For most of us, Mom and Dad were once giants (literally), as infallible as they were wise. But viewing them from an adult perspective can expose some unsettling realities, some of which were probably best left buried. Filmmaker Doug Block set out to learn the truth about his parents, and in the unexpectedly absorbing documentary 51 Birch Street, he does just that, as they say, for better or for worse.

On the surface, Mike and Mina Block seem like your standard post-war success story: adorable house on Long Island, three bouncing baby boomers, and 54 years of marriage. Doug's fascination with his beloved mother seems to be the impetus for filming, but her sudden death leaves him with his distant father and, just three short months later, a new stepmother who evokes many questions about just how recent his dad's relationship is. But when the elder Blocks' move to Florida unearths a trove of startling information in the form of Mina's diaries, Doug's focus shifts back to his mom, a brave, resilient woman he now realizes shouldered more than a few burdensome secrets.

51 Birch Street loses steam when exploring Doug's struggle to accept his parents' humanness, but that's because the increasingly unguarded Mike and ever-surprising Mina are far more intriguing. The film gets distilled to its essence when Doug asks Mike if he misses Mina, and the answer is shocking, sad, and revelatory in its candor about the thorny nature of commitment, life's brevity, and pointless nobility of suffering.

My trusty turn-of-the-century Powerbook defines "neorealism" as "a style of filmmaking developed in Italy in the 1940s by directors such as Rossellini, DeSica, and Visconti, dealing typically with the problems of ordinary working-class life." (How do you like them Apples?) But while neorealism obviously allows for the grit and honesty most filmmakers crave, for filmwatchers it's often kind of a drag. Rahmin Bahrani's Man Push Cart is modern-day neorealism (neo-neorealism?), the bleak tale of a Pakistani rock star who now slings coffee, bagels, and bootleg porn on the indifferent streets of Manhattan.

The reticent Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi) begins every day by lugging his coffee cart around in the wee hours, but the future brightens upon meeting a Pakistani businessman who recognizes Ahmad as "the Bono of Lahore" and vows to help re-establish Ahmad's music career. Accustomed to obstacles, Ahmad places tentative trust in his pompous new friend, whose help would allow this down-on-his-luck widower to be reunited with his young son and maybe impress the cute Spanish newsstand worker.

Echoes of the myth of Sisyphus and ultimately DeSica's The Bicycle Thief resonate through Man Push Cart, with the gorgeously sad-eyed Razvi holding down nearly every shot. The handheld camerawork gives the film a verité feel and adds to the futile immediacy of Ahmad's troubles, leaving Man Push Cart a resourceful though depressing exercise in independent filmmaking.

I think it was our 2004 Summer Movie Preview in which I first mentioned the thrilling Asian action flick Infernal Affairs, and between that time and its Rochester theatrical premiere this weekend, Scorsese shot, cut, and won the Oscar for its anglicized remake, The Departed. Better late than never, I guess.

So what's the difference between the two? At 100 minutes, the Asian version is far leaner than its well-over-two-hour American counterpart, with much of the background whittled down to a few expository frames before the title card. This is likely because the actors (Nicholson, DiCaprio, Damon, et al.) were deemed as important as the story in The Departed, while the labyrinthine plot of Infernal Affairs, concerning undercover counterparts on rival sides of the law, is its own star.

But that's in no way a slight to Infernal Affairs' crackling cast, led by a pair of the East's best: Andy Lau from House of Flying Daggers and Wong Kar-Wai's alter ego Tony Leung. And Scorsese smartly retained his inspiration's most jarring scene, though he amplified the gravity, as it were, in a way that would not have been out of place in the source material, which is bathed in that almost laughable --- though perpetually forgivable --- Hong Kong melodrama. Yeah, I'm talking to you and your dumb doves, John Woo!

51 Birch Street (R), directed by Doug Block, opens Friday, March 23, at Little Theatres | Man Push Cart (NR), written and directed by Rahmin Bahrani, shows at the George Eastman House's Dryden Theatre on Friday, March 23, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 25, at 5 p.m. | Infernal Affairs (NR), co-directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, shows at the Dryden Theatre on Saturday, March 24, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 25, at 7 p.m.