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28 Sep ' 05:30
Updated September 28, 2010 BabiesFocus, 79 min., PG, DVD: $29.98, Blu-ray: $39.98, Sept. 28 
Tracking four babies from vastly different cultures during the first two years of their lives, French director Thomas Balmes’ Babies documents the universality of human development and socialization as the titular tiny creatures explore the world around them. Hattie in San Francisco and Mari in Tokyo are first-born children living in hectic, middle-class urban families—their daily lives are full of educational toys and playgroups. In contrast, Ponijao is the ninth child born into a matriarchal society in the flatlands of Opuwo, Namibia, while Bayar is the younger of two offspring of Mongolian herders living in a yurt near Bayanchandmani. Obviously this global cross-section of humanity was chosen to represent various socioeconomic strata and ways of life. As infants and toddlers, all four subjects share the common experience of being born, nursing, sleeping, bathing, playing, learning to walk, and starting to communicate with those around them—albeit in vastly different circumstances. Shot cinema vérité style, Babies reaches the inevitable conclusion that—regardless of divergent circumstances—babies grow up happy as long as they are loved. A delightfully engaging and photogenic exercise in cultural anthropology, this is recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include “The Babies—Three Years Later” update featurette (4 min.), “Everybody Loves…Your Babies Sweepstakes Winners” home videos (2 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is the BD-Live function. Bottom line: a small extras package for a solid documentary.] (
Being Michael MadsenMidnight Releasing, 90 min., not rated, DVD: $24.98, Blu-ray: $29.98 
Michael Mongillo’s wicked satire on obsession with celebrities recasts veteran tough guy Michael Madsen as a piece of self-destructive tabloid fodder who plans revenge on a photojournalist (Jason Alan Smith) who has been relentlessly stalking him. Madsen fights fire with fire by hiring three documentary filmmakers (Davis Mikaels, Doug Tompos, Kathy Searle) to level an identical degree of relentless coverage against his target. However, the trio have their own issues that continually muck up the plan. Revealing more would damage the genuine surprises that bubble up along the way, although Mongillo’s savage thrust at the culture of celebrity infatuation says volumes about the media’s misplaced priorities and the general public’s gluttonous hunger for any scrap of news (accurate or otherwise) on top stars. The mockumentary format offers Madsen a golden opportunity to display his hitherto untapped talent for ironic comedy, and he tells his story with a semi-remorseful pain that is hilariously at odds with his macho, leather-clad physical appearance. Daryl Hannah, Harry Dean Stanton, the late David Carradine, and Virginia Madsen (the star’s sister) provide amusing Greek chorus commentary, while B-movie icon Debbie Rochon has a hilarious cameo as the object of a voyeuristic detour. Highly recommended. (
BruriahSISU, 89 min., in Hebrew w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.99, Sept. 28 
Avraham Kushnir’s Israeli drama focuseson the tensions within an Orthodox Jewish family, where rigid tradition fights a losing battle against contemporary values. The title refers to the elusive 2nd-century Talmudic figure who was unsuccessfully tested in her fidelity by her rabbi husband. But the film is about a modern Bruriah (Hadar Galron), who is trying to locate a lost book written by her father, a rabbi excommunicated for allegedly heretical Talmudic commentary. As Bruriah witnesses mild forms of rebellion—including her daughter’s plan to become a rabbi and a friend’s aggressive push for a rabbinical divorce—she quietly reconsiders her own value as a wife and mother. But her sour husband does not appreciate change, and his attempt to replay the Talmud story by pushing an attractive colleague into Bruriah’s path only complicates things. Bruriah is far too mild to make any significant sociological point—the title character is depressingly passive, while her eventual belated move to action feels anti-climactic. Ultimately, the film comes across as a meditation on girl power that arrives four decades late to the sisterhood of feminist cinema. Optional. (P. Hall
GoodE1, 96 min., R, DVD or Blu-ray: $24.98, Sept. 28 
Shot entirely on location in Budapest The Killer Inside Me 
MPI, 109 min., R, DVD: $19.98, Blu-ray: $29.98, Sept. 28
Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of Jim Thompson’s extraordinary 1952 pulp novel is slavishly faithful to its source. The story revolves around Lou Ford (Casey Affleck), a superficially respectable sheriff’s deputy in a Texas oil town who’s actually a psychotic murderer—killing the son of a rich local power broker (Ned Beatty), a sultry prostitute (Jessica Alba), and his own longtime girlfriend (Kate Hudson), among others. In its original form the tale is told by Ford himself, and John Curran’s screenplay lifts whole swaths of dialogue directly, along with much of Ford’s narration, which is presented in voiceover. Affleck adds enough simmering undercurrents to the killer’s apparently good-natured exterior to give the character a quietly menacing quality, while also delivering his homicidal outbursts with frightening conviction. Although the literal treatment here fails to fully capture the book’s haunting quality, this neo-noir thriller still boasts considerable power. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include interviews with costars Casey Affleck (3 min.), Jessica Alba (3 min.), and Kate Hudson (3 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a solid film.] (
In this Cinderella story set against a professional sports backdrop, Newark-bred Leslie Wright (Queen Latifah) is a hardworking physical therapist and diehard basketball fan who just can’t seem to find Mr. Right—until suave NBA All-Star Scott McKnight (rap star Common) of the New Jersey Nets comes along. After meeting cute at a gas station where she’s filling up her old Mustang and he’s trying to figure out the gizmos on his new SUV, Scott invites Leslie to a birthday party and she naïvely takes along her gorgeous, gold-digging sister, Morgan (Paula Patton). Not surprisingly, Leslie warms the bench until a severe knee injury threatening to knock McKnight out of the playoffs places the hoops star in her capable hands as full-time trainer and in-house psychologist. Leslie is the “perfect homegirl” (she’s a girl and a friend, but not a girlfriend), although Scott will, of course, ultimately succumb to her warm, wise, womanly charms. Unfortunately, however, Queen Latifah and Common exude zero chemistry in Sanaa Hamri’s unbelievable rom-com, which is punctuated with energetic basketball sequences, innumerable Izod product placements, and tepid cameos by real NBA pros. Formulaic and featherweight, this is optional, at best. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include “The One You Can’t Live Without” featurette on the origins of the film (7 min.), “Common on the Fast Break” with costar Common (5 min.), a gag reel (2 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are a “When Amazing Happens” featurette on the basketball player cameos (6 min.), and a bonus digital copy of the film. Bottom line: a small extras package for a so-so rom-com.] ( 
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