Special Interest Movies

This documentary follows the story of Louise and Martine Fokkens, a pair of identical twins who have worked as legal prostitutes in the Red Light District of Amsterdam for more than 50 years. Sweetnesss, scariness, and explicit sex are all everyday fodder for their profession, which they discuss with frankness. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

In the wake of his 98-year-old Jewish grandmother's passing, filmmaker Arnon Goldfinger commences the arduous process of cleaning out the Tel Aviv flat she lived in for 70 years, and makes a shocking discovery that sends him on a revealing journey into his complex family history. When the Nazis seized power in Germany, Goldfinger's grandparents Gerda and Kurt Tuchler fled to Tel Aviv. There, the couple led a rich life, and continued to grow a family. Decades later, after they've both passed away, Goldfinger and his family are cleaning out the flat when they find Nazi propaganda that seems to link his grandparents to a mysterious SS officer. Subsequently determined to learn the truth behind his family's connection to the enemy, Goldfinger begins an incredible journey into the past that reveals how the most profound truths can sometimes be swept under the rug for the sake of sheltering the ones we love most. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes take their unique brand of stand-up comedy and free-form Q&A sessions to Ireland for a pair of shows at Dublin's Vicor St. Theatre where they dish out their usual mix of R-rated banter and moviemaking anecdotes. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Originally Chronique d'Un Ete, this black & white, 16-millimeter film is an exercise in cinema verite, conceived by an anthropologist/moviemaker (Jean Rouch) and a sociologist/movie critic (Edgar Morin). The all-amateur cast includes a black university student, a factory worker and a young holocaust survivor. Each is interviewed on a variety of current-events topics, and each is permitted to ramble on until the camera runs out of film. As a coda, the interviewees are seen talking among themselves, asking each other if they had been "acting" while on camera. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This freewheeling surrealist outing from France attempts to dispense almost completely with conventional narrative structure; instead, it offers a series of absurdist sketches with scarcely any discernible connection between them. The film opens on a character played by director Leos Carax known only as "Le Dormeur." After waking up one morning, he somehow locates and opens a secret door in his apartment, and wanders into a packed movie house where an audience watches King Vidor's classic The Crowd and a giant dog wanders up and down the aisles. Meanwhile, Oscar (Denis Lavant) rides to work in a white limousine driven by his close friend and associate Céline (Edith Scob); Oscar's job, it seems, involves using makeup, elaborate costumes, and props to carry out a number of complex and unusual scenarios. Of these, one has the actor performing an action sequence and simulated sex with an actress on a soundstage while he's filmed by an off-camera director. The second sequence puts him in a sewer with Monsieur Merde, a character who first appeared in Carax's segment in the omnibus picture Tokyo!; here, Merde falls in love with a beautiful model (Eva Mendes) who accompanies him on a jaunt through a cemetery. Subsequent episodes cast Oscar in a deathbed melodrama, a gangster film, a musical alongside pop star Kylie Minogue, and much more. At one point in the picture, Carax implies that Oscar may be acting these scenes out for hidden cameras, which are webcasting the episodes for Internet surfers. An intriguing footnote: Movie buffs may experience some déjà vu while watching Scob in this film, as she's deliberately used to invoke her characterization from Georges Franju's 1960 horror classic Eyes without a Face, and at one point, even wears a facial mask similar to the one she donned in that picture. Holy Motors marked Carax's first feature since the 1999 Pola X. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

The football program at Manassas High School in Memphis, TN, has earned a powerful reputation during the school's 110-year history, but unfortunately it doesn't happen to be a positive one. The Manassas team has never been eligible for a single play-off game, and no one expected this to change before Bill Courtney entered the picture. Courtney was a businessman and football fan who took it upon himself to do something about the Manassas football program; he volunteered his services as coach and began shaping a hapless team into one with genuine prospects. Filmmakers Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin followed Courtney and his players through the 2009 season, and their documentary Undefeated examines the coach's efforts to give the school a winning record, as well as the sometimes complex relationship between Courtney, a white, wealthy businessman, and his players, who are all black and mostly come from communities stuck in a cycle of poverty and crime. Undefeated received its world premiere at the 2011 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This documentary takes a look at the fascinating life and career of legendary Vogue editor in chief Diana Vreeland, who helped engineer the iconic style of Twiggy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, served as a pioneer for women in the publishing industry, and advocated tirelessly for the betterment of culture, art, and fashion in the 20th century. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

Documentary filmmakers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin offer this illuminating -- and often disturbing -- look at the challenges faced by young, aspiring Russian models determined to break into the fashion industry. Ashley Arbaugh is a former American model who has parlayed her experience in front of the camera into a lucrative job scouting young girls in Siberia. The lucky few whom Ashley selects to move on are then offered the opportunity to model in Japan. Ashley's latest discovery is Nadya, a 13-year-old, self-described "grey mouse" who possesses a striking natural beauty, and who endeavors to pull her family out of poverty through her modeling career. But upon arriving in Japan and attempting to navigate the strange new world without the benefit of speaking the language, Nadya and homesick fellow model Madlen soon realize that the experience is nothing like what they thought it would be, and that the work they were "guaranteed" back home seems frustratingly hard to come by. Meanwhile, surreptitious contract clauses stipulate that the girls could be quickly sent home at a moment's notice, and they wind up deeply in debt to the same company that promised them the opportunity of a lifetime. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

He is one of the most controversial filmmakers alive - at once praised by the French as a genius and an auteur, eschewed by American critics who dismiss his comedy as "low-brow," acknowledged by observers for his decades of philanthropic work with the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and notorious on both sides of the Atlantic for his on-set perfectionism and his insistence on traveling to vast lengths to get scenes, performances and gags right. He's also, unsurprisingly, as complex and multifaceted as anyone in the entertainment industry. But what is the truth about Jerry Lewis, that belies this series of contradictions? In this documentary profile of the entertainer, director Gregg Barson sets out to answer that question via candid interviews with the subject himself, plus insights by contemporaries including Phyllis Diller, Jerry Seinfeld and Billy Crystal. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be," and while he penned those words in 1961, they seem especially apt in a time when people can easily create an alternate identity for themselves in cyberspace. Director Barbara Schroeder presents a true-life story in which creating an on-line alter ego has deadly consequences in the documentary talhotblond. Thomas Montgomery, a man from upstate New York with a failing marriage and a dead-end job, found himself spending a lot of time in internet chat rooms, where he told people he was "marinesniper," a rugged eighteen-year-old serving in Iraq. "Marinesniper" began chatting with "talhotblond," an eighteen-year-old girl from West Virginia, and their relationship progressed into cybersex sessions and a proposal of marriage. Eventually, "talhotblond" discovered that "marinesniper" wasn't who he claimed to be, and to get even she began an online relationship with "beefcake," one of Montgomery's co-workers who was on his on-line friends list. In time, the interaction between these characters led to real-life jealousy that ended with gunfire and a murder trial in which the surprising secrets about each party was revealed. talhotblond received its world premiere at the 2009 Seattle International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the Documentary competition. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A Palestinian farmer who purchased a video camera to document the birth of his fourth son begins using it to record the struggle between his people and Israeli settlers, and continues to buy a new camera each time his old one is damaged in the fray. The year was 2005. Bil'in family man Emad Burnat was celebrating the birth of his fourth son Gibreel when the settlers began erecting a massive separation barrier in their village. Over the course of the next two years, Burnat alternated between documenting his son's development, and turning his camera on the peaceful protests over the controversial barrier. As the tensions swell, Burnat finds himself having to replace broken cameras with alarming frequency. This is the story of each of Burnat's cameras, and the images they captured as his friends, family, and loved ones waged a valiant struggle to preserve their way of life. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock examines the subject of male grooming in the age of the metrosexual. Conversations with a diverse array of participants including Will Arnett, Jason Bateman (both of whom also serve as executive producers), Paul Rudd, John Waters, Zach Galifianakis, Judd Apatow, members of ZZ Top and Anthrax, and a variety of fashion experts and sociologists offer colorful insight into the various ways men go about making themselves look presentable. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi