Lindsay McCarney

Jesus CampDirected by: Heidi Ewing and Rachel GradyMongrelThis doc, about pastor Becky Fischer’s eerie evangelical summer camp—featuring scenes of kids shaking from religious fervour, and worshipping Bush cardboard cut-outs—doesn’t lend itself particularly well to lazy afternoon re-watching. But Jesus Camp and its well-crafted thesis—indoctrinated kids eventually become powerful, indoctrinated voters—stick with you months after the […]

Little Britain LiveDirected by: Geoff Posner and Jeremy Sams(BBC Video)Little Britain Live was filmed during a tour undertaken by the cast of BBC’s popular sketch comedy show Little Britain; since the tour featured mostly new material, this disc offers fans of the show who missed it a chance to see its sketches. But Little Britain […]

VolverDirected by: Pedro AlmodovarSonyFrom the get-go, director Pedro Almodovar wants us to suspend our disbelief while watching Volver—to buy into its high-emotion chaos and its friendly maternal “ghost.” But the tale Almodovar has to tell is simpler than it first appears—it’s a story about female bonding and resilience, and healing long-festering wounds. The film is […]

An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening HarderDirected by: JM Kenny(Sony Pictures) Fans of 2002’s An Evening with Kevin Smith will find its sequel fits like a pair of well-worn slippers—it feels like Smith has taken a quick bathroom break and returned refreshed and ready to resume the same conversation. Writer-director Smith (Clerks II, Jersey […]

The TV SetDirected by: Jake Kasdan20th Century FoxIn The TV Set, writer Mike (a bearded David Duchovny) is one of the poor sods lucky enough to have his pilot produced during pilot season, the turbulent time in TV-Land when network suits set about turning the more promising scripts they’ve received into one-time episodes. For Mike, […]

For Your ConsiderationDirected by: Christopher Guest(Warner Independent)Writer-director Christopher Guest has spent the last decade turning out hilarious mockumentaries about idiosyncratic topics. In Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, Guest and his stable of collaborators (including Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard, Michael McKean and Parker Posey) explored the worlds of community theatre, dog […]

Justice League Unlimited: Season TwoWarnerGranted, season one of superhero team-up extravaganza JLU—with its intricate, politically minded plot—was better than season two. But season one hit DVD last year, and season two’s a solid bow-out for this funny, smart cartoon—a Batman/Superman story for kids and nerds alike. Heads up to all the execs scurrying to throw […]

Snow CakeDirected by: Directed by Marc Evans(Alliance)At one point in Snow Cake, morose Alex (Alan Rickman) and high-functioning autistic Linda (Sigourney Weaver) engage in a game of Linda’s creation—”comic book word” Scrabble. Players can create any word, as long as they provide an example of their word’s comic-book-related use. It’s whimsical without being annoying. Snow […]

WKRP in Cincinnati: The Complete First Season20th Century FoxListen up, babies: after years of being mired in music-rights-related DVD-release limbo, Dr. Johnny Fever is finally in the house. Many of those rights issues weren’t resolved, so 1970s radio sitcom WKRP’s first season has hit DVD with much of its original music replaced and some scenes […]

IdlewildDirected by: Bryan Barber (HBO Films)Idlewild opens self-importantly with a quote cribbed from Shakespeare. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances,” shy mortician/ piano-player Percival (Andre 3000, half of OutKast) narrates. He then finishes the quote with a new ending: “All with […]

You Kill MeDirected by: John DahlIFCFrank (Ben Kingsley), You Kill Me’s main character, is an alcoholic, living in Buffalo. He drinks on the job, and passes out at work. Fed up, Frank’s boss sends him to San Francisco to rehabilitate. After that, the film’s jam-packed with “rehab movie” conventions: Frank forges a reluctant bond with […]

Fast Food NationDirected by: Richard Linklater(Fox Searchlight)When writer-director Linklater and co-writer Eric Schlosser set out to adapt Schlosser’s 2001 book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal for the big screen, their goal was to translate the facts from Schlosser’s non-fiction tome into a character-driven film. In this, they’ve succeeded. Fast Food […]