Ted Kroeber Movies
CGI effects wizard and versatile cinema Renaissance man Toby Wilkins directed this shocker, which is set in and around a remote gas station, where a vicious, virus-like entity invades the body of human victims and instills in them an unquenchable thirst for human blood. On their way into the wilderness for a romantic weekend alone, a young couple is carjacked by a desperate escaped criminal and his devious girlfriend. Later, as the mismatched couples head ever deeper into the woods, they unknowingly become targeted by a parasitic creature that absorbs the corpses of its human victims. The situation goes from bad to worse when the four travelers seek shelter at an abandoned gas station, and the insatiable creature begins taking them over one by one. With no means of telling who's been infected and who can still be trusted, the prospect of anyone escaping with their lives grows increasingly dim with each passing minute. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shea Whigham, Paulo Costanzo, (more)
Sterlin Harjo's gentle coming-of-age drama Four Sheets to the Wind opens in the hamlet of Holdenville, Oklahoma, where a young Native American man, Cufe Smallhill (Cody Lightning of Smoke Signals), discovers his father's dead body. His dad's last wish, it seems, was to be buried in the local pond. Cufe fulfills this request, packs his bags, and heads off to the metropolis of Tulsa, where he sets about building a new life for himself. Above and beyond its dramatic, narrative and aesthetic strengths, Harjo's film retains enormous sociocultural interest as one of the few films by, about, and starring American Indians - a rare feature to concern itself with contemporary Indian lifestyles in lieu of dramatizing Native American histories. Tamara Podemski co-stars as Cufe's sister Miri. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cody Lightning, Jeri Arredondo, (more)
Three stories of how America's obsession with firearms impacts its citizens are explored in this independent drama. Carl Wilk (Donald Sutherland) runs a gun shop in Virginia that has been owned and operated by his family for generations. Carl sees the shop as his family's legacy without paying much mind to what happens with the weapons he sells. When his granddaughter Mary Ann (Linda Cardellini) needs money for college, Carl gives her a job in the store, and while she's hesitant at first, she becomes fascinated with the merchandise as time passes. On the West Side of Chicago, Carl Carter (Forest Whitaker) is the principal of a high school where violence has become a sad fact of life. As Carl and his wife, Sara (Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon), fear for their young son as they worry he could either fall prey to the violence of their community or embrace it himself, Carl receives a severe emotional blow when Jay (Arlen Escarpeta), one of his most promising students, is discovered carrying a pistol. And in Oregon, Janet (Marcia Gay Harden) is a single mother still troubled by the death of her teenaged son three years before, who took his own life after killing a handful of his classmates in a violent incident at a high school. As Janet deals with sharp words from the community, many of whom believe she should be held responsible for her late son's actions, she is unsure how to handle her surviving son, David (Christopher Marquette), who is now of high-school age. American Gun was the first feature film for writer and director Aric Avelino. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, (more)
