The Banger Sisters, Black Sabbath, Black Sunday, Diamond Men, Four Feathers, Igby Goes Down, The Last Kiss, My Father the Genius, Spirited Away, The Strongman, Swimming, The Transporter, Trapped, Twinsanity

Amandla! A revolution in four-part harmony
Reviewed this issue. EMP

The Barbershop
Reviewed this issue. Pacific Place, Woodinville 12, Grand Alderwood

* The Cameraman
Widely acknowledged as his last great feature, The Cameraman finds Buster Keaton (surprise!) haphazardly pursuing his love interest into a glut of confusion--this time as an inexperienced MGM Reelman. (SEAN NELSON) Paramount

* First Person Cinema
Year two in the film series that risks subjective indulgence in an attempt to yield objective truth. Week one features the following three movies.

Judith Helfand's Blue Vinyl: "When her parents installed blue vinyl siding on their house, Helfand assumed that it was toxic and cancer-causing, then went on a three-year tour of PVC production plants to prove that... hey, it really is." (MEG VAN HUYGEN)

Hefland's A Healthy Baby Girl: "Judith Helfand got cancer and she's making sure that everyone knows it. A good story, sure, but after about 20 minutes of Helfand moping and displaying her paintings, you start to roll your eyes." (MEG VAN HUYGEN)

And Downside Up: "An interesting study of urban renewal that doubles as a commercial for Mass MoCA, this video doc examines the effects of a modern art museum on a small, economically depressed post-industrial Massachusetts town. The museum enlivens the economy (with help from the dot-com moment) but the dispossessed townies are baffled and insulted by the art. Ouch." (SEAN NELSON) Little Theatre

Fudoh: the New Generation
The final film of the Grand Illusion's Sex, Violence & Beauty series documenting stand-outs in the new wave of Japanese cinema, Fudoh follows a group of school-aged assassins (including a schoolgirl/stripper with the unique ability to cannon darts from her nether-regions, and a group of murderous elementary school children) as they attempt to settle a decade-old family squabble. Directed by Takashi Miike, in Japanese with English subtitles. (ANNIE WAGNER) Grand Illusion

MULLETVILLE
Revenge and Miller High Life populate this troublingly named, locally produced picture. A film student seeks to humiliate his high-school tormentors by way of celluloid. Little Theatre

Rarest and Earliest Shorts
Shining Moment Films presents its latest collection of, um..., well, rare and early short films--spanning the years 1890-1935. Rendezvous

* Rollerball
"Do you know what executives do, Moon Pie? They dream of being a great Rollerballer: smashing heads!" Rendezvous

Sex With Strangers
Reviewed this issue. Varsity

Stealing Harvard
Tom Green's latest opus takes us on the noble quest to pilfer $30,000 by any means necessary for the sake of a young girl's college education. Directed by the once great Bruce McCulloch (Kids In the Hall). Pacific Place, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12, Factoria

* The Undertones
At two minutes 25 seconds, "Teenage Kicks" appears to be little more than yet another UK post-Pistols punk single, with its simple series of familiar power chords--charted in standard verse-chorus-verse succession, pressed to wax, and left to be forgotten in the annals of pop history. But "Teenage Kicks" is something so much more than that--"Teenage Kicks" is quite simply the greatest pop single of all time. The Undertones, the criminally neglected Irish pop group that penned it, are the subject of this much-deserved documentary, and can hopefully shed some light on the lesser-known aspects of the band John Peel says he "can't listen to... without getting all dewy eyed." (ZAC PENNINGTON) 911 Media Arts Center

Uzumaki
The success of Uzumaki as a horror movie depends largely upon whether you can imagine becoming obsessed by a visual pattern (much as the success of Pi as a thriller hinged upon your ability to sympathize with paranoia about a number). The film tells the story of high-school student Kirie (Eriko Hatsune) and the ancient curse that devastates her hometown of Kurozu-cho. The flashy editing can be excessive at times, and the too-cute effect of swirling spirals through landscapes kept reminding me of my computer screensaver. Nonetheless, Uzumaki is a fresh take on a tired genre, and its pleasures outweigh its limitations. (ANNIE WAGNER) Grand Illusion

* Wisconsin Death Trip
Adapted from Michael Lesy's 1973 book of the same name, Death Trip chronicles the inexplicable unraveling of Black River Falls, Wisconsin during the recession of the 1890s, when a rash of crimes decimated the population. In a stark black and white, with a mood just as much H. P. Lovecraft as Edward Gorey; the film charts the trajectory of the town's disintegration, recounting the stories of a number of colorful, doomed characters, juxtaposed with scenes of contemporary Black River Falls that prove the ghost of Puritanism is still looming. (MICHAEL SHILLING) Egyptian

24 Hour Party People
For audiences not already familiar with the subject matter (the history of Manchester's seminal Factory Records), there's really nothing particularly interesting to slake a viewers attention--and for those who hold the story with any level of reverence, it offers nothing but disappointment. 24 Hour Party People's single saving grace, the music (how often do you get to hear A Certain Ratio AND the Happy Mondays echoing through a cavernous theater?), ultimately serves as just another reminder that Manchester just deserves better. (ZAC PENNINGTON)

Blood Work
Blood Work is a total bore. I was hoping this would be Clint Eastwood's swan song to a life of vigilantism, a retrospective of themes that have run through his work. But that's wishful thinking. The plot is thin, the characters aren't believable, the pacing and lighting are totally Matlock, and the performances are tired. Except for Anjelica Huston, who is not so much good but just never bad. (MICHAEL SHILLING)

Blue Crush
The plot's trite and cheesy--girl from Hawaii kicks ass at surfing, meets boy from the mainland, almost gives up surfing, until a crucial competition arises and he rallies behind her--but the surf scenes are awesome. Hawaii's gorgeous, as are the surfer chicks and their male counterparts. It's like a two hour vacation, especially for the part of your brain that does the thinking. (AMY JENNIGES)

The Chateau
I'm not sure what to say about The Chteau. The premise is certainly retarded: Two brothers, one white and one black, inherit a chteau, then fly to France to sell it and try to fuck the maid. Still, it has a few strange merits. Paul Rudd and Romany Malco lend expert performances to the hideous plot, and the Super-8 cutaways add a documentary flavor that kind-of excuses its inanity. A lot of the little translation jokes are reasonably clever, and it contains a priceless cameo by Donal Logue as a candy raver. Not to confuse you--this is a terrible movie, undoubtedly--but it's benign enough to let you forget the terrible parts. I guess. See Movie Times for venues. (MEG VAN HUYGEN)

City By the Sea
De Niro faxes in a performance as--what else?--a world-weary cop coming to terms with his own homicidal history while searching the picturesquely derelict town of Long Beach for a murderer who turns out to be his own son (James Franco, doing his methody best to obscure his insanely good looks) in this dull and labored film soon to be clogging video-store shelves everywhere. (TAMARA PARIS)

The Debut
The first major feature to treat the Filipino-American experience and aggressively court Filipino viewers, The Debut is a decent coming-of-age story with an engaging cast and a great dance sequence. As a director, Gene Cajayon could have pulled the reins on the excessive emoting of some of his younger actors, but his movie is serviceable enough. (ANNIE WAGNER)

* The Fast Runner
Although the filmmakers have lovingly reconstructed every detail of prehistoric Inuit culture--this being the first feature-length film entirely in the Inuktitut language--by recording life on the infinite tundra with digital-video intimacy, they keep the characters palpably real. Inside glowing igloos and behind roiling teams of sled dogs, the viewer sees a legend sprout from the very ice. (MATT FONTAINE)

Feardotcom
This is a dark film. And by "dark," I don't mean brooding and gloomy--I mean the movie is poorly lit. And the inscrutable lighting is just one of many hellacious gaffes that makes you wonder how this movie ever made it past editors, producers, directors, and any bevy of Hollywood execs onto the screen. (JOSH FEIT)

* The Good Girl
When it comes to deep, dark cinematic comedy--the kind that makes you want to laugh and weep and squirm out of your skin at the same time--Miguel Arteta and Mike White have cornered the market. Following 2000's Chuck & Buck comes The Good Girl, which explores similarly perverse terrain--the soul of a woman trapped by fate and circumstance, driven to commit acts of deeply iffy morality and legality. Starring Jennifer Aniston (who, incidentally, aces the role, bringing a beautifully understated gravity to the character), doe-eyed Jake Gyllenhaal, and John C. Reilly (who scores another supporting-role home run). (DAVID SCHMADER)

* I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
Aside from sporting one of the best titles of any film ever, this film about Wilco's battle to record and release its Yankee Hotel Foxtrot LP joins Don't Look Back and Cocksucker Blues in the ranks of music documentaries that validate (and possibly transcend) the musicians they document. Shot in grainy, beautiful black and white, the film catches the band at the peak of its powers and the height of its corporate hassles. It's also loaded with tunes, but don't let that scare you; if you're not a fan going in, chances are you will be coming out. (SEAN NELSON)

* Lovely & Amazing
This follow-up to the similarly graceful Walking and Talking is a shrewdly respectful character study of a fractured family of women trying to ride herd on their raging neuroses. Fantastic acting and sensitive writing underscore the simple DV directorial approach. (SEAN NELSON)

Mad Love
This costume drama, which is set in 16th century, is about a mad woman who claims to have been the queen of Spain. Before watching this film, please read Gogol's Diary of a Madman, which is about a madman who claims to be the king of Spain. Seven Gables (CHARLES MUDEDE)

Mostly Martha
American audiences are hot for foreign films about food--there's something about food, apparently, that makes us want to project our weakness for sensuality clear across the Atlantic. Sandra Nettelbeck's Mostly Martha, a German production, is compatible with this American fantasy--but the result feels much less crude than the escapist "foreign" fantasies American audiences have become accustomed to. It's a refreshing break from routine, though it's never quite gourmet cinema. (ANNIE WAGNER)

One Hour Photo
Why is Mork acting so mean? Directed by Mark Romanek (who has made some amazing music videos in his career), One Hour Photo is at best a mildly surprising thriller, and at worst a rather dull affair. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)

Possession
No director in the universe (with the possible exception of John Waters) could save a bad novel like Possession, which was authored by A. S. Byatt. It's the one novel Hollywood should have left in its original condition: a bad book. Now it has a second life as a bad movie. (CHARLES MUDEDE)

Road to Perdition
Sam Mendes has done the impossible: He has made a film that is even more smug, phony, and wasteful than American Beauty. Road to Perdition steals its look (including several exact images) from the Coens' Miller's Crossing, purging that superior film's sense of humor and necessary awareness and replacing it with a catchpenny moralism that wants to have everything--its violence, its sympathies, and its casting--both ways. (SEAN NELSON)

Satin Rouge
Satin Rouge is an easy film to like. It celebrates something that's always worth celebrating: the sexual liberation of women. Satin Rouge is about the modernization of the widow: her progress from tradition to liberation. What is fascinating is that such a traditional form--belly dancing, rather than something Western--facilitates this modernization. (CHARLES MUDEDE)

Serving Sara
Sucks. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)

Sex and Lucia
The digital cinematography in this film is remarkable, but it's largely squandered on beach sunsets and early morning sex and other pretty, vapid things. Following the plot, which involves a very serious writer and his myriad romantic entanglements (all serving as grist for the proverbial mill), is like trying to figure out a single episode of a soap opera that's been broadcast for twenty years. But the girls are adorable and the high drama is quite absorbing, so it's not a complete waste of time. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Signs
Signs would have been exceptional if not for the necessity of elaborate surprises. All the things I like about M. Night Shyamalan's movies (the X-Files-like moodiness, the theological questions, etc.) are imprisoned by the necessities of plot twists. If liberated, this film, about a troubled man who is dealing not only with his wife's death but a massive alien invasion, would have been truly scary. (CHARLES MUDEDE)

Swimfan
Fatal Attraction in a speedo.

* Tadpole
Tadpole is a witty, intelligent, and unsentimental coming-of-age comedy in which the a precocious preppie teen's lustful projections (onto his stepmom, whoa!) are part of a much larger picture, and the lusty boy is a too-smart-for-his-own-good kid who learns a lesson about snobbery and poseurdom. (SEAN NELSON)

* Undisputed
Undisputed is great because Ving Rhames is great. He plays a world heavyweight champion who, like Mike Tyson, is convicted for raping a woman. Unlike Mike Tyson, but much like Muhammad Ali, Ving Rhames is articulate. He is not just a slugging machine but someone who understands his situation (his limits, his value) and able to express it with a deep and convincing voice. While in the maximum security prison, Rhames is confronted by the boxing champ of the underworld, Wesley Snipes. Prisoners from all over America have tried and failed to claim a victory from Snipes, a convicted murderer. So now the king of the overworld must battle the king of the underworld, and whoever wins is the master the universe--a title Rhames already holds. (CHARLES MUDEDE)

XXX
Just how bad is XXX? Worse than you've imagined. Seriously. I would rather be catheterized by a Parkinson's-afflicted nurse than sit through it again. It's that bad. Don't believe me? Then go see it. Flop down the $10 at your neighborhood multiplex and slouch your way through the picture. You'll see--and afterward you'll say, "Shit, man, I wish I'd listened to that chump from The Stranger." (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)