A Native American woman has visions of repressed memories of her abusive treatment in a Catholic boarding school on her reservation. This gripping film touches on systematic cultural repression of Native people to try to get them to conform to an American persona at the cost of their own identity.

Grade: B.

0.3

This documentary examines the role of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and role in the funding, marketing, and passage of California’s Proposition 8. The producers of this documentary offer a scathing indictment of entrenched homophobia and ceaseless preaching to unjustly rescind marriage rights from committed couples.

Grade: B-.

0.3

This gritty Vietnam war picture depicts a group of soldiers in the 101st Airborne fighting in a fierced battle against North Vietnamese forces. The soldiers express their disillusionment with their part in the war, their feelings of betrayal by their superiors and the government, and the racial tension between soldiers.

Grade: B.

0.3

A burlap robotic rag doll wakes up after a war between humanity and their machines, discovers the other members of his batch, and tries to evade menacing enemies that seek to destroy them. With beautiful animation and a heartfelt story, this adorable fantasy features wonderful acting by a talented cast.

Grade: B+.

0.3

The career of Bob Dylan is depicted in a number of short vignettes in this bio-pic in which he’s portrayed as a variety of archetypes. Cate Blanchett’s performance as Jude stole the show, but other portrayals by Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Christian Bale make this an unforgettable film.

Grade: A.

0.3

Two brothers, Danny and Brian, and their friends, Bobby and Kate, are heading across the American Southwest to flee a viral pandemic to try to find safe haven and prevent becoming infected by the deadly pathogen themselves. The gritty, dirty realism of this tense thriller make this an unexpected surprise.

Grade: B.

0.3

In this low-budget post-apocalyptic story told in documentary style, a plague has wiped out most of the population of the world and left San Francisco with a population of 186. The clunky acting, unfocused writing, and the grainy footage fails to lend the picture a sense of reality.

Grade: C-.

0.3

Michael Moore examines the global economic crisis, its history and causes, the casino atmosphere of the investments industry, and how banking deregulation, the housing bubble, and a culture of greed caused worldwide recession. Interviews with thought-leaders, members of Congress, law enforcement officials, and average citizens are very thought-provoking.

Grade: A.

0.3

Jamie Johnson, heir of the Johnson & Johnson fortune, produced this documentary in which he interviews a number of associates of his family about living in the top 1% of American income earners. He shows what it’s like to grow up opulently rich, but his documentary comes off as self-serving.

Grade: C-.

0.3

This documentary examines the American credit industry, its history, and the way consumers become misinformed and get into trouble when it comes to consumer debt, particularly with credit cards and mortgage debt. Released two years before the 2008 financial crisis started, the warnings here were timely cautions of economic collapse.

Grade: B+.

0.3