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Real estate business spoofed in 'Escrow'

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Anyone who has ever dealt with real estate agents should be able to relate to Closing Escrow, a bright new mockumentary out this week via Magnolia Home Entertainment ($26.98). It's our ...

DVD pick of the week

Themselves veterans of the straightforward reality TV series "House Hunters," co-auteurs Armen Kaprelian and Kent Llewellyn tilt the home-search process just slightly off its axis while following three couples and a like number of real-estate agents on their increasingly agonizing rounds.

The funniest thread involves black lawyer tandem Tamika (April Barnett) and Bobby (Cedric Yarbrough ) and their white agent, Hillary (Wendy McLendon-Covey), whose initially submerged racism gradually rises to the surface, much to the couple's understandable bemusement.

The movie reaches its zenith in a brilliantly choreographed climactic scene that finds all our principals descending on the same property at the same time, with expectedly chaotic results.

While "Closing Escrow" doesn't quite hit the heights of mockumentary maven Christopher Guest's best comedies (e.g., "Best in Show," "A Mighty Wind"), there's more than enough here to guarantee an evening of at times painfully honest laughs. Mr. Yarbrough and Miss McLendon-Covey — both regulars on Comedy Central's consistently sharp police-show parody "Reno 911!" — rate as the comic standouts.

Magnolia's extras add to the fun, particularly a making-of documentary examining the semi-improvisational approach of "Closing Escrow." Deleted scenes and more behind-the-scenes footage complete the bonus material.

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