Read the synopsis of “Rent” and ‘sexy, spectacular, and one of the best movies of 2005’ may not be the words that immediately come to mind. But don’t make the mistake of judging “Rent” by the few lines used to sum up the film in the movie’s official synopsis. “Rent” can’t be defined in a matter of 25 words or less. There’s so much going on, so much to take in, it requires you to sit back and absorb the experience. And what an experience it is.

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A wild, freeform, Rabelaisian trip through the darkest recesses of Edinburgh low-life, focusing on Mark Renton and his attempt to give up his heroin habit, and how the latter affects his relationship with family and friends: Sean Connery wannabe Sick Boy, dimbulb Spud, psycho Begbie, 14-year-old girlfriend Diane, and clean-cut athlete Tommy, who’s never touched drugs but can’t help being curious about them… Written by Michael Brooke {michael@everyman.demon.co.uk}

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This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of Las Vegas–it has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark, live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob involvement in the casinos of the 1970’s and ’80’s are revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers casino, while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals. However, they each have a tragic flaw–Ace falls in love with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-deepening spiral of drugs and violence. Written by Tad Dibbern {DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu}

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This biopic television miniseries features Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as the King of Rock-n-roll, the story traces all his life from the very boyhood in 1950’s Memphis to the pinnacles of his worldwide glory and the depths of isolation and drug addiction of his life’s end.

In Sydney, Tracey Heart is a thirty-two years old manager of a video shop ex-addicted in heroin and clean for four years. She is trying to raise forty thousand dollars to buy a shop for computer games on the next door of the rental and become partner of her boss, but based on her negative records, the banks deny the loan. Tracey takes care of her junkie stepfather Lionel Dawson, unsuccessfully trying to make him quit his heroin habit. When her former boy-friend Jonny returns from Vancouver, Tracey’s mother Janelle fears a fall of Tracey, while she blames Jonny for the car accident where her son Ray lost one leg. When Ray and Jonny associate to Moss, the assistant of the retired criminal boss Bradley ‘The Jockey’ Thompson, in drug dealing, Tracey is convinced by Jonny to join them and raise the necessary money for her business along the weekend. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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1950’s Los Angeles is the seedy backdrop for this intricate noir-ish tale of police corruption and Hollywood sleaze. Three very different cops are all after the truth, each in their own style: Ed Exley, the golden boy of the police force, willing to do almost anything to get ahead, except sell out; Bud White, ready to break the rules to seek justice, but barely able to keep his raging violence under control; and Jack Vincennes, always looking for celebrity and a quick buck until his conscience drives him to join Exley and White down the one-way path to find the truth behind the dark world of L.A. crime. Written by Greg Bole {bole@life.bio.sunysb.edu}

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Drugs. They consume mind, body and soul. Once you’re hooked, you’re hooked. Four lives. Four addicts. Four failures. Doing their best to succeed in the world, but failing miserably, four people get hooked on various drugs. Despite their aspirations of greatness, they succumb to their addictions. Watching the addicts spiral out of control, we bear witness to the dirtiest, ugliest portions of the underworld addicts reside in. It is shocking and eye-opening but demands to be seen by both addicts and non-addicts alike. Written by Jeff Mellinger {jmell@uclink4.berkeley.edu}

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A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People’s Republic. Written by Martin H. Booda {booda@datasync.com}

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John Holmes (Val Kilmer) was a legend of the porn industry and revered in circles as a stud. But in 1981, years after his successful career and star fading, Holmes was a desperate man with his own internal demons to live up to. He’s estranged from his wife (Lisa Kudrow), holding onto a relationship with his teenage mistress (Kate Bosworth), and living as a junkie in search of his next fix. But one fateful night left four people dead and John as a key suspect in one of the most grisly murders in Los Angeles. Was he partly responsible for what happened at Wonderland Avenue? Written by monkeykingma

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“Minority Report” is a little romance and a little comedy mixed up with a whole lot of souped-up action and death-defying stunts. Did it work? I’m still thinking about it. I left the screening thinking I liked the film, and alternately convinced I didn’t. The strange thing is, I told a fellow journalist there’s no way the film would be a middle of the road-er; you’d either love it or hate it. And yet, I loved it - the incredibly stunning futuristic scenery, the action sequences that leap off the screen, and the shockingly brutal Spielbergian vision of the world in the not too distant future - and I disliked it (hate’s way too strong of a word) - the storylines that led to unbelievable conclusions and the fact that it’s supposedly set only 50 years in the future.

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