Annie Leibovitz’s cover photograph of Gretchen Mol for the September 1998 issue of Vanity Fair caused a minor stir when it hit the stands that fall. Not only did the form-hugging Alberta Ferretti dress worn by Mol reveal more than the typical Playboy cover, but the 25-year-old actress’s most prominent movie role to that date was as Michael Madsen’s girlfriend in Donnie Brasco (1997). So it was little surprise that the Vanity Fair cover prompted even avid moviegoers to ask, “Who’s Gretchen Mol?”

What happened to the concert film? For years, music-related films have been relegated to straight-to-DVD purgatory; denied the big-screen splendor that they rightfully deserve. Enter Coachella, the Woodstock for a new generation, helping to bring back the theatrical musical experience.

iyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse finds its roots in Japan’s ongoing problems with over-population and, using the Internet as a means, sets out to make simple but potent commentary on our perchance for seclusion and the quiet, desperate loneliness that can result.

In movies, when we are introduced to a couple that is enamored of each other, it’s often a safe bet that one of them will become the innocent victim of something dreadful. France’s sentimental Le Grand Role, despite its intriguing subtexts, is no exception to this pattern.

The Tunnel, which was broadcast on German television in 2001 and screened at Los Angeles’ Made in Germany festival later that year, is finally seeing a long-overdue—albeit limited—run on U.S. screens this year, leading up to its DVD release on October 4. Set in 1961, during the early stages of the Berlin Wall’s construction, The Tunnel takes a miraculous true story of courage and conviction, and improbably, finds a cinematic middle ground between the thrill-a-minute popcorn suspense of The Fugitive and Schindler’s List’s harrowing, heart-wrenching account of lamentable recent history.

Clearly, something has gone wrong when a romantic comedy is neither romantic nor especially funny. The Baxter, like some of those lesser SNL skits turned feature-length films, is another example of what happens when a movie relies more on a single concept to string us along rather than fleshing out a plot or characters: We figure out the ending long before the third act and, in the meantime, just hope that something gratifying transpires in the remaining minutes—which it doesn’t.