Darren Aronofsky, the director of mind-benders like Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000) and The Fountain (2006), and Oscar-winning actress Marisa Tomei, dropped by to discuss their latest film, The Wrestler, which is something of a departure for both of them.  Mickey Rourke, winning rave notices for the film, stars as Randy 'The Ram' Robinson, a former superstar of 1980s still wrestling on a small-time circuit for tiny paychecks and little glory. Tomei plays Cassidy, a stripper, and his only true confidant over the years. (Both actors won San Francisco Film Critics Circle awards this week.) Rather than a high visual style, Aronofsky directs with a more documentary-like immediacy, and the result is an impressively rich character study, set in a unique, sad and fascinating world. The film is opening over the next month... Read article >>

Generation Kill Rent 

Fans of HBO's The Wire probably already know that show's co-creators Ed Burns and David Simon followed it up with this equally ambitious, if not quite as dramatically successful Iraq War series about a journalist's time with a Marines battalion. "The bold directorial experiment of the first episode fits well in the master plan of the brilliant miniseries; it creates the exact kind of confusion, uncertainty and here-we-go-God-help-us mayhem of newbie troops heading into battle," raved Tim Goodman. "It feels real - and that realness is bracing, sad and funny in equal measures. There's been a drought in the HBO pipeline, but Generation Kill is proof that the creative tap has been turned on again."

American Teen (out next week) Rent  

"The documentary American Teen is the most realistic movie you will see all summer," wrote Michael Sragow. "You don't respond to [it] as if it were a conventional documentary; even more remarkably, you don't respond to it as if it were a sensitive teen comedy-drama. The movie has the sureness and nuance of a tiptop novel." Adds Film Threat: "Never has a film captured the spirit of being a teenager better." (Out 12/21)

Also out today: Mamma Mia! The Movie; Traitor; Same Old Song; The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor; Claymore Volume 2; Negima: Season 2, Part 1; Will Eisner: Profession - Cartoonist; La Leon; Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Vol. 6; Wild Country (more below); Will Shakespeare (aka Life of Shakespeare); School Rumble: Season 2, Part 2; Our Own (see more below); Sangre de mi Sangre; The House Bunny (Dec 19).

Out next week (12/23): Burn After Reading; Death Race; Hamlet 2; The Women; Celine; Savage Grace; Delbaran (sleeper); Racing Daylight; Tsubasa Vol 10; When They Cry Volume 6; Nighthead Genesis Volume 1 and 2; Chain Gang Girls.

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Our Own Rent 

"At the XXVI International Moscow Film Festival in June 2004, Dmitrii Meskhiev's Our Own (aka Us and Ours) hit the jackpot. The film received the Grand Prix—the Gold St. George—for Best Film, and also picked up Best Director and Best Male Actor (Bogdan Stupka) awards [it also won a number of Russian Oscars]," wrote Elena Prokhorova in CinoKultura. "[B]elongs to a series of recent Russian films—of which Aleksandr Rogozhkin’s The Cuckoo (2002) is perhaps the most celebrated example—that turn the myth of the Great Patriotic War into an identity quest." This WWII film is not quite a masterpiece -- it gets a bit self-indulgent -- but it deserves a wide audience.

More like this Come and See | Dance With a Stranger

Open Window Rent  Read 

A good example of a film with a "hot" topic (rape) that handles its subject with intelligence, tact and almost no prurience, Open Window also -- unfortunately -- exemplifies failure due to lack of "art."  After watching the interview with writer/director Mia Goldman on the DVD extras, my companion noted correctly that everything Goldman says (the movie is based to an extent on her own rape experience) seemed truthful and correct -- and yet her film still did not work.  It is worth seeing, however, and I do not mean this backhandedly, as much for its faults as for its attempt. Read review >>

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Wild Country Rent 

The BBC praised this low-budget but effective UK horror film, new to DVD: "[S]uccessfully combines the artery-spouting gore of Hammer Horror with the social realism of Ken Loach. Writer/director Craig Strachan's debut feature is also aided by plausible dialogue and fine performances from the young cast, most notably newcomer Samantha Shields." Adds JoBlo.com: "Can’t say that I’ve seen many Scottish horror films, but if Wild Country is any indication as to how they go about things, I’m all for more. Although flawed, there was purity about this film that I dug. You could feel Hollywood so far away from it which was refreshing." [Scroll through more recommended titles on GC Central.]

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You can buy them all year 'round, of course, but as this is the officially sanctioned "Stressed Out Holiday Shopping Season," here's another reminder: What could be an easier and more rewarding gift for the film geek in your circle of friends and family than a GreenCine Gift Certificate? It's truly the gift that keeps on giving! More >>

Finally: With no GreenCine Dispatch next week, we'd like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours happy holidays. Be safe and well. We'll be back here on Dec. 30.