SWFC Schedule—The SouthWest Film Center at UNM has just reopened for the fall semester. The SWFC has been a treasure trove of classic cinema, foreign films and independent fare. Over the decades, I've been exposed to dozens of great films hunched in the dark of UNM's Student Union Building basement. The Killer, Hardboiled, Akira, Peking Opera Blues, The Kingdom, Institute Benjamenta, Suture, Le Samourai, Diary of a Lost Girl, Six-String Samurai, Shallow Grave, The Underneath, Cold Fever, Public Access, Capitaine Conan and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls are just a sampling of the great films I was exposed to there throughout the '90s.

Satyrical sub-indie comedy finds the funny in frozen food

Shooting like a rocket out of that red-hot mecca of filmmaking, Tempe, Ariz., comes writer/director Sean Anders' subculture-skewering mockumentary Never Been Thawed. Not content to lampoon average everyday dorks, nbt--as the film is more casually known--invents its own oddball obsession. The title refers to the pristine condition favored by the socially retarded members of a Mesa, Ariz., frozen TV dinner collecting club--or “frozen entree enthusiasts” as they prefer to be called. (And no, potpies are not considered frozen entrees, so don't ask again!)

Southern-fried drama mixes sweet and sour for a refreshing change of pace

A hit on the film fest circuit (multiple award nominee at Sundance) and a sleeper in theaters, Junebug is just the sort of intimate, slow-moving, sotto voce ensemble character study you need to clean the overbearing, sticky-sweet taste of summer movie residue from your mouth.

Network meets Silence of the Lambs in offbeat import.

In his first Spanish-language film, American comedian/actor John Leguizamo plays an oily news reporter working for a Latin tabloid TV show in Miami. Manolo Bonilla (Leguizamo) is a good-looking, fast-talking media-age vampire, winging his way through South America looking for blood to suck. He finds a plentiful supply in Ecuador where a serial killer known as “The Monster of Babahoyo” has raped and murdered dozens of young children.

BK loves BJ?

Aside from that hour you spent huffing Vick's VapoRub beside a Walgreen's dumpster before your last Narcotics Anonymous meeting, have you ever had what the 12-steppers call “a moment of clarity”? You know what I'm talking about--one of those tiny tremors in time where you suddenly see it all and you think, “Good lord, am I the only sane person on Earth?” ... I have them all the damn time.

Week in Sloth

The Week in Sloth