Movie Descriptions
Inside/Out - Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it's no exception for Riley, who like all of us, she is guided by her emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. The emotions live in the control center inside Riley's mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley's main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house and school.
Akeelah and the Bee - Akeelah Anderson, an 11-year-old spelling enthusiast, attends a predominantly black school in South Los Angeles. She lives with her widowed mother Tanya and 3 other siblings. Her principal Mr. Welch suggests that she sign up for the school wide Spelling Bee. She follows his advice and wins. Soon after, Dr. Joshua Larabee, a visiting English professor and Mr. Welch's friend from college, tests Akeelah and decides that she is good enough to compete in the National Spelling Bee. The film alludes to the importance of community as well as problems intelligent black females face in society.
Bletchley Circle - During WWII, men and women working at Bletchley Park played a vital role in breaking the codes used by the German military. Nine years later, former codebreaker Susan is a housewife and mother. When a series of women are brutally murdered around London, Susan sees a pattern emerging. However, she realizes she cannot solve this puzzle alone. Enlisting three former Bletchley Park colleagues: Millie, Lucy, and Jean; Susan knows they have little time to break this code before the killer strikes again.
Hidden Figures - As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA finds untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Based on the unbelievably true life stories of three of these women, known as "human computers", Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines with their brilliance and desire to dream big.
Matlida - Matilda Wormwood is an exquisite and intelligent little girl. Unfortunately, Matilda is misunderstood by her family because she is different. Matilda attends a school that has a kind teacher, loyal friends and a sadistic principal. As she gets fed up with the constant cruelty, Matilda begins to realize that she has a gift of telekinetic powers. After some days of practice, Matilda suddenly turns the tables to stand up to her parents and outwit the principal.
Temple Grandin - Biopic of an autistic woman who overcame the limitations to become a Ph.D. in the field of animal husbandry. She did not speak until age four and had difficulty right through high school, mostly in dealing with people. Her mother was very supportive as were some of her teachers. She is noted for creating her "hug box", widely recognized today as a way of relieving stress in autistic children, and her humane design for the treatment of cattle in processing plants. Today, she is a professor at Colorado State University and well-known speaker on autism and animal handling.
The Book Thief - In 1938, the young girl Liesel Meminger picks up a book, "The Gravediggers Handbook", which was left on the grave of her infant brother. When Liesel's mother leaves her, Liesel is delivered to a foster family in a small town. Her foster father, Hans Hubermann, discovers that Liesel cannot read so he teaches her using her book and Liesel becomes an obsessed reader. Recognizing the power of writing and sharing the written word, Liesel begins to not only steal books the Nazi party is looking to destroy, but also to write her own stories and share the power of language.
Big Eyes - In the 1950s, Margaret was a woman trying to make it on her own after leaving her husband with only her daughter and her paintings. She meets gregarious ladies' man and fellow painter Walter Keane. The two quickly become a pair with outgoing Walter selling her paintings as his own. A clash of financial success and critical failure soon sends Margaret reeling in her life of lies. With Walter still living the high life, Margaret's decides to try and make it on her own again and re-claim her name and her paintings.
Pretty in Pink - High school senior Andie Walsh lives modestly with her underemployed working class father, Jack. Jack comes home one night and surprises Andie with a pink dress he bought for her at a thrift shop. Questioning how he was able to afford it, Andie tells him that she knows he has been lying about going to a full-time job. Using the fabric from the thrift shop dress, Andie creates a new pink prom dress. When she arrives at the prom, she has second thoughts about braving the crowd on her own until she connects with Blaine.
The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet - 10 year old T.S. lives on a ranch in Montana with his mother who is obsessed with the morphology of beetles, his cowboy father, and his 14 year-old sister who dreams of becoming Miss America. There is also Layton, twin brother of T.S., who died in an accident involving a firearm in the family's barn. T.S. is a prodigy who receives an unexpected call from the Smithsonian museum inviting him to receive the Baird prize for his discovery of the perpetual motion machine. Without telling anyone, he sets out on a freight train across the country to reach Washington DC.
Only Yesterday - a Japanese animated drama film set in 1982. Taeko is a 27 year old who has lived her whole life in Tokyo. She decides to take a trip to visit extended family in the rural countryside and help with the safflower harvest. During her stay, she finds herself increasingly nostalgic and wistful for her childhood self, while simultaneously wrestling with adult issues of career and love. The trip dredges up forgotten memories. In lyrical switches between the present and the past, Taeko wonders if she has been true to the dreams of her childhood self. Eventually she faces her own true self and how she views the world and the people around her.
Emmeline - 'Emmeline was a peculiar girl. She didn't fit in a crowd, she didn't fit through doorways and she didn't fit in bed.' 'Emmeline' is the sweetly comic-absurd fabulation of a girl who isn't quite like everyone else: her arms are permanently suspended above her head. In this short film, Emmeline dreams, as we all do, for someone to accept her as she is.
*All descriptions taken directly from IMDB and/or Wikipedia
Akeelah and the Bee - Akeelah Anderson, an 11-year-old spelling enthusiast, attends a predominantly black school in South Los Angeles. She lives with her widowed mother Tanya and 3 other siblings. Her principal Mr. Welch suggests that she sign up for the school wide Spelling Bee. She follows his advice and wins. Soon after, Dr. Joshua Larabee, a visiting English professor and Mr. Welch's friend from college, tests Akeelah and decides that she is good enough to compete in the National Spelling Bee. The film alludes to the importance of community as well as problems intelligent black females face in society.
Bletchley Circle - During WWII, men and women working at Bletchley Park played a vital role in breaking the codes used by the German military. Nine years later, former codebreaker Susan is a housewife and mother. When a series of women are brutally murdered around London, Susan sees a pattern emerging. However, she realizes she cannot solve this puzzle alone. Enlisting three former Bletchley Park colleagues: Millie, Lucy, and Jean; Susan knows they have little time to break this code before the killer strikes again.
Hidden Figures - As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA finds untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Based on the unbelievably true life stories of three of these women, known as "human computers", Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines with their brilliance and desire to dream big.
Matlida - Matilda Wormwood is an exquisite and intelligent little girl. Unfortunately, Matilda is misunderstood by her family because she is different. Matilda attends a school that has a kind teacher, loyal friends and a sadistic principal. As she gets fed up with the constant cruelty, Matilda begins to realize that she has a gift of telekinetic powers. After some days of practice, Matilda suddenly turns the tables to stand up to her parents and outwit the principal.
Temple Grandin - Biopic of an autistic woman who overcame the limitations to become a Ph.D. in the field of animal husbandry. She did not speak until age four and had difficulty right through high school, mostly in dealing with people. Her mother was very supportive as were some of her teachers. She is noted for creating her "hug box", widely recognized today as a way of relieving stress in autistic children, and her humane design for the treatment of cattle in processing plants. Today, she is a professor at Colorado State University and well-known speaker on autism and animal handling.
The Book Thief - In 1938, the young girl Liesel Meminger picks up a book, "The Gravediggers Handbook", which was left on the grave of her infant brother. When Liesel's mother leaves her, Liesel is delivered to a foster family in a small town. Her foster father, Hans Hubermann, discovers that Liesel cannot read so he teaches her using her book and Liesel becomes an obsessed reader. Recognizing the power of writing and sharing the written word, Liesel begins to not only steal books the Nazi party is looking to destroy, but also to write her own stories and share the power of language.
Big Eyes - In the 1950s, Margaret was a woman trying to make it on her own after leaving her husband with only her daughter and her paintings. She meets gregarious ladies' man and fellow painter Walter Keane. The two quickly become a pair with outgoing Walter selling her paintings as his own. A clash of financial success and critical failure soon sends Margaret reeling in her life of lies. With Walter still living the high life, Margaret's decides to try and make it on her own again and re-claim her name and her paintings.
Pretty in Pink - High school senior Andie Walsh lives modestly with her underemployed working class father, Jack. Jack comes home one night and surprises Andie with a pink dress he bought for her at a thrift shop. Questioning how he was able to afford it, Andie tells him that she knows he has been lying about going to a full-time job. Using the fabric from the thrift shop dress, Andie creates a new pink prom dress. When she arrives at the prom, she has second thoughts about braving the crowd on her own until she connects with Blaine.
The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet - 10 year old T.S. lives on a ranch in Montana with his mother who is obsessed with the morphology of beetles, his cowboy father, and his 14 year-old sister who dreams of becoming Miss America. There is also Layton, twin brother of T.S., who died in an accident involving a firearm in the family's barn. T.S. is a prodigy who receives an unexpected call from the Smithsonian museum inviting him to receive the Baird prize for his discovery of the perpetual motion machine. Without telling anyone, he sets out on a freight train across the country to reach Washington DC.
Only Yesterday - a Japanese animated drama film set in 1982. Taeko is a 27 year old who has lived her whole life in Tokyo. She decides to take a trip to visit extended family in the rural countryside and help with the safflower harvest. During her stay, she finds herself increasingly nostalgic and wistful for her childhood self, while simultaneously wrestling with adult issues of career and love. The trip dredges up forgotten memories. In lyrical switches between the present and the past, Taeko wonders if she has been true to the dreams of her childhood self. Eventually she faces her own true self and how she views the world and the people around her.
Emmeline - 'Emmeline was a peculiar girl. She didn't fit in a crowd, she didn't fit through doorways and she didn't fit in bed.' 'Emmeline' is the sweetly comic-absurd fabulation of a girl who isn't quite like everyone else: her arms are permanently suspended above her head. In this short film, Emmeline dreams, as we all do, for someone to accept her as she is.
*All descriptions taken directly from IMDB and/or Wikipedia