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. See Rep Clock and Movie Clock, for theater information.
Opening

Daddy Day Care Eddie Murphy stars as a newly unemployed dad who starts up a day care center. (1:30) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London.

The Dancer Upstairs John Malkovich finally gives directing a whirl with The Dancer Upstairs. Nicholas Shakespeare's screenplay (based on his novel) was inspired by the 1991 arrest of philosophy professor and Maoist Abimal Guzman, leader of Peru's Shining Path revolt – but Shakespeare removes context and dogma from the real life events, placing the story in an unnamed Latin American country. Violent acts are committed in devotion to a mysterious leader called Ezequiel, but where's the revolution? Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls) turns in a solid performance as the weary yet determined Detective Rejas obsessed with finding Ezequiel. Toward the end Malkovich shifts the narrative focus from Rejas's relentless hunt to a far less substantial subplot involving the detective's romance with his daughter's dance instructor. The move deflates an otherwise thoughtful directorial debut. (2:09) Empire. (Koh)

Charlotte Sometimes Isn't it annoying when film characters have all the answers? When cutting dialogue is on the tip of their tongues, waiting to drive a scene to the perfect intensity notch or push it swiftly around a story arc? By contrast, in writer-director Eric Byler's Charlotte Sometimes, a love triangle is staged entirely within the moments when words fail and we act like stoic oafs. Michael (Michael Idemoto), a mechanic, has fallen for his tenant Lori (Eugenia Yuan), a flighty but sweet woman living with a caddish boyfriend. Michael resolutely refuses to examine his feelings until he meets Darcy (Jaqueline Kim), a mysterious woman who pushes everyone's buttons. Byler is largely successful at carrying off the film's antiplot, but in his allergy to melodrama he directs a film that is sometimes not engaging. His characters are awkward and robotically disconnected from their desires, forcing audience empathy to rest solely on their stone-faced confusion. (1:28) Galaxy. (Koh)

*City of Ghosts See Movie Clock. (1:57) Lumiere.

Forbidden Photographs: The Life and Work of Charles Gatewood Soft-spoken Charles Gatewood leads us through the land of body modification like a piercing-obsessed Mister Rogers, gently observing the delight people take in altering their bodies. The renowned fetish photographer is the subject of Bill Macdonald's documentary, which is as much Subculture 101 (who hasn't heard of Burning Man yet?) as it is a portrait of a trusted archivist whose work has spanned four decades of underground observation. Interviews with Annie Sprinkle and others with whom Gatewood has worked reveal a mutual sense of empathy and love between the photographer and his subjects. Gatewood brushes aside the word exploitation, insisting that he has always sought the people behind the bondage wear. The footage is fairly tame save a pierced, forked penis and hook-suspended participants in a human mobile. This light look at a celebrated local is unfortunately weakened by a dramatic score, cheesy screen text, and pointless commentary by a behavioral psychologist. (1:25) Roxie. (Koh)

*Only the Strong Survive In the short-attention-span world of popular music, what happens to talent once it's fallen out of Top 40 fashion? Longtime documentary team D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus provide a few answers with this present-tense valentine to some golden oldies from the 1950s and '60s R&B golden era. Spotlighted on and offstage are Wilson Pickett, still a heart-fluttering dandy; Sam (of Sam and Dave) Moore, rescued from a long drug period to deliver a showstopping "Something Is Wrong"' the late Rufus Thomas (seen doing his hilarious Memphis radio show with Jay Michael Davis) and daughter Carla; Mary Wilson, a Supreme all by herself; plus Isaac Hayes, Jerry Butler, the Chi-Lites, Ann Peebles and more. Though all were cheated by the record industry they made millions for, they're remarkably sanguine about it now and demonstrate an easygoing camaraderie that's hard to imagine among today's singing divas and vocal groups. While some pipes have gone rusty with age, for the most part Only the Strong Survive portrays these figures of nostalgia still disarmingly, sometimes dynamically alive and kicking. (1:35) 1000 Van Ness. (Harvey)

*The Shape of Things Those who've missed the old, bitter Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors) during his semisweet (Nurse Betty) and downright marshmellowy (Possession) recent screen phases can rest uneasy once again: this latest is a full-on return to evil psychological experimentation on heterosexual lab rats. Dork Adam (Paul Rudd) can't believe his luck when stylish, cute, very "artistic" fellow university student Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) decides to make him her boyfriend – and make him over, starting with clothes and going all the way to, well, you'll find out. Is she just allowing the hitherto shy guy to blossom? Or does she have something more insidious in mind? Are her manipulations conscious, particularly as they extend to the relationship between Adam's very uncool best friends Philip (Frederick Weller) and Jenny (Gretchen Mol)? You might or might not guess where all of this is headed, but regardless, the writer-director and his exemplary cast have devised a chillingly memorable exercise in art, manners, social pressure, and extreme cruelty. (1:37) Presidio. (Harvey)

*Ten See "Wheel of Fortune," page 36. (1:34) Opera Plaza.

Ongoing

*Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony Filmmaker Lee Hirsch's feature-length labor of love quickly dispels any notion of simply celebrating brass-heavy polyrhythms for the armchair tourist; Amandla!, which means "power," provides a context for the laments, dirges, and protest songs that fueled black South Africa's 50-year struggle. As much a history of the nation's apartheid-to-African National Congress era, the film looks back on the days when singing something like "Beware, Verwoerd" (referencing then-prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd) was the only way to voice defiance of the white government's systematic oppression. Actual performances only appear sporadically, but when they do, often as impromptu remembrances of those days of rage by musicians and freedom fighters alike, the footage of beatings and tyranny that bookends them gives the music an amazing weight. (1:43) Four Star. (Fear)

Anger Management The idea sounds foolproof: A bullied schlub (Adam Sandler) is mistakenly charged with "assaulting" a flight attendant and is assigned to an anger management course chaperoned by an unorthodox self-help guru (Jack "Careful with that golf-club!" Nicholson). It isn't long before the therapist has taken over the guy's life and unleashed the sap's inner rage-aholic. I mean, c'mon! Sandler! Nicholson! Together! What could go wrong? Everything, apparently, as this high-concept lowbrow comedy blows any potential from the outset; even when a moment of comic inspiration does bubble up through the tar pit of dick jokes -- i.e., the duo singing "I Feel Pretty" -- director Peter Segal insures that leaden pacing punctures any gag before the pay-off. Sandler's usual modus of male anxiety/humiliation vignettes segueing into copious yelling offers no surprises, but what's shocking is how such prodigious talent (Nicholson, John Turturro, and a host of famous-faced cameos) is so thoroughly wasted. Cinematic slumming for slapstick has never seemed so joyless. (1:41) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Fear)

*Bend It like Beckham With a witty screenplay, feel-good story, and kick-ass soundtrack, Gurinder Chadha's Bend It like Beckham (named, by the way, for the soccer star who's also known as Mr. Posh Spice) has already broken box-office records in the U.K. and arrives in the United States with a worldwide $50 million gross already under its belt. Jess, Beckham's protagonist, is a reluctant challenger who's driven by her passion for soccer to deviate from the expectations of her old-world family. Beckham pointedly punctures English, Indian, and immigrant foibles despite a few jokes that are broad enough to hit the side of a barn. But its pseudo-lesbian subplot is unlikely to ruffle viewers of any lifestyle. More satisfyingly, the film's climactic wedding scene erupts into high drama with mistaken-identity mischief delicious enough to ensure it won't be mistaken for Monsoon Wedding. (1:42) Embarcadero, Orinda. (Rich)

*Better Luck Tomorrow Ben (Parry Shen) is your archetypal Asian studyholic – but despite his academic prowess he's completely invisible. Ben's crew does its best to tweak the stereotypes: there's Virgil (Jason Tobin), the "other smart guy at school" and a goofy, squeaky spaz; Virgil's brother Han (Sung Kang), a cool would-be greaser with a muscle car; and Daric (Roger Fan), an obnoxious Max Fischer archetype who has his hand in every school club and, later, every scam. Director-cowriter-producer Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow succeeds at infusing the secret life of the Asian nerd with an unprecedented level of sexiness and humor; we can all imagine what would happen if the culture's tenacity, skills, and pressure to excel were applied to crime instead of tests and study sessions. Like its characters, though, Better Luck Tomorrow comes off like an early acceptance-style academic overachiever. It makes all the right moves and is ready for the big leagues with MTV backing, yet is still a little too eager to please. (1:38) Balboa, Century 20, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Kimberly Chun)*Bowling for Columbine In Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore attempts to find out why, exactly, America is so very homicidal. What's so powerful about the film, a truly intelligent departure from the somber stranglehold of the Sept. 11 era on the topic of What's Wrong with America, is what's so powerful about all of Moore's films: his use of location, the comic mise-en-scène that one couldn't dream up in a studio setting, the "reality" of our reality that is truly too strange for words. I mean, after all this time, Who lets this guy in? The camera rolls as Moore makes pit stops that turn into filmmaking coups; by the time the interviews are over, those catch-phrase historic events that had been reduced to very singular meanings – "Columbine," "Oklahoma City," "9/11" – are reinvented as the truly terrible, complex situations they were. Ours is a population easily herded, a fact Moore enjoys as he revisits some of the old ghosts of media frenzy: those "Africanized killer bees" that never arrived, the razored apples poised to kill children on Halloween. Should a country this hyped up on fear be armed? That question is easy. The bigger one – Why are we so afraid? – is largely unanswerable. What's new for Moore is taking on a question so sticky in a time so angry in a country so thought-controlled. (1:59) Lumiere. (Gerhard)

Bulletproof Monk Any movie with the guts to aim for a mix of The Matrix, The Karate Kid, and Raiders of the Lost Ark should theoretically be anything but dull, particularly if such a film were to star the original Tiger on Beat himself, Chow Yun-Fat. Sad to say, Bulletproof Monk is a film that defies all expectations in the worst way. There is precious little excitement to be had as a nameless, ageless Tibetan monk (Chow) teams up with annoying pickpocket Kar (Seann William Scott) to protect an ancient sacred scroll with vague, ill-defined powers from a clan of Nazis. Long stretches of unconvincing "philosophy" and cavorting with a cold Jamie King are occasionally broken by wearisome PG-13 strength action, shoddy wire work, and obvious stunt doubles (when is Hollywood going to figure out that Chow Yun-Fat, Chinese though he may be, should not be cast as a martial artist?). Those seeking genuine thrills should be notified that recent Steven Seagal and Jet Li movies costarring rappers have given far more bang for the buck, and that it is more fun watching Chow pee on Danny Lee in 1978's Heroic Cops than it is sitting through the entirety of Monk. (1:43) Century 20, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Macias)

*Le cercle rouge Though still best known for 1955's Bob le flambeur (the source for Neil Jordan's current The Good Thief), French writer-director Jean-Pierre Melville honed his art to the perfect, minimalist endpoint only later on, in a series of almost antiaction films including cult magnet Le samouraï, starring Alain Delon as a tragic and spectral loner hit man. Delon is also the primary ghost in the machine of Le cercle rouge, made three years later and now getting a U.S. rerelease. He's Corey, a thief released early from the pen for good behavior and tipped to a new heist before he's even hit the street. Meanwhile, evidently dangerous suspect (of what, we're never told) Vogel (Gian-Maria Volonté) picks his way out of handcuffs and leaps from the moving train into the surrounding woods. The two are of course fated to meet, and Vogel is soon taken in as coconspirator in the planned heist at a high-security jeweler's. Taking place in a dreary winter of rain, mud, and snow (with famed cinematographer Henri Decae's images at once drab and beautiful), Le cercle rouge is almost metronomically even in pace for a full 140 minutes. Yet it's riveting in a fashion that makes such recent caper updates as Ocean's 11 and Confidence look like somewhat inept stabs at cheap flash. (2:20) Castro, Smith Rafael. (Harvey)

*Chicago (1:47) Century 20, Galaxy, Metreon, Oaks.

*City of God City of God is a Rio de Janeiro housing project, but rather than simply present it as a setting, director Fernando Meirelles views it as a character – perhaps the dominant one – in the film. In one vivid segment a single fixed point of view witnesses the deterioration of an apartment as it's passed down from one drug dealer to another. The stronger and younger the kingpin, the trashier his kingdom. But static points of view aren't Meirelles's specialty. Working with codirector Kátia Lund, he's stylistically giddy in the face of much adolescent and preadolescent violence, running circles around the surface linearity of the plot's chapter structure and uncorking an array of techniques: God's-eye aerial shots that suggest the almighty has a finger on the fast-forward button, freeze-frame character intros that revive blaxploitation swank, and camera movements that follow the paths of ricocheting bullets or circle around the violence with the speed of a meth-addled figure skater. (2:10) Four Star. (Huston)

Confidence James Foley's Confidence is a heist movie that feels like many a predecessor. All the ingredients are there: good and bad crooks, Tarantino dialogue, an exotic bombshell, and a twisty scheme with a payoff finale. Despite these echoes, the film is fun and mostly clever, and it moves at a brisk pace. Edward Burns plays Jake Vig, a grifter whose specialty is constructing elaborate setups to fleece wealthy targets. Remember The Sting? This is a pared-down, new-millennium version. Jake and his team mistakenly con the accountant of "the King," an eccentric mobster (Dustin Hoffman), and must put things right by pulling off a monster job for him. Burns is OK if occasionally annoying as one of those smooth-talking, balls-of-steel criminals who use the word "fuck" as punctuation; other notable cast members include Andy Garcia as a pissed-off FBI agent and Rachel Weisz as the token lady swindler. (1:38) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Orinda. (Koh)

Ghosts of the Abyss James Cameron returns to the sunken subject of his multi-Oscar triumph, but this time the end result is aimed more at Discovery Channel buffs than Leo DiCaprio devotees. Armed with some nifty inventions – a specially designed large-format 3-D camera and two compact, remote-controlled camera units created to investigate the interior of the wreck – Cameron has created a film that's a marvel, technologically speaking, and it's not surprising that Ghosts of the Abyss's best moments are those that incorporate the remarkable deep-sea footage. Reenactments help contextualize parts of the ship (including a dining room with near-intact windows) and bring to the forefront the tale's human tragedy. The underwater exploration scenes are so engrossing that everything else – such as the running commentary by actor Bill Paxton and a tense moment when one of the minicameras becomes lodged inside the vessel – could've been edited down to make way for more. Still, Ghosts of the Abyss is fascinating stuff for "Titaniacs" – and blessedly Celine Dion-free. (1:00) Metreon IMAX. (Eddy)

The Good Thief The rare Neil Jordan movie that feels like a "package" deal, this remake of Jean-Pierre Melville's classic (if slightly overrated) 1955 Gallic noir Bob le flambeur has everything good taste and quite a few euros can buy. But it all seems a trifle unnecessary, a vehicle that's all luxury and no destination. Bob (Nick Nolte) is a smack-jackin' gambler and semiretired underground scenester in Nice who gets clean for one last big score: robbing a Monte Carlo casino of its spectacular art collection. Various interesting international faces like Tchéky Karyo, Said Taghmaoui, Emir Kusturica, and guest-slumming Ralph Fiennes play colorful confederates; taking Isabel Corey's old amoral-prostitute role but channeling Milla Jovovich's dead-eyed runway "allure" is Nutsa Kukhianidze as "the Girl." Jordan dips the movie in cushy color-saturated, cool-club-tracked style – though having Bono sing the theme song (three times, by god!) isn't cool at all. His results do play better as updated Eurotrash capering than The Trouble with Charlie managed to. Yet somehow this high-calorie Good Thief ends up tasting like all batter, no steak. (1:49) Four Star. (Harvey)

Holes Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf), a.k.a. "Caveman," is a Texas kid whose family curse plagues him with rotten luck. So when Stanley gets sent to a surreal juvenile detention center for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he and his eccentric family just blame the curse. The film's title comes from the endless holes that Stanley and the other kids are forced to dig every day by Warden Walker (Sigourney Weaver), who has some dark family secrets of her own. The warden's associates keep the boys in line, with the sheriff-father hen Mr. Sir (a beautifully campy and creepy Jon Voight) and the slimy therapist Mr. Pendanski (Tim Blake Nelson) doling out punishments at will. Holes scriptwriter Louis Sachar (adapting his award-winning children's book) weaves in stories of Eastern European gypsies and Old West ghost stories that add a touch of mystery and make Stanley's story more Goonies than, say, Toy Story 2. (1:51) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Gachman)

House of 1000 Corpses (1:28) Century 20.

Identity The rain-machine operator makes the most significant contribution to this not-boring but ultimately disappointing quasi-horror thriller. On a very stormy Nevada desert night, flooded roads and a series of highway mishaps bring several strangers together at a forlorn little hotel, least welcome among them a murderer (Jake Busey) being transported from one institution to another. But he's not the only character meriting suspicion as others start being offed, more or less in order of descending obnoxiousness. Those ten-little-Indians are chauffeur John Cusack, cop Ray Liotta, prostitute Amanda Peet, movie star Rebecca De Mornay, a badly injured woman, her son, her husband, a creepy clerk, and discordant young newlyweds. James Mangold's movie starts out promisingly, looking to provide a clean, tight 95 minutes of escalating panic. But Michael Cooney's script soon makes the common current mistake of assuming a teetersome pileup of narrative left turns will seem ingenious rather than simply gimmicky. An hour in, that hope is toast. By then you'll probably have guessed the killer's big "identity" secret, anyway. (1:35) Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Harvey)

It Runs in the Family Australian director Fred Schepisi's family dramedy marks the first time ever that Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas and his son Michael have acted in a movie together. Playing father and son (Mitchell and Alex Gromberg, respectively) is cute enough, but that's only the beginning. Kirk's ex-wife, Diana Douglas, was brought on to play Mitchell's wife Evelyn, and Michael's son, Cameron, stars as, you guessed it, Alex's son Asher. Aside from being a marketer's dream, the family casting gimmick makes it a bit difficult to forget that those are actors up there on the screen. If you can get past that, though, the film offers an engaging, nuanced story and some fine performances from Douglases and non-Douglases alike (Bernadette Peters and Rory Culkin are fantastic as Alex's wife and younger son). Unfortunately, Cameron Douglas's acting inexperience results in a weak performance that detracts from his scenes, and proves that talent doesn't always run in the family. (1:49) Century 20, 1000 Van Ness. (Cohen)

*Laurel Canyon (1:43) Opera Plaza.

*Lawless Heart Apart from sporting one of those all-purpose titles that sounds like a new perfume, this seriocomic step into the mostly heterosexual art-house mainstream by the makers of 1996's Brit gay comedy Boyfriends proves full-blooded and unexpectedly poignant. The sudden death of beloved restaurateur Stuart jolts all of his intimates, including younger lover Nick (Tom Hollander), sister Judy (Ellie Haddington), her staid husband, Dan (Bill Nighy), and increasingly pathetic party monster Tim (Douglas Henshell). Shaken by loss, Dan surprises himself by flirting with a French shopkeeper (Clementine Celaire); Nick is quite shocked by his own affair with – gasp! – a woman, and a disheveled punkette (Sukie Smith) at that. Tim tests his own rootlessness against the lure of a very likely Ms. Right (Josephine Butler). The film cleverly covers the same few days three times, from the viewpoint of each (surviving) man, enriching our overall understanding and character insights with each wind-back. It ends up an amusing yet thoughtful meditation on life's roads, especially the ones not taken. (1:54) Bridge. (Harvey)

*Lilya 4-Ever Known for the feel-good movies (Show Me Love, Together) that put him on the map internationally, Lukas Moodysson here carries his audience into the unexpectedly darker world of a collapsed Soviet Union where children are treated as junk to be trashed. Or, even worse, to be recycled by other adults of uncertain motives. With boundless empathy and cinematic exactitude, Moodysson teaches us to care for the abandoned Lilya, played by the 15-year-old Russian actress Oksana Akinsjina. From the first jolt of her abandonment at the start, Lilya's life is tough and getting tougher, as she ricochets from brutality to brutality in search of love and survival. This is serious stuff, a tear-jerker where every tear is earned, not by surges of music but through the impact of the hideous destinies to which we bear witness. Here's a film to confirm your worst opinion of mankind. And your best opinion of this brilliant and courageous director, who refuses to offer cheap salvation to his characters when the world outside does no such thing. (1:49) Balboa, Galaxy. (B. Ruby Rich)

The Lizzie McGuire Movie Romance + adventure = Roman holiday in The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Preteen girls will giggle with delight at the popular TV heroine's adventures abroad. Just one gripe: while Hollywood's notorious for turning 30-year-olds into teen starlets (ahem, Beverly Hills, 90210), this movie features an eighth-grader with roots, hips, and a C-cup. But then again, star Hilary Duff (apparently 16 and thus at least a teenager in real life) plays Lizzie on TV, and her core audience of 11- to 13-year-olds doesn't seem to mind. They seem to have no trouble imaging themselves hopping on a red Vespa and whizzing past the Coliseum clinging to a dreamy-eyed Italian teen idol. Throw in an awkward but cute buddy with a big crush, a mean popular girl, and the chance to pose as an Italian pop diva and voilà! It might sound corny, but with its "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" vibe, Lizzie is more sweet than saccharine. (1:40) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Sabrina Crawford)

*Malibu's Most Wanted Teen comedies are like horror movies: critics have grown so accustomed to denigrating them, they can't even tell when a good one comes along. So ignore the curmudgeonly comments surrounding Jamie Kennedy's film – given disappointments lodged by such recent, more-hyped comedies as Anger Management, Old School, Bringing Down the House, and even A Mighty Wind, this "Wigga, please!" epic is a shining little beacon of actual hilarity. Kennedy plays "B-Rad," who was more or less raised by a black housekeeper, BET, and Yo! MTV Raps while his well-meaning absentee parents (Ryan O'Neal, Bo Derek) were otherwise occupied. Ergo, he's now truly convinced he and his mallrat "crew" are da bomb. This reps a public relations disaster for his dad's gubernatorial campaign, so a scheme is hatched whereby thespians (Taye Diggs, Anthony Anderson) play "gangstas" who "kidnap" and confront B-Rad with the decidedly nonghetto-fabulous reality of South Central life. Of course nothing goes as planned. A couple of bad-taste (just bad, as opposed to good-bad) jokes aside, Most Wanted manages to sustain its high spirits and silliness right through an "inspirational," just-be-yourself finale that is mercifully a hundred percent bogus. This teen-target-demo'd Bulworth would make a great, deflating cofeature for 8 Mile. (1:20) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Harvey)

A Man Apart Perhaps it's too early for Vin Diesel to make movies where he keeps his shirt on. This overly earnest, just-adequate crime drama is strictly '80s-style vigilante action fodder of the "this time it's personal" variety, B-grade material granted an unnecessary "A" budget. V.D. – hey, we didn't choose his initials – plays a freewheeling DEA operative who busts a really baaaad Mexican drug cartel boss (Geno Silva). Said villain then has Vin's wife killed. Uh-oh: Vin go boom. Decently assembled by director F. Gary Gray, the movie tries hard to pretend it invented numerous hoary clichés, from the "You've crossed the line! You're off the force!" scene, to the holding-back-tears-at-her-grave moment, to the inevitable instance when our hero fumes, "You call me a fuckin' faggot?!" to outscare scary thugs. Also, many vehicles explode. A Man Apart struggles to put a gritty face on cartoonish material, but the surgery never quite takes. After all, the villains here are named "Diablo" (as in "you cannot keel Diablo") and "Lucero," while climactic dialogue can't resist fanning America-wants-vengeance hyperbole enough to suggest the great Satan himself – no, not us silly, we mean Saddam! Keepin' it so "real" that all of his homies here must call him "dawg" (amid a Dr. Dre soundtrack, yet), the new Diesel is so feh you might actually miss last year's XXX party-blowhard action figure. (2:00) Century 20. (Harvey)

*The Man Without a Past In the dark and in the park, a solitary, silent man – the title character – is viciously beaten by strangers. He seems dead, but no, he's just deadpan, and thus at home in the Finland of Aki Kaurismäki, where comedy and poverty are married whether they like it or not, yet are still capable of a fine romance. The Grand Prize winner at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, this film is dramatically expansive and stylistically extroverted by Kaurismäki standards – invoking melodrama in particular – but a Salvation Army-style DIY sensibility is still in effect. Along with cosmic twin Jim Jarmusch, Kaurismäki has a silent-film sensibility: he's fond of sight gags (the anti-antics of an allegedly vicious dog are this movie's comic highlight), and his camera has never met a droll face it didn't want to have a love-laced staring war with. (1:37) Opera Plaza, Smith Rafael. (Huston)

Medea (1:15) Smith Rafael, Roxie.

*A Mighty Wind The latest from Christopher Guest (Best in Show) and his ensemble of comics and character actors is another high-concept parody: when the legendary folk music impresario Irving Steinbloom passes away, his son organizes a tribute show featuring the crème de la crème of the 1960s Bleecker Street scene. The event heralds the return of such seminal acts as the Folksmen (Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer) and the reunited Mitch and Mickey (Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara). Wind features the genius comic turns (Levy's shell-shocked Brian Wilson impersonation vies with Fred Willard's unctuous band manager for the show-stealing throne) and deadpan shtick that's become synonymous with the all-star collective. But although Wind is still far funnier and more inventive than most of what passes for yukfests these days, this experiment in without-a-net creative comedy never quite gels; one senses that not even the editing room could turn what's essentially a number of disparate, fragmented laugh-riot ideas into the cohesive tour de force their legacy demands. (1:27) Century 20, Embarcadero, Empire. (Fear)

Nowhere in Africa Fleeing Germany on the eve of Hitler's rise to power, an upper-class Jewish woman (Juliane Köhler) and her five-year-old daughter relocate to Africa. Helping her husband manage a farm in Kenya, she bristles at her new surroundings while the girl must adjust to the confinement of English boarding school rules. But thanks to a kindly cook (Sidede Onyulo) and their new environment's "primitive" charms, the family slowly falls in love with their adopted homeland. The inexplicable winner of this year's Best Foreign Film Oscar, director Caroline Link's melodramatic travelogue seems constructed from spare parts of typical nondomestic favorites: a pinch of historical tragedy made personal here, a dash of inner-journey cliché there, a hefty amount of semipatronizing attitudes toward the "other" (when, really, we're all the same underneath!). It's a familiar enough safari through foreign film-lite landscapes perfect for the toothless section of Blockbuster Video's import shelf, though anyone expecting anything past pretty scenery will find themselves heading nowhere fast. (2:18) Opera Plaza, Smith Rafael. (Fear)

Onmyoji A historical figure (albeit a considerably mythologized one) from the Heiman period at the beginning of the last millennium, astrologer and magician Seimei has become a major cult figure in Japan in recent decades via a steady pileup of novels, mangas, and TV serials. Yojiro Takita's big-screen feature has already been a big hit on home ground, though it's only a middling kickoff for the series that's sure to follow. His powers too vast for the Imperial Court's occasional crises to stir much personal interest, wily, rather jaded Seimei (Mansai Nomura) is petitioned to provide assistance when the Mikado (Ittoku Kishibe) is menaced by alarming supernatural events. Seimei consents, though mostly in order to take the ruler's wide-eyed emissary and swordsman Hiromasa (an amusingly flummoxed Hideaki Ito) on as his assistant-cum-captive-audience. Various "demon" visitations on the royal house suggest a jealous rival at work and soon cast suspicion on gone-bad sorcerer Doson (Hiroyuki Sanada, chewing scenery like mad). This handsome, old-fashioned, flamboyantly performed fantasy with variable FX just percolates along for most of its length, diverting but never quite enthralling as spells are cast and repelled, cast and repelled, etc. It kicks into a higher gear at last when Doson becomes fully possessed by a malevolent spirit, unleashing a ghost army and any remaining thespian restraint. Onmyoji is colorful and well-cast, but let's hope the sequels gain more narrative drive and outrageousness. (1:56) Kabuki. (Harvey)

Phone Booth (1:21) Balboa, Century 20, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness.

*The Pianist Roman Polanski's The Pianist is a stunning look at one man's journey through the maze of fascism – a detailed map partly drawn from the filmmaker's own memories of his childhood in Nazi-occupied Poland. Pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is separated from his family as they are sent to Dachau, and he takes refuge in apartments that become solitary-confinement cells. When Szpilman finally wanders into the world once again, he finds a seemingly endless street of wreckage. The world has become a landfill, and only now is there a possibility of freedom within it. The same blunt paradoxes that define The Pianist's visual landscape color the film's view of human nature. In particular, the movie emphasizes that Szpilman's talent and reputation as a pianist save him from death. There's a wry incredulity to Polanski's documentation of Szpilman's survival, a quality furthered by the Brody's performance: his face is operatically sorrowful on the surface, yet it's the subtle shifts in his expressions that are truly revealing. (2:28) Clay. (Huston)

*The Quiet American Whether or not you think the world needs one, The Quiet American is the boldest cinematic antiwar statement of the year. Both Graham Greene's novel and Phillip Noyce's film open with an ending, and an intrigue: a dead American, who used to be a "quiet American," an apparent oxymoron in a landscape of U.S. operatives bragging and drinking their way through a Vietnamese landscape corrupted by colonialism. Pre-Vietnam War, America is just beginning to meddle in "regime change" in the area, and one of its key schemers is American "aid" worker Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), who dangerously falls for Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen), the girlfriend of British journalist Fowler (Michael Caine). Pyle plans to create a "third force" in Vietnam to give people something besides colonialism and communism to choose from – using explosives that kill civilians to do it. The jaded Fowler, who doesn't want to take sides, has to migrate to one corner of the triangle by the film's end. But what Greene and the filmmakers give us is not an ideological treatise on which side is right, but a view of the terrible journey a person of conscience makes when taking sides. (1:52) Galaxy. (Gerhard)

*Raising Victor Vargas Set in the Latino blocks of New York City's Lower East Side one hot summer, Peter Sollett's film at first blush looks like a classic tale of teenage stud-male hubris taken down a few pegs by innate female superiority – the usual lesson in humility ending with the usual conciliatory kiss. Which indeed is part of the agenda here, but only part. Victor (Victor Rasuk) is a 16-or-so-year-old with a smile like melting butter and a body whose muscles he's wont to flex, even if they're not much more than a figment of his overconfident imagination. Caught about to boink "Fat Donna" (Donna Maldonado) upstairs, he seizes on the conquest of model-looking, wildly uninterested Judy (Judy Marte) as the ticket to salvage his temporarily tainted reputation as a high-end ladies' man. Toeing a line between high comedy and near tragedy that's utterly natural throughout, Raising Victor Vargas is a tiny yet well-crafted story. With its warm photography, exceptional nonpro actors, and frequent hilarity, this very small movie is an almost perfectly realized joy. (1:40) Embarcadero. (Harvey)

The Real Cancun Finally, the creators of MTV's The Real World get to show ruthless partying uncensored – boobs, booze, and cussin' – and on the big screen, no less. A swarm of gleefully ridicule-worthy hetero college kids (tidily packaged as the teetotaler, the male model, the small-town hussy, the player, the twins, etc.) share a palatial pad in Cancun for a spring break they – and anyone who watches this movie – won't soon forget. Wet T-shirt contests, drunken hookups, and other rites of passage occur as expected, pasted together with trademark Real World editing and at least one "Hot in Herre"-backed sequence. As predictable as "reality" can be, and far more enjoyable, The Real Cancun is truly junk-food cinema perfected. (1:27) Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

*Talk to Her A more accurate, lively title for this film would be Girlfriend in a Coma, but Douglas Coupland has already stolen from Morrissey with diminished returns. Like the classic Smiths song, Pedro Almodóvar's new film literalizes metaphor in order to ponder communication's role within a relationship. It twins the conceit, though: comatose girls Alicia (Leonor Watling) and Lydia (Rosario Flores) are cared for by spurned lovers Marco (Darío Grandinetti) and Benigno (Javier Cámara), respectively, with radically different results. The restraint of Almodóvar's recent work is magnified here by its male lead characters and relatively muted color schemes. The flourishes come from two Pina Bausch dances (so-so), one Caetano Veloso song (excellent), and a short silent film sequence (brilliant) that speaks the truth. Once again, rape is a dramatic turning point, but in this case its occurrence is offscreen and ambiguous – an approach that won't attract the attacks that Almodóvar's underrated and misunderstood Kika was subjected to, though it's just as mischievous. (1:52) Balboa, Galaxy. (Huston)

What a Girl Wants (1:44) Century 20.

*X-Men 2: X-Men United Everyone's favorite mutants are back, with the same director (Bryan Singer), cast (Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellan, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen), and thankfully, a sequel that's far more satisfying and action-packed than the first X-Men installment. Brian Cox joins the fray as the sinister Stryker, an antimutant crusader hellbent on using Professor X (Stewart) as a pawn in his scheme to make Earth a humans-only environment; as the title suggests, X-Men (and women) good and bad must join forces to protect their kind. This go-round, we get plenty of scenes where individuals get to display their awesome powers (including new face Alan Cumming, as the teleporting Nightcrawler) and more attention to character development than you'd expect from a comic book-based movie with a huge ensemble cast – not to mention a meatier plot that's pretty much nonstop action. Good stuff, and an auspicious start to the summer movie season. (2:15) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Orinda. (Eddy)

*XX/XY A serious (as opposed to Porky's-style) movie about formative sexcapades – in other words, the emotions aren't left out, and they're mostly ambivalent – Austin Chick's first feature might be called Threesome with a higher SAT score. At Sarah Lawrence College in the early '90s, best friends Sam (Maya Strange) and Thea (Kathleen Robertson) meet self-styled starving-artist type Coles (Mark Ruffalo). The attraction between him and wary Sam is immediate, but insecure party girl Thea has a way of sandwiching herself into any situation where she's not invited, so the plat du jour becomes – very briefly – Coleslaw between two slices of white. The strain this puts on the more conventional coupling eventually proves its undoing. Ten years later the trio are thrown back together, with material success, spouses, and Sam's singlehood all factoring into a most awkward rekindling of various nostalgic fires. Once you get past the first reel's irritating insistence on gimmicky editing effects, XX/XY is a precisely shot and written look at the limits of communication and maturity. (1:31) Lumiere. (Harvey)

Rep Picks

City Lights See 8 Days a Week, page 54. (1:27) Jezebel's Joint.*'James Benning's California Trilogy' See "Life and Death Valleys," page 38. San Francisco Cinematheque.