Vlahos, Sam

Pow Wow Highway

Gary Farmer (Smoke Signals) is the standout in a fine film by Jonathan Wacks about an oversized Cheyenne man-child (Farmer) who decides to go on a spiritual quest, while simultaneously giving a ride to his lifelong Indian activist friend (A. Martinez). The film takes us through some pretty desolate Indian communities, but while Wacks makes a point of revealing harsher aspects of life on some reservations, the emphasis is on Farmer's delightful performance. A bonus: among the cast are Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves) and Wes Studi (The Last of the Mohicans), neither of whom were well-known in 1989, the year this film was released. --Tom Keogh

For the Northern Cheyenne tribe of Lame Deer, Montana, the American Dream has taken a grim detour. Here, Buddy Red Bow (A Martinez) is a committed activist battling a suspicious land-grab. Philbert Bono (Gary Farmer, in a performance Roger Ebert calls "one of the most wholly convincing I've seen") is a serene spiritual warrior guided by sacred visions. But when Buddy's estranged sister is framed and jailed in New Mexico, the two men take Philbert's rust-wrecked '64 Buick `war pony' on a road trip that makes some very unexpected stops along the way. Jonathan Wacks (Producer of REPO MAN) directs and Graham Greene (DANCES WITH WOLVES), Wes Studi (THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, HEAT) and Amanda Wyss star in this acclaimed comedy/drama about Native Americans understanding the past, fighting for their future and discovering a few surprising truths along the POWWOW HIGHWAY.

The Rapture

A Los Angeles telephone operator who tires of mate-swapping and turns to a religious sect for spiritual guidance.Running Time: 100 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 794043490828

Once upon a time, in the 1980s and early 1990s, American independent movies did not seek to merely ape Hollywood formulas. They were more than just feature-length resumes for shrewd, enterprising filmmakers who had nothing to say, but dreamed of saying it with a big-studio budget. Back then, independent films provided a different kind of movie experience; they challenged and provoked audiences--and none more so than 1991's The Rapture, written and directed by Michael Tolkin, the man who wrote the screenplay for The Player, Robert Altman's scathing anti-Hollywood comedy. Mimi Rogers plays Sharon, a lost soul who gives up her hedonistic life of sex and drugs when she finds God and becomes a fundamentalist Christian fanatic. Her pilgrim's progress, presented in a deadpan, nonjudgmental style, culminates quite literally in the title event--the Second Coming, the Apocalypse, the end of the world, or whatever you want to call it. Rogers's fearless performance becomes all the more provocative when you recall that the actress is a lifelong member of the Church of Scientology. The Rapture is a mind-boggling, wildly ambitious movie that's open to myriad interpretations. But no matter what you make of it, it's sure to leave you engaged and shaken. --Jim Emerson

Christmas In The Clouds

Set in a ski resort this riotous comedy finds a female Native American guest mistakenly identified by the management as a critic for a travel guide. Meanwhile she thinks Ray the owner of the resort is a man she has been exchanging romantically inclined e-mails with. Chaos ensues.System Requirements:Run Time: 94 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 761450122536 Manufacturer No: HH12253

Gunsmoke - The Last Apache

Held Up

In Held Up, a romantic trip turns sour when Rachel (Nia Long) learns that Michael (Jamie Foxx) used the down payment for their future home to buy a classic car. Disgusted, she leaves him at a roadside gas station in the middle of the Nevada desert. Soon the car is stolen, thieves descend to rob the place, and the untimely arrival of the police creates a hostage situation with Michael in the middle. The circumstances want to cascade into mounting absurdity, but the ending doesn't quite provide a strong capper. Still, getting there is entertaining. Foxx is engaging, and the supporting cast--including Julie Hagerty, John Collum, Barry Corbin, and Jake Busey--create a colorful collection of locals. --Bret Fetzer

The Zeros

Death in Granada [Region 2]

The fate of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca under the brutal Franco regime is the subject of this political thriller. Esai Morales plays an expatriate writer named Ricardo who returns to his hometown Granada in 1954 to find out what happened to Lorca (Andy Garcia), his boyhood hero. With Franco's forces still in power, Ricardo meets a lot of official resistance, takes a few beatings, and defies the wishes of his own host (Jeroen Krabbé), an army colonel who was thickly involved in the torture and assassinations of the 1936 revolution. The closer the intrepid journalist gets to the truth of Lorca's disappearance, however, the more gray that truth becomes, and the more obscure the line between heroism and villainy. This film by Marcos Zurinaga suffers from a bit of miscalculation--Morales's character is simply not interesting enough to hold the center of the story and be our window into the great Lorca--but it is nonetheless startling and tragic in its revelation of complicated truths. As Lorca, Garcia is the picture of nobility, and supporting roles by Krabbé, Edward James Olmos, and Miguel Ferrer add a great deal of dramatic texture. --Tom Keogh

The Big Squeeze

Poodle Springs [Region 2]