As ashamed as I am to admit it, as of last week there remained a Roger Corman film I hadn't actually seen, Bloody Mama. Sadly, this 1970 entry, despite the knockout cast, disappointed. Shelley Winters, having moved well into the playing-nothing-but-twisted-hags phase of her career, hams it up as Ma Barker, the murderous mob matriarch. Her brood was something to behold: Robert DeNiro, Bruce Dern and Robert Walden (of Lou Grant fame) were among them. There are numerous disturbing scenes of violence but somehow this unbeatable ensemble got bogged down in a not-so-great script. Never have so many shoot-'em-ups and such incestuous innuendo added up to so much banality.

In entirely unrelated video news, Parting Glances, Bill Sherwood's 1986 take on the AIDS crisis, is being rereleased on video and DVD. Of all the features made about the subject, this is the one I consider the best. In his first major role, Steve Buscemi delivers a brilliant and poignant performance as a man struggling with the disease. Sadly, Sherwood died of AIDS not long after Glances was released--a terrible loss of a director who clearly could have made many more great movies.

--Matthew Hays