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.

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

The 23rd annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival runs through Mon/4. Venues are the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro, S.F.; Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph, Berk; CineArts, 3000 El Camino Real, Bldg Six, Palo Alto; and the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St, San Rafael. For ticket information, call (925) 275-9490 or go to www.sfjff.org. For commentary see the July 16 Bay Guardian. All times p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Wed/30

CineArts Blessings: Roommates in Jerusalem and My Four Children 12:30. Secret Lives and Johnny and Jones 3. The Last Letter and Foolish Me 6. Under Water and "Four Short Films About Love" (shorts program) 8:30.

Wheeler My Life Part Two 11:30a. Welcome to the Waks Family and The Collector of Bedford Street 1:30. Asesino and Thunder in Guyana 3:30. Kinky Friedman: Proud to Be an Asshole from El Paso 6. Galoot 8.

Thurs/31

CineArts Kedma 1. Forget Baghdad: Jews and Israel – the Iraqi Connection 3:30. The Burial Society 6. Samy y Yo 8:30.

Wheeler Black Israel 11a. Secret Lives and Johnny and Jones 1. Shalom Ireland and The Last Jewish Town 3:30. Monsieur Batignole 6. Under Water and "Four Short Films About Love" (shorts program) 8:15.

Sat/2

Smith Rafael Galoot (free screening) 1. Under Water and "Four Short Films About Love" (shorts program) 6:30. Manhood 9.

Sun/3

Smith Rafael Shalom Ireland and The Last Jewish Town noon. Divan 2:45. Close, Closed, Closure and It Is No Dream 4:30. Embrace Me and Taqasim 7. The Soul Keeper 9. Mon/4

Smith Rafael Monsieur Batignole 6:30. The Burial Society 8:45.

Opening

Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets Twelve-year-old street urchin Ali (Abdelhak Zhayra) dreams of sailing far away from the dingy alleyways of Morocco where he struggles to survive. A chance at a brighter future for our hero ends abruptly with a single tossed stone, however, leaving a trio of his friends with the task of burying Ali while avoiding the wrath of Fagin-like father figure Dib (Said Taghmaoui), the city's criminal underworld kingpin. Imported tales of tough tykes and lost innocence are a neorealistic dime a dozen, but writer-director Nabil Ayouch's stripped-down approach to the Dickensian material emphasizes a certain flintiness in the familiar narrative. Even with the requisite shots of dew-eyed children and benign guardians on the periphery, the meat of the film rests less on selling manipulative dross or lecturing than on detailing a sordid world where kindness is a commodity and the streets seem cruelly unforgiving. (1:30) Roxie. (Fear)

American Wedding Pastry-loving Jim (Jason Biggs) and band camper Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) get hitched in the third film in the American Pie series. (1:36) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Shattuck.

Gigli The Bennifer assault continues. (2:04) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Shattuck.

Lucía Lucía The latest entry in the burgeoning Mexican new wave is Antonio Serrano's tale of a young woman who turns detective when her husband mysteriously vanishes. (1:53) Opera Plaza, Shattuck.

The Magdalene Sisters See "Sisters of Mercy?," page 175. (1:59) Embarcadero.

Masked and Anonymous See Movie Clock, page 242. (1:46) Act I and II, Embarcadero.

The Secret Lives of Dentists The erratic Alan Rudolph has always enjoyed, with varying success, diving into self-contained milieus – from the Me Decade mecca in Welcome to L.A. to the famous salons of The Moderns and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. But he's arguably never investigated a scene as familiar yet surprising as the one here: a suburban middle-class marriage, with children. Dentists who share a practice, David (Campbell Scott) and Dana Hurst (Hope Davis) have reached that point in their lives where activity is incessant but actual stimulation is rare; with three very young daughters, a mortgage, and god knows what other ordinary obligations stretching years ahead, their well-plotted future can be seen as either comforting or suffocating. It's Dana who seems to be suffering from the latter reaction at present. She's depressed when her one outside creative outlet (singing in an amateur opera production) wraps up, unusually testy around the house, seemingly in a midlife crisis. Afraid she's having an affair – or worse yet, might leave him – David channels his frustration and worry into a fantasy alter ego (Denis Leary) who articulates all of the "bad boy" impulses this good husband and father has long since buried. Leary plays Leary like no one else, but what's his standard hipster wise guy doing here? Hedging the filmmakers' bets, apparently. His role constitutes a big, compromising flaw in a movie that otherwise portrays "routine" crises in wedlock and child-rearing with such freshness you might think these were new subjects for cinema. Secret Lives' long climax is nothing more than a family of five getting the flu – and it might be the most engrossing, detailed, nail-biting set piece you'll see all year. (1:44) Metreon, UA Berkeley. (Harvey)

Ongoing

L'auberge espagnole A sheltered French youth (Romain Duris) heeds the advice to "go southwest, young man" and becomes an economics exchange student in Barcelona. He ends up in an apartment with six other twentysomething Euro-expatriates and steps into a whole new world of liberating drinking, loving, and touchy-feely dorm room epiphanies. Director Cédric Klapisch (When the Cat's Away...) peppers this Candide-lite comedy with so much postcard photography and "This was the semester that changed my life" narration that any bigger picture musings are buried underneath a cringe-worthy sense of schmaltz. There's a certain naive undergrad charm in the film's view of pan-Europeanism as nothing more than a hostel takeover, where nations of all stripes would get along if they all just chilled out, smoked a doob, and sang along to Bob Marley. After two hours of clichéd soul-searching amongst the college sophomore set, however, the movie's title (slang for "euro pudding") takes the culinary metaphor to the extreme: It goes from slightly delectable to a little too sweet, far too sticky, and hardly worthy of being considered a full meal. (1:56) Balboa, California, Galaxy. (Fear)

Bad Boys II Recipe for Tasteless Blockbuster Casserole: Defrost and reheat congealed main ingredients of Bad Boys, that 1995 action-comedy about two trash-talkin' maverick Miami cops (Will Smith, Martin Lawrence) who refuse to "play by the rules" and have a knack for breaking into allegedly charming shtick, etc. Add creative brain trust of über-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director-cinematic Antichrist Michael Bay to insure maximum lowest-common-denominator pandering and plague-of-frogs subtlety. Stir in enough story material for six films; be sure to include romantic interest (Gabrielle Union) in peril, lethal batches of ecstasy, stereotypical villains and over-the-top crime lord (Jordi Mollà, who should be paying Gary Oldman royalties). Spice liberally with gratuitously brutal violence and crass homophobic, racial gags to mask lack of flavor, wit, edge, or basic entertainment value. Cook for an inexplicable two and a half hours. Let simmer; serves millions (excluding critics and those who possess frontal lobes or love movies). Laugh all the way to bank, then scrape burnt mess off bottom of pan into garbage bin. (2:25) California, 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) Galaxy, Shattuck. (B. Ruby Rich)

*Bugs! A distant cousin to the fine-tuned bug ballet of Microcosmos, the IMAX Bugs! – in thrillingly unsubtle 3-D – finds a more Hollywood-style drama in the kingdom of small critters, focusing on the life span of a green mantis nicknamed by his Latin proper name, Hierodula, and the charming Great Mormon butterfly, Papilio. Their parallel lives of eating, shedding, and transforming amount to character development that pays off when adulthood makes them natural enemies (one is the predator of the other). But this children's film has climaxes of all types – even a mantis sex scene so racy the producers conclude it with a leaf screen. The film, narrated by Judi Dench and running through musical styles like an Olympic gymnast going for gold, is presented without irony by Terminix. (:40) Metreon IMAX. (Gerhard)

*Capturing the Friedmans Pegged as the lurid must-see of this year's Sundance Film Festival, Andrew Jarecki's documentary is definitely a fly in the ointment of any belief that documentary cinema (let alone legal process) necessarily equals truth. This movie leaves so many unpleasant questions unanswered you'll be positively itchy with the sense of being soiled-by-association. Tipped by postal inspectors, police raided the home of one Arnold Friedman, a well-liked schoolteacher and father of three teenage sons. They found stores of "kiddie porn" (or at least teen porn); this led to interviews with students in Mr. Friedman's after-school computer classes, held in the family's basement. The stories that emerged described horrific, sometimes quite literally beyond-belief sexual abuse of boys by both Friedman and youngest son Jesse. Were the purported victims' testimonies influenced and inflamed by the zealousness of investigators, not to mention the wildfire outrage that ran through local parents? (Some class attendees still insist nothing happened at all, but their voices were overwhelmed during the resulting media and prosecutorial onslaught.) What's perhaps most disturbing about this one-of-a-kind document is that hysteria becomes indistinguishable from truth, even (or especially) among the Friedmans themselves – a family that recorded itself endlessly via home videos (amply excerpted here), to a remarkable and unflattering degree. Watching them tear themselves apart under pressure – with self-appointed mother-of-all-martyrs Elaine quite possibly inflicting more damage than press, community, law, and still-questionable sex crimes combined – is an experience you won't soon forget. (1:47) California, Four Star, Opera Plaza. (Harvey)

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu return, this time involved in reclaiming missing Witness Protection Program rosters. Major impediments are Justin Theroux as Barrymore's satanic ex-boyfriend, and Demi Moore (who's not on-screen that much, despite the impression given by the ads) as a former angel gone bad. The first Angels, also directed by McG, raised the discourse level of megamall franchise flicks by more than a few notches: it was funny, spectacular, knowingly ridiculous, and ironic in all the right ways. This sequel falls into that shrug-inducing cinematic category known as Just More of the Same. Which ain't a bad thing necessarily, though the freshness is definitely edging toward day-old-doughnut here. The action sequences are now so far outside the realm of physical possibility that they're just silly – a dirt biking set piece is one iota short of simply being fully animated. There are so many cameos (Bruce Willis, Jaclyn Smith, Pink, the Olsen twins, etc.) that some more desirable talents with actual roles – notably Crispin Glover – get scarcely more screen time. Bernie Mac is a poor substitute for Bill Murray's inspirational weirdness as the new Bosley, while Moore's stony posturing is the worst piece of overhyped, overpaid celebrity supervillain casting since Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze in Batman and Robin. Despite these flaws, there's enough color, kitsch, and miscellaneous swirling motion to warrant giving Full Throttle OK marks as a fun if immediately forgettable way to spend $9.50. (1:45) Century Plaza, Century 20, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Harvey)

*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)

*Dirty Pretty Things Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, High Fidelity) has returned over and over to smaller British projects between Hollywood assignments, notably two Roddy Doyle adaptations (The Snapper, The Van). Dirty Pretty Things is by a newish writer, Steve Knight, and in its tonally very different way it's almost as fresh a take on polyglot London as My Beautiful Laundrette. Things revolves around Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a Nigerian doctor-exile living a hand-to-mouth life in the U.K. He's illegally working as a cab driver and a night clerk at a boutique hotel run by pragmatically slimy Juan (Sergi Lopez). Likewise employed at the hotel as housekeeping staff is Muslim Turkish Senay (Audrey Tautou), a registered refugee awaiting governmental approval of her immigrant status. Before long, Okwe discovers that the hotel profits from on-site organ harvesting that preys on desperate illegal immigrants. Knight's script doesn't always smooth together its various mystery, suspense, caper, and slice-of-life elements. The dialogue is sometimes too pontificating, and the incipient romance between Okwe and Senay is perhaps the least effective aspect here. But Frears handles it all so beautifully that the end result is still near extraordinary. (1:49) Bridge. (Harvey)

*Finding Nemo When his beloved son Nemo is whisked from the ocean by a scuba diver, neurotic clown fish Marlin (Albert Brooks) launches a Great Barrier Reef-sized quest to track him down, running into a huge assortment of oceanic perils (sharks, shipwrecks, weird-looking deep-sea fish, seagulls) and pals (notably a forgetful fish named Dory, who, as voiced by Ellen DeGeneres, gets the film's biggest laughs) along the way. Meanwhile, Nemo hatches elaborate escape plans with the creatures dwelling in his new home – a dentist's office aquarium. Though the search-and-rescue plot of this latest computer-animated adventure from Disney-Pixar (Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc.) will play pretty routine to the grown-ups, pint-sized audiences will be in suspense to the end; adult audiences can enjoy the film's more subtle, clever touches (the dental-office scenes are particularly ingenious). (1:41) Century 20, Grand Lake, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Shattuck. (Eddy)

The Housekeeper A lonely sound engineer (Jean-Pierre Bacri) spies a posted ad for a house cleaner. He expects a dowdy older woman; what he gets instead is a 20-year-old girl (Emilie Dequenne) who's equal parts flirty disposition and emotional instability. She quickly moves from tidying up the apartment to dominating his life, quietly leaving psychic wreckage in her wake. May-December romances are de rigueur for French cinema, yet this odd little tale from filmmaker Claude Berri (Jean de Florette) is less about mid-life crises than a fear of male menopausal mindfucks. You're never sure whether we're meant to laugh at the hero's fall into folly or become complicit in the seduction, as the camera lingers over Dequenne's exposed flesh as if it were perusing a platter of ripened fruit. What's even more uncertain is whether the filmmaker meant to construct a gentle comedy of manners or a psychological pas de deux, a tension that alternately stimulates interest and frustrates interpretation even after the credits have rolled. (1:30) Galaxy, Oaks. (Fear)

How to Deal If she keeps at it, Mandy Moore's on track to make everyone forget she was ever a blond pop tart with a hit single called "Candy." Claire Kilner's How to Deal suffers a bit from awkward pacing and an abundance of subplots, but it's exponentially better than your typical millennial teen flick (including Moore's previous effort, A Walk to Remember). High schooler Halley (Moore) faces an avalanche of crises – her parents just got divorced, her best friend is knocked up, her sister's getting hitched to an uptight guy, a schoolmate dies suddenly – and is able to cope with everything pretty well, until she unexpectedly, and unwillingly, falls for the floppy-haired guy (Trent Ford) who's earnestly pursuing her. A stellar supporting cast (including Allison Janney and Peter Gallagher as Halley's parents) adds depth, and the likable Moore easily holds her own as the film's emotional center. (1:41) Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

The Italian Job Audiences who went into 1969's The Italian Job got a silly little caper film breezing past inanity, thanks to its post-mod '60s panache, the novelty of those British Minis racing around Turin, and Michael Caine's cucumberlike coolness. This title-borrowing retread, however, simply reheats a stock revenge plot with Angeleno aesthetic slickness, plenty of advertising for this year's Cooper model, and a Mark Wahlberg who's now officially one lousy remake over the line of good will; suffice to say, today's Cineplex hounds get a much rawer deal. The supporting cast supersizes the usual heist suspects – the computer nerd, the demolition expert, the getaway driver – for maximum background noise while pretty boy Wahlberg and prodigal son Edward Norton mouth a screenwriter's idea of tough-guy-speak over millions worth of gold, car-chase shenanigans, Charlize Theron, etc. Director F. Gary Gray (The Negotiator) does exactly what he's paid to do, tying all the pretty bows tight on a film that's a Hollywood nocturnal emission – efficiently sleek and essentially soulless. (1:43) Century 20. (Fear)

Johnny English You loved him in Black Adder and as Mr. Bean, but when Rowan Atkinson broke out onto the silver screen, audiences found themselves torn between loyalty and discrepancy. Coming into Johnny English, I carried doubts, and although the role of a bumbling secret agent seems promising, it does not match Atkinson's comedic ability. Still, one cannot help but chuckle at the predictable pickles English struggles out of. Peppering the story line is a French supervillain who plots to steal the crown – overplayed by none other than John Malkovich. As well as one-hit wonder Natalie Imbruglia as Johnny's inevitable love interest. I'm still confused as to what Malkovich is doing here, but hey, we all gotta make a buck. More subtle than Mike Myers's hit Austin Powers trilogy, Johnny English takes a common play on the iconic Bond series and blends it with British buffoonery, more aligned with American humor, only a veteran such as Atkinson can own. The film grossed more than $100 million before its U.S. release, and although this amount eclipses the moderately positive critique I can offer, audiences could be wasting their money on a worse film. (1:24) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Orinda, Shattuck. (Pham)

Km.0 It's a hot, stick-to-vinyl day in Madrid, and the natives get randy in ways that include online dating, incest, prostitution, and the interference of a guardian angel. The cause of all of the sex-farce trouble is Kilometer Zero, the beginning point for area road measurements and the meeting place for 14 characters who, of course, bumble their connections in ways gay, straight, illegal, and legit. Cowriters and directors Juan Luis Iborra and Yolanda Garcia Serrano keep things light and breezy as a flapping skirt – this is situation comedy in which embarrassing misunderstandings form the heavy stuff. Unfortunately, who is having sex and who is enjoying it seems divided down gender lines, but really, that kind of analysis is better reserved for a less-effervescent flick. The characters are quirky in a one-dimensional ensemble manner, and most of the film is amusing, save an annoying Pretty Woman-style subplot. (1:45) Opera Plaza. (Koh)

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life Since the Tomb Raider masterminds seem unwilling to aspire beyond the principle that people will watch lint form if it features Angelina Jolie, they might as well save money next time and make Lara Croft: Telemarketer. Wearing Indiana Jones couture, our hot Lady Croft returns to find and protect Pandora's box, an artifact containing a dark force that bad guys wish to control (you know, unlike that time in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the exact same thing happens). Jolie again emotes via eyebrow raises and looks like a petulant version of the Bionic Woman as her lack of agility is disguised by slo-mo. Low-octane action scenes are dropped into the narrative at random and are missing logic to an annoying degree; for example, when Croft wants to get to the surface of the ocean quickly, she deliberately slices her arm, waves the blood around, and then hitches a ride on Jaws after a lengthy showdown. Um, I guess that's faster than swimming. (2:00) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Shattuck. (Koh)

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's graphic novel was a wet dream for bibliophiles: gather together literary heroes from Stevenson, Stoker, Verne, and H.G. Wells, then pit them against famous Victorian-era villains. This big-screen adaptation lamentably strips the comic's intellectual properties down to its bare-bones high concept and bulldozes over viewers with bells and whistles turned up to paint-peeling volume. It'd be hard to completely catalog how director Stephen Norrington (Blade) managed to ruin such surefire material, though any partial list would have to include the gratuitous addition of characters (including everyone's favorite American secret service agent of letters ... Tom Sawyer?!?), action sequences favoring chaos over coherence, and squandering the inspired casting of Sean Connery as an autumnal Allan Quartermain. Worse, LXG commits the most venal of summer movies sins in that it lacks any sense of fun; its most "extraordinary" quality may be that it somehow succeeds in alienating bookworms, comic geeks, and Cineplex groupies in one fell swoop. (1:52) Century 20, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Fear)

*Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde Blonder than ever, Reese Witherspoon returns as Elle Woods, notorious Beverly Hills bimbette turned shrewd attorney. In this sequel, Elle takes on animal testing, the beauty industry, and Capitol Hill, all to reunite her beloved lapdog, Bruiser, with his imprisoned mom. It's hard to follow a hit comedy, but it helps that favorite characters from the first film are back (including Luke Wilson as the perfect hubby to be). While the script isn't as fresh this time around, Witherspoon carries the film with ease; her revival of the beloved blond with smile-and-the-world-smiles-back naïveté, stubborn charm in the face of adversity and mocking, and of course, a dazzling pink wardrobe that Barbie would die for, are as hilarious as ever. Toss in a mean Southern senator whose dog turns out to be a leather daddy, an army of sorority sisters, and cheerleading interns choreographed by Toni Basil and, really, what's not to love? Double snaps. (1:34) Century 20. (Sabrina Crawford)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2:59) Oaks.

*Man on the Train A mysterious stranger (Johnny Hallyday) breezes into a small French burg and attracts the attention of a local poetry teacher (Jean Rochefort), who offers the out-of-towner room and board. It turns out that the stranger is a career criminal with his eye on the local bank and that the local is desperately looking for one last chance at excitement to set off a long life of dullness and regrets. It's the duo's gentle, tentative stabs at friendship before tragedy inevitably rears its head that make the latest meditation by director Patrice Leconte (The Hairdresser's Husband) on the melancholia of loners and losers so quietly moving. Thanks to the alchemy of legendary Gallic rocker Hallyday's steel-flint gaze and Rochefort's matronly kindness, what should be a normal iconographic noir essayed in gun-metal shades of blue gray takes the road less traveled, gracefully morphing into an elegy of missed opportunities and misaligned lives. (1:30) Balboa. (Fear)

*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) Balboa, Galaxy. (Fear)

Northfork In the latest from Sacramento's Polish brothers, Mark and Michael (Twin Falls Idaho, Jackpot), the Montana town of Northfork is just 48 rapidly passing hours away from being flooded out of existence by a dam project. State agents (including Peter Coyote and James Woods) are dispatched to evacuate the last stubborn-holdout residents before modern technology drowns them. Meanwhile, sickly little boy Irwin (Duel Farnes) is redeposited by adoptive parents at the doorstep of Father Harlan (Nick Nolte), who views him as an "angel." Co-scenarists Michael (who also directs) and Mark (who costars) Polish's overcalculatedly mythological cinema would greatly benefit from a stronger storytelling sense, not to mention characters defined by human depth rather than conceptual fancy-dancing. Yet Northfork is a fanciful reverie made by born filmmakers, and the Polish brothers truly are doing something really, really different. Which counts for a lot. (1:34) Act I and II, Opera Plaza. (Harvey)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl In this seaworthy tale from Ring director Gore Verbinski and action-happy producer Jerry Bruckheimer, offbeat swashbuckler Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and blacksmith Will Turner (Lord of the Rings elf Orlando Bloom) team up to pursue the snarling buccaneers who've kidnapped Will's beloved Elizabeth (Keira Knightley from Bend It like Beckham). Seems the crew of the Black Pearl (including Geoffrey Rush as their monkey-toting leader) believe she's the key to lifting the nasty curse that plagues them. Pirates taps plenty of familiar motifs – a talking parrot ("Shiver me timbers!"), a cave filled with treasure, cannon fights, people saying, "Arrrr!" – and follows a pretty rote escape-and-capture story line. And yeah, it's based on a Disneyland ride. But thanks in no small part to Depp's oddly endearing performance, the good-natured Pirates aims for fun and largely succeeds. (2:23) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

Respiro Amid the sun-baked landscapes and impossibly blue waters of a Sicilian fishing village, a young juvenile delinquent (Francisco Casisa) acts the tough guy when he's not helping his father (Vincenzo Amato) pull in the haddock-filled nets ... so far, so neorealistic. Then we meet his mother, Grazia (Valeria Golino), an affectionate but mentally unstable woman whose mood swings from erratic to downright violent. Talk turns to sending the materfamilias to a sanitorium; she turns tail and flees to the hills, and suddenly we've stepped into a tale of slow-cooking Mediterranean madness. Nothing in Golino's previous body of work (including supporting roles in Frida and Rain Man) suggested she was capable of the performance nuances displayed here, sidestepping the typical Oscar-bait clichés of unhinged lunacy and underplaying even the wildest moments. Director Emanuele Crialese starts dropping hints that Grazia's sudden outbursts may not be your run-of-the-mill fiery southern Italian temper tantrums, subtly turning the picturesque scenery into a heat-stroke hallucination. (1:35) Balboa. (Fear)

Seabiscuit In the midst of the Great Depression, a second-rate racing nag named Seabiscuit, laden with an oversized jockey (Tobey Maguire), a laconic trainer (Chris Cooper), and a zealous manager (Jeff Bridges), somehow broke track records and captured the public's fancy. Based on Laura Hillenbrand's insanely readable biography, the film adaptation by Gary Ross (Pleasantville) also gets people rooting for the under-horse while imbuing social significance to the sport of kings, though his version seems overflowing with its own sense of stateliness. The movie often seems less a retelling of the legendary equine success story than a catalog of pure Americana, owing as much to Horatio Alger's bootstrap fables or Walker Evans's photography as it does to horse racing and history. Amazing performances, gorgeous autumnal visuals, and elliptical editing provide a wonderful cadence but eventually lose by a nose to Capraesque populist pandering, complete with PBS-friendly narration that equates the martyr mare with New Deal politics quicker than you can say Triple Crown-ed metaphor. (2:21) Century 20, Grand Lake, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, Oaks, 1000 Van Ness, Orinda. (Fear)

Spellbound A frightening, often comedic look into the family lives of the nation's top young spellers, Jeff Blitz's documentary too easily balances the oddities of overachievers: if there's an obsessed speller, there's also a nonchalant one; some families are wealthy, some are poor. There's diversity, love, faith, and most predictably, a fight against the odds. Though the film builds tension as it reaches various humiliating climaxes at the microphone, it suffers the same malady as its subjects: it feels far more stage-managed than earned or lived. (1:36) Embarcadero, Shattuck. (Gerhard)

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over Pint-size spy Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) has been called in from the cold to rescue his sister (Alexa Varga), who's trapped in an online video game run by a megalomaniacal game programmer (Sylvester Stallone). The only way to get her out is to get Juni in the game himself and past the numerous 3-D (literally!) obstacles that stand in his way. The third time is not usually a charm when it comes to movie trilogies, but Robert Rodriguez's tales of junior league espionage have always had charm to spare; even this weakest entry in the series has just enough infectious, imaginative magnetism to put most average kids flicks to shame. Pulling the 3-D rabbit out of the hat usually signals a last-gasp gimmick, but the overall campfire-story giddiness here feels more like a filmmaker delighting in sharing ancient cinematic tricks with a new generation of popcorn munchers. (1:25) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Orinda. (Fear)

*Swimming Pool Charlotte Rampling plays Sarah Morton, an author in the Patricia Highsmith mold – with an emphasis on mold – who ventures to a vine-laced villa in the south of France to begin work on the latest addition to her musty mystery series. Ludivine Sagnier plays Julie, the slutty daughter of Sarah's publisher, and an unwelcome surprise guest at Sarah's writer's retreat. The two don't waste any time invading each other's privacy. Whether that privacy is typed on a laptop or penned in girlie cursive, it's a key to asserting power over the other. Swimming Pool's "secrets" tease audiences; ultimately, the film is a poison-lensed love letter to director François Ozon's producer. It's time for this mildly naughty boy to make a wildly rude film that pleases no one but himself. (1:54) Albany, Clay, Piedmont. (Huston)

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines The terms "unnecessary cash-in" and "soulless retread" come to mind; even the film's catchphrases are straight from the recycling bin. With James Cameron and Linda Hamilton out of the picture, the weight of T3 rests on Schwarzenegger's meaty shoulders and director Jonathan Mostow's ability to dole out the film's mounting battles and explosions. A robotic assassin from the future (Kristanna Loken) is sent to kill John Connor (Nick Stahl), because he's the one who'll eventually lead the resistence movement after machines take over the world, blah, blah, blah. Thank gawd a Terminator turned protector (you know who) is also on the case. The superior Terminator 2: Judgement Day told the same story, with a female lead far more powerful and multidimensional than T3's milquetoast Claire Danes and Loken's steely "Terminatrix" combined. As for the FX, remember how everyone shat themselves back in 1991 when Robert Patrick's character did all that melting-morphing business? There's nothing so thrilling this go-round. (1:49) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

*28 Days Later Early in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, a patient named Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakes from a coma only to find the hospital, the streets, the surrounding buildings, and possibly – probably – the entire world, completely, nightmarishly deserted. The culprit? "Rage," a highly contagious blood virus accidentally unleashed on London by a group of well-intentioned animal rights activists. Symptoms, which manifest in 20 seconds or less, include red eyes, projectile vomiting, and the uncontrollable urge to viciously attack everyone around you. Thanks to the use of digital video, a trembling pop soundtrack, and British slang, 28 Days Later is pretty arty for a genre film. Still, horror is the main event, and like all truly scary movies, this one neatly plays off current events (SARS, for one) to increase the oh-shit-this-might-really-happen vibe. Though this heavily Romero-influenced film isn't overflowing with original ideas, the timing of its release is impeccable. Who isn't afraid of catching a horrible disease, or of waking up to find an entire city wiped out by a scary, unknown event? (1:48) Century 20, Metreon, Presidio, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

*The Weather Underground Sam Green and Bill Siegel's new documentary explores '60s revolutionaries the Weathermen, one of the warring factions in Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) that emerged from campus cocoons advocating urban guerrilla warfare. The typical Weatherman was white, 25, had done three years at Ann Arbor or Columbia, and had a passion for getting down that existed in a direct relationship to his or her parents' financial assets. It was a great story – rich kids, anguished parents, terrorism, and life on the run – and the media covered it like a rug. The Weather Underground gives those who wrote the original story a chance to look back and try it again, confined only by various versions of the original. Green and Siegel (the researcher behind Hoop Dreams) approached a number of ex-members and scored one-on-one conversations with most of the group's former leaders. Ironically, the filmmakers had nothing to do with what's most important about The Weather Underground: the timing of its release. "When I started it," Green told me, "no one was thinking about this stuff. Now, well, I wish it wasn't so, but the world has changed a lot. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have raised many issues, and a lot of the questions that people talked about back then are relevant today." (1:32) Castro, Shattuck. (J.H. Tompkins)

*Whale Rider Director Niki Caro's adaptation of New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera's 1986 novel combines familiar coming-of-age elements with Maori mysticism to exceptionally engaging effect. Pubescent Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes) has been raised by her strict but loving grandfather Koro (Rawiri Paratene) and more easygoing grandma (Vicky Haughton) since her artist dad left to travel the world. The latter (Cliff Curtis) was and is too grief-stricken to stay in the community – his wife died giving birth to Pai, and tribal chief Koro still pressures him to deliver a male grandchild who might one day "lead our people out of the darkness" that modern, Westernized life has imposed. But that ain't happening, so granddad opens a "sacred school" to educate local boys in "the old ways – the qualities of a chief." These involve everything from religious ritual to martial arts instruction. Koro is so rigidly tradition-minded that he insists girls are "worthless" in these capacities – though it's increasingly clear to everyone else that Pai possesses talent and discipline far beyond any male peers. The resulting, painful rift between child and grandparent reaches a climactic point of catastrophe and supernatural redemption that would be ludicrous in any less psychologically level-headed, stylistically astute context. A rare movie that should play just as well for eight-year-olds as it does for art-house grownups. (1:55) California, Embarcadero, Empire. (Harvey)

*Winged Migration Its unassuming title and topic (migratory birds) notwithstanding, Jacques Perrin's documentary Winged Migration is of a feather with the greatest of action movies: the only time the screen is not occupied with ambushes, crash landings, gunshots, daring escapes, murderous crustaceans, and crumbling icebergs, is when it follows the birds in pure, sensational flight. Five crews of more than 450 people, with 17 pilots and 14 cinematographers, were involved in filming these birds in flight, and still the resulting sequences are so close, so immediate, so lacking in artifice, that you would swear they were filmed by another bird. And it's a running theme that while the humans are so ingenious as to bring the film off – traveling across 40 countries in all seven continents, from the Eiffel Tower to Monument Valley, the Arctic to the Amazon – the indefatigable birds themselves are even more astounding. (1:29) Albany, Embarcadero, Empire. (Amir Baghdachi)

Rep picks

*Blue Vinyl Plastic makes it possible: Indeed, "every three seconds another house in North America is sided with vinyl," reads the opening title to Judith Helfand's HBO documentary Blue Vinyl. But as you soon find out, the substance is just as sinister as it is tacky. After Helfand's had her 100 minutes with you – visiting PVC-making plants and the diseased neighbors who live near them, consorting with legal muckrakers who've exposed manufacturers' schemes to keep the public uninformed about PVC's dangers to the environment, and getting intimate with former PVC workers dead or dying from exposure to toxic goo – those words are below-zero chilling. Helfand began the doc with her parents' suburban home but, in typical style, goes global, with the Bay Area – seen here as a utopian paradise of recycling, featuring local homes made with recycled license plates and experts in straw-bale home manufacture – as one outer edge in a plastic, not fantastic, poisonous world. (1:36) Red Vic. (Gerhard)