Director : Boaz Yakin
With : Renee Zellweger, Peter Eccleston

The premise (Jewish Orthodox woman becomes disenchanted with religion and her obligatory orthodox lifestyle and decides to find a new life) is enough to just about ensure a disastrous showing at the box office. However, thanks to the two or three massive “hits” Miramax manages to churn out every year they can afford to spit out loads of smaller scale art films.

Written and directed by Boaz Yakin, whose debut feature “Fresh” was a unique and powerful film “Rubies” is a smaller more personal film aimed at a much more limited audience. Starring Renee Zellweger, who is becoming more and more versatile with every film, and Peter Eccleston (Shallow Grave, Elizabeth), “A Price Above Rubies” glitters with strong compelling performances and a surprisingly fast moving storyline. As Zellweger’s character struggles to find a way out of the strict religious life that she has married into, she begins to realize that she has a price that she places on freedom.

Born the daughter of a jeweler, her eye for evaluating the quality and authenticity of the products that pass through the diamond district in New York allows her to work outside the home for the brother of her husband. From this point the movie turns become a more like that same painful spiritual journey that one takes in an effort to find true happiness. Although maybe a different take on the same old story, “A Price Above Rubies” is a truly enjoyable and well constructed film that looks at religion, love and personal freedom from a fresh vantage point.

Director : Tony Bui
With : Harvey Keitel, Zoe Bui, Don Duong

“Three Seasons” is one of the most impressive debut films in many years. In it 26 year-old director Tony Bui gently weaves together four separate stories that all reflect the changing realities of Vietnam as it moves towards modernity. Financed and supported by Sundance, it might not seem surprising to hear that it cleaned up at the Sundance Film Festival this year, bringing home best picture and best cinematography awards. But like “Smoke Signals” a year before, both films represent milestones both in their approach to filmmaking and their ethnic constituency.

The film is set in an exquisitely filmed Saigon, with each tale subtly reflecting elements of daily modern life. The primary story focuses on the relationship between an awestruck cyclo driver (Hai) and the prostitute that he chauffeurs home from a fancy western hotel every night. Hai, played by Vietnam’s biggest film star Don Duong, reveals so much of the kindness and forgiveness of the Vietnamese character that you can’t help but find yourself rooting for the hard luck cyclo driver to find requited love.

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Director : Larry Clark
With : James Woods, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Melanie Griffith

Not unlike the totally bleak, yet potentially realistic look at New York City kids in his debut feature “Kids,” photographer turned filmmaker Larry Clark has once again created a movie fixated on his love of sleaze. Having not abandoned his infatuation with young kids doing dirty adult things, Clark’s latest opus appears to be a slightly kinder and gentler take on the topics explored in “Kids:” sex, drugs, and thieving. After a brutal opening scene where young Bobbie (Vincent Kartheiser) is nearly beaten to death for robbing some vending machines, Clark sets out to take a plot and unfold it rather linearly. From the moment professional junkie and thief Mel (James Woods) and his girlfriend Sidney (Melanie Griffith) pick up the barely recovered Bobbie and his girlfriend Rosie (Natasha Gregson Wagner ) from their dingy warehouse squat, you can tell that both parties have, in a way, looked into that mirror that makes you look both younger and older.
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