“The Devil and Daniel Johnston”*** |Born into a fundamentalist Christian family, Johnston grew up with a compulsion to create, churning out Super-8 films, comic-book-style drawings and cassette tapes full of songs and stories. He began to exhibit symptoms of manic-depression and grandiosity before running away to join a traveling carnival. He wound up in Austin, Texas, where his homemade cassettes of plaintive folk songs made a splash on the underground music scene. The movie is a moving portrait of the artist as his own ghost, using a wealth of material provided by Johnston, from home movies to audiocassette diaries to dozens of original and often heartbreakingly beautiful songs. |PG-13|110 minutes|Released today|Dana Stevens, The New York Times
“Hard Candy”** 1/2|Destined to play midnight showings at art houses for years to come, this graphic revenge flick is almost too disturbing to be redeeming, yet just redeeming enough to avoid condemnation. Plucky Hayley (Ellen Page) is a 14-year-old nymphet who picks up an older guy (Patrick Wilson) on the Internet and seems ready to fall into his sexual trap. Until she gets to his house and reveals her mission: She wants revenge for a missing girl she believes he photographed, raped and killed. The claustrophobic nature of the house setting makes everyone want to scream in fear and agony. As tough, skilled Hayley, Page is a terrible angel of vengeance to behold. |R|99 minutes|Released today|Michael Booth
“The Wild”**|Think of the big cat in Disney’s G-rated feature “The Wild” as “The Lying King.” It’s not that zoo star Samson is a bad dad. Far from it – and Kiefer Sutherland gives fine voice to a father flummoxed, concerned and loving. It’s just that he embellishes tales of the Serengeti for his cub too well. And when young Ryan flees the New York Zoo for the teeming land of Pop’s stories, Samson and a cohort of zoo pals head to the jungle. If that sounds familiar, it’s because DreamWorks got there first with the more entertaining “Madagascar.” Other actors lending their voices to this wayward menagerie include Janeane Garofalo, Jim Belushi and Eddie Izzard. |G|85 minutes|Released Sept. 12|Lisa Kennedy
“Goal! The Dream Begins”***|This is such a sweet example of the sports saga that its producer can be forgiven for calling the family-friendly movie the first soccer flick. (What, “Bend It Like Beckham” doesn’t count?) Kuno Becker stars as Santiago Munez, whose family illegally crossed the border into the U.S. Years later, when a former Brit soccer scout tells him he’s good enough to play professionally in England, Santiago’s footballer hopes and his father’s dream of a landscaping biz collide. If if sounds familiar, that’s because in many ways it is. But director Danny Cannon, his appealing star and a smartly understated support cast – Stephen Dillane and Miriam Colon, in particular – make fine teamwork of it. Mostly English with intermittent Spanish with subtitles. |PG|118 minutes|Released Sept. 12|Lisa Kennedy
TV ON DVD
“Black. White.”|A reality show with a serious twist: Through meticulous makeovers, a black family masquerades as white and a white family masquerades as black for a six- week racial experiment. All six episodes come in a two-disc set, with commentary.|$26.98|Released Sept. 12|David Germain, The Associated Press
SALES
1. The Sentinel
2. Poseidon
3. Take the Lead
4. RV
5. Inside Man
RENTALS
1. Brother Bear 2: The Moose Are on the Loose
2. The Sentinel
3. Take the Lead
4. Akeelah & the Bee
5. Arrested Development: Season Three
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OTHER RELEASES | These DVDs are available today
Backdraft 15th Anniversary Edition
The Batman: Second Season
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5
Bob Newhart Button Down Concert
Brotherhood: First Season
The Chris Rock Show: Seasons 1 & 2
Chucky: The Killer DVD Collection
The Ellen DeGeneres Show: DVD-licious
Exorcist Master
Everybody Loves Raymond:
Seventh Season
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema
The Gilmore Girls: Sixth Season
Hart to Hart: Second Season
Jigoku
Johnny Was
The King of Queens: Sixth Season
Left in Darkness
Loverboy
Marius and Jeannette
My Name Is Earl: Season One
The Nugget
Plastic Disasters
The Proposition
The Spirit of the Beehive
Stay Alive
Strange Fruit
10th & Wolf
The Unit: Season One
Waking Up Wally
