The Wrap Up ...
The Lives of Others	Even though 2006 produced a bumper crop of excellent foreign-language films, Academy Award audiences still were surprised when Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth was aced out by a virtually unseen film about life behind the Iron Curtain during the waning years of the Cold War. Stranger things happen all the time in Oscarland, but usually they involve the snubbing of a really terrific effort in favor of something inarguably inferior. Here, however, The Lives of Others was every bit as deserving of recognition as Pan's Labyrinth (and, for that matter, Deepa Mehta's vastly underseen, Water). Set in East Berlin, in 1984, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's drama follows a Stasi surveillance specialist as he eavesdrop on a respected playwright and his partner, a beautiful actress. The playwright's most overt offense is maintaining a casual friendship with a blacklisted director, but the Stasi agent's boss has a more personal interest in spying on the couple. When this soldier of the state discovers why he's been ordered to waste his time monitoring the conversations, arguments and orgasms of people he believes to be harmless, he's forced to make decisions that could cost him his livelihood, if not his life. There were few places on Earth more bleak, repressive and regimented than the GDR in 1984. Even so, writer-director Von Donnersmarck was able to create characters whose parallel stories resonated beyond the collapse of the Wall and creation of a new European order. Knowing nothing that happened behind closed doors in The Lives of Others would be prohibited by a White House and Congress so enamored with the Patriot Act only makes the film that much more compelling. The acting is terrific, the suspense is real and the implications are universal. Fans of Francis Ford Coppola's similarly themed The Conversation and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist, as well as political conspiracy theorists, could schedule a triple-feature and invite all their paranoid friends. The extras include deleted scenes. a making-of featurette, commentary and an interview with Von Donnersmarck. -- Gary Dretzka
Perfect Stranger	James Foley's techno-noir thriller is the kind of movie that does almost everything right -- or, not bad, anyway -- but disappears like a billion bits and bytes accidentally deleted in a file purge. I watched the Perfect Stranger DVD only three weeks before its release date, but practically had to re-watch it to remember what happened. If it had been a stinker, I probably wouldn't have sat through the whole thing, so it must have had some positive effect on me. Perfect Stranger is all too similar to dozens of other Hollywood suspense dramas, which get made not because of the strength of a screenplay, but because the early recruitment marquee actors was rewarded with financing. Here, Bruce Willis plays Harrison Hill, an unscrupulous business executive and prime suspect in the murder of the best friend of an investigative reporter, Rowena Price (Halle Berry). To get close to Hill, Price enlists the aid of a computer geek played by the chronically over-caffeinated Giovanni Ribisi. Together, they create two clandestine identities for Price, and invent little traps for Hill. Everything plays out smoothly and with style, but, like last year's Firewall, the film won't linger long in the mind. You might, however, remember being disturbed by obscene amount of product placement, including plugs for Sony Vaio, Reebok, Heineken and Victoria's Secret. The package includes a making-of featurette, but not the alternate endings that reportedly were shot to give test audiences a say on the final outcome. -- Gary Dretzka
God Grew Tired of Us	Christopher Dillon Quinn's much-admired documentary, God Grew Tired of Us, arrived earlier this year with the subtitle The Story of Lost Boys of Sudan attached. Not surprisingly, it reminded documentary audiences of Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk's 2003 film Lost Boys of Sudan, which also followed Sudanese refugees on their remarkable journey from the war-torn villages in the Sudan, to a United Nations refugee camp and, finally, to America. How this might have affected box-office is difficult to say, but it couldn't have helped it. The struggle in Sudan is one of those nasty little wars not sanctioned by the U.S., so Americans haven't been encouraged to give it much thought. The media goes nuts when an Angelina Jolie or Madonna travels to Africa buy a child, but the permanent displacement of 25,000 lost boys hardly caused a ripple of concern. Both films painstakingly described the refugees' harrowing escapes from religious- and oil-induced insanity in their homeland, and the disillusionment many of the 3,500 exiles felt when confronted by the individualistic lifestyles of their new American neighbors. Both films are excellent, but Quinn's film enjoyed the added benefits of being produced by Peter Gilbert, Brad Pitt, Catherine Keener and Dermot Mulroney, among others; narrated by Nicole Kidman; and backed by Newmarket Films and National Geographic Films. The DVD set adds commentary by the director and refugees, as well as a pair of featurettes. -- Gary Dretzka
51 Birch Street	Doug Block's 51 Birch Street is the kind of documentary that is so intimate and personal you end up feeling embarrassed not only for the people on screen, but also for your own voyeuristic fascination with their situation. It's the cinematic equivalent of bursting in on your parents while they're making love in the bedroom. Block was motivated to make 51 Birch Street by his father's decision to marry his former secretary, shockingly soon after the death of his wife of 54 years. Block had assumed his parents' marriage was no worse, and probably better, than those of most other middle-class people. In any case, his father's seemingly rash act prompted Block to deconstruct their marriage through materials in the family archives, and re-examine his own relationship with the man and his own memories. It's pretty amazing stuff, comparable in many ways to Capturing the Friedmans. -- Gary Dretzka
Elvis! Elvis: The Hollywood Collection The Lights! Action! Elvis! Collection Deluxe Editions: Jailhouse Rock, Viva Las Vegas Special Editions: Elvis: That's the Way It Is, This Is Elvis	Today, August 16, our Earth will stop rotating on its axis long enough for tens of millions of Elvis Presley fans to say a little prayer for the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, who‘s been dead or in hiding for, lo, the last 30 years. If your hands get shaky and your knees grow weak, try not to get all shook up. Gravity will kick back in, and, soon enough, you’ll be back standing firmly on terra firma. Paramount and Warner Home Video have jumped the gun on this momentous event by a week by simultaneously releasing 24 new and/or improved Elvis movies titles. It’s no secret that most of the musicals made after Elvis left the military were cookie-cutter affairs, produced on the cheap solely to fill the coffers of Colonel Tom Parker and uber-producer Hal Wallace. His characters were all cut from the same cloth, with names like Chad Gates, Rusty Wells or Rick Richards; they were mildly rebellious, but generally polite; could kick ass when necessary; were equally adept at race driving, surfing and water-skiing; and could melt any girl’s heart with a cheeseball song. These pictures were extremely popular with the drive-in crowd -- myself included -- and inspired sales of soundtrack albums disproportionate to their musical value. Even if no more than one or two songs emerged from a movie as a bona fide hit, no one held it against Elvis. WHV is bringing out Deluxe editions of Viva Las Vegas and Jailhouse Rock, two of the King’s most fondly remembered pictures: the former for its incredible title song, and smoking duets with Ann-Margret; the latter for Elvis actually being allowed to play a multidimensional character, who looked and acted like a real mid-’50s rocker and sang the heck out some great Leiber & Stoller songs. A pair of very good documentaries arrive in Special editions: Elvis: That’s the Way It Is, which, in 1970, transported audiences to the International Hotel showroom, before taking them backstage and to his penthouse suite; and the new-to-DVD, This Is Elvis, a compilation of interviews, home movies and dramatizations. Also from WHV comes Elvis: The Hollywood Collection, which is comprised of  new-to-DVD editions of Charro, Girl Happy, Kissin’ Cousins, Stay Away, Joe, Tickle Me and Live a Little, Love a Little. They’re available individually, as well.   Paramount’s blue-suede boxed  set, The Lights! Action! Elvis! Collection, is comprised of movies that span Presley’s movie career. They include the excellent King Creole, based on a Harold Robbins novel and directed by Michael Curtiz; G.I. Blues, made after Sgt. Presley returned from Germany; Blue Hawaii, Paradise, Hawaiian Style and Girls! Girls! Girls!, all set in Hawaii; Fun In Acapulco, opposite a sizzling Ursala Andress ; Roustabout, with Barbara Stanwyck; and Easy Come, Easy Go, co-starring Elsa Lanchester. Movies referencing specific cities, states or events served both as popular entertainments and Chamber of Commerce wet dreams. Hawaii, Acapulco, Las Vegas and the World’s Fair city of Seattle all enjoyed tourism booms in the wake of hit movies.  he Deluxe and Special editions come with plenty of extras, including commentary, interviews and such featurette material as Kingdom: Elvis in Vegas, The Scene That Stole ‘Jailhouse Rock’, Behind the Gates of Graceland and Patch It Up: The Restoration of ‘Elvis: That’s the Way It Is’. Most of the single discs have been fully restored and arrive in the wide-screen aspect.  -- Gary Dretzka
The Lookout	Last year, Ryan Gosling emerged from the indie wilderness to be nominated by the Motion Picture Academy in the Best Actor category for his sterling performance as a crack-addicted teacher in Half Nelson. If lightning were to strike twice in the same place next year, another young sitcom refugee -- Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who you might remember from Third Rock From the Sun, if not Brick -- would be similarly honored for his fine work in The Lookout. Gordon-Levitt probably wouldn’t win, in any case, but, as they say in Hollywood, an Oscar nomination is a rich enough reward in and of itself. In writer-director Scott Frank’s thoroughly engrossing and highly intelligent thriller, Gordon-Levitt played a former prep hockey hero whose reckless driving left two friends dead, another an amputee and his ability to function as an adult forever in doubt. Four years later, Chris "Slapshot" Pratt works as a night janitor in a Kansas City bank, but harbors ambitions of someday becoming a teller or co-owner of a diner with his outgoing blind friend, Lewis (Jeff Daniels, in another amazing performance). While enjoying a post-work bottle of sparkling water, Pratt runs into a guy who followed his hockey exploits in high school and introduces him to  a new circle of bottom-feeding friends. Soon enough, the aspiring felon (Gary Spargo, Match Point) asks Pratt to stand guard while his crew robs the bank in which he works. Pratt isn’t so far removed from normal thought that he can’t recognize a crisis of conscience when it presents itself, and he also understands that the notes he keeps to back up his short-term memory won‘t shield him from harm. Frank, who wrote the screenplays for Out Of Sight and Get Shorty, hit the bulls-eye in his taut, no-frills directorial debut. The acting is spectacular, and, even though The Lookout was shot in Manitoba, it managed to capture the frozen soul of American’s Midwest in winter. In this way, it joins the crime novels of Scott Phillips (The Ice Harvest, The Walkaway) and such kindred films as Badlands, In Cold Blood and Fargo. The extra features are fine, but nothing out of the ordinary. If you happen to know any Academy voters, please pass your copy of The Lookout on to them. -- Gary Dretzka
The Milky Way: Criterion Collection Luis Bunuel Boxset: Gran Casino/The Young One	The recent deaths of Michaelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman coincided with the arrival in my mailbox of material from another 20th Century master no longer with us, Luis Buñuel. Like his Italian and Swedish peers, the intermittently Spanish filmmaker enjoyed his greatest success in the United States in the '60s. Such landmark titles as Persona, Blowup and Belle de Jour competed for American eyes not only with such arthouse mainstays as Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Akira Kurosawa, but also the best Hollywood had to offer audiences and Oscar voters. It was a magical time for lovers of international cinema, and the imports almost certainly influenced the generation of American filmmakers that would stand Hollywood on its head in the '70s. Isn't it wonderful that we can enjoy the work of these masters in a medium created to enhance the viewing experience for everyone? Criterion Collection's edition of The Milky Way is important because it sheds added light on the first title in what Bunuel intended to be a trilogy, along with The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Phantom of Liberty, about the search for truth. In it, a pair French beggars embark on a pilgrimage to Spain's holy city of Santiago de Compostela. Along the way, they encounter an array of surreal characters and situations, all representative of various aspects of Catholic doctrine and Bunuel's famous distain for religious fanaticism. Its mocking tone explains the short-shrift given Milky Way by U.S. distributors upon its release in 1969. The set adds a video introduction by screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere; an interview with film scholar Ian Christie; the featurette, Luis Bunuel: Atheist Thanks to God; a new subtitle translation; a booklet featuring essays by Carlos Fuentes and Mark Polizzotti; and an interview with Bunuel. Although Gran Casino and The Young One arrived from Lionsgate in less pristine condition than the Criterion Collection package -- most DVDs do, of course -- they retain their value as entertainments and worthwhile additions to Bunuel collections. Gran Casino, which was made in 1947, during the filmmaker's self-exile in Mexico, is a fairly mainstream period melodrama. Set in Tampico during Mexico's oil boom, the story concerns the disappearance of an Argentine energy magnate after two escaped convicts are hired to work on one of his rigs. During the investigation, the boss' sister forms an alliance with one of the suspected killers. Another rarity, The Young One, was one of only two films shot by Bunuel in English. Also known as White Trash, the 1960 release examines racism, pedophilia, greed and interracial lust in the American South (actually, an island off Mexico). In it, a black jazz musician takes refuge on an offshore game reserve after being accused of raping a white woman. Once there, he encounters a girl in her early teens who takes a fancy to him. Her guardian, as it were, is the island's game warden. He's also a racist S.O.B., who considers the girl to be his own sexual play toy. When the warden discovers he has competition for the girl's sweaty little hand, he goes on a safari for human prey. Even though it caused a sensation at Cannes, there wasn't much chance Young One would find traction in American theaters. The set includes informative interviews. -- Gary Dretzka
Fracture	In the very decent courtroom thriller Fracture, Anthony Hopkins plays a murderously jealous husband as if he were Hannibal Lector’s slightly-less-evil twin brother. The similarly arrogant and cunning Ted Crawford believes that in killing his unfaithful wife, Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz), he has committed the perfect crime and can’t wait to test his genius in court against a tough and cocky district attorney, played by Ryan Gosling. Not surprisingly, the wily Crawford survives the first legal assault on his character. It’s when the killer assumes he’s being protected by the Double Jeopardy Clause that things really get interesting. To his credit, director Gregory Hoblit allows the smart and fat-free screenplay by Daniel Pyne and Glenn Gers to carry most of the load. Fans of Presumed Innocent and the novels of Scott Turow should rejoice when they find Fracture at the local video store. Once a Hollywood staple, courtroom dramas now are done best on television. For once, too, the deleted scenes offer quite a bit of new information to the narrative. Is it just me, or does Hopkins shift between an Irish and English accent during various points in the narrative? -- Gary Dretzka
Psychological Disturbia Last Seen at Angkor Premonition	For all its resemblance to Rear Window, D.J. Caruso's nifty Disturbia can easy stand on its own as a thriller for teens and young adults who have never been exposed to Alfred Hitchcock or his voyeuristic classic. Seventeen-year-old Kale (Shia LaBeouf) is a bit more ambulatory than Jimmy Stewart's wheelchair-bound photojournalist, as was the claustrophobic house-sitter in Brian De Palma's similarly suspenseful Body Double. After throwing a punch at a teacher, Kale is put under house arrest and forced to wear an ankle monitor. On either side of his two-story suburban home reside a family whose sexy teenage daughter enjoys sunbathing in her itsy-bitsy bikini, and a single gentleman who Kale comes to believe is a notorious serial killer. Inevitably, two things happen: one, the beautiful exhibitionist discovers Kale's surreptitious attention but sort of digs it, and, two, the guy next-door actually is a murderer … not that anyone believes him. Worse, Kale's recently widowed mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) is responding to the advances of the new neighbor (David Morse). Caruso contemporizes the Rear Window conceit by arming his protagonist with an array of digital communications and observational gadgets. In an effort to prevent his mom from being hacked to death by her new boyfriend, Kale and his buddies decide to break into his house and gather evidence for police. From this point onward, Disturbia becomes a race against time and the beeper on his monitor. It's a lot of fun, and more than reasonably thrilling. If nothing else it could inspire teens to check out Rear Window and other Hitchcock flicks. Michael Morris' Last Seen at Angkor is a messy and occasionally unfathomable psychological thriller that benefits mightily from being filmed on location in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Singapore. During his last trip to Southeast Asia, four years before we meet him, Jeremy Oden not only managed to lose his girlfriend -- literally -- at the ruins of Angkor Archeological Park, but, also, several large chucks of his memory. After returning home, he hired a private detective from Singapore to find the missing-and-presumed-kidnapped Katie, who we get to know through flashbacks. Lo Jin convinces Jeremy to return to the region, so they can get answers by working outside the system … a.k.a., spreading lots of money around neighborhoods known to harbor criminals and prostitutes. We're led to believe that older Western women, who look like school teachers, as does Katie, are valued as high-end prostitutes. True or not, it gives Morris an excuse to spend lots of time in red-light districts. Beyond the mystery involving Katie's disappearance, Jeremy and Lo Jin begin to distrust each other, as well as some questionable ex-pats who work as shills for local pimps. Hard to imagine how Last Seen in Angkor might have turned out given a larger budget and slightly more recognizable stars. The ruins provide a terrific backdrop for the sort of mystery, paranoia and intrigue that plays out here … ditto, the teeming urban street scenes. The film's biggest problem comes in a script that distances its characters from viewers, instead of luring them into the drama. Still, it offers sights rarely seen in American movies, indie or studio-backed. The easiest place to find Last Seen in Angkor is thru such Internet sites as Netflix, Amazon and Blockbuster. For a brief moment there, it appeared as if Sandra Bullock might have re-discovered the joys of performing meaningful roles in pictures of substance. She was quite good as the defensively racist politician's wife in Crash, and excellent as Harper Lee, in Infamous. Sadly, for everyone except her accountant, the perpetually perky 43-year-old keeps returning to roles with almost zero emotional depth. Certainly, this has something to do with the fact she still looks young enough to play characters that otherwise would limit her options, and, hell, like Barbra Streisand, she's her own producer. Like Lake House, before it, Premonition bends time in ways better suited to science fiction than mid-budget psychological thrillers. Here, instead of living two years removed from the love of her life, Linda Hanson finds herself stranded in a time warp that requires her to anticipate and mourn the death of her husband, Jim (Julian McMahon), almost simultaneously. Plots driven by precognition and other supernatural conceits no longer are within Hollywood's strike zone. Psycho-thrillers from Japan and South Korea do it scarier, cheaper and absent a soundtrack that telegraphs every tingly moment. Still, even though Premonition was throttled by critics, it managed to do decent business in the multiplexes, and Bullock's older fans won't mind taking a chance on it on DVD. The bonus features include deleted scenes and an alternate ending; commentary; a gag reel; making-of featurette; and discussion of actual premonitions. -- Gary Dretzka
Dexter: The First Season 'Til Death: The Complete First Season JAG (Judge Advocate General): The Complete Fourth Season South Park: The Complete Tenth Season	A couple of years ago, Showtime declared its willingness to go toe-to-toe with HBO by taking a chance on such risky projects as Weeds and Dexter. One was about a widowed soccer mom who could afford to maintain her comfy suburban lifestyle only by dealing high-grade marijuana, while the other showcased a forensic pathologist who moonlighted as an avenging angel (or was it the other way around?). Fresh off his great success as a gay undertaker in Six Feet Under, Michael C. Hall is brilliant as the deeply traumatized serial killer with a conscience and sense of humor. While pulling few punches, the show's freshman season served to acquaint adventurous viewers with Dexter's lethal methodology; uneasy rapport with his fellow police; overly protective relationship with his sister, also a cop; and the near-lethal blossoming of romance. Season Two would open the floodgates on his tortured adolescence, but, to get there, it's better to start at the beginning. Fox gave longtime second-bananas Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher a chance to stand out on their own in 'Til Death, one of dozens of sitcoms whose principle characters are direct descendents of Ralph and Alice Kramden. Garrett's long-suffering Eddie Stark is a high school history teacher who loves to dispense advice to his newly married neighbor, while Richardson's Joy Stark gives as hard as she takes. Typical sitcom stuff, but, if you like the actors, a lot of the clichés can be forgiven. It's likely that fans of sexy Catherine Bell followed her from JAG to Lifetime's new hour-long drama, Army Wives. Those new to her unusual, multi-ethnic beauty may want to check out any one of the boxed sets of JAG, which, despite the series' unfortunate title, enjoyed a nice run on CBS. In the military-set legal drama, Bell handled real criminals and difficult investigations. In the freshman season of Army Wives, Bell's character has been used as a punching bag by her troubled teenage son and a scapegoat by her bullying lifer husband. In the 10th season of South Park, the boys dealt with the corruption of Chef by the Super Adventure Club, listened to the ravings of Al Gore, saved Earth from a virtual villain and a giant smug bank. Kyle moved to San Francisco and Cartman began a crusade to get Family Guy off the air, citing an offensive use of the image of Mohammed. -- Gary Dretzka
No Limit: A Search for the American Dream on the Poker Tournament Trail Completed just before the world of competitive poker would explode as a staple of cable television, computer desktops and college dorms, No Limit works best when its real-life protagonist has immersed herself in the sensory pleasures of smoky card rooms and camaraderie of old-school gamblers. Unfortunately, the filmmakers were victims of bad timing and unforeseen circumstances. No sooner had they gone into post-production, than the whole tournament scene was overwhelmed by a human tsunami of new, Internet-schooled poker masters. Still wet behind the ears, the upstarts had managed to turn high-stakes poker into a cottage industry for geeks, bored stock brokers and students to young to gamble legally in most states. Almost overnight, the old pros and tournament gypsies were losing their hold on reserved seats on the final tables, and they joined the scramble for endorsement deals and sponsors. In 2004, the year before all hell broke loose, co-directors Tim Rhys and Brian O'Hare followed their producer, Susan Genard, as she attempted to win enough money on the tournament circuit to keep her production company afloat. Genard's game of choice was Omaha, a far more difficult game to learn and play than Texas Hold'Em, which had become the pre-eminent game in tournaments and on television. Through her, we meet an all-star roster of poker players, including many who will be instantly recognizable even to beginners. Rhys and Gerard formerly were partners in life and business, but were living on opposite sides of the country when the filming began and the budgetary meter started running. Beyond capturing the ebb and flow of emotions during tournament play, the movie focuses on Genard's Susan's difficulty in keeping her toddler son occupied in hotel rooms. It presented a challenge no filmmaker should be asked to face, or viewer be forced to witness. Even so, anyone considering a career as a poker pro would be well advised to check out No Limit before quitting their day jobs. -- Gary Dretzka
The Muppet Show: Season Two From the Henson puppet factory comes the 24-episode second-season of The Muppet Show. Being 1976, the roster of guest performers will be more familiar to Boomer parents than their Boomlet offspring, who will delight mostly in the timelessness of the puppets. Each week, Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and a menagerie of other Muppet regulars competed for laughs and stage time against the likes of Don Knotts, Bernadette Peters, Dom Deluise, George Burns, John Cleese, Bob Hope, Steve Martin, Julie Andrews and Elton John. It was also the season Kermit introduced his trademark ballad, It's Not Easy Being Green. The four-disc set also contains Muppets Valentine Special, from 1974, the music video of Keep Fishin' and interview segment, The Muppets on the Muppets. -- Gary Dretzka
The Method Your Life in 65 Adapted from a stage play by Jordi Galceran, Marcelo Pineyro's The Method feels as if it might have been inspired in equal measures by 12 Angry Men, The Game, The Apprentice and Survivor. It describes what happens when seven highly regarded executive job-seekers are brought together in a corporate suite and forced to compete with each other for the top job at a multinational company. The only thing they're told about the recruiting process is that it is based on something called the Grönholm Method, which, in practice, resembles a Texas death match. The Method seems to be based on the inarguable premise that post-yuppie executives have the moral integrity of hyenas, and only the slickest and least-ethical candidate will survive the test. That ability will assure the company's board of directors that the winner is capable of competing in the multinational arena against executives just as unscrupulous. As if to drive home the playwright's point, the recruitment derby is conducted while a loud anti-globalization protest takes place outside corporate headquarters. Your Life in 65 is another Spanish export adapted from a play, although it is anything but claustrophobic. It begins on a sunny Sunday morning in Barcelona, when three young men meet to plan what they'll do all day. One of them recognizes the name of a former classmate in the newspaper obituaries, and they agree to head to the funeral immediately. Once they get to the mall-like chapel, however, they begin to have doubts about whether this was the same boy they knew. Spotting a former girlfriend of the lead character -- and, it turns out, the suicide victim -- they assume incorrectly it's probably the right guy. Before the night is over, one of the lads will have fallen in love with the dead man's sister (you will, too), enjoyed a swim and paella at the beach, taken in a soccer game and discovered the importance of honesty in friendships and romance. Maria Ripoll, who some might remember for directing Tortilla Soup, has delivered a bittersweet comedy that is simultaneously charming, knowing, romantic and achingly fragile. Even though Your Life in 65 -- a title that will make no sense until midway through the film -- takes place entirely in Barcelona, the buddy-buddy interplay among the characters feels downright American. Your Life in 65 also offers a mystery ending that isn't solved until well into the final credits, and some really good bossa-nova-like music. -- Gary Dretzka
The Doom Generation The critics whose views are represented on the Rotten Tomatoes website were split right down the middle on the cinematic worth of Gregg Araki's The Doom Generation, a film that makes Natural Born Killers look mainstream. With the benefit of a dozen years of hindsight, it's easy to believe the scribblers were so alienated by the nihilistic post-punk protagonists that they stopped paying attention after a while. They also were basing their opinions -- negative and positive -- on criteria and standards that were of no relevance to Araki or his intended audience. The story concerns a trio of terminally hip club kids and outcasts -- not recognizable as punks, grunge rockers, slackers or metal heads -- who embark on a gratuitously murderous, drug-fueled, rock-'n'-roll rampage. As such, Doom Generation couldn't possibly appeal to anyone outside that sliver demographic of young fatalists who would rather go blind than read a newspaper. Those few who saw the movie in theaters -- it almost certainly fared better in video -- probably had no trouble recognizing Araki's inside jokes and visual tricks. (The number 666 reappears after nearly all transactions, while the skull lighter of each character is allotted a different color flame.) I didn't care for Doom Generation all that much, but I can see how Rose McGowan's sexy portrayal of an out-of-control riot grrrl might have influenced those pierced-and-inked teens who would associate themselves with the Suicide Girl phenomenon. -- Gary Dretzka
Les Paul: Chasing Sound Blues, Rags & Hollers: The Koerner, Ray & Glover Story Follow My Voice: With the Music of Hedwig U-Carmen There may be no guitarist as revered by fellow musicians as Les Paul. As Chasing Sound demonstrates, the 92-year-old Wisconsin native is a genuine living legend. Paul still can draw a crowd in a nightclub, but his main claim to fame is having invented techniques and instruments that continue to shape several generations' worth of guitarists. His namesake instrument -- the Gibson Les Paul -- has proven itself to be every bit as iconic. Taken from PBS' valuable American Masters series, Chasing Sound combines hit music with worshipful interviews with such artists as B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Tony Bennett, Jeff Beck, Merle Haggard and Steve Miller. The DVD adds full-length performances from the Iridium Jazz Club by the Les Paul Trio; TV appearances with Mary Ford; duets with Keith Richards, Kay Starr, Haggard and Chet Atkins; and an extended conversation with the maestro. Follow My Voice: With the Music of Hedwig combines performance footage with profiles of students from the Harvey Milk School in New York City s East Village. The high school provides a scholastic haven for at-risk LGBTQ teens who would be square pegs at any other academic institution. It has survived controversies over accreditation and efforts by conservative groups to cut off the flow of public funding. Along with verité documentation of school activities and student video diaries, the DVD includes in-studio footage of such artists as Yoko Ono, Rufus Wainwright, Cyndi Lauper, Ben Folds, the Breeders, Yo La Tengo, They Might Be Giants, John Cameron Mitchell Hedwig, creator and star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. U-Carmen documents the staging of Georges Bizet's Carmen by the South African theater company, Dimpho Di Kopane, and music of the youth orchestra Imbumba. Instead of 19th Century Seville, the setting for tragedy is 21st Century South Africa, and the dingy blue-collar milieu of a cigarette-factory worker in love with a police sergeant. The entire libretto was translated into the Xhosa language, which only enhances the universality of Bizet's hugely popular opera and Prosper Merimee's novel. . Anyone who favored folk music in its mid-'60s heyday had a copy of Koerner, Ray & Glover's Blues, Rags & Hollers in their collection, alongside vinyl discs from Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and Dave Van Ronk. The Minnesota-based trio emerged from the same Dinkytown scene as Dylan, and, like most their contemporaries, favored the acoustic music of old-school blues, folk, jug band and ragtime musicians. In fact, these loosey-goosey white guys -- who bore no resemblance to the Kingston Trio or New Christy Minstrels -- sounded so much like the black artists they emulated that the similarities occasionally confused bookers and listeners. At about the same time the Byrds electrified the folk scene, KR&G pretty much disappeared from public view. They would reunite occasionally through the years, as well as embark on personal projects. This DVD expands on a 1986 reunion documentary, which explained where they all went, and added more interviews and full-length performances. Like much of the music created during the folk-revival, Blues, Rags & Hollers is ragged … but right. -- Gary Dretzka
The Doom Generation The critics whose views are represented on the Rotten Tomatoes website were split right down the middle on the cinematic worth of Gregg Araki's The Doom Generation, a film that makes Natural Born Killers look mainstream. With the benefit of a dozen years of hindsight, it's easy to believe the scribblers were so alienated by the nihilistic post-punk protagonists that they stopped paying attention after a while. They also were basing their opinions -- negative and positive -- on criteria and standards that were of no relevance to Araki or his intended audience. The story concerns a trio of terminally hip club kids and outcasts -- not recognizable as punks, grunge rockers, slackers or metal heads -- who embark on a gratuitously murderous, drug-fueled, rock-'n'-roll rampage. As such, Doom Generation couldn't possibly appeal to anyone outside that sliver demographic of young fatalists who would rather go blind than read a newspaper. Those few who saw the movie in theaters -- it almost certainly fared better in video -- probably had no trouble recognizing Araki's inside jokes and visual tricks. (The number 666 reappears after nearly all transactions, while the skull lighter of each character is allotted a different color flame.) I didn't care for Doom Generation all that much, but I can see how Rose McGowan's sexy portrayal of an out-of-control riot grrrl might have influenced those pierced-and-inked teens who would associate themselves with the Suicide Girl phenomenon. -- Gary Dretzka