Hopefully, even if you do consider yourself a slacker, you'll be voting in your state's election today. It's an off-year but the elections are still important. Our state, California, is having a "special" election. We're not sure what makes it so special [insert sarcastic response here], but we're voting in it nonetheless. Hope you are, too. And while you're voting, you can cast your ballot for a particular Video-on-Demand title by selecting it for streaming or downloading. Okay, this isn't really "voting," as much as "paying for," but isn't there sometimes a thin line between those two things? At any rate, do check out our offerings. GreenCine "polling places" are open 24/7!

The new film Jarhead is a very different sort of war movie because the first Gulf War was a very different sort of war. Directed by Sam Mendes and written by Vietnam veteran and prolific scribe William Broyles, the film is a reminder that, as Anthony Swofford (as played in the film by Jake Gyllenhaal) says, "every war is different and every war is the same." David D'Arcy talks to Swofford, author of the memoir the film is based on, about the movie's realism, about waiting to kill and about the ways Marines see war movies differently than everyone else.

There's nothing about Brother Minister: The Assassination of Malcolm X that hasn't sparked controversy. It names names. It's the subject of lawsuits over its ownership and its content. And its maker, Jack Baxter, recently disabled by a suicide bomb attack in Israel, still refuses to follow easier, safer paths. In "As close as anybody's ever gonna get": Jack Baxter, Sara Schieron talks to the filmmaker.

The GreenCine Daily, our award-winning blog, shows you where to point and click when it comes to world-wide film coverage.

Video-on-Demand: Edi (2002).

In addition to grabbing a handful of Polish film awards, director Piotr Trzaskalski's film Edi was the Winner of the Don Quixote Award, FIPRESCI Prize of the Forum of New Cinema ("for its humanity and the warmth showing the life of a homeless man fighting for his dignity, but still caring for people around him"), and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - all at 2002's Berlin International Film Festival. Further thoughts come from the web site Neil Young's Film Lounge: "Edi takes its time to establish its characters within vividly realised environments – the feral city and the seductively lyrical countryside - so that when the rather melodramatic story kicks in we’re aware that what might seem to be implausible developments are in fact elements in a careful and complex character study. As Golebiewski’s powerfully persuasive performance takes centre stage, the plot moves inexorably towards Edi’s climactic moral decision – a soberingly dignified act of unexpectedly moving self-sacrifice and redemption."

You can watch a trailer for Edi on the film's web site, and watch it in its entirety any time you wish via GreenCine's Video-On-Demand service.

GreenCine Staff Pick of the Week: The Thin Red Line (1998).

Presuming the notoriously meticulous director can finish on time, Terence Malick's next film, The New World, is due out soon (and it's too rare we get to say that), and thus it's a fine time to re-visit his last work, 1998's beautiful war movie (and it's rare we get to say that, as well) The Thin Red Line. The film likely disappointed those who went into it expecting a straight war movie. It's not that at all, but rather a reflection on the nature of war, a poetic exploration of what war does to men, and to the world around them. As in all of Malick's films (Days of Heaven and Badlands are the others), the feeling is that nature will survive, even after mankind's follies have played themselves out. What other war movie dares take the time to offer long, lyrical passages of plants rustling in the wind, and animals going about their business (the film is set in Guadalcanal of the South Pacific, where one of WWII's more famous and bloody battles took place). What other war movie takes us through a non-linear story with no single, main protagonist, but rather a host of soldiers (played by a terrific range of actors), all expressing their feelings via voice-over? This latter aspect confused a lot of people who are used to one character, one voice, and one clear point of view. Instead, Malick gives us often stream-of-consciousness thoughts, different characters, but, it seems by the end, a collective consciousness. There is also at least one undeniably exciting, tense extended battle sequence, as the men attempt to take a dangerous, grassy hill. But there's much more going on here. In fact, the film demands multiple viewings. The Thin Red Line was overshadowed by that same year's Saving Private Ryan, but without the latter's penchant for sentimentality, it comes closer to being a masterpiece. The DVD from Fox looks (and, with a terrific score, sounds) lovely, too. -- Craig Phillips

Our highlights of the week's new DVD releases include eye candy (new Criterion releases by two important directors) and real candy (well, on-screen confections, anyway):

Yes (2004). Yes "was created in direct reaction to the events of September 11, 2001, and took its form in the shape of Shakespearean iambic pentameter. Just because it rhymes doesn't mean that the language used isn't contemporary," writes Hannah Eaves in her piece on the film for which she spoke with playfully experimental-minded director Sally Potter and the two actors in the lead roles of He and She, Simon Abkarian and Joan Allen. "'I think we're in difficult times,' Potter concedes, 'but I think that for the film it was a conscious decision to end it with hope. Hope is a choice, a point of view and it's a much more energizing one than choosing despair.'"

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (2005). Better than the original? That's beside the point, really. Tim Burton reimagines Roald Dahl's classic tale from the ground up, just as Johnny Depp approaches the character of Willy Wonka with utterly fresh and (devilishly) innocent eyes. "This movie is a riot of fiendish invention," writes David Edelstein in Slate.

Pickpocket (1959). "Bluntly put, to not get [Robert] Bresson is to not get the idea of motion pictures - it's to have missed that train the Lumiére brothers filmed arriving at Lyon station 110 years ago," wrote J. Hoberman in the Village Voice a few weeks ago. The occasion was the release in all-too-few theaters - but now, thankfully, also on DVD - of Pickpocket (and we anxiously await the release of Mouchette on DVD some day, too). "Ultimately inexplicable," Hoberman continued, "this concentrated, elliptical, economical movie is an experience that never loses its strangeness." This Criterion release features audio commentary by James Quandt, a video introduction by Paul Schrader, a 1960 interview with Bresson and much more.

The Devil's Rejects (2005). Rob Zombie "refuses to call this a sequel to his deranged semi-underground hit House of 1000 Corpses," noted Andrew O'Hehir in Salon this summer, "even though it, well, totally is.... Of course you're going to see this if you're a fan, and of course, like me, you'll admire Zombie for going all the way to nutso operatic bloodletting with this one." Fun for the whole family, in other words!

Another Criterion release today is Ugetsu (1953). "A regular on critics 'best of' lists, the film is basically perfect," wrote David Khune of Kenji Mizoguchi's masterpiece for the Edinburgh University Film Society. "The technique is flawless, brilliantly evoking a feudalistic world where brutal realism and the supernatural co-exist and intermingle, while the Buddhist message that desire leads to suffering is conveyed without being sledgehammered home." The lovely disc includes audio commentary by filmmaker, critic, and festival programmer Tony Rayns, a two-and-a-half-hour doc on Mizoguchi and much more.

"You don't need a master's degree in Thai history to appreciate Thanit Jitnukul's Bang Rajan (2000), a commanding 18th-century war epic that won 11 Suraswadee Awards (Thai Oscars) in 2000," writes Nick Schager in Slant. "Watching [Bin] Bunluerit's ax-wielding souse storm into combat on the back of a gigantically horned water buffalo, I couldn't help but think that Kurosawa would have been impressed."

This week sees the release from Kino of three mountain films starring Leni Riefenstahl, the very type of film that won her admiration from all sorts of quarters, most notably, and notoriously, of course, Hitler's. There's no question that the former dancer and soon-to-be director was stunning in her youth. The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) features an hour-long interview with Riefenstahl, conducted in 2002. Also: Storm Over Mont Blanc (1930); and S.O.S. Iceberg (1933).

New Anime:

Initial D Battle 14: Extra Stage. While we wait for Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's live-action version to hit these shores, the outstanding animated series speeds ahead. How do we love it? Just check out the reviews of Battle 1.

For a more detailed list of this week's new releases, check out this page.

Congratulations are in order for the winners of our Lifeboat and The Mark of Zorro trivia contest: garymc1, hanimal and daliawood (the answer was "The Life of Riley.") Meanwhile, if you didn't win (or even if you did), don't fret. Another contest will be up on our home page this Friday, as we offer up something a little different: a book, It's a Bitter Little World, Charles Pappas' nifty compilation of the best film noir quotations.

The member list of the week: Lesbian historical drama, by LSteele. "Looking for good lesbian flicks set in the past? Here are the best of the very few..."

Thanks, or "merci," to those of you who attended our rare screening of the merveilleux movie Such a Pretty Little Beach, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts last Wednesday. Don't think we'll now be resting on our laurels for awhile. Why, we have another YBCA screening coming up again on Wednesday, December 7, when GreenCine will present Mau Mau Sex Sex. When GreenCine launched its Video-on-Demand service two years ago, our very first title was this wonderful, unconventional documentary on legendary exploitation film producers Dan Sonney and David F. Friedman. Unlike most bio-pics overwhelmed by clips, the film expertly intermingles their earlier work with candid footage of the gentlemen in their twilight years. Join us for the fifth anniversary of Mau Mau Sex Sex's release, followed by an extensive Q&A with the filmmakers. More details on this and other forthcoming screenings to appear here soon.