Amadeus, Bay of Angels, Behind the Sun, Eternal Love, The Last Waltz, Murder By Numbers, The Scorpion King, Sex Maniac, The Shop Around the Corner, Triumph of Love

* Academy Leaders
See Stranger Suggests. The Little Theatre screens all the short subjects nominated for Academy Awards this year, animated and otherwise. Little Theatre

Art Strikes Back
An evening of films from Bay Area artist/activist Gordon Winiemko. 911 Media Arts Center

Borstal Boy
A northern Irish boy (played by unmistakable Yank Shawn Hatosy) gets sent to the borstal (the UK equivalent of juvie) for conspiring to bring an IRA bomb into WWII-torn London. Once inside, he dons short pants, falls for a sailor boy, and embarks on a Wildean journey of personal awakening. This adaptation of Brendan Behan's watershed memoir, while nationalistically devout (up the Republic!) and morally liberal, has a little too much dew in its eyes to do full justice to the late poet/playwright. (Sean Nelson)

Changing Lanes
Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson star in this "Hey, you got your white privilege in my poor black nobility!" confection.

The Cherry Orchard
Reviewed this issue. Ah, Chekhov! A great play, some great actors (Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling), but a weak movie.

Crush
An aging, unlucky-in-love school headmistress in an English village (improbably played by horsey cracker Andie MacDowell) finds comfort in the cackling company of her two similarly desperate girlfriends. Until their weekly bitchfest is complicated by the arrival of her true love in the age-inappropriate form of a 25-year-old hottie. Okay, this is a perfectly acceptable set-up for nice little comedy. So why the shocking lurch into Stella Got Her Groove Back and Then It Got Hit by a Truck more than 3/4 of the way through the movie? Whoa! What is this crap? No Weddings and the Funeral of the Lovable Male Lead? Pick a lane and stay in it, people, you're giving me a headache. (TAMARA PARIS)

* Dancers Make Movies
Local dance artists like Crispin Spaeth, Peggy Piacenza, and Karn Junkinsmith were commissioned by WigglyWorld to make the dance cinema (super-8-style) on view here tonight. Little Theatre

* Emerald Reels Super-8 Lounge
The cinematic nightclub returns anew, again, after a long hiatus, featuring short films by a bevy of local and national filmmakers, including Sacha Feirstein, Kevin Skytta, Bruce Miller, Anne Bradfield, Reed O'Beirne, Chris Dogherty, Andy Spletzer, Bruce Reid, Bill Witman, Igor Peev, Roger Beebe, Thomas Comerford, Nick Shiflet, Ben Russell, and Jason Wade, and music by DJ Kid Hops. To submit films, log on to www.emeraldreels.com/submit.htm. To enjoy films with music and booze, just show up.

* FEAST OF FRANCE
This week: Lola, starring the great Anouk Aimee. On his way to becoming the enchanting director of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Jacques Demy stopped over in this troubling agony about romantic obsession with a (seemingly) indifferent beloved, who is obsessed meanwhile with an indifferent beloved of her own. (SEAN NELSON) Seattle Art Museum

Frailty
Reviewed this issue. Bill Paxton hears God's voice, and it tells him to cut people up with an ax!

* Human Nature
Reviewed this issue. The latest absurdist/nihilist comedy from the savagely funny pen of Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich), starring Tim Robbins, Patricia Arquette, and the great Rhys Ifans. Directed by music video avatar Michel Gondry.

* The Merry Widow
More screwy romance from the great Lubitsch, with Jeanette McDonald and Maurice Chevalier as the titular rich lady and the smoothie charged with taming her heart. This 1934 treat benefits greatly from that oh-so-'30s conceit (also used to devilish effect in Marx Brothers films): the wealthy woman on whose pocketbook an entire nation depends. Nowadays they call that lady the corporation. (SEAN NELSON) Grand Illusion

New Best Friend
Yet another film about eye-rolling, overprivileged students who spend all of their time partying, fucking, being bulimic, and vying for daddy's love when they should be studying, and the scheming poor girl who breaks into their clique (and may have gotten herself snuffed for it). Everything about New Best Friend is as dumb and boring as that description sounds, but the film does serve as a showcase for Mia Kirshner's (Exotica, Not Another Teen Movie) physical beauty and jaw-dropping sexiness. (KATHLEEN WILSON)

* Ninotchka
Garbo laughs in this immortal Lubitsch chestnut as a haughty Russian hottie who comes to America and falls in love with Melvyn Douglas, ugliness and all. Keep your eyes peeled for the great Bela Lugosi. (SEAN NELSON) Grand Illusion

The Sweetest Thing
Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate, together at last! Also, as my friend Michael is fond of saying: someone get that Selma Blair a steak. The film is some kind of romantic comedy bullshit from the director of Cruel Intentions.

* Vampire Bat
A B-picture in the classic sense (it even stars Lionel Atwill!), this hoary old mother is a slaphappy hybrid of horror tropes, including blood theft, dark streets, and bats. Grand Illusion

Big Trouble
Based on "humorist" Dave Barry's novel, Big Trouble tells the story of how a mysterious suitcase brings together and changes the lives of a motley-ass group of people played by a motley-ass ensemble cast that features Tim Allen, Janeane Garofalo, Rene Russo, Stanley Tucci, and many many more. Lewis & Clark, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12

Blade II: Bloodhunt
This sequel to the 1998 original stars Wesley Snipes as human/vampire warrior Blade, based on the Marvel Comics character. It's not the particulars or the plot that matters of course. It's the great action sequences, and Snipes looking sexy and threatening. (NATE LIPPENS) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Oak Tree, Woodinville 12

Death to Smoochy
Driven by adults' universal aversion to pervy, purple, children's TV characters, Danny DeVito's dark comedy is adequately raunchy, but ultimately forgettable. There's nothing really wrong with the dour turns by DeVito, Ed Norton, and Robin Williams (who relishes every expletive and throws himself into violent outburst with decent results), but the script simply isn't deviant or developed enough to hold up, and the idiotic pseudo-conflict tacked on the end is simultaneously forced and boring. Besides, co-star Catherine Keener is far too sharp and sexy to be wasting her time in such underbaked satires. (HANNAH LEVIN) Factoria, Redmond Town Center, Uptown, Varsity, Woodinville 12

E.T. (20th Anniversary)
Childhood is never quite as magical when you revisit it. Case in point: the 20th anniversary re-release of E.T. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Majestic Bay, Pacific Place 11, Woodinville 12

Escaflowne
An anime classic by Kazuki Akane. Pacific Place 11

* Gosford Park
Set in 1932, Gosford Park is a meta-mystery, meaning the setting, figures, and tropes of a murder mystery form the frame for the real concern (or concerns): class and gender rivalries; the rise of mass entertainment; and the dark history of the industrial revolution and British imperialism. (CHARLES MUDEDE) Aurora Cinema Grill, Majestic Bay, Pacific Place 11, Seven Gables

Harrison's Flowers
One of the many sad consequences of the brutal war in the former Yugoslavia has been the steady succession of bad films that have attempted to address it. Harrison's Flowers is the latest addition to this sorry list. (CHARLES MUDEDE)

High Crimes
A bland version of Denzel Washington's superb Courage Under Fire, which had lots of helicopters and military speak. With Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman. (CHARLES MUDEDE) Factoria, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12

I'm the One That I Want
Margaret Cho's concert film of her one-woman show returns. It's funny... if you're one of the five gay men left who still think Cho's chop-shtick is diverting. Egyptian

Ice Age
The recent boom in computer animation bodes well for the next generation, as their childhoods will hopefully not be squandered on lame-ass 2-D Disney musicals. Pleasant and funny, this movie is littered with enough sophisticated jokes to entertain the adults, but is really nothing more than a fast-paced, shimmering toy for kids. Which is just the way it should be. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Woodinville 12

* In the Bedroom
This langorous, beautifully acted film about erotic and familial entanglements in a small Maine fishing town one summer builds up to three moments of utter emotional brutality so severe that the long moments in between them thrum like high tension wires. (SEAN NELSON) Metro, Uptown

Iris
The brilliant British writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch (Judi Dench, Kate Winslet), a woman who lives most decidedly in the world of ideas, succumbs to the dementia of Alzheimer's, "sailing into darkness" as she so rightly puts it. (EMILY HALL) Broadway Market, Metro

* Italian for Beginners
The characters of Italian for Beginners begin in a state of despair. This being a romantic comedy, their lives begin to intersect through a series of coincidences-coincidences that could feel contrived, but due to the rough integrity of the script, performances, and direction (shaped in part by the monastic rigors of the Dogme 95 ethic), they feel like the organic waywardness of life. (BRET FETZER) Harvard Exit

Kissing Jessica Stein
Three things are readily apparent within the first 10 minutes of Kissing Jessica Stein: Though the film ostensibly is about two straight women who decide to go lesbo and fall in love, Jessica Stein will end up with the guy she currently despises. Also, despite both women taking a freshman crack at the girl-girl thing, one is clearly more invested in the concept than the other. Finally, the too-close camera shots, the emphasis on fast, witty banter, and the overacting will be a niggling annoyance throughout the film. (KATHLEEN WILSON) Grand Alderwood, Guild 45th, Pacific Place 11

Last Orders
The talents of six of the finest British actors alive are squandered by this moist little movie about a journey to deliver a dead man's ashes to the seaside. (SEAN NELSON) Broadway Market

Monsoon Wedding
At first, it seems like Mira Nair is just doing family drama. The film is stylish, brisk, witty, and beautifully filmed. But within the patchwork of marriage melodrama, Monsoon Wedding presents a subversive argument about the insidiousness of progress and its fluid relationship with tradition. (SEAN NELSON) Harvard Exit, Redmond Town Center

Monster's Ball
Monstrous Balls is more like it. Meridian 16, Metro

National Lampoon's Van Wilder
And so once again National Lampoon's attempt to reclaim those cinematic "glory days" falls miserably flat. Stay away. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Varsity, Woodinville 12

* No Man's Land
War is--guess what?--hell in this story of the Bosnia-Serbia conflict, circa 1993. Surrounded by UN "peacekeepers," clumsy media vultures, and their warring rival factions, two soldiers cross into the zone between the bullets and clash about the war's origins and costs. (SEAN NELSON) Broadway Market

The Panic Room
The clever and tightly orchestrated twists and turns never rise above thriller formulas driven by utter clichés. (BRET FETZER) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Neptune, Oak Tree, Woodinville 12

Resident Evil
If you're going to be foolish enough to make a movie out of a video game, this here is the way to do it. If you're a fan of the game, go see it. If you find yourself ridiculously baked, go see it. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Lewis & Clark, Pacific Place 11

The Rookie
In The Rookie, Dennis Quaid and Disney bring to the screen the real-life story of a baseball player-turned Texas high-school science teacher-turned baseball player. (SONIA RUIZ) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Woodinville 12

Showtime
Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro star in this unlikely-buddy-cop film that satirizes reality cop shows on TV. Not hardly as bad as you'd think, which is sort of like being pleasantly surprised that your blind date isn't a hunchback. (SEAN NELSON) Meridian 16, Woodinville 12

* Son of the Bride
It's no coincidence that, in your basic midlife crisis movie, a heart attack brings on epiphany. Of course you would re-examine your life after a failure of the heart. In the worst of the genre, the discovery of the heart (however flawed) is the last missing piece in a life that's come undone, and sanctity usually follows. In Son of the Bride, by Argentine director Juan José Campanella, epiphany is not the end but the beginning. (NATE LIPPENS) Guild 45th

* The Son's Room
Directed by and starring Nanni Moretti, this film tells the story of Giovanni, an Italian psychiatrist, and his family, as they struggle in the wake of a horrible tragedy. It's a heart-wrenching drama that focuses on the finely tuned performances of Moretti and his wife, played by Laura Morante. (NATE LIPPENS) Uptown

Sorority Boys
To save money three frat boys go undercover in drag at a sorority. Sexist? Stupid? Both. It's Bosom Buddies with nudity starring the heartthrob without a pulse from Seventh Heaven. (NATE LIPPENS) Pacific Place 11

* Trembling before G-d
A thoughtful documentary on gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews. (NATE LIPPENS) Metro

Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?
This 1989 Korean film follows three men living in a Buddhist monastery as the eldest, a Zen master, is dying.

* Y Tu Mamá También
As two Mexican teenagers frantically fuck, the boy, Tenoch (Diego Luna), pleads/demands that the girl not screw any Italians on her impending European trip with her best friend. Meanwhile, that best friend is having rushed pre-departure sex with her boyfriend, Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal), who is also Tenoch's best friend. When the girls have left, we settle down to watch these two boys spend an aimless summer. Everything gets thrown sideways when they meet a sexy older woman (that is to say, in her 20s) named Luisa. Y Tu Mamá También is a brilliant, incisive core sampling of life in Mexico. It's both slender and profound; the movie's greatest pleasures are often its smallest ones--even the title comes from a tossed-off bit of banter. Egyptian