NEW RELEASES - January 24 HIGHLIGHTS

Initial D (2005).

From Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, the directorial team that brought us Infernal Affairs, comes a live action adaptation of the extraordinarily popular anime series.

The film, in fact, elicits similar reactions as the series. Variety's Grady Hendrix, for example, writing at his own blog, Kaiju Shakedown: "I don't like cars, I don't like sports and I don't like jocks, but I do like Initial D."

The Aristocrats (2005).

By now, you've heard about this one, surely one of the dirtiest movies ever made. The dirt, of course, is purely verbal, but it's vivid enough. Well over "a hundred of the funniest people in the world," as executive producer Penn Jillette told Jonathan Marlow back in August, tell the same joke - it's the over-a-hundred different ways they each make it their own that makes watching the doc that's hit several critics' year-end best-of-2005 lists like watching a hot-hot-hot after-hours jam session.

Thumbsucker (2005).

In Film Threat, Bob Westal praises the "goofy yet incisive sense of humor and some extremely strong performances. Young Lou Pucci [who won a Silver Bear for his performance in Berlin] pulls off something of a coup, transitioning from traditional high school loser, to Ritalin-popping master debater, to would-be stoner and more while maintaining a strong personal core. Vince Vaughn and Tilda Swinton are utterly believable as the pair that would have produced this clearly bright but also completely adrift, young man. In the world of the goofy yet salient, Vince Vaughn, Benjamin Bratt, and especially Keanu Reeves all bring welcome humor and varying shades of strangeness."

In September, Jonathan Marlow had a long and wide-ranging talk with first-time director Mike Mills; Thumbsucker is only one of many topics of the conversation.

Oliver Twist (2005).

"The resounding 'meh' of indifference that has greeted Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist comes as the surest proof available that our film culture's priorities are, frankly, f*cked," wrote Jeff Reichert and Nick Pinkerton in Reverse Shot this fall. "What's being missed, foremost, is filmmaking so vocationally firm, effaced to storytelling means, and soundstage atmospheric, it might very well have come from of one of those great expat expressionists, a William Dieterle or Rouben Mamoulian, circa 1940. Which is not, however, to say this Oliver Twist ever feels less than Polanski... in fact the hero of this film is probably the most passive, reticent, and emotionally opaque title character in a major production since, well, The Pianist (the films share a screenwriter, Ronald Harwood)."

Fightplan (2005).

The critics ho-hummed, but audiences loved Flightplan. You don't ride the top of the charts around the world for weeks - during summer, no less - without the best PR money can't buy, a rolling word-of-mouth campaign. The combo of Jodie Foster and a slick premise - mother falls asleep on a plane, wakes up, daughter's gone; what's more, the crew insists the daughter was never on board in the first place - proved irresistible.

Vital (2004).

Perhaps the best way into the film was paved by Todd at Twitch when he caught the film at the Toronto Film Festival in 2004: "[Shinya] Tsukamoto Tetsuo: The Iron Man is one of the most influential and extreme pieces of experimental film to come out of Japan - or just about anywhere, really - in past years but it was his Bullet Ballet that really convinced me this was a man to watch, someone with important things to say about humanity. Last year's Snake of June is a flat out masterpiece that cemented Tsukamoto's reputation as a master film maker, at least in my mind, so I was more than a little excited to hear that he had a new film coming starring Tadanobu Asano - one of my very favorite actors in the world. Tonight was my chance to see that film and I did not leave disappointed."

The Virgin Spring (1960).

"A harrowing, yet ultimately affirming portrait of faith, humanity, and atonement," writes Acquarello at Strictly Film School. Ingmar Bergman won the 1961 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and was eventually remade, in a sense, by Wes Craven as The Last House on the Left.

The Criterion release features new video interviews with actresses Gunnel Linblom and Birgitta Petersson and audio commentary by Bergman scholar Birgitta Steene.

Address Unknown (2001).

"Rarely has a film portrayed human suffering with such unflinching accuracy as in this film," writes Ian John at DVD Talk. "What makes this gloomy drama so effective is the typically simple direction from Kim Ki-duk and the excellent performances from the cast.... The film manages to be sympathetic without being judgmental, in that it is a very observational piece of work, a strange mix of sadness, black humor, cruelty, beauty and love."

Early this summer, Jonathan Marlow interviewed Kim Ki-duk.

Little Lord Fauntleroy (1995).

A BBC production based on the classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. "Well-acted and believable and Little Lord Fauntleroy is not too sweet to be believed," writes one IMDb user.

Awol One: A Road to Nowhere (2006).

This collection of bootleg footage follows underground hip-hop sensation Awol One on several world tours. The film also features performances by The Shapeshifters, 2 Mex, Xololanxinxo, and Busdriver, with music by Fat Jack, Mascaria, The Four Eyed Mortals, DJ Epsid, and many more.

Planetes Volume 5 (2006).

"The idea behind Planetes is so simple yet so brilliant - make a sci-fi series which take a serious, highly technical look at the very real problem of orbital trash and the people who collect it," writes Theron "Key" Martin for the Anime News Network. "Yeah, we're really talking about a series about not-so-glorified space garbage collectors, but the fact that this is space adds entirely new dimensions of complexity and importance to their travails.... [O]ccasionally funny and often utterly fascinating... The true beauty of Planetes lies in its realistic future vision and attention to detail."

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig: Volume 3 (2006).

"Better than the first season," writes Ursus. "Better writing, music (Yoko Kanno is the Bee's Knees Baby). Good Animation. The lead voice actors are among my favorites."

Browse the New Releases Archive for more recent arrivals.