John Waters spoofs independent filmmaking at its most absurd fringe with this affectionate portrait of a guerrilla filmmaking collective that declares war on Hollywood drivel. Bitchy screen queen Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith, whose kewpie doll voice and aging baby face are right at home) is kidnapped by would-be auteur Cecil (Stephen Dorff), a slogan-spouting bottle blonde with a cult-like crew of cinema outlaws called "The Sprocket Holes." Cecil has declared war on Hollywood with the ultimate underground movie, "Raving Beauty," and his reluctant star Honey soon adopts her young misfit captors like a worried Mommy as her cultural cachet rises: the falling star has turned into a cult cinema rebel. It's a bizarre revision of the Patty Hearst story (with Hearst herself in a supporting role) full of film insider jokes and '60s revolutionary references, but it's more spoof than satire. Waters's primitive style is often clumsy, and the picture moves in fits and starts, but the cast's enthusiasm brings it to life. Waters has always celebrated misfits, outcasts, and cultural rebels and their self-made families, and this is his most outrageous, anarchic such bunch in decades. Through all the shootouts, bomb throwing, and fights with angry teamsters and suburban moms, there's an odd sense of innocence to the enterprise. It's as if Waters wants to remind us: it's only a movie. —Sean Axmaker

Ralphie has to convince his parents teachers and santa that a red ryder bb gun really is the perfect gift for the 1940s. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/05/2004 Starring: Darren Mcgavin Melinda Dillon Run time: 98 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Bob Clark

Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 08/16/2005 Rating: Ur

About a day in the life of two friends who brave a non-stop parade of annoying shoppers. One while working in a convenience store and the other in a video shop next door. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/07/2004 Starring: Brian Ohalloran Jeff Anderson Run time: 92 minutes Rating: R

A calamity at dante and randalls shop sends them looking for new horizons - but they ultimately settle at mobbys a fiction- al disney-mcdonalds-style fast-food empire. Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 01/27/2009 Starring: Rosario Dawson Kevin Smith Run time: 97 minutes Rating: R Director: Kevin Smith

Studio: Koch International Release Date: 10/22/2002

Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 04/29/2003 Rating: R

Probably the most comprehensive anthology of any musical artist to date, the 47-track Best of Bowie traces the guises of David Bowie from the androgynous, glam-rock rebel of the 1970s to his more recent incarnation as the postmodern pop ironist of the '90s. The collection provides an added insight into wider developments in fashion, music, and the pop video. Most of the early material is taken from television music programs such as The Old Grey Whistle Test ("Oh! You Pretty Things," "Queen Bitch," and "Five Years"); however, as the demands of television and music promotion progress, Bowie ventures into more sophisticated stand-alone videos culminating in 1983's "Let's Dance."

Best of Bowie's animated menus, and the opening menu sequence of both discs are excellent. Although there are no listed bonus features, the discs are swarming with extra "Easter egg" features such as alternative videos and vintage interviews (these can be accessed via the track-listing menu by selecting certain tracks and pressing the Right button). Background information about each video is displayed before the start of every promo, which is reproduced in the accompanying glossy booklet. The sound and picture quality is variable for early videos but improves (admittedly erratically) for later videos. Despite the mountains of material on both discs, there are a number of unexplainable absences such as "Changes", "Under Pressure," and "Sound and Vision." Watch out for the Best of Bowie, Vol. 2. —John Galilee

Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 03/09/2004 Run time: 127 minutes Rating: Nr

On a quiet street in a small town pure evil has come to stay. An innocent young man forced to care for his domineering mother finds the task a whole lot more demanding after shes bitten by the cursed sumatran rat-monkey. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 08/16/2005 Starring: Timothy Balme Diana Penaliver Run time: 85 minutes Rating: R Director: Peter Jackson

The Work of Director Spike Jonze
When you experience The Work of Director Spike Jonze, you enter a world where anything can happen and frequently does. From the innovative director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation., this superior compilation of music videos, documentaries, interviews, and early rarities offers abundant proof that Jonze is the real deal—a filmmaker ablaze with fresh ideas and fresh ways of filming them. While collectors will regret that only 16 of Jonze's 40+ music videos are included here, this glorious sampling represents the cream of Jonze's bumper crop, and for sheer ingenuity, it doesn't get any better than this. From the Beastie Boys' popular TV cop-spoof "Sabotage" to the intensely disciplined backwards-filming technique of the Pharcyde's "Drop," it's clear that Jonze has an affinity for inventive street theater, culminating in the sad/happy vibe of Fatli! p's introspective "What's Up Fatlip?" and the pop-jazz effervescence of Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet." Technical wizardry is also a Jonze trademark, especially in the elaborate "Happy Days" nostalgia of Weezer's "Buddy Holly" and the graceful fly-wire dancing of Christopher Walken to Fatboy Slim's pulsing "Weapon of Choice." No doubt about it: Every one of these videos is an award-worthy testament to Jonze's ability to combine hard work with fun-loving spontaneity. Accompanied by an informative 52-page booklet, this two-sided DVD also explores Jonze's artistic evolution with an entertaining selection of video rarities and three half-hour documentaries, the best being a revealing and very funny interview with rapper Fatlip after his dismissal from the Pharcyde. Commentaries for the music videos are consistently worthwhile, supporting Jonze's own belief that his best videos were made for artists whose work he genuinely enjoyed. Lucky for us, his pleasure is infectious.

The Work of Director Chris Cunningham
Like the other volumes in the acclaimed Director's Series, The Work of Director Chris Cunningham offers a feast of visual ingenuity, with one major difference: Unlike the relatively playful brightness of Jonze and Gondry, Cunningham wants to involve you in his nightmares. From the urban monstrosities of Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" to the limb-shattering weirdness of Leftfield's "Afrika Shox," Cunningham's music videos emphasize the freakish and the bizarre, but they are also arrestingly beautiful and otherworldly, as in the aquatic effects used for Portishead's "Only You," combining underwater movements with ominous urban landscapes. Some of Cunningham's shock effects are horrifically effective (his 'flex" video installation, excerpted here with music by Aphex Twin, is as disturbing as anything conjured by David Cronenberg), while others are cathartic or, in the case of Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker," outrageously amusing. And while the eerie elegance of Madonna's "Frozen" arose from a chaotic production, the signature work in this collection is clearly Björk's "All Is Full of Love," a masterfully simple yet breathtaking vision of intimacy involving advanced robotics and seamless CGI composites. In these and other videos, Cunningham advances a unique aesthetic, infusing each video and commercial he makes with a dark, occasionally gothic sensibility. That these frequently nightmarish visions are also infectiously hypnotic is a tribute to Cunningham's striking originality.

The Work of Director Michel Gondry
The Work of Director Michel Gondry invites the lucky viewer into a wonderland of childlike imagination. Before the Versailles-born Gondry turned his creative ingenuity to feature films (beginning with the underrated Human Nature and the 2004 Jim Carrey comedy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), these 27 music videos and assorted "stories and things" formed a legacy of supreme cleverness, suggesting a creative lineage from the pioneering film magic of Georges Méliès to the groundbreaking experimental films of Norman McLaren. It's perfectly fitting that the accompanying 75-minute documentary is titled "I've Been 12 Forever," because Gondry (b. 1964) never lost the sense of wonder and inventiveness that children display when their minds are allowed to flourish in a creative environment. No wonder he's best known for his dazzling collaborations with Icelandic pop star Björk, resulting in music videos (seven included here) that redefined the magical potential of the medium. Each, in its own way, is a masterpiece of the fantastic. What's also remarkable about Gondry's work is its technical progression, from the homemade crudeness of his earliest videos for the French band Oui Oui, to the technical wizardry of Kylie Minogue's "Come Into My World," in which the Australian pop star is seamlessly multiplied as she strolls around a busy Parisian intersection; like many of Gondry's videos, it's a stunning "how-did-they-do-that?" work of art, reminiscent of Zbigniew Rybcynski's prize-winning 1982 short "Tango." From the hilarious dreamworld of the Foo Fighters' most popular video "Everlong" to the painstaking pixilation of Gondry's videos for the White Stripes (one made entirely of animated Lego blocks), this DVD is packed with Gondry's tireless pursuit of perfection; he'll do whatever's necessary, no matter how simple or complex, to achieve perfect harmony between song, artist, and visual concept. All the while, he's drawing from a seemingly endless well of inspiration, as evident in the delightful 52-page booklet of stories, drawings, photos, and interviews that chronicle the eternal sunshine of a brilliant mind. —Jeff Shannon

Are you ready for a movie that puts filth where it belongs? when a concussion awakens the carnal urges of sylvia the people of pinwood become pitted against each other in a battle of decency versus depravity. Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 06/14/2005 Starring: Chris Isaak Selma Blair Run time: 88 minutes Rating: Nc17

Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 12/04/2003