"Brian De Palma is one of cinema's most hypnotic stylists, a virtuoso whose multilayered tracking shots can expand your perception of space, time, and motion onscreen; so it's a major statement when he throws away his jazzy technique and goes for something rough-hewn and immediate," writes David Edelstein in New York. And that's precisely what he's done in Redacted, "a controversial film, a fictionalized portrait of real-life war crime in the current Iraq occupation, which De Palma has made more provocative by using the techniques of non-fiction filmmaking, TV news reporting, video diaries, and propaganda pieces to challenge audiences to question what exactly they're seeing," notes Sean Axmaker, introducing his interview with the director. Read article >>

Killer of Sheep  Rent 

As GreenCine's Craig Phillips wrote on Guru, Charles Burnett's first film, "certainly the only MFA thesis film I can name that made the Library of Congress' National Film Registry on the first ballot, really is a national treasure... The fantastic thing about this beautiful film is how little it tries to make a statement about anything; it is, simply, life." Adds J Hoberman: "[A] remarkable work--conceivably the best single feature about ghetto life that we have... shouldn't be missed." Read our interview with filmmaker Burnett on GreenCine, too.

This is England Rent  

Shane Meadows' tale of a boy growing up among skinheads in Thatcher-era England (the 80s) is "masterfully charted and acted," raved Jonathan Rosenbaum. "The result is a film marked by eruptions of brutal violence, but also passages of extraordinary tenderness," adds LA Weekly's Scott Foundas. And from Newsweek's David Ansen: "Has the feel of a classic coming-of-age story. It's the sleeper of the summer." We say, Oi! See it. Packs a wallop.

Also out this week: Berlin Alexanderplatz (Criterion) (more on this below, or here); La Vie en Rose; Amazing Grace; Paris Je T'aime; Ocean's Thirteen; Chantal (Misty Mundae); Bloodhounds of Broadway; Shrek The Third; Tijuana Makes Me Happy (low budget indie film won award at Slamdance); Burst Angel: Infinity Ova; Eureka Seven Volume 10; Karin Volume 4: Human or Vampire; Xenosaga 2: Voices From The Past.

New and Coming Releases lists | Your Queue | Discuss! | GreenCine's review blog: Guru | GC Member Reviews

From Tugboats to Polar Bears Rent  

Recommending experimental short films can be a tough business. As so much of liking a regular movie is about taste, it seems that with shorts it can even be more so. They're the pinncale of the vitamin movie in your queue - the one that's in there that you should watch because it's "good for you," even if the thought of watching it is grim business. Well, while Portland filmmaker Matt McCormick's From Tugboats to Polar Bears is indeed a compendium of short films, some of which did even making their debuts in art galleries, it could hardly be thought of as anything but fine... read full review >>

More like this Okie Noodling | Shorts! Vol. 2

Journey From the Fall  Rent  

If you're into movies that really deal with the importance of family--and not in a feel-good, Disney-fied way--give Journey From the Fall a try. I would particularly recommend it to those, like most of us, who felt the Vietnam War was a waste and a mistake, and those who followed the history, who knew that honest elections ought to have been held in that country when they were first promised, no matter that Ho Chi Minh would have easily won. All this may have been true, but it will not prepare you for the... Read full review >>

More like this Which Way Is East | Vertical Ray of the Sun

"Is it a dream that two of cinema's holiest of grails, Berlin Alexanderplatz and Killer of Sheep, arrive on Region 1 DVD on the same day? If so, don't wake me up," bids Ed Gonzalez at Slant, wrapping his comments on Criterion's handsome package for the project one could say Rainer Werner Fassbinder lived to see through. Further up that same page is Keith Uhlich's original review, dating back to April, when Berlin Alexanderplatz was screened in New York, following the example set by the Berlinale, as what can only be termed a Butt-numb-a-thon. The series' 940 minutes were never meant to be gorged on, so we can be all the more glad for this set, which allows us to take it all in as it was presented: episode by episode. More, much more, on GreenCine Daily >>

More like this Veronika Voss | Merchant of Four Seasons

When a resolution calling on the president to "accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians [between 1915 and 1917] as genocide" was introduced, debate raged in the House until, just a week ago, sponsors of the measure decided to postpone a vote on the issue. Among those bound to be deeply disappointed are System of a Down, the band at the center of the unique film, Screamers. The documentary is a hybrid between uproarious concert film and a brisk and urgent history lesson, linking that first genocide of the modern era to the all too many that have followed. The congressional resolution may be tabled, but campaign for recognition of the atrocity is far from over. David D'Arcy talks with filmmaker Carla Garapedian about becoming a Screamer. Read more >>