More Articles By Ed Hulse
- 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 - 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 - Cinema16: European Short Films
CINEMA16 Street: Sept. 25 Prebook: now > Fascinating assortment of early shorts directed by notable feature filmmakers. This collection includes 16 short films of foreign origin, many of them early works by now famous filmmakers. Ridley Scott, Lars von Trier, Juan Solanas, Jan Svankmajer and Christopher Nolan are among those represented. More - Mix-Up
LOWAVE/MICROCINEMA Street: Sept. 25 Prebook: now > Well thought-out, brilliantly executed documentary is alternately wacky and poignant. This 1986 documentary, the first film by innovative French director Françoise Romand, recounts the true-life tale of female babies accidentally switched at birth in 1936 and raised by the wrong families. More - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
HBO/WARNER Street: Sept. 11 Prebook: now > Stirring, beautifully made drama narrowly misses greatness but is still top-drawer entertainment. HBO’s lavishly mounted adaptation of Dee Brown’s 1971 bestseller about the 19th century mistreatment of Native Americans boasts stellar acting but falls just short of being the masterpiece it might have been. More - Michael Moore Hates America
ALLUMINATION Street: Oct. 16 Prebook: Sept. 11 > Caustic indictment of filmmaker Michael Moore lacks the wit of its subject’s own movies. The portly polemicist is hoisted on his own petard by filmmaker Michael Wilson, who makes no secret of his desire to expose Moore as a wealthy hypocrite rather than the bedraggled outsider he pretends to be. More - Welcome to Paradise
FIRST LOOK Street: Oct. 9 Prebook: Sept. 4 > Innocuous, mildly inspirational fare is made to order for family/Christian audiences. Former sitcom star Crystal Bernard plays a controversial preacher (and single mom) transferred from her large urban-based ministry to the small town of Paradise, Texas, which desperately needs a renewed commitment to tolerance and pride in community. More
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