A.I., Baby Boy, Bride of the Wind, Crazy/Beautiful, Divided We Fall, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Pootie Tang, The Princess and the Warrior

* The Anniversary Party
See Stranger Suggests. Though it skirts the edges of a dozen poisonous pitfalls (vanity production, written and directed by actors, movie about movie people, et al.) SIFF's opening night selection actually winds up being a very good, maybe even great examination of the inner life of a gaggle of rich, famous, and beautiful people who spend a day and night at the titular celebration of Leigh (playing a fading actress) and Cumming (her emotionally promiscuous, rising novelist husband). The navigation of the ensemble cast owes a debt to Robert Altman, but the psychic terrain comes closer to Bergman's Autumn Sonata; while the artists in the film all seem to be hovering glamorously over some spiritual void, the filmmakers avoid the trap of making the characters overly hollow (or overly profound). It winds up feeling like the kind of party you might hope to be invited to, but when you show up, everyone's so busy falling apart that you have no option but to join in. PS: the extended sequence where all the characters take ecstasy contains the most accurate on-screen drug consumption of any movie I've ever seen. (Sean Nelson) Opens Fri. Guild 45th

* BYDESIGN 2001
The second annual exploration of of the relationship between design and film is held at the Little Theatre, itself a triumph of design and film. Week two includes "Seattle Moves", an evening of motion graphics screening and discussion with designers from Seattle firms Girvin, Flying Spot, Theorem, and Design Kitchen; "The Art of Film Titles I", an evening highlighting the work of the great Pablo Ferro (Dr. Strangelove), including his little-known '60s commercials, introduced by L.A. Times film critic Sheila Benson; "The Art of Film Titles II: 1980-Present", which examines the evolution of the title form with rapidly advancing graphic technology, focusing on the work of Balsmeyer & Everett and Kyle Cooper (Seven); and "Entropy", an evening of new experimental and commercial short films by graphic artists around the world. Thurs-Sun June 21-24. Little Theatre

Dr. Dolittle 2
Another Eddie Murphy sequel that dares to ask that comedic question, "what if animals could talk... and fart!?" Opens Fri. Metro

The Fast & the Furious
People are saying that this race car thriller is everything Sylvester Stallone's Driven wanted to be. I guess that means it's very profitable? The plot concerns a bunch of testosterone-gurgling he-men who spend their nights drag racing computer-enhanced cars on the streets of L.A. for cash. Whose cash? That's what the undercover narc wants to know! Opens Fri. Metro

FREMONT OUTDOOR MOVIES
The summer tradition of movies viewed in parking lots returns. This week: Ben Stiller stars as the archetypal high-school dork who grows up to be an archetypal grown-up dork, still pining for his high-school sweetheart, Mary (Cameron Diaz). Sat June 23. Fremont Sat Night Outdoor Movies

LINDA'S SUMMER MOVIES
Back again for a seventh season, Linda's Summer Movies is the original outdoor drinking/film-watching extravaganza, presented, as always, FOR FREE!! By the time the plot falls apart, you'll be too drunk to care!! This week: "More Drug Scare Propaganda Films," a program of cautionary tales aimed at the impressionable minds of Brady Bunch-era elementary schoolkids. Wed June 27. Linda's

* NOMAD Videofilm Festival 2001
Nomad, a self-described "touring venue" for film and video, was formed in Seattle in 1992, but is now based in Berkeley. This year's one night festival is called "Loaded Visions & Media Subversions," and incorporates both live action and animation, including Paul Tarrago's Super 8 Lautréamont adaptation, Why the Canary Sings No More; Jennet Thomas' dissection of two creepy sisters and their doll ritual, Sharony; Dona La's Fell Apart; and more (including some live performances). Should be a good show. Fri June 22. 911 Media Arts

* Peking Opera Blues
Rousing action and ribald comedy perform a deft do-se-do in Tsui Hark's 1986 classic, which follows three women, two men, and a purloined box of jewels in their attempts to elude capture by warlords in pre-democratic 1920s China. Hark's trademark action genius reaches dizzying heights during the climactic opera house romp. Opens Fri. Grand Illusion

* The Road Home
Yusheng's mother Di has called him home with an ancient request: He must gather a party of villagers to walk the body of his dead father home. Over the snowy mountains and all the way to their remote village, the bearers must tell the dead Mr. Luo, "This is the road home," so that he will always know. Some love stories could have happened anywhere. Others, like The Road Home, belong to their settings like the view from a particular hillside. The story of Di and Luo is communal territory, like the schoolhouse, and as necessary to the life of the village. Where director Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern was sweeping, The Road Home is tiny--and it's still completely overwhelming, especially when staring into Zhang Ziyi's doe eyes. (Evan Sult) Opens Fri. Seven Gables

* Romeo + Juliet
Hey, you got your techno music in my Shakespeare! Two gorgeous, lusty teens (Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes) defy their familes and make with the illicit lovin' in Baz Moulin Rouge Luhrmann's sweaty, hyper-visceral, language-intact modernization of the classic tragedy, where Italy becomes South Florida, swords become handguns, and where a black Mercutio (Harold Perrineau) and a Puerto Rican Tybalt (John Leguizamo) completely steal the show. Fri-Sat June 22-23. Egyptian

Series 7
Remember that self-parodying reality TV show craze from last year? Well now there's a movie parody of it, in which a bunch of average citizens try to kill each other in the hopes of winning a bunch of money. Opens Fri. Varsity

* Sexy Beast
Reviewed this issue. A top drawer, surrealist existential cockney gangster picture in the grand tradition of Performance, The Long Good Friday, and Mike Hodges' Get Carter. Stars Ray Winstone as a retired thug basking in the sweltering heat of the Costa Del Sol, and the great Ben Kingsley as the psycho live wire trying to coax him back to London for one last job. Opens Fri. Guild 45th

Songcatcher
Janet McTeer stars as Dr. Lily Penleric, an early 20th-century musicologist trapped as an associate professor in a man's university. Passed over for professorship, she retreats to the foothills of Appalachia, where her sister (Jane Adams, always great) runs a progressive remedial school with her Gertrude Steinesque mentor. Within minutes, Dr. Lily discovers that the hillbillies can not only sing, but have a vast catalog of pure English folk songs in their repetoire. As she goes about collecting them, her initial academic condescension is overcome by the humble beauty of the melodies and the rubes (Aidan Quinn and the great Pat Carroll, in particular) themselves. The film verges a bit towards the Hallmark Hall of Fame, but a few narrative wrinkles rescue it from the land of cloy. Plus, the music is so great (Iris DeMent and Taj Mahal both appear as musicians), you can't help but sit back and revel. (Sean Nelson) Opens Fri. Harvard Exit

* Spletz-O-Rama
See Stranger Suggests. Hooray for Andy Spletzer and his no-budget Super 8 epics. The former Stranger film editor presents some of his own work (you ought not miss Anatomy of a Martyr) and other treats (including pieces by Jon Behrens, Jason Gutz, and Brian "Smell of Steve" Sendelbach) at Consolidated Works as part of their Cinema of Transgression series, the film chapter of their current Negative Space exhibition. I'm not sure what this has to do with transgression, or with negative space, except to say that there's been entirely too much of the latter in the ConWorks movie theater, which is a flagrant example of the former on the part of the audience. Huh? Just go. For fun. Thurs-Sat June 21-23. Consolidated Works

* Startup.com
Reviewed this issue. An utterly fascinating documentary of the moral trainwreck of two-faced avarice that was the internet economy. Opens Fri. Egyptian

Strictly Sinatra
Billy Elliot was a film about a Scottish working-class boy who dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer and actually became one. Strictly Sinatra is a film about a Scottish working-class man who dreams of becoming a successful crooner like Frank Sinatra but doesn't become one. Clearly, one of these films is more realistic than the other. Starring Ian Hart. (Charles Mudede) Opens Fri. Varsity

* Tragos
See Stranger Suggests. Technopagans and fundamentalists go head to head for the right to practice sacramental rituals in virtual reality. Fucking A. Sat June 23. 911 Media Arts

* Amores Perros
Pungently translated as Love's a Bitch, Amores Perros comprises three stories of life, love, and aggressively twisted fate in the most polluted metropolis on the planet. Alejandro González Iñárritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga have enrolled in the Tarantino school of storytelling, but the style and vision is so distinctive and assured that no one should dwell on that point. This is a breakthrough work for Mexican cinema, and for a bold and powerful new talent. (Richard T. Jameson) Broadway Market

The Animal
Rob Schneider stars as a man about whom nothing is funny, especially when he pretends to be a dolphin or a monkey or a dog. Factoria, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Once upon a time there was a great and mighty kingdom where enlightenment reigned and the citizenry was blessed with wisdom and alacrity of spirit that surpassed those of even the most evolved of modern nations. Then, for reasons no one has ever understood, the great and mighty kingdom fell, its very existence relegated to the annals of apocrypha. But enough about Disney. This movie is about some island or whatnot. It's a cartoon. Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro

Big Eden
A gay urbanite returns to the quaint country home of his youth to care for his sick grandfather, where a cast of lovable, quirky locals are all to eager to help him get laid. Who will it be? The old high-school buddy? Or the guy who runs the general store? This movie will teach you how to love. (Jason Pagano) Broadway Market

Blow
Add an "s" to this film's title for a one-word review. Uptown

Bridget Jones's Diary
Bridget Jones's Diary features a successful career woman (Renée Zellweger) with a personal life that leaves one wondering how she attained any success at all. She desires a boyfriend, sets her sights on the office cad (Hugh Grant), and moans when he dumps her. The film banks on "the eye-rolling sisterhood of solidarity," the notion that girls love to grumble over a lying, dog-ass guy. (Kathleen Wilson) Aurora Cinema Grill, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

The Dish
Here at last is a film that is about a radar dish and it really is about a radar dish! The huge dish overwhelms even the stars (Sam Neill, Patrick Warburton) and the plot (which is about Australia's participation in the Apollo 11 moon mission of 1969). (Charles Mudede) Broadway Market

Evolution
Ivan Reitman reworks the story of Ghostbusters around two small-town professors, Dr. Ira Kane (David Duchovny) and Harry Block (Orlando Jones), who are hot on the trail of an alien infestation. The plot is entirely superfluous, but to his credit, Reitman is stupid enough to use plot only as a structural mechanism, allowing his film to live in the moment with a goofy dedication that verges on the downright poetic. (Jamie Hook) Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center

Fast Food Fast Women
As Emily, the lonely, yearning, and sexy sexagenarian, Louise Lasser (Requiem For A Dream) both anchors director Amos Kollek's sweet but stumbling romantic fantasy and provides it with its most compelling story line. If there's a reason to recommend this film, which chronicles the romantic quests of four disparate New Yorkers, it's Kollek and Lasser's deft, matter-of-fact handling of intergenerational lust and the sexual needs and appeal of the over-60 set. (David Schmader) Broadway Market

Himalaya
Himalaya is a groundbreaking, genuine portrait of the Dolpo region of Nepal. The story revolves around Tinle, an old chief who loses his eldest son. What follows is a mesmerizing adventure that evokes the forces of ancestral strife and nature at its most treacherous. (Kudzai Mudede) Broadway Market

A Knight's Tale
To spruce up a jousting story with a modern soundtrack (well, kind of modern), is hardly a reinvention. It's just a cute contrivance, unsuccessfully masking the deep hollow that lies at the heart of this clubfooted attempt to foist a teen Gladiator on historically malnourished summer audiences. (Sean Nelson) Redmond Town Center, Uptown

* Memento
Telling the backwards tale of Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), a vengeful investigator suffering from short-term memory loss trying to hunt down his wife's murderer, Memento effectively mines the rich soil of the film noir mystery with universally corrupt characters and a watertight, intricate plot. (Jamie Hook) Aurora Cinema Grill, Meridian 16, Metro

* Moulin Rouge
To the list of great musicals, we can now add Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge, a spectacular whose vernacular is well beyond contemporary--it's practically hypertext. Like Luhrmann's past work (Strictly Ballroom, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet), Rouge isn't so much a feast as a food fight for the senses. Throughout the film, Luhrmann batters us with a collage of fractal stimuli, which, like Disneyland, you can't see all of in a single visit. But amid the relentless digression, the things you need to know--"truth, beauty, freedom, and above all, love"--are repeated again and again. It's hard to deny that Moulin Rouge is a flawed gem. What's harder to deny, however, is the heart that beats at the center of the elephantine spectacle--the rapturous love for the possibilities of movies and romance that once made musicals matter. (Sean Nelson) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Neptune, Oak Tree, Southcenter

The Mummy Returns
The first (or, rather, the last) Mummy--the one that came out in 1998 and seemed like it just couldn't be good--actually kind of was thanks to its updating of the classic matinee combo of bad special effects and silly situations coming together to create a movie that just by not being terrible, managed to seem really charming. The sequel--in which not just the mummy, but the whole cast, plot, several lines of dialogue, the m.o. of ripping off every movie ever made, and most of the stunts return--fails to pull off the same trick. (Sean Nelson) Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

Pearl Harbor
Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor--and that's really what it should be called (like Fellini's Roma or the George Foreman Grill, the vision expressed could only belong to one man)--is everything the preview led you to believe: overlong, overlit, overwrought, and overpaid. It's nationalism porn, delivering all the basest flag-waving heroism with none of the meat and mettle of actual history or conflict. And as with real porn, your blood surges in the heat of the moment--with digital bombing raids over phallic turrets standing in for cum shots--and then, the second it's over you feel dirty for having let yourself watch. (Sean Nelson) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

Psychedelic Sexualis
The first installment of the Grand Illusion's late-night Albert Zugsmith retrospective series. Zugsmith was one of the pioneers of '50s-'60s sexploitation cinema, a genre distinguished by slow pacing, violent undercurrents, swirly lights, and breasts-a-go-go. The hot button issue being exploited in this 1966 gem is psychoanalysis. Craaazy. Grand Illusion

Shrek
Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) is the name of an ogre who lives by himself in a swamp; he takes great pride in his job, which mainly consists of being nasty at all times to all things. After he sends one particular batch of terrified knights packing, his swamp is overrun by the entire cast of traditional Western fairy tales, from Pinocchio to Aesop's talking donkey (Eddie Murphy). He finds the local lord, one Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow), and demands his swamp back, but gets hoodwinked into rescuing a princess (Cameron Diaz) instead. The film is both terrible and great. (Evan Sult) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Majestic Bay, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11

Swordfish
In Dominic Sena's Swordfish, which is a delightful mess of a blockbuster, John Travolta plays a white Negro whom America employs to maintain global hegemony. Travolta steals money and uses it to kill dangerous international terrorists. Don Cheadle plays an FBI agent who is trying to arrest this evil but necessary American and restore some kind of order in the judicial and political systems. But he is powerless in the face of Travolta's (and the film's) inhuman dimensions. Indeed, Cheadle is dwarfed by the big explosions, bombastic black/pimp Travolta, and hypervoluptuous sister/whore Halle Berry. (Charles Mudede) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree

Tomb Raider
Reviewed this issue. The masturbation fantasy of a billion preteens is made flesh as Angelina Jolie (the masturbation fantasy of a billion post-teens, ahem) gives corporeal dimension to the video game heroine whose outrageous measurements and minimal garment cover do not deter her from running through ancient temples, kicking evil robots in the "face," and blowing a bunch of shit up. Bla-DOW! Cinerama, Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Northgate, Pacific Place 11, Varsity

What's the Worst That Could Happen?
There is nothing quite so unsatisfactory for a movie viewer than to be hoodwinked by a dazzling preview that turns out be the authoritative oeuvre for what is otherwise a rather rank piece of motion picture making. Oddly enough, this movie has opted for a complete reversal: a capable film that suffers the promotion of a preview which humiliates both studio and viewer. Anyway, an evil tycoon (Danny DeVito) steals a tacky good luck ring from a small time crook (Martin Lawrence). Mr. Lawrence does not take kindly to this state of events and spends the rest of the movie robbing Mr. DeVito blind. (Kudzai Mudede) Aurora Cinema Grill, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center

* With a Friend Like Harry
The blackest hue of comedy tints the tale of Harry (Sergi Lopez), a wealthy bon vivant with an unshakable affinity for Michel (Laurent Lucas). Harry, firm in his belief that Michel's child-strewn, moneyless life could be made more easy, begins to use his influence--and cash--to remove various obstacles to Michel's happiness. A new car here and a case of champagne there escalates to a predictably absurd degree. The film is plain in comparison to its obvious inspiration, Hitchcock's oeuvre. But a deft French wit, and that oh-so-well-done trick of Euro-allegory (about the difficulty of making art) rise like cream to the top of this film. (Jamie Hook) Aurora Cinema Grill, Harvard Exit, Metro