Ross Patridge acted, directed and wrote the stirring, uncomfortable, captivating film Lamb.
kidnapping
Posted inArts & Culture
The Call
Halle Berry (Cloud Atlas) leads the show as Jordan Turner, a veteran 911 operator in Los Angeles. (If anything, she should dial 911 for help with her distracting hairdo.) In the prologue, she’s giving questionable advice to a girl who calls about a prowler, resulting in the teen’s death. Six months later, Jordan is still […]
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Sleepless Night
An opening cocaine heist turned bloody has authorities thinking “gangland killing,” but the man who’s really to blame is one of those investigating authorities: Vincent (Tomer Sisley, The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch), a Bad Lieutenant dealing with Far Worse Criminals. In retribution for having his bag of kilos swiped, nefarious club owner Marciano (Serge Riaboukine, […]
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The Imposter
Nicknamed “The Chameleon” by the press, Bourdin is known for having assumed untold hundreds of identities; Bart Layton’s film wisely chooses to focus on just one of those cases. Luckily, it’s a doozy — one so unbelievable, you wouldn’t believe it without the proof. In 1994, in San Antonio, Texas, a 13-year-old boy named Nicholas […]
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Rites of Spring
Realizing that’s been done before, writer/director Padraig Reynolds shrewdly introduces a second storyline in the form of a $2 million kidnapping scheme concocted by a white-trash trio on a wealthy family. For these two storylines to converge takes about 50 minutes, and just before they do, Rites delivers a welcome twist. Well, it would be […]
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Mother’s Day
My younger brother picked up the box and asked to rent it; my mom refused, as a responsible parent should when presented with such an inquiry by a 9-year-old. I’m unsure what appealed to him: the disembodied head in a gift box or the recipient’s half-skull head? Whatever it was, it must’ve worked for a […]
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The Heineken Kidnapping
Portraying Heineken, who passed away in 2002, is Rutger Hauer. As good as he was as the Hobo with a Shotgun, that flick is a throwaway goof, whereas this carries heft and gives him a better vehicle for the dramatic might he rarely gets to show — at least in American productions; this is a […]
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Michael / Silver Tongues
Michael is no comedy, however, and refers to a balding, chubby, nerdy outcast who keeps a 10-year-old captive in his basement. Michael is more than a mere kidnapper: He’s a pedophile. The subject matter alone will keep many from giving the German-language film a try, but his most devilish acts of evil thankfully go unseen. […]
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Anthony Shadid reported dead in Syria
Times photographer Tyler Hicks reportedly carried Shadid’s body back into Turkey from Syria, where they had been gathering information for a week. The pair had not disclosed their assignment to the Syrian government, which maintains strict control on the activity of journalists within their borders. Hicks reportedly performed CPR for half an hour in an […]