film

Film listings are edited by Cheryl Eddy. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Meryl Cohen, David Fear, Dina Gachman, Susan Gerhard, Dennis Harvey, Johnny Ray Huston, Patrick Macias, and Chuck Stephens. Film intern is Adam Wadenius. See Rep Clock, page 204, and Movie Clock, page 206, for theater information. Due to early deadlines, theater booking information was incomplete at press time.

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

The 22nd annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival runs through Fri/12. Venues are the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro, SF; Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley, near Bancroft and Telegraph, Berk; Park Theatre, 1275 El Camino Real, Menlo Park; and the Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St, San Rafael. Tickets for films and special programs ($5-22) can be purchased at (925) 866-9559 or www.sfjff.org (check the Web site for a complete schedule). See last week's Bay Guardian for commentary. All times are pm unless otherwise noted.

Wed/31

Castro From Bombay to Tel Aviv with "The Secret" 11:30a. Weintraub's Syncopaters with "A 'Specially Wonderful Affair" 2. A Home on the Range with "Song of a Jewish Cowboy" 4:45. Qui vive with "Once" 7. Unfair Competition 9:30.

Thurs/1

Castro Gimme a Kiss with "Dancing with My Father" 11a. Foreign Sister 2:15. L'Chayim, Comrade Stalin 5:30. Anna's Summer with "Not Another Jewish Movie" 8:30.

Sat/3

Wheeler Auditorium Across Time and Space with "Tangled Roots" 1. L'Chayim, Comrade Stalin 4:15. Qui vive with "Once" 6:45. Anna's Summer 9:15.

Sun/4

Park In Search of Peace noon. Foreign Sister 2:30. Qui vive with "Once" 5. God Is Great and I'm Not with "Not Another Jewish Movie" 8.

Wheeler Auditorium god@heaven with "More Precious than Gold" and "Something from Nothing" 11a. A Home on the Range with "Song of a Jewish Cowboy" 12:30. Mamadrama with "Goulash" 3. Between the Lines with "Bin and Jerry's Fundamental Principles" 5. Strange Fruit with "The House I Live In" 6:45. Ruthie and Connie with "Naming Prairie" 8:45.

Mon/5

Park Ruthie and Connie 7. Anna's Summer 9.

Wheeler Auditorium Martin with "Past Perfect" noon. Foreign Sister 2:15. Ramleh 5. Last Dance with "Isaiah's Rap" 6:30. Esther Kahn 8:45.

Tues/6

Park Weintraub's Syndrome with "A 'Specially Wonderful Affair" 3:30. L'Chayim, Comrade Stalin 6:15. Unfair Competition 8:30.

Wheeler Auditorium From Bombay to Tel Aviv with "The Secret" noon. Sobibor with "Silent Song" 2:30. The Inner Tour 5. Yellow Asphalt: A Trilogy of Desert Stories 7:15. Lifetime Guarantee: Phranc's Adventures in Plastic with "Fantasy: Another Country" 9:15.

Opening

*Full Frontal The movies with which Steven Soderbergh has achieved his long-overdue commercial breakthrough (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean's Eleven) have not been among his most exciting artistically, so at the very least, Full Frontal comes as reassurance that he's committed to making an oddball "little" feature every so often, no matter how many Oscars pile up around the big projects. Though concisely written by Coleman Hough, Frontal flies closer to Dogma and Mike Figgis's vid-flicks (not to mention Soderbergh's own little-seen Schizopolis) with its technical and cast improvisation. Principal characters looping in and out of one another's radar during one pivotal L.A. work day/night are brittle corporate personnel exec Lee (Catherine Keener), who's on the edge of leaving sad-sack husband Carl (David Hyde Pierce); her sister Linda (Mary McCormack), a masseuse likewise unlucky in love; two movie stars (Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood) glimpsed on the set and in faux excerpts from their sappy new romance; and powerful film producer Gus (David Duchovny), whose splashy 40th birthday party provides the vehicle for an inspired all-paths-converge climax. Movies about moviemaking tend to hit the same old satirical points and come off as smart but insular, like so much of L.A. itself. This is no exception; Frontal covers ground familiar from too many prior films, from Welcome to L.A. through The Player, and so on. Still, its ambiguous mix of caustic, surreal, sympathetic, and warily romantic flavors is never less than engaging. And the cast is so terrific they often elevate this "little" experiment into a realm of major satisfaction. (1:47) Presidio. (Harvey)

Girls Can't Swim Just when you thought the art house was safe from movies about fatal symbiotic female duos, Anne-Sophie Birot's debut feature arrives from France, suggesting a moratorium is in order. Girls Can't Swim does sport two showy teen leads. Moonfaced Isild Le Besco keeps on trucking through fits of anger and ecstasy like a brick-house update of Brigitte Bardot. Her counterpart, Karen Alyx, battles back with a Huppert-like combination: red hair, freckles, and stony stares. If Birot had contained this combination the result would have been an unremarkable coming-of-age story buoyed by a pair of performative egos that are too big for the respective clichés (blond bombshell and darker-haired obsessive) they're supposed to embody. But in the final act fatherlessness leads to tragedy, and Birot treats the trite psychoanalytical conclusion as if it were revelatory. (1:41) Lumiere. (Huston)

Happy Times Zhang Yimou is not your typical Chinese director. The son of anti-Communist parents and a product of the Cultural Revolution, Yimou makes films that have been known to take jabs at the Chinese establishment, both overtly (as with the epic To Live) and metaphorically (as in the Academy Award-nominated Raise the Red Lantern). His latest film, however, is billed simply as a carefree comedy about life in the big city. The offbeat story follows Zhao, a kind-hearted, aging bachelor, through a string of misguided schemes intended to land him a wife. When Zhao finds himself entrusted with a would-be fiancée's blind, adolescent stepdaughter, his search for love takes on strange new meaning. True to its billing, the film is sweet and humorous – though in an understated fashion not often found in American cinema – but it still can't escape the social commentary that comes part and parcel with Yimou's unique brand of storytelling. (1:46) Lumiere. (Cohen)

*Karmen Geï See "Carmen Carries On," page 154. (1:24) Castro.

Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat The comedian performs in his latest concert film. (1:44) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London.

Master of Disguise Dana "Church Lady" Carvey launches a comeback with this comedy about a waiter who has magical, identity-shifting powers. (1:20) Jack London.

Me Without You See Movie Clock. (1:47) Lumiere.

*Signs See "Stop 'Signs'," page 154. (1:46) Century Plaza, Century 20, Empire, Grand Lake, Jack London, Orinda.

Ongoing

About a Boy (1:45) Balboa.

*Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner It's not just the centuries-old source material that makes Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner feel so revelatory and revolutionary. It's the fact that, even as it uses modern forms of no-frills filmmaking, it has managed to boil down cinematic storytelling to its essence. Inuit director Zacharias Kunuk pays tribute to the prodigious way the Inuit have with a classic "hero on a journey" narrative, and also to the still-vibrant culture and environment that fosters that kind of storytelling. Long, nearly silent takes are devoted to capturing the Inuit lifestyle, as they work the frostbitten land in order to survive. Shot in a digital wide-screen format, the Arctic landscapes take on an otherworldly quality custom-built for mythopoetic status, even as the film's realist visual approach and slowed-down pacing ground its context within a patient, philosophical, and ritualistic culture. (2:52) Opera Plaza. (Fear)

Austin Powers in Goldmember All the usual suspects are back as Austin Powers (Mike Myers) tangles with Dr. Evil (Myers), new foe Goldmember (Myers), and even his long-absent dad, fellow spy and ladies' man Nigel Powers (Michael Caine). After an incredible opening sequence that's probably the highlight of all three Powers films, Goldmember settles into the familiar routine of sight gag followed by (or, more likely, combined with) outrageous toilet humor. There's not much of a plot here, and the jokes don't always hit, but it must be said that the ones that do (even the retreads of gags from Powers past) are easily funnier than anything else out there right now. (1:36) Century Plaza, Century 20, Empire, Grand Lake, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

*Baran By box-office measures, Majid Majidi became Iran's most successful filmmaker with 1997's Children of Heaven, a tale of urban poverty that garnered the country's first Oscar nomination for best foreign film. His latest venture finds the director in top form – telling a simple but compelling tale using highly accessible cinematic language. The story concerns Lateef (Hossein Abedini), a mischievous teenager who makes a startling discovery: Baran (Zahra Bahrami), a young Afghani refugee bravely providing for her desperate family. As the smitten boy unhesitatingly sacrifices all to aid and protect his beloved, his transformation evinces considerable humor and compassion. The film's love story achieves an artful relationship to its social context, and for all its stark realism, Baran plays like a parable: Baran, the agent of Lateef's development, is also the word for rain. This life-giving force also washes away all human-made things, dissolving footprints in the earth or lines in the sand; in this sense, it resembles the love that fills and overflows the vessel of the heart, dissolving the line separating the self from all life. (1:39) (Avila)

The Bourne Identity (1:53) Balboa, Century 20, Grand Lake, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness.

Breaking the Silence (1:31) Four Star.

*Cherish In Finn Taylor's San Francisco drama, Zoe (Robin Tunney) is an off-kilter animator who runs her life with clueless abandon: annoying her coworkers by listening to the greatest hits of yesteryear and meeting men and losing them at the speed of light. She quickly moves from being a prisoner of her own habits to just being a prisoner, after she's forced at gunpoint to mow down a bicycle cop. While she waits for a trial, she's put on the "bracelet" program, which allows her to remain outside a real prison as long as she wears an electronic ankle bracelet. When the bracelet-program coordinator (Tim Blake Nelson) comes by to adjust the shackles on his kooky indoor-roller skating, love song-obsessed charge, a whole new plotline ensues. Cherish's comedy goes down better than its thrills, mostly because of a cast that includes unheralded geniuses like Nelson, who carries off his nervous warden character with clammy charm. (1:52) Balboa. (Gerhard)

The Country Bears With the help of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, director Peter Hastings brings the Country Bears out of Disneyland's backwoods and onto the big screen. Set in what looks like the Dukes' own Hazard County, the plot centers on Beary (voiced by Haley Joel Osment), a young bear who discovers historic Country Bear Hall is in trouble and sets out to reunite his musical idols (now more classic rockers than fiddle fummers) to save the day. Mouseketeer-style musical numbers mix with tongue-in-cheek VH1-esque cameos by Queen Latifah, Willie Nelson, and Elton John. In the spirit of the best Disney villains, Christopher Walken steals the show as a Boss Hog-ish real estate tycoon with sinister plans up his sleeve. (1:28) Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Sabrina Crawford)

The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (1:30) Metreon.

*Eight Legged Freaks Even arachnophobes will have a good time with Eight-Legged Freaks, an homage to old-school creature features that's also the latest effects-driven, monster-invasion yarn spun from the maw of Independence Day team Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich (though directed by first-time feature helmer Ellory Elkayem). As you might suspect, the residents of tiny desert burg Prosperity aren't aware that their sleazy mayor (Leon Rippy) has turned the town into a way station for toxic waste. An unfortunate accident leads to some very unfortunate mutations at a conveniently located exotic spider farm. Soon everyone – including Prosperity prodigal son Chris (David Arquette) and foxy sheriff Sam (Kari Wuhrer) – is on the run from giant, hairy, web slingers who sound like Gremlins and snack on humans. Despite the familiar story line, the fast-paced Eight-Legged Freaks rarely feels like a retread, thanks to a tone that perfectly melds humor hewn largely from one-liners with spectacularly creeptastic freak-outs. (1:39) Century Plaza, Century 20, Emery Bay, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

*Elling This delightful little comedy traces the rehabilitation of a pair of socially timid middle-aged men living in society for the first time. Having spent his entire life sheltered away in his childhood home, Elling (Per Christian Ellefsen) is sent to live in a state house after the death of his overprotective mother. There he shares a room with Kjell Bjarne (Sven Nordin), a sex-obsessed lunkhead. The two become friends and, upon their release from the facility, are placed in a state-funded apartment, where a social worker (Jørgen Langhelle) tells them to act responsibly as normal members of the community. Director Petter Næss and his wonderful cast of characters carefully blend humorous aspects with more poignant scenes, producing a film that is heartwarming and enjoyable without stooping to "feel-good movie" tactics. (1:29) (Wadenius)

*Enigma (1:57) Four Star.

*Gangster No. 1 The third act officially rises on Malcolm McDowell's career with Gangster #1, a delayed Brit turbo-nouveau crime flick that's not quite as flamboyantly funny as Sexy Beast, but still very entertaining. This retro-rockin' bloodbath gives Malc top billing, even if he's just the totemic framing device for a feature-length flashback starring young turks. McDowell plays an unnamed thug who recalls his career after finding out that a former associate is leaving the hoosegow after 30 years. Rewind to 1968, when protag's younger self (a credibly psychotic Paul Bettany) got apprenticed to reigning "Butcher of Mayfair" Freddie Mays (David Thewlis); when his general goes "soft" over "skinny bird" Karen (Saffron Burrows), the young gangster casually orchestrates Big Daddy's downfall and his own ruthless throne assumption. You could interpret this as the covert homo jealousy tale that it is. But even that's granting more depth than necessary to Paul McGuigan's surface-deep feature. With its terrific soundtrack and great feel for an undercaste's tacky take on 1960s decorative fashion, Gangster #1 is as delicious/superfluous as Chanel's own No. 5. (1:43) (Harvey)

*Green Dragon In the days and weeks that followed the fall of Saigon in 1975, the United States took on the role of big brother, housing the mass exodus of immigrants in desert refugee camps across America. This often unseen aspect of the Vietnam War is explored in Timothy Linh Bui's beautifully crafted directorial debut, a careful examination of the struggle of a people leaving behind families and country in search of hope in an unknown land. Through the eyes of young Minh Pham (Trung Nguyen), we are introduced to a host of characters, including his guilt-ridden uncle, Tai Tran (Don Duong), camp sergeant Jim Lance (Patrick Swayze), and a melancholy volunteer cook named Addie (Forest Whitaker). Kramer Morgenthau's hazy cinematography drapes the film in a distinct sense of loss, emphasizing the unknown future of the people depicted. (1:53) Four Star. (Wadenius)

Halloween: Resurrection (1:15) Century 20, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness.

The Importance of Being Earnest Two young gadflies (Rupert Everett, Colin Firth) both invent fictional alter egos named Earnest as a means to ease the social pressure to get married – but they end up opening a Pandora's box of Farce 101 tropes in the process. Oscar Wilde's arsenic-laced scone of a play is full of enough deliciously nasty epigrams and barbed wit that it would seem hard to screw up a relatively faithful film adaptation. But there are ways to dull the playwright's sharpened prose: throw in gratuitously anachronistic touches (fantasy sequences, tattoo parlors) that add nothing to the text, couch it in a flat visual palette, and tame the tongue-lashing needed under the characters' stiff upper lips. Director Oliver Parker is no stranger to the Wilde style (he adapted An Ideal Husband for the screen), but his curious fumbling of the material's potential and the period-film stalwart cast here seems more in tune with modern sitcom barking and less with the play's patented bite. (1:40) Balboa. (Fear)

*Insomnia (1:55)

K-19: The Widowmaker Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days, Point Break) is back in full blockbuster marquee action with K-19: The Widowmaker. The story is based on the true events of the Russian submarine K-19: four months after the Bay of Pigs invasion, the sub's nuclear reactor began leaking, and – if they wanted to avoid WWIII and the nuclear holocaust that might have spun off from a "first strike"-looking radioactive explosion off the coast of Europe – the crew needed to enter the reactor and fix the leak with nothing more than raincoats to protect them. That's exactly what they did, heroically, and exactly what they received no credit for from the "motherland." But Bigelow's movie can't quite convey the true horror of radiation's invisible threat. Instead it's all about the adventure of submarining: Liam Neeson squeezing through doors a few feet smaller than his own frame, repetitive drills, and ego wars between the dueling authorities of Neeson and Harrison Ford, the latter showing some beefed-up summer-movie-muscle arms whenever he gets the opportunity. (2:18) Century Plaza, Century 20, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Gerhard)

Like Mike (1:40) Metreon, 1000 Van Ness.

*Lilo and Stitch Rascally alien Stitch descends on Hawaii armed with supersmarts and a hardwired desire to wreak havoc on everything in his path. When this anti-E.T. crosses paths with lonely little girl Lilo – who heads a "human" cast that's more realistic and modern than is seen in most Disney flicks – mayhem, and life lessons, ensues. Using an original story rather than tapping a well-worn classic allows directors Chris Sanders (also the voice of Stitch) and Dean DeBlois considerable creative freedom, and Lilo and Stitch combines elements as diverse as hula and fire dancing, spaceship chases, surfing, intergalactic bounty hunters, and plenty of Elvis hits. At the film's core is a simple message about the importance of family, and while Lilo and Stitch may lack the Broadway-style grandeur of other recent Disney efforts, it's nevertheless a charming tale that boasts winning, memorable characters. (1:25) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Kabuki, Orinda. (Eddy)

*Lovely and Amazing Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich) is at the top of her game in the latest from writer-director Nicole Holofcener (whose first film, Walking and Talking, also starred Keener). Keener plays Michelle, a would-be artist and onetime homecoming queen who's the eldest daughter in a family that also includes Brenda Blethyn as the about-to-be-lipo'd mom, Jane; Emily Mortimer as Michelle's self-conscious actor sister, Elizabeth; and the wonderfully sullen eight-year-old Ravin Goodwin as Jane's adopted daughter, Annie. All of the women have major issues – in one memorable scene, Elizabeth's obsession with her appearance inspires her to ask a movie star (Dermot Mulroney) she's just slept with to evaluate her naked body, part by part. But it's Keener who steals the show, playing a character who's real-life complex enough to be fully unlikable at times, pathetically endearing at others. Unlike a certain Ellen Burstyn-Sandra Bullock movie that came out earlier this year, the razor-sharp Lovely and Amazing takes a gloves-off approach to the relationships between mothers, daughters, sisters, and female friends, with the fearless Keener leading the charge. (1:31) Embarcadero, Orinda. (Eddy)

*Master of the Flying Guillotine: Ultimate Edition Flung into the air like a human fishing line, a flying guillotine makes a sound somewhere between a gunshot and a train whistle. And when this deadly weapon finds its mark, i.e., someone's head, it decapitates with all the convenience of a palm-size French Revolution. If understanding the flying guillotine takes seconds, mastering it takes a lifetime. At least it did for Wang Yu, a.k.a. Jimmy Wang Yu, the director, writer, and star of 1975's Master of the Flying Guillotine – one of the greatest kung fu movies, and certainly the greatest flying guillotine film, of all time. The film is legendary for its preposterous title alone, though underviewed in actuality (scant years ago, only two prints in the world could be accounted for). In this direct sequel to 1970's One-Armed Boxer, our hero has given up fighting and now runs a martial arts school where he teaches students to walk along the edges of wicker baskets. Meanwhile, a host of bizarre fighters saunters into town to compete in a World Cup-style kung fu tournament. Some are in league with a revenge-seeking blind monk who is wandering the countryside killing every one-armed man he stumbles across, hoping to eventually hit the right one with his flying guillotine. Wang Yu would probably lose in a real fight with lesser kung fools, but his physical limitations forced him to become a demonic film magician in the mold of Méliès. Flying Guillotine is full of jack-in-the-box surprises and Bugs Bunny-with-bloodshed set pieces, all inexplicably set to tunes culled from crackly Krautrock LPs (Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, and Can feature prominently). (1:33) Balboa. (Macias)

Men in Black II (1:28) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness.

*Minority Report It's hard to believe that Minority Report marks the first time Steven Spielberg has directed Tom Cruise – but it's not hard to believe that the pairing of two such überstars, both coming off so-so projects (A.I., Vanilla Sky), makes for such entertaining results. As troubled Chief John Anderton – head of D.C.'s elite "Pre-Crime" division, which uses a trio of clairvoyants to suss out murderers before they strike – Cruise is in his element; the role involves not only muscular ass-kicking, but a meaty back story that concerns Anderton's murdered son, plus a twisty mystery that sends the tightly-wound cop all over the city trying to clear his name when he's pegged as a future killer. Spielberg comes through with his most enjoyable film in years, mixing futuristic, but still strangely logical visuals (vertical highways, interactive advertisements, animated cereal boxes) with quick pacing and several tense, disturbing scenes. Though the king of sentimentality still can't resist a tidy, no-stone-left-unturned ending, by the time the wave of exposition hits you, Minority Report has already carried you, breathlessly, almost to the end. (2:25) Century 20, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

*Monsoon Wedding Director Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!) returns to contemporary India but shifts her focus to the tribulations of upper-middle-class Punjabis. At the center of Monsoon Wedding is a multiday, traditional Indian marriage ceremony that gathers family and friends for feasting, celebration, and rituals. The film's sprawling, multicharacter story adroitly weaves together numerous intersecting lives: the bride, who is really in love with an already married man; the father, who is terrified his son is gay; the cousin, who must confront the childhood trauma of sexual abuse by her uncle; and the wedding planner, who is falling in love with the family maid. By compressing so much drama and conflict into three days, Nair treads dangerously close to soap opera, but she's saved by some intense, honest performances and a style that captures the poetry and lyricism of real life. (1:54) Embarcadero. (Summers Henderson)

Mr. Deeds (1:31) Century 20, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding A shrinking wallflower raised amid over-the-top extroverts, Toula Portokalos (Nia Vardalos) awakens from her 30-year funk after one look at lanky hunk Ian (John Corbett). She gives herself a makeover and a new career and duly snares Mr. Right. Trouble is, his family is as WASPy as they come, while hers – well, suffice it to say that parents Gus (Michael Constantine) and Maria (Lainie Kazan) are so ethnocentric that their suburban house is outfitted to look like the Parthenon. Wacky culture-clashing ensues. Adapting Vardalos's autobiographical stage monologue for the screen, director Joel Zwick (a TV veteran all the way back to Laverne and Shirley) doesn't do much to elevate the material above elongated-sitcom status – though if the howling response from a largely Greek American audience at a preview screening is any indication, this agreeable, predictable comedy has at least one demographic in its pocket. (2:01) (Harvey)

My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (1:35) Four Star.

My Wife Is an Actress A sports writer named Yvan (writer-director Yvan Attal) becomes beset with jealousy when his wife, Charlotte, France's "it" actress of the moment (Charlotte Gainsbourg, Attal's wife and France's "it" actress of the moment), is slated to act opposite an aging British hunk (Terence Stamp) known for his on-set Lothario tendencies. Like many a film brimming with "autobiographical" elements, this romantic comedy about where the performing stops and an artist's true life starts keeps the line between real and "reel" purposefully blurry. The temptation to pluck nuggets of Attal and Gainsbourg's off-screen life out of the more salacious episodes all but overwhelms the screwball elements and sacred treatment of Gainsbourg's beauty, however. Even with a deft directorial hand and the Von Sternburg valentine treatment Attal gives his spouse (she's never looked more sumptuous on-screen), Wife's prime currency is less the comedy of fiction and fidelity than the chance to indulge in Gallic-flavored celebrity voyeurism. (1:33) Clay, Rafael. (Fear)

Mysteries of Egypt (:39) Metreon Imax.

Nijinsky A buzz of excitement surrounded the publication of the English translation of dancer Vaslav Nijinsky's diaries, written in a short six weeks in 1917 before he descended into final madness. For those fascinated by the great artist's short career, the book seemed likely to provide a glimpse into a genius' mind – and what it contained was a portrait of a disintegrating, tortured soul, feverishly self-aware and hallucinating at the same. Paul Cox's flawed but still intriguing Nijinsky tries to capture something of his subject's rhapsodic compulsion to come to terms with a world that kept slipping away. Forget about Derek Jacobi's coolly distancing reading of selected sections from the diaries – the heart of this film is Cox's lusciously romantic, even decadent nature and animal imagery, which evokes something of what might have gone on inside Nijinsky's febrile mind as he fought with his fountain pen trying to pin down the uncontainable. (1:32) Opera Plaza. (Felciano)

*Notorious C.H.O. "Do you know how hard I have to work to put pussy on the table?" Margaret Cho asks at one point during her new concert film. The hard work has paid off: Notorious C.H.O. reaches its comic peak when Cho reveals her own very specific turn-ons and turnoffs, free-associating herself in and out of absurd bedroom scenarios, some imaginary, some hilariously real. Cho doesn't meet doctrinaire definitions of a gay man (though she's one in sensibility) or a lesbian (while attracted to dykes who resemble John Goodman, she admits pussy isn't her first choice). Despite an opening interview that contains words such as "inclusion" and "validated," Cho's new movie trims down the empowerment mantras of her first, I'm the One That I Want. The emphasis is on raunch. Cho is equipped with one-liners, expert turns of phrase, and an arsenal of silly voices, but her secret weapon is physical comedy, a talent ideally suited to sexual stand-up. Lorene Machado's mostly artless direction intuitively hooks up with Cho's pantomimes only once: a crotch-level view as she imitates an ex-boyfriend bellowing, "Why can't you cuuuuum when I fuck you?" (1:35) Opera Plaza. (Huston)

*Read My Lips France's national brand of Hitchcockian femme fatales and hapless heroes is a film subgenre usually filed under Chabrol, but in Jacques Audiard's Read My Lips, the usual front-and-center homage shell game takes a backseat to spin-the-bottle power struggles. Clara (Emmanuelle Devos) is a deaf office worker who wears her frumpiness like a cloak. Forever being mocked, exploited, and pushed over for promotions, she silently waits her turn to gain an upper hand. Enter Paul (Vincent Cassel), a rough-trade ex-con whom Clara hires on as a temp. Out of pity and animal attraction, she sets him up with an apartment and covers up his mistakes; in turn, he poses as her boyfriend at social events and "convinces" a coworker to stop stealing her work. When Paul is drawn back into the criminal underworld, Clara's new thirst for danger and her singular talent for lipreading pull them both deeper into dark waters. Audiard's deft handling of the comic and crime-story aspects maneuver the movie away from your typical copycat potboiler into the desperate territory of longing and belonging. (1:55) Oaks. (Fear)

Reign of Fire (1:48) Century 20, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness.

*Rivers and Tides Building elaborate installation pieces out of Mother Nature's flotsam and jetsam in its own "natural" habitat (open fields, seashores, riverbanks), artist Andy Goldsworthy spends hours altering the landscape or working his elemental materials into man-made paths and patterns of harmonious grace. A finished work can last for as long as a few days or as short as a minute before a light breeze or an eddying tide picks it apart like carrion; in Goldsworthy's art, deconstruction is as much a part of his vision as construction. German documentarian Thomas Riedelshiemer's affectionate, awestruck look at the man and his mission to tap into a frequency of symmetrical order in terra firma's chaos is as hypnotically dazzling as his subject's abstract expressionist products. Fluently gliding around Goldsworthy's struggle to complete a fragile twig leitmotiv before it collapses under its own weight or pulling far back to reveal a sidewinder pattern snaking around a forest glen, Riedelshiemer's camera becomes the subject's partner, capturing the artist's attempts to channel the ebb and flow of organic life for posterity in a gorgeous, wide-screen, 35mm time capsule. (1:30) Rafael, Roxie. (Fear)

Road to Perdition A depression-era gangland psychodrama may not seem like the most natural follow-up to Sam Mendes's debut, American Beauty, but odds are that the handsomely crafted Road to Perdition, which contains some of the most achingly beautiful cinematography in recent memory, will wind up being just as decorated at next year's Oscars. Betrayed hitman Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) and his sullen 12-year-old son (Tyler Hoechlin) are on the run from a shutterbug assassin with bad teeth played by Jude Law, not to mention other stooges sired in the camp of paternal big boss John Rooney (Paul Newman). The pulpy story is done up with much poetry and enormous late-era Leone-size brush strokes, yet the subtleties of the performances manage to shine through. Adapted from a graphic novel, itself inspired by the classic samurai manga Lone Wolf and Cub, this entry in the usually silent mythology of fathers and sons is writ very large indeed. The film loses points for chickening out on some of the comic's harder edges (where "the kid was a killer," so to speak) and for the generic DreamWorks SKG sappy ending. Still, those involved probably have their acceptance speeches already written. (1:59) Century Plaza, Century 20, Empire, Grand Lake, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, Oaks, 1000 Van Ness, Orinda. (Macias)

*Sex and Lucía In this lush Spanish pic, writer-director Julio Medem (Lovers of the Arctic Circle) weaves a poetic tale about the intersection of fantasy and reality. As an emerging author (Tristán Ulloa) attempts to write his second novel, the lines begin to meld between memory and experience, desire and love, and art and obligation. His girlfriend, Lucía (Paz Vega), along with a mother, a traveler, a porn star, and her daughter, become entwined in the web of his (and their own) unfolding tales of truth and fiction. Moving from Madrid to a small secluded island, the film floats amid the currents of sex and imagination. The sweeping Mediterranean seascapes, shot with vivid overexposure, bring this tale about the dark space between consciousness and unconsciousness – which constantly challenges the viewer to decide what is "real" – dramatically to life. (2:08) Bridge. (Crawford)

Siddhartha (1:25) Rafael.

*Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2:22) 1000 Van Ness.

Stuart Little 2 In this sequel, based on the original storybook characters created by E.B. White, everyone's favorite mouse (brought to life by animatronics and the voice of Michael J. Fox) cruises the streets of Manhattan, soars over Central Park in a model airplane, and scales a skyscraper to rescue his new-found feathered friend, the doe-eyed bird Margalo (Melanie Griffith). Splashes of vibrant reds, yellows, and orange cover the screen, resulting in a '50s deco artscape that makes New York City look like TV-land gone brilliantly haywire. Even the family Little, headed by a June Cleaverish Geena Davis, appear almost cartoonlike in glorious Technicolor. Fresh from finishing his run in Broadway hit The Producers, Nathan Lane steals the show, popping out zingers as the voice of scaredy-cat Snowbell. Directed by Rob Minkoff, the movie also features the unique voices of James Woods and Steve Zahn. (1:18) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Crawford)

*Sunshine State Florida's past and present play a key role in the topography of John Sayles's latest opus. Marly (Edie Falco) runs the dilapidated motel and restaurant her now-senile dad built up, which sits on primo waterfront property in Delrona Beach. A young architect (Timothy Hutton) hired by developers sparks a feeling in Marly that a way out may lie in selling out. In nearby Lincoln Beach, elders Dr. Lloyd (Bill Cobbs) and Eunice Stokes (Mary Alice) attempt to bring together their fragmented town to keep Lincoln's proud African American past alive. Into the mix walks Eunice's daughter Desiree (Angela Bassett), who has returned to prove to everyone that she turned out OK. Juggling close to a dozen characters and weaving several narrative strands together, Sunshine State's saving grace lies squarely in its maker's affinity for capturing the rhythms of real life. Few directors write dialogue for actors or understand the pace of living as well as Sayles, and even when social agendas threaten to detrimentally breach his films' surfaces, the power of performance always redeems his rhetorical leanings. (2:21) Opera Plaza. (Fear)

*Tadpole There was a brief time in the '70s when, if your only contact with American society was through contemporary film and literature, you'd swear that the United States was mostly composed of New York's Upper East Side. Gary Winick's Tadpole would, in a perfect world, restore the inhabitants of that occasionally grainy-lensed, sometimes Gershwin-soundtracked cultural gestalt to center stage. Fifteen-year-old budding intellectual Oscar Grubman (Aaron Stanford), nicknamed "Tadpole," comes home from boarding school to celebrate Thanksgiving with his history professor dad in Manhattan. His main interest in the holiday homecoming, however, involves a monster crush he's nursing for his middle-age stepmother (Sigourney Weaver). Complications arise when Oscar's seduction by his stepmom's best friend (Bebe Neuwirth) threatens to derail his own Oedipal courtship. Shot in dusty-looking digital video and focusing on a precocious teen pining for an older woman, it's tempting at first to dismiss Tadpole as a low-rent Rushmore. But the hyperintelligent writing and wit overcomes the cruder, clumsier technical moments to make this upper-crust comedy of manners the freshest sex farce in ages. (1:17) Embarcadero. (Fear)

*13 Conversations about One Thing Making a big leap from her OK but modest office-comedy debut, Clockwatchers, director Jill Sprecher has crafted an unusually depthed ensemble piece about disparate lives intersecting – or not – in contemporary NYC. Matthew McConaughey plays a smug prosecutor whose involvement in a hit-and-run accident destroys his assurance of purpose. Alan Arkin is a divorced insurance-company manager pained by the good fortune he sees inevitably going to other, less deserving people. John Turturro is a mathematics professor who leaves his wife (Amy Irving) for a tenuous new life involved with a married woman (Barbara Sukowa). Clea DuVall's timid young housecleaner finds her faith in life's ultimate just rewards badly shaken by cruel happenstance. Sprecher's script (cowritten with sibling Karen Sprecher) is platitudinous at times, and "chapter"-separating intertitles that repeat those platitudes don't help. (Nor does the rather pretentious title.) Still, this is a rare American feature with genuine ambition, credible real-world narrative detail, philosophical weight, and a complex structure that never seems overschematic. (1:42) Embarcadero. (Harvey)

Who Is Cletis Tout? Remember when Sundance and cineplexes were full of hip crime flicks populated by pop culturati droppings and postmodern hired guns, all seemingly concocted by your local video store clerk? Thankfully, the genre wore its welcome and itself out, though apparently no one bothered to tell writer-director Chris Ver Wiel; hence, one last-gasp refraction that carbon-dates to somewhere around the mid '90s. An ex-con (Christian Slater) facing a movie-obsessed hired killer named (sigh) "Critical Jim" (Tim Allen) buys himself some time by recounting the story of a jailbreak, a magician (Richard Dreyfuss) who's stashed stolen diamonds, and the attempt to retrieve the loot (now, ironically, hidden in a prison yard). It's a toss-up as to what grates most here: a cut-rate score, the cliché-ridden script, or the overall sheer unoriginality. Ver Wiel's constant back-patting over how clever he thinks he's being nails the bygone era's coffin shut, as Cletis finally takes the self-referential genre so far up its own ass it consumes itself whole. (1:35) (Fear)

*Y tu mamá también (1:45) Embarcadero.

Ultimate X (:39) Metreon Imax.

Rep picks

Ashes of Time (1:40) Four Star.

Breaking Away See 8 Days a Week, page 162. (1:40) Film Night in the Park at Creek Park.

*''Frantisek Vlácil: Czech Film Poet' See Critic's Choice. New PFA Theater.

*'Jean Gabin: Working-Class Hero' Most countries have offered up their own masculine ideal in terms of a movie star once a generation. In France, for a long time that icon was Jean Gabin. Tough, gruff, deeply cynical yet invariably undone by a core nobility, his archetypal characters were often doomed – they met their fate with a shrug and a Galoise puff. Though he remained popular right up until his 1976 death, his defining moment was in the late 1930s, when a country dreading imminent catastrophe produced a series of fatalistic, proto-noir dramas that perfectly suited Gabin's wounded-animal grace. The glories of this Pacific Film Archive series are the '30s titles that remain stunning in directorial and star accomplishment. For Marcel (Children of Paradise) Carne, he amazed in the dark diptych of 1938's Port of Shadows (Sat/3) and 1939's Daybreak (Sat/3), each brilliant portraits of fatalistic resignation. For Julien Duvivier, he starred in 1937's Pépé le Moko (Aug 24) as a supremely self-confident master thief safe within the labyrinth of the Casbah – until an upscale seductress lures him out. Gabin was so glorious in his prime that the later screen images (and missed opportunities – he loathed the nouvelle vague) were sometimes hard to take. But his best films remain superb vehicles for an uncommonly complex film personality. New PFA Theater. (Harvey)

'Midnight Mass' See "Mass Mayhem," page 151. Bridge.