More Articles By Ed Grant

• Wetlands Preserved
  FIRST RUN Street: April 22 Prebook: March 22 > Enjoyable celebration of New York City’s jam-band haven. The defunct New York City rock nightclub Wetlands Preserve is memorialized in this pleasant, informal documentary. Although the club presented musical acts from different genres during its 12-year lifespan, it was best known as a jam-band showcase where various acts that went on to... More
  
• Davie & Golimyr
  The Bible tale gets a fantasy makeover in this stop-motion animated feature. Street: MARCH 4 Prebook: NOW The Old Testament tale of David and Goliath is given a new lease on life in this unusually colorful feature. Here, young Davie has to oppose the enemy of his people, a giant named Golimyr, with only a slingshot and his sidekick sheep. More
  
• The Walker
  THINKFILM Street: April 22 Prebook: March 27 > A modern-day revamp of classic Hollywood melodramas, focusing on a Washington D.C. murder scandal. Writer/director Paul Schrader updates his 1980 hit American Gigolo here, adding a strong dose of Tennessee Williams as he mimics the melodramas of the ’40s and ’50s. More
  
• Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains
  SONY Street: March 25 Prebook: now > The ex-President stumps for a controversial book in this straightforward doc. Filmmaker Jonathan Demme’s portrait of the ex-President is a slice-of-life study that follows Carter on a book tour for his 2006 tome Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Those seeking historical context or a biographical sketch of this extraordinary statesman will be disappoi... More
  
• The Good Night
  SONY Street: April 1 Prebook: Feb. 28 > Neurotic comedy about 'lucid dreaming’ that benefits from a strong supporting cast. The debut feature by Gwyneth Paltrow’s brother Jake is a well-meaning neurotic comedy that never quite clicks. The plot reflects the film’s Woody Allen-meets-Michel Gondry premise: A British musician (Martin Freeman) finds that his mid-life crisis and... More
  
• War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
  DISINFORMATION Street: March 25 Prebook: Feb. 29 > Analysis of the media’s “selling” of war, from the Cold War to the present. Sean Penn narrates this tightly constructed, absorbing survey of the ways in which the media has, since the Cold War era, framed and presented questions of war and dissent. More
  
• 101 Dalmatians Two-Disc Platinum Edition
  DISNEY Street: March 4 Prebook: now > Animation is spot-on in this deluxe edition of the Disney classic. The memory of the two live-action 101 Dalmatians farces is blotted out when one dips into this pitch-perfect 1961 Disney classic. This two-disc Platinum Edition includes separate sets of supplements geared for kids and adults. More
  
• Company K
  INDICAN Street: March 11 Prebook: Feb. 14 > WWI drama benefits from sober, solid scripting. A timeless parable about the nature of war, this low-key character piece concerns a World War I veteran (Ari Fliakos) who struggles to deal with the horrors he saw while fighting in Europe. The film is based on a well-regarded novel by William March (The Bad Seed) and boasts an effortless mix of good... More
  
• Lake of Fire
  THINKFILM Street: March 11 Prebook: Feb. 14 > Challenging, often disturbing examination of the abortion issue. Filmmaker Tony Kaye (American History X) tackles the hot-button topic of abortion in this engrossing and disturbing documentary. He adds fuel to the fire with his depiction of both sides’ activist activities, so the film’s most welcome interludes are the lower-key, reas... More
  
• Duke Ellington at the Cote d’Azur With Ella Fitzgerald
  EAGLE VISION Street: March 18 Prebook: Feb. 27 > The Duke in his domain, performing in 1966 France. The musical genius of “Sir Duke” is on display in this 1966 film about a string of concerts he gave at the Cote d’Azur. His orchestra plays a range of material, from pure jazz to experimental African rhythms, but the biggest surprise in the program is a midsection devoted to... More
  
• Bachelor Party 2: The Last Temptation
  FOX Street: March 11 Prebook: Feb. 13 > DVD premiere sequel to the raucous 1984 Tom Hanks comedy. It has been 24 years since the original Tom Hanks-starring Bachelor Party hit theaters, but apparently Fox felt the name-recognition value of that movie was strong enough to sell this unrelated T&A comedy. More
  
• Pierrot Le Fou
  CRITERION/IMAGE Street: Feb. 19 Prebook: now > Godard’s colorful 1965 tale of doomed love looks bolder and brighter than ever. Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless may have changed film history forever, but among fans of the director’s work, this 1965 tale of lovers on the run is considered one of his undisputed masterpieces. More
  
• Darkon
  PORCHLIGHT Street: Feb. 26 Prebook: now > Sympathetic, slightly strange portrait of a hardcore role-playing community. Role players get their day in the sun in this entertaining study of a group of Baltimore residents who devote all their spare time to “Darkon,” a complicated three-dimensional game that takes place in an imaginary realm consisting of warring lands. More
  
• The Rage
  SCREEN MEDIA/UNIVERSAL Street: Feb. 26 Prebook: now > Gross-out thrill ride about a deadly virus. The gore flows freely in this fusion of Race With the Devil, Re-Animator and any number of zombie movies you’d care to name. The plot involves a mad scientist (Andrew Divoff) searching for a cure for cancer who instead creates a virus that turns people into bloodthirsty monsters. More
  
• Life After Tomorrow
  ARTS ALLIANCE AMERICA Street: Feb. 26 Prebook: now > The young actresses from Annie recount their 'hard-knock’ lives. The informal sorority of women who played the lead role and “the orphans” in the Broadway and national touring companies of Annie are profiled in this friendly, informal talking-head doc. More
  
• The Independent
  ALLUMINATION Street: Feb. 12 Prebook: now > Jerry Stiller scores as an exploitation director. The Independent is an amiable, sporadically funny spoof of the exploitation business, in the form of a mockumentary about Z-budget moviemaker Morty Fineman (Jerry Stiller). The snippets of his pictures are amusing riffs on genre movies past and present, but the frame device, about Morty and his dau... More
  
• Redacted
  MAGNOLIA Street: Feb. 19 Prebook: Jan. 22 > Brian De Palma’s controversial Iraq War drama boasts good ideas but troubled scripting. Brian De Palma returns to his renegade filmmaking roots with this fictionalized version of the real-life incident in which U.S. soldiers raped an Iraqi teen and killed her family. More
  
• Los Muertos
  FACETS Street: Jan. 29 Prebook: Jan. 8 > Superb visual chronicle of an ex-con’s downriver odyssey. Quiet and mysterious, this eye-catching Argentinean film concerns the release from prison of an older gentleman (Argeninto Vargas) who killed his brothers. Filmmaker Lisandro Alonso, described as a “poet and master” of Argentinean cinema by Variety, exhibits a sure hand as he... More
  
• Dispatch: Zimbabwe
  VDI/Universal Republic Street: Jan. 29 Prebook: Jan. 9 > Leading indie band holds a 'Garden party’ for charity. The indie band Dispatch, who cultivated an immense following in the late ’90s through the Web and live performances, are seen here playing at Madison Square Garden in July 2007. More
  
• The Naked Brothers Band: Season 1
  The popular pint-sized rockers from Nickelodeon get their first box set. Street: Jan. 8 Prebook: now The “Naked Brothers” are the two child actor-musician sons of Thirtysomething’s Polly Draper, who masterminded this hit Nickelodeon series (the band’s odd name is an in-family joke; not literal). More