February 20, 2008

Shortbus, by John Cameron Mitchell

Numerous New York City-dwellers come to the exclusive club Shortbus to work out problems in their sexual relationships. Rob and Sophia are a happily married couple, except for the fact that she has never experienced sexual climax. This irony follows her to work, because she is a couple’s counsellor who frequently has to deal with the sexual issues other couples have. Two of her patients are Jamie and James, a gay couple who have been monogamous for five years and counting. James wants to bring other men in to the relationship, and his own history with depression may hint at an ulterior motive. Ceth may be the perfect addition to their family, but Caleb, a voyeur from across the street, may have his own ideas about that. Sophia visits Severin, a dominatrix with secrets of her own to reveal.
Cut and Run, by Jeff Abbott

She's a liar.
She's a thief.
She's a killer.
She's his mother. And he'll take on the world to save her.

With his father near death, Judge Whit Mosley launches a search for his mother, who abandoned the family thirty years ago and vanished into the criminal underworld. Hoping to heal the wounds of the past, Whit finds Eve—framed for murder and for stealing five million dollars from a Houston crime cartel desperate to regain their lost power. He has one impossible chance to save his mother: take her on the run, outsmart a gang of sophisticated killers, and find the missing millions. Caught in a nightmare of double crosses and vicious schemers, Whit turns his back on law and order for the one person he most wants to trust but knows the least—a dangerous woman who may be plotting the cruelest deception of all.
All That Remains, by Patricia Cornwell

Young lovers are ending up dead, found partially skeletonized in remote woodland areas with no apparent cause of death. Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta is baffled, and she fears the "Couple Killer" will strike again. The most recent victim was the daughter of a powerful political drug activist, and the search for the killer intensifies. Kay soon learns that the government is withholding evidence, and the only thing more shocking is why they've done so: they fear the sociopath stalking young couples is one of their own...
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, by Tim Burton

Never Forget. Never Forgive.
After hard years in exile for a crime he didn't commit, Benjamin Barker now Sweeney Todd, returns to London to find his wife dead and his daughter in the hands of the evil Judge Turpin. In his anger, Sweeney goes on a murderous rampage on all London, with the help of Mrs. Lovett, he opens a barber shop in which he lures his victims in with a charming smile before casually ending their life with a flick of his razor across their neck. But not one man killed, nor ten thousands men can satisfy Sweeney's lust for revenge on those who've caused his years of pain.
La Spagnola, by Steve Jacobs

Lola, a hot-blooded Spaniard, is deserted by her husband for a cool and calculating Aussie blonde. Lola is pregnant again but she and their daughter Lucia are left to starve while Ricardo spends all their savings on a sleek new set of wheels for his mistress. When he dies unexpectedly the family fortune, one flash car, remains with the mistress. Despite all his betrayals, Lucia sides with her father. Desperate and destitute in a country she doesn't like or understand, Lola's quest for revenge begins. Caught in the tempests of begrudging love, revenge, sibling rivalry, jealousy and passion, fourteen year old Lucia must find the strength to survive on her own terms. Aided to break free of her mother by her eccentric Aunt Manolo she struggles to find her own identity and her own quest for justice puts her on a collision course with her mother.
Friday, by F. Gary Gray

Having just been canned from his job on his day off, Craig and his best friend Smokey spend the day smoking up in their South Central neighborhood while dealing with a neighborhood bully, relationship troubles, an angry drug dealer, and a lot of other odd characters.