Hands on a Hard Body. Not porn. Excellent, absorbing, and funny documentary about a contest at a Texas car dealership: contestants must stand next to a truck with at least one hand on it at all times. Whoever's the last one standing wins the truck. A lot more interesting than you would think. My favorite contestant: the woman with no front teeth, top or bottom. Her husband had no front teeth either.
The Inheritors. Make sure you get the 1998 version; there are a couple others by that title. This is an excellent Austrian film about a group of servants who inherit their master's farm and try to run it themselves. It starts out with smart, black comedy, but it abruptly becomes serious and tragic as the local farmers try to destroy the servants' farm. Very well-done and definitely worth a rental.
Cold Fever. Icelandic film about a young Japanese man who reluctantly forgoes his Hawaiian vacation to travel to Iceland (in the middle of winter!) to perform his parents' funeral rites. Directed by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, which is evidently Icelandic for Jim Jarmusch, it's very quirky and engaging, much like the Icelanders. Definite recommendation.
Eat the Peach. Funny, Full Monty-ish film (though it predates Monty by more than 10 years) about a pair of newly unemployed Irishmen who find the inspiration for a bold new scheme in an Elvis movie (Roustabout). You've gotta love a movie like this. Lots of fun. They show a clip of Roustabout with one of its great lines: when a snobby college kid sneers at Elvis for driving a Japanese motorcycle instead of an American one, Elvis fires back, "You don't dig world trade, college boy, with all the economics they taught you?" Elvis Presley, ladies and gentlemen, the new spokesman for the WTO.
The Match Factory Girl. Odd Finnish film by Aki Kaurismäki about a plain girl living with her oppressive parents and working in a deadening job who has a one-night stand that gets her pregnant. Little dialogue, gloomy atmosphere, but often quite sharp and bitter (bitter is a compliment from me).
Smash Palace. Well-done but highly depressing movie from New Zealand about the break-up of a marriage. For some unfathomable reason, Video Vault has this in their comedy section. I don't think there's one comedic moment in it. Good, but very serious and sobering.
Sherman's March. Takes nearly as damn long as Sherman's actual march. Pretty funny for a while, but then you start to realize that the reason the narrator can't find love is because he dates... uh, I guess the kind word would be "flakes." Any semi-intelligent, with-it woman seems to send him running.
The Evil Dead. Not as funny as Army of Darkness and much scarier. Not a good choice to pop in the VCR at 11:00 pm by myself. Gory, creepy, and only rarely showing the cleverness and wit of Army of Darkness. If you like out-and-out horror, this one's for you.
Heaven's Burning. I rented this because Russell Crowe is in it. It actually isn't as terrible as I feared it would be, though Russell has these godawful scary sideburns. Sort of a multi-cultural Bonnie and Clyde; Crowe is the getaway driver for a bank heist in which a young Japanese woman who's just left her husband, in the middle of their honeymoon in Australia, is taken hostage. The two of them end up on the lam from the cops, vengeful gangsters, and her even more vengeful husband. And, of course, they fall in love. Not bad, but not worth seeking out.
Lenny. I expected this to be a lot better than it was. Frankly, I never got why I should care about Lenny Bruce. Because he paved the way for the likes of Howard Stern? Gee, thanks. Basically, he has a crummy comedy act, then he swears and gets a lot of publicity, then his act for the rest of his life is reading his court transcripts. How thrilling.
Metroland. Another one I expected to like a lot more than I actually did. Christian Bale is an ex-party boy living la vida suburban with wife Emily Watson until his old party mate comes back into his life and tempts him to go back to his wild ways. You would have to actually care about the characters to care about what happens to them.
The Comfort of Strangers. Rented because Rupert Everett is naked in it. Otherwise a creepy and fairly crappy film.
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