Cinema Signal:

Paranoid Park
Gus Van Sant's devotion to contemporary themes settles this time into the world of the average but devoted skateboarder as background to an untimely, unexpected death and a young man's dilemma arising from it. What is, essentially, very fine writing and editing serves the episodic concept with rather strong gripping power.

One might also marvel at his seamless use of first-time actors who remain entirely natural all the way, in a behavioral range from comedic embarrassment, a spectrum of irony, to agonizingly dark tragedy. Of course, recorded dialogue is entirely false, but it's all so absorbing you tend not to question it. Kudos to all concerned.

Cinema Signal:

Undoing
In a camera style designed to wow the festival and film school crowd, writer-director Chris Chan Lee puts together a story about a charismatic L.A. hoodlum who disappeared after the death of a friend and abandoning his girlfriend without a word. Now, returning to Koreatown, the scene of his deeds, he seeks to redeem himself, pay debts, and pick up relationships.

But Sam ((Sung Kang) finds it's not so easily done. People have moved on. His old mentor Don (Tom Bower) isn't showing any great desire to take a part in his old pupil's new business and Vera (Kelly Hu), his lover, has gotten into emotional complications with her boss at the nightclub.

Sam pulls off a scam with a local gang boss who welcomes Sam back as an criminal associate who is reliable and true to his word. With the money from the scam, Sam tries to pay off Vera's debts and his dead friend's father, with emotionally thorny results.

Lee's message that redemption isn't bought with money is well expressed with a sympathetic lead in Kang and a solid supporting cast. His filmmaking style is far more confusing than necessary to establish his visual and editorial creds, but the story comes through and the 2006 production has found arthouse distribution in Los Angeles.

Cinema Signal:

Orthodox Stance
Dmitriy Salita is a Russian immigrant, professional boxer and a religious Jew -- all of which makes him one unique hombre. The aptness of the title refers to the unlikelihood of all this in one individual and the hard stance he must take against the odds of making it all work with the necessary discipline and rejection of failure.

In a lesser person, failure might come from the attempt to maintain incompatible demands. The orthodoxy that he practices is as absolute as the pounding he gives and takes in the ring. The fun of watching his go at both practices is not only his success at it, but his ability to also maintain a boyish, open personality that's richly appealing to the cultures in which he strives for perfection.

Dmitriy literally casts aside any thought of compromise with a charming and unalterable conviction. He's a religious disciple of his Hasidic rabbi and a rapt student of his trainer and the sport -- equally rigorous in both camps. The documentary encompasses several years, tracing his discovery at an amateur gym in Brooklyn, development and rise on the circuit, the difficulties of getting fights along the way, personal maturation and increased strength, new trainers to bring his skills to a higher level, and an impressive score of wins. There are also new promoters and a ringside following that brings him to a title fight.

You couldn't be faulted if you thought "Jewish Boxer" might be an oxymoron, but director Jason Hutt's devoted documentary introduces us to one powerhouse of an example.