Drazan, Anthony

Hurlyburly (New Line Platinum Series)

You wouldn't want to spend much time with the folks from David Rabe's play Hurlyburly. A sensation when it played on stage (with marquee names Harvey Keitel and William Hurt), Rabe's tale of the cocaine-influenced days of Hollywood in the 1980s is a bitter rambling of what humans do with too much drive, power, and money. Robin Williams's joke about cocaine being God's way of telling you have too much money certainly comes into play here. A few days in the life of casting agent Eddie (Sean Penn) and his friends (separated by a year) take place in Eddie's posh L.A. bungalow. Here he and his roomie Mickey (Kevin Spacey) talk nonstop about sex and power, syntax and meaning. Into this wash comes a charitable bigwig (Gary Shandling), a street kid (Anna Paquin), and Eddie's rudderless friend, the violent Phil (Chazz Palminteri). If there is a central story to be found, it's Eddie's drive to fall in love with Darlene (Robin Wright Penn), who finds this world exciting--or at least intoxicating.

This is not the bunch to invite over to your house, and many might even want to skip the two-hour film with its talky, pathetic prose. These characters would probably be despicable even if they weren't addicted to some narcotic. And the talk is endless; conversations that finish with a door slam are taken up moments later on the cell phone (a nice updating touch by Rabe). What draws big-name actors to Rabe's work is the chance to work on one's raw acting talent. Penn and Palminteri fit their roles like gloves, and Spacey again proves he is one of the most watchable actors around. Every nuance, bad pun, and irrelevant slip of Spacey's wicked tongue has a brutal kind of poetry here in a film that can be admired but not loved. --Doug Thomas

Zebrahead

A hard-hitting and impressive low-budget independent film about love and racism, Zebrahead is a volatile mix of social commentary and powerful acting. Michael Rapaport (Mighty Aphrodite, Beautiful Girls) is a white urban high school student enamored of black rap culture who pursues and falls in love with the cousin (N'Bushe Wright) of his black best friend. Their intense romance brings out racial tensions in their school, among their friends and at home. Problems escalate as a notorious gang banger goes after the girl, forcing a schoolwide confrontation with violent results. With the flavor of a modern urban Romeo and Juliet love story and a showcase for the debut of two exceptional young actors, Zebrahead is a provocative sleeper film well worth checking out. --Robert Lane

The West Wing - The Complete First Two Seasons (2-Pack)

Seasons 1 and 2 of the 4-time Emmy Award-winning Drama available together on DVD.

Imaginary Crimes

When a father doesn't live up to his dreams...a daughter has to stand up for hers. Ray Weiler is a charmer who could sell cookies to Girl Scouts. He knows he'll strike it rich if he just keeps hustling. What he doesn't know is that his pie-in-the-sky schemes are separating him from the family he dearly loves. Year: 1994 Director: Anthony Drazan Starring: Harvey Keitel Fairuza Balk Kelly Lynch Vincent D'Onofrio Chris Penn Seymour CasselRunning Time: 106 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 085391373926

Children are so ill prepared to deal with the shortcomings of their parents that, when they inevitably discover that mom and dad have feet of clay, they tend to overreact. That's part of the lesson in this film, based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Sheila Ballantyne. Harvey Keitel is a 1950s widower with two daughters, played by Fairuza Balk and Elisabeth Moss. A guy with lots of dreams, a convincing line of patter, and very little to back up either, he hustles to keep his family together, doing what he feels is the best he can to keep food on the table on clothes on their backs. But his loneliness, his drinking--and, ultimately, his inability to be a square dealer with the business associates he's cheating--contribute to his older daughter's disillusionment. Strong performances by Keitel, who is surprisingly touching, and Balk, who captures the mood-swing roller coaster of adolescence, complicated by being forced to grow up before her time. --Marshall Fine

Hurlyburly [Region 2]

You wouldn't want to spend much time with the folks from David Rabe's play Hurlyburly. A sensation when it played on stage (with marquee names Harvey Keitel and William Hurt), Rabe's tale of the cocaine-influenced days of Hollywood in the 1980s is a bitter rambling of what humans do with too much drive, power, and money. Robin Williams's joke about cocaine being God's way of telling you have too much money certainly comes into play here. A few days in the life of casting agent Eddie (Sean Penn) and his friends (separated by a year) take place in Eddie's posh L.A. bungalow. Here he and his roomie Mickey (Kevin Spacey) talk nonstop about sex and power, syntax and meaning. Into this wash comes a charitable bigwig (Gary Shandling), a street kid (Anna Paquin), and Eddie's rudderless friend, the violent Phil (Chazz Palminteri). If there is a central story to be found, it's Eddie's drive to fall in love with Darlene (Robin Wright Penn), who finds this world exciting--or at least intoxicating.

This is not the bunch to invite over to your house, and many might even want to skip the two-hour film with its talky, pathetic prose. These characters would probably be despicable even if they weren't addicted to some narcotic. And the talk is endless; conversations that finish with a door slam are taken up moments later on the cell phone (a nice updating touch by Rabe). What draws big-name actors to Rabe's work is the chance to work on one's raw acting talent. Penn and Palminteri fit their roles like gloves, and Spacey again proves he is one of the most watchable actors around. Every nuance, bad pun, and irrelevant slip of Spacey's wicked tongue has a brutal kind of poetry here in a film that can be admired but not loved. --Doug Thomas