NEW RELEASES - September 27

Lords of Dogtown (2005).

Perhaps you've seen Stacy Peralta's documentary, Dogtown and Z-Boys. Peralta decided the story would make a cracking fictional feature and wrote it himself. Catherine Hardwicke, who broke out with Thirteen, is a fitting and happy choice for director.

"Punctuated with legitimately engaging action bits, grimy pavement-level sound recording, and the occasional blink of wheel-cam, the film's well-cast character study counterbalances its function as self-hagiography," writes Ed Halter in the Village Voice. "Channeling Amy Heckerling for the post-emo era, Hardwicke's pop-Cassavetes melodrama rides as smoothly as a big-budget after-school special, capturing youth struggles from an appropriately blown-out teen's-eye perspective."

4 Films by Otar Iosseliani (1962 - 1976).

"I am trying to create a universe that's not known," Georgian filmmaker Otar Iosseliani once told the New York Times. Though he hardly gives a flying flip about his own popularity, it's still somewhat surprising, given his acclaim all the international critical acclaim and the fact that he was one of Tarkovsky's favorite filmmakers, that he himself remains practically as unknown in the US as that universe he's been creating for decades now. Facets, by the way, which is releasing this collection, calls that universe "one of joyous pessimism."

The four films collected on two discs here are April (1962, 45 mins.), Falling Leaves (1968, 90 mins,), There Once Was a Singing Blackbird (1970, 80 mins.), and Pastoral (1976, 90 mins.). In Georgian with English subtitles.

This Divided State (2005).

You'll remember the heated atmosphere in this country during the final months of 2004's presidential campaign. Well, during the final weeks, Utah Valley State College invited Michael Moore to speak. Keep in mind that this is a county where Republicans outnumber Democrats twelve to one. If you can imagine the brouhaha that ensued, double or triple it. And all the while, Steven Greenstreet was there with his camera.

The result? "Filmmaking gold... extremely moving," wrote the New York Times. Added the Seattle Times in its four-star review: "Gut-wrenching and ultimately tragic."

Creature Comforts. The Complete First Season (2003).

From Aardman Animation, the little cottage industry unto itself that brought you Wallace & Gromit, comes this BBC comedy series featuring a menagerie of talking beasties. Fun stuff.

Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005).

"Is it laugh out loud funny?" asks Beyond Hollywood. Clearly a rhetorical question, since they answer it right off: "That depends. Do you like The Family Guy's brand of over-the-top and sometimes over-the-line sense of humor? If the answer is Yes, then Yes, you'll find the direct-to-video feature-length "Family Guy movie Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story to be laugh out loud funny."

Samurai Champloo. Volume 5 (2005).

"This is from Shinichiro Watanabe, also responsible for the wildly popular Cowboy Bebop. Far as I can tell you won't go wrong watching something with his name on it," writes ahogue. "It's just good fun, really."

"Once again Shinichiro Watanabe has created a masterpiece that takes a bit of getting used to because it is so different," adds janeable. "Here we have a lot of authentic elements of Edo era Japan all mixed up with modern day hip hop, detective stories and beetle wrestling (apparently a new Japanese craze)."

And razornails: "There are few anime series that fulfull all three elements of anime (art, music and story) in such a way that makes it great. This is one of those series."

Ah! My Goddess. Volume 1: Always and Forever (2005).

You've read the manga, you've seen the movies, you've rated them high here at GreenCine. Now the series that originally aired in Japan earlier this year has arrived.

Browse the New Releases Archive for more recent arrivals.