More Articles By Mayna Bergmann

• Graduation
  MAGNOLIA Street: May 13 Prebook: now > High school buddy/adventure flick doesn’t carry a lot of weight. Graduation is a typical teen movie with a healthy dash of bank robber drama (a la Set It Off ) thrown in, which makes it a shade more interesting than all those other movies about good-looking kids trying to figure out what to do with their lives after they graduate high school. More
  
• Starting Out in the Evening
  LIONSGATE Street: April 22 Prebook: March 26 > A well-acted drama about a septuagenarian writer and a smitten grad student eager to re-spark his career. Capturing the life of a writer on film is no easy task, but director Andrew Wagner, in his adaptation of Brian Morton’s novel, has managed to do it with intelligence. More
  
• Starting Out in the Evening
  LIONSGATE Street: April 22 Prebook: March 26 > A well-acted drama about a septuagenarian writer and a smitten grad student eager to re-spark his career. Capturing the life of a writer on film is no easy task, but director Andrew Wagner, in his adaptation of Brian Morton’s novel, has managed to do it with intelligence. More
  
• Jesus, Mary and Joey
  Cliché-ridden romantic comedy nonetheless has an appealing cast and uplifting message. Street: MARCH 4 Prebook: NOW The Joey of the title is Joey Vitello (Vincent Pagano), a young man living with his tight-knit Italian-American family while searching for a career. Mary is Mary O'Callahan (Marley Shelton), an old classmate of Joey's who returns from a long absence, and the two re-connect ... More
  
• What Would Jesus Buy?
  ARTS ALLIANCE AMERICA Street: April 22 Prebook: March 18 > A serious message about consumerism, cloaked in a comedy. The buying frenzy season of Christmas has recently past, but this documentary hopes to send a message to American shoppers: Stop shopping. Performance artist Bill Talen (in his get-up as Reverend Billy) along with his wife, Savitri D, and his gospel choir, the Church of Stop ... More
  
• The Bubble
  STRAND Street: Feb. 12 Prebook: Jan. 24 > Rising international filmmaker scores with a topical drama about gay men in the Middle East. Taboos abound in The Bubble, including the Romeo and Juliet-like romance between an Israeli man and a Palestinian man as well as an Arab hiding his sexuality in an extremely homophobic culture. More
  
• Moving McAllister
  MAGNOLIA Street: Jan. 29 Prebook: Jan. 1 > Passé road trip comedy with a recognizable ensemble cast. Throw an uptight law student, who is desperate to please his boss, into a rickety van with the kooky, sexy niece of said boss, and watch the shenanigans begin! Writer/producer/star Ben Gourley is law intern Rick, and That ’70s Show’s Mila Kunis is the charismatic Michelle. More
  
• Pocket Snails: Potty Adventure
  SOARING STAR Available now >Unintentionally funny instructional video may help the wee ones in their potty training. Snail trio Gordon, Dale and Buttons of the Pocket Snails series are on hand to help their friend Jake and his little sister, Wendy, through the confusing world of using the potty in this third installment of the Pocket Snails series. More
  
• The Hottest State
  THINKFILM Street: Dec. 4 Prebook: now > Ethan Hawke’s name will sell this talky tale of love and heartbreak. Ethan Hawke’s labor of love, a semi-autobiographical novel that was published in 1996, is now a film, which he wrote, directed and co-stars in. The Hawke-like character William Harding (Mark Webber) is a cute 20-something wannabe actor from Texas who lives in New York. More
  
• Saving Sarah Cain
  Street: Jan. 15 Prebook: Dec. 19 This Amish family drama is positioned to be the first major faith title of 2008. A culture clash between the Amish faith and the more modern world is at the center of Saving Sarah Cain, a film based on the 2000 novel The Redemption of Sarah Cain by Beverly Lewis. Cain (Lisa Pepper) is a big-city newspaper journalist in Portland, Ore. More
  
• A Very Serious Person
  WOLFE Street: Nov. 20 Prebook: now > Drag legend Charles Busch shows a very different side. Those who are used to seeing Charles Busch in drag (and that’s most everyone) might not recognize him in this movie, his directorial debut (he also co-wrote), as a male nurse dressed all in white and with a long red ponytail. More
  
• My Best Friend
  GENIUS Street: Oct. 23 Prebook: now > A surprisingly light—and funny—French buddy flick. Director Patrice Leconte’s strength is in the pairing of seemingly random individuals (a bank robber and a teacher in The Man On the Train; a knife-thrower and a suicidal young girl in The Girl On the Bridge), and his latest entry is no exception. More
  
• Mouth to Mouth
  STRAND Street: Sept. 25 Prebook: now > A cautionary drama about a dangerous cult. In this limited-theatrical release film, up-and-comer Ellen Page (who’s best known as Kitty Pryde from X-Men: The Last Stand) is Sherry, an aimless, surly teenager who gets swept up into a cult known as SPARK (Street People Armed With Radical Knowledge). More
  
• Tara Road
  FIRST LOOK Street: Oct. 9 Prebook: Sept. 4 > Chick lit via Ireland delivered on disc. If it’s by Maeve Binchy, it must take place in Ireland—and Tara Road is no exception. The Circle of Friends author penned this novel in 1998, and it was an Oprah’s Book Club selection the following year. More
  
• The Dead One
  ECHO BRIDGE Street: Sept. 18 Prebook: now > Hottie Wilmer Valderrama will be the main draw in this zombie flick. This comic book crossover finds That ’70s Show’s Wilmer Valderrama portraying 21-year-old Diego, who lives in East Los Angeles and is in love with Maria (Angie Cepeda). On the annual “Day of the Dead” celebration, he dresses up as a zombie for a party̵... More
  
• Secret of the Cave
  FIRST LOOK Street: Sept. 4 Prebook: now > Faith-based family film will have a solid appeal in the Christian market. Secret of the Cave has a Christian-themed message, a Dove Family-Approved Seal and it was a student film made by the Southern Adventist University. The Secret starts when young Roy (Kevin Novotny) is forced by his father (Patrick Bergin) to move to Ireland for the summer, wher... More
  
• The Gymnast
  WOLFE Street: Sept 18 Prebook: now > An effective look at the romantic allure of a unique and sensual art form. Aerial gymnastics is not a sport that gets a lot of play in the movies, and most people only think of it when they buy tickets to a Cirque de Soleil show. But in this case, the discipline takes front and center as a story line, along with the burgeoning love affair between the two... More
  
• The Valet
  SONY Street: Sept. 18 Prebook: AUG. 16 > Slapstick comedy imported from France by the form's modern masters. François Pignon is the alter-ego and hero/loser whom director Francis Veber uses as the protagonist for most of his French farces. Here, Pignon is played by Gad Elmaleh, a poor sap who parks cars for a living and was just turned down by his girlfriend (Virginie Ledoyen) after pr... More
  
• Stephanie Daley
  LIBERATION Street: Sept. 4 Prebook: July 31 > This topical drama with top-rate performances deserves attention. A decade ago, the “Prom Mom” case drew national headlines when a teenager in New Jersey hid her pregnancy, then gave birth in a bathroom stall and threw the baby in the trash. More
  
• Bam Bam & Celeste
  WOLFE Street: Aug. 14 Prebook: now > Margaret Cho’s name will lead the way for this otherwise hit-or-miss comedy. In stand-up comedian Margaret Cho’s first leading turn in a narrative feature film, Cho plays “fag hag” Celeste to Bruce Daniels “fag” Bam Bam. Growing up in a Midwestern town, the friends are tortured by their classmates for being different a... More