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Eusebio Poncela Movies

2006  
 
Four years after cresting the pinnacle of cinematic acclaim with his comic festival hit Smoking Room (2002), Spanish writer-director Roger Gual returns with a sophomore outing, Remake (2006). Though this film will inevitably earn critical comparisons to such prior efforts as The Big Chill and Peter's Friends for its ensemble-in-a-house setup, Gual - unlike the directors of those prior efforts- aims straight for dark, multilayered, probing drama on themes of intergenerational disillusionment. The story concerns a tightly-knit group of four 1960s leftist radicals (two men and two women) who formed a hippie commune circa 1968-9, in a Catalunya farmhouse, and proudly upheld a "nontraditional" parental approach that shunned discipline. Over the forty years that followed, these onetime "revolutionaries" paired off, got married, raised their kids and settled into affluent, upper-crust bourgeois lifestyles. They now gather for a reunion in the same farmhouse, accompanied by their grown children, and by the fifth member of their old clique, Max (Mario Paolucci). As the sole remaining resident of the farmhouse, the wholly countercultural Max now plans to sell the property. As the weekend unfurls, the parents begin to project old super-8 movies of themselves from forty years prior, and must simultaneously confront the loss of their 1960s idealism and the ill-adjusted natures of their children, who blame their parents' non-conformist ways for their innate unhappiness and inability to succeed in the everyday world. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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Starring:
Juan DiegoSilvia Munt, (more)
 
2007  
 
The daughter of a 16th Century Spanish nobleman strives to transcend her role as a woman in society and achieve something truly profound in this period drama starring Paz Vega and Geraldine Chaplin. Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada (Vega) knows well what is expected of her as a woman existing in a man's world, but she refuses to accept it. Convinced that she is capable of accomplishing much more than being a loyal wife and loving mother, Teresa enters a convent intent on writing, reading, learning, and living a full, richly textured life. Much to Teresa's dismay, the same vapid materialism and frivolity that seemed to have consumed the outside world have somehow found their way into the hallowed halls of this convent as well. In protest, Teresa embarks on a crusade of prayer and sacrifice that initially finds her branded a lunatic by those in power. But over the course of time something truly profound happens: a woman once considered mentally unstable gradually evolves to become a celebrated leader and, ultimately, a true saint of the highest order. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Starring:
Paz VegaLeonor Watling, (more)
 
2008  
 
Former Los Angeles cop Kline (Josh Hartnett) accepts a job searching for the son of a prominent businessman in the Philippines after gunning down a serial killer in the line of duty, and finding it impossible to put the incident behind him. Following his leads to Hong Kong, Kline discovers that the boy has decided to cut himself off from society while becoming embroiled in an increasingly explosive street war between the mafia and the police. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Starring:
Josh HartnettTran Nu Yên-Khê, (more)