Jessica's mother, Sally, an emotionally needy has-been actress, meets Joe, she moves him into her enormous, tacky mansion as her new boy toy and attempts to get him acting work.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

In Luis Buñuel’s deliciously satiric masterpiece, an upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined.

Swindle

A boy named Griffin finds a valuable multi-million dollar baseball card. After accidentally selling the card for a million dollar loss, he enlists the help of his best friend Ben and his colleagues to regain the baseball card.

Spaceballs

When the nefarious Dark Helmet hatches a plan to snatch Princess Vespa and steal her planet's air, space-bum-for-hire Lone Starr and his clueless sidekick fly to the rescue. Along the way, they meet Yogurt, who puts Lone Starr wise to the power of "The Schwartz." Can he master it in time to save the day?

Helsinki Mansplaining Massacre

One woman’s desperate struggle to survive a horde of men with frail egos, who just want to explain everything to her. But the biggest horror may be closer to her than she thinks.

The Naked Ape

Somewhat based on Desmond Morris's fascinating book of pop anthropology, this partially animated satirical docudrama produced by Playboy Magazine publisher Hugh Hefner, traces the evolution of human kind and offers insight into the reasons why we behave the way we do. Though often dealing with sexuality, nothing in the film is terribly offensive or graphic. A prime example of mainstream experimental film-making from the early 70's featuring a young and breathtakingly lovely Victoria Principal.

Brazil

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

Don Quixote

Adapted from the work of Miguel de Cervantes, this is the story of a hidalgo, fanatic for chivalry novels, who loses his sanity and believing to be a knight named Don Quixote de La Mancha, decides to go on imaginary adventures along with his friend, the simple farmer Sancho Panza, who becomes his squire. On their journeys, they rescue dames in distress in honorable acts and fight giants among other perils, with Don longing to be with the love of his life, lady Dulcinea, and Sancho waiting to be rewarded with an island where he's about to become a governor.

Drop Dead Gorgeous

In a small Minnesota town, the annual beauty pageant is being covered by a TV crew. Former winner Gladys Leeman wants to make sure her daughter follows in her footsteps; explosions, falling lights, and trailer fires prove that. As the Leemans are the richest family in town, the police are pretty relaxed about it all. Despite everything, main rival (but sweet) Amber Atkins won't give up without a fight.

Too Legit

A woman tries to determine if her rape was legitimate or not.

D.E.B.S.

The star of a team of teenage crime fighters falls for the alluring villainess she must bring to justice.

To Die For

Suzanne Stone wants to be a world-famous news anchor and she is willing to do anything to get what she wants. What she lacks in intelligence, she makes up for in cold determination and diabolical wiles. As she pursues her goal with relentless focus, she is forced to destroy anything and anyone that may stand in her way, regardless of the ultimate cost or means necessary.

Life of Brian

Brian Cohen is an average young Jewish man, but through a series of ridiculous events, he gains a reputation as the Messiah. When he's not dodging his followers or being scolded by his shrill mother, the hapless Brian has to contend with the pompous Pontius Pilate and acronym-obsessed members of a separatist movement. Rife with Monty Python's signature absurdity, the tale finds Brian's life paralleling Biblical lore, albeit with many more laughs.

Ghostbusters

After losing their academic posts at a prestigious university, a team of parapsychologists goes into business as proton-pack-toting "ghostbusters" who exterminate ghouls, hobgoblins and supernatural pests of all stripes. An ad campaign pays off when a knockout cellist hires the squad to purge her swanky digs of demons that appear to be living in her refrigerator.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev travels to America to make a documentary. As he zigzags across the nation, Borat meets real people in real situations with hysterical consequences. His backwards behavior generates strong reactions around him exposing prejudices and hypocrisies in American culture.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues

Marty DiBergi drops everything to document Spinal Tap’s final concert, as a chance to redeem himself after the band’s disappointment with his first film.

Bukraken!

In 2016, journalism student Susana Rojas disappeared without a trace while making a documentary for her end-of-career work. After several years, her project is finally uncovered.

Singin' in the Rain

In 1927 Hollywood, a silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his paranoid screen partner struggle to make the difficult transition to talking pictures.

Soneriada 2: Revenge of the Flomberts

Menti, a tough, gritty detective comes home from the bar only to discover Petrulive, his old partner, in his apartment. Together they must solve a mystery revolving around the assassination of a mysterious character, Charlie Charlison.

Shaun of the Dead

Shaun lives a supremely uneventful life, which revolves around his girlfriend, his mother, and, above all, his local pub. This gentle routine is threatened when the dead return to life and make strenuous attempts to snack on ordinary Londoners.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

King Arthur, accompanied by his squire, recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot and Sir Galahad the Pure. On the way, Arthur battles the Black Knight who, despite having had all his limbs chopped off, insists he can still fight. They reach Camelot, but Arthur decides not to enter, as "it is a silly place".

Gone Girl

With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.

The Eccentrics

Ertaoz travels to the city with the intent to sell a chicken and pay off his father's debts. Upon arrival, he falls for the beautiful Margalita and decides to help her dispose of her ex-lover's body. However, at the cemetery, the lover–a policeman–unexpectedly regains consciousness and arrests Ertaoz and the chicken. Ertaoz is sentenced to ten years, while the bird receives seven. In prison, they meet an inventor who has built a flying machine that runs not on fuel but the power of love.

All Cheerleaders Die

When tragedy rocks Blackfoot High, rebellious outsider Mäddy Killian shocks the student body by joining the cheerleading squad. After a confrontation with the football team, Mäddy and her new cheerleader friends are sent on a supernatural roller coaster ride which leaves a path of destruction none of them may be able to escape.

American Beauty

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.

Not Another Teen Movie

On a bet, a gridiron hero at John Hughes High School sets out to turn a bespectacled plain Jane into a beautiful and popular prom queen in this outrageous send-up of the teen movies of the 1980s and '90s.

Not Okay

An ambitious young woman, desperate for followers and fame, fakes a trip to Paris to up her social media presence. When a terrifying incident takes place in the real world and becomes part of her imaginary trip, her white lie becomes a moral quandary that offers her all the attention she’s wanted.

Zombieland

Columbus has made a habit of running from what scares him. Tallahassee doesn't have fears. If he did, he'd kick their ever-living ass. In a world overrun by zombies, these two are perfectly evolved survivors. But now, they're about to stare down the most terrifying prospect of all: each other.

Mike Bassett: England Manager

After England's football (soccer) manager has a heart attack, Mike Bassett is hired as the new manager and promptly announces the team will win the World Cup.

Genre Hopper

A young filmmaker accidentally claps her idol’s mystical clapperboard, throwing the two on a frantic journey through film genres and beyond.

Josie and the Pussycats

Josie, Melody and Val are three small-town girl musicians determined to take their rock band out of their garage and straight to the top, while remaining true to their look, style and sound. They get a record deal which brings fame and fortune but soon realize they are pawns of two people who want to control the youth of America. They must clear their names, even if it means losing fame and fortune.

Oh! What a Lovely War

The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the five boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare.

Water

The British governor of a tiny island nation in the Caribbean Commonwealth finds his idyllic existence thrown into chaos when an American drilling company finds a huge source of natural mineral water there.

Comrade Chkalov Crosses the North Pole

A satiric comedy which dissects the iconography of the 'Soviet Hero'. Original footage of a propaganda film from 1941 is the starting point for this parody of the ideological cliches of Soviet cinema. It follows the story of a Russian crew across the North Pole.

Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical

From an ominous Lecturer, a small 1930s middle American community learns of the Harper Affair, in which young Jimmy Harper finds his life of promise turn into a life of debauchery and murder thanks to the new drug menace marijuana. Along the way, he receives help from his girlfriend Mary and Jesus Himself, but always finds himself in the arms of the Reefer Man and the rest of the denizens of the Reefer Den.

Charm School

Defiant 18-year-old Adela León pushes her father and an unbending headmistress to the limit in this delicious comedy.

Deal of the Century

Arms dealers from several companies vie to sell the most expensive and highest tech weapons to a South American dictator. There are complications; understanding the exact nature of how 'gifts' are used to grease the wheels of a sale, a religious conversion from one of the salesman and a romance that begins to grow between two competitors.

Swimming with Sharks

Guy is a young film executive who's willing to do whatever it takes to make it in Hollywood. He begins working for famed producer Buddy Ackerman, a domineering, manipulative, coldhearted boss. When Guy also finds out that his cynical girlfriend, Dawn, has been using sex as a career move, he reaches his limit. Guy decides to exact revenge on Buddy by kidnapping him and subjecting him to cruel and unusual punishment.

Fuerzas Especiales 2: Cabos Sueltos

The bumbling police Freire and Salinas are accused of a crime they did not commit and become the most popular men in the country.

BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

A renowned Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles, after being named the recipient of a prestigious international award, is compelled to return to his native country, unaware that this simple trip will push him to an existential limit.

Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber

Katya Livingston, a self-centered, obnoxious and conceited 28-year-old ad sales exec, won't let anything or anyone stand in her way in getting to the top of the San Francisco social ladder. When tax inspectors question her claims Katya is forced to keep a financial diary and finds time to add details about her friends, enemies and lovers all from her unique point of view.

State and Main

A movie crew invades a small town whose residents are all too ready to give up their values for showbiz glitz.

Johanne Sacreblu

Mexico's response to the French film Emilia Pérez. The real life of French people in a musical made by people in Mexico. It tells the epic tale of baguettes, croissants, stinky cheese, and the difficulties of not taking daily showers.