Janie Jones
If Crazy Heart and Crossroads married and had spawned an illegitimate kid, the result might slightly resemble Janie Jones, a father/daughter melodrama set against the backdrop of a traveling troubadour's career troubles. Former Little Miss Sunshine Abigail Breslin stars as the titular not-a-girl-not-yet-a-woman, who is escorted by her recovering drug addict mother (Elisabeth Shue, in a small role) too meet her dad for the first time, folk rocker Ethan Brand (Alessandro Nivola). There's just one catch: Ethan isn't aware that he has a daughter and doesn't remember her mother -- one of the many groupies he's bedded over the years -- at all. Nevertheless, Mom sneaks away at her earliest opportunity to head directly to rehab, leaving Janie behind with a dad she doesn't know and who doesn't particularly want to get to know her. Reluctantly allowing her to climb aboard his tour bus, Ethan starts to warm up to the whole parenthood thing when he discovers that Janie can play a mean acoustic guitar. Having a budding musician around comes in handy when his band quits en masse, fed up over their frontman's repeated bad behavior. Will Janie be the one to save Ethan's soul? And will they be able to make it to Austin in time for Ethan's career-saving performance at South by Southwest? The answers to both of these questions are fairly predictable, as are most of the movie's plot points and emotional beats. Still, Breslin and Nivola play these roles with an admirable conviction and focus that offsets some of the script's more treacly flourishes. Together, they find the feeling in this too-familiar tune of a film. (Available via Movies on Demand; also playing in limited theatrical release.)
Best Scene: An unhurried, extended take of Janie and Ethan practicing one of his songs. No cutaways, no extraneous dialogue -- just two people bonding over a lovely piece of music.

The Catechism Cataclysm
Say that title five times fast. A small-scale star vehicle for Steve Little, a comic actor best known for his regular role as Stevie Janowski on Danny McBride's HBO series Eastbound & Down, The Catechism Cataclysm follows a novice priest (Little) dispatched on a forced vacation by his superiors after allowing a Bible Study session he's leading to take an odd turn. Like Jesus Christ before him, Father Billy heads out into the wilderness, reluctantly accompanied by Robbie (Robert Longstreet), the now-grown guy he idolized back in high school. Renting a canoe, the duo sets off down river on a trip that bring them more adventure than they bargained for. Relentlessly odd and offbeat (sometimes in an unpleasant way and sometimes not), the film seems destined for future cult status. Some will be left scratching their heads, while others will be laughing too hard to care about the movie's deliberate lack of logic. (Available via IFC on Demand)
Best Scene: Billy and Robbie participate in a theramin-induced trance with literally explosive results.

The Last Rites of Joe May
From the moment elderly Chicago hustler Joe May (Dennis Farina) exits a hospital after being treated for a serious bout of pneumonia, it's clear that he's living on borrowed time. Writer/director Joe Maggio chronicles his title character's final days, which finds the stridently anti-social hood accidentally befriending a single mother (Jamie Anne Allman) and her young daughter (Meredith Droeger). When he's not contemplating how to keep them both safe from the woman's abusive boyfriend, Joe tries to resume his crime career with pitiable results and visits the now-grown son who hates his guts. While it achieves an agreeably gritty tone -- Maggio is clearly working under the influence of such low-key '70s films about crooks in crisis like Straight Time and The Friends of Eddie Coyle -- and provides a fine showcase for the always-charismatic Farina, Last Rites is a little too small time to really linger in the memory. The ending also betrays the character somewhat, offering up a kind of deliverance that he wouldn't necessarily want or deserve. (Available via Movies on Demand; also playing in limited theatrical release.)
Best Scene: Joe travels all over Chicago trying to unload his latest bit of product -- a 50-pound chunk of grass-fed lamb.

London Boulevard
The pedigree behind this London-set crime thriller couldn't be any more impressive. The directorial debut of screenwriter William Monahan, who previously won an Oscar for penning The Departed, London Boulevard stars Colin Farrell in his indie mode as a fresh-out-of-prison crook who nabs a legit job acting as the body man for an actress (Keira Knightley) who's currently appearing in more tabloids than films. The supporting cast, meanwhile, contains such experienced British character actors as Ray Winstone, Ben Chaplin, Eddie Marsan and David Thewlis all looking appropriately seedy as various low-lifes. (The only usual suspect missing from this crew is Brendan Gleeson.) So why doesn't London Boulevard crackle with the same energy that English crime pictures like In Bruges and Sexy Beast do? Part of the problem is that the dialogue lacks the snap, as well as the darkly comic humor, of those movies. And while Monahan proves to be a refreshingly unshowy director -- he puts the emphasis on the actors rather than flashy visual pyrotechnics -- he doesn't imbue the movie with the same vivid sense of place that Martin Scorsese brought to The Departed. London Boulevard has enough twists and turns to keep you moderately engaged in the proceedings, but the great expectations that come with this cast and writer/director sadly go unmet. (Available via IFC on Demand; opens in limited theatrical release on November 11.)
Best Scene: Knightley's personal assistant Thewlis gives Farrell the rundown on the requirements of his new position, and delivers the movie's most memorable line of dialogue: "If it wasn't for Monica Bellucci, she'd be the most raped woman in European cinema." Nothing like a good Irreversible joke to get the art house crowd sniggering.

Also on VOD This Month
IFC on Demand: The French period drama House of Pleasures transports viewers back in time to a stately Parisian 19th century brothel on the cusp of closing down forever.
Magnolia on Demand: Japanese provocateur Takeshi Kitano returns with his latest feature Outrage, set amongst the violent world of Tokyo's Yakuza gangs.
Movies on Demand: Occupy Wall Street from your couch with the inside-the-boardroom drama Margin Call, which depicts the collapse of a respected financial firm over one long night.

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