preparing a cozy, domestic dinner. It’s filmed with the utmost simplicity, and
it is very, very hard to take.

After directing a second feature, “No Way Home” (1996), Giovinazzo moved
to Berlin, where he continues to teach film and write fiction. He has
completed a film adaptation of his 1993 novel “Life Is Hot in Cracktown,”
starring Kerry Washington and Brandon Routh, that is to be released directly
to DVD by Anchor Bay at the end of the month.

Home video has, of course, provided an extension of 42nd Street that runs
through millions of American living rooms, and movies every bit as obscure
and unruly as “Combat Shock” are now receiving top flight DVD releases
through distributors like Severin Films, Dark Sky and Blue Underground.

Despite the disappearance of grindhouses, a sizable public remains for
contrarian films that subvert cheerful Hollywood formulas, that challenge the
upbeat platitudes of mainstream independent films and that deny the rosy
triumphalism of “American Idol” and so much network television. The movies
are a constant invitation to escape our everyday existence, but as “Combat
Shock” reminds us, but not everyone wants to flee in the same direction.
(Troma Entertainment, $19.95, not rated) 
 
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