James McTeigue
Drama
Silver Pictures
R
The futuristic tale unfolds in a Great Britain that's a fascist state. A freedom fighter known as V (Weaving) uses terrorist tactics to fight the oppressive society. He rescues a young woman (Portman) from the secret police, and she becomes his unlikely ally.

James McTeigue
Drama
Silver Pictures
R
The futuristic tale unfolds in a Great Britain that's a fascist state. A freedom fighter known as V (Weaving) uses terrorist tactics to fight the oppressive society. He rescues a young woman (Portman) from the secret police, and she becomes his unlikely ally.

Nimród Antal
Horror
Hal Lieberman Company
R
David and Amy Fox find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere when their car breaks down. Luckily, they come across a motel with a TV to entertain them during their overnight stay. However, there's something very strange and familiar about the Grade-Z slasher movies that the motel broadcasts for its guests' enjoyment. They all appear to be filmed in the very same room they occupy! Realizing that they are trapped in their room with hidden cameras now aimed at them filming their every move, David and Amy desperately find a means of escape through locked doors, crawlspaces and underground tunnels before they too become the newest stars of the mystery filmmaker's next cult classic!

Agnès Varda
Drama
Channel Four Films

In winter in the south of France, a young woman is found frozen in a ditch. She's ill kempt, a vagabond. Through flashbacks and brief interviews, we trace her final weeks, as she camps alone or falls in with various men and women, many of whom project their needs onto her or try to give her life direction. She squats in an old house smoking hash with a man, falls for a Tunisian laborer and works beside him pruning grape vines, stays with a couple shepherding goats, meets an agronomist trying to save plane trees, gets tipsy with an old woman, and has an offer to appear in porn films.

Bryan Singer
Drama, History, Thriller, War
United Artists
PG-13
In Nazi Germany during World War II, as the tide turned in favor of The Allies, a cadre of senior German officers and politicians desperately plot to topple the Nazi regime before the nation is crushed in a near-inevitable defeat. To this end, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, an Army officer convinced he must save Germany from Hitler, is recruited to mastermind a real plan. To do so, he arranges for the internal emergency measure, Operation: Valkyrie, to be changed to enable his fellows to seize control of Berlin after the assassination of the Fuhrer. However, even as the plan is put into action, a combination of bad luck and human failings conspire on their own to create a tragedy that would prolong the greater one gripping Europe.

Martha Coolidge
Comedy
Valley 9000
R
Julie, a girl from the valley, meets Randy, a punk from the city. They are from different worlds and find love. Somehow they need to stay together in spite of her trendy, shallow friends.

Wes Craven
Comedy
Eddie Murphy Productions
R
Maximillian is the only survivor from a race of vampires on a Caribbean Island, and as a vampire, he must find a mate to keep the line from ending. He knows that a child had been born to a woman who had a vampire father, and he searches for her in Brooklyn. Rita's mother, who has died in an asylum, was that woman and Rita has nightmares that she does not understand. Not knowing that she is part vampire, Max woos her and attempts to bring her to her blood sucking destiny. Even though Rita has strange dreams and actions, Justice, her partner, has feelings for her and does not want her involved with this stranger Max. But it is Rita who must decide her destiny.

Carl Theodor Dreyer
Fantasy
Tobis Filmkunst

Young traveller Allan Grey arrives in a remote castle and starts seeing weird, inexplicable sights (a man whose shadow has a life of its own, a mysterious scythe-bearing figure tolling a bell, a terrifying dream of his own burial). Things come to a head when one of the daughters of the lord of the castle succumbs to anaemia - or is it something more sinister?

William Sachs
Comedy
Crown International Pictures

Cameron Crowe
Drama
Paramount Pictures
R
David Aames takes all he has for granted; his wealth, his inherited publishing company, his good looks - his relationships. Especially his relationships. It catches up to him when a friend/sometimes sex-partner can't see their relationship the way he sees it. From that point, the movie takes a Lynchian twist that ultimately and literally pulls us into Aames' tortured psyche.

George Sluizer
Drama
Argos Films

Rex and Saskia are on holiday, a young couple in love. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia disappears. Rex dedicates the next three years trying to find her. Then he receives some postcards from her abductor, who promises to reveal what has happened to Saskia. The abductor, Raymond Lemorne, is a chilling character to whom Rex is drawn by his intense desire to learn the truth behind his lovers disappearance. The truth is more sinister than he dared imagine.

Richard C. Sarafian
Action
Cupid Productions
R
Kowalski, the hero of the story, works for a car delivery service. He takes delivery of a 1970 Dodge Challenger to take from Colorado to Frisco, California. Shortly after pickup, he takes a bet to get the car there in less than 15 hours. After a few run-ins with motorcycle cops and highway patrol they start a chase to bring him into custody. Along the way, Kowalski is guided by Supersoul - a blind DJ with a police radio scanner. Throw in lots of chase scenes, gay hitchhikers, a naked woman riding a motorbike, lots of Mopar and you've got a great cult hit from the early 70's.

Mira Nair
Drama
Focus Features
PG-13
The British Empire flowers; exotic India colors English imaginations. Becky Sharp, the orphaned daughter of a painter and a singer, leaves a home for girls to be a governess, armed with pluck, a keen wit, good looks, fluent French, and an eye for social advancement. Society tries its best to keep her from climbing. An episodic narrative follows her for 20 years, through marriage, Napoleonic wars, a child, loyalty to a school friend, the vicissitudes of the family whose daughters she instructed, and attention from a bored marquess who collected her father's paintings. Honesty tempers her schemes. No aristocrat she, nor bourgeois, just spirited, intelligent, and irrepressible.

Louis Malle
Drama
Channel Four Films

An uniterrupted rehersal of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" played out by a company of actors. The setting is their run down theater with an unusable stage and crumbling ceiling. The play is shown act by act with the briefest of breaks to move props or for refreshments. The lack of costumes, real props and scenery is soon forgotten.

David Kerr
Documentary

Bette Gordon
Drama
Channel Four Films

Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada
Drama
Capitolium

When a young woman of beauty and talent joins a provincial vaudeville troupe, they're suddenly playing to packed houses, and their aging comic Checco Dalmonte gets big ideas. He falls in love with the ingenue, Liliana, and ignores his companion of several years, Melina Amour. (She wants to marry Checco and she's saving to open a deli.) Also, believing he can be an impresario, he hires other actors and begins rehearsal for a revue that will star Liliana and himself. Liliana admires Checco, but she's being squired around town by Adelmo Conti, the assistant to the region's biggest impresario. Can Checco's new troupe hold onto Liliana, and how will Melina fare?

Unknown
Documentary
Winstar
NR
A priceless document of archival footage and precious oral history, "Vaudeville" offers a comprehensive survey of American family entertainment in the decades before radio, movies, and television. From its origins in British comedy, Yiddish theater, and burlesque, vaudeville is explored in all of its immigrant diversity. Astonishing film clips are a constant marvel, featuring such vintage but still-entertaining crowd-pleasers as Fannie Brice, Bert Lahr, Chaz Chase ("Eater of Strange Things"), Little Tich and his oversized shoes, and Hadji Ali, the greatest of all "regurgitators." Anecdotes and history, with a focus on the inherent racism of minstrel shows, are shared by such luminaries as Rose Marie, Billy Barty, Gerald Marks, Bobby Short, the Nicholas Brothers, and many others (several interviewed shortly before they died). Their stories, along with Studs Terkel's fond reminiscence and Ben Vereen's informative narration, preserve a form of entertainment that has vanished forever, its spirit lingering in our habitual channel-surfing of television. "--Jeff Shannon"

Shohei Imamura
Drama
Imamura Productions

Iwao Enokizu is a middle-aged man who has an unexplainable urge to commit insane and violent murders. Eventually he is chased by the police all over Japan, but somehow he always manages to escape. He meets a woman who runs a brothel. They love each other but how long can they be together?

Roger Michell
Comedy
Free Range Films
R
Maurice and Ian are successful but aging actors, close friends whose conversation revolves around theatrical shop talk and the infirmities of septuagenarianism. Ian in particular is fearful that death is right around the corner, so he agrees to let his niece's daughter Jessie move in to his flat to care for him. Jessie, a provincial girl in her early twenties, turns out to be a nightmare for Ian, a hard-drinking, rude, and dismissive twerp. But Maurice sees something else in the girl, a potential for humanity which blossoms under his kindness and gentle guidance. Something else blossoms, for Maurice, as well: romantic love for a girl fifty years younger. Surprises follow, all around.

Joel Schumacher
Biography
Jerry Bruckheimer Films
R
Based on a true story, this is about the Irish journalist Veronica Guerin (Cate Blanchett), a reporter for The Sunday Independent, who exposed some of Dublin's most powerful crime barons and drug lords in 1996. But later that year she was gunned down by assasins hired by the same criminal drug lords she exposed.

Mike Leigh
Crime
Les Films Alain Sarde
R
Vera Drake is a selfless woman who is completely devoted to, and loved by, her working class family. She spends her days doting on them and caring for her sick neighbor and elderly mother. However, she also secretly visits women and helps them induce miscarriages for unwanted pregnancies. While the practice itself was illegal in 1950s England, Vera sees herself as simply helping women in need, and always does so with a smile and kind words of encouragement. When the authorities finally find her out, Vera's world and family life rapidly unravel.

Sidney Lumet
Drama
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Frank Galvin is a down-on-his luck lawyer, reduced to drinking and ambulance chasing. Former associate Mickey Morrissey reminds him of his obligations in a medical malpractice suit that he himself served to Galvin on a silver platter: all parties willing to settle out of court. Blundering his way through the preliminaries, he suddenly realizes that perhaps after all the case should go to court: to punish the guilty, to get a decent settlement for his clients, and to restore his standing as a lawyer.

Errol Morris
Documentary
Errol Morris Films

Early Errol Morris documentary intersplices random chatter he captured on film of the genuinely eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida. A few examples? The preacher giving a sermon on the definition of the word "Therefore," and the obsessive turkey hunter who speaks reverentially of the "gobblers" he likes to track down and kill.

Various
Television
Warner Home Video
NR
The smartest high school drama since "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Veronica Mars" is "The O.C." as penned by Raymond Chandler. Veronica (Kristen Bell, "Deadwood") is Nancy Drew by way of Lauren Bacall, while Neptune makes Peyton Place look like Mayberry. The first season begins in the aftermath of a dizzying array of cataclysmic events: Her best friend, Lilly (Amanda Seyfried), was murdered, her sheriff father was fired over his handling of the case, she was sexually assaulted, and her mother left. Since then, Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni, "Just Shoot Me") has become a private eye and drafted Veronica as his assistant. She may lack Buffy's physical prowess, but the "tiny blonde one" turns out to have a special talent for sleuthing. In the wake of her sophomore year, the popular crowd abandoned Veronica--even boyfriend Duncan (Teddy Dunn), Lilly's brother. (Hence the theme song: "We Used to Be Friends.") Veronica is on her own until she meets Wallace (Percy Daggs III), the only student unfamiliar with her past, unlike Duncan's sarcastic pal, Logan (Jason Dohring), one of her more ardent foes. He was Lilly's boyfriend and his father is movie star Aaron Echolls (Harry Hamlin). By the end of her junior year, Veronica and Logan will make their peace, but it won't be so easy to win over the school--let alone the town. Throughout the season, Veronica will solve several mysteries both big and small--including the murder of Lilly Kane. But a few questions remain. For instance, at the end of the season finale, Veronica opens the door to greet an unseen visitor with "I was hoping it would be you." So who was it? Fortunately, UPN renewed the critically acclaimed (if ratings challenged) teen noir and that tantalizing question will be answered in the second season premiere. "--Kathleen C. Fennessy"

Various
Television
Warner Home Video
NR
The second season of "Veronica Mars" showcases the series' crackling-sharp writing and topnotch acting of star Kristen Bell and the rest of the cast. Veronica still struggles with the class wars in sunny Neptune, Calif., trying to find a balance between high school, love, helping her dad as a private eye, and doing the right thing. The ongoing thread of season 2 is the aftermath of a horrifying tragedy, and as Veronica and dad Keith try to find out what caused it, mysteries only compound. Shifty Sheriff Lamb, town powerbrokers, and various high-school cliques seem to undermine Veronica at every turn. Thankfully, Veronica has more chutzpah than Phillip Marlowe, and the side-of-the-mouth one-liners to match: "Well, actually," Veronica says dryly to a bad guy, "despite popular opinion, you really "can't " beat the truth out of someone." Some of the show's broad strokes echo the stellar "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", yet Bell's Veronica doesn't need the supernatural to tackle a challenge. She's a real girl, conflicted, prickly, lovesick, yearning, sometimes even scared. As Veronica tries to solve the mystery, she must also handle her own heartbreaks, and the moral stumbles of those closest to her. Happily, she's got a great best pal, Wallace (the effervescent Percy Daggs III), and possibly the coolest, most understanding TV dad ever (Enrico Colantoni). The boxed set includes 22 episodes (many with deleted scenes), a behind-the-scenes mini-doc, a cute gag reel, and a short profile film, "Veronica Mars: Not Your Average Teen Detective". You can say that again. "--A.T. Hurley"

Various
Drama
Warner Home Video
Unrated
Equal parts "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Nancy Drew", "Veronica Mars" is smartly written and well-acted. This third and final season of the critically acclaimed (but viewer-challenged) series ends as all good shows should--by leaving viewers wanting more and wondering how their favorite characters will fare in the future. By now, our spunky heroine Veronica (played by the effervescent Kristen Bell) is a college student working on a degree in criminology. Though blond, pretty, and uber-smart, Veronica doesn't have an easy time fitting in to her new setting. The series focuses as much on her personal life this season as it does on the cases she is hired (and paid) to solve. Besides dealing with rapes, robbery, and other sordid crimes, Veronica has to clear her own name when she is accused of plagiarizing. She also gets involved in helping figure out who may have given a pregnant friend a pill that caused her to lose the baby. This year's guest stars include some stunt casting with Patty Hearst, who plays a wealthy woman who disappears during an event held in her honor. Unlike the first two years where Veronica focused on solving one major crime, this season features several story arcs. Perhaps it was the producer's way of trying to attract more viewers, but diehard fans may be turned off by the change, which provides a less cohesive storyline than in the past. All 20 episodes--which aired originally during the 2006-2007 television season--are included in this six-disc set. The collection also includes a cute gag reel and an informative bonus feature that includes insightful commentary from show creator Rob Thomas. "--Jae-Ha Kim"

Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Drama
Laura Film

Munich, 1955: A sports journalist meets Veronika Voss, an UFA actress who supposedly had an affair with Goebbels. Now declining, Voss is kept by her "kind" doctor, Dr. Kart, supplying her house, food, clean clothes and her favourite: morphine. Voss, trying to come back towards the cinema, cannot perform an absurdly simple scene, but it attracts the attention of the journalist, who suspects that something's very wrong regarding her doctor.

Alfred Hitchcock
Drama
Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions

John "Scottie" Ferguson is a retired San Francisco police detective who suffers from acrophobia and Madeleine is the lady who leads him to high places. A wealthy shipbuilder who is an acquaintance from college days approaches Scottie and asks him to follow his beautiful wife, Madeleine. He fears she is going insane, maybe even contemplating suicide, because she believes she is possessed by a dead ancestor. Scottie is skeptical, but agrees after he sees the beautiful Madeleine.

Alfred Hitchcock
Drama
Universal Studios
PG
Although it wasn't a box-office success when originally released in 1958, "Vertigo" has since taken its deserved place as Alfred Hitchcock's greatest, most spellbinding, most deeply personal achievement. In fact, it consistently ranks among the top 10 movies ever made in the once-a-decade "Sight & Sound" international critics poll, placing at number 4 in the most recent survey. (Universal Pictures' spectacularly gorgeous 1996 restoration and rerelease of this 1958 Paramount production was a tremendous success with the public, too.) James Stewart plays a retired police detective who is hired by an old friend to follow his wife (a superb Kim Novak, in what becomes a double role), whom he suspects of being possessed by the spirit of a dead madwoman. The detective and the disturbed woman fall ("fall" is indeed the operative word) in love and...well, to give away any more of the story would be criminal. Shot around San Francisco (the Golden Gate Bridge and the Palace of the Legion of Honor are significant locations) and elsewhere in Northern California (the redwoods, Mission San Juan Batista) in rapturous Technicolor, "Vertigo" is as lovely as it is haunting. "--Jim Emerson"

Peter Berg
Comedy
Initial Entertainment Group (IEG)
R
A group of friends head to Las Vegas for a bachelor party.. only things go wrong and a woman is killed. Soon, the bodies are piling up and the friends find themselves turning against one another as the coverup builds.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Drama
2003 Productions
R
Five desperate French soldiers during The Battle of the Somme shoot themselves, either by accident or with purpose, in order to be invalidated back home. Having been "caught" a court-martial convenes and determines punishment to be banishment to No Man's Land with the objective of having the Germans finish them off. In the process of telling this tale each man's life is briefly explored along with their next of kin as Methilde, fiancée to one of the men, tries to determine the circumstances of her lover's death. This task is not made any easier for her due to a bout with polio as a child. Along the way she discovers the heights and depths of the human soul. From the commander who wantonly and secretly destroys the men's pardon, to the amazing lengths one condemned man's friend goes to in an effort to save at least some of them. This movie operates at many levels. A love story. A mystery. A testament to brutality of "The War to End All Wars" and most particularly the men, women, and children affected by this dark and disturbing time in world history. Technically the cinematography (by Bruno Delbonnel) is amazing. Many scenes will have you asking how that was shot. The use of color, the score, the authenticity of the costume, the portrayal by the actors, the effects, and the story itself all combined to make a delightful feast of sound and vision. Look for a long cameo of Jody Foster. Amazing! Jean-Peirre Jeunet is a master.

Woody Allen
Comedy
The Weinstein Company
PG-13
It must be true that getting out of town can do a fellow a lot of good, because Vicky Cristina Barcelona is the best movie Woody Allen has made in years. Okay, you're right, 2006's Match Point already claimed that honor and, as Allen's first film made in England, established the virtues of getting away from overfamiliar territory (namely Manhattan). But the Woodman's first film made in Spain matches the ice-cold Match Point for crisp authority, and yields a good deal more sheer pleasure besides. Rebecca Hall (Vicky) and Scarlett Johansson (Cristina) play two young Americans, best friends, spending a summer in Catalonia. Vicky is going for a master's in "Catalan identity" (though her Spanish is shaky); Cristina is going along for, oh, just about anything. That soon includes celebrated abstract artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), who's anything but abstract in his forthright proposition that the two join him in his private plane, his travels, and his bed. That he has an insane ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz), who may or may not have tried to kill him is not really an issue until the wife reappears and ... well, consider the possibilities.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona isn't exactly a comedy, at least not in the manner of Allen's "early, funny ones," but it's informed by a rueful wit that finds its fullest expression in reflective voiceover commentary. Spoken by Christopher Evan Welch, but surely on behalf of the 73-year-old auteur, this element of the film is neither (as some have charged) patronizing nor uncinematic; rather, it's integral to the movie's participation in a venerable European literary tradition, the sentimental education. Instead of Bergman or Fellini, this time Allen is invoking the François Truffaut of Jules and Jim and Eric Rohmer in his many meditations on the game of love. The entire cast is terrific (both Hall and Johansson get to play "the Woody part" at different points), with Bardem and Cruz especially delightful as exemplars of Old Worldliness. Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe honors every drop of Catalonian sunlight and glint of Gaudí architecture. --Richard T. Jameson
Stills from Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Click for larger image)

Basil Dearden
Crime
Allied Film Makers (AFM)

A plea for reform of England's anti-sodomy statutes, this film pits Melville Farr (Dirk Bogarde), a married lawyer, against a blackmailer who has photos of Farr and a young gay man (who is being blackmailed and later commits suicide)in Farr's car. After the suicide, Farr tracks down other gay men being extorted for money by the same blackmailer.The well-educated police Detective Inspector Harris (John Barrie) considers the sodomy law nothing more than an aid to blackmailers, and helps Farr in calling his blackmailer's bluff. The movie, far ahead of its time, ends with Farr and his wife coming to terms with his homosexuality after the public exposure he faces in the blackmailer's trial.

Unknown
Comedy

Bob Marty
Comedy
GMG Productions

First of all, I saw this entire show on PBS - it is hilarious! BUT, the DVD I received was faulty. Although printed with "The Legendary Victor Borge" on the disc itself, the actual video on the disc was for "Jim Rohn Weekend Leadership Event" - no sign of the legendary Mr. Borge.



Even though this is a great show that fans will love, I felt it was necessary to warn other customers that the product might be faulty.



:(

Unknown
Comedy
Passport

Victor Borge performed his comic routines and played the piano in this show in addition to inviting guest stars who performed and chatted with Borge.

Victor Borge
Comedy
Gmg Records
NR
Very good, however it is 100% identical to Victor Borge Act One and Two.

David Cronenberg
Fantasy
Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC)
R
Max Renn runs a TV channel, and when looking for new material to show--he discovers "Videodrome." His girlfriend, Nicki Brand, goes to audition for the show, and Max gets drawn into the underlying plot that uses the show as its front for a global conspiracy.

Bruno Barreto
Comedy
Miramax Films
PG-13
A comedy centering around Donna, a young woman from meager beginnings, who has high hopes for the future and dreams of living the glamorous life. Donna dreams of becoming a first class international flight attendant, and is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that her dreams come true. The road to success though, is rarely a smooth flight, and as she begins her trip she encounters more turbulence than even she bargained for. But the real question is whether her bumpy start will force her to leave her real dreams behind, or if it will take her on a journey of a lifetime.

M. Night Shyamalan
Mystery
Touchstone Pictures
PG-13
In a quiet, isolated village in olde Pennsylvania, there lies a pact between the people of the village and the creatures who reside in the surrounding woods: the townspeople do not enter the woods, and the creatures do not enter the village. The pact stays true for many years, but when Lucius Hunt seeks medical supplies from the towns beyond the wood, the pact is challenged. Animal carcasses, devoid of fur, begin to appear around the village, causing the council of elders to fear for the safety of the village, the pact, and so much more.

Robert Altman
Biography
Arena Films

The familiar tragic story of Vincent van Gogh is broadened by focusing as well on his brother Theodore, who helped support Vincent. The movie also provides a nice view of the locations which Vincent painted.

Sergio Martino
Crime
Champion

When Milano police lieutenant Giorga's chief is murdered by an organized crime ring, he vows to avenge his boss's death. Going undercover to continue the chief's investigation, he plans to take over a pimping outfit and then proceed to beat up enough low-level thugs until the big guys in the crime ring take notice of him, letting him get close enough to uncover their secrets. Should this unorthodox method actually work, he still must take down the entire organization single-handed.

Ingmar Bergman
Crime
Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Set in beautiful 14th century Sweden, it is the sombre, powerful fable of peasant parents whose daughter, a young virgin, is brutally raped and murdered by goat herders after her half sister has invoked a pagan curse. By a bizarre twist of fate, the murderers ask for food and shelter from the dead girl's parents, who, discovering the truth about their erstwhile lodgers, exact a chilling revenge.

Sofia Coppola
Drama
American Zoetrope
R
The lives of an eclectic group of men who live in an affluent American suburb in the '70s are forever changed by their obsession with five doomed sisters.

Ackyl Anwari
Action
Rapi Films

Two sisters plot for revenge against the drug-lord who murdered their family and took their home, now being used as a base for their experiments on aphrodisiacs. The older sister becomes a prostitute in order to get close to the gang. Later, she rallies up a gang of female-bikers, in skimpy leather outfits and knee-high boots, they raid the syndicate's hideout - and lose, badly. They are subject to torture of various sorts, fight among themselves, but gather their wits to try, and fight back for escape.

Luis Buñuel
Drama
Films 59

Koji Masutani
Documentary


VIRTUAL JFK investigates one of the most debated "what if" scenarios in the history of U.S. foreign policy: What would President John F. Kennedy have done in Vietnam if he had not been assassinated in 1963, and had he been re-elected in 1964? The film employs what Harvard historian Niall Ferguson calls "virtual history," assessing the plausibility of counterfactuals - "what ifs" - and the outcomes they might have produced. The heart of the film deals with the question: Does it matter who is president on issues of war and peace?

Arnold Glassman, Todd McCarthy
Documentary
American Film Institute (AFI)

Cameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography and of the "DP" (the director of photography), illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from Birth of a Nation to Do the Right Thing. Themes: the DP tells people where to look; changes in movies (the arrival of sound, color, and wide screens) required creative responses from DPs; and, these artisans constantly invent new equipment and try new things, with wonderful results. The narration takes us through the identifiable studio styles of the 30s, the emergence of noir, the New York look, and the impact of Europeans. Citizen Kane, The Conformist, and Gordon Willis get special attention.

Tom McCarthy
Drama
ANCHOR BAY
PG-13
A deeply moving drama built around longtime character actor Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor" is a simmering drama about a college professor and recent widower, Walter Vale (Jenkins), who discovers a pair of homeless, illegal aliens living in his New York apartment. After the mix-up is resolved, Vale invites the couple--a young, Syrian musician named Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and his Senegalese girlfriend (Danai Gurira--to stay with him. An unlikely friendship develops between the retiring, quiet Vale and the vital Tarek, and the former begins to loosen up and respond to Tarek’s drumming lessons as if something in him waiting to be liberated has finally arrived. All goes well until Tarek is hauled in by immigration authorities and threatened with deportation. His mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass), turns up and stays with Vale, sparking a renewed if subdued interest in courtship. But the wheels of injustice in immigration crush all manner of hopes in post-9/11 America. Vale soon realizes his unexpected capacity for anger over Tarek’s plight, and the positive changes to his personal life that emerged from a deep involvement with his friend and Mouna, might be the only legacy he takes from this experience. Writer-director Thomas McCarthy has created a wonderfully measured story about change and renewal, and put it all on the shoulders of Jenkins, a largely unheralded but masterful performer whose time for renown has surely come. --"Tom Keogh"

Stills from "The Visitor" (click for larger image)












Beyond "The Visitor"
On DVD
Soundtrack CD
Also directed by Tom McCarthy

George Sidney
Comedy
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Lucky Jackson arrives in town with his car literally in tow ready for the first Las Vegas Grand Prix - once he has the money to buy an engine. He gets the cash easily enough but mislays it when the pretty swimming pool manageress takes his mind off things. It seems he will lose both race and girl, problems made more difficult by rivalry from Elmo Mancini, fellow racer and womaniser. Perhaps some singing will help.

Russ Meyer
Comedy
Coldstream Films

Vixen lives in a Canadian mountain resort with her naive pilot husband. While he's away flying in tourists, she gets it on with practically everybody including a husband and his wife, and even her biker brother. She is openly racist, and she makes it clear that she won't do the wild thing with her brother's biker friend, who is black.

Nicholas Meyer
Comedy
Home Box Office (HBO)
R
Lawrence is a rich kid with a bad accent and a large debt. After his father refuses to help him out, Lawrence escapes his angry debtors by jumping on a Peace Corp flight to Southeast Asia, where is assigned to build a bridge for the local villagers with American-As-Apple-Pie WSU Grad Tom Tuttle and the beautiful and down-to earth Beth Wexler. What they don't realize is that the bridge is coveted by the U.S. Army, a local Communist force, and a powerful drug lord. Together with the help of At Toon, the only English speaking native, they must fight off the three opposing forces and find out what is right for the villagers, as well as themselves.

Bryan Johnson
Comedy
Chango Productions
R
A loser with a crummy apartment, an odious mother, and a job that isn't taking him anywhere (kid's clown), gets a new idea. He decides that he's going to be a clown for bachelor parties. He will dress up like a woman clown and play a joke on the groom. After that the real stripper will come out and everyone will have a good laugh. He goes to his first job (changing his clown name from Flappy to Vulgar). When he opens the door he is knocked cold. What follows is a story of violation, fame, blackmail, and revenge.