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Carl Laemmle


            Prologue: The Boy Samurai and The Headless Ancestor
The film opens with a legend of a war between three clans. Two of them worshiped dogs while the Kobayashi clan were cat lovers. The clans fought in battle until a child warrior came forth and decapitated the head of the Kobayashi clan. Centuries later, the Kobayashi family has not forgiven their greatest defeat.We jump ahead to twenty years in the future from now in the Japanese city of Megasaki. An outbreak of "snout fever" has been infecting dogs across the country. Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura) issues a decree that will send all dogs to a quarantined piece of land they call Trash Island. The first dog sent there is Spots (Liev Schrieber), the pet/bodyguard of Kobayashi's orphaned nephew Atari (Koyu Rankin). The head of the Science Party, Professor Watanabe (Akira Ito), believes the dogs can be cured. Interpreter Nelson (Frances McDormand)(who translates and commentates on major events in the city) muses "Whatever happened to man's best friend?"Part One: The Little Pilot
On Trash Island, there is a pack of five dogs - Rex (Edward Norton), King (Bob Balaban), Duke (Jeff Goldblum), Boss (Bill Murray), and their leader, Chief (Bryan Cranston). The city imports bags of garbage as a means of food for the dogs. One bag drops, and Chief's pack comes across a rival pack of dogs. They get into a wild fight for the garbage, with Chief even biting off another dog's ear. His pack comes out victorious, but Rex, who is a former house pet, says he can't stomach anymore of the garbage. King, Boss, and Duke agree, as they were also domesticated, but Chief, a stray, is more thankful for what they have. The dogs then spot a female dog, Nutmeg (Scarlett Johansson), walking by.A plane flown by Atari comes crashing down to the island. The dogs go after him when they see the wreckage. Atari has a piece of the plane stuck in his head. He sees the dogs and uses a picture to tell them he is looking for Spots. The dogs don't know him personally, but they know he's the first dog who was sent there. They bring Atari to what they believe is his cage, where a dog skeleton lies because none of the other dogs knew how to open it. Atari becomes distraught and enraged.We see a flashback to when Atari first got Spots after the train accident that killed his parents. Atari lost his right kidney in the same accident. Kobayashi's Major-Domo (Akira Takayama) brings Spots in and doesn't appear to approve of Atari treating Spots like a pet. Atari begins to whisper to Spots, and, with tears in his eyes, he tells the boy he can understand him.Atari attempts to leave the island. Rex notices Boss wearing the collar of the dog in the cage, and sees that the tag says "Sport" and not Spots. After Atari crashes the plane again, the dogs decide to help him look for Spots, but Chief doesn't trust Atari and refuses to help him, but the dogs overrule his decision.At night, Chief meets Nutmeg formally. He pries into her life by asking about who she's mating with, which she doesn't approve of. After apologizing, he gets to talk to her more. Nutmeg says she is a former show dog who could perform tricks. She asks Chief if he is going to help Atari since boys like him love dogs. Chief is unsure, but ultimately agrees to go along with the mission.At a lab in the city, Watanabe successfully discovers the cure for the canine flu. He and his assistant scientist, Yoko Ono (Yoko Ono), present their discovery to Kobayashi, but he dismisses it and plans to keep the dogs on Trash Island. He leaves the room, at which point Watanabe sees a file containing classified information regarding the canine flu and Trash Island, but the Major-Domo swipes it away from Watanabe before he can find out anything.Part Two: The Search For Spots
On their way to find Spots, the dogs start talking about their favorite foods. When they ask Chief, he reveals to them that he wasn't always a stray. He was owned by a family until he bit the hand of the oldest boy when he tried to pet Chief. He claims it was so bad that he almost bit the boy's hand off completely. The family locked him in a shed, but the grandmother brought him a bowl of hibachi chili, which he says was his favorite food. He dug his way out and became a stray.A rescue team searching for Atari comes down along with a drone and a robot dog. The captors trap Atari, but the pack intervenes to fight them off and save Atari. Chief battles the robot dog and gets injured, but Atari is set free and he disables the robot dog. The drone also ends up crashing down to the ground.At a school in Megasaki City, exchange student Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig) presents a theory to her class that involves a conspiracy within the Kobayashi party, and she plans to do whatever it takes to prove that the mayor is corrupt. She organizes a televised rally with the other children to call for a reform in the way they are handling the dog situation. The kids hold up pictures of their dogs, and we learn that Tracy is Nutmeg's owner.Atari and the dogs set out to find the dogs Jupiter (F. Murray Abraham) and Oracle (Tilda Swinton), as they are known as the wisest dogs on the island. Oracle supposedly has "visions", but she is actually just able to understand the TV and translate what's happening. Upon finding them, Jupiter and Oracle recognize Spots in his picture as "Dog Zero". Jupiter suggests that Spots may be on the island as a prisoner of a group of cannibal aboriginal dogs.The group attempts to head further to find Spots, but Chief and Atari get split up from the other four dogs. After they land, Atari attempts to play with Chief, who is reluctant at first, but eventually warms up to the boy. He even lets Atari pet him. He then gives Chief a bath, completely removing the filth off of him to reveal that he is the same breed as Spots.Back in Megasaki, a chef is preparing sushi. He dabs one of the rolls with poisoned wasabi and has it sent to the room of Professor Watanabe. He is reported dead in the morning from what is believed to have been a suicide. Tracy continues her investigation into the matter, even going to confront a devastated Yoko to confirm that the cure exists. Yoko gives it to Tracy so she can set out to expose the truth.Part Three: The Rendez-Vous
Atari and Chief reunite with Rex, Boss, King, and Duke as they reach a bridge that will lead them to the aboriginal tribe. The four dogs get stuck on the trash lift that they came in on, but Atari and Chief make it across. They are confronted once again by Kobayashi's men, plus more robot dogs. Just when it looks like time is up for the two, they are found by none other than SPOTS.Another flashback shows Spots being found by the group of aboriginal dogs, but he learns from their leader, Gondo (Harvey Keitel), that they only ate their former leader because he was already sick and dying, and so the other dogs had no choice but to eat him since there was little else for them to survive off of. Gondo admits that this really hurt him and the others, but he doesn't like that they have a reputation as cannibal dogs. They find a key for Spots's cage, and they free him. Spots then meets his future mate, Peppermint (Kara Hayward).Back in the present, Spots uses his military-issued explosive teeth to take out the robot dogs. Spots takes Chief and Atari and jumps into the river to escape the others. While they float away, Spots tells Atari that he can no longer serve him and be his bodyguard because of his new role in the tribe, and because he and Peppermint are going to be parents. He also confirms to Chief that they are brothers. Chief is at first disgusted with Spots since Atari went through all this just for him, but Spots then decides that he may now pass his former role onto Chief. Atari places Spots's mic and earpiece onto Chief, who accepts his new role.Part Four: Atari's Lantern
Atari, Chief, and Spots encounter a messenger owl sent to them from Jupiter. They learn that Kobayashi is planning to take care of the city's dog problem by effectively poisoning them with gas. Atari leads his dogs to head out on rafts back toward the city to stop this.The city is gathered for Kobayashi's election ceremony. Atari is believed to have been dead after the bridge jump. Tracy and her classmates arrive to protest, with Tracy trying to expose Kobayashi's corruption, as well as the fact that he and his team manufactured the canine flu out of their hatred for dogs, and the fact that Watanabe was murdered. As a result, she has her student visa nullified and is set to be deported. Atari, Chief, and the other dogs arrive. They administer the cure to Chief, who is immediately relieved of the canine flu. Atari then stands up to speak and deliver a speech and a haiku, which moves Kobayashi to tears and causes him to have a change of heart. He undoes the Trash Island Decree and admits to his corruption and acting dishonorably. He tries to cancel the poisoning, but the Major-Domo tries to see the extermination through. They press a button and activate the poison, but thanks to one of Tracy's hacker friends, the poison backfires and affects the robot dogs and exterminators on the island. A robot dog then tries to attack Atari and the other dogs, but Spots intervenes and fights the robot dog. It is destroyed, but Spots loses an eye, and Atari has a metal part lodged in his head.Atari undergoes a successful brain surgery, but his remaining kidney has failed. Kobayashi decides to donate his left kidney to save his nephew's life.Kobayashi and his whole party are locked up for their crimes. Due to the election law, Atari becomes the new mayor of Megasaki. He makes it so that all dogs are returned to their owners and that they may return to society. This helps former dog-based businesses return, including a dog treat factory that the other dogs loved. Atari and Tracy become a couple, which allows Chief to get closer to Nutmeg.The last we see is Spots (now sporting a mechanical eye) with Peppermint and their puppies, living in the Kobayashi manor in peace.
    

Isle of Dogs

Condor

Legend

Hopeless Pictures

Hitchcock/Truffaut


            This movie will chronicle five weeks between the Nov. 7, 2000, presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore and the December Supreme Court ruling that upheld Florida's count and gave Bush the White House.
    

Recount

Whose Life Is It Anyway?

Gosford Park

Wormwood

Eva Hesse

The Brass Ring


            During the early 1950s, Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey), an up-and-coming young screenwriter, is accused of being a Communist because he attended an antiwar meeting in college years before, a meeting he claims he only attended to impress a girl. In an instant, his new film is pushed back for a few months, the credit is given to someone else, his movie star girlfriend leaves him, and his contract with the studio is dropped.His career in ruins, he gets drunk and accidentally drives his car off a bridge while trying to avoid an opossum. When he wakes up, his memory is lost and he is in a small town called Lawson after being fished out by Stan Keller (James Whitmore) who takes him to the local doctor named Doc Stanton (David Ogden Stiers). The townsfolk believe him to be Luke Trimble, one of the town boys killed in World War II 9 years before, and embrace him as a symbol of hope. "Luke" is at first mildly hesitant to embrace this life but he eventually settles in to "his old life", and with his "father" Harry (Martin Landau) and his "girlfriend" Adele Stanton (Laurie Holden), starts to restore The Majestic theater, an old movie house that had been closed because of hard times.Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Congressional committee member Elvin Clyde (Bob Balaban) is convinced that Appleton's disappearance is proof that he is a Communist. No one in Hollywood knows about the accident. Clyde sends two federal agents to search for him. Back in Lawson, not everyone believes that "Luke" is back. Bob Leffert (Karl Bury), a one-handed soldier who knew the real Luke and did not like him not only is convinced that Peter is not Luke, he also believes that this stranger is setting the town up for more heartbreak. Others question where Luke has been for so long, and what he has been doing in the interim.A few days later, the town throws a welcome home party for "Luke" headed by Mayor Ernie Cole (Jeffrey DeMunn). The town then asks him to play the piano which he used to do when he was a kid. But instead of playing one of the classics he was taught to play, he eventually falls into a roadhouse boogie tune. On his way home, he runs into Bob, who confronts him with the suspicions he has had about "Luke", and then punches him when Peter makes a remark about how the war must have changed him. Finally Peter, Harry, Adele and the rest of the townsfolk succeed in rebuilding The Majestic. In the event, Peter also convinces the town to finally display a memorial that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had commissioned for after the war, but that the town did not have the heart to erect.Peter regains his memory when the Majestic shows a movie he wrote called "Sand Pirates of the Sahara." At the same moment, Harry has a heart attack before the reel change. Moments later, Doc reveals that Harry's lungs have flooded and that he will die soon. At Harry's death bed, Peter lets him die believing that he is really his son.Immediately after the funeral, he tells Adele that he is not Luke. The whole town discovers the truth when federal agents Ellerby (Daniel von Bargen) and Saunders (Shawn Doyle) confront him publicly after two boys discover his car washed up on the beach. When Sheriff Cecil Coleman (Brent Briscoe) asks if he can help the federal agents with something, the agents present Peter with a summons to appear before Congress.That night at the Majestic, Peter's agent advises him to "admit" and then denounce his past associations with the Communist Party, and presents him with a list of named "Communists" that he could read before the court to clear his name. Initially, Peter reluctantly agrees to this plan, but an argument with Adele and a letter he finds that was written as a sort of "goodbye letter" from the real Luke (voiced by Matt Damon) trying to explain to Adele that he knows he is dying for a real cause inspire Peter to instead confront the committee.At the hearing headed up by Congressman Doyle (Hal Holbrook) which is televised with the citizens of Lawson also watching, Peter makes an impassioned speech about American ideals, which wins the crowd over. Fearing a political backlash, the lawmakers let him go free. Peter then finds out that it was in fact the girl that he went to the college meeting with years before that named him to the committee (it is revealed that she had since become a producer for Studio One).Peter then returns to Lawson, fearing an unwelcome reception. To Peter's surprise, he receives a hero's welcome from the town's citizens, who have come to respect Peter as an individual. In an epilogue, Peter settles in Lawson, marries Adele, and they have a son.
    

The Majestic


            Headlines in Florida's 'Miami Standard' newspaper reveal that Joseph Diaz, a longshoremen union leader, has been missing for months and is presumed dead, although the police have no leads. Reporter Megan Carter (Sally Field) visits the FBI task force headquarters, but the offices are empty as its members are watching footage of the funeral for bootlegger Tommy Gallagher.In the screening room, Elliot Rosen, head of the task force, points out Tommy's brother, Santos Malderone (Bob Balaban), the head of local organized crime. He also focuses on Tommy's son, Michael Colin Gallagher (Paul Newman), a liquor supplier who is supposedly clean. However, Rosen is suspicious and orders his men, including Bob Waddell (Barry Primus), to work a case against Gallagher.Later, Megan asks Bob why the task force is interested in Gallagher and he warns her to stay away, but Megan reports to her boss, "Mac" McAdam, that the task force must be investigating Gallagher regarding Diaz's disappearance.Rosen agrees to meet Megan but deliberately places Gallagher's file on his desk before her arrival, then leaves the room when she appears. Megan reads the file and writes an article claiming that Gallagher is a suspect in Diaz's disappearance. The newspaper's lawyer vets the article and asks Megan to call Gallagher so they can protect themselves legally; since the paper has no knowledge that the story is false, they are "absent malice" and cannot be sued. When the article is printed, Gallagher demands to know Megan's source, but she refuses to answer and unsuccessfully interrogates Gallagher about Diaz's disappearance.Elsewhere, District Attorney Quinn (Don Hood) questions Rosen about the reason for Gallagher's investigation and Rosen argues that pressure on Gallagher might produce information from his uncle, Santos Malderone. Meanwhile, Gallagher's friend Teresa Perrone (Melinda Dillon), a shy, Catholic school secretary, worries about the article because she was with Gallagher when Diaz disappeared. Gallagher tells her to be honest if questioned, but to refrain from revealing her whereabouts.A day or two later, Megan arranges a meeting with Gallagher, who offers to take her to lunch. Wearing a wire, Megan boards Gallagher's sailboat as the newspaper photographer who is following them tracks down a police helicopter for assistance. Gallagher reveals that he knows Megan is wired and demands information about her sources, but Megan remains uncooperative.Making his case, Gallagher insists that if Megan writes about his guilt, everyone believes her, but if he is proved innocent, the story will be buried in the paper and no one will know the truth. As a police helicopter flies overhead, the lunch ends and Gallagher returns to his warehouse where he finds workers on strike. Gallagher tries to convince the union representative that he was not involved in Diaz's disappearance, but the man does not believe him and insists that longshoremen cannot work there.Later, Gallagher takes Megan to dinner and asks for her consideration, but he soon realizes that Malderone's henchmen are following them. Gallagher meets with his uncle and promises that he will not help the task force.Sometime later, Teresa arranges a meeting with Megan and explains Gallagher's alibi; Teresa was pregnant from her former boyfriend and Gallagher took her to an Atlanta, Georgia, abortionist on the day Diaz disappeared. Although Teresa is a staunch Catholic and begs Megan not to write about the abortion, Megan insists the information will clear Gallagher. When the story makes headlines, Teresa commits suicide.Upset, Megan goes to Gallagher's warehouse but they argue and Gallagher rips Megan's blouse. Before she leaves, Megan admits that Rosen leaked the story. Meanwhile, Rosen meets with Bob and insists that the investigation must continue despite Gallagher's alibi. Elsewhere, Gallagher buys an answering machine and orders a bank check for $3,000, payable to District Attorney Quinn's non-profit political organization. Gallagher then calls Quinn to set up a deal, promising to look into Diaz's disappearance if Quinn makes a public statement clearing his name. Giving Quinn his phone number, Gallagher tells the District Attorney to call when the statement has made front-page news. Later, Gallagher brings a new blouse to Megan's apartment and concedes that it was not easy for her to reveal Rosen's name.Sometime later, Quinn orders Rosen to terminate the investigation and holds a news conference, clearing Gallagher. However, Rosen demands that Bob put both men under surveillance and orders an illegal wire tap on their phones. Megan brings Gallagher a proof of her article that clears his name, and, later, they are photographed as they enter her apartment building.The next morning, Gallagher leaves Megan's building and returns to his warehouse, where he listens to a message from Quinn suggesting that they meet. That day, Gallagher disguises his voice and leaves incriminating messages on his own answering machine about the meeting. Gallagher also orders another check for Quinn's non-profit organization.Meanwhile, Rosen and Bob discover the checks and study transcripts of the calls to conclude that Gallagher is bribing Quinn. When Bob tells Megan the news, she does not believe him, but Bob shows her the checks and photographs, including images of herself with Gallagher, and insists that she cannot print the story.That night, Megan cooks dinner for Gallagher and asks why Quinn made the public statement. Although Gallagher refuses to answer, Megan cannot let the subject drop and Gallagher leaves. Later, Quinn is shocked when Megan asks if he is receiving bribes and denies her claim, but Megan writes a story anyway, announcing that the task force is probing a link between Quinn and Gallagher.U.S. Assistant Attorney General James J. Wells (Wilford Brimley) assembles Gallagher, Megan, the newspaper's lawyer, Quinn, Rosen and Bob for a formal inquiry into the Quinn-Gallagher article. Rosen fails to make his case, as Gallagher claims that he only promised Quinn to look into Diaz's disappearance and argues that he donated money because he supported the organization. When Wells demands to know Megan's sources, she admits that Rosen deliberately leaked the story about Gallagher but she refuses to implicate Bob. Wells realizes that Gallagher set up Quinn and the task force, but sympathizes with Gallagher regarding Teresa's death. Wells dismisses Gallagher, Megan and Bob, but orders Quinn to resign. When Rosen refuses to leave the FBI, Wells fires him.Sometime later in the final scene, Megan stops by Gallagher's boat and learns that he has sold his home to sail North. Defending journalism as an honorable profession, Megan admits that she failed as a reporter but hopes to do better in the future.
    

Absence of Malice

The Late Shift

Altered States


            Nine years ago, the American Discovery One's mission to Jupiter mysteriously failed. As depicted in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Discovery's HAL 9000 computer "Hal" (Douglas Rain)malfunctioned, killing four astronauts. The fifth, David Bowman, disappeared into a large, alien Monolith orbiting the planet. Heywood Floyd (Roy Scheider), head of the National Council on Astronautics, received the blame for the failure and left NCA.Although tension is growing between the United States and the Soviet Union, both nations prepare missions to determine what happened to Discovery. Although the Soviet Alexei Leonov will be ready before the American spaceship, the Soviets need American astronauts to help investigate Hal's malfunction and to board an American spacecraft. The US government agrees to a joint mission since Discovery's orbit is deteriorating and it will crash into Jovian moon Io before the US ship is ready. Floyd, Discovery designer Walter Curnow (John Lithgow), and HAL 9000 creator Chandra (Bob Balaban) join the Russian mission.Upon Leonov's arrival in the Jovian system, captain Tanya Kirbuk (Helen Mirren) and the other Soviets wake Floyd early from his hibernation because they have detected chlorophyll and other chemical signatures of life on the frozen moon Europa. A burst of electromagnetic radiation destroys an unmanned probe from Leonov and all telemetry records before the probe takes close-up pictures. Floyd suspects that it is a warning to keep away from Europa.After surviving a dangerous aerobraking through Jupiter's atmosphere Leonov finds Discovery abandoned but undamaged, orbiting the planet close to Io, rotating on an axis at the center of it's spine. Curnow travels with Cosmonaut Max Brailovsky, and the two, in a risky EVA, enter the spinning ship. Curnow reactivates the ship and Chandra restarts Hal, which Bowman had deactivated before Discovery arrived at Jupiter. Brailovsky (Elya Baskin) travels to the Monolith in an EVA pod, but a burst of energy that emerges from the Monolith and heads to Earth consumes him. Bowman, now an incorporeal being, appears on his widow's television and wishes her farewell. He visits his terminally ill mother in a nursing home and combs her hair before she dies.Chandra discovers the reason for Hal's malfunction: The NSC ordered the computer to conceal from Discovery's crew the fact that the mission was about the Monolith. This conflicted with Hal's basic function of open, accurate processing of information, causing him to suffer a mental breakdown.The tensions between the United States and Soviet Union escalate to what is "technically a state of war", and the US government orders Floyd, Curnow, and Chandra to move into Discovery. Both crews plan to leave Jupiter when a launch window opens in several weeks. Bowman appears to Floyd, warning him that they must leave Jupiter within two days because "something wonderful" will happen. Although Kirbuk is skeptical of Floyd's report, the Monolith suddenly disappears and a growing black spot appears on the Jovian surface. The spot is a vast grouping of Monoliths that is rapidly increasing in number, shrinking Jupiter's volume, increasing the planet's density, and modifying the chemical properties of its atmosphere.The Monolith's disappearance convinces the two crews that they must leave soon. Since neither ship can reach Earth with an early departure, they work together to use Discovery as a booster rocket for Leonov. Tension arises when Hal is not told that the Discovery will be left stranded in space, and possibly destroyed; Chandra fears that another deception may cause Hal to again malfunction. During the launch countdown Chandra tells the computer the truth. Hal agrees that it must sacrifice itself for the human beings on board Leonov to complete Discovery's mission.Leonov leaves Jupiter just before the Monoliths engulf Jupiter and increase its density to the point that nuclear fusion occurs, transforming the planet into a small star. Bowman commands Hal to repeatedly broadcast a final message to Earth:ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACEA wave of hot plasma erupts from the forming star, incinerating Discovery.The new star's miraculous appearance inspires the American and Soviet leaders to seek peace. Europa gradually transforms from an icy wasteland to a humid jungle covered with plant life. A Monolith stands in a swamp, waiting for intelligent life forms to evolve.
    

2010: The Year We Make Contact

The Exonerated

Georgia O'Keeffe


            Tobacco heiress and horticulturist Doris Duke hires Bernard Lafferty, an Irish butler (and former household staff to Liz Taylor and to Peggy Lee) to manage her New Jersey home. As time passes they grow close and he begins to travel with her. His role in her life expands and their relationship becomes emotionally close if somewhat dysfunctional. Her lawyers question his motives, but he is loyal and refuses their payoff. In her long absences he is given control over her estates. His alcoholism returns, hindering his performance and she sends him to rehab at her own expense. Alone, she has a stroke and he returns to nurse her. She dies and names him executor of her personal estate; he is subject to many accusations. He dies three years later, leaving all he has to the Doris Duke foundation.
    

Bernard and Doris

Parents

Dead Bang

End of the Line


            Maintenance man Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) tries to keep up with the needs of his many tenants. He comes to realize someone is swimming in the pool after 7 p.m., which is not allowed. The pool cleaner also brings to his attention that there seem to be globs of some sort of hair in the pools filter that have accumulated in just one day. One night, when he is very tired, he hears splashing in the pool and thinks that at last he will catch the mystery swimmer. But when he goes to the pool, there is no one there, not even footprints. As he walks around the pool, he hears someone splashing in the water at that very moment. He thinks all he has to do is wait, and they will surface soon enough. He picks up a brush and walks around the pool, takes a bad step, falls, hits his head and rolls into the pool.In the next scene we find Heep laying on his own couch, and a nude young woman is sitting across from him. There is water on the floor. He asks if she brought him here, but she only nods that she did. He gives her a shirt to wear. She clings to him, saying that she is too scared to go outside. So there he sits, with a young woman in his lap clinging to him who then falls asleep. He is clearly uncomfortable and tries to wake her. He decides he should take her outside for some fresh air, and then he will walk her home. Once outside, however, he is confronted with a growling creature which sends them both screaming back into his house.Heep needs to know who she is and what the creature is. We learn that her name is Story and that there is a creature hunting her. She is somehow prohibited from telling him who she is or what is happening, but she does tell him that she is a Narf. Heep begins asking his tenants if they have ever heard of a character called a Narf. Upon asking a young Asian student named Young-Soon Choi (Cindy Cheung), she says she has heard of a Narf as part of a bedtime story that was told long ago to her mother, but she doesn't remember much about the story. Heep continues doing his repairs, and we are introduced to many of the tenants. Between tasks, Heep tries to catch Young-Soon when she is with her grandmother, so he can ask more questions about the story. Though she has no idea why he is asking all these questions, she is happy to do what she can for this oddly curious man. Her grandmother, however, is suspicious as to why a grown man is so interested in a bedtime story.Frustrated at only getting bits and pieces of the story here and there, he arranges to be invited into the apartment of Young-Soon and her grandmother. Young-Soon tells him to try and act more like a curious child than a man, and it will help to bring out the grandmother's softer side so she will tell him more about the story of Story. After wiggling, eating cookies and dribbling milk down his face, the grandmother is amused and tells him the story.Meanwhile, Story is walking through his apartment, marveling at various objects. She notices a different-looking book and takes it down and reads it. The book is actually a journal, one that Heep wrote following the tragic loss of his family. When Heep discovers her reading the book, he asks her not to tell anyone of his past; no one there knows the story or that he used to be a doctor. He also needs to check with Story that what he has learned so far is accurate. Though Story cannot actually say, she makes a sign when he makes a correct statement.It seems Story is a Narf, here to motivate a great writer to complete his work that will have a tremendous positive effect on the future, at which point a giant eagle will come and take her home. But there is a creature called a Scrunt who will try to kill her before she can complete her task. There are many people who live in the apartment comple, besides the writer, who will unknowingly play different parts in helping Story. Heep believes himself to be her "guardian", the one who can protect her from the Scrunt. In a scene that starts out suspenseful but becomes rather light, Heep tries to face down and battle the Scrunt, being coached by Story via walkie talkie, but it soon becomes apparent that he is not the guardian when the Scrunt attacks him. The attack is interrupted by an arrogant movie critic just in the nick of time.But now Heep has an idea of what he needs to help Story get home. He must cast the roles needed to complete the task from the diverse people that live in the apartment complex. It is such a complex undertaking that he decides to consult the latest addition to the complex, the arrogant movie critic, to help him root out some of the characters described to him. Heep finally concocts a plan, but it is misguided. When it fails, the Scrunt seizes hold of Story and tries to drag her away, but Heep manages to grab hold of her. It is now apparent they have the wrong people for the roles, and they need to rethink them fast.The pivotal character to find is the "symbolist", who can "read" the situation, giving a much better description of the characters needed and what they all must do. At last, most of the correct people are found, all but the guardian. They all encircle her hoping to protect her long enough for the eagle to arrive. But the Scrunt is patient and wily and finds a way to get close to her unseen. Finally, the guardian appears and stares the Scrunt down. We hear the eagle and Heep says goodbye to Story. He realizes she has saved him from hiding himself away, and then she is gone.
    

Bob Balaban

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