DEDE GARDNER

KAJILLIONAIRE (2020)
Starring Evan Rachel Wood, Gina Rodriguez, Debra Winger, Richard Jenkins, Mark Ivanir, Madeleine Coghlan, Steve Park, Challen Cates, Betsy Baker and Da'Vine Joy Randolph. Directed by Miranda July.

Con artists Theresa and Robert have spent 26 years training their only daughter, Old Dolio, to swindle, scam, and steal at every opportunity. During a desperate, hastily conceived heist, they charm a stranger into joining their next scam, only to have their entire world turned upside down.

THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO (2020)
Starring Jimmie Fails, Jonathan Majors, Tichina Arnold, Rob Morgan, Mike Epps, Finn Wittrock, Danny Glover, Isiain Lalime, Jamal Trulove and Jordan Gomes. Directed by Joe Talbot.

Jimmie Fails IV, a black man, is a third generation San Franciscan. Having been pushed out by circumstances like many others, Jimmie, who works a low paying job as a nurse in a seniors' care facility, returned to San Francisco three years ago and has been living in his best friend Montgomery Allen's house that he shares with his blind grandfather, Jimmie who sleeps on the floor in Mont's already cramped bedroom.

Despite the house, Mont's situation is not much better than Jimmie's, Mont who works at a supermarket fish counter while he sketches and writes a play on the side. Other black people around him who are showing their anger in also being disenfranchised from San Francisco life are the soapbox preacher who Jimmie and Mont often watch as they wait for the bus, and a group of young black men who hang outside of Mont's house. All of Jimmie's family, who he rarely sees, are also disenfranchised from that San Francisco life in one way or another.

IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (2019)
Starring Kiki Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Dave Franco, Ed Skrein, Brian Tyree Henry, Colman Domingo, Teyonah Parris, Michael Beach and Aunjanue Ellis. Directed by Barry Jenkins.

A love story set in 1970s Harlem, New York. After her fiancé is framed for a crime, a young woman races against the clock to prove his innocence while pregnant with their first child.

REVIEWS If Beale Street Could Talk - Love is a many splendid thing indeed

VICE (2018)
Starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Jesse Plemons, Alison Pill, Lily Rabe, Tyler Perry, Justin Kirk and Lisagay Hamilton. Directed by Adam McKay.

The fascinating true story of Vice President Dick Cheney. After being employed by the Bush campaign in 2000 to find the best candidates for vice president, Cheney settles on himself for the role, going on to claim more power than any vice president in history.

REVIEWS Vice - A potentially promising film buried under confusion and noise

BEAUTIFUL BOY (2018)
Starring Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet, Maura Tierney, Amy Ryan, Christian Convery, Oakley Bull, Kaitlyn Dever, Stefanie Scott, Julian Works and Kue Lawrence. Directed by Felix Van Groeningen.

After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.

REVIEWS Beautiful Boy - Great performances drowning in a sea of mediocrity

BRAD'S STATUS (2017)
Starring Ben Stiller, Michael Sheen, Jenna Fischer, Luke Wilson, Austin Abrams, Jemaine Clement, Shazi Raja, Luisa Lee, Mike White and Adam Capriolo. Directed by Mike White.

A father takes his son to tour colleges on the East Coast and meets up with an old friend who makes him feel inferior about his life's choices.

THE LOST CITY OF Z (2017)
Starring Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland, Angus MacFadyen, Ian McDiarmid, Franco Nero, Bobby Smalldridge, Tom Mulheron and Edward Ashley. Directed by James Gray.

The story of Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett, the British military-man-turned-explorer whose search for a lost city deep in the Amazon grows into an increasingly feverish, decades-long magnificent obsession that takes a toll on his reputation, his home life with his wife (Sienna Miller) and children, and his very existence.

REVIEWS The Lost City Of Z - Adventure, deconstructed

MOONLIGHT (2017)
Starring Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Alex Hibbert, Jaden Piner, Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali and Shariff Earp. Directed by Barry Jenkins.

The life of a young black man from childhood to adulthood as he struggles to find his place in the world while growing up in a rough neighbourhood of Miami. At once a vital portrait of contemporary African American life and an intensely personal and poetic meditation on identity, family, friendship, and love, MOONLIGHT is a groundbreaking piece of cinema that reverberates with deep compassion and universal truths. Anchored by extraordinary performances from a tremendous ensemble cast, Jenkins’s staggering, singular vision is profoundly moving in its portrayal of the moments, people, and unknowable forces that shape our lives and make us who we are.

REVIEWS Moonlight - The best film of the decade on Blu-ray
Moonlight - An extraordinary and heartbreaking work of art

12 YEARS A SLAVE (2014)
Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'O, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, Adepero Oduye, Scoot McNairy, Paul Giamatti and Brad Pitt. Directed by Steve McQueen.

Based on the 1853 autobiography of Solomon Northrup, 12 Years a Slave tells of Northrup's tragic kidnapping in Washington DC in 1841 where, despite being born a free man, he was forced into slavery at a Louisiana cotton plantation. The inspiring story follows his desperate struggle to return home to his family.

REVIEWS 12 Years A Slave - The dark, raw side of life