■ God’s Pocket
Philip Seymour Hoffman looks ravaged and disturbed, pale and bloated, in God’s Pocket. Given his death soon afterward, one wonders if he was acting or just not feeling well? And yet, he dominates this shaggy dog, retro urban drama with his Marlon Brando mumble and hunched shoulders. The supporting cast (including John Turturro) is strong and the dingy mood of those mean Philadelphia streets is sustained. Even the sun looks dim through all those unwashed windows.
■ On My Way
Bettie (Catherine Deneuve) is a past beauty queen grappling with an unsatisfying present. She manages her mother’s restaurant, cares for the old woman and confronts abandonment from her feckless longtime lover. A meditation on growing old as well as a road picture, On My Way becomes a personal Odyssey with Bettie encountering fools along the way plus a grandson she hardly knows. Beautifully filmed in the French countryside, On My Way sidesteps road-movie clichés.
■ Rise Up Black Man
Filmmakers Kendall Irvin and Jenna McKee explore African American life as seldom depicted in film—and never by Hollywood. Rise Up includes a hypocritical shakedown artist pastor posing as spokesman for his race, and a college graduate confronted by ghetto hostility from people whose minds are locked inside the mental prison others have constructed. With unvarnished cinematography and dialogue, Rise Up positions the camera as the party on the next barstool, up close and in every face.
