BATTLEFIELD EARTH -- Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree

THE BIG KAHUNA -- Guild 45th

CENTER STAGE -- Meridian 16, Metro

HELD UP -- Pacific Place 11

SCREWED -- Pacific Place 11

ALICE IN WONDERLAND -- Grand Illusion

THE BUñUEL COMPANION -- Consolidated Works

BUS II -- Little Theatre

CITIZEN KANE -- Varsity Calendar

EL NORTE -- Egyptian

THE FILMS OF LUIS BU--UEL -- Seattle Art Museum

THE FILTH & THE FURY -- Varsity

JOUR DE FETE -- Little Theatre

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA -- Egyptian

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG -- Varsity Calendar

LIFE IS TO WHISTLE -- Grand Illusion

THE LIFESTYLE: GROUP SEX IN THE SUBURBS -- Grand Illusion

PRE-CODE CRIME FILMS -- Grand Illusion

SHOOTING GALLERY FILM SERIES -- Uptown

THE THIRD MAN -- Varsity Calendar

THROUGH THEIR EYES -- 911 Media Arts

THE TRIAL -- Varsity Calendar

May 19 -- Seattle International Film Festival, American Pimp, Dinosaur, Road Trip, Small Time Crooks

May 24 -- Seattle International Film Festival, Mission: Impossible 2

28 Days
Sandra Bullock is an alcoholic whose behavior lands her in Serenity Glen, a touchy-feely rehab center filled with the requisite cuddly goofs and embittered oddballs. Bullock carries an ultimately phony movie with something resembling humanity. (Steve Wiecking) Grand Alderwood, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11

Alice in Wonderland
An X-rated version of Lewis Carroll's classic, from the director of Flesh Gordon. Grand Illusion

*All About My Mother
Pedro Almodovar's highly acclaimed new film, a mature look at women (with the obligatory drag queen). Crest

American Beauty
Entertaining fluff. Take your typical suburban satire (midlife crisis, bitchy wife, disaffected youth), throw in some admittedly excellent performances, and what you get is an Oscar-winning film, for better or worse. (Andy Spletzer) Crest, Pacific Place 11

American Psycho
Based on the much-reviled book by Bret Easton Ellis, the movie is actually not bad. Really. Set at the height of the Reagan '80s, Psycho deftly satirizes the deadening effect of unchecked corporate wealth and power. In his opening voice-over, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) himself recognizes how he's lost the ability to feel or care, moving through life with rituals of exercise, personal grooming, and hanging out at trendy restaurants with the boys from work. Then something inside him snaps, and he discovers the only way for him to feel anything, or at least relieve his tension, is by killing people. (Andy Spletzer) Pacific Place 11

The Basket
It's post-World War I, and America's families are striving to pick up the pieces and carry on as before. This particular group of families, in the Pacific Northwest, are finding it a trifle hard to make the adjustment, what with a strange new teacher coming to town and the arrival of a new and confusing team sport: basketball!

Battlefield Earth
So John Travolta is this 10-foot-tall alien who wants every living human to take the Scientology test. When the humans balk, it's goodnight planet... until a few rebels rise up against his tyranny and fight back, that is. As anyone who has seen the trailer to this howling dog can attest, it might be time for Travolta to fade back into obscurity. Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree

*Being John Malkovich
It's the best film of 1999, and it has a monkey in it. Coincidence? We don't think so. Crest, Uptown

The Big Kahuna
Kahuna, starring Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito as a couple of crappy salesmen, is a play adaptation, which means that the filmmakers face the eternal challenge: how to make three people talking for 90 minutes into an actual movie. They fail. The problem isn't the subject matter -- your basic wounded business-male confessional boilerplate -- nor the performances, which are pretty good (even DeVito manages a few affecting moments). No, the problem is the inherent pomposity of American theater; the degree to which playwrights are so enamored of their own language that they simply refuse to say what the hell they're saying. In this case, it's that even industrial-lubricant salesmen can retain a shred of humanity if they allow themselves to shed their reflexive bullshit bluster. Despite about 20 excellent minutes toward the end, the movie's not worth the ride it takes to get to the point. (Sean Nelson) Guild 45th

*Boys Don't Cry
Bellingham native Hilary Swank deserves every accolade she's received for her portrayal of Brandon Teena, a boy born in a girl's body, who was killed by hateful people who couldn't, or just wouldn't, understand. Admiral, Crest

*The BUñUEL COMPANION
To complement (and perhaps complete) Seattle Art Museum's Luis Buñuel series, Consolidated Works' smaller series boasts rarities and shorts. The seldom seen Fever Mounts in El Pao is this week's unburied treasure. Fri-Sun May 12-14 at 8. Consolidated Works

Bus II
The second installment in Haskell Wexler's mass-transit trilogy deals with a group of anti-nukes protestors. Little Theatre

Center Stage
Teenybopper dance movies are such a delicate, easily bruised genre that it hardly seems fair to judge them using the unwieldy tools of the critic. Center Stage, Hollywood's newest celebration of dance ("dance!"), offers the usual story of underdog versus system, the strictures of ballet versus the creativity of modern dance, and love expressed via high art. It's campy, it's corny, and it's the feel-good movie of the year. (Traci Vogel) Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro

*Citizen Kane
Orson Welles stars as a guy who's gained power through the newspaper business, but remains lonely. Brilliantly told through flashbacks from several points of view, Citizen Kane gives you clues as to who the man was without telling you straight out. Oh, and it's not a mystery, so if you already know Rosebud is a sled, then you're two steps ahead of the game. (Andy Spletzer) Varsity Calendar

Committed
According to writer/director Lisa Krueger, a person who is completely committed to marriage is a freakish cultural anomaly. Such a fringe character could be the fascinating center of a film, but Heather Graham's Joline, the ultra-devoted wife, is merely a composite of hairflips and hiphuggers. The ideal of marriage begs for a smart, thorough, and even hip re-evaluation. But in this silly film, that ideal is Joline's laughable and grossly naive deformity. Joline ends up chasing her not-so-faithful husband all the way from NYC to Texas, eventually landing herself in a mental hospital, where she is COMMITTED. Ha, Ha, HA, HA, HA. Get it? (Paula Gilovich) Metro

Dolphins
Everyone knows that dolphins are the smartest animals on the planet; Dolphins proves they're the coolest as well. (Gillian G. Gaar) Pacific Science Center IMAX

East is East
This decent little movie is set in the early '70s, in an English town called Salford. The great Om Puri plays a fanatical father married to a British woman (Linda Basset). They own a small chip shop and a small house, which is packed with seven rebellious kids. With the exception of one boy, all the children are headed one way (toward total assimilation of British culture), and the father the other (preservation of Pakistani values); all that's left is a big showdown in the end. A rather ordinary story, you will agree. But Puri saves the day by doing what he does best: deepening and extending his character's emotional and psychological range. (Charles Mudede) Broadway Market

*East-West
Oleg Menchikov and Sandrine Bonnaire play Alexei and Marie, a couple whose marriage collapses under the weight of the political oppression they encounter in Odessa during the post-WWII reconstruction of the Soviet Union. While both are appalled by the conditions, only Marie, who is French, seems to recognize the need to flee immediately. Alexei is cautious to the point of impenetrability. The conflict drives both of them to infidelity. But in the tumult of the oppressive social reality, these seeming betrayals play out paradoxically as the ultimate gesture of love. (Rick Levin) Metro

*El Norte
Gregory Nava's epic about Guatemalan refugees, re-released after 17 years. Reviewed this issue. Egyptian

Erin Brockovich
Despite having been directed by indie superstar Steven Soderbergh, Erin Brockovich is just what it is: another big-budget Hollywood film starring Julia Roberts. In fact, because this is a Hollywood film, we suddenly notice aspects of Soderbergh's filmmaking that are harder to detect when he has complete control over his material: namely, how brilliant he is working with supporting actors, most notably men. In this case, it's Aaron Eckhart and Albert Finney. Without this, all you have left is a stupid plot and the dentiglorious spectacle that is Julia Roberts. (Charles Mudede) Guild 45th, Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center

*The FILMS OF LUIS BUÑUEL
A thoughtful retrospective of the sensitive and satirical European/Spanish filmmaker's works. The Exterminating Angel (1962), Buñuel's surreal depiction of a bourgeois dinner party that will not end.Thurs May 18 at 7:30; call 625-8900 for details. Seattle Art Museum

*The Filth & the Fury
Julien Temple (The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle) compiled this portrait of the infamous Sex Pistols, with exclusive interviews with Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook, Glen Matlock, and of course Sid Vicious. Includes boatloads of unseen live footage, and an amazing capacity to energize even the most cynical viewer. Odds are that if you have preconceptions about the band, they'll at least be tested, especially once you've seen the images of Johnny Rotten serving up slices of cake to needy working-class kids on Christmas Day, 1977, or crying over the death of his mate, Sid. (Sean Nelson) Varsity

Final Destination
Okay, so when a boy has a vision of the plane he's about to take crashing in a big fiery ball, he freaks out and gets kicked off the plane, along with several other people. Then the plane crashes. Spooky. But you can't cheat death, and so the survivors start dying, one by one. That's the point of the movie. You can't cheat death. It never gets any more clever or complex than that. If you must cheat, then sneak into a screening without paying. That'll show 'em. (Andy Spletzer) Pacific Place 11

The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas
Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty: the early years. Yabba dabba don't bother. Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center

Frequency
A hodgepodge about time travel; ham-radio enthusiasm; the hazards of firefighting; baseball; mother love; and a father-son tag-team tracking down a nurse-butchering psychopath. This utterly confused film is a perfect example of Hollywood's shameless tendency to pillage the graveyard for the spare parts of its own schmaltzy genres. The result is a Frankenstein monster that bumbles and stumbles across the thin emotional terrain of an Americanized (and therefore totally false) idea of nostalgia and redemption. (Rick Levin) Aurora Cinema Grill, Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro

*Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
When he was young, Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) was saved from a group of street thugs by Louie (John Tormey), a low-level Mafioso who just happened to be passing by. In thanks, Ghost Dog pledged to serve Louie for the rest of his life, as faithful to him as any ancient samurai was to his master. Director Jim Jarmusch infuses Ghost Dog with the deadpan humor of his earliest films. (Andy Spletzer) Varsity

Gladiator
Director Ridley Scott tramps through the standard gladiator movie plot like a tipsy party host, embracing each and every cliché like a dear old friend. War hero General Maximus (Russell Crowe) is stripped of his position by a scheming new Caesar (Joaquin Phoenix). Escaping too late to save his family, Maximus falls into the hands of a slaver (the late Oliver Reed), and with the help of a former love and his rough-but-likable gladiator pals, seeks his revenge by finding glory within the Coliseum. Scott then uses all the technical advantages of modern filmmaking to make the details as lavish as possible. (Tom Spurgeon) Cinerama, Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Neptune, Northgate, Redmond Town Center

Gossip
A bunch of posh journalism students (strike one) get an assignment: Identify the link between news and gossip (strike two). So, naturally, they decide to frame a mutual friend for date rape (yer outta there!). Meridian 16

Held Up
The delightfully irreverent Jamie Foxx branches out from comedy into action comedy. Pacific Place 11

*High Fidelity
A romantic comedy for guys. John Cusack plays the cynically introspective Rob Gordon, the owner of a small record store who, for various reasons, has shit luck with women. He's a jerk, basically, but he's not altogether clueless about his jerkiness. He struggles and obsesses and makes lists that he thinks define his life, but he's no closer to understanding women than he was in the fifth grade -- which happens to be when he got dumped for the first time. Based on the popular novel of the same name. (Kathleen Wilson) Aurora Cinema Grill, Guild 45th, Harvard Exit

I Dreamed of Africa
Kim Basinger travels to the dark continent, presumably not in search of her roots. City Centre, Factoria, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center, Southcenter

*Island of the Sharks
There are SHARKS on the IMAX screen, and they're rickety RAW! Pacific Science Center

Jour de Fete
The great Jacques Tati plays a bumbling drunken postman in this 1948 gem, which was shot in experimental color, then monochromatized, and has now been restored. Little Theatre

*Keeping the Faith
Any film that begins with a drunken priest staggering through the streets of New York and tumbling into a garbage pile is automatically fine by me. Edward Norton (who also directed) is the drunky priest and Ben Stiller is a confused rabbi. They love the same girl, a rad chick they hung out with back in the fourth grade. The film is genuinely funny and sweetly romantic as it focuses on all aspects of this not-so-holy trinity. And surprisingly enough, co-star Jenna Elfman doesn't bug. (Kathleen Wilson) Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree

*Lawrence of Arabia
A restored director's cut of David Lean's sweeping epic about a lone British soldier who helps the Arab Bedouins fight against the Turks during WWI. With Peter O'Toole and Sir Alec Guinness, in 70mm. NO PRISONERS! TAKE NO PRISONERS! Egyptian

*The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
Aviva Kempner's nostalgic love letter to '30s-'40s Jewish baseball player Hank Greenberg, who overcame prejudice to rock the big leagues. Broadway Market

*Life is to Whistle
An incredibly lush fever dream of a film, Fernando Perez's Life Is to Whistle builds a compelling picture of the possibilities for love and self-transformation in modern-day Havana. (Tom Spurgeon) Grand Illusion

*The Lifestyle: Group Sex in the Suburbs
The Lifestyle is an extraordinary rumination on race and, to a lesser extent, class, which couldn't begin to be addressed in my 350-word review. I find I still need to get some thoughts off my chest. Early in the film, after delivering a touching tribute to his late wife, one of the swingers explains that they don't use the term "gang bang" anymore because it had been ruined by "those black bastards in L.A." This is the only reference to African Americans in the entire film. There are no blacks at any of the house parties, and none are in evidence at the Lifestyle convention in Las Vegas. The filmmakers include the slur without comment, and it has the effect of instilling a certain conspiratorial trust between audience and filmmaker -- like nothing has been concealed. It's a complex moment, because the man is otherwise likable, and typical in age and attitude of everyone in the film; it's tempting to dismiss the comment as an old man's candor, a slice of generational lexicon. If they had not included his comment I might never have noticed the lack of African Americans. They did include it, however, and in all of the subsequent interviews the topic is never broached. The thing is, Asians and Hispanics are prominently featured throughout the film, suggesting an almost colorblind society of swingers. There are interracial couplings galore, which only makes the absence of blacks more salient. The filmmakers may have made a brilliant move by leaving the topic unaddressed. Perhaps they made a film about America, warts and all, and left it to the viewer to reflect on the fact that blacks are excluded from suburbia, and so do not appear at suburban sex parties. But the comment by the director, that he could find no "dark side" to the swinging scene (the pun, possibly, of a master social critic?), leads me to believe that the world of his film reflected his own world closely enough that he would no more notice the absence of blacks in one than in the other. I thought long and hard about referring to this in my review, but could find no way to do it without reducing the issue to a trite and sanctimonious blurb. Despite its startling content, the film is truly one of the finest glimpses into the heart of American life, and of the human animal, that I have seen. I only wonder if the filmmakers didn't get caught up in the action. (John Roderick) Reviewed this issue. Grand Illusion

Love and Basketball
Boy meets girl. Boy plays hoops with girl. Girl takes boy to hole. Pacific Place 11

*Michael Jordan to the MAX
See the greatest basketball player in history as nature intended: on a 3500 square foot movie screen! Omnidome

PRE-CODE CRIME FILMS
All filmed before the oppressive, uptight Production Code of the '30s, these vintage movies have plenty of sex, violence, bootlegging, drugs, and "explicit behavior." This weekend, it's a new 35mm print of Night Mayor, Ben Stoloff's story of a wicked NY hizzoner who's more interested in booze and showgirls than potholes and referenda. Grand Illusion

Return to Me
A guy (David Duchovny) falls for a girl (Minnie Driver) who has received his dead wife's heart in a transplant. No, really. Grand Alderwood, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11

The Road to El Dorado
The Road to El Dorado is very adventurous and also very funny. (Sam Lachow) Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center

Rules of Engagement
When a movie is titled Rules of Engagement, I'm there. Too bad this one implodes like a giant star after a promising start. The performances of Samuel L. Jackson, Tommy Lee Jones, Blair Underwood, Guy Pearce, and Anne Archer are sucked into the resulting black hole. (Charles Mudede) Meridian 16

Screwed
Danny DeVito stars as Grover, a dirty old man and reluctant dognapping accomplice in this "deliciously ribald" comedy by the authors of Problem Child and that unforgivable Andy Kaufman atrocity from last year. Grand Alderwood, Pacific Place 11, Varsity

*SHOOTING GALLERY FILM SERIES
Indie film studio the Shooting Gallery showcases movies that were well received at various international film festivals, but never got a proper theatrical release. Adrenaline Drive, Shinobu Yaguchi's adventure flick in which a nerdy car rental clerk gets in a car wreck with menacing Japanese gangsters, is in the current spotlight. Mike Hodges' top-flight pulp thriller Croupier has also been held over. Uptown

*The Third Man
If this movie doesn't glamorize the life of black market profiteers in immediate post-WWII Vienna, then no movie ever did. One of the greatest of all time. (Sean Nelson) Varsity Calendar

Through Their Eyes
Human rights photojournalist Peter Fryer's experiences with children in Palestinian refugee camps are documented in Mae Masri's Children of Shatila. Fryer will be on hand to conduct his slide show and give a brief lecture about his work in refugee camps in Lebanon. Thurs May 11 at 8, $5. 911 Media Arts

*Time Code
The screen is cut into quadrants. Four films on one screen. No editing. Story takes place in Hollywood; is about Hollywood. No script. Cast wears synchronized digital watches. Fortunately, the experiment is founded on a formidable story dealing with the quotidian emotional reality of showbiz folk. (Paula Gilovich) Broadway Market

*The Trial
Orson Welles' stunningly great adaptation of Kafka's stunningly great novel stars Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, and Welles himself. Reviewed this issue. Varsity Calendar

U-571
One of the most important turning points in World War II was the Allied capture of the German code machine, Enigma. U-571 is an attempt to show us modern folks what this dramatic event must have been like. The only thing not historically accurate is the damn story. A British destroyer was responsible for capturing the machine, not Matthew McConaughey! Better you should watch Das Boot. (Juan-Carlos Rodriguez) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11

Up at the Villa
Sean Penn and Kristin Scott Thomas star as ill-fated lovers in the newest entry in the sex-leads-to-tragedy-leads-to-a-woman's-self-knowledge genre, based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham. The fine supporting cast includes Anne Bancroft, Derek Jacobi, the great Sir James Fox, Jeremy Davies, and the dappled flora of Tuscany. Seven Gables, Uptown

The Virgin Suicides
The most consistent element of The Virgin Suicides is a steady stream of images that echo the feminine-hygiene commercials of the 1970s. Considering the material -- five teenage sisters growing up in a repressive home and headed for funerals rather than graduations -- the lightness of touch is surprising. But to juxtapose suicide with buoyant innocence might be uniquely appropriate; if the film has a message, it seems to be that a mythologized purity of youth can't survive into adulthood. (Monica Drake) Broadway Market, Metro

Where the Heart Is
Attention Wal-Mart shoppers! Natalie Portman is giving birth on aisle 3! Factoria, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

Winter Sleepers
Winter Sleepers is beautifully filmed and at times mordantly funny, but never overcomes Run Lola Run director Tom Tykwer's simplistic overlay of narrative strategies. (Tom Spurgeon) Crest