The Cooler

• DVD Details: Actors: William H. Macy, Maria Bello, Alec Baldwin, Shawn Hatosy, Ron Livingston
• Directors: Wayne Kramer
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, NTSC. Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1; Number of discs: 1; Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: April 27, 2004; Run Time: 101 minutes

When Albert Stockwell (Rufus Sewell) comes home from work one day he finds a note from his wife of 15 years, Nancy (Maria Bello), saying she has gone to see friends. After waiting several days, Albert realizes that his wife is missing. Nancy has met her salvation on the Internet in the form of Louis Farley (Jason Patric). Nancy and Louis, both wounded souls, take comfort in one another through e-mail, pictures, and promises of perverse sexual encounters. Nancy has finally found the one and only thing that can liberate her from the pain in her life. While! she pursues the freedom that she feels will only come with ultimate liberation, Albert is left to put the pieces together and try to salvage what is left.THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED - DVD MovieAs it turns out, Kirby Dick's eye-opening documentary isn't rated. When he submitted it to the Motion Picture Association of America, they slapped it with an NC-17 (though he had always intended to release it unrated). This is fitting since he sheds much-needed light on the inner workings of a secretive organization that wields great power over the movies the public gets to see (since most mainstream media won't touch the dreaded NC-17). It's just as well since This Film Is Not Yet Rated focuses on the more controversial films of the past three decades. Aside from the stories of filmmakers who have tussled with the MPAA, Dick hires a private investigator to determine who sits on the board, since this information isn’t in the public domain. With her assistance, he solves the m! ystery. Directors include Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a D! ream ), Mary Harron (American Psycho), and Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry). Though frequently humorous, This Film Is Not Yet Rated should be required viewing for serious film fans, because the MPAA doesn't just affect what gets seen--but what gets made. If it has a flaw, it's this: In his attempt to generate transparency, Dick (Twist of Faith) arguably crosses the line. It's one thing to identify the board members; it's another to divulge their vital statistics. Whether or not these "guardians of morality" are working for the common good, they're still entitled to a little privacy. That said, this is vital stuff for anyone concerned about First Amendment issues. --Kathleen C. Fennessy"The Sisters" is suggested by Anton Chekhov’s renowned play, "The Three Sisters." The film tells the story of familial deception and ultimate revelation amongst three sisters, exploring their ups and downs as well as the ties that bind them despite their dysfunct! ional family dynamics. Featuring a sensational cast, including 2006 Golden Globe nominee Maria Bello, "The Sisters" spins an extraordinary tale of love, lust deceit, and loss.Loosely based on the classic Russian play Three Sisters, The Sisters takes Anton Chekov's tale of failed marriages, stunted yearnings, and ordinary unhappiness and injects it with drug addiction, closeted homosexuality, and incest. Three daughters of a noted academic scholar find their lives falling apart: Marcia (Maria Bello, A History of Violence) loathes her psychologist husband and falls into the arms of a visiting old friend (Tony Goldwyn, Ghost); Olga (Mary Stuart Masterson, Fried Green Tomatoes) has turned brittle and secretive, despite a successful career; and Irene (Erika Christensen, The Upside of Anger), the baby of the family, finds herself engaged to a man she doesn't love (Chris O'Donnell, Kinsey). Meanwhile, their hapless brother Andrew (A! llesandro Nivolla, Junebug) has married a brassy, vulga! r woman all three sisters despise (Elizabeth Banks, Heights). As their dysfunctions collide, everyone talks in lengthy, hyper-articulate, and brutal detail about their problems. But all the actors--especially Bello--dive into their roles with gusto and vigor, drawing out some genuine feeling from this woefully overwritten script. Also featuring Rip Torn (Forty Shades of Blue, Men in Black) and Eric McCormack (Will & Grace). --Bret FetzerCOOLER - DVD MovieThe premise of this swinging Vegas picture is enough to carry it over its narrative rough spots. The unluckiest sap on the planet (William H. Macy) is employed as a "cooler" at a casino; his very presence can chill the hot streak of any patron on a roll. He's valued by the old-school manager of the place, a role given a two-fisted, bourbon-swilling incarnation by Alec Baldwin. Macy means to quit, but then he falls for a waitress (the excellent Maria Bello, from Permanent Midnight)--might h! is luck be changing? The subplots are pretty much a mess, but the frank sex scenes between Macy and Bello give the movie a truly offbeat feel. The tawdry air of a second-rate casino is also nicely done: This is not the new family-friendly Las Vegas, but a tough place of superstitions, sinister back rooms, and shabby motels. The characters are perfectly at home. --Robert Horton

Mammoth

• MAMMOTH (DVD MOVIE)

London is rocked by a shocking terrorist bombing in this dramatic thriller starring Michelle Williams (Wendy and Lucy, Brokeback Mountain) and Ewan McGregor, (Trainspotting, the Star Wars trilogy). Williams delivers a riveting and heart-felt performance as a young wife and mother who suffers a devastating loss in the attack...which occurs while she's meeting her secret lover (McGregor). Wracked with guilt and trying to piece her shattered life back together, she becomes embroiled in the police investigation of the attack - and discovers that the authorities will do anything to cover up the terrifying truth behind it..Unexpected is the third solo studio album by former Destiny's Child singer Michelle Williams released in 2008. It will be Williams' first full length contemporary R&B album, moving away from the gospel style of her previous efforts. The album's first single,! "We Break the Dawn," was released in April 2008, with its second single being "The Greatest", chosen in favor over the Stargate-produced "Stop This Car."WENDY AND LUCY - DVD MovieKelly Reichardt’s second feature, Wendy and Lucy, has even more Pacific Northwest piney quietude than her debut Old Joy, since its starring couple is a canine-human pair rather than a male duo. Will Oldham again makes a charged appearance, this time as Icky (Will Oldham), a grungy, train-hopping punk. Based on a short story, this time Jonathan Raymond’s "Train Choir," Wendy and Lucy’s dialogue is a sparse spattering amongst long, languid scenes that moodily portray a young woman, Wendy (Michelle Williams), suffering economic crisis and road trip malaise on her way to work Alaskan fishing boats. The bulk of the story takes place in Portland, where her Honda breaks down and she must engage the local mechanic (Will Patton) and Walgreen’s security guard (Wally Dalton) for ! honest advice and for help finding her dog, Lucy, who disappea! rs durin g one of Wendy’s disasters. Wendy and Lucy would aptly be titled Wendy’s Bad Day, as problems pile up due to one main misstep. Williams does a great job portraying a woman who is semi self-sufficient but clueless in the art of survival. As the film speaks to many young people who have been broke and stranded, one will inevitably wonder why Wendy makes the unwise choices she does, for example sleeping in a dangerous area along a train track instead of finding a safer campground, or wandering the streets looking for her lost pooch in lieu of hunkering down for a temporary part-time job. The film straddles the line between social realism and fantasy in this regard, provoking frustration during certain plot twists. However, Wendy and Lucy is a pleasure to look at for its grainy greenery, hypnotic, sweeping landscape and train yard shots, and for the story, when it centers on developing the deep bond between a lady and her dog. --Trinie DaltonBlue Valenti! ne is the story of love found and love lost told in past and present moments in time. Flooded with romantic memories of their courtship, Dean and Cindy use one night to try and save their failing marriage. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in this honest portrait of a relationship on the rocks.Love blooms and dies at the same time in the delicate dance between Oscar nominees Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson) and Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain). Gosling's Dean, a high-school dropout, works for a New York moving company. While relocating a frail widower into a retirement home, he spots Cindy, a nursing student who's visiting her grandmother, but the film actually begins six years later. Married with a daughter, they live in rural Pennsylvania. Heavy drinker Dean's looks are fading, while Cindy still turns heads. In his elegantly constructed second feature, writer-director Derek Cianfrance pirouettes between past and present, with each scene commenting on t! he next (set to the bittersweet tones of Brooklyn band Grizzly! Bear). The Dean of the early years pursues Cindy, who resists at first, but a spontaneous date ends with her tap dancing (badly) and him singing (not so badly). She leaves her domineering boyfriend (Mike Vogel) for this attentive stranger, leading to scenes of intimacy that are far more suggestive than pornographic--even if the MPAA briefly rated the film NC-17. Later, when the family dog goes missing, the cracks in their marriage intensify, so Dean arranges for a night of romance, which plays out like a negative image of their first date. If the two actors, who are very good, are meant to carry equal weight, Gosling has the more difficult task. It's harder to like the clingy, insecure Dean, who loves more intensely and less wisely, but that makes Gosling's the braver performance. --Kathleen C. FennessyGael García Bernal (BABEL, AMORES PERROS) and Oscar®-nominee Michelle Williams (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) star in the English-language debut of internationally acclaimed writer/di! rector Lukas Moodysson. Leo (Bernal) is a successful web developer. His wife Ellen (Williams) is a dedicated emergency room surgeon. Their New York City workaholic ways leave little time for their 8-year-old daughter, who is mostly cared for by their Filipino nanny (a breakthrough performance by Marife Necesito). But when a series of personal decisions triggers a chain of events on the other side of the world, will they discover the rippling effects of life s smallest choices? Thomas McCarthy (THE WIRE) co-stars in this powerful family drama about imperfect lives, fateful actions and the epic ironies that bind us all together.