By Hans Pedersen, September 2015 Issue.
Z for Zachariah
In theatres Aug. 28 | PG-13 | 95 minutes
Craig Zobel (director of the incendiary Compliance) cast his latest Sundance favorite with just three attractive and talented actors. Set a year after a cataclysmic disaster, this drama centers around a young Appalachian woman, Ann (Margot Robbie), who learns she’s not the last person alive when she meets Loomis (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an engineer struggling with the effects of contamination. When the pair encounters a third stranger, swarthy Caleb (Chris Pine), an uneasy love triangle develops in this slow-burning morality tale that unfolds in a decimated, post-apocalyptic world.
Love in the Time of Civil War
Video release Sept. 1 | Not Rated | 120 minutes
Drug-addicted hustlers in Montreal are the half-naked characters romping through bedrooms in this movie, directed by Rodrigue Jean. A young prostitute, Alex (Alexandre Landry), and his friends Simon, Eric, Bruno and Jeanne, live a sordid lifestyle that’s fueled by drugs and sex with strangers for cash: they seem caught in a desperate cycle of chasing temporary highs and love in the shadows. Jean is an award-winning Canadian director who also made the 2008 male hustler documentary Men for Sale.
Coming Out
Video release Sept. 1 | Not Rated | 98 minutes
The Tokyo International LGBT Film Festival is a place where audiences are discovering all kinds of new movies about same-sex love in contemporary Japanese society, including this 2015 festival selection that’s only now available to audiences in the United States. Written and directed by Kazutoshi Inudo, this coming-of-age tale focuses on a gay university student, Yo, who harbors a secret love for Noboru, a buddy from one of his school clubs. Meanwhile Yo’s friends and family are unaware of his powerful attachment to his classmate as well as his pent-up sexual feelings for other men.
The New Girlfriend
In theatres Sept. 18 | R | 108 minutes
In acclaimed French director François Ozon’s latest work, a young woman uncovers a secret about the husband of her dearly departed best friend. When Claire (Anaïs Demoustier) drops by the home of David (Romain Duris) to see how he’s coping with his loss, she finds him dressed up in his dead wife’s clothes, nursing their baby with a bottle. Nominated for several awards, this thriller about a cross-dressing husband in mourning is a well-crafted nail-biter with some comic touches in the Hitchcock tradition. Praised by critics, this movie has also been called out for relying a bit much on stereotypes, too.
