Drama

Scotland, PA.

Burgers fries...and a side of mayhem. Welcome to McBeth's where fast food and ambition make up a daily special filled with murder and mystery 70s style. Other Information: Starring Amy Smart Andy Dick Christopher Walken David Wike Geoff Dunsworth James LeGros James Rebhorn John Cariani Josh Pais Kevin Corrigan Maura Tierney Reed Rudy Timothy Levitch Tom GuiryDirected by Billy MorrissetteRunning time: 104 minutesCopyright Showtime 2003 Format: DVD MOVIE

Think of Scotland, PA. as truck-stop Shakespeare, Macbeth given a drive-through makeover as the deadliest of deadpan comedies. Writer-director Billy Morrissette got this wacky idea from an early job at Dairy Queen. He makes the most of that bad memory by casting his own wife (ER's Maura Tierney) and indie stalwart James LeGros as Pat and Mac McBeth, a married pair of Pennsylvanian schemers, circa 1973, who plot to escape their thankless jobs at Duncan's burger joint. They dispatch Duncan in a sizzling accident (you want fries with that corpse?) and inherit the diner from Duncan's stoner son (who's also a suspect), hoping to prove to Detective McDuff (Christopher Walken, at his funniest) that their newfound happiness is entirely legal. Like The Big Lebowski, this movie's hilarious if you're in on the joke, and familiarity with Shakespeare is optional when you've got a "rock block" of Bad Company hits to keep the grisly comedy on track. --Jeff Shannon

Amy's O

Writer-director-actress Julie Davis is a mix of Bonnie Hunt and Jennifer Aniston. In her 2002 comedy Amy's O (also called Amy's Orgasm), Davis plays Amy Mandell, the bestselling self-help author of Why Love Doesn't Work, which is full of her theories on the fundamentally unstable nature of relationships--only she herself hasn't been in one in years. But when she's interviewed by an arrogant radio shock jock named Matthew Starr (Nick Chinlund), sparks fly, and Amy suddenly has to examine her theories in the real world. The title of Amy's O suggests a sex-centered story; in fact, what separates this movie from most romantic comedies is that it explores not only falling in love, but the hurdles of sustaining a relationship after the romance has peaked. The movie skirts sitcom territory, but has enough heart to give it merit. --Bret Fetzer

The Heart of Me

A rich and emotionally charged drama about the seductive and destructive nature of passion. Socialite Madeleine invites her bohemian sister Dinah to stay with her and her husband, Rickie. Rickie and his sister-in-law find themselves unable to control their desire for one another. What starts as a momentary affair spirals into decades of deception, ecstasy, and passion.

Swimming

"Swimming" is a bittersweet and intimate look at friendship. The easy life of summertime in Myrtle Beach is turned upside down for one local girl when two strangers come to town: a beautiful temptress and a charming drifter. Other Information: Starring Jamie Harrold Jennifer Dundas Lowe Joelle Carter Lauren AmbroseDirected by Robert J. SiegelRunning time: 90 minutesCopyright Showtime 2003 Format: DVD MOVIE

In This World

In This World follows the hazardous journey of two Afghan boys as they travel from Pakistan through Iran Turkey Italy France and the UK in search of refuge in London. A moving and dramatic story that reveals the desperate measures people take to escape persecution and the life-threatening conditions they find themselves in along the way. Other Information: Running Time 88 Min Format: DVD MOVIE

Michael Winterbottom's amazing In This World is a docudrama that reportedly re-creates the harrowing journey of two young Afghan males smuggled, one step at a time, from a long-established refugee camp in Pakistan across central Asia to their London destination. Shot with remarkable fluidity and narrative thoroughness in what appears many times to be dangerous situations with border guards and untrustworthy handlers (in Iran, Istanbul, Turkey, and France), In This World is anchored by non-actors Jamal Udin Torabi and Enayatullah, playing characters of the same names. The rapid pace and frequent fade-outs in this 88-minute film paradoxically force one's imagination to underscore the agonizing slowness and anxiety of the young men's trip, a technique that becomes nightmarish when Jamal and Enayat are locked for days, with other refugees, inside a ship's container. Winterbottom (24-Hour Party People) and his characteristically protean style maintain remarkable inventiveness throughout. --Tom Keogh

The Hired Hand (Standard Edition)

He deserted his family to explore the frontier but life is about to lead him home. After roaming the Wild West a wayward husband returns home to his wife and child but rebuilding their family will involve an unexpected test of faith and a vital journey of forgiveness. The Hired Hand reconfigures the traditional Western in a story that emphasizes the human reality that underlines the cowboy myth. Its focus is less on adventure than on the emotional journey and fallout of adventure.SPECIAL FEATURES Director s Commentary w/ Peter Fonda Behind-the-scenes long-form featurette including interviews with Peter Fonda Verna Bloom and the production team Never-before-seen footage and deleted scenes Original Trailers TV spots Radio Spots and Print Ads from the 1971 Theatrical Release Photo Gallery including original posters and print ads production photos and behind-the-scenes candid photography Biography of Peter Fonda and the entire cast. Other Information: Runnig Time 90 Min Format: DVD MOVIE

A true rediscovery of the most valuable kind, The Hired Hand has been superbly restored after 30 years of obscurity--which followed a pitifully half-hearted release in 1971. The Western storyline is simplicity itself: after many years, a wanderer (Peter Fonda) returns to his farm and wife (Verna Bloom), with his saddlemate (the incomparable Warren Oates) in tow; violence intrudes. But the subtle sexual politics in Alan Sharp's script, the guitar sound of Bruce Langhorne's music, and the rapturous landscapes in Vilmos Zgismond's cinematography create a fresh take on the old form. This was Fonda's directing debut (two years after Easy Rider), and while it has an unmistakably seventies vibe to it, the film also feels like an "eastern" Western, its minimalist style approaching zen. Give yourself over to its deliberate mood, and by the time the final shot rolls into view you'll know you've seen something special. --Robert Horton

The Slaughter Rule

While it may sound like some brutal warrior metaphor for life, this story of a high school boy facing up to the complexities of the adult world is a tender drama about troubled souls. Amiable, good-natured Roy (Ryan Gosling) keeps life at arm's length until renegade coach Gid (a paternal David Morse, who nurses his own emotional wounds) scouts him for a rural six-man football league--a rough, unforgiving game as much rugby as traditional gridiron action--and brings out his hibernating alpha-wolf. Roy also gets lessons in love from "older woman" Clea Duvall, but this is not your usual coming-of-age film. Set on the forever plain and under the magnificent sky of the Montana high desert, and photographed with the crispness of a winter morning, The Slaughter Rule offers an unsentimental portrait of a world in which winning is secondary to simply surviving till the end of the game. --Sean Axmaker

The Slaughter Rule is a rich, intense portrait of a young football player facing losses, on the field and off. Roy Chutney (Gosling) is a defeated football hero whose only chance of saving his dignity is "the slaughter rule", a forced end to the game before the point of humiliation. Roy is lost in a world without rules, until renegade coach (Morse) and a new romance give him the strength for one last play. This lush cinematic journey, the first feature film from writers / directors Andrew and Alex Smith, debuted at he 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

The Sleepy Time Gal

With The Sleepy Time Gal, nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at 2001's Sundance Film Festival, Christopher Munch gave Jacqueline Bisset the same gift François Ozon gave Charlotte Rampling with Under the Sand--the role of a lifetime. The film is set in the 1980s, with Bisset playing Frances, writer, former DJ ("The Sleepy Time Gal"), and mother of two sons (In the Bedroom's Nick Stahl is Morgan). She's also mother to Rebecca (Martha Plimpton), who was given up for adoption--the result of an affair with Bob (Seymour Cassel) in the 1950s. When Frances is diagnosed with cancer, she decides to tie up loose ends and visits him for the first time in 30 years. Rebecca has also reached an impasse in life and decides to make a change--by seeking out her birth mother. The Sleepy Time Gal is about connections--and how the attempt to establish them can sometimes be enough. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Dopamine

A romantic drama for the modern age DOPAMINE looks at the complexities of pursuing love when contemporary life and personal demons form mighty obstacles. Named after the natural chemical that our bodies produce when we fall in love DOPAMINE follows the courtship between a computer animator and a kindergarten teacher and creates a soulful portrait of two people facing up to the risks and rewards of falling in love. Other Information: Starring: John Livingston & Sabrina Lloyd.Running Time: 85 Min. Format: DVD MOVIE

Indie flick Dopamine wants to know: Is love a transcendent, spiritual experience, or simply the result of hormones like dopamine (a chemical in the brain that inspires pleasure)? Rand (John Livingston, Where's Marlowe?), a San Francisco computer programmer developing a virtual pet, is convinced it's all neurochemistry--until he meets Sarah (Sabrina Lloyd of the TV show Sliders), a teacher at a pre-school where the pet is being tested. During their nervous, awkward dates, he struggles to maintain his cynical, hormone-driven perspective as his feelings seem increasingly real. The dialogue and ideas in Dopamine are clever, if not exactly convincing; unfortunately, the pace and performances are stiff and morose--the romance feels more predetermined by the filmmakers' schematic plan than by chemistry. Occasional inserts of sped-up film and computer graphics try to offer some respite from close-ups of the actors looking very serious. --Bret Fetzer

MacArthur Park

Life in the park is daily warfare with rival gangs police raids the wealthy decadents who now come for drugs and the ongoing demons of addiction. This is where we meet Cody once a dedicated family man whose addiction to crack cocaine met no criticism and was welcomed by others like him. The harder Cody tries to escape the parameters of the park the more it seems to close in on him. Finally Cody surrenders his pipe to reclaim a relationship with his son and a life outside MacArthur Park. Other Information: Running Time 88 Min Format: DVD MOVIE

Despite its grim milieu--a Los Angeles park that is home to cocaine addicts, gangsters, and hustlers--MacArthur Park explodes with energy and humanity. The ensemble drama's compressed setting is like a small sea in which one denizen's misdeed or scam-gone-wrong creates currents of violence swallowing everyone else. In the 48 hours or so of the story's action, one low-level coke dealer rips off a fading television star, whose revenge involves a would-be rapper, who in turn is trying to escape the park's culture with the help of a cop who was part of a raid during which another dealer stole drugs from a dangerous Latino gang, etc. Trying to stay alive and hopeful in this endless, cyclical mayhem is Cody (an outstanding performance by Thomas Jefferson Byrd), a musician and drug casualty whose abandoned son (Brandon Quintin Adams) is reaching out to him. With Julie Delpy, Ellen Cleghorne, and Balthazar Getty. --Tom Keogh