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.

Arab Film Festival

The seventh annual Cinemayaat Arab Film Festival runs Sept 26-Oct 5. Venues are the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro, S.F.; Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th St, S.F.; Wheeler Hall, UC Berkeley, Berk; and Towne Theatre, 1433 The Alameda, San Jose. For tickets (most shows $7-9) and complete schedule information, check www.aff.org. For commentary, see "The Reel Thing," page 45.

Thurs/25

Castro El-Kotbia (The bookstore) 8:30.

Fri/26

Roxie Broken Wings 6:15. Ejteyah (Invasion) 8:15. Night of Destiny with "Wind of Beirut" 9:50.

Sat/27

Roxie Lord's Song in a Strange Land with "Planet of the Arabs" 2:15. "Diary of an Arts Competition," "A Number Zero," and "Like Twenty Impossibles" 4:15. Duel in San Francisco 6. Under the Baghdad Sky with "Travel Agency" 7:30. Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army with "The Lost Horizon" 9:30.

Wheeler Broken Wings 1. Independence with "I Am Palestine" 3:15. Ejteyah (Invasion) 5:15. El-Kotbia (The bookstore) with "My Josephine" 7. Night of Destiny with "Wind of Beirut" 9:45.

Sun/28

Wheeler Souha Surviving Hell with "Meantime in Beirut" 1:15. Duel in San Francisco 3. "Diary of an Arts Competition," "A Number Zero," and "Like Twenty Impossibles" 4:45. "Panel Discussion on Arab Film" 6:30. Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army with "The Lost Horizon" 8:45.

MadCat Women's International Film Festival

The seventh annual MadCat Women's International Film Festival runs Sept 9-Oct 5. Venues include El Rio, 3158 Mission, S.F.; Artists' Television Access, 992 Valencia, S.F.; PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft, Berk.; and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission, S.F. For tickets (most shows $7-20) and complete schedule information, call (415) 436-9523 or go to www.madcatfilmfestival.org. All times pm. For commentary, see 8 Days a Week, page 62.

Fri/26

ATA "Program Six: Out of the Past" (short films) 8.

Tues/30

El Rio "Program Seven: Clear Visions, Silent Filmmakers I" (short films) 8:30.

Opening

Duplex Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore star as a young New York City couple who plot against the obnoxious rent-controlled tenant in their newly purchased duplex. (1:29) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Orinda.

*The Embalmer See "Morbid Love," page 51. (1:44) Lumiere.

Luther The problem with historical epics is all the swelling. Puff goes the music, acting, and righteousness until the viewer is following a droopy moral blimp. Luther is not the worst offender, but someone should have turned off the pump. With that I'm-barely-suppressing-my-demons tremble in his voice, Joseph Fiennes plays Martin Luther in this biopic of the 16th-century monk who instigated the Protestant Reformation with his 95 theses against the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences. Director Eric Till chooses to deliver a haunted, unstable Luther who is tormented in his relationship with religion. It is this personal struggle to find a merciful God, and not academic logic, that truly motivates the theologian to enlighten people to the Vatican's scams – priests hawking fake relics and papers guaranteeing escape from purgatory (Rome strangely resembles Fisherman's Wharf in these scenes). Luther's resonant strengths are these depictions of the Church's power to brainwash, but the rest of the film feels like an orchestra directing traffic; it's just a little too dramatic. (1:45) California, Clay. (Koh)

The Rundown The Rock continues his bid for action-hero status with this yarn about a "retrieval expert" sent to root out a drug kingpin's son (Seann William Scott) and battle a treasure hunter (Christopher Walken). (1:44) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London.

Taking Sides See Movie Clock. (1:45) Act I and II, Embarcadero.

Tycoon: A New Russian From Russia, this crime saga follows the rise and fall of post-Communism schemers who dabble in government corruption. (2:08) Opera Plaza, Shattuck.

Under the Tuscan Sun After her husband leaves her, and she sells her San Francisco home for a tidy sum, writer Frances Mayes (Diane Lane) takes a trip to Italy at the bidding of her best friend, Patti (the wryly hilarious Sandra Oh). To everyone's surprise, and most of all, her own, Frances ends up buying a run-down villa; before long, "Francesca"'s new life in Tuscany is a whirlwind of home repairs, encounters with quirky locals, gorgeous landscapes, and broken heart-healing moments of joy and personal growth. To be sure, this likable comedy – directed by Audrey Wells (Guinevere), who also adapted her screenplay from the real-life Mayes' best-selling memoir – is tailor-made for the Oprah set. But it's impossible not to root for Lane, whose thoughtful performance handily rises above the film's more cheese-ball moments. (1:43) Century 20, Empire, Grand Lake, Orinda, Shattuck. (Eddy)

Ongoing

*American Splendor Shari Springer Berman and Roger Pulcini's film grafts the documentary portraiture of Terry Zwigoff's Crumb on the fictional narrative of Zwigoff's Daniel Clowes adaptation, Ghost World, and comes up with something less than either of those great films – but still the best U.S. fictive filmmaking in this summer of bummers. American Splendor travels from vignette to vignette, losing and gaining momentum, rarely mimicking the long interior monologues or abrupt endings of Harvey Pekar's comics. It livens up and finds a purpose with the arrival of Hope Davis's Joyce Brabner – the film's chief strong point is its characterization of her marriage to Pekar (Paul Giamatti). Splendor casually addresses the fact that Pekar's comic is drawn by a variety of artists, allowing characters' appearances to shift from one sequence to another (one minute, Drew Freidman's smudgy daytime nightmares; the next, Joe Zabel's crisp nervous energy). An all-animated version might have imaginatively extended this trait, which simultaneously defines Pekar's portraiture and makes it playfully elusive – even free spirited. (1:41) Act I and II, Embarcadero, Empire, Piedmont. (Huston)

And Now Ladies and Gentlemen (2:06) Four Star.

Anything Else What happened to Woody Allen? Why does one of American film's living treasures now churn out fool's gold like this stale tale of an aspiring young comedy writer (Jason Biggs) stuck in a relationship with a narcissistic actress (Christina Ricci)? When, exactly, did his patented neurotic comedy morph into a shapeless, aimless misanthropy that – unlike the vitriol that fueled his last great film, Deconstructing Harry – serves no end, not even that of laughter? Questions abound here, though the burning one is ultimately: Has one of the great voices of modern cinema finally run out things to say? There are enough autobiographical tidbits floating in the soup to suggest possible statements of intent in this Mobius strip of guardian-angelic fantasy, but what's eventually left stewing is merely a stock of bad gags, unfunny turns, and the creeping suspicion that resting on one's laurels might not be such a bad thing after all. (1:48) Grand Lake, 1000 Van Ness, Shattuck. (Fear)

*Bend It like Beckham (1:42) Galaxy.

Cabin Fever Cabin Fever – though admirably filmed in wide-screen and with C.G.-free, old-school special effects – at times feels like little more than a collage of director Eli Roth's favorite horror films from the late 1970s and early '80s. He pays homage with plot (a group of city kids are terrorized deep in the woods) and tone (slowly escalating tension punctuated by the occasional bizarre interlude) but adds a contemporary spin by making Cabin Fever's monster of choice a mysterious flesh-eating disease. An outbreak of deadly illness is plenty chilling, but Cabin Fever ups the ante by introducing further conflict both external (a wrecked truck, a hostile dog, unhelpful neighbors, a wilderness so isolated that cell phones are useless) and internal, as each camper grapples with the tension in increasingly hysterical ways. In the end Cabin Fever emerges far gorier than it is scary; you'll be hiding your eyes not in fright but because what's on the screen tends toward the gleefully disgusting. (1:34) Century 20, Kabuki, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

Cold Creek Manor New York City's breakneck pace reduces corporate wheeler-dealer Leah Tilson (Sharon Stone) to mothering via cell phone; her hubby, documentary filmmaker Cooper (Dennis Quaid), operates only on "shout" as he hustles kids Kristen (Kristen Stewart) and Jesse (Ryan Wilson) through breakfast. Evidently, the only way to restore domestic bliss is to pack up the giant, gleaming SUV and buy a dilapidated estate – dirt cheap, thanks to the bank that foreclosed on it – waaayyyy out in the sticks. Trouble brews, as trouble always does when city folk set foot in the wilderness, with the arrival of Cold Creek Manor's creepy former owner, good ol' boy Dale Massie (Stephen Dorff). Director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) aims for a domestic chiller in the Amityville Horror mold, but fails in his attempts to build suspense with some of the most ridiculously obvious foreshadowing in recent memory, not to mention a plot riddled with clichés. (1:59) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Oaks, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

Confusion of Genders (1:34) Galaxy.

*The Cuckoo (1:44) Galaxy.

*Demonlover Minutes into Olivier Assayas's Demonlover, one character injects a pudding cup-size airplane package of Evian water with a sedative in order to drug a coworker; it's the first of many fetish-y triple crosses in the thriller, a mazelike Valley of the Cyberporn Corporation Dolls navigated by Chloë Sevigny, Connie Nielsen, and Gina Gershon (who exhales cigarette smoke with a well-timed precision that would make Susan Hayward proud). Needless to say, Demonlover has camp to spare. Assayas and cinematographer Denis Lenoir aim their critical vision at contemporary life's glossy-glassy illusions and mirror images; one character's split-second TV glimpse of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse aligns Demonlover with that premonitory film's computer nightmares. Assayas's dystopian view of surveillance culture presents the Internet as a toxic technological portal. (2:09) Lumiere, Shattuck. (Huston)

Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star Dickie Roberts (David Spade) is a washed-up former child actor who desperately wants a comeback. His chance appears in the form of a coveted role in Rob Reiner's new film, but the director, playing himself, suggests that the bizarre Dickie could only be "normal" enough for the part if he relived his nonexistent childhood. Thus (go ahead; smack your forehead) Dickie hires a suburban family to retrain him. Spade's sarcastic, bitchy-man-child shtick ("buh-bye") has served him well over the years, and the comic, who does resemble an escapee from Children of the Corn, easily makes it the 'tude of a former child star. But Spade and the film are hot and cold. Some scenes are truly funny, others unbearably cheesy, and the writing skirts some real opportunities for mischief. A poker game between Spade, Leif Garrett, Corey Feldman, Dustin Diamond, Barry Williams, and Danny Bonaduce is bland as the latter's talk show, The Other Half, not the awesome bitch-fest it could have been. Among the film's amusing moments: a "We Are the World"-style chorus featuring dozens of former child stars. (1:39) Century 20, Kabuki, 1000 Van Ness. (Koh)

*Dirty Pretty Things (1:49) California, Embarcadero.

*Le Divorce Left by her trustafarian mate, pregnant poet Roxy (Naomi Watts) is visited in Paris by her hungry-for-experience sis Isabel (Kate Hudson), who soon realizes she's clearly not in Santa Barbara anymore. With the help of her sibling and an expat writer (Glenn Close), Isabel cracks the French cultural code embedded in everything from cocktails to fashion, and together the sisters take in the drawing rooms, haute cuisine, silk lingerie, and rococo social convolutions of the Old World. Self-consciously witty, briskly paced, and true to its source, Le Divorce succeeds where other modern-day Merchant Ivory productions have faltered; it captures the follies, foibles, and faux pas that occur as two worlds collide and collude, as well as the soufflé-lite pleasures of the City of Light. (1:55) Balboa, Embarcadero. (Kimberly Chun)

The Fighting Temptations Could Cuba Gooding Jr. be taking career advice from Brendan Fraser? Seriously, he is the only other A/B-list actor I can imagine who would agree to bond with talking huskies, cavort on a gay cruise, and head a Sister Act rip-off, in consecutive order. The Fighting Temptations is actually a step up in Gooding's leading-man career, simply because there is gospel singing. He plays Darrin Hill, who returns from New York to his Georgia hometown for an aunt's funeral. Her will states that if he leads the town's ragtag choir to win the "Gospel Explosion," he'll inherit some bucks. Dishonest and in debt, he sticks around to learn some lessons, inspire the choir, and romance Beyoncé Knowles. In summary: it's Sister Act meets Sweet Home Alabama meets Brewster's Millions. Besides the OK singing, there is only one reason to see this movie: boom-chicka-boom Beyoncé sporting booty that would make the old J.Lo cry. Too bad Pepsi cans often block the view as Ms. Knowles endorses product like nobody's business. (2:00) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Kabuki, 1000 Van Ness. (Koh)

*Finding Nemo (1:41) Century 20.

Freaky Friday (1:49) Century 20, Kabuki.

The Girl from Paris A young agricultural student (Mathielde Seigner) buys a gone-to-seed farm in the French countryside from a bitter, retiring widower (Michel Serrault). Her attempts to modernize the estate's business meet with a resounding success until the cold season comes in, wherein the elder gentleman realizes she may need his help. What initially starts out as yet another anti-society/pro-nature trip down spiritual enlightenment lane slowly transforms into an elegiac look at loneliness in both the spring of youth and the winter of the twilight years. The film doesn't avoid the inherent sentimentality of the material so much as come at it sideways, presenting the duo's tentative reaching out towards each other less as a string-laden message than an ambivalent attempt at capturing the toll of emotional isolation. It still suffers from a tone that's more meandering than meditative, but its ability to negotiate prickly poignancy minus the sap gives the story an oddly compelling charm. (1:43) Galaxy, Oaks. (Fear)

Lost in Translation Halfway through Lost in Translation, it's clear director Sofia Coppola misplaced something other than language somewhere in the air between LAX and Narita. She obviously lost the plot (what glassine, paper-thin bits of it existed, by all accounts) and decided instead to just leave the camera running on her assembled beautiful or amusing characters-slash-objets – a preppily lush Scarlett Johansson, the sleek playground of Tokyo's Park Hyatt, and a resigned Bill Murray – hoping they'd provide the in-flight impromptu entertainment. Maybe in a perfectly art-directed world, they would suffice to fill the pretty vacant spaces of this barely outlined tale. But that's assuming we're as easily amused by Lost in Translation's 105 minutes of good-looking images and vacuous chitchat as we are by sound bites about celebrity cribs. That's assuming we've never glimpsed the sci-fi Tokyo skyline, tried our hand at karaoke, or followed Murray as he navigated a real, meaty part. Instead, Coppola succumbs to the same mistake made by pop stars who get lazy, believe their own hype, and decide everyone can relate to songs about their distorted experiences. (1:45) Albany, Century 20, Empire, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Piedmont. (Chun)

The Magdalene Sisters (1:59) Four Star.

Mambo Italiano That's a spicy gay man! Following the big-fat-ethnic-wedding formula, director Emile Gaudreault presents Montreal's Little Italy in crabby and tradition-bound glory. Mambo Italiano, based on the play by Steve Gallucio, concerns Angelo (Luke Kirby), a young man who comes out of the closet and into the wrath of his earsplitting famiglia, his closeted cop boyfriend, and the community in general. Rumors and insults fly as relatives strategize to straighten the boys out. Angelo is ready to take a stand, but his cop boyfriend isn't. The film is unabashedly over-the-top as we learn that parents can change – and still be as old school as they want to be. Despite the stereotypes, Mambo Italiano is lighthearted and endearing at times – such as when papa Paul Sorvino describes how he and his wife ended up in the "wrong America." You'll be familiar with this truckload of Parmagiana, but you still might enjoy it. (1:40) Century 20, Embarcadero, Shattuck. (Koh)

*Matchstick Men The latest from the prolific Ridley Scott (working in character-driven Thelma and Louise mode, not bombastic Gladiator-Black Hawk Down mode) follows the near-midlife crisis of Roy (Nicolas Cage), a seasoned con man who has almost managed to rationalize his felonious life. Things would be perfect in Roy's world except for the fact that his conscience eats away at him in the form of a nervous tic and an obsessive-compulsive desire for cleanliness. When he learns he has a 14-year-old daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman), he tentatively begins to open up; the duo hit it off just as Roy and partner Frank (Sam Rockwell) are planning the biggest score of their careers. Complications, executed with great flair and great suspense, ensue. Matchstick Men, based on Eric Garcia's novel, is a thoroughly enjoyable example of what happens when all involved in a film are at the top of their game: it's beautifully photographed, acted, and directed, with a thoughtful, multilayered story that comments, with wry humor, on the highs of taking advantage and the lows of opportunities lost. (2:00) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Jack London, 1000 Van Ness, Orinda, Shattuck. (Eddy)

*Millennium Actress Coming after his unsettling psycho-thriller Perfect Blue, anime director Satoshi Kon's second feature is a sweeping, visionary tapestry of fiction, memory, and history to which the word masterpiece may possibly apply. The premise is deceptively simple, but the technique positively kaleidoscopic, as a documentary crew interviews a famously reclusive actress who mysteriously vanished from the screen some 30 years before. Her reminisces trigger a series of flashbacks to the highlights of her film career and a lifelong search for true love, while Kon deftly shuffles time and space through a series of ingeniously conceived transitions that could only have been realized with animation. The tale of one person's life grows steadily to ultimately become a thousand-year history of Japan, seen though its film industry, punctuated by numerous nods to the works of Kurosawa and Ozu, and Godzilla. Academics, movie buffs, and anyone with a more-than-passing interest in Japanese culture and cinema will be handsomely rewarded, but Millennium Actress also packs a devastating, purely emotional wallop that should be accessible to all. (1:27) Metreon. (Macias)

Once upon a Time in Mexico A corrupt CIA agent (Johnny Depp), a drug lord (Willem Dafoe), a defrocked military general, and several other sundry parties vie for political pole position on the eve of a possible presidential coup. Only one person can restore order to the land: the mythic mariachi-with-no-name (Antonio Banderas) who's hell-bent on revenge. The third in filmmaker Robert (Desperado) Rodriguez's Mexico trilogy re-imagines a Leone-esque showdown as a chipotle western, gleefully tweaking genres galore – dig Depp's third-act Zatoichi gunfighter! – while slyly pinholing decades of Latino cinematic lore (Dafoe's shoe-polish Latin is a dead ringer for Charlton Heston's Touch of Evil southern-border karaoke). The ensuing mayhem alternately hits and misses its mark; few filmmakers capture the giddy fun and reverb-ed ridiculousness of action films as well as Rodriguez does, yet several chase sequences look less like scenes than filmed storyboards, and his attempt to cram a three-hour epic into 98 minutes ends up suffering from a bad case of decompression sickness. (1:38) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Kabuki, 1000 Van Ness. (Fear)

Party Monster How could a movie that casts Macauley Culkin as Michael Alig (and gives nostalgic CPR to Stacey Q's "Two of Hearts") go wrong? Too many celebrity bit parts, not enough narrative focus, and absolutely no Screaming Rachel are just three of countless accidental answers provided by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's drama debut. Bailey and Barbato's circus loses it charm long before it becomes an excuse to photograph Culkin and Chloë Sevigny as if they were separated-at-birth twins. The fact that Party Monster is more sympathetic to murderer than to victim would be less annoying if Alig and pal James St. James (Seth Green) were the geniuses the directors seem to think they are. Brattily imaginative? Yes. Brilliantly intelligent? No. Check out Bailey and Barbato's documentary of the same name instead. At least it has Screaming Rachel – if you don't know who that is, your vérité comedy education is incomplete. (1:38) Lumiere. (Huston)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2:23) Century 20, Kabuki, 1000 Van Ness.

Seabiscuit (2:21) Kabuki, 1000 Van Ness, Oaks.

Secondhand Lions Put Michael Caine opposite Robert Duvall and you'd probably find a ripping good yarn entangled in their shoelaces. Writer-director Tim McCanlies, who also penned The Iron Giant, extracts the perfect chemistry from these gruff and stately boys in Secondhand Lions. Duvall and Caine play eccentric bachelor uncles living on a rural farm in 1960s Texas; as they're rumored to have millions stashed somewhere, they are constantly besieged by crackpot salesmen and greedy relatives, who they gleefully shoo away with shotguns. Their nephew Walter (Haley Joel Osment) is dropped off for the summer, instructed by his shameless mother to find the "treasure." When the uncles realize Walter is good repellent for the other relatives, they take him in despite Duvall's assessment that "the kid's a damn weenie." Walter grows to love these two weirdos who mail-order lions, beat up greaser punks, and share adventurous tales from their youth. Osment still must adjust to grown-up acting, but mostly does fine opposite Caine and Duvall as the three form a touching and offbeat family. (1:41) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Kabuki, 1000 Van Ness, Shattuck. (Koh)

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. 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) Galaxy. (Harvey)

Small Voices Based on the real-life experiences of director Gil Portes's niece, Small Voices follows a young Filipina teacher who forgoes opportunities in the United States to teach in one of her county's poor rural villages. Books are scarce, education is undervalued, the poverty is overwhelming, and a bloody rebellion washes bodies up on the river's shores daily. While music can't make all that go away, song helps the teacher and her students make it through the day. At times Small Voices can feel overly dramatic and even borderline cliché, but the characters are compelling and eccentric. (1:45) Shattuck. (Sabrina Crawford)

*So Close Veteran fight choreographer and Jet Li collaborator Cory Yuen has crafted a big old hunk of grade-A cheese in this female action fantasia. Lynn (Shu Qui) and Sue (Zhao Wei) are sisters with a familial grudge they've turned into a career path, using James Bondian techno-gadgets and Matrix-ian martial arts moves to infiltrate, overpower, and blackmail (or steal from) maximum-security, multinational corrupt corporations. Sure, they shoot lots and lots of extras ... but for a good cause, sorta. Once her onetime boyfriend reenters the picture, however, unflappable Lynn considers retiring the family business entirely. But first she'll have to evade an evil CEO's assassins; elude butch cop Kong (Karen Mok), who's launched a dogged search for the mysterious hit-chick "Angel;" and prevent rebellious little sis from getting into big trouble. The action set pieces are as awesome as they are absurd. Granted a larger budget, Yuen proves bigger isn't quite better, since the film's (relative) good taste renders its connective tissue less giddily sexploitative than such prior Hong Kong babefests as Naked Killer or Sex and Zen. Still, this sure kicks Charlie's Angels' ass. (1:47) Galaxy. (Harvey)

Spellbound (1:36) Balboa, Opera Plaza, Shattuck.

Step into Liquid There's nothing more photogenic than bronzed surfers cutting through sun-dappled waves – and yet there are few things as hard to capture on-screen as the exhilarating rush that makes surfing so addictive and so popular. This paradox has dogged surf-umentaries since their first dip into the cinematic pool, and it's something that Step into Liquid seems to know it can't outpaddle. So filmmaker and pedigreed surf aficionado Dana "Son of Bruce" Brown bypasses capturing lightning in a bottle, concentrating instead on fashioning a cinematic Surf Culture for Dummies that's less an Endless Summer than endless summaries of facts on the modern-day wave-rider lifestyle. The MTV-friendly aesthetics and moondoggy narration (warbly voiced philosophy about harmony, nature, etc.) are a poor substitute for actual adrenaline, however, and even with some gorgeous visuals, it still feels like a simplified tourist version of a second-hand high. (1:28) Embarcadero, Shattuck. (Fear)

S.W.A.T. (1:56) 1000 Van Ness.

*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) Balboa, Opera Plaza. (Huston)

*Thirteen Sure to be regarded as a grrrlish Kids for the '00s thanks to its strong, sharp portrait of prepubescent girls gone wild, Thirteen screams "Pay attention to me!" with a spot-on mixture of adolescent rage and joy. In a debut feature cowritten with then-13-year-old star Nikki Reed, director Catherine Hardwicke manages to catch all the casual cruelty, sex, drugs, and scar tissue of those preteen years with an acuity that'll send a thrill, or chill, of recognition through all you former kids. No doubt the emphasis will be on chills for viewing parents. It doesn't take more than a once-over by seventh grade's hot girl, Evie (Reed), for Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) to go from a poetry-writing nice kid to a furiously acting-out nastee bizkit. Her single mom (Holly Hunter), herself taking it one day at a time, watches in misery as her love story with her baby girl goes horribly wrong. Tracy's "decadence" may ring a tad extreme – sometimes she seems to be trying out every trick in the big book of bad habits. But Thirteen's performances lift it out of the teensploitation camp – there's little that's laughable or kitsch about Wood's and Hunter's bawls-out intensity. (1:40) Albany, Bridge, Piedmont. (Chun)

Underworld A bad movie is made even worse when it squanders what would seem to be a fool-proof premise. First-time director Len Wiseman's exposition-heavy Underworld concerns an ancient war between a sophisticated clan of vampires and a gang of rough-and-tumble werewolves – sounds promising, right? Set in another one of those monochromatic cityscapes where it's eternally rainy night (and where shitty techno/industrial music blasts at the slightest provocation), Underworld's sure-thing status is pissed away by wooden acting (newly goth star Kate Beckinsale's Matrix rip-off costumes emote more than she does), yawn-inducing fight scenes (why so much repetitive gunplay? Aren't these guys supernatural? Don't they have, like, fangs and claws and magical powers?), and a solemn, this-is-serious tone that doesn't do much to mask Underworld's dizzying lack of imagination. (2:01) California, Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

*Whale Rider (1:55) Four Star, Opera Plaza, Shattuck.

*Winged Migration (1:29) Balboa, Shattuck.

Rep Picks

*'The Animation Show' Animators Mike Judge (Beavis and Butt-head, King of the Hill) and Don Hertzfeldt (whose "Billy's Balloon" is a frequent entry in the Spike and Mike fests) join forces with a single mission: to bring the world's best short animated films to the masses. Whether or not this fest represents "the best" is up to the viewer, but there are definitely some gems herein: a 1957 Disney product, "Mars and Beyond," which, with sinister space-age music cues, speculates what life might be like on the red planet ("ominous, ultrasonic beings!"); vintage Tim Burton delight "Vincent," the eerie tale of a little boy who idolizes Vincent Price; and "Das Rad," a reflection on human evolution and unchecked industrial growth as seen through the eyes of a pair of stone creatures. Naturally, the programmers (who'll appear in person opening night) also contribute works, highlighted by Hertzfeldt's increasingly hysterical "Rejected" and Judge's early-1990s noodlings (including a peek at what Office Space might have looked like had it been an animated film). (1:34) Castro, Smith Rafael. (Eddy)

*Klezmer on Fish Street Klezmer on Fish Street is one of the best movies I've seen in a while. A documentary chronicling the revival of klezmer (Jewish folk music), the film also illuminates the sorrowful annihilation of the Polish-Jewish population during the Holocaust, and in the early postwar years when more than 2,000 surviving Jewish Poles were murdered while attempting to reclaim their property. Today, Kazimiercz, once the Jewish quarter of Krakow, Poland, has been revamped to serve as a tourist attraction, where you can stay at a Jewish inn as part of your Schindler's List tour. Over the years klezmer has attracted many non-Jewish enthusiasts, and spearheaded the resurgence of Jewish culture in Poland since the late 1980s. But is it possible for these outsiders to truly feel the music in their hearts? Furthermore, how is it possible to have a Jewish quarter without the Jewish families that are at the center of the culture itself? Many views are expressed in the numerous multiethnic interviews that infuse this documentary, which offers a quiet, insightful look at a world that once was, that remains forever changed by anti-Semitism. (1:25) Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. (Pham)

*Pumping Iron Just in time for Arnold's gubernatorial bid, the Roxie brings back a documentary classic from 1977, George Butler's Pumping Iron. Featuring Schwarzenegger in his pre-actor, pre-politician phase, this is an ironic and revealing look at body-builder culture during the 1975 Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe competitions. Schwarzenegger bashes his way to the top of the greased, bulging heap to defend his titles (he'd held them for five years running at the time the film was made). Along the way, we learn from the Terminator that being a winner means psyching out the competition, tormenting the young Lou Ferrigno, smoking pot, and boasting about sexual prowess. Aside from being a fascinating look at this proto-celebrity's insensitive side, Pumping Iron captures the peculiarity of the muscle-building culture just as it was about to go mainstream. (1:25) Roxie. (Annalee Newitz)