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Kathleen Fitzgerald's directorial control of "Ring of the Bishop" is confident and assured. At first we think she's leading us into social realism, and, she is. But there comes a spiritual dimension here, a Manichean duel, that creeps into this existentialist reality. Depicted at first, with mere slivers of CGI special effects, that finally subsume the whole film. But the focus here is not on sensation but struggle. A Monsignior (Bruce Page) approaches the honor of being anointed Bishop. In the hours before this lifetime consummation he is assaulted by a consummation of another kind in the form of Lisa (Sonya Gendron) There is a haunt here from Bergman's "Wild Strawberries" with a wash of overweening evil one might find in a Ken Russel film. Jesus meets the Devil in the austerity of the desert. This Father meets him/her in the bedroom. If this isn't the filmic art of a Catholic artist, I don't know what is. Fitzgerald avoids the lurid yet implicates us all in our desire to keep watching. And what are we watching? A man's spiritual odyssey through the dark night of the soul. "Ring of the Bishop" is about more than the visible. Find a copy of this and see it.

Randy DeFord's "Postpartum" is proof that talent transcends all. With less money in his budget than a family spends on a weekend vacation, and even less money than you would pay for a so-so used car, the award-winning DeFord and his committed team of co-directors, crew and cast have crafted a murder story that persists through generations and comes face to face with you across the kitchen table. Based on the book by author, Cheryl Carmin Shaver, DeFord and co-writer, Cassandra Schomer, adapted the book into a sunshine-noir screenplay. Always visually confident, this movie boasts one of the creepiest houses I've seen in ANY movie (and that includes Norman's home and Leatherface's home) --and which DeFord introduces with an aerial shot no less. Casting of Indiana theater professionals is pitch perfect. The best thing about "Postpartum"? It's a "think-piece"-murder-story. One cannot come away without thinking hard and long on the issues of nature-nurture and "the sins of the fathers." Boy-howdy on that one. In this story, Death has an accompanist, Destiny. When those two become a tag-team, one has a murder mystery that is more than just thoughtful, it is an assault by philosophy. Philosophy can assault us-- whether we liked it or not in school. Philosophy assaults us whether we ever studied it or not. Philosophy works a lot at funerals—and murders. "Postpartum" is a regional film to see.

Of course this picture isn't for everybody, neither is Robert Flaherty's "Louisana Story" or Bunuel's "An Andalusian Dog" but that doesn't circumvent the importance of this little movie in what I call "the Kevin Smith" Film Movement."

O'Halloran's Flappy is twice as haunting when we remember his continuing presence in all the other Kevin Smith pictures. O'Halloran ceases to be "that guy" and becomes a guy with a horror story with true Jersey universality.

Though "Vulgar" was released after "Dogma," Jason Mewes looks much younger. I posit that this movie is Bryan Johnson's (another Kevin Smith troupe member, obviously with a story to tell) labor of love-- shot at a time earlier and laboriously assembled over years. Expect familiar faces from the Kevin Smith universe taking center stage and gripping you with their nightmare.

Did I mention the villains? No? To know this father and two-son team is to... really be loved by them but I don't want to be a spoiler.

A grade of A + for gunshot wounds, I have to say it.

All in all, "Vulgar" is a must-own for any serious Kevin Smith collector. This is a picture for romantics, poets and classic Christians. Classic Christians know a grace note when it bites them in the ass, the rest of the herd doesn't know what I'm talking about. "Vulgar," after all, is all about grace.

John Huff, Director, "Cyxork 7"