Our reviewers select and review the best independent and foreign films on amazon.com, cd universe, and netflix

Holly Rollers (USA 2010, 89 min, dir: Kevin Asch, cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Bartha (best friend), Ari Graynor (girl), Danny A. Abeckaser, Mark Ivanir).

Poor Jesse Eisenberg, he’ll always be the Jew. If you look through his credits he’s played guys named Eli, Daniel, Benjamin and Mark (twice). In Holy Rollers he is Sam Gold, and orthodox black hat Jew in Williamsburg, Brooklyn who forsakes davening for the drug trade.

Eisenberg is an excellent actor and director Kevin Asch makes the point in his movie (based on a real story) that if you take away the tzitzis and black coats, these guys and their girl (Ari Graynor) are no different than any other punk Ecstasy pushers.

When you look at Jesse dressed up as a Hassid, you can’t help thinking what Mark Zuckerberg might look like if Facebook went kosher. Zuck might be one of the richest men in the word but he has the sex appeal of a gnat.

One scene that also gives some deja vu thoughts in Holy Rollers is when Sam’s (Jesse Eisenberg’s) father sits him down at the dining room table and says the Rabbi told him Sam is not coming to shul anymore. Sam tries to regain his father’s confidence by telling him he is still religious and his goal is still to be among the faithful; but to no avail.

We’ve been here before. Let’s flash back to 1927 and The Jazz Singer (or 1952 or 1980 for the remakes). Al Jolson tells his father he wants to sing jazz, not kol nidre, and is disowned. Holy Rollers gives it new twist. Now it’s ‘Dad, what I really want to do is deal drugs.”

Drive (USA 2011 100 min. dir: Nicolas Winding Refn, cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman).

Albert Brooks was born Albert Einstein. He decided it wasn’t a good name for a comedian. Watching him through Real Life, Defending Your Life, and The Muse he might have stayed with the Einstein name. He’s that good. Each film is a slightly flawed gem that still manages to offer pointed satire on American life while shamelessly focusing on its spotlight-hogging star.

The genius he brings to Bernie Rose, the character he plays in Drive, is the embodies the characters he plays in all his earlier films but with a world-weariness that has turned him lethal. There’s the same “wouldn’t you know it” sigh and resignation but now the disappointment is not losing all his money in Las Vegas and ending up a school crossing guard; but seeing his gang fuck up the big one and sadly setting it right by killing everybody.

His scene with Shannon (Byran Cranston) is one of the coldest murders ever on screen. Bernie slashes the artery in his arm and says sympathetically, “that’s it, no pain,” as if he was Shannon’s nice guy father come to administer a little spanking to a child who knows he has it coming.

Brooks is not the star of Drive. That honor belongs to Ryan Gosling, who drives the movie extremely well. And the cool-y observed existential LA of nights and freeways is the amazing creation of Nicolas Winding Refn, the director. Every generation creates their LA existential movie. Refn: a Dane from New York and Copenhagen has defined it for the now we live in.

But the movie belongs to Albert Brooks as much as another movie with a great heavy many years ago belonged to another comedian. That film was about a pool shark at the end of his days much like Drive features a petty mobster at the end of his days. Brooks looks at the racer up on a grease rack and says his name could have been on the side. Jack Gleason looked at a pool cue in The Hustler and thought he could come back for one more win. Both movies show us what happens when laugher turns to anger and younger men snatch the dreams. See them both.

Title : Dastak
Year : 1970
Directed by Rajinder Singh Bedi
Starring : Sanjeev Kumar, Rehana Sultan, Manmohan Krishan, Anwar Hussain and more
Music : Madan Mohan, Lyrics : Majrooh Sultanpuri

There was a time when Film-making in Bollywood, used to be solely dependent upon “The Writing” and its story content. An interesting plot depicting the social surroundings of the people was the first requisite of starting a project in those days. And that was the reason why we had so many famous writers from the world of literature working for films as the contributors of its story, dialogues, script and lyrics. Such was the depth in the basic idea behind all those movies that they still are studied as a benchmark in the history of Hindi Cinema after so many decades.

DASTAK (Knock) is one of those rare & bold movies made on an off-beat subject which surprisingly still remains relevant even today after so much development experienced all over by the society and its people. Revealing its outstanding thought provoking plot, just imagine the trauma faced by a newly-wed couple (shifted to their new house), after they are told that the house was earlier owned by a prostitute who was pretty famous in the locality and used to run her business right from there. Taking the viewer into the couple’s extremely tense and uncomfortable days in that house, the movie is a kind of philosophical journey digging into the various kinds of double standard personalities living around us in a society. Besides, it also re-defines the power of Tolerance possessed by a human which empowers him to surpass any unexpected tough condition in life with his precious patience.

Coming to the cream of talented people associated with the film, it is written, produced and directed by Rajinder Singh Bedi, one of the 20th century’s greatest progressive writers of URDU fiction. The name needs no introduction to the readers who are well familiar with Urdu Literature and its prominent writers. But the best thing is that here the original writer has himself directed the film in such a manner that it makes a very similar kind of impact as felt after reading the story in its published form. And that is not an easy task to achieve since there are very few movies which have been equally transformed into an enlightening visual experience taking it all from a book.

Featuring the one & only Sanjeev Kumar along with Rehana Sultana as the innocent couple, DASTAK is also known for its outstanding soul stirring musical score by the unmatchable Madan Mohan including the songs sung by the Queen of Musical Notes,Lata Mangeshkar. In fact the tracks are universally included in the list of The Finest Ever from this famous talented duo and can be found in the Top 10 List of both the magicians, compiled by any music critic or fan living anywhere around the globe.

More on bobbytalkscinema.com

This film available on Amazon.com,http://www.amazon.com/DASTAK-Sanjeev-Kumar/dp/B000I0RVTA/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1332081816&sr=1-1

The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina 2009, 129 min. dir: Juan Jose Campanella, cast: Ricardo Darin, Soledad Villamil).

If Ricardo Darin were an American actor, he’d be getting all those Liam Neeson roles. Obsessive, frantic, single minded but never quite getting the girl. His films on Movie With Me include Son of the Bride and Nine Queens. The Secret in Their Eyes is another amazing addition to the list. (Both Son of the Bride and The Secret in Their Eyes were directed by Juan Jose Campanella; a master who is always emotionally on target)

Here Darin is a retired justice department investigator writing a book on an old case that went cold. A woman was brutally raped and murdered when he was a young agent working under department head Irene Menendez-Hastings (Soledad Villamil). She was the upper class lovely who got her superior position after returning from her Ivy League education in the US. The last thing she wanted to do at the time was jeapordize her career because of suspicions about this one case. Especially because she was atracted to Benjamin (Ricardo Darin) and he to her. Both resisted their feelings because of the difference in their ages and the class barrier between them.

But now it is many years later. She’d risen to the top of the justice department, and he is grey-haired and ready for his pension. What could have been between them was never was. But the old never-solved case still links them together. And that is enough to light the flame between them once again and bring them to admit two things: they love each other and always did; their passion for justice has never slackened.

Together they open up the can of worms that is Argentina’s answer to the Holocaust: the years when the military junta ruled the country (called The Dirty War), and “disappeared” tens of thousands of people to unmarked graves. It was a ten year reign of terror from which the country, or at least the country’s filmmakers, have yet to recover. Like the Germans, everyone knew and didn’t know. Everyone wanted to save themselves even if it meant turning their back onon friends.

The Secret in Their Eyes opens an old wound and new passion. That it what it makes it such an interesting mix of emotions between Darin and Villamil (she’s in Life Accroding to Muriel, also on Movie With Me). Some fires never die, some embers burn forever – is the old saying. An intricate story and a fine range of emotions give heart to an old love made new again in this very excellent movie.

Irina Palm (Belgium, UK, 2007, 103 min. dir: Sam Garbarski  cast: Marianne Faithfull, Miki Manojlovic.

If there was an Academy Award for most bizarre original idea, Irina Palm would win it hands down. The story of a grandmother who takes up a career jerking off men through a hole in the wall at a London sex club in order to raise money for an operation to save her grandson’s life; is one that had to be dreamed up in a cloud of ganja smoke.

Marianne Faithfull, the whiskey-voiced British pop star of the 1970’s, and theme song chanteuse for Alan Rudolph’s film, Trouble in Mind, is now a grandmother. Sadly for those who remember when, she looks the part.

Her cute little grandson needs £6000 so he can be flown to Australia for a complicated operation done only by a doctor there. Not much demand for sixty-plus plump ladies in the sex trade, but handwork is anonymous. All Maggie (Marianne) has to do is sit on a small chair and respond to a buzzer as men put their penises through a hole in the wall. She applies a little lubrication and a lot of creative stroking.

We never see their penises nor witnesses them ejaculating. Too bad because it might have made Irina Palm a must-have sex tape. And without penises we can’t witness what makes her hand jobs so amazing. Why are all these guys willing to wait in line for her? How has she becomes such a profit center for club boss Miki (Miki Manojlovic)?

The trouble in mind with Irina Palm is it never pushes to real porn or flat-out comedy. Think of this story in the hands (bad pun) of David Fincher or Woody Allen. Those would be two fascinating remakes.

Irina Palm is a curiosity worth watching, especially if you want to see what happens to old pop stars. And I can’t help speculating what the pitch meeting must have been like as the writer spun the tale for the producer.  He would start with, “If sex is mostly fantasy then anyone can do it behind a wall.� The producer is hooked. He leans forward listening for more. So do we.

Unstoppable (USA 2010, 98 min. dir: Tony Scott, cast: Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson).

For every boy who every wanted a Lionel train set, this movie is the present under the Christmas tree. Tony Scott’s big bicep film is replete with big engines, tough men, and enough train talk to satisfy the most finicky foamer (the name railroad pros give to amateur train lovers).

The story has been told before. In 1962 a locomotive broke away from a rail yard in East Syracuse, NY and got half way to Rochester. Kurosawa announced his plans to shoot the story. He never did, but his script was the basis for Runaway Train with Jon Voight. In 2005 engine 8888 broke away from Toledo, Ohio and made it to Kenton before being subdued. Railroaders called that engine the Crazy Eights. For years after, people in Ohio played the number 8888 in the lottery.

The power unit in Unstoppable is labeled 777 after that Crazy Eights engine. It breaks out of a yard in Pennsylvania and goes on an unstoppable rampage on the main line until Denzel Washington and Chris Pine can figure out how to control it. The unstoppable train is, of course, stoppable. We we know that from the beginning. But the economy of story telling and the power of Tony Scott’s streamlined visuals make the journey worth the predictable ending.

Making Unstoppable is probably as good a story as is on screen. Anyone who shoots a train movie should receive an award for frustration, patience, and persistence. You can’t turn these beasts around for another shot like a car. Every move takes hours. Even though the gags are done at slower speeds and made to look faster by computer re-imaging, every stunt is life threatening. A helicopter pilot was killed filming Runaway Train in Alaska.

Major railroads don’t want film companies on their tracks, so filmmakers need to find a little spur line with its own engines. Then you have to rent your own train of cars (called a �consist� in railroad lingo). When it’s all over you’ll talk like a railroad man and no matter how accurate you’ve tried to be, the foamers will tear your movie apart on their blogs by noting every inconsistency. Want to see the mistakes in Unstoppable? Go to TrainOrders.com.

Hard enough to make a film, but then what do you do with it? MovieWithMe reviews films that are already available  at Netflix and Amazon, but we get lots of inquiries from filmmakers asking us to review their new films. We have a place for that, called CONTENDERS. You can shoot your own video review, upload it to YouTube, and embed in the CONTENDERS section of MovieWithMe.com. Easy, effective, says exactly what you want to say, and gives you another link.

But what about entering your film in a film festival? If you’ve ever walked around the big festivals like Cannes or Berlin or Toronto, you will see people with badges from the most obscure festivals looking very serious as if they were actually working rather than using the pass to see a lot of free movies. Ever hear of the Carthage Film Festival (Tunisia) or Giffoni Film Festival (Italy)? You’ve just finished your Master’s film at Columbia; what do you do next?

The best answer is a new site, FilmFestivalLife.com that just went up in beta. It joins a list of better known sites like WithoutaBox, Reelport, and ShortFilmDepot. The difference is, FilmFestivalLife.com gives you organizational tools to choose and manage festivals to target, and also gives you feedback on what’s good and what’s not. Avoid the Brooklyn Film Festival and Festival European Short Film Film Festival, but by all means look into Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the Circuito Off-Veneice International Short Film Festival. (And while we’re at it, my advice is to never go to Sundance unless you are invited and can’t find a better excuse like “I’m shooting”).

What Luca Zamai, who leads this effort, is trying to do is create a kind of Yelp for film festivals where you can find the best and worst comments from filmmakers who have been there. I think the staff is also planning to add their opinions and be a filter for the good, bad, and ugly side of film festivals.

The next thing they should add is a section for film fans who want to go to festivals. How to try to scam tickets in Cannes (the best way I’ve been told is to buy them from the Cannes Police, since free ones are always circulating among the higher officers). Or how to eat cheaply in Berlin (Eat Turkish, or eat at Imbiss fast food stands, or go to the Nordsee fresh fish restaurant on the lower floor of the shopping center).

Stuff like this is invaluable for insiders and outsiders alike. It’s about time someone collected it on one lively site.

OSS 117: Lost in Rio (France 2009,  97 min. dir: Michel Hazanavicius, cast: Jean Dujardin, Louise Monot).

James Bond with vertigo teams with an Israeli Mossad operative in a miniskirt to find Nazis in Brazil. He can recognize Jews by their noses and believes his mission is to bring better understanding between Nazis and Jews.

This is the second James Bond spoof that Michel Hazanavicius has directed. The first was OSS 117: Cario, Nest of Spies. The plot of that propels OSS 117:Lost in Rio is an attempt to find a microfilmed list of French who collaborated with the Nazis. But all the really matters is a chance to riff on old James Bond movies, including the split screen images still remembered in old title sequences.

But OSS 117 was actually a French James Bond before James Bond. Author Jean Bruce first invented him in 1949, four years before Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel. The first movie using Bruce’s OSS 117 character was made in 1957 (OSS 117 N’est Pas Mort). The first James Bond movie was made in 1962 (Dr. No).

Michel Hazanavicius has gone on to make the much-praised The Artist (also staring Jean Dujardin). At first it seems odd that a television comedy, and commercial director should suddenly show up with a film about silent film stars shot in black and white and without dialogue. But if you look more closely at his filmography you discover his first movie, La Classe Americaine, was a compilation of old clips from Warner Brothers dubbed into French.

From a film made up of classic clips to two stylistic parodies of Bond movies to The Artist is a very logical evolution. In all these films the director has managed to recreate the clunky styles of the past without every making them silly.

Me and Orson Welles (UK 2008, 114 min. dir: Richard Linklater, cast: Christian McKay, Claire Dames, Zac Efron).

Towards the end of his life Orson Welles would agree to appear in any film, TV show, or commercial that would pay him $2000 a day. His bulk required a wheel chair and an oxygen tank at the ready to help him breath. He died owing thousands on his house account at Ma Maison: the one restaurant that let him run a tab.

The Orson Welles of this film is young, vital, creative, egoistic, charismatic and thoroughly mesmerizing. Christian McKay played Orson in a one-man show long before signing to play this part. His familiarity and ease with the role make the movie.

The plot isn’t much. Orson’s Mercury Theatre troupe is about to perform Julius Caesar on Broadway. Orson hires a young aspiring actor (Zac Efron) to play a small part. Zac falls in love with Claire Danes (Sonja) without realizing Orson is also bedding her.

What makes Me and Orson Welles rise above the plot is its examination of the theater, of the belief that great things came happen there, and that actors are really escape artists fleeing from themselves. “If for 90minutes I get this great reprieve from being myself—that is what you see in every great actor’s eyes.�

Too bad a movie about the soul of Broadway had to be shot in London. This is a British production trying to overcome the lack of money by faking just about everything from Central Park to 45^th Street. Maybe it was deemed too risky for Hollywood.

The risk also led to an advertising campaign featuring the young romance angle (Zac and Claire) and completely ignoring the power of the film vested in Christian McKay as Orson. His wonderful examination of an actor’s soul—or lack of it is what’s worth watching. Me and Orson Welles also has a lot to say about an amazing period in American theater (during the Great Depression) and the crazy genius who went from staging Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as a Nazi parable to vowing “We will sell no wine before its time� in TV commercials.

My Name is Kahn (India 2010, 165 min, dir: Karan Johar, cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol).

The plight of a Muslim man from India traveling across the US trying to convince post 9/11 America that he is not a terrorist is enough, but burdened with Asperger Syndrome it makes Shah Rukh Khan’s (Rizvan) performance all the more amazing.

This hybrid film is actually a Bollywood production but set in San Francisco and dealing with American problems faced by Indian immigrants. Before Rizvan Kahn’s problems even begin with being suspected as a terrorist, he has to overcome the prejudices of his own people against Muslims. He falls in love with beautiful Mandira (played by Kajol) but she is Hindi and shunned for marrying him.

The bombing of the Word Trade Center shocks their world and makes him a marked man because he is a Muslim and because he can not properly explain himself on account of the Asperger Syndrome effects. He embarks on a journey across the US to see the president and explain that he is not a terrorist. Along the way he touches many people and, somewhat like an Indian Jesus, brings a message of love and tolerance wherever he goes.

It goes well, it goes badly. It actually goes on a long time at over two and a half hours. But then, Bollywood films are usually measured by the hours of pleasure, not the minutes of seat squirming. Along the way are music, songs, colors and hope. There is a lot to see here and enough to keep your finger away from the fast forward button.