Hammer in hand, Vadim Rizov (The Village Voice, The House Next Door) makes an astute attempt at nailing down the gelatinous zeitgeist, at least in how the symbiosis of Hollywood filmmaking and filmgoing will be affected by the ongoing economic collapse. In his provocative and timely new piece for GreenCine: New Depression Cinema, goes from Confessions of a Shopaholic to Busby Berkeley and back. Read more >>

ReligulousRent  

"He's a bombs-away provocateur," wrote Owen Glieberman, "and in Religulous, [Bill] Maher's blasphemous detonation of all things holy and scriptural, he doesn't really pretend to play fair. He's like Lenny Bruce with an inquiring mind and a video camera." Adds Austin Chronicle: "Though fashioned as popular entertainment with laughs, light moments, and mostly humorous segments, Religulous is as serious as a disapproving Jehovah about its mission to upend our rote allegiance to blind religious faith."

I Served the King of EnglandRent  

Forty years after their Closely Watched Trains won the Oscar for best foreign-language film, director Jiri Menzel has adapted another novel by the late Bohumil Hrabal for I Served the King of England, "a film filled with wicked satire and sex both joyful and pitiful," wrote Roger Ebert. Adds Salon's Andrew O'Hehir: "If this actually were 1968, the pipe-smoking sophisticates of Esquire and Playboy would be proclaiming [the film] a nettlesome masterpiece. For whatever good it does this film today, I'll stick my pipe in my mug and agree."

Also out today: Body of Lies; Out at the Wedding; Changeling (Angelina Jolie's Oscar-nominated performance); The Outrage; Rachel, Rachel; Choke; How to Lose Friends and Alienate People; Hobson's Choice (Criterion); Islander; Flash of Genius; Quarantine; Midnight Meat Train; Dead Like Me: Life After Death; When Time Ran Out; Palo Alto, CA; Alien Raiders; Derby; Feast III; Moving Midway [see review below]; Hounddog; High School Musical 3: Senior Year; Nighthead Genesis Volume 3.

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

Moving Midway Rent  Read 

Documentary filmmakers rarely know if and when it's appropriate to insert themselves into their own projects, but in his superbly entertaining and tough-minded directorial debut, New York-based film critic Godfrey Cheshire proves he's certainly seen and written about enough docs (notably those of Ross McElwee, who serves as a consulting producer) to recognize that his onscreen self is an essential role. Turning his camera on Midway Plantation, a centuries-old estate in rural North Carolina that has been in his family for generations, Cheshire introduces us to his cousin Charlie "Pooh" Silver and a Fitzcarraldo-esque plan to literally pick up the ancestral home and move it to a quieter locale...Read review >>

More like this Bright Leaves | Sherman's March

Paranoia Agent Rent  Read 

It's not so easy to find sophisticated anime made for adults. Not that such anime doesn't get made, it's just that it usually isn't licensed in the U.S. Luckily, Paranoia Agent - a TV series created by one of anime's few internationally known auteurs Satoshi Kon - is available here, and it is absolutely not to be missed by anyone who appreciates story-telling with a philosophical bent...Read review >>

More like this Perfect Blue | Paprika

The Films of Michael Powell Rent  Read 

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released two "lost" gems on a new two-DVD set: The Films of Michael Powell. Released in America as Stairway to Heaven, A Matter of Life and Death (1946) is one of the most enchanting movies you'll ever have the pleasure to see. The imagination of the writing/directing/producing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger -- the men behind such brilliant classics as I Know Where I'm Going! and The Red Shoes -- knew no bounds. A Matter of Life and Death can finally tingle the synapses once again, now that it's available on DVD....Read review >>

More like this 49th Parallel | Small Back Room

Come join us for an evening full of punditry, commentary, jokes, trivia, predictions, and general head-shaking as we host a live blog during Sunday's Oscar ceremony. The chat will be moderated by host GreenCine editor/writer Craig Phillips who will be joined throughout the evening by GreenCine Daily editor, film distributor and writer Aaron Hillis, plus a bounty of other film bloggers from around the country. Guest panelists jumping in will include Erin Donovan, Kathy Fennessy (SIFF blog), film blogger and US magazine and Flavorpill contributor Lisa Rosman, with quite a few more dropping by. We hope you'll join us, too. Alone, surviving this year's Oscars might be a rather difficult chore, but together we can do it.

Congrats to the Coraline contest winners: ThomasIII, Amanda Geyer and Christopher Stephan. More contests coming soon!