Obscene - This biographical documentary about the life of Grove Press publisher Barney Rosset is a fascinating look at how this eccentric individual flew against convention and censorship to publish some of the books that had been banned by the U.S. government, literary classics like "Tropic of Cancer," "Naked Lunch" and "The Story of O." Rosset is a real pioneer in alternative publishing and in the fight against government censorship in trying to insure that art and literature can reach the widest audience. Ultimately, it put him into bankruptcy as he sold off most of his plum property in the Hamptons to pay for lawyers to defend him. Anyone interested in censorship or the 1st Amendment will find Barney Rosset's story fascinating as told in this well-constructed documentary by Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor which makes a perfect companion piece to Kirby Dick's "This is Not Yet Rated." (I especially loved the vintage interview with Rosset by "Midnight Blue" host Al Goldstein, because it adds even more credibility to this doc as a bona fide New York City story that will probably be greatly appreciated by New Yorkers.) Rating: 8.5/10

A Gentle Breeze in the Village - I've seen and adored many films in a similar vein as Nobuhiro Yamashita's teen romance during my time spent at the New York Asian Film Festival. (Points of reference include movies like A Taste of Tea and Hana and Alice.) The story is set in the middle school of a small village in which there are only 7 children, and it's told from the viewpoint of a 16 year old girl in the highest grade of the school and what happens when a boy her own age joins them. Despite being a wide range of different ages, this small group of children goes everywhere together, leading towards mixed feelings about the handsome older boy as the younger girls all swoon over him. At times, the movie's a bit too cute--if that's even possible for a Japanese movie--and while the series of vignettes that make up the story might seem disjointed at first, they work together to create a heart-warming slice-of-life look at a part of the Japanese community that isn't seen too often in the few Japanese films that get shown Stateside. In its native country, "A Gentle Breeze" would probably geared merely towards teen girls, but there's something refreshing about this film's utter lack of Western pretensions. Rating: 8/10

Operation Filmmaker - Nina Davenport turns the documentary camera on herself (sort of) in this movie that starts out as a day-to-day journal of Muthama Mohmed, an Iraqi teen whose film school was bombed, before his pleas on MTV got him an internship on the Prague set of Liev Schreiber's Everything is Illuminated. It quickly becomes obvious that he's unwilling to do the menial jobs that come with paying one's dues, but he manipulates the producers and anyone who'll listen to his sob story, including Davenport, into giving him money and helping him get his Visa extended to avoid going back to Iraq. Muthama's early praise of Bush for "helping him fulfill his dream" does little to endear him to the many anti-war liberals working on the Holocaust drama. The doc follows all of the twists and turns in Muthama's story, including a surprise celebrity benefactor, but whether it was intentional or not, it might cause some to think twice about feeling bad about the plight of the Iraqi people since the invasion by U.S. troops. Eventually, it becomes more about Davenport's plight when she's blackmailed by her own subject into helping him if she ever wants to finish her doc, and as odd as it is to see it become more about the filmmaker than her film, the fact that the movie is left open-ended isn't the type of satisfying ending that most will be hoping for after being led on Muthama's journey. Rating: 7/10

Chop Shop - I can't say that I was a huge fan of Ramin Bahrani's debut Man Push Cart nor can I say that I gave it the time it deserved when I watched it, but his second movie takes a similar look at real New Yorkers, the poor working class who are often ignored or taken for granted while living secret lives few of us could ever possibly comprehend. In this case, it's about a young boy played by first-timer Alejandro Polanco who lives and works at an auto-body repair shop in the boonies of Queens. It mainly deals with his relationship with his elder sister who he discovers is turning tricks for money in order for them to save up enough money to buy a luncheonette van and go into business for themselves. Like I said, I'm not sure I'm really a fan of Bahrani's voyeuristic filmmaking which tries to capture every day people and situations, but it doesn't seem like there's that much of a story here. Certainly it doesn't seem like very much happens, nor does it feel like the situation of Alejandro and his sister is resolved in a very satisfactory way. One can tell there's a lot of talent at work here, especially in Bahrani's ability to create believable characters and capture them in a naturalistic way, and maybe someday, this and Man Push Cart will be remembered fondly for their brilliance and maybe by then, I'll also have learned to appreciate them more. Rating: 6/10