Matinee [DVD] [Standard]

An aging comedian tours the California desert, lost in a cycle of third-rate venues, novelty tourist attractions, and vain attempts to reach his estranged daughter. By day, he slogs through the barren landscape, inadvertently alienating every acquaintance. At night, he seeks solace in the animation of his onstage persona. Fueled by the promise of a lucrative Hollywood engagement and the possibility of rekindling a relationship with his daughter, he trudges through a series of increasingly surreal and volatile encounters.

Diner [DVD]

Screen icon Burt Reynolds (The Longest Yard, Starting Over) brings his magnetism and charm to the role of a would-be bachelor father in this sophisticated comedy. The problem at 44, having lived a life of swinging singledom and wanting it to stay that way, Buddy Evans (Reynolds) also wants a piece of immortality. He wants a child. The solution? A surrogate mother. No strings, no commitments. A long search unearths an aspiring musician (Beverly D'Angelo, National Lampoon's Vacation) who agrees to bear his child in return for money to finance her studies in France. Complications? Naturally, and one more hilarious than the next, thanks to the comedic talents of director David Steinberg (The Wrong Guy) and a superb cast filled out by Norman Fell, Paul Dooley, Elizabeth Ashley, Juanita Moore, Peter Billingsley and Lauren Hutton.