Out on DVD

Once
20th Century Fox

If critics abandoned "Best of" lists and compiled the loveliest movies of 2007, this low-key Irish import would surely top the list. A scrappy, delicate blend of kitchen sink drama, New Wave aesthetics and The Commitments, it manages to be totally down to earth yet swoopingly romantic. It's about two musicians who meet by chance in Dublin and the sparks that fly between them. The Guy repairs vacuum cleaners by day and plays his guitar on the street in his spare time, venting his passion for music and his heartbreak over the girlfriend who left him behind. The Girl is nursing her own inscrutable emotions as she sells flowers on the street and is struck by The Guy's music. The fact that we never learn their names may be a goof on the generic nature of most romantic comedies, a genre that you keep expecting this film to slide into. But instead of getting formulaic after they meet, the film gives their connection plenty of room to breathe as it subtly and fitfully develops, and the bittersweet music they create together perfectly expresses the uncertainties and yearning that hang between them. There's something of the spirit of Amelie and Chungking Express here, in the quiet wonder at the possibilities for human connection in a bustling city, and the way that a chance encounter can have an unexpected and profound impact on the course of a life.

Naked Boys Singing
TLA

This off-Broadway show delivers what it advertises. And so what? It seems the show is meant to be daring, but it's totally retro: An unwelcome flashback to the musical revue Oh! Calcutta!, which debuted in 1969. It wasn't a very good revue, but it had the distinction of offering lots of nudity and sexual situations, and that was enough novelty value to pack them in the aisles 30 something years ago. But in 2007 there's no novelty value here, just a revue that's not very good. If you've seen a shaved or waxed gym bunny before, or even - gasp! - a penis, there's no thrill. There's just the tedium of watching a talented cast try to sell a bunch of mediocre songs. True, a few of the numbers are clever - "Perky Little Porn Star" and "Nude Maid" are quite funny - and a few others raise a smile in their sheer awfulness, but most of the material is flat and the musical arrangements are like a Broadway clip show - it feels like every third note is soulfully sustained or belted, no matter how banal the lyrics. The emphasis on gay scenarios like cruising at the gym seems misguided; surely a gay guy looking for sexual titillation would rather pop in a porno? This self-conscious naughtiness is more suited for bachelorette parties. The disc even comes up short technically; the camerawork is good, but the bizarre editing keeps breaking the flow of the show. If you must watch this, be sure to have alcohol on hand.

Dirt: The Complete First Season
Touchstone

If you missed this FX series, you missed out on a hoot and a half. Courtney Cox stars as Lucy Spiller, the hard-bitten and hard driven editor of L.A. gossip magazine DirtNow. In the first episode alone, Spiller fires someone for being bitchy at a staff meeting, gets her claws into a once-hot actor who's willing to do anything to get back on the A-list, tasers a one-night stand who doesn't leave quickly enough in the morning, and gets photographic evidence that a major basketball star enjoys the company of strippers with strap-ons. In the real world, mags like Us make do with cover stories like "Is Angelina Losing Weight?" but DirtNow breaks a sex or drug scandal every week thanks to the aggressive stalking and secret-brokering of Spiller and her trod-on staff. It's all completely ludicrous and deliciously trashy. It's also very well paced: Just when you get tired of watching starlets shoot up or Spiller using her vibrator, the focus shifts to DirtNow's star photographer, a functional schizophrenic whose off-kilter perceptions of the world are creatively shown with words that writhe on the screen like snakes, or faces that emerge from unlikely places. Cox provides the marquee value, but she lets the Botox do the acting; Ian Hart is the real star as the tortured photographer. With its ever widening tangle of overdoses, blackmail, violence, hallucinations and outings, Dirt is never dull.