Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ****½

 Afterschool -- the not quite new film by Antonio Campos that made its New York debut two years ago at the 2008 NY Film Festival, after playing Cannes and then moving on to Berlin -- begins with a scene that brings to mind the finale of Olivier Assayas' Demonlover. As you might expect from something that startling, the movie takes off into a narrative that addresses the subjects of kids, adults, teachers, school and society in general - always with a camera seemingly present. It's not pretty.

In fact, it's been awhile since I've seen anything that depressed me as much as this film. This is not because of its quality level, for Campos has achieved something difficult and demanding on his end and ours: making a movie about the next generation that is slow, often very quiet, and runs the risk of alienating its audience. That it will not put off thoughtful adults is due to Campos' technical skill and his careful planning of what happens and when -- and how the insular little world that the writer/director captures reacts to the event at the center of the movie.

Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Anderson 
Rating (out of 5): ***½

If you thought Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was an odd duck, just wait until you see this. Produced by David Lynch and directed by Herzog, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done plays like an unholy offspring of both maverick outsiders, filled with unsettling, dreamlike moments, but also plenty of dark laughs. It's apparently based on the story of a real-life killer, but the movie is about a disturbed man, Brad McCullum (Michael Shannon), who still lives with his creepy mother (Grace Zabriskie, a veteran of many David Lynch projects).

by Jeffrey M. Anderson 

Lisa Cholodenko's well-received 1998 debut High Art was a major landmark for lesbian filmmaking in the '90s, even if the writer-director makes films more to please herself than to fill any LGBT niches. After moving from New York to Los Angeles (where she shot 2002's titularly set ensemble drama Laurel Canyon—which, coincidentally, was centered around straight people), dealing with distribution troubles and working in television (directing episodes of The L Word and the short-lived Push, Nevada), the 46 year-old auteur returns to the big screen with her finest and most widely released effort yet, The Kids Are All Right.

Co-winner of the Audience Award at the Cinequest Film Festival, The Village Barbershop is one of those little indie films you can't help but root for. Variety's Dennis Harvey wrote: "Feeling as crustily comfortable as its titular environ, Village Barbershop is an old-hat story -- curmudgeon grudgingly takes in brash youth, with eventual life-enhancing benefits for both. But in this case, the old hat is well worn, and debuting writer-director Chris Ford has blown most of the dust off. Result is a cannily low-key charmer."

It stars John Ratzenberg (still most famous for his long-running role as Cliff Claven on Cheers, but who has also made quite a career out of doing fine voice work for many Pixar features) as that curmudgeon, a small-town haircutter whose melancholy, and rigid, life is altered when a woman shows up looking for a job as his other barber. The film was shot in Reno and Northern California and looks quite good given it's small budget.

We chatted by email with filmmaker Ford, lead actress Shelly Cole, and supporting actor Amos Glick (who plays Ratzenberg's Scrooge-ish landlord.) Each were quite candid with us about the trials and rewards of making a "small" film like Village Barbershop.