DVDebuts: A Good Week, for the most part...

This week's selections are mostly wheat -- always a good thing for inveterate movie watchers. Even the one chaff below has qualities about it worth recommending. Here they are (half today, the others tomorrow) in descending order -- not necessarily of importance or quality (except for the chaff at bottom), but more with an eye toward films you might miss....

We don't see that much from Mongolia, so even if TUYA'S MARRIAGE weren't pretty special, foreign film buffs would probably take a chance. The wonderful thing about this humane and fascinating film is that is reaches out across cultures with a story, feelings, circumstances and events that most people will readily identify with and understand. The oddest thing in the entire movie may be the -- seemingly, at least -- civilized and benevolent manner in which the authorities go about granting divorces that easily take in the welfare of everyone concerned. Western nations should only have it this good. That said, there are plenty of other instances in this alternately sad and uplifting film that we can be grateful for not having to endure. Its gem of an ending distills all we have witnessed into something that both fulfills and unsettles. The low-key performances are first-rate, too, especially that of the beautiful and very grounded Yu Nan (Tuya), who has appeared in all the films from Tuya's director Qunan Wang and most recently made her Hollywood debut in -- yikes! -- the Wachovski Brothers' Speed Racer. The movie's distributor is Music Box Films, which, in its short run thus far, has given us quite a range of fun films: Tuya's Marriage, OSS 117 Cairo Nest of Spies, Tell No One and Eight Miles High (which I'll be covering in a day or two) On tap: the splendid Shall We Kiss from France and La Leon from Argentina.

Unlike the over-rated revenge movie Shotgun Stories, RED delivers the goods and does not bore you silly doing it. Better, it does this in its own unusually quiet manner, while offering a slew of fine performances (the best from lead Brian Cox -- photo at top, right -- who is good as I've seen him) that gives the audiences both the satisfaction it craves and the understanding of what that satisfaction costs. What blood seeps out en-route is purposeful, and the movie manages to avoid the uneasy after-effects that most vigilante films leave you with. Best of all there is a believability to how and why events occur that keeps you moving ahead, just as it does the characters. It’s nice to see Kim Dickens (photo at top, left) from Palookaville and Things Behind the Sun ) again, too. I am interested in learning more about the Scandinavian connection here: the film's direction, editing, cinematography and musical score are by Danes or Norweigians. Whatever: they all appear to have captured a slice of Americana as well as any Americas could have managed. (Actually, the film was co-directed by California-born Lucky McKee, so maybe he helped keep it all on-track.)

Ninety minutes of ravishing photography originally released in 1992, BARAKA still commands attention. A kind of travelogue-cum-music without dialog and with a not-so-hidden agenda (the natural world is wonderful; spirituality good, materiality bad), the film is the work of cinematographer/director Ron Fricke, who, with his crew, traveled to 22 countries around the world to show us what counts. He manages it, too, even if certain juxtapositions are simple-minded and wrong-headed: baby chicks going step-by-step into a life of caged adulthood against seemingly mindless commuters on subways and in stations. However, the latter have made a decision to do what they are doing, the chicks have not. In any case, this segment may make you realize that the pan of chicken breast you're cordon bleu-ing tonight is receiving more time and attention than the living birds ever got in their entire, sad lives. I would recommend this movie (and see it again) if only for the very early segment that shows a monkey (above, right) in some sort of a hot springs/hot tub in the middle of a kind of Himalayan winter. This short, silent amazing visual does more for the monkey-to-man theory than anything else I've seen.

I'm going to take first-time director Jennifer Venditti (above) at her word and not talk about one of the central characteristics of the hero of her very interesting and sometime heartbreaking documentary BILLY THE KID. In a wonderful interview with the director featured on the just-released DVD, she talks about not wanting to stick a label (that might somehow becomes permanent) onto this young man -- one that could influence other parents to stick that same label on their own troubled kids. Sticking by my (and Venditti's) guns will mean not talking much about the film. But I can say that this first-time director (who comes from the casting field) has pointed her camera on the right person and (generally) in the right manner. She (and cameraman Donald Cumming) capture many choice moments and scenes that eventually combine to form a sad and interesting study. My objection, which is not even really that, has to do with something I am more and more aware of in most documentaries: the negative influence of the camera. Here, that influence comes not while the camera is on Billy: He loves and distrusts it yet has clearly made his peace with its presence. Most of the other character (Billy's mom excluded) come across as cowed by it. His girlfriend continually absents herself in most ways (that she is partially blind goes only so far in explaining this), and you just know that some of the boys at school would be razzing Billy, probably rather nastily, were the camera -- manned by the in-charge adults -- not rolling. They seem, probably for good reason, not to want it around them. Otherwise, maybe even because of this caveat, Billy the Kid is worth adding to your list. As movie-makers and their audiences grow more sophisticated about documentary techniques, getting at the "truth" means thinking more about what we're filming and seeing -- and weighing what all this means. Sure, that takes some work, but it ought to result in better filmmakers and smarter audiences.

When KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL made its theatrical debut last June, its Depression-era setting was noted as quaint, sweet and nicely -- if a tad too cleanly -- recalled. Goodbye to all that. Five months later, the movie resonates in a much stronger way. What a shame about your neighbors' losing their homes and jobs but -- whoops -- now you are, too! The film is still too sanitary, but it offers many pleasures during its hundred-minute ride: a good cast, including Julia Ormond (top row, center, with Abigail Breslin and Chris O'Donnell), Jane Krakowski (top, right), Joan Cusack (bottom left), Stanley Tucci (bottom center) and Willow Smith bottom right); smart, tight direction by Patricia Rozema (I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, Mansfield Park); and enough adult moments and ideas within its cute kids' story to make the trip more than worthwhile. The sets, costumes, and cinematography -- if too pretty by half -- are still enormous fun to view, and the mixed race cast adds a modern dimension to the proceedings -- which seems appropriate for our upcoming "modern" Depression.

Juan Flahn's (tasty name, and it rhymes, too) CHUECATOWN (aka Boystown) has a nifty theme: the gay gentrification -- via very unpleasant means -- of a run-down and already-gay section of Madrid. That the power behind this quest is himself gay adds a ironic twist. Unlike the Glatzer/Westmorland Quinceañera, which handles themes of culture clash, gentrification, gay life styles and family values with lovely charm and tact, Flahn (with co-writer Dunia Ayaso) has little sense of tone, subtlety, or even humor. Almost nothing works, and the cast -- full of very good actors more than willing to provide a good time -- is left flailing. Even the always-memorable Rosa Maria Sardà is less than sterling. There are a few moments in which things start to coalesce (the ending, if you last out the 90 minute running time, strives for fun) but Flahn, who has worked mostly in TV, is not yet ready for prime time, let alone a would-be ambitious movie like this one.

Another half-dozen films are on tap for coverage tomorrow (time permitting) or maybe Tuesday....