Time Out (IMDB) (Netflix--na)
I knew this guy who graduated from law school, passed the bar, and never practiced law. Instead, he pursued an acting/writing career and did temp jobs to pay the rent, using a secretary friend at a real law firm to cover for him when Mom called ("he's in a meeting Mrs. Jones, I'll have him call you as soon as frees up"). He kept it up for years. The lead character in this French film goes much further, hiding his firing from his family for months by living in his car when he's supposedly on the road and keeping in touch via cell phone (presence-without-location being one of the many unanticipated benefits of wireless technology). He also finds some less-than-scrupulous ways to maintain an income. This might be a comedy premise, but it's not that, not at all.

As you might imagine, this guy lacks a sustainable business strategy, and his stress climbs along with the height of the house of cards he builds. The movie's lighting is cold and the music somber, and the performance is appropriately detached for someone who has checked out from the working world, although it's not as interesting as the acting in World Traveler (which has a much thinner plot, however). Pay attention to the ending--you might initially read it as Hollywood, but you'd be missing some nice ambiguity and irony notes.

The Cat's Meow (IMDB) (Netflix)
A speculation about a notorious weekend on William Randolph Hearst's yacht, where one of the guests died a few days after the festivities, by director Peter Bogdanovich (the wunderkind director of Last Picture Show and Paper Moon in the seventies, who quickly self-destructed and is finally making a comeback; known more recently as Dr. Melfi's occasional shrink on The Sopranos). It has many of the same elements as Gosford Park, only simplified and more didactic, with a surprisingly serious Joanna Lumley (yes, from Absolutely Fabulous) providing some book-ending (and to subscriber Janet Borggren's eyes, unnecessary) narration.

Figuring out who's going to get it isn't all that difficult, and you can see how it's going to happen a couple hundred yards away, but that's not the point, and there are some notable performances by Edward Herrmann (Hearst), Kirsten Dunst (his mistress Marion Davies), and everyone's favorite cross-dressing comedian Eddie Izzard, as Charlie Chaplin. Watchable, but certainly not mandatory viewing that's best appreciated by film buffs.

World Traveler (IMDB) (Netflix)

It's a shame actor Billy Crudup doesn't work in bigger films; other than the wonderful Almost Famous, he's focused mostly on indie efforts like Jesus's Son, Inventing the Abbotts and Waking the Dead, difficult dramas that don't even try to be mass-market. Here he's a New York architect who has a premature mid-life crisis, leaves his wife and young son, and hits the road to find, well, something, but even he's not sure what that is.

This film might try your patience--it's totally character-driven, and the restrained dialogue is as spare as the action. Yet watching Crudup, and Julianne Moore as one of the people he meets along the way, makes the journey somehow worthwhile, because they're able to vividly communicate their damaged psyches without saying or doing much of anything, rather than through tiresome made-for-TV-movie histrionics.

Notable Rental -- Apocalypse Now Redux (IMDB) (Netflix)

Francis Ford Coppola's director's cut of the 1979 Apocalypse Now--longer, but more coherent and therefore more powerful. Saw it again in a Coppola film class, where it got the second most votes for best Coppola film, behind The Godfather trilogy (which seems to be cheating a little), putting it far ahead of The Conversation. Based on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," with Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurtz, who has gone so far off the Vietnam war reservation that Martin Sheen is sent to "terminate his command" with "extreme prejudice." Along the way he meets Robert Duvall's Lt. Col. Kilgore, who gave us "Charlie don't surf!," "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning" and best of all, "someday this war's going to end" (in the context of the movie, this is very funny, trust me). While the story may seem wildly over the top, it was in fact based on stories coming back from the war about troops surfing after battles and officers going native.

There's a delicious tension between rightie screenwriter John Milius, war buff George Lucas, and the dovish Coppola that simultaneously creates bloodlust for and revulsion at what you see on the screen, which is beautifully shot by Vittorio Storaro (thought of by his fellow cinematographers as the best around), and hear (Walter Murch did the sound, which won an Oscar). As many have observed, the production was also Coppola's personal Vietnam: the Pentagon refused to help, the Philippine Army helicopters kept flying off the set to fight Islamic fundamentalists (we're watching that movie again now), a hurricane shut down production for a couple months, Brando hadn't prepped mentally or physically and had ballooned to almost 300 pounds, Sheen had a heart attack, and Coppola was having an affair with one of the crew while his wife shot a terrific documentary about the production (Hearts of Darkness). That Coppola pulled this out of the quagmire and produced a film that falls #28 on the American Film Institute's all-time greatest list is miraculous.

Murder by Numbers (IMDB) (Netflix)

Teen angst is deadly. Two troubled-but-hyperintelligent adolescents decide to prove their confused philosophy by killing a random person, which brings in Sandra Bullock (who has her own baggage) as the homocide detective who, of course, bucks the system to go after them.

The performances by the two boys are creepy yet credible, and Bullock commendibly stretches beyond her feisty wise-cracking-girl-next-store persona, but doesn't succeed in connecting with the audience. The teen relationship storyline freshens things up (it's very loosely based on the 1924 Leopold and Loeb case), but there are too many standard crime drama elements dragging it down (Bullock's character is told by her boss "this case is closed" when, of course, she knows it isn't), especially for a movie that's not a whodunit, but a how-is-she-going-to-prove-whodunit.

Enigma (IMDB) (Netflix)
The Allies' theft and use of Germany's Enigma code machine, without the Germans ever getting wise, almost certainly determined the outcome of World War II in Europe. It also provides the backdrop for this romantic period thriller about cryptography, counter-espionage and near-obsessive love. This is a complex puzzle set that requires audiences to listen closely to put it together, and to appreciate the Tom Stoppard dialogue (much like watching a baseball game, if you're just waiting for the ball to be hit, you'll be bored out of your skull, but if you can focus on the pitch-by-pitch duel between the pitcher and batter, there's all of a sudden a lot going on).

The suspense never quite pulls you to the edge of your seat, and there's a Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew-story-with-consequences feel that other directors might have avoided, but it's still a pleasant enough ride for history aficionados, Anglophiles and mystery fans. Dougray Scott (the lead heavy in Mission Impossible II) is the code-breaker and jilted lover at the end of his tether, and Jeremy Northam (the actor/singer/pianist in Gosford Park) gets most of the juicy lines as the spy-catcher. Kate Winslet is the plucky under-appreciated code clerk who befriends Scott, and Saffron Burrows is the heart-breakingly beautiful cipher whose disappearance pulls Scott into the mystery. I have no idea why it's rated R in the U.S.; seven-year-olds can see it in Sweden. (For a great novel about cryptography, try Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.)

Notable Video Releases

The Deep End (IMDB) (Netflix)
A nice little thriller where, for a change, Mom is the protector. Tilda Swinton and the photography are terrific and got plenty of non-Oscar awards and nominations.

The Man Who Wasn't There (IMDB) (Netflix)
The latest Coen Brothers' comedy about "existential dread" (according to them). Beautiful black & white Oscar-nominated cinematography by Roger Deakins, who also shot "A Beautiful Mind." Strong performance by Billy Bob Thornton and a wonderful monologue by Tony Shaloub that almost steals the movie.

Sexy Beast (IMDB) (Netflix)
Ben Kingsley's anti-Gandhi performance of a hood trying to brutalize a colleague into un-retiring got him a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Powerful stuff, but not for the delicate of sensibility.

The Last Waltz (IMDB) (Netflix)
If you disqualify "Woodstock" as being more a documentary about a "happening", "The Last Waltz" might be the best concert film ever (Barbra Streisand TV specials need not apply), elevating The Band's 1976 farewell performance to cultural icon status. One measure of a group is the company it keeps, and the people who showed up to play with them at Winterland that night were mere hacks like Van Morrison, Paul Butterfield, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, and of course Bob Dylan, who they backed up when he went electric in the mid-60's. It's said that Beatles' "Let It Be" was inspired by The Band's debut album, "Music from the Big Pink." Not for nothing were they inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

There's a joie de vivre here that today's too-cool-for-school groups avoid, plus a poignancy that comes from the reminiscences of the members of 16 years on the road, and from today's knowledge that, like for most groups, it would never be the same. Rick Danko and Robbie Robertson's solo careers were far less influential, bad blood grew between Robertson and Levon Helm over song-writing credits, Richard Manuel hung himself in 1986 and Danko died prematurely a few years ago. The film was produced by Robertson, and directed by Martin Scorcese, and the two became runnin' buddies and mutually reinforcing substance abusers during its making. You can dismiss this as a nostalgia trip for aging hipsters if you want (guilty on the aging count, and for attempted hipsterhood at least), but it's also a powerful encapsulation of rock's persona in the early 70's.

To be seen on the big screen (or least a home theater system), and quickly (releases of this type generally don't play for more than a week or two).

Postscript--I was just listening to a radio program done by two Chicago newspaper rock critics; one of them absolutely hated this film, the other defended it, albeit tepidly. Read some other reviews and decide for yourself.

Changing Lanes (IMDB) (Netflix)
We're late, we're late, late for very important court dates. Insurance telemarketer Samuel L. Jackson and law partner Ben Affleck desperately need to see the judge, for different reasons, but they collide in traffic, setting off a messy arc of callousness, retribution, remorse and attempted redemption. Although the actors are all strong (for a switch, the wives are the scariest characters in their small roles), the dance toward and away from a peaceful resolution makes this much more interesting than a linear drive-to-the-climax flick, and the subplot that challenges lawyer Affleck's ethical compass gives the film more depth than you might expect of the number one movie in the U.S.

I would have cut the last 60 seconds of the movie, which tacks on a Hollywood feel-good note that too-neatly wraps up one of the storylines and dilutes the film's impact, but with that exception, this is a very well-made commercial effort that's more than its trailer would imply. (If anyone can tell me who makes Sidney Pollack's cool eyeglasses [he's Affleck's father-in-law and boss in the picture], let me know).

Frailty (IMDB) (Netflix)
It'll be interesting to see how this plays in the Bible Belt. Bill Paxton is the father of two young sons, and a Joe Average one at that, until he begins receiving visions telling him to "destroy" demons, who are, of course, actual people. The story is told years later to an FBI agent in a series of flashbacks through the eyes of one of the sons (Matthew McConaughey), who was old enough to know something was very wrong about this deal, but also finds it excruciatingly difficult to stand up to his dad and stop the killing. That dilemma is the heart of the movie, and there's a twist in the ending that'll generate some conversation on how religion is used to justify extreme behavior (not much of that happening these days...). Is Paxton's character totally nuts, or really hearing the word of God?

Although this is Paxton's directorial debut (he's best known as the comic relief in Aliens: "In case you haven't been paying attention to current events, we just got our asses kicked, pal!"), it's a gutsy one, and the writing and performances are uniformly strong (even McConaughey's).

Big Trouble (IMDB) (Netflix)
A screwball comedy that needs a few more loose screws. There's sort of an "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" ensemble, with pairs of people (combinations of smart, dumb and romantic) trying to find a nuclear bomb (the classic comedy premise). There are some nice bits with rap/hip hoppers Omar Epps and Heavy D as atypical FBI agents, and Dennis Farina as an exasperated New Jersey hit man who can't wait to get out of town (it's set in Miami), plus Janeane Garofalo as a seen-it-all cop, but you would think that the impending explosion of a nuclear device would generate more suspense.

Not a bad film, just an under-achieving one. Expect director Barry Sonnenfield's Men In Black 2 to do better when it comes out in July.

Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mama, Too) (IMDB) (Netflix)
I got carded for this movie, which hasn't happened in, well, never you mind how long it's been. The producers of this critically acclaimed Mexican film decided to not go for an MPAA rating, because they knew they'd get an NC-17 for its realistic sex scenes (as opposed to an R for just about any movie with hyper-realistic violence). If you're uncomfortable with R-rated love scenes, this will stretch you a little, but not nearly as much as, say, "Saving Ryan's Privates."

A pair of recent high school grads con a beautiful, slightly older married woman into coming with them to a beach that they're not even sure exists. The boys have about as much depth as cheap chrome plating on a trailer hitch, and less maturity, but the woman, she's got troubles, and how her vulnerabilities intersect with the boys' untamed horniness forms the core of the film. As mentioned above, the critics are universal in praising this road/coming-of-age film, and I'll agree it's better than most of the stuff coming out, but there's some raggedness around the edges (there's a class-consciousness theme that never quite gels), and it relies on narration for its exposition, rather than organically through the story. Go, but bring your ID.

Panic Room (IMDB) (Netflix)
"Home Alone" for grown-ups, but not for laughs, aside from a few tension-breakers. The trailer lays it out--newly divorced mom and daughter move into a Manhattan brownstone that has the one thing Bob Vila hasn't shown us how to build, a castle keep of sorts to protect against home invasions. Unfortunately, the bad guys want something that's in the panic room, which creates a standoff of nearly Middle Eastern proportions.

I don't ordinarily go for women-in-danger flicks, because of their exploitive, B-movie undertones, but Jody Foster provides enough gravitas to overcome that hang-up, and director David Fincher (Fight Club, The Game, Se7en) brings some style and restraint to the genre. On the other hand, the writing's not quite as fresh and challenging as his other efforts. Forrest Whitaker is the criminal-with-a-moral-compass, and country music star Dwight Yoakam is the menacing wild card who demonstrates why he always wears a cowboy hat when he performs. Certainly not a must-see, but then again, very few new releases reaching that level right now.