Theatrical Releases: Night School & Smallfoot

NIGHT SCHOOL

Directed by: Malcolm D. Lee
Studio: Universal Pictures

Official Synopsis: Star Kevin Hart and producer Will Packer, who partnered for the hit Ride Along and Think Like a Man series, bring their signature style to Night School. The comedy from director Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip) follows a group of misfits who are forced to attend adult classes in the longshot chance they’ll pass the GED exam.

Starring: Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Rob Riggle, Taran Killam, Romany Malco, Keith David, and Loretta Devine

SMALLFOOT

Directed by: Karey Kirkpatrick
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

Official Synopsis: An animated adventure for all ages, with original music and an all-star cast, Smallfoot turns the Bigfoot legend upside down when a bright young Yeti finds something he thought didn’t exist — a human. News of this Smallfoot throws the simple Yeti community into an uproar over what else might be out there in the big world beyond their snowy village, in an all new story about friendship, courage and the joy of discovery.

Starring: Channing Tatum, James Corden, Zendaya, Common, LeBron James, Gina Rodriguez, Danny DeVito, Yara Shahidi, Ely Henry, and Jimmy Tatro

HELL FEST

Directed by: Gregory Plotkin
Studio: CBS Films & Lionsgate

Official Synopsis: A masked serial killer turns a horror themed amusement park into his own personal playground, terrorizing a group of friends while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show. College student NATALIE (Forsyth) is visiting her childhood best friend BROOKE (Edwards) and her roommate TAYLOR (Taylor-Klaus). If it was any other time of year these three and their boyfriends might be heading to a concert or bar, but it is Halloween which means that like everyone else they will be bound for HELL FEST – a sprawling labyrinth of rides, games, and mazes that travels the country and happens to be in town. Ever year thousands follow Hell Fest to experience fear at the ghoulish carnival of nightmares. But for one visitor, Hell Fest is not the attraction – it is a hunting ground. An opportunity to slay in plain view of a gawking audience, too caught up in the terrifyingly fun atmosphere to recognize the horrific reality playing out before their eyes. As the body count and frenzied excitement of the crowds continues to rise, he turns his masked face to NATALIE, BROOKE, TAYLOR and their boyfriends who will fight to survive the night.

Starring: Amy Forsyth, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Reign Edwards and Tony Todd

THE OLD MAN & THE GUN

Directed by: David Lowery
Studio: Fox Searchlight

Official Synopsis: OLD MAN AND THE GUN is based on the true story of Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford), from his audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70 to an unprecedented string of heists that confounded authorities and enchanted the public. Wrapped up in the pursuit are detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck), who becomes captivated with Forrest’s commitment to his craft, and a woman (Sissy Spacek), who loves him in spite of his chosen profession.

Starring: Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, Danny Glover, Tika Sumpter, Tom Waits and Sissy Spacek

MONSTERS AND MEN

Directed by: Reinaldo Marcus Green
Studio: Neon

Official Synopsis: One night, in front of a bodega in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, Manny Ortega witnesses a white police officer wrongfully gun down a neighborhood street hustler, and Manny films the incident on his phone. Now he’s faced with a dilemma: release the video and bring unwanted exposure to himself and his family, or keep the video private and be complicit in the injustice? With a deep sense of humanity and a deft directorial hand, Reinaldo Marcus Green smartly reformulates the traditional construction of “protagonist” to magnify the power of perspective. Green tells the story of how the footage affects the lives of three upstanding men in Bed-Stuy–a young father striving to support his new family, an African American cop dealing with the fallout of his colleague’s mistake, and a star high school athlete who becomes politicized by the incident. Each man is very different, but they equally feel the urgency of the question they must all face: should I take moral action or remain safely on the sidelines? Green provokes viewers to ask themselves the same question.

Starring: John David Washington, Anthony Ramos, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Rob Morgan, Chanté Adams, Nicole Beharie, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Cara Buono, and Cassandra Freeman

LITTLE WOMEN

Directed by: Clare Niederpruem
Studio: Pinnacle Peak

Official Synopsis: Sisters-and dreams-are unique in their ability to inspire, encourage and change the world. For 150 years, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women has motivated women of all ages to dream together and celebrate family. Coming to theaters for the first time, a modern retelling of LITTLE WOMEN brings a new generation together with their mothers, sisters and friends. From girls playing in the attic to women living with purpose, the March sisters-Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy-are committed to always supporting each other. Yet, growing up sometimes means growing apart. An aspiring writer, Jo leaves for New York determined to publish a novel. In the wake of rejected draft upon draft, her editor challenges Jo to write about something more interesting-her family. When tragedy brings the sisters back home, sticking together takes on new meaning. As Jo comforts her sick sister, Beth asks for one thing: a story. Jo knows the perfect one … by heart. Starring Lea Thompson as Marmee and featuring a talented cast, including Lucas Grabeel and Ian Bohen, LITTLE WOMEN tells the story of the same beloved sisters to a new generation. Celebrating dreams, family and unconditional love, LITTLE WOMEN opens in theaters this fall.

Starring: Sarah Davenport, Allie Jennings, Lucas Grabeel, Ian Bohen, and Lea Thompson

ALL ABOUT NINA

Directed by: Eva Vives
Studio: The Orchard

Official Synopsis: Just as Nina Geld’s (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) brilliant and angry stand-up kicks her career into high gear, her romantic life gets complicated, forcing her to reckon with what it means to be creative, authentic, and a woman in today’s culture.

Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Common, Beau Bridges, Kate del Castillo, Chace Crawford, Clea DuVall, Jay Mohr, Andrew Kai, Melonie Diaz, Camryn Manheim, Mindy Sterling, Angelique Cabral, and Sheldon White

BLACK ’47

Directed by: Lance Daly
Studio: IFC Films

Official Synopsis: It’s 1847 and Ireland is in the grip of the Great Famine that has ravaged the country for two long years. Feeney, a hardened Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, abandons his post to return home and re-unite with his estranged family. He’s seen more than his share of horrors but nothing prepares him for the famine’s hopeless destruction of his homeland. He discovers his mother starved to death and his brother hanged by the brutal hand of the English. With little else to live for, he sets on a destructive path to avenge his family, systematically working his way up the political and social hierarchy of 19th Century Ireland. Hannah, an ageing British soldier and famed tracker of deserters, is sent to stop Feeney before he can further stoke the fires of revolution. But Hannah and Feeney are old army comrades with a mutual respect forged by their times fighting together. Personal bonds and shifting allegiances cause both men to question their motives, as they are tested to the limit by the hellish landscape of “the Great Hunger”.

Starring: Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Jim Broadbent, Stephen Rea, Freddie Fox, Barry Keoghan, Moe Dunford, and Sarah Greene

FREE SOLO

Directed by: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin
Studio: National Geographic

Official Synopsis: From award-winning documentary filmmaker E. Chai Vasarhelyi (“MERU”) and world-renowned photographer and mountaineer Jimmy Chin comes National Geographic Documentary Film’s FREE SOLO, a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of the free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock… the 3,000ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park… without a rope. Celebrated as one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind, Honnold’s climb set the ultimate standard: perfection or death. Succeeding in this challenge, Honnold enters his story in the annals of human achievement. FREE SOLO is both an edge-of-your seat thriller and an inspiring portrait of an athlete who exceeded our current understanding of human physical and mental potential. The result is a triumph of the human spirit.

SUMMER ’03

Directed by: Becca Gleason
Studio: Blue Fox Entertainment

Official Synopsis: Inspired by true events, “Summer ’03 “centers on Jamie, a 16-year-old girl and her extended family who are left reeling after her calculating grandmother unveils an array of family secrets on her deathbed. Jamie is left to navigate her nascent love life and maintain her closest friendships in the midst of this family crisis.

Starring: Joey King, Paul Scheer, Andrea Savage, Jack Kilmer, and June Squibb

BAD REPUTATION

Directed by: Kevin Kerslake
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

Official Synopsis: Joan Jett is so much more than “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.” It’s true, she became mega-famous from the number-one hit, and that fame intensified with the music video’s endless play on MTV. But that staple of popularity can’t properly define a musician. Jett put her hard work in long before the fame, ripping it up onstage as the backbone of the hard-rock legends The Runaways, influencing many musicians-both her cohort of punk rockers and generations of younger bands-with her no-bullshit style. Bad Reputation gives you a wild ride as Jett and her close friends tell you how it really was in the burgeoning ’70s punk scene, and their interviews are laced with amazing archival footage. The theme is clear: even though people tried to define Jett and keep her stuck to one hit, she never compromised. She will kick your ass, and you’ll love her all the more for it.

MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.

Directed by: Stephen Loveridge
Studio: CineReach

Official Synopsis: Drawn from a never-before-seen cache of personal footage spanning decades, this is an intimate portrait of the Sri Lankan artist and musician who continues to shatter conventions.

THE PADRE

Directed by: Stephen Kunc
Studio: Vertical Entertainment

Official Synopsis: Hell-bent on justice, retired U.S. Judge Randall Nemes (Nick Nolte) and his hired gun, Gaspar (Luis Guzmán), track down a small-time con man (Tim Roth) posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old local girl intent on reuniting with her little sister in the U.S.

Starring: Tim Roth, Nick Nolte, Valeria Henriquez, and Luis Guzman

THE HEALER

Directed by: Paco Arango
Studio: AMBI Media Group

Official Synopsis: The Healer is a story about a gambling, womanizing bankrupt electrical repairman named Alex Bailey (Oliver Jackson Cohen) who is traumatized by the death of his twin brother. His distant uncle Raymond Heacock (Jonathan Pryce) offers to absolve his debts under the condition that he agrees to live with him in Halifax, Nova Scotia. With no alternatives, Alec accepts and embarks on a life-changing journey as his uncle reveals that he comes from a long-time family of healers with the gift of being able to heal all those who are diseased. Trying to understand this gift and the new reality that it offers Alec meets Cecilia (Camilla Luddington), a beauty and local veterinarian, and a teenage girl Abigail (Kaitlyn Bernard) with terminal cancer who unexpectedly show him the way.

Starring: Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Camilla Luddington, Jorge Garcia, Jonathan Pryce, and Kaitlyn Bernard

DOMAIN

Directed by: Nathaniel Atcheson
Studio: n/a

Official Synopsis: After a deadly virus wipes out most of humanity, the survivors are forced to wait alone in self-sustaining bunkers while the viral threat runs its course. Able to communicate through a networked video interface, the survivors wait for years and slowly become a motley family of sorts. But their fragile social ecosystem is shattered when, one by one, they start mysteriously disappearing from their bunkers.

Starring: Britt Lower, Ryan Merriman, Sonja Sohn, Beth Grant, Kevin Sizemore, and Nick Gomez

3 YEARS IN PAKISTAN: THE ERIK AUDE STORY

Directed by: Jamielyn Lippman
Studio: Gravitas Ventures

Official Synopsis: 3 Years in Pakistan: The Erik Audé Story is a feature length documentary about an American actor, who was sent to death row in one of the most dangerous prisons in Pakistan for a crime he didn’t commit. Proven innocent he was forced with the choice of pride vs. freedom. While on a business trip Erik Audé was sent to Pakistan where he was arrested at Islamabad International Airport when they found 3.6 kilos of opium hidden in the lining of his suitcase. He was sent to remand where he was beaten, electrocuted and water tortured for the next three days. He maintained his innocence and refused to cop a plea even though it meant less jail time. Once confirmed that Erik did this unknowingly, he was offered a deal for a guilty plea. When Erik was asked the question: “what’s worth more to you, your pride or your freedom?” Erik choose pride. Erik endured 3 years in Adiala Central Jail in Rawalpindi, one of the most dangerous prisons in the world, where he was forced to fight every day to survive. Due to a stroke of luck through his relationship with Casting Director Joey Paul Jensen and the help of former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Erik was released in December of 2004. Today, Erik is a working actor, stunt coordinator and professional poker player, a skill he learned from the 1986 Pan Am hijackers while in prison.

Starring: Quinton Aaron, Meagan Good, and Jose Canseco

CRUISE

Directed by: Robert D. Siegel
Studio: Vertical Entertainment

Official Synopsis: It’s the Summer of ’87, and Gio (Spencer Boldman), an Italian kid from Queens, has little on his mind but cars and girls. Gio thinks he’s got it all figured out until he meets Jessica (Emily Ratajkowski), a nice Jewish girl from Long Island who likes to go undercover for illicit thrills on the wrong side of the tracks. An affectionate look at the youth culture of a bygone era, CRUISE celebrates the joys of muscle cars, Motorola pagers and endless summer nights.

Starring: Spencer Boldman, Emily Ratajkowski, Lucas Salvagno, Noah Robbins, Gino Cafarelli, Katherine Narducci and Sebastian Maniscalco

AT FIRST LIGHT

Directed by: Jason Stone
Studio: Gravitas Ventures

Official Synopsis: High school senior (Alex Stefanie Scott) develops supernatural powers after a paranormal experience with light orbs in her hometown. Afraid, she turns to her friend Sean (Theodore Pelerine) and together they flee, scared for their safety though not aware that the greatest danger of all is Alex.

Starring: Stefanie Scott, Theodore Pelerine, Said Taghmaoui, Percy Hynes-White, Kate Burton, and Kristin Booth

THE OUTER WILD

Directed by: Philip Chidel
Studio: Red Hound Films

Official Synopsis: In this post-apocalyptic frontier western, mankind has given way to a new breed of beast, mutated from man. A survivor named Laura may be the cure to these mutations but she flees to save herself. Aided by a hunter sent to catch her, she braves the dangerous unnatural wilderness in order to find a fabled refuge of freedom – and only there will she discover the fate of humanity at the end of the world.

Starring: Lauren McKnight, Christian Oliver, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Tory Taranova, Jimmy Jean-Louis, and Zach Roerig

THE SAMUEL PROJECT

Directed by: Marc Fusco
Studio: in8 Releasing

Official Synopsis: Eli (Ryan Ochoa) gets to know his grandfather Samuel (Hal Linden) for the first time when he makes him the subject of an animated art project for school. With dreams of becoming a professional artist, Eli discovers that his Jewish grandpa, a San Diego dry cleaner, was heroically saved from Nazi capture in Germany by a young woman when he was a boy.

Starring: Hal Linden, Ryan Ochoa, Mateo Arias, Ken Davitian, Michael B. Silver, and Liza Lapira

CONNY PLANK: THE POTENTIAL OF NOISE

Directed by: Reto Caduff & Stephan Plank
Studio: Cleopatra Entertainment

Official Synopsis: The story of legendary music producer Conny Plank through the viewpoint of the countless artists he worked with, which included Kraftwerk, Eurythmics, Cluster, Gianna Nannini and David Bowie. The legacy of the late influential producer is also explored.

QUEERCORE: HOW TO PUNK A REVOLUTION

Directed by: Yony Leyser
Studio: Desire Productions

Official Synopsis: Started in the 1980s as a fabricated movement intended to punk the punk scene, Queercore quickly became a real-life cultural community of LGBTQ music and movie-making revolutionaries. From the start of the pseudo-movement to the widespread rise of pop artists who used queer identity to push back against gay assimilation and homophobic punk culture, ‘Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution’ is just that: a how-to-do-it guide for the next generation of queer radicals. The extensive participant list includes Bruce LaBruce, G.B. Jones, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, John Waters, Justin Vivian Bond, Lynn Breedlove, Silas Howard, Pansy Division, Penny Arcade, Kathleen Hanna, Kim Gordon, Deke Elash, Tom Jennings, Team Dresch, and many more.

THE SYSTEM

Directed by: Irin Daniels
Studio: Indie Rights

Official Synopsis: Vastly different lives and perspectives become intertwined after a police officer suffering from reoccurring PTSD mistakenly shoots a deaf African-American kid, exposing layers of racial tension and corruption within the political, judicial and prison system.

Starring: Owen Conway, Reginald Kennedy, Prince DeBoskie, Wakena Deboskie, and Alma Marin

MAGGIE BLACK

Directed by: Stanley Brode
Studio: Indie Rights

Official Synopsis: Maggie Black revolves around a successful, young writer’s first pregnancy, the excitement of which is overshadowed by her complicated relationship with reality. Haunted by her past but determined to do what she thinks is best for the baby Maggie secretly stops taking her medications. As she and her husband try to prepare their new home for their baby, Maggie descends into a nightmare of her own making.

Starring: Jessalyn Maguire, Chris Beetem, Laura Gómez, Catherine Curtin, John Fugelsang, and Carolyn McCormick

GOLDEN JOB

Directed by: Kar Lok Chin
Studio: Kwan’s International

Official Synopsis: A group of former mercenaries reunite to plan an epic heist: boosting a truck full of medicine held by a foreign intelligence agency to supply a refugee camp in need. But when they find the truck is actually filled with stolen gold, the band of brothers realize they’ve been double-crossed by one of their own — and putting the situation right will be all out war.

Starring: Ekin Cheng, Jordan Chan, Michael Tse, Jerry Lamb, and Kar Lok Chin

A DANGEROUS IDEA: EUGENICS, GENETICS, AND THE AMWERICAN DREAM

Directed by: Stephanie Welch
Studio: Paragon Media

Official Synopsis: A dangerous idea has threatened the American Dream from the beginning — the belief that some groups and individuals are inherently superior to others and more deserving of fundamental rights. Such biased eugenic views provided an excuse for some of America’s most shameful history. And now they’re back, reflected in statements by the current administration and their immigration policies. The documentary A DANGEROUS IDEA: Eugenics, Genetics and The American Dream reveals how biologically determined politics has historically disenfranchised women and people of color, provided a rationale for state sanctioned crimes committed against America’s most vulnerable citizens, and now gains new traction under the Trump administration. The film is also a radical reassessment of the meaning, use, and misuse of gene science. It features interviews with prominent scientists, victims of eugenic policies, and social thinkers, including Van Jones and Robert Reich.

TRICO TRI HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Directed by: Christian Vogeler
Studio: Spanglish Media

Official Synopsis: A hispanic middle class family moves back to Miami to take care of their recently widowed Abuela. Little do they know that their new house is the infamous Bradford house, which is haunted by two mischievous sibling ghosts. Hilarious situations ensue as the family settles in, including an unusual teenage romance, overzealous ghost hunters, a superstitious abuela and high-schoolers looking to throw a big halloween bash at the Bradford house.

Starring: Kendall Vertes, Adriana Cataño, Armando Gutierrez, Carson Rowland, and Nick Merico