Low Down has a fantastic cast for a low-budget film including John Hawkes, Elle Fanning, Glenn Close, Flea, Taryn Manning, Tim Daly, Billy Drago, Rain Pheonix, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, and Burn Gorman (the last three are alumni of Game of Thrones, which couldn't be farther in tone and content from this movie). It is the true life story of jazz pianist Joe Albany from a book by his daughter, Amy-Jo. The only thing that clearly marks the time period that the film takes place is a brief excerpt of the Watergate hearings in 1974 but has the feel of a time maybe a decade before. That is part of the beauty of a film like this. It is so subtly clued into detail. The essence of the movie is layers of detail that reveal character. It is the kind of movie that isn't made much any more. It is pitch-perfect in depicting an old school naturalism which requires your understanding and commitment.

The main character of Joe Albany (played brilliantly by Hawkes) is defined both by his love and sensitivity and by his weakness. Joe Albany was an outstanding musician afflicted by the addictions that many jazz musicians succumbed to. His heroin habit was something that he constantly struggled against, but he always tried to put his daughter first. Elle Fanning (the sister of Dakota and the star of Maleficent and Super-8) is luminous as the daughter who was loyal and loving to her father as she watched him struggle in a losing battle against the drug. Her mother, Shelia (Lena Headey) shows up from time to time, and she is the kind of mother who has a suitcase laced full with a plentiful supply of alcoholic miniatures. She's the kind of mother who falls flat on her face unconscious in the living room after a reunion dinner. Amy-Jo always remains sweet and loyal, no matter how sad and tawdry their circumstances become. Equally supportive and long-suffering is Joe's mother, played by Glenn Close with a dowdy lack of vanity. Joe and Amy-Jo live in a low-rent, low-down hotel in downtown Los Angeles full of oddballs, junkies, and prostitutes. Not the easiest place to stay straight, but Close's character is a tower of strength, always ready to help in any way.

There was a new cowboy in Dallas, and he wasn’t throwing touchdown passes. But Walker was almost gone before he could really get started. After just four episodes, the show’s production company suffered financial collapse, and the show was rescued at the last minute by CBS Productions, who would continue to run the show for its nearly decade-long run. For nine years Norris brought us the ultimate Texas Ranger in a formula cops-and-robbers show. The show often became a parody of itself but maintained a solid viewership throughout. Hell, Norris even sings the theme song. Truthfully, what started as a one-man show (it was originally called Chuck Norris Is Walker, Texas Ranger) had become a good working ensemble that probably kept the train going for so long. Walker (Norris) is a tough-guy Texas Ranger. He is partnered with Sydney Cooke (Peebles) and Jimmy Trivette (Gilyard), who’s an ex-jock with a brain. Walker had a love interest and eventual wife in the local assistant district attorney Alex Cahill (later Walker). Together they fight the evils that come to the high plains of Texas armed with their fists, six-shooters, and Stetsons.

Fans of Norris were never disappointed in what they got here. The requisite martial arts and tough-guy talk are present pretty much in every episode. There’s a popular T-shirt design that lauds their hero in epic fashion. One of my favorites is : “McGyver can build a plane out of gum and paper clips, but Chuck Norris can kill him and take the plane.”  Another brags: “Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas”. And there’s the humorous: “Chuck Norris knows what Willis is talkin’ about”.

"Book 'em Danno."

It's been 30 years since we last heard that phrase. Still it persisted in the modern lexicon along with the term Five-0, which is still shouted in high-crime areas in cities all over the country whenever a police presence is felt closing in on the bad guys. Hawaii Five-0 ended in 1980. That's when Tom Selleck took over the sets and production crew on Hawaii to work as Magnum P.I. until 1988 when it all closed down for good -- or did it? Wouldn't you know it, the show has been resurrected and become the hottest drama on television. A younger Steve McGarrett and company are back in action and Hawaii ...the world might never be the same again. Roll wave...

by Dustin P. Anderson

This DVD contains some of the scariest episodes of classic Nickelodeon animated TV shows. Hey Arnold! follows a young boy living in a city trying to deal with the day-to-day troubles an elementary-grade child would be dealing with. The Angry Beavers is about a sibling duo of beavers; the cool, sophisticated Norbert and his hyperactive brother Daggit. Ahhh! Real Monsters tells us the story of monsters going through “Scare School” (this series came way before Monsters University) under the strict thumb of The Grumble. Three troublemaking monsters must try to stay on their professor’s good side, or they will face severe repercussions. Catdog is exactly what it sounds like; the show follows a hybrid cat and dog living on one body. The show features these two growing up in an all animal society where they are looked at as weird by some and friends by others. The last show on this disc is Rocko’s Modern Life; much like Catdog we are taken through an all animal society, this time we follow a wallaby named Rocko as he goes through work troubles, neighbor inconveniences, and friendship woes.

Sometimes films can move at a rather slow pace, but have a tremendous payoff. In many cases, this pacing pattern is identified by cinephiles as a “slow burn.” How slow the “burn” actually is depends solely on the director’s choice; some can be a little too slow for the amount of “burn” it provides at the film’s climax. Felt had no such problem with either of these concepts. The film is slow, yes, but its pacing fits so well with the devolving psyche (the “burn”) of the main character.

Felt is Jason Banker’s second feature film in the director’s chair. The story follows Amy (Amy Everson) as she spirals downward into a pit of post-traumatic depression. Suffering from an undisclosed trauma, we watch as Amy struggles with her homo-social relationships with Elizabeth and Roxanne (Elizabeth Ferrara and Roxanne Knouse) and attempts to develop a new intimate relationship with Kenny (Kentucker Audley). The film traces Amy’s damaged psyche: a maze of past relationships, burgeoning sexual tensions, and perverse reparative behaviors.