'Waitress,' 'Namesake' on DVD

Not many new DVD titles were released this week, but two of them are well worth watching, and each boasts a breakout performance by its star.

• "Waitress" (Fox, 2007, PG-13, $29.99). Keri Russell — best known up to now for her role as "Felicity" on TV — stars in this smart comedy-drama as a pregnant waitress at a small-town diner in the South. Her husband is abusive, she has no money and feels trapped and miserable, pouring out her emotions into the pies she bakes for the diner, providing a hilarious running monologue device.

Russell is excellent in a role that offers wide-ranging emotions, and the supporting cast is most appealing — with Cheryl Hines and Adrienne Shelley as co-workers, Nathan Fillion as a sympathetic doctor, Jeremy Sisto as the unsympathetic husband and Andy Griffith as the aging owner of the diner.

This was written and directed with great wit and style by actress Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered before the film's release, cutting short a promising filmmaking career.

Extras: separate widescreen or full-frame editions, featurettes

• "The Namesake" (Fox, 2007, PG-13, $27.98). Kal Penn — best known up to now for broad, vulgar comedy ("Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle") — gives a wonderfully shaded performance as the U.S.-born and Americanized son of Calcutta immigrants who gets a lesson in respecting one's heritage from the parents he has been disappointing.

A terrific mix of comedy, drama and thoughtful meditation with an expert cast and, and wonderfully directed by Mira Nair ("Monsoon Wedding").

Extras: widescreen, deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurettes

• "Who's Your Caddy?" (Dimension/Genius, 2007, PG-13, $28.95). Dreadful, sleazy farce about a hip-hop star (Big Boi) who joins an exclusive country club in the deep South to break down racial barriers. Makes "Caddyshack" look like "Citizen Kane."

Extras: widescreen, deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurette, trailer

---

E-mail: hicks@desnews.com