If there's a common thread to this week's top new independent and world films on DVD, it's the twisted ways of the heart: Alan Rudolph's "The Secret Lives of Dentists," starring Hope Davis and Campbell Scott, concerns infidelity and tooth pain, Catherine Hardwicke's "Thirteen" traces the reckless desires of teenages, and the hit documentary "Capturing the Friedmans" focuses on pornography and sexual abuse. Also: Kate Hudson in "Le Divorce" and the Seijun Suzuki yakuza thriller "Kanto Wanderer."
1. The Secret Lives of Dentists
Faithfully adapted from Jane Smiley's novella, director Alan Rudolph's film delivers a tense and strangely suspenseful drama about family life. Campbell Scott plays a silently tormented husband, determined not to learn the truth about wife Hope Davis's infidelity -- while their three children retch, cry and slap, in the thick of the winter flu season. Special features include "Anatomy of a Scene," commentary, and deleted scenes.
2. Thirteen
Underage girls spin recklessly out of control in Catherine Hardwicke's shocking debut film starring Nikki Reed, Evan Rachel Wood, and Holly Hunter. Wood's mercurial performance will blow you away. The DVD features commentary by director Catherine Hardwicke, co-writer/co-star Nikki Reed, and actors Evan Rachel Wood and Brady Corbet, 10 deleted scenes, and a documentary featurette.
3. Capturing the Friedmans
Andrew Jarecki's controversial documentary won the 2003 Grand Jury Award at Sundance and had filmgoers flocking to the theaters. It tells the story of a computer teacher in Long Island who was discovered with a secret stash of kiddie porn and charged with hundreds of counts of sexual abuse against his students in 1984. The 2 disc set features includes director commentary, unseen home videos of the Friedmans, heated debates captured by filmmakers and members of the Friedman family and more.4. Le Divorce
The latest Merchant-Ivory production is a guilty pleasure. Kate Hudson, as a young American in Paris, buys alluring lingerie and changes hair cuts and lovers as her older sister, a pregnant poet played by Naomi Watts, moons over her cheating French husband. The star-studded cast also includes Stockard Channing, Matthew Modine, Bebe Neuwirth, Sam Waterston, Leslie Caron, Thierry Lhermitte, and Glenn Close.5. Kanto Wanderer
Seijun Suzuki's 1963 Japanese ganster film "Kanto Wanderer" features all the necessary moves of the genre: gamblers and card sharks, prostitution, and yakuza-style vengeance. Yakuza icon Akira Kobayashi is boss Isu's bodyguard Katsutat, who finds himself at the center of a violent power play by the rival boss Yoshida.