The Show

An Irish miser, his morphine addicted wife, their debauched older son, and a gravely ill younger son. A quiet Connecticut vacation home on one foggy day in August 1912 becomes the backdrop for domestic decline.

In the artist colony Rocket Perelman ten people strive to live their version of freedom and independence - everybody for themselves and all together. But that's hard work, since the joined theatre production puts the groups' idealism to a hard test.

Bobby Walker lives the proverbial American dream: great job, beautiful family, shiny Porsche in the garage. When corporate downsizing leaves him and two co-workers jobless, the three men are forced to re-define their lives as men, husbands and fathers.

Elmer Jackson, a carpenter in a small Californian town in the 1930s, struggles to bring up his 4 young boys after the death of his wife. He is horrified when the government (citing trumped-up charges of parental neglect) places the boys into various foster homes and institutions, unaware of the abuse that boys would then be subjected to. The conditions imposed by the court and the difficulties caused by the Depression make Elmer's determined and vigorous quest to find his boys extremely difficult. His second wife helps him to regain custody.

Maude, an actress, grows bitter as she loses another job to her nemesis Catherine Perry, whose popularity is growing amongst the commercial and television auditioning circuit. To get her mind off things, Maude drinks a bunch and goes on a date she set up online (and nearly forgot about), though her problems only become more apparent over the course of her evening.

It is a tragedy, set among low-lifes on the outskirts of Budapest. Dramatic Exchange describes it as "Widely considered to be the most important Hungarian play of the last 20 years". The odd title of the play refers in the first instance to the chicken heads that an old woman feeds to her cat. However, it can also be taken to refer more broadly to the obtuse behaviour of the main characters in the play. The play is an odd mixture of pathos and nihilism, written against the bleak background of Stalinist totalitarianism from which Hungary was emerging. As with much modern drama, there is no hero in the play. The only noble behaviour that one can find belongs to one of the characters in the past, when he was a child, but he is no longer as he was. The hint that what once existed might be achieved again is the only faint ray of hope in a very bleak view of the human condition.

Andy is a front desk clerk with a little ambition until he finds his muse. Hayley is a beautiful shampoo girl chasing big dreams in NYC. When their worlds collide in a hapless run-in, the starstruck lovers assume false identities and follow the script of life from the same self-improvement book which lead to potentially bigger problems than they could have ever dreamed.

Curmudgeonly author Giles De'Ath, a widower with a marked distaste for modern popular culture, attempts to buy a ticket for a film adaptation of an E.M. Forster novel, but instead finds himself watching a tacky teen sex comedy. Yet when the beautiful Ronnie Bostock appears on the movie screen, Giles finds himself caught in a whirlwind of unanswered questions about both his own sexuality and his place in late 20th-century society.

Palle Hagman is a charming dreamer with great and dazzling powers of persuasion. His dream is to become a big star in the entertainment world. When he gets the chance to put on a variety show, he believes that the road to success is wide open. But Palle is a great optimist, and when the setbacks become too many, he is forced to resort to "white lies" to save himself and his family...

When Madea gets sick, her family comes to her aid. What they don't realize is that they're the ones who need her help. As always, Madea's cockeyed outlook on life saves the day and guarantees side-splitting laughs along the way.

Eddie James, a disgruntled actor who wants to do more than play "Mulligan the Rabbit" on a children's TV show, discovers life can change in a heartbeat when he accidentally gets into a car accident with single mother Annie Baker. In the unexpected friendship that develops between them, Eddie tries to help Annie's nearly-blind daughter Taylor get an operation to restore her sight.

Video director Jerome Cornuau made his feature-film debut with this showbiz-themed French film. Young Alice (Ambre Boukebza) hitchhikes into the city to seek out her music-executive dad (Bernard Le Coq) but instead becomes friends with a singing star (Ophelie Winter, portraying herself), learns dancing from African trashman Rudy (Ashanti), polishes her singing skills with an assist from vocalist Nathalie (Lea Drucker), and is romanced by producer Jeremy (Patrick Forster-Delmas).