Independent

The static living arrangement between three lonely souls living in a rural Mississippi Delta township is suddenly shaken up due to a tragic suicide in this intimate family drama from first-time writer/director Lance Hammer. Single mother Marley was barely getting by when her 12-year-old son James fell into a dangerous cycle of drugs and violence. Desperate to escape her current surroundings and save her son from becoming another statistic, Marley seeks safe harbor at a home on the property of Lawrence -- a man with whom she has been locked into a bitter feud ever since the birth of her son. Brought together by circumstance and left with little choice but to work through their hardships, Marley, James, and Lawrence do their best to move beyond the grief that has befallen them, and transform tragedy into the foundation for a new and hopeful future. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A middle-aged man finds love in the last place he was looking -- his psychiatrist's waiting room -- in this dark comedy drama. Alex (William H. Macy) is a man in his mid-forties who is having something of a midlife crisis; he's unhappy with his life; his marriage to Martha (Tracey Ullman) is going through a rough patch; he's worried about his six-year-old son, on whom he dotes; and he wishes he hadn't bucked under to the wishes of his domineering father Michael (Donald Sutherland) and started working in the family business. Making things even more problematic is the family's line of work -- Alex is a killer-for-hire. Alex feels as if he's about to unravel from stress when he begins seeing Josh (John Ritter), a psychiatrist. One day, while waiting for his session with Josh, Alex meets Sarah (Neve Campbell), a sweet, pretty, but severely neurotic young woman with an omnivorous sexual appetite. Alex and Sarah take an immediate liking to one another, and Alex begins to pursue a romance with her, though he knows an affair could create more problems than it solves, especially after Michael informs Alex that Josh is his next target. Panic marked the feature debut for writer/director Henry Bromell, who previously distinguished himself as a novelist and a television producer. The supporting cast includes Barbara Bain as Alex's mother, who helped get her husband started in the business. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Documentary filmmaker Nati Baratz follows the shy but devoted disciple of a deceased Tibetan master as he sets out in search of his reincarnated master under the direct orders of the Dalai Lama. In 2001, Lama Konchog passed away following 26 years of isolated meditation in a remote mountain cave. Upon Lama Konchog's death, the Dalai Lama instructed his disciple Tenzin Zopa to venture out in search of his reincarnated master. But there is an urgency to Zopa's quest, because should he fail to locate the "unmistaken child" within the span of four short years, it will be too difficult to remove the boy from his parent's care. As a seven-year-old boy, Zopa had willingly entered the service of Lama Konchog, faithfully remaining by his chosen master's side for the next 21 years. When Lama Konchog died, Zopa was devastated. But while the prospect of finding his reincarnation is indeed a foreboding one, the loyal disciple is determined to succeed. With little more than dreams and whispers to guide him, Zopa sets out across lands that seemed to have been virtually untouched by civilization for an entire century. Later, when Tenzin comes across an apparent contender, he prepares to conduct the test that will confirm or deny the reincarnation. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The title of Beth Murphy's heart-rending activist documentary Beyond the 11th (also known as Beyond Belief) refers to 9/11, and her two chief subjects are Patti Quigley and Susan Retik, a pair of American women who lost their husbands in the September 2001 World Trade Center attacks, while each was pregnant with a daughter. Though unspeakably moved by the outpouring of support they received, Susan and Patti soon became aware of the comparative lack of assistance for Afghani widows, who number over 50,000 in the city of Kabul alone. Determined to ease the circumstances, and sensing a deep-seated emotional bond with these victims of tragedy, the American women launched their own grass-roots fundraiser for this subset of the Afghani populace: a 275-mile bicycle run from Ground Zero to Boston on September 11, 2004. Their efforts did not stop there, however -- Quigley and Retik ultimately felt moved enough by the plight of the Afghani women to jet off to Afghanistan themselves, and assist the bereft one-on-one, thus fighting terror in a most unusual and deeply felt manner. Murphy recounts Quigley and Retik's story, from 9/11 through their voyages to the Middle East. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Prolific director Bryan Singer takes a turn towards horror as the producer of this Halloween shocker directed by X2 and Superman Returns screenwriter Mike Dougherty. With four interwoven tales concerning a high-school principal who moonlights as a vicious serial killer, a college-age virgin who's saving herself for that special someone, a woman whose hatred of Halloween is only exceeded by her husband's love of the mischievous holiday, and a callous group of teens who carry out an unforgivably cruel prank, this fall frightener mixes Tarantino-style storytelling with the kind of chills that can only occur on the darkest day of the year. Brian Cox, Anna Paquin, Dylan Baker, and Leslie Bibb all star in a Halloween treat that's sure to deliver a few nasty tricks. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide