The documentary PATTI SMITH begins with a full fledged account of the rock singer’s life till the present.  Using old film and video footage, director/writer Steven Sebring summarizes Smith’s life from her birth, youth to her marriage, her family’s, the formation of her band, a brief account of the band members before settling to images of Patti Smith in person.

Two big surprises!  For one, who would expect an outrageously raunchy comedy from the director of harmless family fare as THE GREAT OUTDOORS and SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL?  Secondly, when told of the embargo on the film review till Saturday of the opening weekend, I was wondering how awful the film would turn out.

The Appaloosa is a special breed of horse known for its leopard coloured spots.  But in the new western directed and co-written by actor Ed Harris (POLLOCK), APPALOOSA is the name of a town and the film is totally different and not to be confused with an earlier western starring Marlon Brando called THE APPALOOSA, this one based on Brando’s recovering of horse of that breed.

GHOST TOWN works or does not – depending on the way one wants to look at it.  British TV’s Office star comedian Ricky Gervais is supposed to play an inconsiderate jerk of a dentist who by a freak hospital procedure dies for a few minutes, only to re-live in the real world as a ghost. 

Based on the book Georgina, The Duchess of Devonshire by Armanda Foreman, THE DUCHESS is the kind of British period piece North Americans love.  Director Saul Dibb (BULLET BOY) satisfies all of what is required from the lavish costumes to the expensive props and expansive estate settings.