| Recommended May DVD Releases | |
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Here's a selection of the best new movies for May 2008.
May 6, 2008
I'm Not There
Todd Haynes directed this unorthodox film that captures the many sides of Bob Dylan. Six different actors portray characters who reflect various aspects of the celebrated songwriter-singer. An 11-year-old African-American boy (Marcus Carl Franklin) plays a kid who calls himself Woody Guthrie. Christian Bale portrays Jack, a Greenwich Village coffeehouse sensation, and Julianne Moore appears as a Joan Baez-like figure. Cate Blanchett plays Jude, a folk singer who goes electric at a music festival. Other Dylan incarnations are enacted by Richard Gere and Heath Ledger.
May 13, 2008
The Great Debaters
Denzel Washington stars in and directed this drama based on a 1930s true story. Forest Whitaker is also in the film. Washington plays the main character, Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at small, all-black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. Tolson believes that one way for him and his students to combat the racism they endure is to excel at debating. He handpicks a four-person team and coaches it through a series of debates, culminating in a 1935 competition against Harvard. (One of the Wiley debaters, James Farmer Jr., went on to become a leader in the civil-rights movement.)
May 20, 2008
No Recommendations
May 27, 2008
What Would Jesus Buy?
Rob VanAldernade's first documentary feature focuses on the issue of American consumerism as he follows a performance-art troupe's cross-country tour. The troupe is led by political activist Bill Talen, who dons a white suit with clerical collar and wears his hair in a bleach-blond pompadour to become Reverend Billy, pastor of the Church of Stop Shopping. They go on a crusade at Christmastime to try to prevent a Shopocalypse. They spread the anti-consumerism gospel at various places, including Mall of America, Wal-Mart's Arkansas headquarters, and Disneyland.
