RECOMMENDED:
Bunny Chow: Three friends, aspiring stand-up comedians, leave girlfriends behind on a weekend road trip to a rock festival where they’re to perform. Sex, drugs, and shenanigans ensue. The plot could be from any lame-brained Hollywood comedy, but this black-and-white South African feature brims with humanity and humor, and offers a mostly angst-free look at a generation which has grown up in a post-apartheid society. Part of the Global Film Initiative series.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle: Robert Mitchum gives one of his best later performances in this gritty 1973 crime drama from director Peter Yates (“Bullitt”). Facing a prison stretch that would leave his wife alone and impoverished, veteran hood Eddie Coyle is tempted to turn snitch in order to live out his final years in peace. Low-key, cynical, and grimy in the best early 70s fashion, with a score seemingly straight out of a “Kojak” episode, it features fine work from not only Mitchum but also Peter Boyle, playing a particularly amoral bartender.
Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards!: Japanese auteur Seijun Suzuki and his frequent star Joe Shishido team up for this 1963 candy-colored crime drama about an intrepid private dick who goes undercover to break up a fencing ring. Not as crazy as later Suzuki masterpieces like “Branded to Kill,” but still has its share of weirdness and style, including a couple of odd musical numbers.
Kept and Dreamless: This Argentine drama set during the economic crisis of the 1990s centers on a nine-year-old girl who copes with her eccentric and ultimately dysfunctional environment, including her coke-addled, irresponsible mom. Incorporating bittersweet humor against its grim backdrop, it’s a compelling study of a child forced into maturity by circumstance, and thriving. Part of the Global Film Initiative Series.
Man Hunt: In this restored, rarely seen 1941 Fritz Lang thriller, a British hunter (Walter Pidgeon) in Bavaria just before the outbreak of World War II finds none other than Adolf Hitler in his sights. He ends up on the run from Nazis on a steamer back to London and then around the city. Tightly made wartime thriller notable for being Lang’s first opportunity to depict the country he fled for America. Great cast includes Roddy McDowall (in his first significant film role), John Carradine, George Sanders, and Joan Bennett.
Pigs, Pimps, and Prostitutes: 3 by Shohei Imamura: A trio of fascinating, hard-hitting near-masterpieces from one of postwar Japan’s bravest filmmakers: “Pigs & Battleships” (1961), “Insect Woman” (1963), and “Intentions of Murder” (1964). Each, rentable separately, chronicles with an unflinching, stylish eye, the desperation and perseverance of Japanese life during and in the wake of the American occupation.
Wholphin #8: More weird and wonderful short films from the McSweeney’s cabal, including a 40-minute piece in which James Franco utterly destroys a bedroom, as well as a horrifying short documentary on rich teenagers.
ALSO OF NOTE:
13 Most Beautiful…Songs for Andy Warhol Screen Tests: A baker’s dozen of Warhol’s famous ‘screen tests,’ featuring Lou Reed, Edie Sedgwick and others, with newly composed soundtracks.
3 Seconds Before Explosion: Classic Japanese weirdness and style, in the form of a 1967 thriller from Nikkatsu studios about a special agent who goes undercover to stop a heist of precious gems.
Chandni Chowk to China: When a humble street vendor in Delhi, India, is identified as the reincarnation of a Chinese hero, it leads to a crazy mix of Bollywood musical and Asian martial arts epic.
Crips and Bloods: Made in America: From the director of “Dogtown & Z-Boys” and “Riding Giants” comes a hard-hitting look at the surprisingly epic history of America’s two most notorious street gangs.
The Dana Carvey Show: Finally on DVD, this short-lived 1996 sketch comedy series boasted now-famous writers/cast members such as Stephen Colbert, Charlie Kaufman, Steve Carell, Robert Smigel, and Louis C.K.
Debauched Desires: Four Erotic Masterpieces by Masaru Konuma: More disturbing, campy, and bizarre Japanese soft-core “pink films” from the 1970s than you can shake a stick at.
Doc: Stacy Keach plays Doc Holliday in this revisionist 1971 take on the Wyatt Earp story from director Frank Perry (“Mommie Dearest”).
Eden Log: No, it’s not about the first bowel movement. The latest from Magnolia Films’ Six Shooter Film Series (“Let the Right One In”) is a grimy French sci-fi tale about a mysterious, muck-covered guy.
Happily Ever After: This darkly humorous Japanese drama explores the unhappy life of a thirty-something waitress trapped in a dysfunctional relationship with a volatile lout.
Mississippi Chicken: The rights of workers and of minorities are examined in this documentary about poultry plants in the deep South, largely manned by Latin American immigrants.
Munyurangabo: Two boys, one Hutu and one Tutsi, embark on a journey into their pasts in this drama from Rwanda set in the aftermath of that country’s horrific genocide.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop: People like it when fat guys fall down, and my kid’s gotta eat, so please rent this Segway-powered piece of classic slapstick comedy.
Seth McFarlane’s Cavalcade of Comedy: An anthology of too-hot-for-TV animation from the creator of “Family Guy” and “American Dad.”
Time Limit: Karl Malden’s only directing credit came from this 1959 military court-martial drama starring Richard Widmark as the prosecutor and Richard Basehart as the Korean War soldier charged with treason.
True Blood: Season 1: Sookie Stackhouse meets a bunch of vampires in this HBO series adapted from the Charlaine Harris novels; Anna Paquin stars as the telepathic diner waitress.
Valkyrie: Tom Cruise is going to kill Hitler! Now you feel bad about all those Scientology jokes, don’t you, you little Hitler-lover!
We Feed the World: The globalized food industry gets the twice-over in this documentary which probably won’t end by declaring that America is a universal force for good in the world.
Young Billy Young: Robert Mitchum plays a peace-loving man who takes a job as an Old West town marshal in order to settle an old score in this 1969 western co-starring Angie Dickinson.
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