Director: Tamar Simon Hoffs (dir.)

Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Olivia Tracey, Susan Lynch, Max Beesley, Heather Juergensen

Amid a haze of cigarette smoke and uneaten food, the family of Enda Doyle gathers in Dublin for his wake only to find a trail of unresolved issues and a disturbing mystery. Based on a successful Irish play by acclaimed writer Joseph O’Connor, this darkly comedic drama offers a tour-de-force showcase for Malcolm McDowell as Enda Doyle, a university librarian, poet, and rascal who is the flawed patriarch of a dysfunctional family struggling to come to terms with his death and with one another. Dazed widow Moya’s desperation to keep her family together and twenty-something daughter Medbh’s sharp tongue provide the backdrop for the arrival of headstrong older sister Catherine and her handsome but awkward boyfriend, Tom Ivers, from New York. Sorting through boxes of Enda’s books, the women discover a cache of self-recorded video diaries that might shed light on some of the secrets of Enda’s life, secrets he was never able to share with them. Black sheep brother Johnny, a brilliant, emotionally wounded slacker, brings the clan to the edge of violence with his biting recollection of long buried memories, inciting them into what can only be called unchecked family therapy. Red Roses and Petrol explores the emotional dynamics of familial relationships with sharp humor and surprising turns, taking the viewer on an intense emotional journey into the depths of what is truth and what is love. The film’s soundtrack features music from acclaimed Irish-American band Flogging Molly and Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles.

Official Site: red rosses and petrol

The Hammer 2008

Release Date: 21st March 2008

Director: Charles Herman-Wurmfield (dir.)

Cast: Adam Carolla, Oswaldo Castillo, Heather Juergensen, Harold House Moore, Jonathan Hernandez

Jerry Ferro’s 40th birthday has brought his life into sharp relief and it’s not a pretty picture. A once-promising amateur boxer — who quit so he wouldn’t risk his perfect record of underachievement — Jerry has been knocking around from one construction job to another and spinning his wheels in an unsatisfying relationship, all the while with an eye toward eventually getting his shit together. His last connection to the fight game is the evening boxing class he teaches to middle-aged, middle class, middle management types at a gym in Pasadena, where he also works as a handyman. When venerable boxing coach Eddie Bell asks Jerry if he’d like to spar a couple of rounds with Malice Blake, an up-and-coming pro, Jerry reluctantly steps into the ring. Despite the ass-kicking Jerry otherwise receives, a one-punch knockdown of Blake convinces Jerry that it¹s time to make his return to competitive boxing. Thus ends a 20-year layoff and begins a hilarious fish-out-water quest for Olympic gold.

Official Site: http://www.thehammermovie.com/