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With this film, director/writer David Gordon Green has produced four wonderful independent dramas. I eagerly await his first mainstream comedy, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, coming later this year. I hope that stoner comedy is a big hit so that he’ll have more clout to do bigger productions in the vein of this film. What distinguishes all his films is his attention for personality, especially when it comes to the way people talk and the way they fall in love. There’s a sweet romance woven into this tragic drama that reminds us that turbulent relationships probably started beautifully at the beginning.

Based on Stewart O’Nan’s novel, the drama takes place in an average-sized Pennsylvania town, centering around three workers at a Chinese restaurant. Annie (Kate Beckinsale, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING) is a waitress, who struggles to take care of her four-year-old daughter Tara (Gracie Hudson), because she is separated from her troubled husband Glenn (Sam Rockwell, MATCHSTICK MEN), who has turned to religion to deal with his depression and alcoholism. At the motel, Annie has a routine of meeting with a married man named Nate (Nicky Katt, SECONDHAND LIONS), who is more of a diversion than a solution to her problems. Working with Annie is high schooler Arthur (Michael Angarano, LORDS OF DOGTOWN) and sassy Barb (Amy Sedaris, STRANGERS WITH CANDY). Arthur is dealing with his professor father Don (Griffin Dunne, AFTER HOURS) walking out on his mom Louise (Jeanetta Arnette, BOYS DON’T CRY), while he’s developing a sweet romance with the quirky new girl Lila (Olivia Thirlby, JUNO).

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Emilio Estevez wrote and directed this drama following the lives of 22 people in the Ambassador Hotel the day Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. Though his name supplies the title to this Altman-esque feature, Bobby Kennedy is not a character. The real politician is however seen in archival footage woven throughout the narrative. The various stories are meant to peek into the various cultural currents that were running through America at the time from the hippie movement to the war in Vietnam. The stronger stories keep the film from lagging under its own ambitions, making it a compelling look into the ways RFK’s death altered the course of America and the lives of its people.

One of the film’s best stories is kitchen worker Jose, who has tickets to go see Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale beat the consecutive shut out record. However, racist kitchen manager Timmons (Christian Slater, ROBIN HOOD) has assigned him a double shift without telling him. So Jose gives his tickets to the dignified cook Edward Robinson (Laurence Fishburne, WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?), much to the dismay of angry fellow kitchen worker Miguel (Jacob Vargas, 2004’s FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX), who wants to make money on it. Diane (Lindsay Lohan, MEAN GIRLS) plans to marry fellow high school student William (Elijah Wood, LORD OF THE RINGS) in an effort to keep him out of Vietnam. Kennedy campaign workers Cooper (Shia LaBeouf, TRANSFORMERS) and Jimmy (Brian Geraghty, JARHEAD) play hooky from their duties to find drug dealer Fisher (Ashton Kutcher, TV’s THAT 70S SHOW), who gives them acid so they can get closer to God. And waitress/wanna-be actress Susan Taylor (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, GRINDHOUSE) knows they’re high. Wade (Joshua Jackson, TV’s DAWSON’S CREEK) is running RFK’s campaign and sets up a meeting with Bobby and dedicated black campaign worker Dwayne (Nick Cannon, DRUMLINE), who is just shy of militant.

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The quintessential “Altman” feature follows 24 major characters through five days in Nashville, leading up to a political rally/ country concert. More free flowing than any of director Robert Altman’s other hyperlink films, this feature clearly has no main character and moves along on the simplest plot theme, building wonderful character moments, which lead back to its core themes of fame and politics. The “plot” is thin, but the narrative is a complex and brilliantly constructed tapestry of intertwining narratives, surrounded by nearly an hour of music.

Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson, MAGNOLIA) is a Nashville icon with his big hair and white, spangled jump suit. The film begins with him recording an insipid ballad about the bicentennial. Linnea Reese (Lily Tomlin, 9 TO 5) is a white gospel singer, who is married to lawyer Delbert (Ned Beatty, DELIVERENCE), who is helping organize the political rally for third party candidate Hal Phillip Walker, who is unseen throughout the film. Linnea and Delbert have two deaf sons, which Delbert cannot relate to at all. Linnea is hounded by womanizing folk rocker Tom Frank (Keith Carradine, CHOOSE ME), who is having an affair with his bandmate Mary (Cristina Raines, THE SENTINEL), who is married to his other bandmate Bill (Allan Nicholls, SLAP SHOT). Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET) is a reigning queen of Nashville, but she is mentally and physically burnt out by the pressures of the music business and her controlling manager/husband Barnett (Allen Garfield, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY).

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Despite some structural problems, FAST FOOD NATION shines with intelligent debate, an impressive cast and a layered approach at looking at the entire fast food industry from the corporate level to the meat supply level to the store level. Based on the bestselling non-fiction book, director Richard Linklater and co-writer Eric Schlosser find a way to bring out a bit of the human side behind the disturbing facts that were revealed in the original tome. Seen side by side with the documentary SUPER SIZE ME, one may never eat a fast food hamburger ever again.

For the film’s corporate look, the fast food chain Mickey’s is riding the success of their new burger the Big One. Marketing exec Don Anderson (Greg Kinnear, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE) is sent to Colorado to investigate one of their beef supply facilities after an independent report reveals a high level of crap in the meat, literally. For the supplier side, we follow a group of illegal Mexican immigrants — Raul (Wilmer Valderrama, TV’s THAT 70S SHOW), Sylvia (Catalina Sandino Moreno, MARIA FULL OF GRACE) and Coco (Ana Claudia Talancon, THE CRIME OF FATHER AMARO) — as they cross the border and get jobs at the meat packing plant. On the local store level, Amber (Ashley Johnson, TV’S GROWING PAINS) is working to make enough money to go to college, because her mother Cindy (Patricia Arquette, FLIRTING WITH DISASTER) can’t afford to send her.

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Though it’s not one of Robert Altman’s masterpieces, A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION is still a fitting closure to the career of one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. The sly, dry and somber humor of Garrison Keillor works well with Altman’s signature style. The film is equal part concert film, backstage dramedy and an ode to witty radio entertainment, which the PRAIRIE HOME radio show has singularly kept alive long past the time when the form of entertainment has died everywhere else.

The plot is simple; it’s the last performance of the PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION radio show before an axeman (Tommy Lee Jones, THE FUGITIVE) sells the radio station to some corporation. Keillor playing himself moves along with the show as if it’s like any other. He’s not a sentimental fella. Singing duo Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson (Meryl Streep, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, & Lily Tomlin, I HEART HUCKABEE’S), however, reminisce about the good ole days and how their family started performing to Yolanda’s daughter Lola (Lindsay Lohan, MEAN GIRLS). Dusty (Woody Harrelson, WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP) and Lefty (John C. Reilly, CHICAGO) perform their humorous country and western tunes.

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Set in the Caymen Island, this crime yarn jumps on the typical trend of weaving the stories of various characters together. However, the editing courses create a narrative that takes too long in developing its main characters, result in a style that is more distracting than clever.

The film opens with a brief scene with main characters Shy (Orlando Bloom, ELIZABETHTOWN) and Andrea (Zoe Saldana, THE TERMINAL) in an embrace in the ocean. Then we jump to the tale of corrupt businessman Carl Ripley (Bill Paxton, FRALITY), who must flee to the Caymens with his daughter Pippa (Agnes Bruckner, BLUE CAR), who is furious that they are moving again. She meets local small time hustler Fritz (Victor Rasuk, RAISING VICTOR VARGAS), who takes her to a party at the house of thug Richie Rich (Razaaq Adoti, BLACK HAWK DOWN), who Fritz owes money to. After Pippa and Fritz’s story comes to a climax, we move back to Shy’s story and learn that he works for Andrea’s rich father (Robert Wisdom, STORYTELLING), who doesn’t approve of her relationship with the older white boy. So does her brother Hammer (Anthony Mackie, MILLION DOLLAR BABY) who hangs with Richie Rich and thinks of himself as a gangster.

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For all intents and purposes, this entire film is one long string of gags. So why is it so great? It’s because director/star Jacques Tati is able to weave the gags into an overall story that riffs on many of the fond feelings folks have toward summer vacations as well as linking them to the central character Monsieur Hulot.

The film begins as vacationers arrive at a small seaside hotel for summer holiday. Hulot travels there in his old-fashioned automobile, which seems like it could bust apart at any moment. We don’t even see Hulot until about 10 minutes into the film when his arrival through the front door wrecks havoc as the wind from outside disrupts the activities of the people relaxing in the lobby.

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Writer/director Anthony Minghella (THE ENGLISH PATIENT) crafts a multilayered drama that investigates the criminal heart in all of us.

Will (Jude Law, CLOSER) is a landscape architect working on a project to turn an impoverished area of London into a viable quarter. He lives with his long-term girlfriend Liv (Robin Wright Penn, NINE LIVES) and her autistic daughter Beatrice (Poppy Rogers, FROM HELL). Will and Liv’s relationship is on the rocks. Will and his partner Sandy (Martin Freeman, HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY) set up their new office in the very neighborhood they are trying to revive. However, this leads to several break-ins, conducted by free runners, including Miro (Rafi Gavron, film debut), who works for a group of immigrant crooks.

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Director Alejandro González Iñárritu again interweaves the tales of multiple characters, but this time they happen to be in vastly different parts of the world.

The film begins in Morocco with Mohammed (Mustapha Amhita) buying a used rifle for his sons Ahmed (Said Tarchani) and Yussef (Boubker Ait El Caid) to kill jackals with. The fact that the younger Yussef is a better shot makes his brother angry, spurring him to convince his younger brother that the gun is defective. His idea to prove that the gun cannot fire three km is to have his little brother fire at vehicles on the road in the distance.

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This direct-to-DVD feature is a fast-paced GO-like tale that follows a group of characters, whose lives weave together in unexpected ways. The plot features two car accidents, two people putting the same dead body in their trunks and the events revolve around 11:14 pm.

To start, Jack (Henry Thomas, GANGS OF NEW YORK) is driving drunk down the highway when he passes under an overpass and a dead body lands on his car. From this point forward, the film chronicles the actions Jack takes to cover up the incident and the events that led up to the crazy occurrence.

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