Among the dirty little secrets of the independent film world, the dirtiest may be this – if the movie is available to the general public on home video, much less theatrically, it probably is not completely independent. Somewhere, usually way back in development before pre-production even starts, the entity holding the purse strings has forceful opinions about the filmmaker’s creative vision. Usually, there are a whole bunch of entities, all with opinions that must be addressed before anything can be shot, enforcing their homogenizing views right through the editing and distribution stages.

title: Bridget Jones’s Diary (Collector's Edition) function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: Miramax Home Entertainment MPAA rating: R starring: Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant film release year: 2001 DVD release year: 2004 film rating: Four Stars sound/picture: Four Stars reviewed by: Dan MacIntosh Don’t let Renee Zellweger’s Texas upbringing deter you, because she is perfectly cast in “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” a silly film about the dating ups and downs of a single British woman. After a while, in fact, it’s nearly impossible to think about the character Bridget Jones, and all her trials and troubles, without also picturing this particular actress’s face front and center in the mind’s eye. And since Zellweger is thankfully not just another pretty Hollywood face, she is able to naturally bring out all the contradictory insecurities of the single life through her performance. Much of the time, “Bridget Jones’s Diary” plays out just like an actual woman’s diary, with its inherent soap opera-like wild mood swings from day to day. But no matter ...

title: Jersey Girl function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: Miramax Home Entertainment MPAA rating: PG-13 starring: Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Raquel Castro, George Carlin, Stephen Root, Mike Starr, Jason Biggs, Jennifer Lopez director: Kevin Smith film release year: 2004 DVD release year: 2004 film rating: One Star sound/picture rating: Four Stars reviewed by: Bill Warren Kevin Smith is a well-known smartass from New Jersey; some of his movies, including “Clerks,” “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma” are clever, intelligent and well-made. Others are pretty bad, including “Mallrats,” “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and now “Jersey Girl.” All of them are suffused with Smith’s evident belief that he’s a sharp, witty observer of the world around him; actually, most of the time he seems to be examining his own navel with glad cries of discovery. But that in itself is not necessarily a failing; Woody Allen is equally self-obsessed, and he’s often very good.

title: Laws Of Attraction studio: New Line Home Entertainment MPAA rating: PG-13 starring: Pierce Brosnan, Julianne Moore, Parker Posey, Michael Sheen, Nora Dunn, Frances Fisher Theatrical release year: 2004 DVD release year: 2004 film rating: Three Stars sound/picture rating: Three-and-a-Half Stars reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein “Laws of Attraction” is a romantic comedy that feels like it could have been made at almost any time in the last 35 years (once unmarried couples were allowed to have sex without one of the pair getting hit by a bus shortly thereafter). It’s agreeable in its ultra-fluffy way, though it’s yet another example of the genre in which a man – slightly flawed but basically reasonable – puts up with behavior from a gorgeous woman that charms him more than it will most viewers.

title: Home Fries function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: Warner Home Video MPAA rating: PG-13 starring: Drew Barrymore, Catherine O’Hara, Luke Wilson, Jake Busey release year: 1998 film rating: Three Stars reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein If you are tired of predictable, formulaic romantic comedies but are still in the mood for some variation of the boy-meets-girl theme with whimsical thriller underpinnings, give ‘Home Fries’ a try. Vince Gilligan’s droll script is so idiosyncratic and loopy as to border on the unclassifiable. One of the good things about ‘Home Fries’ overall is that it’s tough to describe without blowing some of the plot surprises right off the bat. Suffice to say that Sally Jackson (Drew Barrymore), a resident of a small Texas town, is all set for life as a young, unwed mother. Sally simply cannot trust the daddy of her soon-to-be-born baby to be a responsible parent, even before the father-to-be -- an older, married man -- dies of a heart ...