The Amityville Horror For God's sake – a remake! (1:26) Century Plaza, Century 20.

*Double Dare See Movie Clock. (1:21) Roxie.*Oldboy See "Grudge Match." (2:00) Act I and II, Embarcadero.

*Turtles Can Fly See "Hello Is for Children." (1:35) Act I and II, Opera Plaza.

*Up for Grabs Professional baseball's image continues to tarnish under the growing greed of the player's union and the ongoing steroid controversy. However, as with all sports, the circus of ridiculous remains the fans themselves. Bring in the clowns: local director Mike Wranovics documents the eighth wonder of the world by way of two grown men who fight tooth, nail, and attorney over a ball potentially worth a million dollars. In a biting indictment that is simultaneously ironic, ridiculous, and depressing, Up for Grabs captures the unfolding drama between one very determined Alex Popov and one very unassuming Patrick Hayashi, who were catapulted center stage during the ensuing battle to claim ownership of Barry Bonds's 2001 record-setting home-run baseball. Needless to say, Wranovics's story shows us some of the worst in human nature. More entertaining than enlightening, and less about baseball than it is about media frenzy, greed, and obsession, Up for Grabs is a curveball of a docu-comedy, which reinforces the notion that truth really is stranger than fiction. (1:30) Embarcadero. (Lake)

*Voices in Wartime Voices in Wartime may prove to be the most startlingly literate document of war ever created for film. Director Rick King (Hard Choices) interweaves passages of war-themed poetry -- new and old; from the famous, the infamous, and the unheard of -- with stock footage and stills from these violent episodes of our past. The montage features disembodied voiceovers reciting both graphic and beautiful literary works from the likes of Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Siegfried Sassoon; coupled with interviews from a host of historians, soldiers, and experts which all work to illustrate how war and poetry are invariably intertwined. The editing is crisp, often layering upon itself an array of images with interviews and narrative. One particularly memorable interviewee who returns throughout the film is General William Lennox, West Point's Super, who offers a surprisingly sensitive take on poetry's importance as a means to better understand armed conflict. Whoever said that poetry is only read by poets might do best to reconsider. (1:14) Lumiere, Shattuck. (Lake)

A Wake in Providence This cheesy comedy by writer-director Rosario Roveto, Jr. offers about as many laughs as you might find attending your own funeral. Too flat-footed to be kitschy, Roveto's clichéd humor about Italian Americans, coupled with scenes that appear to have been blocked by a podiatrist, take you nowhere but down within the first five minutes. Anthony (Vincent Pagano), a struggling actor in Hollywood, receives notice of his grandfather's death and returns home to Rhode Island with his African American girlfriend, Alissa (Victoria Rowell), in tow. A Wake in Providence then enters a circus of Italian-ness, where every Sicilian stereotype is faithfully carried out to the hilt by one family member or another. The film is odd pairing of comedy and drama, with unconvincing acting and a script that might have been entertaining 30 years ago. (1:34) Galaxy. (Lake)

Ongoing

*Assisted Living Shot at an actual Kentucky rest home, using residents and staff as the "cast," Elliot Greenebaum's first feature intriguingly mixes elements of vérité, improv, mock-doc and scripted seriocomedy. Todd (Michael Bonsignore) is a recent janitorial hire who, out of boredom and prankishness, seems to do just about everything but clean the joint. He sneaks pot tokes, plays games with the residents, even calls them from in-house extensions to provide make-believe conversations with relatives in heaven. He's irresponsible and immature, but also perhaps a needed source of spontaneity amid the facility's hidebound routines. That value (as well as his chronic tardiness) goes unappreciated by the institution's management, however. On what turns out to be Todd's final day at work, his disregard for company policy attracts fragile yet demanding Mrs. Pearlman (Maggie Riley). Perhaps he reminds her of the estranged son she wants so urgently to contact; in any case, Todd becomes her reluctant helpmate, then the inadvertent cause of harm. Assisted Living at first seems almost too casual and undermotivated to sustain feature length, but it very gradually builds into something that rewards with considerable truth, poignancy, and grace. (1:17) Roxie. (Harvey)

*The Aviator Leonardo DiCaprio – still known in many circles as "the guy from Titanic" – is spot-on as the complex, charismatic, and occasionally ca-ca-crazy Howard Hughes. Perhaps more important, director Martin Scorsese is officially back in play – if he's awarded the Best Director Oscar in February, it'll be because of The Aviator's merits, not because people think it's about freakin' time he wins the thing (as, sorry, would have been the case if he'd taken it for Gangs of New York). Biopics, preferably about someone glamorous and male, are Hollywood's trend du jour, and The Aviator goes full-throttle in showing Hughes's many sides: Hollywood player, ladies' man (with ladies including Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner), out-on-a-limb industrialist, airplane fanatic, and obsessive-compulsive near-deaf misfit. The Aviator's strong points – including a lush palette, perfectly matched by top-notch production and costume design – are compromised some by its flashier forays into stunt casting (Jude Law, Gwen Stefani). But overall, DiCaprio and Scorsese nail it, fleshing out the complex life of a man who's unafraid to fly a brand-new airplane faster than any human has ever flown before – but becomes trapped in a public bathroom when the thought of touching an unclean doorknob proves too terrifying to overcome. (2:49) Kabuki. (Eddy)

*The Ballad of Jack and Rose In writer-director Rebecca Miller's The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Jack (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his teenage daughter Rose (Camilla Belle) live a hermetically sealed-off life on the site of his onetime island commune, somewhere near the New England shore. Mom left long ago, apparently no great loss. Dad has raised his only child to be a whole-grain princess of misanthropic self-righteousness. Their mutual possessiveness is both sweet and creepy, but Jack has a weak heart getting weaker – so he rashly invites mainland girlfriend Kathleen (Catherine Keener) to move in with her own drastically different teenage kids, hoping to create a new "family" Rose can keep after he's croaked. Her response to this invasion is horror, sexual jealousy, and a thirst for revenge that reveals alarmingly cruel, inventive sides to her personality. Ballad was given a subdued reception at Sundance this year; as just one more offbeat little character drama, it disappointed those expecting Miller's breakout movie. But the gift Miller demonstrated in Angela and Personal Velocity, for cleanly laying out very interesting characters' complicated issues, still operates at full strength here. (1:51) Opera Plaza, Shattuck, Smith Rafael. (Harvey)

Be Cool Vince Vaughn is establishing a rather profitable career playing the annoying-bastard role, though much of his talent may just be natural arrogance thinly disguised as character acting. The thing is, he's really good at it, and his latest reprise as a scene-stealing white music manager who's convinced he's black is the best (or worst) thing about Be Cool. The rest of the film is forgettable; it's basically an extended rehash of those commercials for the T-Mobile Sidekick: dozens of celebs getting paid to be cute and gently poke fun at themselves. Get Shorty's Chili Palmer (John Travolta), a mobster turned movie producer now trying his hand at the music industry, could make singer Linda Moon (Christina Milian) a star, if record exec Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel) would just surrender her five-year contract. Moon's manager, Raji (Vaughn), his gay bodyguard (the Rock, being a good sport), and a random bevy of rappers led by Cedric the Entertainer try to keep Palmer in check – and fail. Travolta pretty much sleepwalks through his scenes, but Vaughn and the Rock are so busy making asses of themselves that you'll forget he's even in it. (1:59) Century 20. (Kim)

Beauty Shop What you see – on the poster, in the trailer, and in the two Barbershop flicks that preceded it – is what you get in Beauty Shop, an engaging comedy from Honey director Bille Woodruff that delivers nearly enough laughs to make up for its predictable plot. Fed up with her job at a posh salon, gifted Atlanta hairstylist Gina (Queen Latifah) buys her own shop, a ramshackle fixer-upper that comes complete with stylists (including Alfre Woodard as the world's biggest Maya Angelou fan), quirky neighborhood characters (the candy-peddling kid, the soul food-peddling loudmouth, the purse-peddling gay guy), and plenty of maintenance problems (enter hunky electrician Djimon Hounsou, who also finds time to help Gina get her groove back). Queen Latifah is immensely likable – she's the rare star who actually seems like a real person – but Beauty Shop's best humor comes courtesy of its supporting cast, who have great fun with the film's many Barbershop-style scenes of sassy, stinging opinion-slinging between stylists and clients. (1:45) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Kabuki, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

*The Best of Youth Italian director Marco Tullio Giordana's epic drama finally reaches American theaters nearly two years after its acclaimed European release. With this generational tale of two brothers, Giordana has crafted what is arguably the best foreign film in recent memory. Beginning in 1966 and reaching the present day, Best of Youth follows the storybook tale of the Caratis, Nicola and Matteo, whose lives and loves mirror the major social and political crises that have marred the picturesque Italian landscape over the past half century. Best of Youth is as much a historical retrospective of Italy's self-destructive past and a critique of the forces that have guided it, as it is a family drama. Not unlike Once upon a Time in America, Best of Youth is an ambitious film whose scope and length offer a complexity and depth rarely achieved in cinema. Even with countless characters and a near six-hour length, the strong performances and powerful story will leave you pining for more. (Part one: 3:02; Part two: 2:56) Balboa. (Lake)

*Born into Brothels Far from your typical travelogue, Born into Brothels traces the profound bond formed between a New York photographer and a group of bubbly children hailing from Calcutta's red-light district. Zana Briski travels to the city intending to document brothel workers but ends up becoming more heavily involved with the prostitutes' children, all of whom are by turns creative, outgoing, jaded, and fiercely intelligent. Rather than simply photographing the kids, Briski gives them cameras of their own and hosts an informal workshop. Besides making for some disarming, raw imagery, this premise allows Briski and co-filmmaker Ross Kauffman to own up to a defining difficulty of making a documentary recording – especially on subjects like poverty and pain – without actually intervening. As Briski struggles to get the children out of the brothels and into boarding schools, the film's narrative structure flirts with being overformulaic, but the radiant energy bursting forth from the young faces gives more than enough reason to keep watching. (1:37) Galaxy, Shattuck. (Goldberg)

*Bride and Prejudice The latest from Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) puts a Bollywood (and Hollywood) spin on Pride and Prejudice. The director's attempts to update Jane Austen's classic chase-to-the-altar story – as well as shift it into a new culture, imagining an American Mr. Darcy (The Ring's Martin Henderson) and an Indian Elizabeth Bennet (Aishwarya Rai) – occasionally come off as forced. Also, it's hard suspending disbelief long enough to accept that anyone who looks like Rai would have trouble finding a husband, or that she'd spy a serious contender in one of the blandest takes on Darcy ever filmed. Still, the musical numbers are great fun, the scenery (including Rai – believe the hype, people) is gorgeous, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a more cheerful or energetic movie on any continent. (1:51) Presidio, Shattuck. (Eddy)

Dear Frankie Shona Auerbach's first feature is a Scottish seriocomedy that's bittersweet but perhaps just a little too low-key for its own good. Nine-year-old Frankie (Jake McElhone), his mother, Lizzie (Emily Mortimer), and grandmother Nell (Mary Riggans) are constantly uprooting themselves, finding a new Glasgow flat and neighborhood every time Lizzie's violent ex-husband zeroes in on their whereabouts. This instability has wreaked some damage on stamp-collecting, shark-obsessed Frankie, who almost never speaks (he's hearing-impaired) and dreams of his real dad, a globe-wandering sailor he's never met – and who, in fact, exists only in the letters Lizzie fabricates. When push comes to shove, she's forced to have a stranger (Gerard Butler, much better than he was as the phantom of the opera) pose as the imaginary father for a day. Needless to say, the mystery man proves something of a knight in shining black-leather armor, though this being Glasgow, don't expect any miraculously upbeat resolutions. Dear Frankie is another movie (like Seducing Dr. Lewis and Good Bye Lenin!) that depends entirely on your buying into a central deception that no one in their right mind would ever devise. Still, this occasionally heavy-handed and precious tale has enough nice moments and performances to qualify as a nice movie – but only that. (1:45) California, Opera Plaza. (Harvey)

Dot the I After breakthrough roles in Amores perros and Y tu mamá también, dreamboat Gael García Bernal transformed into a movie veteran with his enviable work in The Motorcycle Diaries and Bad Education. With his bright future all but ensured, Dot the I seems an inexplicable bump in the road. To be kind, the film is a half-assed stab at reflexivity that'd play better as a 10-minute student film. Gael suits up as Kit, a young Brazilian who falls for Carmen (Natalia Verbeke), a touchy lass recently married to rich Brit Barnaby (James D'Arcy). The film's first hour is insufferably elusive; we don't know anything about these characters, and writer-director Matthew Parkhill can't go more than 30 seconds without preparing us for the inevitable twist via creepy synth tones, inscrutable comments, or, best yet, constant cutaways to distant, grainy images resembling videotape footage. For uncertainty to translate to tension, we need to be involved with a character or two; it isn't going to happen with Parkhill behind the helm, cooking up an endless series of stoned plot twists. (1:31) Opera Plaza, Presidio. (Goldberg)

*Downfall An impressive leap forward for director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Das Experiment), Downfall is sort of a flip side to Saving Private Ryan. It's equally visceral on a similar epic scale, but the Spielbergian uplift is notably absent: this being the Axis's tale, acknowledgment that "war is hell" can only be followed by "and then you die, but only after realizing you were wrong all along." Whether it's possible for a German (or any other) historical reenactment to be nonjudgmental about the Reich's last days, Downfall comes close. Russian troops are closing in on Berlin as Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz) denies the war is lost, when not accusing his generals – who appear to suddenly realize he's utterly insane – and the German populace in general for betraying his National Socialist dream. By turns pathetic and stark mad, Ganz's Hitler is a startling study of the sociopathic petty tyrant – and a brutal reminder of how easily whole populations have been (and still are) duped by just such. (2:30) Clay, Empire, Piedmont, Shattuck, Smith Rafael. (Harvey)

*Dust to Glory As Dana Brown's Dust to Glory vividly illustrates, the Baja 1000 – the world's longest nonstop, point-to-point race – is laced with peril, the kind that comes around when a souped-up trophy truck bursts into flames, or a solitary motorcyclist takes a nosedive in the dark. According to Brown, who provides the film's lively narration, the Baja 1000 is "like being in a 24-hour plane crash." Clearly, a race this ridiculous – a long-standing Baja, California, tradition, dreamed up in the late 1960s by a group of thrill-seeking easy riders – attracts a huge assortment of off-road warriors, and Brown (Step into Liquid) zeroes in on some of the bigger names in the 2003 competition, including gonzo cyclist Mike "Mouse" McCoy, a Dust to Glory coproducer whose perspective is captured through one of the doc's many pint-size high-def cameras. Brown's surf movie background (his father is Bruce "Endless Summer" Brown) lends the film a certain Zen flair; though his observations occasionally sail into the mystic ("For a motorcyclist to fully compete, he has to hurl himself into the void"), it's hard not to agree after seeing what these extremists go through. (1:37) Lumiere, Shattuck. (Eddy)

Eating Out Oh, those crazy college kids: quasi-nerdy Kyle (Jim Verraros) has the hots for campus gay A-lister Marc (Ryan Carnes), while his flatmate Caleb (Scott Lunsford) lusts after Marc's female roomie Gwen (Emily Stiles) – but she's only turned on by the sexual challenge of seducing gay boys. Kyle's genius solution is that straight guy Caleb pose as queer, thereby attracting Gwen's interest while gaining insider tips re: the instantly smitten Marc. Hilarious high jinks ensue, etc. Actually, they do, at least some of the time. You can't really blame first-time feature writer-director Q. Allan Brocka (nephew of famed late Filipino helmer Lino Brocka, of such homoerotic titillations as Macho Dancer) for the film's inherently stupid concept – he's deliberately set out to make not a sophisticated grownup farce, but rather a stupid teen sex comedy with not-exclusively-hetero content. He's succeeded, which is a good thing although maybe (depending on your tolerance for such comedies) enough of a good thing. Eating Out's budgetary limits are obvious, its humor sometimes simply crass, and the shrill female characters are denied likablility. Still, there are a couple of set pieces here – notably one involving simultaneous live and phone sex – that hit just about the perfect mix of hilarity and bad taste. (1:25) Roxie. (Harvey)

*Eros Eros – a multinational compendium of medium-length films conceived by Michelangelo Antonioni's producer Stephane Tchal Gadjieff as a two-handed tribute to the octogenarian director by self-confessed acolytes Wong Kar-wai and Steven Soderbergh – demonstrates that it takes all kinds. The coupling of creativity and desire is the focal point, although, unfortunately, here it's also predictably entwined with hetero desire, and, yawn, girlie nudity. Still, each part of Eros speaks volumes about the individual filmmakers. One, maestro Michelangelo, is now clearly happy just to connect the dots between his oeuvre and his libido, phoning in the so-called poetry with "The Dangerous Thread of Things." Soderbergh is content to almost completely bypass the sticky subjects of love, lust, and sex and instead take refuge in the associated yuks of psychoanalysis with his "Equilibrium." Love-him-or-hate-him Wong is the only director who seems to have a, ahem, grasp of the concept. His sumptuous "The Hand" provides the somewhat-on-screen sexual consummation In the Mood for Love fans have been waiting for. (1:48) California, Lumiere. (Chun)

Ethan Mao "That was the first time I got fucked," Ethan Mao (Jun Hee Lee) recalls early in this drama from Quentin Lee (Shopping for Fangs); it's a matter-of-fact statement from the teenager turned hustler, booted onto the street after his father discovered he was gay. After learning his family (violence-prone pops, vampy stepmom, bullying stepbrother, and nerdy younger brother) will be road-tripping on Thanksgiving, Ethan and his best/only friend and roommate, Remigio (Jerry Hernandez), break into the house to retrieve, among other things, a sentimentally prized necklace that belonged to Ethan's late mother. When the brood returns unexpectedly, chaos, violence, heartfelt exchanges, and overwrought shouting continues into the night. As a writer, Lee aims for emotionally wrenching results from his high-stakes conflicts, with some success – but he proves less successful in directing his actors, several of whom deliver distractingly weak performances. (1:24) Castro. (Eddy)

*Fever Pitch You don't have to be a crazed baseball fan to enjoy Fever Pitch – but it might enhance the experience. When a beautiful workaholic (Drew Barrymore) falls for a charming teacher (Jimmy Fallon), she thinks he might be "the one" – at least until the seasons change and devoted "winter guy" gives way to distracted "summer guy," a single-minded Red Sox fanatic who'd rather watch back-to-back home games than sneak away to Paris for the weekend. Fever Pitch's sports angle (footage of Boston's real-life 2004 World Series victory is lovingly integrated, and Fenway Park is practically a character in the film) energizes what's pretty much your standard boy-meets-girl tale, which occasionally feels exactly like an Adam Sandler movie without Sandler. Still, the stars are well matched, and the directing Farrelly brothers, working from a script loosely based on Nick Hornby's novel, keep their trademark caca jokes to a minimum. Also, extra points for the excellent Road House reference. (1:41) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Kabuki, 1000 Van Ness, Presidio. (Eddy)

*Ganges: River to Heaven Cleanliness isn't necessarily next to godliness in Gayle Ferraro's respectful, often engrossing overview of the river that's among the world's holiest sites. Her ostensible focus is on four families who've brought fading elders to expire in "city of Shiva" Varanasi, where the power of Ganga (Hindu mother-goddess of the Ganges) is considered most conducive to achieving mukti (salvation in the afterlife). But their death watch melds into an easy-flowing consideration of the Ganges's many roles: as a hub for religious ceremony and faith; as a commercial engine for tourism- and funeral-related local businesses, their functions often caste-determined; and as an endangered environment, with industrial waste and whatnot sending pollution levels sky-high. Ferraro doesn't gloss over the underside of human clutter, squalor, and unhygenic practices. The sight of a bird pecking at a bloated corpse floating by is as nasty as it is routine. Yet the overall tenor of this visually handsome, lyrical documentary is one of serene respect for timeless spiritual values. (1:19) Red Vic. (Harvey)

Guess Who (1:44) Century Plaza, Century 20, Kabuki, 1000 Van Ness, Shattuck.

*Gunner Palace Filmmaker Michael Tucker spent two months with the 2-3 Field Artillery in Baghdad making Gunner Palace – and it's peopled with soldiers whose minds were clearly fertilized in the fields of pop culture. Forget the mock M*A*S*H scenes poolside at the wrecked palace of Uday Hussein. The new Army of this movie is epitomized by a guy named Wilf who's seemingly making his Real World: Baghdad debut with a mop-head-bedsheet-sheikh shtick and a Jimi Hendrix-styled "Star Spangled Banner." Tucker remixes the work of Wilf and comrades into a new anthem of Army life in this very weird war – throwing Rummy's cheesy cheerleading on American Forces Radio up next to Islamic calls to prayer, the strange soundtracks of psyops vehicles, and the rapid-fire, impromptu raps the many African American Army "volunteers" offer up for the camera. Spc. Richmond Shaw breaks the fourth wall as he lays it out in verse: "For y'all, this is just a show, but we live in this movie." (1:26) Galaxy. (Gerhard)

Hitch Smooth operator Alex Hitchens (Will Smith) makes his living coaching dorky New Yorkers – including accountant Albert (Kevin James), who's lovesick over unattainable socialite Allegra (Amber Valletta) – in the art of wooing. The irony, of course, is that Hitch is single – until he meets his match in Sara (Eva Mendes), a gossip columnist who'd rather get exclusive dirt on Allegra than settle down with a serious boyfriend. In his first full-on romantic comedy, Smith is in good hands with director Andy Tennant (Sweet Home Alabama), who's able to weave a few novel touches into Hitch's predictable boy-meets-girl routine. James (The King of Queens) is endearing as a can't-dance white guy who finally lands his dream girl, and Revlon goddess Mendes is convincing as a gal who'd make even Casanova lose his cool. This is Smith's show, however, and fans of his loose, nice-guy humor – better when it's subtle, as when Hitch literally loses his shirt in a taxi door, rather than way big (a food-allergy gag enters Farrelly Brothers territory) – will find plenty to enjoy. (1:58) Century 20, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

*Hotel Rwanda In 1994 Rwanda, nearly a million Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were publicly massacred, tens of thousands a day, by their own friends and neighbors. Director Terry George (Some Mother's Son) doesn't flog us with gruesome images to refresh our memories, but the effect of this personal, family-centered true story is just as, if not more, powerful. Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) is general manager at a plush hotel in Kigali, Rwanda. When the mass killings begin, the resourceful Hutu uses his contacts and cunning to save his own part-Tutsi family, hoping that help will arrive soon for everyone else. Eventually, he opens the hotel's doors, sheltering more than 1,200 Tutsis from machete-wielding extremists. Cheadle turns in the most nuanced performance of his career as Rusesabagina, whose fear and escalating frustration never stumble into the showboating traps that flag so many other unsung-hero routines. Likewise, George's execution is both unimposing and unforgiving, never accompanied by sappy soundtracks or editing tricks to bait his emotional hooks. (2:01) Galaxy. (Kim)

Ice Princess Robbing its own world on ice, Disney spews out yet another princess. Michelle Trachtenberg, who honed her acting skills at the Buffy the Vampire Slayer School of Hyperventilating as Buffy's little sis, here plays Casey, a bumbling physics geek turned competitive figure skater. The completely improbable transformation comes about when Casey, a weekend skater, invents "the perfect formula" for jumps and spins. Never mind physical conditioning, girls – if you build the right computer simulation, you too can triple-lutz in a snap. But apparently science, math, and feminism are incompatible with being a Disney princess, because as soon as Casey starts to skate pretty, she ditches her laptop and Harvard University scholarship. The disapproving rants of Casey's dowdy feminist mom (Joan Cusack) only reinforce the message. Trachtenberg's acting just plain sucks, and so does her flappy-armed skating routine. Kim Cattrall, who plays a morally sketchy coach, looks the whole time like she swallowed something unpleasant. (1:32) Century 20. (Koh)

*Look at Me Look at Me's generic-sounding title crystallizes an unvoiced and unanswered wish 20-year-old Lolita (Marilou Berry) has obsessed over her whole life: that her famous author-publisher father, Étienne Cassard (Jean-Pierre Bacri), might actually notice, approve of, and love her. Fat, uh, chance. Plump and insecure (she looks a lot like a pre-aerobicized Ricki Lake), the cruelly named Lolita is a timorous misfit in dad's glittering world of power, prestige, and much younger women attracted by the same. What's worse, Cassard treats Lolita, an awkward reminder of his failed first marriage, as just that. Searching for approval and a parental substitute, Lolita fixes on her classical voice teacher, Sylvia (Look at Me's writer-director Agnès Jaoui), who doesn't need the burden – but changes her attitude upon discovering the girl's lofty paternal connection. Jaoui (cowriter of Alain Resnais's 1997 Same Old Song) has crafted a drama whose brilliant wit, pathos, and insight all rise organically out of characters and relationships that couldn't be more credible or intriguing. The rest of 2005 will have to spring some mighty big surprises for Look at Me to get elbowed off year-end best lists – or mine, at least. (1:50) Albany, Embarcadero. (Harvey)

*Melinda and Melinda It's been a while since the opening of a Woody Allen film was heralded as a major cinematic event. Did the rampant sexism of 1995's Mighty Aphrodite (Ivy League brainiac Mira Sorvino got an Oscar for wearing hot pants and playing dumb and annoying) deliver the first crushing blow to his credibility? Did 1998's Celebrity and its wasted actorly hordes deliver the deathblow? Did the musty period irrelevance of 2001's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion make the mourners finally stop caring? With Melinda and Melinda, Allen seems determined to show that he's not dead yet as an ambitious filmmaker (if not an intellect): Melinda capitalizes on 2003's hilarious but borderline sexist Anything Else and ups the gambit by putting on a writerly face and combining the playful postmodern comedy of Deconstructing Harry with a soupçon of Crimes and Misdemeanors' ethical conundrums. Opening with the cozy bistro scene of two playwrights (Larry Pine and Wallace Shawn) arguing about whether life is comedy or tragedy, Melinda unfolds as each writer takes up the same characters and gives them a comic or tragic spin. Unfortunately, despite the strong cast (including Chloe Sevigny, Chiwetel Ejiofor) surrounding the tragic Melinda (Radha Mitchell), comedy obviously rules the day for the filmmaker in his sunset years. Tellingly that tale includes a Allen surrogate in the grand style of Jason Biggs, Kenneth Branagh, et al.: Will Ferrell at his most likable – and bizarrely combining a gentle Woody impersonation with an uncanny physical resemblance to onetime Allen regular Tony Roberts. Still, throughout the multiple narrative elements, light philosophical debate, and lingering retrograde ideas regarding people of color, Melinda truly hinges on the title character: demonstrating the range of Naomi Watts's career-making juggling act in Mulholland Drive, Mitchell promises to go far beyond the constraints of Allen's dueling story lines and shows that the filmmaker still has his touch when it comes to bringing out the best in actors. (1:39) Bridge, Oaks, Piedmont. (Chun)

*Million Dollar Baby After all the hype that surrounded last year's Mystic River, Clint Eastwood's latest directorial effort is practically sneaking in under the radar. Funny thing is, Million Dollar Baby is among the best things he's ever done, as an actor or a director. Ex-fighter Scrap (Morgan Freeman) supplies the Shawshank Redemption-style narration in this tale of Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), a crabby boxing manager who reluctantly agrees to take on spunky Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank, proving Boys Don't Cry was no fluke), though not before growling more than once, "I don't train girls!" Twin lonely souls Frankie (who's lost contact with his own daughter) and Maggie (who still mourns the loss of her beloved father) forge a deep bond as her winning streak extends – turns out, she's a real contender. Yes, there's a training montage, but Baby is no rah-rah Rocky; a weirdly melodramatic tragedy two-thirds through adds deeply felt layers to the film's various nuggets of sports wisdom, especially Frankie's main piece of advice to Maggie: "Always protect yourself." (2:14) Century 20, Galaxy, Oaks, Presidio. (Eddy)

*Millions Duffel bags full of cash seem to be a recurring problem in Danny Boyle's films (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later), the cause of broken friendships and untimely exits, some healthy, some deadly. This motif appears again in Boyle's latest, Millions, only its PG rating doesn't allow for the generally unhealthy (yet so deliciously intriguing) mayhem that often ensues in his other works. Instead the director ventures into territory any offbeat gallows humorist worth his or her reputation would write off as cinematic quicksand: a feel-good narrative – with kids. And he still manages to keep the trainspotters and auteur-chasers satisfied, this time with an impressive visual palette. In a quiet northern England town, nine-year-old Anthony (Lewis McGibbon) and his seven-year-old brother, Damian (Alex Etel), are adjusting relatively well despite the recent death of their mother – at least until a bag stuffed with money literally lands on top of Damian and sets off a slew of complications. Oddly, the director's transition from apocalyptic horror to Christmas-special material feels almost natural; the movie's tongue-in-cheek titles and aerial shots strategically placed in dramatic scenes are recognizable fingerprints. It's as if the director were playing parts of a familiar tune – just in a different (PG-rated) key. (1:37) Albany, Embarcadero, Empire, Orinda, Piedmont. (Kim)

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous After saving the contestants of the Miss United States pageant in the first Miss Congeniality, agent Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) becomes a spoiled insta-celeb – a scenario funnier and more relevant to today's reality-soaked society than the original's plot. Fans love heroine Hart and make it impossible for her to work stakeouts, so she is reassigned to become the vapid, overly coiffed "face of the FBI." Her stylist Joel (Diedrich Bader) is stereotypical comic relief as Queer Eye condensed into one flaming character. And unfortunately the filmmakers (including producer Bullock) reduce Hart's ditzy transformation to lovesickness over departed boy toy Benjamin Bratt. But the breakup also clears the path for the film to become a "female buddy movie," a change that works. Caustic, hothead agent Sam Fuller (Regina King) is a much more satisfying partner in crime-fighting than Bratt was. Bullock – now eons past her "it girl" days (remember?) – milks her fluffer-nutter sequel for chances to demonstrate that she is indeed, a natural physical comedian. (1:36) Century Plaza, Century 20, Kabuki, Oaks, 1000 Van Ness. (Koh)

Mondovino Jonathan Nossiter's sprawling, epic documentary provides an engrossing and often humorous (albeit long-winded) look at the global wine industry, visiting centuries-old European vineyards as well as upstart California ventures. Using surreptitious handheld camera footage, Nossiter (Signs and Wonders) captures the grueling working conditions endured by dirt-covered migrant laborers – and juxtaposes the images alongside interviews with millionaire wine manufacturers and their families, who are clearly out of touch with any reality outside of their own sheltered, posh existences. At times an indictment, Mondovino is most often a thorough look into an industry where intrigue, fraud, and conspiracy have become just as entangled as the grape vines that support it. (2:30) Smith Rafael. (Lake)

The Pacifier Chrome-domed muscleman Vin Diesel is best known for his action movies (The Fast and the Furious, XXX, The Chronicles of Riddick), less so – to his dismay, I'm sure – for his acting (Saving Private Ryan, Boiler Room). With The Pacifier, he ventures into the fart-joke-strewn world of family comedy, playing a no-nonsense Navy SEAL assigned to protect the unruly kids of a scientist killed (off-camera, of course) by bad guys determined to get their hands on Dad's top-secret computer program. The set-up is merely an excuse for Diesel to play a fish out of water in this Daddy Day Care-Kindergarten Cop-Three Men and a Baby-style farce, in which the soldier finds domestic woes (dirty diapers and crabby teens among them) to be fearsome obstacles. No real surprises emerge from this predictable comedy aimed squarely at the grade-school set – though The Pacifier may be the first Disney flick in history to feature man-boob jokes. (1:46) Century Plaza, Century 20. (Eddy)

The Ring Two The Japanese-horror-remake machine keeps grinding with The Ring Two, which, like last year's The Grudge, ups the cred factor by retaining the services of an authentic Japanese-horror director (Ringu and Ringu 2 helmer Hideo Nakata). Still reeling from their encounter with a certain haunted video tape, newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and precocious son Aiden (David Dorfman, back in spooky-kid mode) move to the Goonies-approved town of Astoria, Ore., to make a fresh start. Too bad evil ghost Samara – she of the flowing black hair, watery countenance, and television-lurking ways – isn't quite ready to let them off the hook. Two lacks the first film's urgency (adios, "seven days" gimmick), opting instead for slower-burning dread, artier touches, and an Omen homage or two. Intriguing though it is, Two is hardly as scary as the first Ring – many of that film's most searing images are freely recycled here, without enough ante-upping to produce fresh thrills. (1:51) Century 20, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

*Robots Say what you will about computer animation, it seems clear that the creators are having scores more fun than their live-action counterparts. The latest is Robots, a film so generous with its details that each frame teems with ingenious bursts of sight and sound. It must be said that the story doesn't match the lofty standards set by Pixar films like Finding Nemo; indeed, a degree of been-there-done-that hangs over the proceedings from the disposable invocations of pop culture to, err, Robin Williams's voice. And yet it's not hard to forgive a familiar plotline (boy leaves parents in small town, defeats corrupt forces in the big city) given the many wonders of Robot City: an endlessly entertaining parade of Rube Goldberg devices and bizarro bots. These things, plus the excellently unexpected usage of a Tom Waits tune, make Robots a fine matinee that will appeal to kids and 'rents alike. (1:31) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Kabuki, Metreon IMAX, 1000 Van Ness. (Goldberg)

Sahara Assured of its place in the gossip pantheon as the film that brought Matthew McConaughey together with Penélope Cruz – they're still dating, right? – Sahara takes an enjoyable dive into the world of wild-eyed adventuring. Directed by Breck Eisner from the Clive Cussler novel, Sahara casts McConaughey as Dirk Pitt, an Indiana Jones-ish treasure hunter (that's literally his day job) obsessed with locating a Civil War "ghost ship" that might be lurking somewhere in West Africa. The suspension of disbelief continues when Cruz appears as Dr. Eva Rojas, a World Health Organization doctor convinced she's stumbled on a plague outbreak. No spoilers here: Eva's and Dirk's quests are mysteriously linked; the French guy (The Matrix's Lambert Wilson) is evil; Dirk's sidekick Al (Steve Zahn) tosses forth wisecracks galore; and before Sahara concludes, camels are ridden, bullets are dodged, and a global catastrophe is narrowly averted. Sahara is big, silly, and eager to please; its popcorny presence is fair warning to all that 2005's summer-movie season is poised for imminent attack. (1:58) Century Plaza, Century 20, Kabuki, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

Schultze Gets the Blues The Germans are known for all sorts of things – philosophy, beer, and sausage form a particularly potent triumvirate – but zydeco music is admittedly not one of them. Enter Citizen Schultze (Horst Krause), a portly fellow hailing from a rural stretch of the Rhineland: a miner by trade and accordionist at heart. Schultze Gets the Blues's protagonist makes waves when he breaks with tradition (i.e., polka) in jamming with a Bayou-friendly radio station and preferring jambalaya to bratwurst. Michael Schorr's direction is slow to the point of being languid – the heavy shades of Jim Jarmusch's narrative style often seem flatly imitative – but he has a good feel for character and quirk, making Schultze Gets the Blues a pleasant, if not entirely memorable, movie. (1:54) Shattuck. (Goldberg)

Sin City Rebel auteur Robert Rodriguez (Once upon a Time in Mexico) carbon-copies Sin City from codirector Frank Miller's graphic novels, bringing the author's stylized vision to life using everything-digital-but-the-actors technology. Visually, Sin City is everything last year's similarly engineered Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was not: bold and memorable, with effects that enhance rather than overpower the narrative. "Special guest director" Quentin Tarantino's influence is felt not just in Sin City's enthusiastic bloodshed but also in its Pulp Fiction-style structure, which creates twisted continuity from multiple Miller yarns. But despite an outstanding cast (Bruce Willis, Benicio Del Toro, Clive Owen, and Mickey Rourke are standouts), lovingly rendered violence, and marvelous attention to comic-book detail, Sin City regrettably falls short of perfection. Though most of the characters are clearly, deliberately despicable, some are nearly too loyal to Miller's two-dimensional creations – in particular, Sin City's women are a depressingly unoriginal lot, posing in positions of power (hookers with guns!) but remaining absent from the movie's near constant voice-overs. (2:06) California, Century Plaza, Century 20, Empire, Four Star, Grand Lake, Kabuki, 1000 Van Ness, Orinda. (Eddy)

The Upside of Anger In a beautifully appointed home in Detroit's tony outskirts, Terry Wolfmeyer (a fearless Joan Allen) wakes up to find her husband missing. And since Terry's no dummy – yeah, she knows that motherfucker's off canoodling with his Swedish secretary – her reaction is to get really, truly, royally pissed off. As The Upside of Anger illustrates over and over again, hell hath no fury like Terry Wolfmeyer scorned. The woman's not just upset; she's a Gray Goose Vodka-powered tornado of rage. This could be Diary of a Mad White Woman, except Terry's AWOL hubby isn't around to feel her wrath. In the damage path: daughters Hadley (Alicia Witt), Emily (Keri Russell), Andy (Erika Christensen), and Popeye (Evan Rachel Wood) and affable neighbor Denny (Kevin Costner), a baseball star turned radio personality who anoints the newly single Terry his "drinkin' buddy," though it's clear he'd like her to be more. Writer-director and costar Mike Binder (HBO's The Mind of the Married Man) is clearly aiming for an American Beauty, dark-heart-of-suburbia vibe. But Anger lurches at times, mixing melodrama with occasionally crude humor and a last-act twist that very nearly betrays the film's hooray-for-anger message. (1:58) Century 20, 1000 Van Ness, Orinda. (Eddy)

*Walk on Water This provocative story of redemption from director Eytan Fox (Yossi and Jagger) charts an imperfect but earnest voyage through the contemporary Israeli psyche. Fox's duality as someone who was born in New York but raised in Israel lends itself to Walk on Water's themes, which grapple with the sympathy and disconcertion felt for Israeli's current state of affairs. Set in both Tel Aviv and Berlin, Water tracks Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi), a hardened and troubled Mossad agent who has been assigned the task of tracking down Alfred Himmelman, an elderly, ailing Nazi war criminal. Posing as a travel guide, Eyal befriends Himmelman's German-born grandchildren during their visit to Israel, hoping to get information about the elusive man's whereabouts. During his mission, Eyal is forced to reconsider both violence and forgiveness by way of the Palestinian conflict and its relationship to the imprint left by the Holocaust on the Israeli collective unconscious. An ambitious drama, Water inevitably raises more questions than it can fairly answer, a forgivable stumble once you consider the careful navigation of self that went into the making of the film. (1:44) Opera Plaza, Shattuck. (Lake)

*The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill Having moved to San Francisco at the end of the hippie era to become a professional musician, Mark Bittner never realized that goal. Instead, he belatedly found an alternate raison d'être, feeding and studying the colorful tropical parrots – originally abandoned or escaped pets who proved adaptable to this cooler climate – which often roosted on his doorstep in his North Beach neighborhood. Distinguishing all 40-odd birds by markings or behavior, he gave them each a name and ingratiated himself enough to be able to hand-feeding them. When the landlords who've allowed him to live rent-free decide to remodel their property, he must move on. This is no small crisis, since Bittner has never held a "real" job, nor does he have any contingency plans. Veteran local filmmaker Judy Irving's beautifully shot documentary balances surprisingly engrossing aviary insights with rather poignant human ones, arriving at a charming portrait of the kind of mild dropout eccentricity that the world (and even San Francisco) barely tolerates anymore. (1:13) Embarcadero, Shattuck, Smith Rafael. (Harvey)

*William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice While Al Pacino doing Shakespeare seems like a recipe for lots of shouting, Il postino director Michael Radford's new version of The Merchant of Venice is marked by a tasteful sense of restraint all too rare in cinematic translations of the Bard's work. The parts are performed in Shakespearean language, but Radford's direction gives the actors plenty of room to breathe; the cast doesn't seem like it's performing so much as conversing. While youthful Joseph Fiennes and Lynn Collins sometimes stumble through Bassanio and Portia's love scenes, the cast's elders turn in something special: Jeremy Irons is a dead ringer for slight and superior Antonio, and Pacino seethes as Shylock with eyes a-bulging. To be certain, though, it's 16th-century Venice that often steals the show. The bygone city is rendered with a sleazy panache that provides an inspired stage for Shakespeare's venerable revenge tale. (2:18) Shattuck. (Goldberg)

Rep picks

*The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly See 8 Days a Week. (2:41) Parkway.

*'Hi/Lo Film Festival' See Critic's Choice. Parkway, Red Vic.

*Queen of Outer Space "I hate her! I hate that queen!" – or "I het hah! I het det qveen!" to be precise – Zsa Zsa "Talleah" Gabor says of Laurie "Queen Yllana" Mitchell, making this 1958 drive-in classic a precursor to Sex and the City in terms of posturing bitchy gay men as bitchy hetero women. Actually, things are pretty asexual on all-girl Venus until some square-jawed Yankee astronauts arrive, at which point many biological clocks start ticking. Unfortunately, the evil queen has our guys imprisoned, being a sex pervert herself: cackling, "I'm going to allow myself the exquisite pleasure of watching you while I obliterate the Earth" is her idea of foreplay. "Why don't you girls knock off all this Gestapo stuff and try to be a little friendly?" is the exquisitely condescending riposte of one red-blooded hunk. Needless to say, femininity soon remembers its proper place (supine) in the gender pecking order, as Gabor and other rebel handmaids thwart the man-hating planetary dominatrix. (Who got that way because – guess what? – she's uuuugly!!! She couldn't conquer a man at spearpoint! Oh, you silly, shallow, helpless womankind, you, destroying solar systems out of sheer vanity.) This CinemaScope-wide, DeLuxe Color-garish artifact from director Edward Bernds (Reform School Girl, The Three Stooges Meet Hercules) was camp when it came out, with a tongue-in-cheekiness that makes it perhaps less funny than other Amazonian-alien-Janes-meet-the-power-of-Dick features – and yes, there are several, notably Fire Maidens from Outer Space and Nude on the Moon. Still, what's to complain about? The timeless chiffon miniskirt-toga look alone is worth admission price, if it's fashion tips you're after. This very special Castro Theatre screening features Jan Wahl in conversation (Sat/16 at 7 p.m. only) with fifth-billed Lisa Davis, who survived her stint as Venusian "doll" Motiya to voice the human-ingenue role in the original 101 Dalmatians before retiring from showbiz in the late '60s. (1:20) Castro. (Harvey)