River Road Entertainment (USA): 7

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) is a space opera film written and directed by Luc Besson, with production by Virginie Besson-Silla, his wife. Based on a beloved comic book series, this new adventure movie has been a source of inspiration for generations of artists, writers, and filmmakers. Set in the twenty-eighth century, Major Valerian and Sergeant Laureline are a formidable duo tasked with maintaining order in the human territories. Ordered by Defense Minister Herbie Hancock, they embark on a mission to Alpha – an ever-expanding metropolis ...

The American drama film The Last Face (2016), directed by Sean Penn and written by Erin Dignam, features an all-star cast including Charlize Theron, Javier Bardem, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Jean Reno. Despite being selected for competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, the film received poor reviews upon its initial release. After debuting on DirecTV on June 29, 2017, it was ...

The biographical drama film, 12 Years a Slave (2013), is based on the slave memoir Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. Directed by Steve McQueen and written by John Ridley, it follows the story of Northup, an African American man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. in 1841 and sold into slavery in Louisiana for 12 years. Prior to his abduction, Northup was a free man living with his family in Saratoga Springs, New York and working as a violinist. Brown and Hamilton tricked him into taking short-term ...

The American epic experimental coming-of-age drama film, The Tree of Life (2011), written and directed by Terrence Malick, follows the O’Brien family during two pivotal periods. In the 1960s, the family is thrown into turmoil upon learning of the death of their 19-year-old son, R.L. In contrast, in 2010, eldest son Jack struggles with his life as an architect in Dallas, Texas, feeling disillusioned and disappointed. Throughout the film, Mrs. O’Brien asks God why R.L. had to die while visuals show the creation of the universe and Earth’s beginnings. At one point, a compassionate dinosaur chooses not to ...

Fair Game (2010) is a biographical political drama film directed by Doug Liman and starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. Valerie Plame, employed by the Central Intelligence Agency, keeps her job secret from everyone outside of her husband and parents. She is an intelligence officer involved in numerous sensitive and potentially hazardous undercover operations abroad. Her husband, Joseph C. Wilson, formerly served as the U.S. ambassador to Gabon with a previous diplomatic history in Niger. Plame’s colleagues at the CIA ...

The American biographical adventure drama film, Into the Wild (2007), was written, co-produced, and directed by Sean Penn. Based on the 1996 non-fiction book by Jon Krakauer of the same name, it tells the story of Chris McCandless who arrives in Healy, a remote area just north of Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Upon realizing McCandless’ lack of preparedness, the man who gives him a ride provides him with gumboots. McCandless then sets up camp in an abandoned city bus that he dubs ‘The Magic Bus’. Enjoying his solitude and surrounded by ...

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006) is an American romantic drama film directed by Steven Shainberg and written by Erin Cressida Wilson, based on Patricia Bosworth’s book Diane Arbus: A Biography. The story begins with Diane Arbus arriving to photograph a nudist colony, then flashes back three months to New York City in 1958. There, Diane assists her husband Allan, an established photographer from a long line of studio owners. She comes from a wealthy family of furriers. However, as a city wife ...