Jameson Kowalczyk

Man Push Cart is the debut feature from American/Iranian writer/director Ramin Bahrani. It follows the day-to-day cycle of New York City street vendor Ahmad (played by newcomer Ahmad Razvi) as he ekes out a living operating a pushcart on a city sidewalk, selling coffee, tea, bagels, donuts and muffins. He leaves for work everyday by 2:00 a.m., carrying a propane by his side the way many carry a briefcase...

Pick up any book written by Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) and you get the idea he had a lot of lousy jobs as he came up through the ranks of obscurity to worldwide literary fame. Art imitates life, and work is a major part of his fictional world, along with drinking, racetrack betting, poverty, desperation, sex and violence. His characters live on the edge, walking a fine line between keeping it together for another day or falling into total destitution. Poignant and insightful, savage and often times bizarre, Bukowski’s writing has an infectious quality about it, and he is rightfully considered one of America’s most influential and significant artists.

Ryan Gosling (The Believer, The Notebook) gives a tour de force performance as Dan Dunne, an inner city middle school history teacher and girls basketball coach battling the demons of his past, present, and future that have manifested themselves into a serious dependency on drugs and alcohol. The title of the film is Half Nelson, a term borrowed from the world of professional wrestling—a “half nelson” is a hold which is nearly impossible to break free from. Half Nelson marks the feature narrative debut from filmmaking team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (both write, he directs, she edits), who have previously collaborated on Jovenes Rebeldes (Young Rebels), a feature length documentary about Cuban hip-hop groups, and numerous short projects, including the 20-minute Gowanus, Brooklyn (a condensed shot-on-video version of Half Nelson) which won the Grand Jury Prize in short filmmaking at the 2004 Sundance film festival.

Debuted in 2004 and winner of the Grand Jury Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, Calvaire (The Ordeal) is the latest French language horror film to arrive on the American screen. The first feature-length work from Belgium-born writer/director Fabrice Du Wlez, Calvaire is the story of Marc Stevens, a traveling singer and performer on the road working the retirement home circuit a few days before Christmas. When his van breaks down en route to his next gig he finds himself stranded in the middle of the countryside and forced to take shelter in the ramshackle Bartel Inn. While the innkeeper, Mr. Bartel (Jackie Berroyer), seems hospitable and friendly at first (he feels a connection to Marc, because Bartel is a former comedian), it is not long before Marc is no longer Bartel’s guest, but his prisoner.

Taking in about nine million U.S. dollars (about twice the film’s budget) in its opening weekend, and coming in fifth overall at the box office (behind four domestic summer blockbusters), The Descent now begins its second week of a nationwide North American.