Amy, Don't Say a Word, Hearts in Atlantis, L.I.E., Sordid Lives, Tortilla Soup, The Vertical Ray of the Sun, Zoolander

* Billy Liar
See Stranger Suggests. This masterpiece of the British new wave stars a young Tom Courtenay as a young man whose life is so drab, he opts to live in elaborate fantasies--until all his lies converge and paint him into the corner of growing up. (Sean Nelson) Grand Illusion

* Depth of Focus
A monthly screening series of short films. This month's theme: "Biography and Autobiography." University Heights Center

* Down From the Mountain
This is a very good documentary, made by one of the great documentarians (D.A. Pennebaker), documenting a top-flight concert of bluegrass/old-timey hillbilly music performed by the folks who made the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The film is subtle and observational, offering a casual glimpse of a fine night of music made by real Nashville musicians--the kind who look like soccer moms and bartenders. In a way, Mountain is like a real-world response to the casual flippancy of Altman's Nashville, which delighted in mocking these same kind of folks. All that aside however, the movie had the bad fortune to screen on Tuesday, Sept 11 at noon, and so it was impossible to sit through more than 45 minutes of it. Yes, because of the terrorists--but more directly because my parents live in Nashville and attended that concert, and told me all about it. All I wanted to do was go call them. (Sean Nelson) Varsity

EMP FALL FILM SERIES
Episode two of the five-week Jamaican Music on Film series includes screenings of documentaries about Reggae culture and its satellites. This week, two documentaries: Roots Rock Reggae, and Reggae. JBL Theater at EMP

* FIRST PERSON CINEMA SERIES
An ongoing series of films that risks subjective indulgence in an attempt to yield objective truth. This week: "The People In Your Neighborhood," a cluster of films including Sarah Price's Caesar's Park and the truly great short Urine Man, and "On the Flip Side," which offers the intellectual/emotional/moral complexity of Lillith's documentary about dancing at the Lusty Lady, Mirror Box Stories, as well as Badass Supermama (chronicling an obsession with Pam Grier's Foxy Brown), X: The Baby Cinema (rallying against the commodification of ideas and people by marketing), and Tomboy (giving a shout out to tomboys). Little Theatre

Glitter
Mariah Carey, whose breast implants seem to be growing at an exponential rate, stars in a rethinking of A Star is Born. It's hard to imagine this film not being terrible. Pacific Place 11, Metro, Oak Tree, Lewis & Clark, Factoria, Redmond Town Center

Haiku Tunnel
A clever little movie about a "temp" who becomes a "perm," and suddenly finds himself face-to-face with the perils of workplace commitment. Though the film is often charming and very funny, it leans very heavily on the googly eyed self-effacement of lead actor and co-writer/director Josh Kornbluth. If you don't like Kornbluth, you can't like the film. (Sean Nelson) Harvard Exit

Our Lady of the Assassins
This new film from Barbet Schroeder tells the story of a Colombian writer who returns to his hometown to die, only to fall for a young boy who's wrapped up in the drug-related gang warfare of Medellin. Egyptian

The Party
The great mimic Peter Sellers dons an Indian accent for this culturally sketchy farce directed by Blake Edwards. As was often the case with Sellers, the man is brilliant, and the film is kind of lame. (Sean Nelson) Egyptian

Switchblade Sisters
Jack Hill's cult classic about violent biker hotties and the men who love them returns. Grand Illusion

* Together
Reviewed this issue. Q: What do you get when you combine a '70s commune full of Swedish hippies, a soundtrack that features hits by ABBA and Nazareth, and a VW bus painted with flowers? A: This strangely sitcommish but thoroughly engaging little movie. Just when you think it's going to Cute Hell, the filmmakers add a wrinkle of probing intellectualism or kinky human frailty to keep things interesting. Throw in a middle-class domestic-abuse refugee and her kids, a pre-op transsexual, some hilariously passive-aggressive dialogue about the importance of non-aggressiveness, a nymphomaniac, and a central character who suffers like a sweet-natured Job trying to keep the whole thing together (as it were); stir; cock your head in wonder; and enjoy. (Sean Nelson) Guild 45th

America's Sweethearts
This film is a total rip-off. (Kathleen Wilson) Pacific Place 11

American Pie II
American Pie II, unfortunately, has very little to say, which doesn't make it all bad, just not as surprising as the original. (Bradley Steinbacher) Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Redmond Town Center

Bread and Tulips
Saddled with a loud, bombastic, plumbing-fixture-selling husband with a hair-trigger temper and two disaffected teenage boys, Rosalba (the utterly lovely Licia Maglietta) seems all but eclipsed by her family. When, on a summer vacation in the south of Italy, her tour bus leaves a rest stop without her, she seizes the opportunity to head home to Pescara for some quality time alone. Instead, she ends up in Venice: prime romantic real estate, yes, but also a superior place to lose yourself. Which she promptly does after falling in with an eccentric crowd that includes an aging anarchist florist, a wacky masseuse straight out of Ally McBeal, and Fernando Girasole, a sad, suicidal maitre d'. Sweet, dopey, predictable, and still charming, Bread and Tulips is the story of a housewife discovering why freedom is so much more romantic than life at home. (Emily Hall) Seven Gables

Captain Corelli's Mandolin
From its winding, ancient cobblestone streets to its gorgeous Adriatic vistas, the Greek island of Cephallonia is disarmingly beautiful. This beauty lords over Captain Corelli's Mandolin, an adaptation of the Marquez-ian (if I may) novel by Louis de Bernieres, to the point that there's little room left in the camera's eye for matters of story or character. Which is fine, because in those areas, not much is going on. The cast are like a bunch of conscripted waiters, and as head waiter, Nicolas Cage states everything like it's the special of the day. It's especially sad to watch Cage, who, after a brief respite of quality in The Family Man, uses Corelli to continue his brutal downward slide as an actor. (Michael Shilling) Grand Alderwood, Pacific Place 11

The Closet
An accountant at a condom factory realizes he's about to be fired. Divorced, alienated from his 17-year-old son, he contemplates suicide, but is instead given some rather odd advice from his neighbor, a retired psychiatrist: Announce at work that you are gay, and the powers that be will be too frightened to fire you, lest they get slapped with a nasty lawsuit. The accountant takes his neighbor's advice, and, well, hilarity ensues. Or, if not hilarity, at least a few laughs here and there. (Bradley Steinbacher) Guild 45th, Uptown

Come Undone
While on a seaside family vacation, teenager Mathieu falls for Cédric, a free-spirited boy who is his emotional opposite. Mathieu begins a journey of self-discovery that leads him to painful choices about his family and his future. Broadway Market

* The Deep End
Though it comes dressed in the icy blue clothes of a suspense thriller, The Deep End is a far more interesting creature. Using its intricate plot as shrewd camouflage, the film serves as an examination of the evolving relationship between a lonely mother and her gifted teenage son, whose sexuality (homo) is such an impenetrable subject that Mom (the ineffable Tilda Swinton) would rather navigate a murder cover-up, blackmail, and death threats than talk to the lad directly. Throw in a hunky, menacing Croatian (Goran Visnjic, very good) who appears--demanding a hefty paycheck--with a very private videotape linking the son and the murder victim, and you have the ingredients of a deceptively engrossing (or engrossingly deceptive?) potboiler, where the plot takes many an implausible turn, but the real action takes place in the lead character's mind. (Sean Nelson) Grand Alderwood, Harvard Exit

* Ghost World
Fans of Daniel Clowes' epochal comic novel about the listless inner teen life have been awaiting this adaptation by Crumb director Terry Zwigoff for years now, and the film delivers, though not in the direct way you might have anticipated. Clowes' super-detached geek queens Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) have graduated from high school, and, bored they answer a personals ad placed by über-dork vinyl junkie Seymour (an R. Crumb surrogate played brilliantly by Steve Buscemi). As an experiment, Enid decides to educate Seymour in the ways of love, and her world begins to crumble. (Sean Nelson) Neptune

The Glass House
Leelee Sobieski, the gossamer young beauty queen who now looks less and less like a young Helen Hunt and more and more like human beauty given form, stars with Diane Lane and Stellan Skarsgard in this psychological thriller about an orphan whose adoptive parents just might be EVIL! Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro

Happy Accidents
Was Marisa Tomei a fluke? Find out when she meets, woos, and beds Vincent D'Onofrio in this cinematic charmer tinged with science fiction. Is D'Onofrio really from 500 years in the future? And, more importantly--if she sleeps with him, will she become her own grandmother? Broadway Market

Hardball
What do Keanu Reeves and Walter Matthau have in common (besides absolutely nothing, I mean)? They've both been in movies where they coach a no-talent ragamuffin Little League team. Factoria, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center

* Hedwig and the Angry Inch
With its charming pop-art magical realism, cinematic flashbacks, and the ability to present intimate documentary-style footage of Hedwig's misfit band on tour with their charlatan business manager (an excellent character addition), the movie version of Hedwig emphasizes the rich plot far better than the stage version did. (Josh Feit) Broadway Market

Innocence
Andreas and Claire were once young lovers in post-WWII Belgium. Now, half a century later, they find themselves neighbors in Melbourne, where Andreas has been a widower for 30 years and Claire is in an agreeable though passionless marriage. Unable to resist the tug of nostalgia, they resume their tempestuous affair, much to the chagrin of their loved ones. A big hit at Cannes and SIFF alike. Harvard Exit

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is intended to be Kevin Smith's swan song to the characters (and universe) he created starting with Clerks. But as it turns out, it's more of an off-key jingle than a song. Ridiculously juvenile and often painfully unfunny, it shows Kevin Smith's true talent as a filmmaker: entertaining himself, his friends, and 13-year-old Internet geeks who think he's a god. Despite whatever protests those folks may loft to the contrary, the fact still remains that this film is a piece of shit. There are a handful of funny moments, sure, but in the end, all that is left is a steaming pile of fag jokes, numerous variations of the word "fuck," and direction so completely void of inspiration it often stuns. (Bradley Steinbacher) Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree

Jeepers Creepers
A brother and sister on a road trip are hunted down by a force of evil for no particular reason. Jeepers Creepers is a welcome break from all those self-aware teen horror flicks of the '90s. Instead of trying to be clever, this movie attempts to sustain a creepy mood throughout its running time, and it nearly succeeds. With a church made of corpses, references to Duel and The Birds, and a demon villain who never explains himself, Jeepers Creepers has a lot going for it. Unfortunately, I did not find the banter between the brother and sister endearing, so I didn't care if they died or not. But maybe that's just me. Maybe you should see this movie and judge for yourself. (Andy Spletzer) Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

The Musketeer
The story of the Three Musketeers, done up with Crouching Tiger-style rope-and pully-acrobatics. A silly idea? Indeed. So silly it just might be brilliant. Tim Roth stars. Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center

* O
This intelligent, effective film transposes the plot and characters from Shakespeare's Othello to an American high school. This time, Othello (Odin--a very convincing Mekhi Phifer) and Iago (Hugo--Josh Hartnett, very good) are not soldiers embroiled in a war with the Turks, but the star and utility players, respectively, of a prep-school basketball team bound for the state championship. When the coach (Martin Sheen in full coronary mode), who's also Hugo's dad, favors Odin over his son, the tragic course of events is set in motion. All the big Othello themes--jealousy, love, manipulation, hearsay, and betrayal--are in the paint. (Sean Nelson) Grand Alderwood, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Varsity

* The Others
A well-executed gothic horror film in a Jamesian vein, starring Nicole Kidman as a postwar mom on a tiny British isle desperate not to let her new servants (including the great Fionnula Flanagan) expose her "photosensitive" children to daylight. The claustrophobic tension of the incredible house (the film's only set, and its true star) mounts through the eerie film as the truth, and like the characters' lives, unfurls methodically in this truly frightening endeavor from Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar. As an added bonus, the always-gripping Christopher Eccleston (Jude, Elizabeth) has a supporting role. (Sean Nelson) Aurora Cinema Grill, Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Majestic Bay, Metro, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

* Our Song
A smart, sensitive little movie about the small emotional transitions that comprise the tumult of adolescence for three young girls growing up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Though it risks sentimentality at times, the film ultimately avoids its pitfalls by allowing the extraordinary lead actresses (all of whom make their debuts here) and a 100-member-strong marching band live and breathe in the subtlest, most affecting of ways. (Sean Nelson) Varsity

* The River
A difficult but rewarding film from Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-Liang (The Hole), in which a young man's exposure to a polluted river leads to a throbbing neck pain and a look inside a very fucked-up family. (Sean Nelson) Grand Illusion

Rock Star
Mark Wahlberg returns to his Marky Mark roots as a cover-band singer who lives the ultimate cover-band singer's dream: The real band calls and asks him to join. Based loosely on the true story of that one dude who replaced Rob Halford when his Judas Priest bandmates discovered Halford was gay. Um, duh.... Aurora Cinema Grill, Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro

Summer Catch
No, not a story of hot, Generation-Y fishmongers... this is a baseball movie starring the charismatic Freddie Prinze Jr. as a minor league pitcher who dreams of the majors in between trying to get laid with trashy townies. Redemption, love, and copious K's ensue. (Sean Nelson) Grand Alderwood, Pacific Place 11

Two Can Play That Game
Audiences have been howling and hissing for months now at the cloying teaser for this tale of upscale black women turning the playa tables on a bunch of emotionally shallow black men. The movie might be fine, but it looks like an affront to all people, regardless of color, gender, or social stratum. Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center

Wet Hot American Summer
The people behind The State are responsible for this Meatballs-to-the-wall lampoon of the pubescent summer-camp comedy. It seems hard to imagine anyone doing it better than that Mr. Show sketch about the Tibetan Monks and the rich fat kids, though. I'm just saying. Cast includes Janeane Garofalo. (Sean Nelson) Broadway Market