Wasabi

dir. Gérard Krawczyk

Opens Fri Oct 4 at the Varsity.

If you are into action films, do not see Wasabi. It is a hackneyed buddy picture about a violent Parisian cop who goes to Japan to settle an old romantic score and in the process dispatches most of the Yakuza without breaking a thumbnail. However, if you want to see blockbuster cinema that accidentally reveals some acute differences between French and American men, ones that will balance out the memory of the foul French guy who always tries to pick you up in the coffee shop, this film has a number of interesting and revealing moments.

For example, take the scene where the cop, played with resigned competence by Jean Reno, tries to bed a woman who has wanted him for years yet knows his heart is locked up. He has her over for dinner, to an apartment that's decorated in a classy way, full of good colors and lighting. He uses his hands in a gentle way, understanding that they're instruments of seduction. He knows how to cook and present food, yet his self-deprecation about it is totally sincere. And when she resists his advances and leaves, his face balances confusion and annoyance like a wobbly ballerina. In an American version of Wasabi, which would no doubt be called Extreme Wasabi, I have the feeling it would tighten into an angry grimace. MICHAEL SHILLING

Moonlight Mile

dir. Brad Silberling

Opens Fri Oct 4 at various theaters.

I know this film looks like a sappy weeper, and it kind of is, but as a story of bereavement, commitment, and coming of age (and finding the limits of each), it is also funny, smart, and exquisitely well acted by Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon, and Jake Gyllenhaal. The characters act out of their grief (a daughter dies, her fiancé hangs around just long enough for the parents to become addicted to his presence), but the emotions remain real and affecting. Despite its artificial origins, the dynamic that evolves between the three leads is as fascinating, frustrating, and original as any in memory, mirroring the complicated transitions of a real family--Gyllenhaal's Joe secretly rebels, when he could just leave--while maintaining the awkward distance that no amount of will can close. SEAN NELSON

Super-8 Vs. DV Deathmatch

Thurs Oct 3 at Consolidated Works.

Judging from the sampler tape provided by the curators, DV is the hands-down winner of this program pitting the two mediums favored by makers of short movies. Though Super-8 celluloid is the sentimental favorite, the two entries available for preview look scratchy and amateurish. Steven Reddy's Fish Fire Phonecall is a Fleischeresque animation: line-drawn objects that morph into one another--just like in Betty Boop cartoons--while the soundtrack plays a phone conversation in which the director explains to his girlfriend that the film is taking longer than he expected to complete. Sung Y. Kim's The Fruit Movie is a wobbly little one-joke goof in which the suggestive peeling and eating of bananas is substituted for sex. Both films are kind of boring and quaint. The DV material, on the other hand, is fresh and lively. There's a Gilliamesque stop-motion treat featuring Dan Savage and Leslie Miller (Stranger Dan Meets LeslieBee, Billy X), a daffy little New Kids on the Block parody (Bitter Kid on the Block, Tim Coulter), and best of all, Profiles in Science, a hilarious fake documentary by Wes Kim. Obviously, the deathmatch is all in good fun, but it's interesting to see how similar in style and form the digital shorts are to Super-8, and how much more alive they are for not being tied to film. SEAN NELSON

Spirited Away

dir. Hayao Miyazaki

Opens Fri Oct 4 at the Neptune and the Uptown.

Stunning epic or no, there was something about Hayao Miyazaki's 1999 stateside "breakthrough," Princess Mononoke, that never quite sat well with me. Exhaustively detailed to the point of minutiae, Mononoke was arduously intricate, a larger-than-life fairy tale that propelled the legendary filmmaker from cult figure to... well, a slightly more well-known cult figure. With Spirited Away, Miyazaki's latest Disney-distributed "masterpiece," the distinct source of my frustration finally dawned on me: I fell in love with Miyazaki's vision of adolescence, the blissful swirl around an often impenetrable storyline that only served to enhance the echo of youthful confusion; I fell in love with the manipulative fairy-tale ecstasy of picturesque Japanese childhood; but most specifically (and what probably aligns me with the deserved ranks of the anime poseur), I fell in love with Miyazaki's grasp of the crippling power of cute. Mononoke ditched cute for credibility, and Spirited Away stumbles away even further. The cute is what makes Miyazaki's confused, draining films--whose "epic" vision usually devolves into marathons that last at least 30 agonizing minutes longer than necessary--bearable. In spite of its conspicuous cute deficiency, Spirited Away is by all means a striking visual composition--just make sure you're not drowsy going in. ZAC PENNINGTON

Just a Kiss

dir. Fisher Stevens

Opens Fri Oct 4 at the Uptown.

Marisa Tomei, as anyone who saw In The Bedroom can attest, only improves with age. Always a fine comedienne, she has become a fantastic actress, as well, and if you'll forgive me, is foxier than ever. She is also the ONLY good thing about this execrable "quirky" romanticom about the sexual escapades of a bunch of overwrought and overwritten New Yorkers. As if the script--one of those "what would happen if?" scenarios--weren't cloying enough, director Fisher Stevens makes the baffling choice of inserting squiggly little animated bits at random moments. Awful, awful, awful. SEAN NELSON