Catherine Ryan

Highball
$14.98
This film was shot in only six days--and it looks it. The one set of a couple's apartment is not very attractive to look at, but who cares. It suits the needs of the film. What I like about the quirky "Highball" is the weird comic writing and some inspired performances. The movie was written and directed by Noah Baumbach, whom you may know as the writer/director of "The Squid and the Whale" and more recently, "Margot at the Wedding". "Highball" is from 1997, and Mr. Baumbach chose to put two different aliases on the film as the writer and the director. Hopefully he's not ashamed of this early flick of his because it's quite enjoyable.

The story is simple. Young couple throw three parties over the course of a year. First is a birthday party for a very odd friend. The second is a hoot of a Halloween party (the funniest sequence). And last is a New Year's Eve party. Their friends come over and people fight and kiss and play games and eat. And that's about it.

The cast is very diverse: Justine Bateman (who is excellent as a wallflower who later blossoms), director Peter Bogdanovich (who is delightful as he quotes from various movies), Ally Sheedy and Rae Dawn Chong (who both play themselves), Eric Stoltz, Annabella Sciorra and Chris Eigeman.

If you're looking for something different and fun, check out "Highball". It's a kooky little gem of a flick.

Fever Pitch [VHS]
$79.98
The acting is poor, the storyline is weak. There are much better movies out there that deal with the topic of gambling addiction.

The Math of the Wrath
$1.99

Fantasies, Ayres and Dances - Elizabethan and Jacobean Consort Music
$16.98
Elizabethan/Jacobean music is not particularly accessible to the average listener, who generally hears a bowdlerized background music at a Renfest or gets some sense of it through Anglican church harmony. Julian Bream, however, has given the music a face through his recordings of Dowland, Cutting, and others. His playing and arranging for the Consort is historically accurate - he plays with authentic lute thumb-under technique, for example, and the vocalists sing in what is thought to be accurate fashions.

It's an excellent recording, recommended as an introduction to this music.