Life for a young gangster in a French prison is brutal in Jacques Audiard’s THE PROPHET. Half Arab, half French, he must quickly decide which prison gang (Muslim or Corsican) he will hang with—or face constant fear of instant death. The test is slitting the throat of a fellow Arab to prove himself “worthy” of joining the Corsicans and eventually getting two day “get out of jail” passes where he can commit crimes before returning behind bars. Fascinating, disturbing, brilliantly acted (mostly by amateurs), and terrifyingly realistic.

Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast New Releases 3/12/10 Green Zone (R) Starring: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan, Brendan Gleeson Director: Paul Greengrass The director and actor who infuse the Bourne films with such artistry try to make this so-called political thriller work, but … In case you didn’t already know this, when Damon’s character and his team of Army inspectors don’t find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, they discover instead that there never were … Read More »

Anna Rodgers is flying all the way from Dublin to be at this weekend’s Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival. Her beautifully shot “Today Is Better Than Two Tomorrows” is the culmination of a four-year project documenting two boys from a Laotian village who travel to the big city to learn to be a Buddhist monk and teacher. Screened twice during the Festival (Opening Night at 7:00 at the Sebastopol Center for … Read More »

Roman Polanski knows how to create paranoid-fueled suspense in GHOST WRITER, Brosnan has suave and dangerous nailed shut, and Ewan McGregor makes the perfect chameleon-like ghost writer who has no political opnions and sees this as an advantage in his line of work, Artfully plotted, seductively constructed, Polanski only reveals a little bit at a time and what you think you see (or hear) may not be what you thought it was at all.

With fifty-two documentary films to choose from, and over thirty filmmakers from all over the world to talk with, the official “cool” place to be the first weekend in March is at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival.

Based on a 1973 George Romero classic, the premise of THE CRAZIES is that the good citizens of a small town in Kansas are suddenly plagued by insanity and gruesome death after drinking contaminated tap water. If you think of this as being brought to you by the water bottling association of America, it’s a gory good satire—that is if you like stylishly served gore.

Strange accidents and deaths occur in a northern German, Protestant village on the eve of World War I in Michael Haneke’s “THE WHITE RIBBON”. The victims are somehow involved with the children’s choir or the school room where some youngsters are forced to wear a white ribbon to proclaim they have been bad and broken some rule but will try to be better. Like classic German folk tales where bad things happen because of trolls or spirits or witches inhabiting the darkness it may be that these accidents just happened—but the villagers are told to think otherwise and the audience is left to choose between playing detective or hiding under their proverbial bedcovers.

Instead of calling the performances in THE LAST STATION over acting, lets call them exuberant, and larger than life. And instead of saying this is a biopic about dead Russian writers, let’s say it’s a lusty tale filled with humor related in prim British accents by characters named Valentin, Vladimir, Fyodor, Sofya, and Masha. For this story about Leo Tolstoy, the world famous novelist who, in his last few days on earth, gave up his fortune, title and comfort to live in a utopian commune, is almost unbelievable—except it really happened.

Over a dozen Oscar contenders for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Director. etc. are screening at local theaters this week. Some are only offered at special times, so check local listings carefully.

I promised the audience that I would show the famous waterfall scene from Pamela Gray’s sexy “A WALK ON THE MOON” along with clips from twenty other films with famous scenes of sexually charged romance, at my February pre-Valentine’s Day Sampler entitled “The Art of Seduction.”