More Articles By Ed Grant

• 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
  
• Meth
  CINEMA LIBRE Street: Jan. 29 Prebook: now > Candid look at crystal meth use in the gay community. Hardcore use of crystal meth among gay men is the subject of this enlightening talking-heads documentary. Eight users and former users are profiled, with the most touching moments coming when the mother of one of the men speaks candidly about her son’s history of meth addiction. More
  
• Desires of a Housewife
  SCREEN MEDIA/UNIVERSAL Street: Feb. 5 Prebook: Jan. 8 > Deceptively titled indie boasts solid turns by its three leads. Though it sports a misleading title, this introspective indie feature (which did the film-festival circuit as When a Man Falls in the Forest) is not a steamy Sharon Stone vehicle, but rather a well-acted character study about the intertwined lives of three lonely people. More
  
• Canvas
  SCREEN MEDIA/UNIVERSAL Street: Jan. 29 Prebook: Jan. 8 > Bittersweet portrait of a mother's schizophrenia, bolstered by solid performances. Marcia Gay Harden's terrific lead performance is the linchpin of this problem drama about the profound effect a schizophrenic woman's mood swings have on her husband (Joe Pantoliano) and son (newcomer Devon Gearhart). More
  
• Millennium Crisis
  SHOCK-O-RAMA Street: Jan. 29 Prebook: Dec. 28 > Flashy low-budget sci-fi about a chameleon-like woman recruited by aliens. Cobbling together plot elements from Blade Runner, The Fifth Element and Underworld, this low-budget sci-fi/action picture concerns a woman with chameleonic powers who is recruited by aliens to become a secret weapon in their war against another race. More
  
• Bordertown
  THINKFILM Street: Jan. 29 Prebook: Jan. 3 > Corny message drama equips J-Lo with a social conscience and blonde hair. Earnestness is the order of the day in this cliché, fictional drama inspired by very serious real-life events. The events in question are the unexplained murders of hundreds of young women in Juarez, Mexico, a mystery that has already served as the basis for one prestig... More
  
• The Attic
  ALLUMINATION Street: Jan. 15 Prebook: Dec. 18 > A dead twin is the monster in this familiar, but stylish frightfest. Director Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary and a slew of Madonna videos) infuses this rather standard story about a young woman (Elisabeth Moss of AMC’s Mad Men) haunted by her dead twin with a heavy dose of “J-horror” attitude. More
  
• Torchwood: The Complete First Season
  BBC/WARNER Street: Jan. 22 Prebook: Dec. 18 > Sexy, smartly scripted Dr. Who spin-off. Torchwood is a sci-fi TV series with a number of distinctive differences: it is set in Cardiff, Wales, not London, England; its investigators have their headquarters located on a rift in time and space, so they can journey in pretty much any direction; and two of the leads are established as bisexual in t... More
  
• DarkBlueAlmostBlack
  STRAND Street: Jan. 8 Prebook: Dec. 6 > Smart and sexy family saga in the vein of Pedro Almodóvar. Family and romantic ties nearly strangle all the characters in this well-played comedy-drama about a young man (Quim Gutiérrez) who is asked to impregnate his impotent brother’s imprisoned girlfriend. More
  
• Confessions of a Superhero
  ARTS ALLIANCE AMERICA Street: Jan. 22 Prebook: Dec. 18 > Eccentric, absorbing study of the “superheroes” who pose for photos in Hollywood. Confessions of a Superhero combines two favorite themes of recent indie documentaries: the “superfan” and the “underside of Hollywood. More
  
• Walt Disney Treasures: Disneyland—Secrets, Stories and Magic
  Disney Street: Dec. 11 Prebook: now > No “E” ticket necessary for this celebration of the famed theme park. Film historian Leonard Maltin is an unabashed Disney fan, so he is in his element here, hosting a series of documentaries about the “Happiest Place on Earth.” This two-disc package—which will no doubt do quite well in the Disneyland gift shop—has as... More
  
• Paradise Texas
  MONARCH Street: Dec. 26 Prebook: Dec. 3 > Homespun tale of a fading actor and a boy who wants to be a dancer. The specter of The Last Picture Show looms over this family-friendly, TV-movie-like tale of a fading actor (Timothy Bottoms) working on an indie feature in his Texas hometown. Bottoms, known for his starring role in that ’70s classic, breaks out of his George W. More
  
• The Killing Floor
  THINKFILM Street: Jan. 8 Prebook: Dec. 13 > Copy editing gets its comeuppance in this derivative thriller. A variant on Stephen King’s Misery, Killing Floor offers a reader-torments-author scenario that is atmospheric but derivative. In this suspense drama, a horror-novel editor (Marc Blucas) finds himself being stalked, physically threatened and framed for murder. More
  
• The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron
  ECHO BRIDGE Street: Dec. 18 Prebook: now > Dramatized TV-movie exposé of the notorious energy company. Documentarian Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price), wearing his TV-movie mogul hat, produced this 2003 tele-film adaptation of a memoir written by young Texan Brian Cruver (Christian Kane), who worked for Enron during its boom period and notorious collapse. More
  
• A Perfect Day
  SONY Street: Dec. 11 Prebook: Nov. 8 > Holiday tearjerker with Rob Lowe as an egotistical writer. Rob Lowe stars as an author who learns the high price of fame in this inspirational and fairly obvious Yuletide-themed cable movie. The troubles begin when Lowe’s character writes a surprise bestseller and begins to ignore his wife and daughter. More
  
• Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi
  Available now Fast-moving overview of the evangelical movement in the South. Alexandra Pelosi, director of the Emmy-winning Bush campaign documentary Journeys With George (and House Speaker Nancy’s daughter), goes on a “religious road trip” in this informative and entertaining HBO production. More
  
• The Listening
  MONARCH Street: Nov. 27 Prebook: Nov. 2 > Savvy political thriller combines Coppola’s The Conversation and a Bond adventure. The characters and story line of this cleverly scripted thriller are fictional, but it is based on real-life situations: a global surveillance network created by the government a few years back and current concerns over private contractors taking matters into th... More
  
• In the Winter Dark
  BFS Street: Nov. 27 Prebook: Oct. 30 > Creepy Australian character study boasts a small, capable cast. Not a blatant horror movie by any means, this 1998 Australian film does boast a superbly scary atmosphere, which is created by an accumulation of character detail and the picture’s setting, a creepy backwoods community. More