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Season 2 Episode 5: "Never Let Me Go"

You know when you really like someone, and just really hit it off, and you can't really put your finger on why, and then they pull you into the woods and turn into Bambi, and you realize that the fact that they spread Lyme disease just like you do is the erotic glue that bonds the two of you together? Well, that's what Sam found out at the start of this week's episode of True Blood, when Daphne revealed she's a shape-shifter too. It really turned Sam on, and be probably would have mounted her had Terry and Arlene not sauntered by and ruined everything.

Jimmy (Hiroshi Watanabe) is 40, divorced, and shares a bunk bed with his 10-year-old nephew. For most men, this state of affairs would be ego-crushing, but Jimmy is strangely unperturbed. Despite an utter lack of social finesse, he embarks on an enthusiastic mission to replace his ex-wife with someone better. Things go horribly wrong when he falls head-over-heels for a younger relative (Lynn Chen) and vows to steal her away from his co-worker Tim (James Kyson Lee). Also starring Nae, Mio Takada, Joy Osmanski, Cathy Shim and newcomer Justin Kwong.

New from the team behind Big Dreams, Little Tokyo, romantic comedy White On Rice is just beginning to turn heads on the festival circuit, and for good reason. With a killer cast - Watanabe was featured in Letters From Iwo Jima, Mio Takada is a regular on Conan O’Brien, Nae has won the Japanese equivalent of an Academy Award, James Kyson Lee

Codeblack Entertainment

To accentuate the positive, writer-director Anthony Lover's My Brother features two actors with Down syndrome, ages 28 and 8, who are wonderful. Indeed the intelligence and sensitivity of their performances challenges common assumptions about the abilities of the mentally handicapped. It is no exaggeration to state in the case of the elder actor, Christopher Scott, who plays a major supporting role, that his is the best and most natural performance in the film.

The movie, though, is a moralistic black drama that makes its points with a heavy hand and unconvincing story developments. Audiences for the film, which opened last week in 17 cities, will be highly limited even among black filmgoers.

The extremely foolish involvement of an unsuccessful black stand-up comic, Isaiah (Nashawn Kearse), in a crime deal in New York triggers a moment of truth for two brothers as well as extended flashbacks to their childhood. In the latter, their mom (Vanessa L. WIlliams), as she slowly dies from the ravages of TB, desperately tries to get her young sons adopted together so that Isaiah (Rodney Henry) can continue to look after his special brother, James Donovan Jennings).

She fails to do so, but Isaiah does find a way for them to be together. The movie, however, never explains how the two managed to grow up without adult supervision.

In present day, the story's climax feels false as do the details of how the crime deal goes south. Characters are sketched in the most rudimentary ways. A brief subplot about Isaiah's flirtation with a white woman (Tatum O'Neal) is entirely superfluous. Tech credits are modest as the budget permitted few locations.