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Westworld

Green Eggs and Ham

Angels in America


            The movie begins in a black-and-white sequence in the city of Prague, Czech Republic, where James Bond has tracked down an MI6 section chief, Dryden, who has been selling information to enemies for profit. They chat about what it takes to be a 00- agent (one of the requirements is making two confirmed kills) and Bond casually tells Dryden that his espionage contact, Fisher died, and "Not well." Intercut with the conversation are black and white scenes of Bond and Dryden's contact fighting in a men's room. Bond finally pushes the man's face into an overflowing sink and holds him there until he drowns.Dryden points a gun at Bond. "Shame. We barely got to know each other." He pulls the trigger, but James has removed the ammunition from the weapon. "I know where you keep your gun. I suppose that's something." Dryden continues to taunt Bond, asking him if he felt any remorse or guilt over killing Fisher. Bond remains passive, his face expressionless. Dryden says that Bond "needn't worry, the second is--" at which point Bond kills Dryden, before Dryden had a chance to say the word "easier". Bond puts his pistol away saying, "Yes, considerably." (Though not said explicitly, Bond found the killing of Dryden, his second such kill, "considerably" easier than the first.) In flashback, Fisher recovers from Bond's attempt to drown him and picks up his pistol. The frame instantly shifts to the series' iconic "gun barrel" sequence as Bond spins around and shoots Fisher. Blood runs down the frame, prompting the opening titles.In Mbale, Uganda a group of freedom fighters, led by Steven Obanno, are arranging a meeting with Le Chiffre, a private banker to terrorist groups around the world. Obanno is not sure whether or not to trust Le Chiffre with his money, but Mr. White, the man brokering the meeting, explains that he's only the guy making the introduction.Moments later, a convoy of Land Rovers arrive, one of which carries Le Chiffre. Le Chiffre explains to Obanno that he invests their money and manipulates stocks so they get a 100% return on the investment, and guarantees them access to their money anywhere in the world. Obanno agrees to allow the money to be taken for Le Chiffre's nefarious purposes. While Obanno's money is being loaded in to Le Chiffre's vehicles, Le Chiffre calls his stockbroker in London and has him short-sell a massive number of Skyfleet stocks, despite the broker warning him that he's betting against the market and all forecasts only call for Skyfleet's stocks to increase in value.In Madagascar, Bond, on his first mission as a "00", is working with another agent, Carter, doing surveillance on a terrorist, Mollaka, who is gambling on a match between a cobra and a mongoose. Carter, Bond's inexperienced partner agent is exposed after Mollaka gets a cell call and the terrorist bolts from the scene. Bond chases the man, who is an experienced "free runner" (parkour) who leads Bond through a construction site, onto several sky cranes and finally to the Nambutu embassy where he seeks asylum. Bond charges into the embassy (in direct contravention of international law and his orders) and catches Mollaka in the ambassador's office. Bond drags him along, fighting his way thru the halls of the embassy, throwing the man out a window and into a courtyard. He suddenly finds himself surrounded by armed guards. The ambassador appears and orders Bond to let Mollaka go. Bond shoots the terrorist and a nearby gas tank and escapes in the explosion. He also steals the backpack Mollaka was carrying. Searching through the backpack, he finds a bomb and Mollaka's cell phone. Bond examines the bomber's messages briefly, seeing one with an American phone number and the word "ELLIPSIS." Bond keeps the phone.Back at MI6, M is furious that 007's violent actions were caught on video at the Nambutu embassy. Bond later breaks into M's home and hacks her top-level clearance so he can trace where the cell phone call originated from. When M enters she's startled and lectures him on proper protocol and conduct, stating she think it may have been a mistake to promote him to 00 status. Bond assures her that "the life expectancy of a 00 is brief, so your mistake will be short-lived." M tells him that "arrogance and self-awareness seldom go hand-in-hand" and she wanted him to "take [his] ego out of the equation" when on a mission. She also tells him to go on a brief vacation until she can decide how best to deal with him. Bond has discovered that the call to Mollaka originated at a posh beach resort in the Bahamas. Bond goes there to investigate who made the call and why. He ends up finding a middle man, Alex Dmitrios, who happens to be a henchman used by Le Chiffre, hired to find someone who could carry out a task for Le Chiffre. Bond meets Dmitrios and plays poker with him, beating him and winning his 1964 Aston Martin DB5.Bond uses the Aston to finagle a romantic evening with Dmitrios' spurned wife, Solange, to get information about her husband. She tells Bond that Dmitrios is going to Miami. Bond follows him there where he confronts Dmitrios at the Body Worlds exhibition. He sees him leave a bag with the coat check staff and also place the claim tag in one of the displays. Bond kills Dmitrios when he's held at knifepoint, however, the bag goes missing and Bond follows the man, Carlos, hired as Mollaka's last minute replacement.Bond follows Carlos to Miami International Airport, where he pulls a security uniform out of the bag and puts it on. He slips into the secured area of the airport and Bond follows him, having figured out "ELLIPSIS" was the security code to get through the door. M calls Bond to tell him Le Chiffre will have Carlos destroy a prototype jetliner for a large airline named Skyfleet. The prototype is the largest passenger aircraft in the world and destroying it will bankrupt Skyfleet. Carlos sets off the emergency sprinkler system in the building to cause a diversion and slips out onto the tarmac. Carlos attaches an explosive charge to a refueling tanker after killing the driver (a cameo by director Martin Campbell) and starts driving it towards the plane. However, Bond manages to leap onto the tanker. The two have a vicious fight around the runways while being chased by the Miami-Dade Police. Eventually, Carlos leaps off the truck, and Bond is barely able to stop the tanker from hitting the plane. Carlos smiles as Bond is arrested and activates the charge. However, Bond has already discovered Carlos' small explosive device & attached it to Carlos' belt during the melee, and Carlos ends up killing himself. Bond smirks slightly after the explosion.On the phone, Le Chiffre receives word that Carlos failed and Dmitrios was killed. He assumes that someone talked and foiled his plot.Returning to Nassau, Bond discovers that Solange had been tortured, killed and trussed up in a hammock. M explains she was tortured and killed by Le Chiffre because she was the only one left alive and he assumed she talked. Le Chiffre's plan was to "short-sell" hundreds of millions of dollars in Skyfleet stock and, in destroying their prototype, cause their stock to plummet and send them into bankruptcy so he could buy the shares back at cheaper value. Thanks to Bond, Le Chiffre has lost over $101.2 million. Now a marked man, Le Chiffre must find another way to earn the money back so his investors will not eliminate him. M tells Bond that Le Chiffre just set up a high stakes Texas Hold 'Em poker match at the Casino Royale in Montenegro for 10 players, with an entry fee at $10 million each plus a $5 million buy-back should they lose all their money. M arranges to place Bond in the game as a replacement for a syndicate member, since he's the best poker player in MI6. M also has a homing device planted in Bond's left wrist so she can track him anywhere.The British government will be putting up the money and, while Bond is on the train to Montenegro, he is met by a young woman named Vesper Lynd, a Treasury agent who has been sent to monitor Bond and give a go, no-go should he lose the money. They converse over dinner, Vesper commenting on his cold nature and Bond remarking on how Vesper is retentive.Upon arriving they pose as a married couple, with Bond posing as a professional gambler named "Arlington Beech" and Vesper as "Stephanie Broadchest" (a name that Vesper is offended by). They meet with Rene Mathis, their contact in Montenegro, who explains that Le Chiffre probably doesn't know he's under surveillance because the only person monitoring him is Mathis himself. He's spent the time establishing his old relationships with such people as the local police chief, whom Mathis has already arranged to have busted on bribery charges.Before the game begins, Bond also purchases a deep purple backless dress for Vesper to wear, to supply a distraction during the game. He also is perturbed that Vesper has given him a dinner jacket (tuxedo) that appears to have been tailored and is of a higher quality than Bond's own. That evening, he heads to the casino and the private parlor, where he is introduced to the other players, including Le Chiffre. A representative from the casino, and another representative from an international bank, explain that each player has deposited $10 million dollars for their initial buy-in. The buy-back fee of $5 million can be made by electronic transfer. Their money is being held in a Swiss bank in escrow for the duration of the game and each one has a password to keep the money secured. At the conclusion of the tournament, the winner will enter his password into and encryption keypad, which will automatically wire the money to any bank account in the world of the winner's choice. Vesper has the account number but only Bond knows the password.On the first hand, Bond deliberately makes a misjudged call to figure out how Le Chiffre bluffs (his physical "tell" involves him placing his left hand on his forehead near his wounded left eye), however Vesper is not at all impressed, thinking Bond is inept. After a lengthy round of hands, a break is called. Bond places a tracking device in Le Chiffre's asthma inhaler and takes Vesper back to their room.Le Chiffre is called back to his room by his girlfriend, Valenka. However, he is confronted by Obanno and his henchman, demanding his money back. They threaten to cut off Valenka's arm, however, Le Chiffre doesn't acquiesce. Out in the hallway, Bond hears Valenka screaming. He quickly grabs Vesper and they kiss in the stairway entrance to cover themselves, however, Obanno's henchman notices Bond's earpiece and attacks them both. The fight takes them into the stairwell, where the henchman is thrown off the stairwell to his death, and James and Obanno have a knock-down drag-out fight all the way down the stairwell, Obanno wielding a machete. Finally landing on the bottom, Bond gets Obanno into a choke hold. Obanno tries to reach for Bond's pistol, but Vesper smashes it out of his hands. Bond finally kills Obanno and orders Vesper to contact Mathis, who sets up one of Le Chiffre's associates to take the fall for the dead bodies by placing them in the man's car trunk. Bond finishes the poker session, but he returns to the room to find Vesper fully-clothed and shaking uncontrollably in the shower from the fight. He holds on to her and comforts her.The next day, during the continuing poker game, Bond loses all his money to Le Chiffre after misreading a bluff and admits to Vesper that he made a mistake. Vesper won't give him the buy back money saying he's going to lose it. Furious, Bond goes after Le Chiffre but is stopped by one of the other poker players, Felix Leiter, the CIA's representative sent to the poker match to catch Le Chiffre for the same reasons MI6 has sent Bond. Leiter tells 007 that he's doing poorly himself in the game and that he'll back Bond to re-enter the game; Leiter believes that Bond can beat Le Chiffre. In return, Bond will give Le Chiffre to the CIA.Bond slowly builds his bank again and once again becomes a threat to Le Chiffre. Le Chiffre has Valenka poison Bond's martini with digitalis, causing Bond to suffer severe tachycardia. Bond goes to his car distressed and, communicating with medical specialists at MI6 headquarters, is about to use the defibrillator when he sees the the connection isn't plugged in and passes out. Vesper arrives, fixes the defibrillator kit and shocks him back to life. Shaken but able to walk, Bond returns to the game. The final hand of the game is down to four players, including Bond and Le Chiffre, who go "all in", betting their remaining money, driving the "pot" well over $120 million. One player has a flush, while another has a full house. Le Chiffre has a higher full house and is about to take the entire pot when Bond reveals he has a straight flush and wins the game.Bond has dinner with Vesper, who receives a call from Mathis stating that Le Chiffre has been apprehended by the CIA. Vesper leaves the dining room; seconds later, Bond realizes she's in danger. Vesper is kidnapped by Le Chiffre. Bond races after them in his Aston Martin, but has to swerve violently when he sees Vesper lying bound in the road. The car rolls several times, destroying it. Le Chiffre and his cronies take him, removing his homing implant. As Bond fades from consciousness, Le Chiffre tells him that Mathis was allied with his enemy.Bond and Vesper are taken to a nearby tramp steamer and separated. Bond is stripped and bound to a chair with the seat removed, leaving his testicles exposed. Le Chiffre uses a large knotted rope, striking Bond's scrotum, demanding the password for the account the winnings have been secured in. Bond refuses, despite Le Chiffre's threats to kill him and Vesper. Through the pain inflicted on him, Bond tells Le Chiffre that his investors, who are already hunting him, will find him and kill him. Le Chiffre counters, saying that even if he murders Bond and Vesper, that MI:6 will still welcome him because of the knowledge he possesses about his terrorist clients. Le Chiffre finally draws a knife and is about to castrate Bond when gunshots are heard outside (implied to be the sound of Valenka being killed). The door opens and in walks Mr. White, the broker who introduced Obanno to Le Chiffre, pointing a silenced pistol directly at Le Chiffre. Le Chiffre, suddenly frightened, pleads with him, saying he'll secure the money, to which White replies, "Money isn't as important to our organization as knowing who to trust." White then fatally shoots Le Chiffre in the forehead.Bond wakes up in a hospital bed during a haze while he recovers. After he fully regains consciousness, he talks to Mathis, whom he believes was responsible for his and Vesper's capture by Le Chiffre. MI6 agents appear, taze Mathis and drag him away.Vesper visits Bond and they confess their love for each other. The Swiss banker in charge of the winnings account visits and Bond gives Vesper the password to key in; the password is her own first name. Bond resigns from the service to go on holiday with Vesper, and they sail to Venice, Italy where Vesper says she'll get the money and Bond will get the supplies for the trip. When M phones 007 about his resignation, she says that they'll discuss that later but they need to talk about the money being returned to the British government first, which tips off 007 that Vesper was using him all along.Bond follows Vesper to a secret meeting where she turns the money over, in cash, to a man named Gettler, who spots Bond nearby. Gettler and a few of his men retreat to a building being renovated and a gunfight ensues. Bond shoots and ruptures the flotation bags that hold the building above water-level and kills the men. He tries to save Vesper, locked in an old elevator, but is unable to after she commits suicide by drowning herself. Bond recovers her body and takes her above water but is unable to revive her. Mr. White, who'd been watching the scene, is seen leaving with the suitcase full of money.Sitting on the sailboat he and Vesper had been vacationing on, Bond talks to M, who informs him that Vesper had a boyfriend who was being held by Le Chiffre's organization. She had intended to pay off Le Chiffre's associates with the money to secure her boyfriend's release. M believes that there are no further leads, that the "trail has gone cold." Bond examines Vesper's cell phone and finds the phone number of Mr. White, which he theorizes she left for him purposely.At Lake Como in Northern Italy, White arrives at a lush villa. After he exits his car, he receives a phone call from someone telling him they "need to talk." Asking who the caller is, White is suddenly shot in the leg by a sniper. He falls to the ground and crawls painfully toward the house. As he tries to climb the stairs and the familiar Bond theme music begins to play, Bond appears carrying a cell phone and a silenced HK rifle. As White looks up defiantly, Bond says "The name's Bond. James Bond." The closing titles roll immediately.
    

Casino Royale

The Batman

Stage on Screen: The Topdog Diaries

Moynihan


            A man (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up on a train sitting across from a woman named Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan). The woman knows him by the name Sean Fentress, but he doesn't seem to know her and appears uncertain of his own identity. After eight minutes, a bomb goes off on the train, and the man awakens to find himself strapped inside a small geodesic dome. There, Air Force Capt. Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) explains to him through a computer screen that he is actually Colter Stevens, a decorated army helicopter pilot, now on a mission to locate the maker of a bomb which destroyed a train headed into Chicago. This is to be accomplished using the Source Code, a time loop program that allows him to take over someone's body in a reenactment of their last eight minutes of life.Stevens has no memory of how he became involved in the Source Code project; his last memory is of flying in a recent mission in Afghanistan while taking on enemy gunfire. Stevens's mission in the Source Code is to assume the identity of Fentress, one of the train's passengers, locate the bomb, discover who detonated it, and report back to Goodwin to prevent the bomber from detonating a larger dirty nuclear device in downtown Chicago, which could cause the deaths of millions of people. Goodwin and the Source Code's creator, Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright), tell him that the Source Code is not a simulation, but a visit into the past in the form of an alternate reality. He's told that he cannot truly alter the past to save any of the passengers, but that he must gather intel that can be used to alter the future and prevent a future attack. Goodwin assures Stevens that "everything will be OK."Stevens is sent into the Source Code repeatedly, and each time a series of events repeat, with variations due to Stevens's acts. Meanwhile, he goes on searching for the terrorist and getting to know Christina, until the bomb that destroys the train goes off and Fentress dies, sending Stevens back to the chamber.Even though Rutledge and Goodwin constantly direct him to focus on finding the bomber, each time around he learns more, both about the terrorist attack and his real life personal situation. Stevens resolves to complete his mission, now with the added personal goal of saving Christina and the people on the train if at all possible.Using a cellphone while on the train, Stevens eventually discovers that he supposedly died two months ago. He confronts Goodwin with this information, and learns from Goodwin and Rutledge that he had been shot down during the war, and his mutilated body was appropriated by the Air Force and used by Rutledge to operate the Source Code. Stevens then asks Rutledge and Goodwin to let him die, which they promise they will do once the mission is finished.He eventually discovers that the bomber is a disturbed American young man named Derek Frost (Michael Arden), which allows authorities to apprehend Frost and save Chicago before the second bomb is detonated.With the mission accomplished, and despite their promise, Rutledge orders Stevens's memory to be erased and stored for reuse in further missions. However, Stevens persuades Goodwin to send him in one more time and give him one last chance to avert the train disaster. Goodwin agrees that he deserves to be allowed to die in peace afterwards instead of being held alive as a military brain in a vat.With the information he has uncovered from previous trips into the Source Code, Stevens is able to defuse the bomb and immobilize Frost before he can destroy the train.Stevens and Christina kiss in the last seconds before the eight-minute mark. In that instant, Goodwin turns off his life support per his request, but to Stevens's surprise, his mind remains in Sean Fentress's body. He is then able to safely leave the train with Christina, also saving the rest of the passengers. Now in the alternate universe, an alternate version of Goodwin receives an email from Stevens explaining what has happened and that the Source Code can alter the target alternate reality. The movie ends with Stevens taking Fentress's place, and asking Goodwin to help Captain Colter Stevens and tell him that "everything will be OK.", which Goodwin had told Stevens earlier in the film.
    

Source Code


            During a sweltering summer in New York City, 13-year-old Misters (Brooks) hard-living mother (Hudson) is apprehended by the police, leaving the boy and nine-year-old Pete (Dizon) alone to forage for food while dodging child protective services and the destructive scenarios of the Brooklyn projects. Faced with more than any child can be expected to bear, the resourceful Mister nevertheless feels he is an unstoppable force against seemingly unmovable obstacles. But what really keeps the pair in the survival game is much more Misters vulnerability than his larger-than-life attitude. THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER AND PETE is a beautifully observed and tremendously moving film about salvation through friendship and the way transformation sometimes can happen just by holding on long enough. Director George Tillman, Jr. draws indelible performances from a fantastic cast, which includes Jordin Sparks, Golden Globe® and EMMY®Award winner Jeffrey Wright, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Anthony Mackie, and Golden Globe® and Academy Award® winner Jennifer Hudson, all led by Ethan Dizon and Skylan Brooks in a stunning breakout performance as Mister. The film also features new music by Alicia Keys.Codeblack Films and Lionsgate present an iDeal Partners / State Street production in association with Floren Shieh Productions / Archer Gray Productions / Cherry Sky Films / AKW Productions.
    

The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete

Chicago 10

Blood Diamonds

The French Dispatch

Boycott


            This movie is based on the true story of how a small music recording studio, Chess Records, located on the south side of Chicago, began recording blues music with Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright) and Little Walter (Columbus Short) in 1947, and eventually gave birth to rock and roll in 1955 with Chuck Berry (Mos Def). Record producer, Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody) has an ear for this different type of music, and believes he can cash in by signing up new talent such as songwriter, Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer), Howlin' Wolf (Eamonn Walker), and Etta James (Beyonce Knowles). Leonard Chess makes all of his artist part of his family and takes care of them. This is not an easy job for him, because they spend a small fortune on booze, drugs, and the high life. When Chuck Berry goes to jail, Leonard is able to find another talented performer, Etta James, to take his place. In the late sixties, as their music goes out of favor, Leonard Chess gets out of the record business.
Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)
    

Cadillac Records

Basquiat

Confirmation


            65 million years ago, an asteroid made its way out of the belt and sped toward Earth. It turned red as it entered the atmosphere, and then it sped past, missing the planet entirely. Millions of years later, two Apaterosauruses named Henry (Jeffrey Wright) and Ida (Frances McDormand) are busy cultivating a field next to a river at the base of Clawtooth Mountain. Henry sprays the crops with water from his mouth, when Ida calls out, "It's time!" She has a large egg and two small ones in her nest, and the small ones hatch first, giving them a boy and a girl, Buck (Marcus Scribner) and Libby. The large egg still doesn't hatch, so Buck hits it with a stick. The top pops off, and they look inside and see a tiny dinosaur clinging to the egg. Slowly, Arlo (Raymond Ochoa) climbs out and tries to walk, awkwardly falling over at first. Henry shows them all the farm and the mountain, saying they will all take care of it together.At the age of five, Buck and Libby are helping out with the chores, but Arlo's fear made him hate his chore of feeding the chickens. Ida puts a bucket of corn around his neck and coaxes him into the coop. He sees a chick trapped in some weeds and frees him, only to have the mother chicken come up behind him and squawk loudly. Scared, Arlo runs into the silo, where Henry is storing corn. He seals the door with a boulder, keeping the food safe from scavengers. Ida tells him he should make his mark, and he presses his foot down in the mud and stamps it on a rock, then places it on top of the silo. He tells Ida to make her mark, since she made the cabin, the fence and three children. Henry tells the kids they have to earn the right to make their mark, by doing something big, for something bigger than themselves.When they are ten, Buck and Libby have earned their marks by clearing trees and plowing a field. But Arlo still hasn't done anything to earn his mark. Arlo is determined to complete his chore, but Buck plays a prank on him, scaring him off before he can finish. Henry decides to take Arlo out into the field at night, telling him to walk to the middle. A bug lands on his nose, and he screams for his dad. Henry walks up and blows on the bug, revealing it to be a firefly. "Sometimes, you gotta get through your fear to see the beauty on the other side," he tells Arlo. Then he waves his tail through the grass, causing more fireflies to pop out. Excited, Arlo does the same thing. Then Henry tells him that he has a special chore for Arlo, so he can make his mark.The next day, Henry takes Arlo to the silo and tells him that there's a critter climbing over the fence and stealing the corn. He tells Arlo that his chore is to catch it, then shows him how to build a trap with a rope and net, and an ear of corn on the ground for bait. Using a pumpkin for demonstration, he tells Arlo that when he smashes the critter with a mallet, then he'll be able to make his mark.Later, Arlo hears the sound of the trap. With the mallet in hand, he approaches and sees a human child (Jack Bright) trapped and choking with the net wrapped around his neck. Arlo sighs and lets the boy go, but the boy approaches him, sniffing around. Arlo backs away, tripping over a rock and letting out a scream. Startled, the boy runs off as Henry runs over. Henry sees the boy escaping and yells at Arlo for letting him go. Henry tells Arlo to come with him as he follows the boy's tracks. Just then, it started to rain. Arlo worries that they'll get lost, but Henry tells him that as long as he can find the river, he can find home. Henry tells Arlo that the boy's tracks are getting washed out in the rain, so they have to move quickly. Lightning and thunder are crackling all around them, and Arlo slips and falls in the mud. Henry tells him that they should head home. Just then, a landslide causes the river to overflow. Henry uses his strength to push Arlo to safety, before being swept away.With Henry gone, Ida and the kids struggle to keep up with the chores. Arlo takes corn into the silo for the winter, but he finds the boy eating it. Arlo chases after him, grabbing an ear of corn from his mouth. As they struggle, Arlo falls into the river and cries for help, but nobody hears him. Careening down the river, Arlo smacks his head against a large rock and is knocked unconscious. He wakes up lying on a sandbar, and sees that he's miles from home. The only sound he can hear is a howl coming from the boy, and he sees him at the top of a cliff. The boy watches as Arlo awkwardly climbs up the cliff, then he jumps on Arlo's face. Arlo shakes him off, and then climbs up to the cliff edge, when he sees that the boy has disappeared.Arlo climbs up to the top of a ridge, trying to find home. He sees the river, and remembers Henry's words. After walking up the river for a while, he sees a berry tree, and balances on a rock to get the berries. He loses his balance and falls, landing with a pile of rocks trapping his leg. Stuck, he closes his eyes and falls asleep. The next morning, the sound of geysers wakes him up, and he sees that the rocks have been moved, freeing his leg. He sees human tracks, and wonders if it was the boy who helped him. As he resumes walking up the river, heavy rain comes down. Arlo sees all the other animals take shelter, but he has none. He hears a rattle in the bushes, and the boy comes out and offers him a lizard, and then a bug. Arlo has no interest in eating either one. Then the boy brings back some berries, and Arlo happily eats them. He asks the boy if he knows where to find more, not sure if the boy understands. The boy runs off, and Arlo follows him to a cliff ledge. Arlo falls over, with his mouth gripping one edge and his legs on the other. The boy uses Arlo for a bridge, and then shows him a berry bush. Arlo flings himself to the other side, then runs toward the bush. Just then, a snake falls out and attacks Arlo. The boy grabs the snake's tail and starts to gnaw on its skin. The snake slithers away, and Arlo realizes the boy had saved him.Together, Arlo and the boy are walking up the river, when Arlo hears a voice say hello. Looking around, he finds a Styracosaurus with big horns. His name is Forrest Woodbush. Small creatures are perched all over the horns, and he says they are there to protect him. He saw the boy protect Arlo, and says he could use the boy as another protector. Arlo tells Forrest the boy is with him, and Forrest asks what the boy's name is. Arlo says he doesn't know, and Forrest says, "I name him, I keep him." They both start calling out names, getting no response. Arlo yells out, "Spot!" and the boy looks up at him. "Come here, Spot!" The boy walks up to Arlo. Forrest tells him not to lose Spot on his way back to Clawtooth Mountain.Walking back, they hear a squeak and see a gopher popping its head out of a hole. Spot tries to pounce, but the animal quickly ducks back down. Spot puts his mouth to the hole and blows, causing a gopher to pop out, and then scurry back in. Arlo does the same thing, causing more gophers to pop out. Displeased, the gophers bite Arlo, causing him and Spot to run for safety. They find themselves on a ledge above the river. Another gopher bites Arlo, sending him down into the river. He struggles to stay afloat, and Spot dives in after him and demonstrates how to swim. Arlo catches on and swims to shore with Spot. Arlo realizes his body is covered with leeches and tries to shake them off. Spot helps peel off the stubborn ones. They continue walking and find some fruit, and both eat heartily. Then they start to hallucinate, realizing there was something in the fruit. Tired, they both fall asleep.They wake up at night, and walk through a meadow. Arlo waves his tail through the grass, causing fireflies to pop up. Excited, Spot tries to grab them, catching one in his hands. Arlo blows on it, making it light up, and Spot lets it go. Arlo says he misses his family, and Spot tilts his head in confusion. Arlo breaks some sticks and makes dinosaur shapes, saying that one is him, and the rest are Buck and Libby, and Momma and Poppa. Then he draws a circle around them and says they are his family. Spot grabs some sticks and makes three human shapes, then draws a circle around them. Arlo tells him that's his family. Spot lays two figures flat on the ground and covers them with dirt. Arlo does the same with his Poppa figure. Together, they howl sadly at the moon.The next day, they resume walking up the river, when a violent storm hits them. Arlo curls up under a fallen tree, with Spot following him. When it ends, Arlo climbs out and sees destruction everywhere, and he realizes he can't find the river. In the sky, he sees pterodactyls flying in formation, like a search-and-rescue team. Arlo calls out to them, but Spot scurries off and hides. Thunderclap, Downpour and Coldfront land next to Arlo, and offer to lead him back to Clawtooth Mountain. They find an animal trapped under a fallen tree, and Arlo helps them clear the tree away. Thunderclap picks up the animal, but instead of letting it go, he throws it into his mouth and swallows it. Scared, Arlo looks around and sees Spot hiding beneath some debris. The pterodactyls can smell him, and they ask Arlo where he is. Arlo tries to misdirect them, but when he nervously glances in Spot's direction, Thunderclap flies over to him. Spot runs away, with Thunderclap giving chase. Arlo runs over, and Spot jumps on his back. Arlo sees a long-necked dinosaur grazing and calls out for help, but then he sees that it's actually two T. rexes.Trapped between the pterodactyls and the now-charging T. rexes, Arlo curls up into a ball over Spot. Suddenly, the T. rexes attack the pterodactyls and drive them away, and then they approach Arlo. He's frozen with fear, but the T. rexes help him up, and introduce themselves as Ramsey, a girl, and Nash, her brother. Their father, Butch, walks up and Arlo sees a giant scar on his face. Arlo asks him for help getting home, but Butch tells him they don't have time to help, since they're trying to find their herd of longhorns. Arlo offers to let Spot sniff out the herd, in return for helping him back home. Spot is able to find their tracks, but feathers on the ground indicate that the herd was taken by rustlers. Following the tracks, they find the herd grazing in a nearby field. Knowing the rustlers are lying in wait, Butch tells Arlo to stand on a rock near the herd and scream, and then stand still when the rustlers charge toward him. Nervously, Arlo heads to the rock with Spot. He tries to scream, but his fear made him silent. Spot chomps his leg, and he lets out a pained yell. Three raptors rustle through the grass, and walk up to Arlo. They tell him he's trespassing, and they take care of trespassers by killing them. A raptor strikes, but the T. rexes jump in and fight them. Butch head-butts a raptor, sending him flying into the herd, who stampede straight toward Arlo.Arlo takes off running with Spot, and the T. rexes try to keep up with the herd. A raptor jumps on Nash, and they fight, with the raptor pinning Nash down. Just as he is about to strike, Ramsey hits him with a tail-whip, sending him flying away. Arlo runs behind a boulder to escape the stampede, but the raptors can smell him nearby. Butch charges in, but he gets pinned to the ground by two raptors. Summoning his courage, Arlo charges in and head-butts a raptor away, and Butch grabs the other by the tail and flings her off. Arlo joins the T. rexes in driving the herd to a safer place.That night, Arlo, Spot and the T. rexes gather around a campfire. Arlo sees a cut on his forearm, and Ramsey tells him that it will leave a good scar. Nash shows a scar on his calf, and says he got it fighting fifteen Stegosauruses. Ramsey says that once he was trapped with his tail stuck under a rock and a herd of longhorns coming straight at him, so he had to gnaw his tail off. He shows the stub where his tail was. Arlo asks Butch how he got his scar, and he says he was taking a drink from a pond, when crocodiles jumped out of the water and bit his face. He bit one crocodile in half, tail-whipped another one, and then drowned a third one in his blood. Then he opens his mouth and shows off a crocodile tooth lodged in his jaw. Arlo says that his Poppa wasn't scared of anything, and that he's done being scared. Butch tells him that he was scared when the crocodiles attacked him, and that fear can make you find out what you're made of. Just then, the first snow falls, and Arlo tells them he needs to get home, to prepare the food for winter.The next morning, the T. rexes herd the longhorns on, and when a group splits off, Arlo runs ahead and snaps off a tree with his tail to force them back. Going over a slope, Arlo sees the peaks of Clawtooth Mountain, and the T. rexes say goodbye to him. When Arlo gets close to home, he lets out a happy howl, and Spot joins him. Suddenly, they hear another person howl back. Arlo can't stand the thought of losing Spot, so he scoops Spot up and walks back to the river. A storm comes in, and Arlo's feet get stuck in the mud. Looking up, he sees the pterodactyls flying around. They fly in and attack Arlo with their wings, and Thunderclap snatches up Spot in his talons. The other two turn to Arlo, who tries to back away, but he loses his balance in the mud and falls into brambles below. He tries to get free, but the brambles tighten around him. Unable to get through to Arlo, the pterodactyls fly after Thunderclap and Spot. Arlo tries one more time to free himself, but a rock comes loose and hits him in the head, knocking him unconscious.When he comes to, he sees someone chopping the brambles in half, and realizes it's Poppa. He tells Arlo they have to go home, but Arlo wants to save Spot. Poppa keeps walking forward, and Arlo yells at him to stop. Then he sees that Poppa isn't leaving any footprints. Arlo tells Poppa that he has to go save Spot, because he loves him. Poppa says he knew Arlo had it in him, and then fades away into the rain. Arlo is still tangled in the brambles, but with renewed determination, he breaks them one by one, and he runs after Spot.Arlo climbs up the mountain and howls for Spot, and he hears Spot howl back. He sees Spot inside a hollow tree, surrounded by pterodactyls. They whack the tree, trying to get Spot out. Arlo charges in and head-butts a pterodactyl into the river. Thunderclap and the others lift Arlo into the air, and Spot howls from the tree. Thunderclap flies down to Spot, who goes deeper into the tree. Still in the air, Arlo whacks a tree and makes it fall, landing on the pterodactyls. Arlo falls to the ground, and another pterodactyl flies toward him. Arlo grabs a tree with his tail and flings it into the pterodactyl, knocking it into the water. Arlo sees Thunderclap still attacking Spot, so he runs up and lets out a loud roar, scaring Thunderclap away.A flash flood approaches, and the tree with Spot inside gets swept away. Arlo tries to save him, but he can't reach far enough. The flood causes debris to fall, knocking Arlo into the river. Struggling to swim, he sees Spot unconscious inside the sinking tree. Arlo swims to him, hearing a waterfall ahead. When he reaches Spot, he curls himself around Spot and they both go over the edge.At the bottom, Arlo pulls Spot out of the water, and Spot opens his eyes. Arlo puts his head down and breathes a sigh of relief. The next day, they resume walking home, when they hear a human man howl. They see a woman and two children join him on the hill. Arlo slowly approaches, and Spot jumps off his back. The father sniffs Spot and rubs his hair, and the family gathers around him. Spot jumps on Arlo's back, ready to keep going, but Arlo pushes him off. Arlo draws a circle on the ground around all of them, and Spot understands. Arlo hugs Spot and says goodbye.Arlo walks the rest of the way alone, seeing the farm in the distance with the harvest still on the ground. Momma, Buck and Libby were tired, but still working. Momma looks up and sees Arlo walking toward her. "Arlo!" she cries, and all of them run up and hug him.At the top of the silo, Arlo's mud footprint stands right beside Poppa's. Arlo had done something big for something bigger than himself, and he was home.
    

The Good Dinosaur

Monster


            A boy, Theo, is noticeably shaken and being held by the police. His mother has died after an explosion during a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He feels he is responsible for the death of his mother. The whereabouts of his father are unknown. He has given the police the name of a mother, Samantha Barbour, whose family he knows from school. The woman agrees to take responsibility of him as an obligation since no one in Theo's family is available. He is clearly emotionally devastated, but shows no sign of crying. Police repeatedly ask him questions about his location, his mother's location, who and what else he has seen around the time of the explosion, etc. The woman stands up for him and his apparent lack of memory. Theo goes home with the mother. He makes good friends with Andy, the curly-haired son who is just under his age. The family is somewhat dysfunctional, especially visible in incidents involving the strong-willed father and the impudent oldest son, Platt.We learn that Theo had received a ring from a man killed in the blast. He was asked to return it to Hobart and Blackwell. Theo resourcefully finds the address of Hobart and Blackwell in the phone book and ventures out to deliver the ring. He is invited in and develops a friendship with the antique dealer, Hobie, who had lost his business partner Welty in the blast. Hobie is taking care of Pippa, the red-haired daughter of Welty Blackwell who Theo admired immediately before the blast. Pippa has major head injuries and spends most of her time in bed and is discouraged from listening to music since she needs rest more than music practice. Pippa and Theo have a strong bond since both just lost the main part of their families in the explosion. Pippa's mother had already passed away prior to the explosion due to illness.Theo spends time at both the Barbour family and the Hobie's shop and home. He learns about antique restoration from Hobie. He develops stronger ties to Andy and Mrs. Barbour. Theo is invited to join them for their summer vacation. However, soon after that invitation, Theo's father shows up along with his girlfriend. Theo disappointedly is required to travel off to live with his father, Larry, and the father's girlfriend, Xandra, in a mostly foreclosed neighborhood at the edge of the desert. Life is lonely at the new school and in the neighborhood, until Theo meets another loner named Boris. Boris is an awkward classmate who has lived many places as his father is a miner. Boris has no mother and his father is typically away. This allows plenty of time for Boris to shoplift, experiment with drugs, and get into other mischief. Some of these habits are adopted by Theo as well.Through flashbacks, we learn that Theo immediately after the explosion had been encouraged by Welty to take the valuable painting, The Goldfinch, as Welty was dying. Theo had kept it wrapped up, sporadically hugging it as it was a source of comfort, his mother's favorite painting, and the last art he had seen before his life was radically changed. It becomes more and more clear that Theo's life all began its downward spiral right at the moment of that terrible explosion.Larry happens to be in serious debt trouble and attempts to get Theo to transfer $65,000 out of the inheritance from his mother. The plan fails as the money can only be transferred directly to a school. Larry is in despair and ends up getting extremely drunk and killing himself in an auto accident. Theo and Boris learn of the father's death during one of their drug trips. Soon after, Theo decides that he must leave before he is assigned to a foster home. He heads back to New York and moves in with Hobie.The next scene shows Theo after a few years have passed, and we see Theo as a young man -- no longer a boy. Hobie has taught Theo about antique restoration and Theo joins Hobie's company, working as the sales arm of Hobart and Blackwell. His assistance leads to increased financial success, although it becomes clear that sometimes Theo is selling the reproductions as authentic antiques and not just as stated, high-quality reproductions of antiques as Hobie had intended.A dissatisfied customer complains to Theo that he had been tricked during his purchase of furniture that was offered to him as an authentic. To further avoid trouble, Theo offers to buy it back even beyond the purchase price. However, the customer actually knows far more, has done extensive research, and announces that he knows that Theo had taken "The Goldfinch". Theo does not let on that he took it or has it. Tensions are high and the customer later divulges his knowledge to the highly honest Hobie. Hobie confronts Theo about the new information, and Theo regretfully confesses to a much disappointed Hobie that the claim is true.Other tragedies have occurred. Andy and his father had passed away during a storm on the open seas, and this has hit Mrs. Barbour hard. As for Theo's love life: Theo's true love, Pippa is committed to another man. Theo has therefore focused his affection for the now grown-up daughter, Kitsey, of Mrs. Barbour. However, Theo finds that even while engaged, Kitsey has been and remains romantically involved with another man who she loves -- clearly not to the liking of Theo.In coping with the continued tragedies, Theo continues his drug habits, and this once again brings him by chance in contact with the now grown-up Boris. Boris is more wealthy now and has his own driver. Boris confesses that he had actually taken the painting "The Goldfinch" years ago from Theo. Theo had last opened it up during one of their drug trips, of which Theo had no recall. Boris had actually during the high-school days, secretly taken the painting and unbeknownst to Theo, replaced it with a Civics book.Since then, the painting was truly lost and out of the country, no longer in Boris's possession. However, Boris had a plan to get it back, to set things right again between him and Theo. The plan involved money and guns and dealing with professional crooks and did not go well. The painting was again lost. Theo was now at the bottom of his spiral, took a lethal dose of drugs and began hallucinating. Just then, Boris rushes into the hotel room, forces Theo to vomit the drugs out and returns Theo back to life. Boris also had served as an informant about the missing painting and delivers Theo the news that the police have finally found "The Goldfinch" and have returned it to its rightful place in the museum. The movie allows one to wonder after his second chance if Theo can overcome and achieve the life to eventually surmount the terrible event.
    

The Goldfinch

Saving My Tomorrow

O.G.


            NYPD detective Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) is involved in a nighttime shooting, then is brought up on charges. Captain Carl Fairbanks (Jeffrey Wright) and Mayor Nicholas Hostetler (Russell Crowe) discuss the case as protesters picket the courthouse. Hostetler mentions they have new evidence and next the judge announces the charges are dropped. The Mayor summons Taggart to his office where he seems sympathetic. Seven years later Billy is a struggling PI. He spends a day calling clients to get them to pay up. His assistant, Katy Bradshaw (Alona Tal), tells him the Mayor is calling. Arriving at City Hall, the Mayor is watching a TV news item on his election opponent Jack Valliant (Barry Pepper), apparently the two are close in the polls. Hostetler makes small talk with Billy then gets down to business, he wants evidence his wife is having an affair and he needs the prof before next Tuesday's election. Billy accepts the case and the $25,000 down payment.Billy begins to tail the mayor's wife, Cathleen Hostetler (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Helped by Katy, Taggart quickly learns that Cathleen is seeing Paul Andrews (Kyle Chandler), Jack Valliant's campaign manager.Billy goes to dinner with his girlfriend Natalie Barrow (Natalie Martinez) and her film friends. Natalie reveals they have dated for seven years, ever since her 16 year old sister was raped and murdered. Billy was the policeman on the case and was very supportive to her family.Jack and Paul do prep for the upcoming debate. Jack, a rich liberal, is frustrated and wants some hard evidence to prove the Mayor's corrupt, Paul tries to tell him even without the evidence he has a good chance. Paul has an unnamed source who may get the info in time.Hostetler plays racquetball with Sam Lancaster (Griffin Dunne), the owner of a construction company and campaign supporter, they discuss the election and the billions involved.Taggart attends a fundraiser for Hostetler's campaign at the Roosevelt Hotel, he meets another ex-cop Murdock who says he is security for the Lancaster family. Taggart is then called to a suite where Cathleen reveals that she knows Taggart is following her, and advises him not to become involved with Hostetler. However, in the hotel bar Hostetler gets the envelope with the pictures that Taggart has taken of Cathleen meeting with Andrews, and pays Billy his remaining $25,000. At the Mayoral debate the two men discuss the recent sale of the public Bolton Village projects to help the city balance the budget. Hostetler successfully declares he has been slowly fixing a broken city against Valliant's plan for higher taxes.Billy attends the premiere of Natalie's first film. After an explicit sex scene Billy is very uncomfortable. At the after party he glowers and starts drinking, Natalie tries to stop him. They argue in public and Billy accuses her of sleeping with her co-star. He leaves angrily and goes on a bender. Katy calls to tell him something.Billy arrives at a murder scene, his former partner is there and allows him behind the tape. Andrews is dead outside his apartment. Commissioner Fairbanks arrives and interrogates Taggart, who admits he had been hired by Hostetler. They talk inside the apartment with a drunk and weepy Valliant, who reveals that Andrews was meeting Todd Lancaster (James Ransone), son of Hostetler's associate, contractor Sam Lancaster. Fairbanks has Taggart secret Valliant away and the police announce they have no clues. Valliant admits to Taggart he loved Andrews. Taggart then meets with Cathleen, who reveals that Andrews was an old friend who was going to provide her with information about Hostetler's plans for the Bolton Village Housing Project. Hostetler wanted to find out Cathleen's source, and manipulated Taggart to lead him to discover who it was. Cathleen wanted to use the info to get a good divorce settlement.Billy visits the Bolton village apartment complex and meets Natalie's parents, still living there. The father feels the murdered daughter is still there in spirit, the mother wants to know what Billy thinks of Natalie's movie.Taggart investigates Sam Lancaster's construction business, and learns that Hostetler has sold the Bolton Village in order to have it demolished and replaced by office buildings, leaving hundreds of impoverished people homeless for his own profit. However, he is attacked by a dark hooded man, who destroys the evidence he has acquired. After a car wreck Biily phones Fairbanks and gets the Roosevelt Hotel. Going there Taggart meets Fairbanks and learns he has done well for himself and is actually the one seeing Cathleen.Taggart then locates Todd Lancaster and roughly interrogates him. Todd reveals that he disagreed with Hostetler's plans and intended to give his old college mentor Andrews the Hostetler Lancaster partnership contract as evidence. Murdock arrives with gun drawn but Taggart gains the upper hand. Taggart meets Hostetler, with his phone recording app on, and demands the Mayor resign, however; Hostetler turns the tables and reveals a videotape from seven years ago, it shows Billy did gun down an unarmed Mikey Tavarez, the suspect in the Yesmina Berroa rape and murder. Hostetler demands all the evidence be turned over the next morning or else.Billy goes home to have a hot bath. Later he meets Fairbanks and plays the recording. Fairbanks has Hostetler arrested at his election eve party. The next day as Fairbanks comes to take Billy into custody from a bar, Katy arrives to give him a pre-paid phone card.
    

Broken City

Age Out

Shaft

All Day and a Night

A Single Shot


            In December 2004, Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright), a writer who studies wolf behavior, is summoned to the small village of Keelut, Alaska by Medora Slone (Riley Keough), who wants Core to hunt down the wolves blamed for the disappearances and presumed deaths of three small children, including Medora's 6-year-old son, Bailey.Core, staying at the Slone house, discusses the missing children with Medora, who tells him of a hot springs to the north of town. That night, he awakes to the sound of Medora whispering and bathing. She exits the bathroom with a dark wooden wolf mask and approaches Core. Removing the mask, she lies beside Core and moves his hand to her neck forcefully.Medora's husband, Vernon Slone (Alexander Skarsgård), is overseas in Iraq, where he is shown mercilessly and efficiently gunning down Iraqi militants. While stationed at a checkpoint, Vernon wanders off and comes across an American soldier raping a local woman. Vernon stabs the soldier and leaves the woman with his knife to finish him off. Moments later, shooting breaks out at the checkpoint: Vernon is shot but survives to be sent home.In the morning, Core leaves town to track the wolves and meets an old native woman, Illanaq, who tells him he is going the wrong way, and that Medora 'knows evil'. Core tracks the wolves, coming across the hot springs Medora mentioned, and spots a pack of wolves eating their young. Unwilling to shoot them, Core returns to Keelut. At the Slone house, he finds Medora missing, and the cellar door unlocked. Downstairs, Core finds Bailey's frozen, strangled body, and calls for help. The police investigate, and the native villagers claim Medora is possessed by a wolf-demon called a tournaq.Vernon's old friend and father to another missing child, Cheeon (Julian Black Antelope), meets him at the airport and drives him to meet with police chief Donald Marium (James Badge Dale), Core, and several other officers at the morgue. After Core and Marium leave, Vernon shoots the remaining officers and the coroner. Vernon and Cheeon then take Bailey's body and bury it in a pine box, marking it with symbols in their blood. Vernon then returns to Keelut and kills Illanaq.Core, remembering the woman's prescient warning, and the police, following up on the murdered officers, arrive in Keelut at the same time. Marium and a few dozen officers take up positions outside Cheeon's house as the chief approaches to ask about his involvement with the murders. Cheeon, who refuses to come quietly, later opens up barn doors on the upper level of his house, and fires on the clustered police with an M60 machine gun, killing many. Marium flanks the building and shoots Cheeon from the inside.At an inn outside a tourist mine where Medora was sighted, Vernon meets John, an elderly hunter, who treated Vernon as a child for his seeming psychopathy with wolf-oil. The hunter invites Vernon to take a mask, saying he "needs to let the wolf out a little." Vernon chooses a mask from the wall, puts it on and kills John. As he leaves, Vernon is shot in the shoulder by the innkeeper, leading him to visit an old friend, Shan, who pulls the bullet from his shoulder.Core and Marium theorize that Medora killed Bailey to save him from darkness. Core recalls Medora's saying the nearby hot springs are "a good place to get clean" and thinks she might have gone there. They agree to go after Medora and try to catch her before Vernon does.Vernon, meanwhile, has a dream of himself and Medora in the hot springs. Now awake, he overhears Shan's informing the police of his presence. Vernon puts on the mask and stabs Shan in the head. The police force splits up, half going to the crime scene at Shan's house, and Marium and Core going to the hot springs.While looking at some wolf tracks in the snow, Marium is shot through the neck by an arrow fired by Vernon, who is wearing the mask. Core leaves Marium's body and heads to the hot springs, hoping to intercept Vernon. He finds Medora there, and is then arrowed in the chest by Vernon.As Vernon strangles her, Medora pushes the mask off his face. He releases her and they embrace. Core falls unconscious.After Core wakes, Vernon removes the arrow from Core's body before leaving with Medora. Core crawls outside the cave, encountering a pack of wolves. He is found by a father and son with a snowmobile and brought to their home for care, as Vernon's mother looks on. Vernon is seen digging up Bailey's grave with Medora; they pull the coffin along with them as they trek through the snow. Core wakes up in hospital, his daughter Amy at his bedside.
    

Hold the Dark


            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.
    

Jeffrey Wright

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