Kevin Asch's Holy Rollers is based on the true story of a smuggling ring in which Orthodox Jews were hired as couriers to bring ecstasy into America from Amsterdam--the logic being that no customs agent would give them a second glance, much less any hassle. It would be easy to imagine the plot being played as a broad, goofy comedy, particularly considering the cutesy title they've given it. So the surprise is what a thoughtful, weighty picture Asch has made, and how skillfully he's done it; he (and screenwriter Antonio Macia) take these characters and their situation seriously, and the film is better for it.

The time is 1998, and the protagonist is Sam Gold (Jesse Eisenberg), a devout Jew who lives with his parents in Brooklyn and works in Manhattan as an assistant to his ...Read the entire review

"Holy Rollers" embarks on a tale of drug trafficking that's been sold time and again. There's the innocent soul wandering into chemical trouble, corrupting his innocence and endangering his family, while learning severe lessons on the fragility of family and the torturous consequences of greed. However, the protagonist isn't some streetwise kid or a suburban dolt, but a Hasidic Jew, which is the first of a few inviting twists and turns in this deeply flawed, but effective morality tale, based on a true story.

Facing a dressmaking job with his father that doesn't interest him, the disruption of plans for an arranged marriage that he desperately wants, and an impoverished future, Sam Gold (Jesse Eisenberg) is looking for a change. Neighbor Yosef (Justin Bartha) is searching for ...Read the entire review

The Film:

Big Fan paints a portrait of a man whose life is consumed by his obsession. Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswalt) lives his life surrounded by his favorite sports team, the New York Giants. He works as a parking garage attendant, sitting in his booth, writing carefully worded rants and raves for the radio show he likes to call into, with the hope of trashing rival caller Philadelphia Phil. He lives with his mother (Marcia Jean Kurtz) and is constantly hounded by his defense lawyer brother Jeff (Gino Cafarelli) to do something with his stalling life. Paul may have deeper psychological issues, although there are are few moments where his logic seems sound (Paul refuses to take a job at a relative's department store, and it's hard to see another cash register job being a notable improvement over his current one), and though he doesn't seek out friendships beyond Sal (Kevin Corrigan), another devoted Giants ...Read the entire review

Paul from Staten Island lives in a world of his own making. A hardcore Giants fan, he spends his every waking minute thinking about the next game. Evenings he locks himself in a little box and collects parking lot fees from people going to and coming from lives he cares nothing about; the rest of the time he is locked in his bedroom in his mother's house listening to sports radio, waiting for his turn to get on the air. If he goes out to do something of his own free will, it's usually something Giants-related. Sundays, he and his best friend Sal (Kevin Corrigan) even head out to the stadium to participate in the parking lot parties before hooking up a TV to their car battery and watching the game. They don't go in, they probably can't afford a ticket. Or maybe it's just prefer...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Every so often a film that seems to have a lot, if not everything, going for it, falls through the cracks of public awareness and disappears into the gaping maw of clearance items at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video (this particular film is released, in fact, on Blockbuster's own boutique label, usually not a very good sign that the film was in fact a blockbuster). Have you ever heard of the film Sixty Six? If you have, you're a more astute barometer of popular culture than I ever have been, evidently. (It should be noted the film is also known as 66, which may have contributed, at least partially, to its lackluster marketing campaign--the film's official site uses the numeral version, while it shows up on IMDb in the word form). I was drawn to this title by its plot summary, a summary which talked about a young British boy being Bar Mitzvah'd on the very day in 1...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

"Oh, yeah, I can fly all right. It's the landing I'm not so sure about."

Coming-of-age stories are among the most common in any entertainment medium. Everyone has to grow up, and so every storyteller has something he or she takes away from those formative years that serves as the basis for a story. It's also one of the easiest genres to fake, since many experiences are common to teenagers everywhere, and there is a belief that adolescents and nostalgic adults alike are so eager to toss their cash into the abyss to feel the thrill of youth as it passes that they'll accept any old crap and never complain.

Anyone reading this who was at all associated with Nearing Grace can exhale. Your film is not among the cynical marketing constructs...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Making a living without losing your soul

The Movie
When you combine navel gazing, pot, ennui and slacker-generation icon Douglas Coupland into one film, my sensibilities are instantly put on high alert. They were able to relax a bit though as Everything's Gone Green unspooled, revealing itself as an enjoyable meditation on the difference between living and existing and the influence of the almighty dollar.

Ryan (Paolo Costanzo, Road Trip) is a good-natured artistic soul, and he isn't having a good day, as his personal, professiona...Read the entire review

The Movie

Musicians and actors have long drifted into and out of one another's lives -- the glare of Hollywood lights mingle with the intense heat of the nightclub spotlight, sometimes with good results (Kris Kristofferson has bounced between Tinseltown and the music industry successfully for decades) and sometimes with not-so-good results (30 Seconds to Mars, anyone?). I Trust You to Kill Me is a documentary with a few things on its mind, following "24" actor Kiefer Sutherland around Europe for a couple weeks as he serves as tour manager for up-and-coming Los Angeles rock band Rocco DeLuca and the Burden, whose professional lives are also detailed, but with an almost detached air.

After wrapping up filming on the fifth season of "24," Sutherland and his musical proteges packed up and jetted off for a series of dates in Europe over the Christmas holiday. From drunken par...Read the entire review

The Movie

One of playwright David Mamet's favorite and most recurrent themes is that of masculinity; from "Glengarry Glen Ross" to "American Buffalo" to "Oleanna" and beyond, Mamet plumbs the depths of the male psyche, probing, twisting and digging to uncover what drives men forward, what motivates them, what frightens them and often, what undoes them. Pay no attention to First Independent's oddly shrill attempts to sell this crackling character study as "this year's must-see thriller" or as "wickedly sexy" – it's blunt, brutal and one of 2006's best films, but it's far from standard thriller fare.

A lesser known, but by no means any less pungent Mamet work from the early Eighties, Edmond, is perhaps as close-to-the-bone as Mamet can get (which is saying something) – a deceptively simple tale of a man who is told "you are not where you belong" and decides to emba...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE

There are five stories in "The Great New Wonderful," each of them mildly droll and passably interesting, usually in a quirky way. They are all well-acted. What they do not have is a unifying theme.

This will be news to the screenwriter, first-timer Sam Catlin, who apparently believes that bringing up 9/11 in the last five minutes magically puts everything into perspective. It seems to have that effect on the characters, but the epiphanies they enjoy don't reach the audience. All we can see is that THEY'RE getting something out of it.

What a great cast, though. How Danny Leiner, the director of "Dude, Where's My Car?" and "Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle," managed to get Olympia Dukakis, Tony Shalhoub, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Edie Falco and Stephen Colbert to appear in a film of his, I have no idea. Here they are, though, some of them with only a scene or two, all of th...Read the entire review

The Movie

He's first introduced as a nervous, unassuming type, quietly waiting for a Los Angeles MTA bus – you wouldn't peg him as one of the more influential rock musicians of the last three decades, but indeed, the New York Dolls' bassist Arthur "Killer" Kane sums it up best: "I'm demoted from rock star to a schlep on the bus." Such is the opening scene of Greg Whiteley's poignant, engaging New York Doll, a brisk biography and documentary charting the surprise reunion of the greatly influential rock band, noted as the source of much of the modern music saturating our existence.

A host of bold-face names sit for Whiteley's camera, including Sir Bob Geldof, The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, Iggy Pop, photographer Bob Gruen, The Clash's Mick Jones, author Nina Antonia, Blondie's Clem Burke, bandmates David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain as well as Morrissey,...Read the entire review

The Movie

OK, who ordered the Romantic Comedy starring Tom Green and Brooke Shields, with a side order of two obnoxious kids, served on a dish of Canadian Production Value? Oh, you ordered this one? Well ... you're a moron.

Take Uncle Buck, Mrs. Doubtfire, and anything that Adam Sandler's ever done, toss 'em into a blender with a few shakes of Tom Green's dead movie career, making sure to reserve just a little bit of pity for the still-lovely Ms. Shields, and splatter the ungainly by-product onto DVD. Voila. Bob the Butler.

A harried and germophobic harridan hires a semi-retarded idiot to watch her two kids. Bonds form, audiences retch, credits roll, the end.

Seemingly well aware that the entire universe is still sick to death of his moronic "extreme" humor, Tom Green, in desperate need of a paycheck, flees back to Canada, where he hopes to re-shape his image into t...Read the entire review

The Film:

When Adrian (Adrian Martinez) decides that it is time for him to settle down and create a family of his own he quickly gets in touch with a local agency that specializes in making the white man's dreams come true. So, it should be easy…Adrian has just a tiny wish list his future wife-to-be must be willing to follow: she needs to know how to cook chili, she must learn to feed Andrew's huge pet-python, and every once in a while she must meet her husband's rather edgy S/M needs which he incidentally likes filming in his basement. After all Andrew is willing to give his future wife the chance of a lifetime-living the American Dream, so what could be the problem here!

The problem is that Andrew does not have enough money to place his order. So he quickly strikes a deal with a local documentary filmmaker who is willing to provide him with the right amount of money if An...Read the entire review