Find out why last year's extraordinary film BALLAST received a rare 100 percent "fresh" rating on aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes among America's top film critics, who called the film a "serious achievement" (THE NEW YORK TIMES) and a "beacon of independent filmmaking" (BOSTON GLOBE). We are thrilled to announce that it has been added to our Indie section. Directed by Lance Hammer, the film is set in rural Mississippi in the middle of a gray winter when man's suicide throws the lives of three different characters off-balance. At last year's Sundance Film Festival, BALLAST won the awards for Best Director and Best Cinematography. It also received 6 nominations at the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards. Roger Ebert noted that he rarely ever cries while watching movies, but he did while watching this one (more).

Among our recently-added Hollywood films the charming JULIE & JULIA, starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep in her notable performance as the warbly-voiced Julia Child. "By now this actress [Streep] has exhausted every superlative that exists and to suggest that she has outdone herself is only to say that she’s done it again. Her performance goes beyond physical imitation, though she has the rounded shoulders and the fluting voice down perfectly," A.O. Scott wrote in his NEW YORK TIMES review. In the film, Adams plays Julie Powell, an emerging chef and blogger who decides to document her experience cooking every recipe in Julia Child's epic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Nora Ephron, who wrote and directed the film, based her screenplay on two pieces of writing: My Life in France, Julia Child's autobiography, and a blog called "The Julie/Julia" project that was largely updated between 2004 and 2006.

Another new addition to Film Fresh's library is SHRINK, a 2009 independent drama about a therapist (or "shrink"), played by Kevin Spacey, who specializes in helping celebrities in need. Thus, everyone in Hollywood turns to "the shrink" for all of their worst problems: cocaine addition, infidelity, germaphobia, truancy, and turning 30 years old. Spacey's performance as Dr. Henry Carter will greatly please anyone who enjoys "classic Spacey", as critic Stephen Holden says that "no actor is better than Mr. Spacey at conveying a bone-deep cynicism."