Mad Max: Fury Road
The world has gone to hell following a cataclysmic event, plunging headfirst into madness and chaos. All that remains is a wasteland governed by tyrannical men, populated by downtrodden hordes, and hopefully, rescued by mythical heroes. Immortan Joe (Keays-Byrne) rules with an iron fist, doling out meagre amounts of water to the masses, while keeping a stable of wives for himself to breed future warlords. His most trusted Imperator Furiosa (Theron) has betrayed him and freed these women from their lives of sexual slavery. Now, the chase is on, as Immortan Joe and his party of warboys set out to retrieve their "property". If Furiosa and co. are to succeed, they’ll need the help of Max Rockatansky (Hardy), a wandering road warrior in search of a cause.
Director George Miller has crafted the most dynamic, vibrant and sensational action blockbuster of the decade with Fury Road. it’s an inventive, high-octane kick in the guts to a film industry that has played it safe for far too long. The chases and stunts in this film are unparalleled. Best of all, the film works as a powerful rebuttal to patriarchy.
Available on Kanopy (requires an eligible library membership)
Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino's WWII-set masterpiece, Inglourious Basterds, is a revisionist take on historical events that inserts an elite (and rather bloodthirsty) military group known as the Basterds, led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), into Nazi-occupied France with one very specific goal: to kill and scalp as many Nazis as humanly possible. By chance, an opportunity arises that would place all of Germany's top brass (including Adolf Hitler himself) at the premiere of a Nazi propaganda film, leading the Basterds and a vengeance-minded theatre owner (Mélanie Laurent) to enact plan that could potentially end the war entirely.
Available on Kanopy (requires an eligible library membership)
Leon: The Professional
A star-making turn from a young Natalie Portman anchors the best film to date from French visionary director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element). Portman plays Mathilda, a young girl who takes refuge with a quiet, lonely hitman named Leon (Jean Reno) after her entire family is slaughtered by a group of crooked cops (led by an unhinged Gary Oldman). Though Mathilda is an adolescent, she hopes that Leon will teach her to be a hitman like him, so that she can exact vengeance on the men who killed her little brother. While it's occasionally violent, Leon: The Professional is nevertheless a moving story of two people who become a family despite being from completely difference worlds.
Available on Kanopy (requires an eligible library membership)
