Cinderella

The story of a girl forced to live in domestic servitude by her cruel stepmother and stepsisters until she is transformed by a fairy godmother into a vision fit for a handsome prince is one of the most venerable tales in recorded history. Its origin has been traced back to 9th- century China and it's been translated into books, ballets, operas, pantomimes, a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, more films than I can list here, including a vehicle for Jerry Lewis, but the standard for most people is certainly Walt Disney's animated 1950 masterpiece. Now digitally restored, Cinderella (Disney Special Platinum Edition) makes its DVD debut as a deluxe two-disc set. Bonus features include deleted scenes, audio of unused songs, "From Rags to Riches: The Making of Cinderella," "The Cinderella That Almost Was," which reveals newly discovered different versions of the Disney film, "The Art of Mary Blair," which examines one of the most influential animators of the '40s and '50s, and, curiously, ESPN's true life "Cinderella" moments in sports starring Joe Namath, Mia Hamm, and Lance Armstrong, among others. -- Jeremy Kinser

Crocodile Tears

Informed by a bold sense of style and an equally caustic wit, yet weighted down by a self-important sense of arrogance, Ann Coppel's Faustian black comedy Crocodile Tears attempts to take a satirical look at the AIDS crisis, yet comes up short. After discovering that he has tested HIV-positive, Simon (screenwriter Ted Sol) is offered a deal by the devil: Complete three tasks and his infection will go away. But, when he is forced to first become a homophobic standup comic (!), then pose as a straight man and get married so Hollywood will accept him (?!), things get a bit "complicated." Or cluttered. Indeed, the film starts off strong, with a zippy first half-hour buoyed by flashy editing and snappy dialogue, but soon sinks beneath the weight of Sol's increasingly uneven script (which straddles the fence between absurdist humor and, well, just being absurd) and its heavy-handed attempts at satire that come off as self-righteous sermonizing -- miring what have otherwise been a truly effective parable for our times. -- Ken Knox

Ethan Mao

In Quentin Lee's ambitious but wildly uneven "gay teenage rebel movie" Ethan Mao, the 18-year-old protagonist of the film's title finds himself in a sticky situation when he confronts the homophobia of his intolerant family. After being thrown out of his house for being gay, Ethan (Jun Hee Lee) takes to hustling and hooks up with gun-toting drug dealer Remigio (Jerry Hernandez). Later, during a clandestine trip home to get some of his belongings, Ethan's family comes home to discover Ethan and Remigio -- and a violent showdown begins. It's an interesting premise, but under Lee's unsteady direction the flick veers desperately from high to low. Lee tries hard to show that he's provocative and edgy, but any credibility he musters in the promising first 20 minutes is dampened once he allows all the unnecessary emotional histrionics (and Ethan's continual tantrums) to take over. A lot more subtlety would have gone a long way. -- Ken Knox