More Articles By Ed Hulse

• Pigs
  THINKFILM Street: Nov. 27 Prebook: Nov. 1 > Hackneyed sex comedy has great packaging but fails to deliver on its promise. Goaded by his dorm buddies, ladies man Miles (Jefferson Brown) intends to sleep with the whole alphabet—girls whose names begin with letters A to Z—in the interest of winning a bet. More
  
• Innocent Voices
  POLYCHROME/WARNER Street: April 8 Prebook: now > Heartrending drama about the ’80s conflict in El Salvador is crafted with skill and sensitivity. Innocent Voices focuses on Chava (Carlos Padilla), an 11-year-old boy who helps his single mother, Kella (Leonor Varela), raise his siblings in war-torn El Salvador and faces forced conscription into the government army when he turns 12. More
  
• Father of Lies
  VIVENDI VISUAL Street: Oct. 30 Prebook: now > Uneven direction mars an otherwise creditable indie effort aimed at faith-based, African-American consumers. In this drama, Bishop Calvin Jacobs (Clifton Powell), a recovering alcoholic, takes desperate measures to save his financially strapped church—even accepting a loan from a Turkish businessman who wants assistance in a money-launderi... More
  
• 3000 Miles
  REVOLVER/IMAGE Street: Nov. 13 Prebook: now > A wild ride that crams a lot of high-spirited fun into less than two hours. The first American release from British company Revolver Entertainment, 3000 Miles documents the eighth Gumball Rally, a 120-vehicle extravaganza that began in London, headed through Belgium, Vienna, Belgrade and ultimately finished in Los Angeles at the Playboy Mansion. More
  
• Barry Cooper’s Never Get Busted Again: Vol. 1—Traffic Stops
  DISINFORMATION Street: Oct. 30 Prebook: now > A stoner’s primer to evading discovery and arrest. Whoa, dude, how cool is that?! Ex-cop and self-confessed stoner Barry Cooper, having decided that America’s drug laws are too strict, claims in this vanity production that he has been motivated by “compassion” to prepare this video how-to manual for avoiding arrest. More
  
• Fighting Words
  INDICAN Street: Oct. 30 Prebook: now > Yarn about slam poetry could pass muster with young, hip viewers. Enter the tense, exciting, dramatic world of … slam poetry. Yes, you heard right, slam poetry. It has got a powerful hold on young wordsmith Jake (Jeff Stearns), who’s encouraged by a poetry-loving bar owner, Gabriel (Fred Williamson), to compete in a “cutthroat” ... More
  
• Show Business: The Road to Broadway
  LIBERATION/GENIUS Street: Oct. 16 Prebook: now > A unique inside look behind the scenes of a quartet of Broadway shows. Those who’ve always wondered what goes on behind the curtains at Broadway’s biggest hits will enjoy this engrossing documentary, which specifically focuses on four daring shows launched during the controversial 2003-04 season: Wicked; Avenue Q; Taboo and Caroli... More
  
• Valentino Collection
  FLICKER ALLEY Available now > Lovingly produced tribute to the silent-era star. The silent screen’s original “Latin lover,” Rudolph Valentino, is seen to good advantage in this two-disc compilation of rarities, including four previously unavailable films: A Society Sensation (1918), Stolen Moments (1920), The Young Rajah and Moran of the Lady Letty (both 1922). More
  
• Three Days of Rain
  VIVENDI VISUAL Street: Oct. 16 Prebook: now > Fine acting from ensemble cast highlights this attempt to update Chekhovian short stories. This ambitious indie adapts six Anton Chekhov stories by grouping them together and transferring the action to present-day Cleveland during a torrential downpour. More
  
• The Jazz Singer: 80th Anniversary Collectors Edition
  WARNER Street: Oct. 16 Prebook: now > Historically important collection will wow fans and collectors. This schmaltzy 1927 classic starring legendary entertainer Al Jolson was the first feature-length film with synchronized dialog and songs, and it sparked the “talkie revolution” that transformed the movie business. More
  
• Strike
  DOKUMENT/MPI Available now > Solidly entertaining inspirational film will have specialized appeal. Director Volker Schlöndorff takes a leisurely, episodic approach to telling the story of Polish shipyard worker Agnieszka Kowalska (effectively played by Katharina Thalbach)... More
  
• Commune
  FIRST RUN FEATURES Street: Oct. 23 Prebook: now > Honest, unromanticized and quite compelling account of commune life. Beginning in the late ’60s, Northern California’s Black Bear Ranch was ground zero for counterculture rebels who shunned their bourgeois backgrounds and embraced the values of communal living. More
  
• Into Great Silence
  ZEITGEIST Street: Oct. 23 Prebook: now > Transcendently beautiful, meditative documentary on the Grande Chartreuse monastery in France. After waiting 16 years for permission to document life in the Grande Chartreuse, one of the world’s most ascetic monasteries, German filmmaker Philip Gröning spent six months filming the daily rituals of Carthusian monks. More
  
• Heavens Fall
  ALLUMINATION Street: Nov. 6 Prebook: Oct. 2 > Well-acted drama of racial intolerance in the Deep South has a familiar ring. This is a sturdy but unspectacular dramatization of the notorious 1931 “Scottsboro Boys” trial, which ended with nine black men being sentenced to death for raping two white women in Alabama. More
  
• Flock of Dodos
  DOCURAMA/NEW VIDEO Available now > Occasionally witty attempt to declare a truce in one battle of the culture wars. Former biologist Randy Olson mixes it up with both evolutionists and creationists (actually, to be more precise, proponents of intelligent design) in this light-hearted look at a serious issue. More
  
• Believers
  WARNER Street: Oct. 16 Prebook: now > Modestly produced but riveting psychological thriller from director of The Blair Witch Project. A low-key but chilling psychological thriller with horrific aspects, Believers is one of Raw Feed’s DVD premieres, developed in part by The Blair Witch Project’s co-director Dan Myrick. More
  
• The Word on DVD
  SEPT. 10 | FAITH & FAMILY:  With the growing trend in book-based DVDs, it’s fitting that one book’s DVD version is selling particularly well: the Bible . More
  
• Bombay Calling
  MILL CREEK Street: Sept. 25 Prebook: now > Revealing, first-rate documentary about India-based telemarketers working for American and U.K. companies. India’s youth culture is shown to be heavily influenced by the ready availability of telemarketing jobs from Western-based firms interested in saving money by outsourcing. More
  
• Dead Letter Office
  BFS ENTERTAINMENT Street: Oct. 9 Prebook: Sept. 11 > Generally engaging romance will have to overcome unintentionally misleading package art. Lord of the Rings' Miranda Otto plays an unhappy young woman who takes a job at the postal service's Dead Letter Office, filled with stacks of returned, unread letters. More
  
• Malabimba, the Malicious Whore
  SEVERIN Street: Sept. 25 Prebook: now > Ultra-sexy Eurotrash classic has a relatively small but eager audience awaiting its release. This undisputed Eurosleaze classic, which rode the wave of erotic horror films that swept across the continent in the wake of The Exorcist, has everything fans of the subgenre could ever want: Gothic atmosphere, Satanic possession, lesbian nuns, even death by ... More