Mostly Martha (DVD)

Mostly Martha (2002) is an unassuming, surprisingly moving little film about a chef named Martha who is thrust into the role of parent when her sister dies. She and her niece have great difficulty adjusting to one another -- Martha is neurotic, and the niece has lost her mother. It is touching to watch them struggle toward tolerance, then love for one another. In German, with English subtitles. Grade: B

House of Games (DVD)

House of Games (1987) starring Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna. Written and directed by David Mamet. A psychologist and author (Crouse) wants to help out a patient, so she seeks out the man (Mantegna) to whom he is indebted. In trying to cancel the man's debt, she becomes involved in the world of the confidence man, and is soon in way over her head. It's a fascinating look at con men for her and for the viewer of the movie. Only in the movie's final act does it veer into familiar and overly simple territory. Grade: B+

When Harry Met Sally... (DVD)

When Harry Met Sally (1989) starring Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher. This romantic comedy, set in New York City, has aged well. Personally, I don't care for Crystal that much, but Ryan is cute as a button in this, one of her earliest movies. As a couple, they work just fine, and the dialog is pretty sharp. Especially memorable is Ryan's scene in a restaurant, where she demonstrates to Crystal (and us) that yes, a woman CAN fake an orgasm. Grade: A-

Open Your Eyes (DVD)

Open Your Eyes (1997). Spanish film with English subtitles. I watched this movie twice trying to make sense of it. It's a kind of sci-fi psychodrama thriller, set in the present -- but actually half of it takes place in the year 2145. The protagonist, Cesar, is a handsome womanizer who is disfigured in a terrible car accident. One night, he gets drunk and wakes up the next day lying in the gutter. Miraculously, or so it seems, his life takes a turn for the better -- much better. His woman loves him again despite his scars, and then doctors announce that there is a new operation that can restore his looks. Everything is looking up, but it soon degenerates into a kind of strange nightmare where it is hard to tell dream from reality. This film was supposedly a big hit in Spain when it was first released, but made scarcely a ripple in the U.S. Penelope Cruz appears as Cesar's love interest, the only face that will be familiar to American viewers. Grade: B-

Weeds (DVD)

Weeds (Season 1). Mary-Louise Parker stars in this Showtime series as a widowed suburban mom who keeps her family afloat financially by dealing marijuana. It's full of good stoner humor, as well as varieties of family angst. According to this series, you'd be surprised by just how many people in the suburbs smoke dope. Two discs. Grade: B+

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005) stars a cast of British actors who will be unfamiliar to most American filmgoers. The only familiar face is Gillian Anderson, who makes a brief appearance as herself. The film is a moderately interesting story about the making of a movie based on an old book about the character Tristram Shandy. Grade: B-

Benny's Video (DVD)

Benny's Video (1992) in German with English subtitles. Sociopathic teenager, inspired by home video of a pig being slaughtered, kills a girl he has just met. As an added fillip, he videotapes himself killing her, and later shows the video to his parents.
This is an early work from the Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, who smugly seems to think he has discovered the idea that there is too much violence in the media. While "exposing" it, he exploits it. Grade: D

Wag the Dog (DVD)

Wag the Dog (1997) starring Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Anne Heche. Based on a book that claimed the Persian Gulf War had been faked, this movie makes a surprisingly relevant statement about the relationship between the media, the government and the truth. When the president is accused of sexual misconduct by a teenage girl, spin doctors De Niro and Hoffman are called in to figure out a way to distract the public. Their solution: a phony war with Albania, complete with war footage, a stirring theme song, and a returning hero. Plus, a terrorist plot about a nuclear device that's being smuggled into the U.S. from Canada. It's all fictional, but it's all too familiar. Grade: B

Funny Games (DVD)

Funny Games (1998) in German with English subtitles. Written and directed by Michael Haneke. There's nothing funny about this movie, in which a pair of sadistic young men torture and kill a family of three. Although the director claims to be making a statement about the portrayal of violence in film, I didn't really feel this film had anything to say that justified the carnage. If I had seen it in a theater, I would have walked out half way through. Grade: F

Evil (DVD)

Evil (2003). Swedish drama about a rebellious high-school boy. Beaten by his brutish stepfather, thrown out of public school for fighting, he tries to survive in a tough boarding school without getting expelled. I found it compelling. With English subtitles. Grade: A-

The President's Last Bang (DVD)

The President's Last Bang (2005) in Korean, with English subtitles. Details the events surrounding the 1979 assassination of corrupt South Korean leader Park Chun-hee. Supposedly a satiric retelling of what happened, but if so I didn't get the joke. Grade: C+

Syriana (DVD)

Syriana (2005) starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Alexander Siddig, Chris Cooper. "Syriana" is a serious, tough-minded, issues-oriented film about the American addiction to oil and the effects it has on government, business, and the foreign countries that have the oil. Anyone looking for light entertainment should avoid this movie. Grade: A

Munich (DVD)

Munich (2005) starring Eric Bana, Daniel Craig. Directed by Steven Spielberg. At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, terrorists of Black September, a Palestinian group, took 11 Israeli athletes hostage and ended up killing them all. This movie is about Israel's response, a counter-terror exercise in which 11 Arabs, all believed connected to the Munich massacre, are targeted for assassination. Avner (Eric Bana) is chosen as the group leader for a small cell (five men) whose mission it is to kill as many of the 11 as possible. The movie gets interesting as the killing begins, and Avner begins to have doubts about the mission and what it is accomplishing. What is most remarkable to me is how amateurish and naive the killers seem. They are not men who have made their livings by killing, but men who have been recruited for a difficult mission that involves killing. The film inevitably raises questions about the current "war on terror." If we capture or kill Osama bin Laden, will he not be replaced by someone just as bad or worse? Can a "war" of tit-for-tat terrorism ever be won? The movie compellingly brings such questions to the fore, without trying to provide answers. At two hours, 44 minutes, it's a bit long. Rated R for lots of violence, some nudity and sex. Grade: A

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (DVD)

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005) starring Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan. Comic noir thriller set in Los Angeles has Downey's small-time crook posing as a private eye to stay close to the woman he fancies -- who, coincidentally enough, he knew in high school back in the Midwest. The narrative is full of twists and turns and references to other movies, all very entertaining if you can follow it. Grade: B+

Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (DVD)

Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (2005). Comic Sarah Silverman wrote and stars in this quasi-concert film, which features her irreverent wit and dirty mind. Those who don't "get" her humor may actually think she's a racist as she skates right along and sometimes over the boundaries of "good taste" and political correctness. As for me, there were points in this film where I laughed out loud, so she must have been doing something right. Grade: A-

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (DVD)

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) starring Bette Davis, Joan Crawford. Camp horror classic with Davis as the former child star, Baby Jane Hudson, who faded when she reached adulthood, and Crawford as her sister, Blanche, who had a successful acting career as an adult. Blanche now lives as an invalid in a household where her chief caregiver is the increasingly unhinged Jane. Grade: B

Moonstruck (DVD)

Moonstruck (1987) starring Cher, Nicolas Cage, Danny Aiello, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis. Directed by Norman Jewison. Delightful romance set in Little Italy in New York City, with Cher and Cage as a couple who defy logic and follow their hearts. Filled with acutely observed vignettes about Italian-American life. Cher and Dukakis won Oscars for their work. Grade: A

Jarhead (DVD)

Jarhead (2005) starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Jamie Foxx. Directed by Sam Mendes. Based on the book by Anthony Swofford. Gyllenhaal plays Tony Swofford, who wrote the book "Jarhead" about his experiences as a Marine in the Persian Gulf War. It's not really a war movie, though, because the Persian Gulf War was primarily fought from the air. This film is more concerned with the experiences of the grunts who went to the desert and waited, and waited, and waited for the war to start. Once it started, it was over in four days because Saddam's army had been decimated by the bombing campaign. The waiting, though, is made interesting because we see the Marine Corps from an insider's point of view -- and it's pretty weird. Grade: B

King Kong (DVD)

King Kong (2005) starring Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody. Directed by Peter Jackson. Watts stars as Ann Darrow, the woman who wins Kong's heart. Jack Black plays Carl Denham, the showman who conceives the idea of putting Kong on display. Andy Serkis, who inhabited Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies, here provides the convincing ape-like motion of King Kong. At a running time of three hours, the movie seems overlong, and the climactic scene atop the Empire State Building seems to go on forever. As another reviewer has said, however, this is the definitive version of "King Kong," and there would seem to be no reason to remake it again, ever -- or at least until films go 3-D. The special effects are fantastic, and the acting, especially by Watts, is terrific. Some scenes may be too intense for young children. Grade: A-

Brokeback Mountain (DVD)

Brokeback Mountain (2005) starring Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway. Directed by Ang Lee. Known to late-night comedians everywhere as the "gay cowboy movie," this is, of course, much more. Although some viewers will be uncomfortable with the homosexual-themed love story, the movie is superbly photographed, well acted and tightly scripted. It's interesting to watch and involving. And the theme of intolerance is universal. Grade: B+