Rudderless

"Rudderless" is the directorial debut of the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated character actor William H. Macy, best known for his brilliant film roles, like "Fargo" and "Magnolia," and as the ever-failing father on TV's "Shameless."

Assisting Macy in this venture is a fine team of acting talent Billy Crudup ("Almost Famous"), Felicity Huffman ("Transamerica," "Desperate Housewives"), Anton Yelchin ("Star Trek Into Darkness," "Charlie Bartlett") and Laurence Fishburne ("The Matrix").

This completely unpretentious movie is a perfect example of the kind of material that the Sundance Film Festival helps to make possible. Created on a micro-budget, this sincere and simple story also happens to be a hard sell to Hollywood producers. But this empathy inspiring narrative does more than tell a good story, it brings up serious questions about the nature of art and censorship, the legacy of the artist and even who has the right to create.

Sam (Crudup) is an ambitious businessman whose life is torn apart by his son's sudden death, but he finds some salvation in the box of demo CDs and book of lyrics the young man leaves behind. After learning one of the songs and performing it at a local bar's "open-mic night," Sam draws the interest of Quentin (Yelchin), an amateur musician with problems of his own. Quentin pushes Sam into an artistic partnership, a quirky rock band that becomes a local sensation, until someone objects to the music they play.

This DVD includes a featurette "Hear This Song," a music video "Hold On" featuring Selena Gomez (who also appears in the film) and Ben Kweller, as well as deleted scenes.

"Rudderless"
DVD
Rated R / 105 min.
www.paramount.com