Hmm, I don't remember any of this week's noteworthy indie DVD releases playing at theaters in my area, so why don't we catch up together and decide what to rent? Listed (roughly) in order of critical favor:

Chop Shop (pictured). Second feature by Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart) is a coming of age story set in a New York junkyard. Cinematical review (entirely positive): Kim Voynar. DVD features: audio commentary with director and actors, rehearsal footage, and trailer.

The Tracey Fragments. Ellen Page stars in Bruce McDonald's harrowing drama. Cinematical reviews (both positive): Erik Davis; James Rocchi. DVD features: behind the scenes footage and interviews with McDonald and Page, entries from the "Tracey: Re-fragmented" contest, a selection of images by photographer Matt Sullivan, and trailer.

Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten. Julien Temple's doc on the influential Clash musician. Cinematical reviews (both frustrated): Kevin Kelly; Jeffrey M. Anderson. DVD features: audio commentary with Temple, 100 minutes of additional interview footage, and trailer.

American Zombie. Grace Lee's horror comedy depicts the ordinary, day to day challenges of life as one of the undead. Cinematical review (disappointed): Jette Kernion. DVD features: audio commentaries, behind the scenes footage, deleted scenes, and trailers.

Sleepwalking. Family drama about a young girl dealing with life after her mother abandons her; with Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb, Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, and Dennis Hopper. Cinematical reviews (both negative): James Rocchi; Jeffrey M. Anderson. DVD features: "making of," and trailer.

It started as a joke, became a documentary, and now it's on DVD. Comedian Doug Benson undertook a bold initiative: to smoke marijuana every day for 30 days. Of course, he'd already been smoking pot pretty much every day of his life, so to make things really interesting, he first stopped smoking for 30 days and took a battery of tests so he could later compare the results of smoking vs. non-smoking on his thirty-something body. Super High Me is the result.

The stoner crowd laughed much harder than I did at SXSW, but, as Erik Davis wrote, Super High Me is still "funny as hell," and the doc, directed by Michael Blieden, manages to sneak in plenty of social and political commentary. The DVD doesn't appear to have any extras, but it is available with two different covers. See if you can tell the difference. To quote Erik again, "True stoners, however, will most likely place this film on a shelf among their favorites of all time ... then forget it's up there five minutes later."

One of my SXSW favorites also premieres on DVD today. Following on the heels of Anton Corbjin's biopic Control, Grant Gee's doc Joy Division is a rousing, illuminating peek into the lives of the original members of the band, featuring interviews with almost all of the key players.

This week's marquee indie release is being marketed as a twisted tie-in to the US Open golf championship. At least, that's the conclusion I draw from the DVD cover for Michael Haneke's US remake of his own Funny Games. Naomi Watts and her big tear have been relegated to the back. James Rocchi declared it "a great movie ... cruel, cold and darkly thrilling." DVD features are non-existent, unless you consider a full-screen version to be an extra.

Erik Davis called Zak Penn's poker mockumentary The Grand "one of the best ensemble comedies of the past 20 years." That ensemble includes Woody Harrelson, Michael McKean, Chris Parnell, Cheryl Hines, Ray Romano, Dennis Farina, Werner Herzog and David Cross. DVD features include alternate endings, deleted scenes, poker player profiles, and an audio commentary with Penn, writer/executive producer Matt Bierman and actor Michael Karnow.

To round out our trio of enthusiastic recommendations from Cinematical critics, Scott Weinberg was seriously geeked out by The Signal, "one viciously fun little genre flick ... fast-paced, disturbing and slick." The plot? Everyone turns into "raving homicidal lunatics." David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry, and Dan Bush directed. DVD features are generous, including an audio commentary with the directors, deleted scenes, a short film, and six "making of"-type things.

Other releases of interest include The Wayward Cloud, Summer '04, The Ballad of Narayama, Young Yakuza, Human Lanterns, and the smashing Invisible Target, which I reviewed with great enthusiasm.

In telling the story of Joy Division's Ian Curtis, director Anton Corbjin focuses on his wife Deborah (Samantha Morton) as much as the singer (Sam Riley) himself. Control hits DVD today courtesy of The Weinstein Co.; Corbijn contributes an audio commentary and a conversation. Other extras include a "making of" feature, extended live performances, and music videos from Joy Division and the Killers. James Rocchi reviewed Control and so did Christopher Campbell.

Mr. Rocchi also saw Olivier Assayas' Boarding Gate, but he noticed one problem: "The film has no motor to drive it. " Even the more adventurous and/or devoted fans of director Assayas may wish to proceed with caution. Asia Argento and Michael Madsen star. The DVD from Magnet Releasing includes interviews with Ms. Argento and a feature entitled: "Boarding Gate: In Touch with Asia."

Michael Radford's heist film Flawless inspired Eric D. Snider to write a glowing guarded recommendation; he concluded: "Michael Caine and the rest of the mostly British cast are serious enough to pull the job off, and they make the flick eminently watchable." Look for the DVD from Magnolia.

Do you really need to know what Twisted: A Balloonamentary is about? The title alone justifies a rental, but if you insist on knowing more, I refer you to Richard von Busack's recent post on the film's theatrical success. The DVD includes an audio commentary, deleted scenes, and much more.

The titles that will probably get the biggest play this week are Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, the indie auteur's take on Bob Dylan that inspired spirited critical debate, and Alejandro Monteverde's romantic drama Bella, which seemed to come out of nowhere to become an audience favorite, playing in theaters for months. Both hit DVD today; I'm Not There is packed with an audio commentary with Haynes, deleted scenes, featurettes, audition tapes, gag reel and more, while Bella has an audio commentary by the director, two featurettes and a music video.

Jess Weixler stars in Mitchell Lichtenstein's Teeth, which inspired no fewer than three reviews here at Cinematical: Scott Weinberg, Kim Voynar and Nick Schager. If that's not enough to lure you in, it's about vagina dentata! Read the reviews to learn more -- each of our reviewers focused on something different that appealed or repelled. The DVD includes an audio commentary by the director, deleted scenes, outtakes and behind the scenes footage.

As a mother of five, Kim Voynar presented a very personal perspective on Abby Ebstein's doc, The Business of Being Born, featuring Ricki Lake. Kim wrote in part: "Epstein does a thorough job of dissecting the cold, hard facts about the history of modern childbirth." Two featurettes are included on the DVD: one takes the viewer behind the scenes, and the other follows up with what happened to the participants.

A solid handful of indie titles vie for your attention on the DVD shelves this week. I've already written about the marketing for Joe Swanberg's Hannah Takes the Stairs, my pick of the week, but that shouldn't overshadow the intrinsic quality of the film itself. The DVD from IFC includes Thanks for the Add!, a short film by Swanberg, an audio commentary by Swanberg and actors / co-writers Greta Gerwig and Kent Osborne, behind the scenes footage, and SXSW video production diary spots.

I watched Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage (pictured) with expectations set perhaps too high. I thought it would be a thrilling Spanish ghost story; instead it's a rather pallid drama about a mother and a lost son with just a smidgen of suspense and supernatural overtones. Jette Kernion had a response similar to mine, but others liked it much more, including our own Scott Weinberg, who praised it as "entirely captivating from start to finish." The DVD from Picturehouse includes three featurettes and something on the somewhat misleading marketing campaign.

Family dysfunction and elder care may not sound like sexy subjects, but Tamara Jekins "simply takes us into the story of her fascinating characters, and the integrity with which she handles it makes it ring true throughout." That was the reaction of Kim Voynar to The Savages; she was especially impressed by the performances of Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The DVD from Fox Searchlight includes an extended scene, director's snapshots, and a featurette entitled "About the Savages."

My indie pick of the week is Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited; which our own Monika Bartyzel has already reviewed elsewhere. My next pick is a film that Cinematical's Scott Weinberg recommended: Death at a Funeral. The title may be misleading: it's a comedy directed by Frank Oz (Little Shop of Horrors, What About Bob?) and Scott described it as "a very broad, very British and very funny farce ... that will definitely appeal to people over the age of 30." MGM's DVD includes an audio commentary by Mr. Oz, another by screenwriter Dean Craig and actors Alan Tudyk and Andy Nyman, and a gag reel.

New Oscar winner Javier Bardem also starred in last year's Goya's Ghosts, a bio-pic directed by Milos Forman; Ryan Stewart wrote: "It just comes across as odd and indicative of a serious lack of directorial focus." He further stated: "If it were not the work of a major director, it's hard to imagine why anyone would suffer the mental agitation of trying to figure out how its various pieces fit together ..." Ryan explained his disappointment very well, but if you're a glutton for punishment -- or a huge, huge fan of Bardem and co-star Natalie Portman -- you might decide to rent the DVD from Samuel Goldwyn, which includes a behind-the-scenes featurette.

This is a great week to catch up with a few indies that came and went quickly in theaters. Craig Zobel's Great World of Sound burst out of Sundance last year with positive notices -- check GreenCine Daily's roundup -- and our own James Rocchi named it one of the ten best of the year. The basic premise is that two music scouts go on the road in the American South to look for acts to sign. In James' original review, he described it as "funny and vital and tough." Magnolia's DVD includes an audio commentary and deleted scenes.

If Feast of Love had nothing else to recommend it, it would deserve recommendation as director Robert Benton's latest work. As Jeffrey M. Anderson commented, Benton's melodramas (Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart, Nobody's Fool) "almost always hit home." Feast of Love "focuses on several couples in a Portland college community," he wrote. "These characters may live in a college town, but in love, everyone has something to learn." Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear and Radha Mitchell star. MGM's DVD looks bare, with just one feature evidently on board.

Director Allan Moyle returned to his roots (Pump Up the Volume, Empire Records) to make Weirdsville, in which stoners, Satanists and drug dealers commingle. In her TIFF review, Monika Bartyzel called it "fun, endearing, and quite fluid for a stoner comedy. It's also recognizably Canadian (the drug dealer is into curling), but still completely palpable for wider audiences." Wes Bentley and Scott Speedman star. Magnolia's DVD includes an audio commentary and 14 featurettes: behind the scenes, making of, and interviews.

The Christmas Day indie releases were sparse, but the schedule for New Year's Day looks positively barren. Still, I have a couple of recommendations

Indie Sex is a four-part series that was created for the Independent Film Channel, which is where I first caught it. The interview subjects include a good range of well-known indie directors (John Waters, Atom Egoyan, Catherine Breillat) and actors (Rosanna Arquette, Peter Sarsgaard, Ally Sheedy). Filmmakers Lisa Ades and Lesli Klainberg examine each of their topics ("Censored," "Taboos," "Teens," "Extremes") with respect and cover all the bases. It's both a good primer and a reminder of the industry immaturity that still tends to rule the day. The two-disk DVD includes all four episodes.

Jimmy and Judy features Edward Furlong and Rachael Bella as two kids on the run who film their own bloody -- and sometimes naked -- exploits. Jeffrey M. Anderson didn't think there was much new in the film, despite that gimmick; Eric D. Snider felt it might be worth watching out of curiosity "and for Furlong's compelling performance, and that's about it." Mmm, decisions, decisions ... The DVD includes an audio commentary with the filmmakers, deleted and extended scenes, and two trailers.

I'm both intrigued by and wary of Solstice, which went into production in 2006 but is just now getting released direct to DVD. Daniel Myrick (The Blair Witch Project) remade the Danish/Swedish thriller Midsommer with an attractive cast (Elisabeth Harnois, Shawn Ashmore, Tyler Hoechlin, Amanda Seyfried), plus the great R. Lee Ermey. But it's another PG-13 "horror" film, not to mention the long delay in getting released, so it's got huge question marks plastered all over it. Proceed with caution.

One of the true underdog stories of the year, "art house musical" Once arrives on DVD today from Fox Searchlight. Written and directed by John Carney, the film won the Audience Award at Sundance back in January and ended up earning more than nine million dollars in the US. James Berardinelli at Reel Views wrote: "This isn't a perfect motion picture but, in the midst of summer's vapid pursuit of spectacle, a movie that provides real heart and emotion is a rare find." The DVD includes music and film commentaries by Carney and actors/musicians Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, two featurettes and an animated "webisode."

I don't understand why John Landis' Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project was selected to screen at the New York Film Festival. It's a fine celebrity documentary with plenty of well-known faces praising the acerbic, long-lived insult comic, Landis keeps the pace snappy, and it's quite entertaining, but it fits in quite well on HBO (where I saw it) and if there were any transcendent angles, I missed them entirely. Cinematical's Jette Kernion had a similar reaction. The DVD from Vivendi is a two-disk "collector's edition," but I haven't been able to find specific details on what's included.

Deep Water sounds intriguing: the "stunning true story of the first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race." Richard von Busack felt that the documentary by Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell "seems like a last word; the film gives a full and aesthetically satisfying overview" of the events that occurred, effectively meshing interviews with dramatizations. (His review is well worth clicking through to read in its entirety.) The DVD includes additional interviews with sailors, family members and journalists involved with the race.