Gunner Palace

Francis Ford Coppola likened his Vietnam to a rock & roll war; here comes the hip-hop one. Channeling the anarchic, holiday-in-a-hot-zone spirit of Three Kings, this documentary presents a goofy characterization of American soldiers in Iraq as boastful ghetto warriors kicking back in Uday's swimming pool. Codirectors Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein wisely avoid a completely irreverent portrait, offering several scary episodes of random gunfire and encounters with possible "improvisatory explosive devices." But it's the film's revealing depiction of the surly new breed of soldier that makes it a bold eye-opener.