At least once a year, I feel like I have to go back and change my "Best of" list from the previous year. I'll see a movie on DVD that was either never or limitedly released, and it's so good it needs to be named one of the belated best. This is the case with Breakfast on Pluto. Director Neil Jordan's (The Butcher Boy) latest is the story of Patrick "Kitten" Braden, an orphan, who at a young age (like, 7) realizes he's gay and starts a playful life of fabulous cross-dressing. It's the early glam '70s, and at the same time, he's looking for his long-lost mom and avoiding the bombs of the Irish Republican Army. Imagine Velvet Goldmine minus the pomp. Breakfast on Pluto is, like Kitten herself, beautiful, moving and not to be missed. Louis Fowler
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Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (NR)
Directed by Xan Cassavetes
Independent Film Channel
What a wonderful time to be a film geek in America. Not only are most DVDs catering to us with their "special editions," but more and more films are dedicated to even the most outr of cinephile passions. See the IFC documentary Z Channel, for example. Ninety- nine percent of the population will have no idea (or honestly even care) about Z Channel, but movie nerds will be filling their jeans with cream. Following the life and death of L.A.'s first pay-movie cable channel and its influence on "cable culture," Z Channel goes deep into the history of its legendary programming schedule, but also the tragic history of founder Jerry Harvey. Louis Fowler
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Tenement: Game of Survival (NR)
Directed by Roberta Findlay
Shriek Show/Media Blasters
Have you ever lived in a really shitty neighborhood? I don't mean "shitty" as in "My neighbors blast Wang Chung at 3 in the morning." I mean the "I'm actually afraid that I'm gonna wake up with a knife pointed at my sternum" shitty. If so, you'll easily be able to relate to Tenement, an ultra-violent urban warfare masterpiece that makes Assault on Precinct 13 look like Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer. The extreme action takes place when a cadre of slum- dwellers call the cops on the gang in the basement shooting up and causing trouble. The cops arrest the gang members but release them later that day. Fueled by PCP and a thirst for revenge, the miscreants return for a battle. Gritty, hyper-realistic and filled with nonstop action. Louis Fowler
