Hunter Gray Movies

A shocking incident throws a seemingly healthy relationship into crisis in this drama from director Julia Loktev. Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) are a twentysomething couple who have been together for several years and enjoy traveling, taking a certain pride in their willingness to rough it rather than follow the easy path. The pair will soon be married, and to celebrate they've traveled to Eurasia to climb the Caucasus Mountains. After hiring a local guide named Dato (Bidzina Gujabidze), the couple hike through the wilderness en route to the mountains. They spend their time swapping stories and soaking in the rugged beauty of their surroundings in respectful silence, with Dato offering his own curt interjections. However, one day the hikers cross paths with a group of hunters, leading to an incident in which Alex's reaction seems either prudent or cowardly depending on one's perspective. The trio eventually pick themselves up and move on, but nothing seems the same for Alex and Nica after that. The Loneliest Planet received its North American premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A young man faces a life paying for the misdeeds of his elders in this drama. Nik (Tristan Halilaj) is a teenager growing up in a small village in Albania; he has little interest in his father's baking business, and is more concerned with surfing the Internet, hanging out with his friends and trying to impress Bardha (Zana Hasaj), a pretty girl he knows from school. But whatever future Nik might hope for is put on hold when his father Mark (Refet Abazi) revives a long-standing feud over a land dispute with his neighbor Sokol (Veton Osmani), leading to a violent confrontation that claims Sokol's life. An ancient Albanian tradition has it that the survivors of a violent murder can kill a man from the family that committed the crime without consequence; however, they can only do so in the open, so Nik and the other men in his household are only safe as long as they stay in their home. As Nik's sister Rudina (Sindi Lacej) takes over the family business, his world is reduced to the inside of the family residence, which proves to be almost as maddening as the possibility of being murdered. American filmmaker Joshua Marston shot The Forgiveness Of Blood on location in Albania using a cast of local actors; the film was an official selection at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Director Gerardo Naranjo transplants the myth of the last romantic couple to upper middle-class Mexico City with this vital and hectic tale of a young couple who throw caution to the wind and set out in search of their true fate. Román is the son of a contemptible, right-leaning congressman. Recently enrolled in a new high school, the rebellious teen clumsily attempts to hang himself on-stage at the big talent show. Maru is the sole member of the audience to applaud, earning both students a day of detention. After bonding during the course of their punishment, Román and Maru grab daddy's gun, steal a Volkswagen, and hit the road bound for nowhere. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Filmmaker Josh Fox offers a troubling look into the hearts and minds of American fighting men in this independent drama. Memorial Day opens with a bunch of college students and off-duty soldiers drinking and whooping it up at a beach party in Ocean City, MD, and as the liquor flows, the hijinks become less good-natured and more threatening until several women are raped by the men. We next catch up with the culprits when they're on patrol in Iraq, ferreting out insurgents and passing their spare time playing practical jokes and watching porn movies. The men are then assigned new duties as guards at a military prison, and much as they showed a troubling enthusiasm for assaulting women at home, they clearly enjoy heaping abuse on the prisoners they're supposed to watch until their actions become a clear parallel to the crimes committed at Abu Ghraib. Adapted from a theater piece by Fox and featuring actors from his International Wow Company, Memorial Day was created without the approval or participation of the United States military, though Iraq War veteran Jason Christopher Hartley was a technical advisor on the production. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In 1991, Matthew Johnson was an on-and-off college student who in his spare time wrote record reviews for Living Blues magazine. Johnson liked the raw, primitive sound of rural Mississippi blues, but was disappointed that so little of it was being committed to record; after discovering a juke joint in Holly Springs, MS, where proprietor Junior Kimbrough and his friend R.L. Burnside played raucous, electrified country blues til the break of dawn, Johnson decided the music should be committed to tape. Using 400 dollars left over from a student loan, Johnson started Fat Possum Records, and began recording deep Southern blues artists such as Kimbrough, Burnside, T-Model Ford, Cedell Davis, and Johnny Farmer while struggling to bring their music to a broader audience, pay their artists and keep the business afloat. You See Me Laughin' is a documentary which offers a look at Johnson and partner Bruce Watson's ongoing mission to capture this music before it's too late, and more importantly profiles the musicians who record for his label, exploring the wild and often violent lives that inform their work and fuel their often wary relationship with Johnson and Watson. Featuring rare live footage of Burnside and Kimbrough on-stage, You See Me Laughin' was the first feature film from director Mandy Stein. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi