This week has some definite keepers, so let’s get to it:

Two Lovers — I’ve received a bit of flack for suggesting that James Gray’s artful, mature, and utterly outstanding Two Lovers has a hopeful, happy ending, but that’s what’s so great about it. I really think this is one of those movies that plays like a cinematic Rorschach test with regards to the concept of love. However you feel on that given day, Gray’s film will make you feel it more strongly. Two Lovers is a work of risky, brave sincerity, featuring great performances across the board (especially Joaquin Phoenix) and incredibly rich cinematography. Read my review here, then buy it at Amazon.

Lookin’ to Get Out (Extended Version) — While researching his excellent biography Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel (buy it here), Nick Dawson unearthed this extended, Ashby-revamped version of his 1981 box office dud Lookin’ to Get Out. The film follows in the zany tradition of ‘70s buddy pics like California Split and Scarecrow, as two down-on-their-luck gamblers (a great Jon Voight and an even greater Burt Young) head to Las Vegas to scam their way to an uncertain jackpot. While perhaps not as definitive as Ashby’s 1970s legendary oeuvre, Lookin’ to Get Out (Extended Version) nonetheless confirms Ashby’s extraordinarily humane vision. Watching this cut after having read Dawson’s book, it becomes more clear that Ashby hadn’t “lost it;” he had simply been smothered into a state of creative paralysis in later years by the producers and studios who wouldn’t let him be who he was. Buy it at Amazon.

Eastbound & Down: The Complete First Season — After two features (The Foot Fist Way and Observe and Report) and one season of this hilariously crude HBO show, it’s apparent that writer/director Jody Hill is carving a unique place for himself in Hollywood, inserting psychopathic, unredeemable characters into the center of his otherwise traditional comedies. This time around, in addition to working with co-writer/co-stars Danny McBride and Ben Best, Hill has brought good friend David Gordon Green into the mix. McBride plays Kenny Powers, a clueless, John Rocker-esque former major league pitcher who’s forced to move back to his North Carolina hometown and teach middle school phys ed. McBride manages to breathe a semblance of actual heart into his heartless bastard of a character, which is no small feat. The first season ends on a note that provides closure but allows for future episodes, which is good, as Eastbound & Down was just picked up for a second season. Buy it at Amazon.

Live and Become — Although it was officially released on April 7th, I just recently got around to watching Radu Mihaileanu’s assuredly executed drama, which tells the story of a young Ethiopian boy whose mother sends him away, passing him off as Jewish so that he can relocate to Israel and make a better life for himself. Mihaileanu’s most impressive achievement in a film that spans many years is having elicited three exceptional performances from his young leads (who play the child at different ages). Ordinarily with this type of film, the lofty production scope overwhelms the child performances, but that isn’t the case with Live and Become. In fact, those very performances are what make the film so engaging, even when the story’s moral lessons threaten to veer from the subtle to the overly blunt. Buy it at Amazon.

— Michael Tully

Tags: Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel, Ben Best, Burt Young, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Eastbound & Down, James Gray, Joaquin Phoenix, Jody Hill, Jon Voight, Kenny Powers, Live and Become, Lookin' to Get Out (Director's Cut), Nick Dawson, Radu Mihaileanu, Two Lovers