Pearl Harbor, Weekend

About Adam
About Adam is an Irish comedy with a madcap premise and a morally corrupt punchline. The premise, in which three sisters, and one brother, all fall for the same man--Adam--results in a candy-colored tale of narrowly missed confrontations, misunderstandings, hilarity, and sex sex sex. But what complicates this unremarkable plotline is that Adam is revealed as an unapologetic hedonist, and is held up as the family's salvation. This one-two of sitcom set-up and unmitigated Free Love delivery gives the whole movie a mischievous, misbegotten twist. With a radiant and fantastically-wardrobed Kate Hudson. (Traci Vogel) Opens Fri. Broadway Market

* Access Orbit Youth Screening
Though it may seem that all television is created by small children, this stuff really is! 911 presents a screening of TV shows produced by young people to address matters of thematic and practical concern to kids. The programs are distributed via satellite under the aegis of Paper Tiger TV, Manhattan Neighborhood Network's Youth Channel, Deep Dish Satellite Network, and Free Speech TV. Fri May 18. 911 Media Arts

Angel Eyes
Jennifer Lopez (who shall never again be referred to in these pages as anything other than Jennifer Lopez, or possibly Lopez, or maybe even frau rindfleisch, but never, ever "J. Lo"), stars as a Chicago cop ("Stop, or my publicist will shoot!") whose life is saved by a mysterious stud who seems eerily familiar. Co-starring Mt. Vernon's own Jim Caviezel. Opens Fri. Metro

* Following
An unemployed, anonymous, and unmotivated aspiring novelist (Jeremy Theobald) fills up his empty days stalking random people. Before long one of his subjects, Cobb (Alex Haw), is on to him and demands an explanation: Cobb, it turns out, is a professional burglar, and sensing (perhaps) a voyeuristic soulmate, he initiates the would-be novelist into breaking and entering. Throw in a bar-hopping blonde with a bad-news boyfriend and a safe full of money and incriminating photos, and you have the rest of Following, a witty, intelligent noir that has the admirable good sense never to think it's cleverer than it is--and the even greater and rarer good sense not to wear out its welcome. (Bruce Reid) Thurs-Sun May 17-20. Little Theatre

The Golden Bowl
Reviewed this issue. This flaccid Merchant Ivory rendering of a Henry James novel stars Nick Nolte and Uma Thurman. The adaptation is more or less faithful, but the movie's a golden bore. Opens Fri. Guild 45th

* Graveyard of Honor and Humanity
This final entry in the Grand Illusion's Kinji Fukasaku retrospective features an outcast yakuza whose life slips into the vortex of drugs, sex, disease, violence, and necrophiliac cannibalism. Graveyard plays just in time to whet your appetite for Fukasaku's Battle Royale, which will play at this year's film festival. Sun May 20. Grand Illusion

Letters From My Windmill
Dear Mom, not much happened today. Just sat around waiting for a breeze to blow. Boy, are my arms tired! P.S. Marcel Pagnol (Les Enfants du Paradis) directed this short film triptych in 1954. With English subtitles by none other than Preston Sturges. Thurs May 17. Seattle Art Museum

* My Generation
A new feature by the great documentarian Barbara Kopple (who was once offended when I failed to recognize her at the video store where I worked; I'm sorry, I love her films, but would YOU know what Barbara Kopple looks like?) takes aim at what many a music fan would argue was the cultural nadir of the 20th century: Woodstock '99. Combining corporate boardroom footage from the Woodstock revivals of the mid-and-late '90s with footage of the original festival in '69, Kopple draws harrowing conclusions about both the past and present of rock culture. A highly recommended portion of the EMP film series, curated by the Northwest Film Forum. (Sean Nelson) Wed May 23. JBL Theater at EMP

Psycho Beach Party
Tomboyish Chicklet (Lauren Ambrose) struggles to infiltrate the male-dominated subculture of surfing and catch Starcat, the dude of her dreams. Her quest is complicated by her multiple personality disorder, not to mention the fact that someone is knocking off her pals, one by one. Though production values in this campy romp are often excruciatingly low, its good-looking cast of veteran television teens seem to be having a blast deconstructing the homoerotic, sadomasochistic, mentally disturbed subtext of the deceptively frothy surf genre. (Tamara Paris) Fri-Sat May 18-19. Egyptian

Secrets of Silicon Valley
An earnest documentary that attempts to expose the seedy underbelly of the now-dead Internet economy: an underpaid, non-union, non-white, non-male temp workforce. What did they think they were making, tennis shoes? Sat May 19. Seattle Asian Art Museum

Shrek
Reviewed this issue. Dreamworks does egregious capitalistic violence to the fairy tale legends of your youth. But in a good way. Plus, it's a cartoon and no one sings! Featuring the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz. Opens Fri. Pacific Place 11, Majestic Bay

* Signs & Wonders
Reviewed this issue. Incredible new film from Jonathan Nossiter, director of Sunday. What begins as a droll family drama about a hapless father who listens more intently to his loins than his heart or mind gradually evolves into a harrowing vivisection of life in an emotional free market. Shot beautifully on DV and starring Stellan Skarsgard and Charlotte Rampling. Opens Fri. Varsity

* Time and Tide
See Stranger Suggests. An inscrutable, multilingual cinematic defibrillator courtesy of Tsui "Adrenaline" Hark (Once Upon a Time in China). The story has something to so with Hong Kong gangsters, bodyguards, and a pistol-packing pregnant lady. POW! Opens Fri. Egyptian

* Wattstax
See Stranger Suggests. Look at the picture of Isaac Hayes and then try to avoid heading out to see this long-out-of-circulation concert film, in a gorgeous new 35mm print. The titular 1973 concert, hosted by a then-spring-chicken Jesse Jackson and with comic relief by a daisy-faced Richard Pryor, features performances by Hayes, the Staple Singers, the Dramatics, and Rufus Thomas, among others. Directed by Mel Stuart--who, curiously, also directed the quite excellent, deeply psychedelic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. (Jamie Hook) Fri-Sat May 18-19. Grand Illusion

The Adventures of Joe Dirt
A mullet stars as David Spade's hairstyle in the story of a down-and-out redneck in search of his parents. (Jason Pagano) Pacific Place 11

Along Came a Spider
Along Came a Spider is a prequel to Kiss the Girls. Again, Morgan Freeman plays Dr. Alex Cross, a detective who deals with the most psychotic white men in America. Though Kiss the Girls is the better of the two thrillers, I still enjoyed Along Came a Spider because Morgan Freeman is Morgan Freeman. (Charles Mudede) Meridian 16, Northgate, Redmond Town Center

* Amores Perros
Amores Perros begins at a screaming dead run and maintains one kind of intensity or another over the next two and a half hours. 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 González Iñárritu's own style and vision is so distinctive and assured in this directorial debut 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) Harvard Exit

* Best In Show
The latest from the folks who brought you Waiting for Guffman follows several dog owners on their quest for the blue ribbon at the 2000 Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. Dogs are always funny. (Jason Pagano) Broadway Market

Blow
Blow is Hollywood all the way to the bank. But despite all its predictability--young man (Johnny Depp) rises to the top of the international drug trade and then falls to the bottom of the prison system--its portrayal of Mexicans, Central Americans, and middle America is unexpectedly sympathetic. (Charles Mudede) Meridian 16, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center, Varsity

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, Factoria, Majestic Bay, Metro, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

* Calle 54
A documentary on Cuban jazz that has nothing in common with Buena Vista Social Club except a desire to tell the untold story of great musicians. Directed by Fernando Trueba (Belle Epoque). Tito Puente, Eliane Elias, Gato Barbieri, and many others all give mesmerizing performances, in which their bodies and instruments seem to transform into wild animals. (Paula Gilovich) Broadway Market

* Center of the World
Richard (Peter Sarsgaard), an Internet millionaire, hires Florence (Molly Parker), a stripper, to accompany him for a weekend in Las Vegas "to get to know you better," he says. She scoffs, but agrees, adding the following conditions: no talk about feelings, no kissing on the mouth, no penetration, separate rooms, and all contact shall be confined to between the hours of 10 pm and 2 am. What ensues is a bold, graphic, often hard-to-watch examination of what passes for love among the ruins of prosperity. In conflating the Internet (where, Richard reckons, he sits at "the center of the world," connected to everyone) and the culture of strip bars, Wang and his collaborators (novelist Paul Auster and NW performance artist Miranda July) argue that as we grow more certain that everything is available to those who can afford it, we grow further and further apart from one another. In trying to buy what he lacks the heart to try and earn, Richard settles for a false connection. In pretending she can keep her body and spirit separate, Florence sinks into despair. Both find out that the center of the world is, in fact, a devastatingly isolated place. (Sean Nelson) Broadway Market

Chocolat
My straightforward review will open with a detailed plot summary ("The movie is about a French village whose serenity is shattered by a mysterious woman who moves into town with her illegitimate daughter and opens a sexy chocolate store."), and then state the truth ("The movie is unremarkable!"). (Charles Mudede) Metro, Uptown

Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles
The film is a likable old dog. Crocodile Dundee winds up in L.A., gets in a couple of pickles, gets out, and goes home. Nobody gets hurt, nobody dies. As dependable as entertainment gets. (Riz Rollins) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Pacific Place 11, Southcenter

* Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The film is an attempt to wed emotionally reticent drama with the exhilarating freedom of Hong Kong-genre filmmaking, but director Ang Lee can't quite pull off the combination. The film finds its rhythm and earns the accolades it has received once it leaves the stars behind and gives its heart over to the young and engaging Zhang Ziyi. (Bruce Reid) Metro, Uptown

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) Meridian 16, Metro

Driven
A race car movie guilty of tantalizing, but not satisfying the prurient interest. With Sylvester Stallone AND Burt Reynolds. (Kudzai Mudede) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Pacific Place 11

Enemy at the Gates
Enemy at the Gates is the story of a Russian World War II sniper (Jude Law) and the German sniper (Ed Harris) who is sent to eliminate him. When the dueling snipers embark on a cat-and-mouse chase to assassinate each other, the movie becomes genuinely exciting. And if the film is at times rather silly... well, it's from Britain and its a minor miracle that they even have running water out there let alone significant movies. (Kudzai Mudede) Meridian 16

Eureka
The latest and final entry in this year's Shooting Gallery series is a 217-minute, black-and-white Japanese epic that launches with the hijacking of a city bus; follows with murder, alienation, and despair; then lands somewhere near the cinema's favorite destination: redemption. (Sean Nelson) Uptown

The Forsaken
You know you're in for a really clever film when the first 30 seconds are spent lingering on a disoriented topless girl in the shower rinsing blood off her breasts. And when she's helplessly dragged around in her panties for an hour before she finally speaks? One word: cinema. P.S.: The movie is about a guy driving from California to his sister's wedding who runs into some hipster vampires along a particularly evil stretch of Southwest highway; 90 minutes later, the vampires are dead. (Jason Pagano) Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Pacific Place 11

Freddy Got Fingered
The scene where Tom Green's paralyzed-from-the-waist-down girlfriend started to orgasm from being whacked in the shins with a bamboo cane made me realize Freddy Got Fingered, Tom Green's directorial debut, was so offensive on every level that it is either dangerous or important. Fingered isn't all-the-way great, but it works far more often than it doesn't. (Sean Nelson) Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark

* The Gleaners and I
A new documentary by the venerable Agnes Varda, godmother of the French New Wave, that examines that segment of French society that picks things up off the ground. Some are bums, some intellectual dilettantes, some poor children, and some just responsible chefs who insist on harvesting their own herbs--they all fall within Varda's dynamic frame. And as she gleans the lives of the gleaners, experimenting with form and content, the grande dame ruminates on her own mortality. Grand Illusion

Heartbreakers
Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt play a mother-and-daughter con team with a fervent understanding that men will screw them over, and that they must beat those suckers at their own petty game. But as every cool-headed dealer knows, the revenge con never works. Heartbreakers is certainly amusing, but its unimaginative approach will disappoint viewers who want to feel the wicked cinch of the complex con. (Traci Vogel) Grand Alderwood

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. Says director Eric Valli: "This film is a love story, a love story between this place, these people, and me. It's very simple." (Kudzai Mudede) Varsity

Kingdom Come
Kingdom Come should have been a television sitcom. A movie about an African American family (played by a superb ensemble cast, LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett, Whoopi Goldberg) from the South coming together to mourn the death of a despised relative should have been a surer bet, unfortunately this movie just wasn't nearly developed thoroughly enough. (Kudzai Mudede) Lewis & Clark, Pacific Place 11

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 club-footed attempt to foist a Teen Gladiator on historically-malnourished summer audiences. All that isn't so surprising, and historical accuracy isn't a valid benchmark in the realm of popular cinema. Still, the things you go see a movie like this for--rousing action and star power--are curiously absent (for all Heath Ledger's handsome Australian-ness, he's no Russell Crowe, senator). It's not that A Knight's Tale sucks, particularly--though it pretty much does--it's just that, like, where are the cheap thrills? (Sean Nelson) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree

The Luzhin Defence
Those who love Nabokov's novels, and are outraged when filmmakers fail to capture the master's intellectual essence on film, must do their best to avoid this film, which adapts Nabokov's least cinematic book. But those who want to watch an atmospheric film about love, sunlight, and beautiful Italian lakes will not be disappointed. (Charles Mudede) Seven Gables

* 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, Guild 45th, Meridian 16

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, silly situations, and cheesy actors (except r-r-r-Rachel Weisz) 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. Whatever secret thing writer/director Stephen Sommers had up his sleeve before gets trumped by a ceaseless parade of god-awful digital effects. Digital mummy, digital scarabs, digital scorpions, digital armies, digital waterfall, digital river, digital dirigible... even the city of London is digital. It's not the worst summer movie ever, it's just that by being only not that good, it manages to seem terrible. (Sean Nelson) Cinerama, Factoria, Majestic Bay, Neptune, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

* O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Set in Depression-era Mississippi, George Clooney stars as Everett Ulysses McGill, a suave and well-groomed petty criminal doing hard time on a chain gang. Shackled to Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson), he convinces them to join him in escaping by promising to split a fortune in buried treasure. (Andy Spletzer) Majestic Bay, Metro, Redmond Town Center

One Night at McCool's
In the pursuit of material possessions, Liv Tyler, playing an irresistible woman (duh) exploits her curvaceous anatomy in order to lasso the men she meets (Andrew Dice Clay, Matt Dillon, Michael Douglas, etc.) into becoming the accomplices in her illegal schemes. This movie soon escalates into a riot of contrivances that unexpectedly sparkles and undulates like an overweight Tuesday in New Orleans. (Suzy Lafferty) Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center

Pollock
Pollock is actor Ed Harris' directorial debut (he also stars), and seems in too big a hurry to establish the iconic events of painter Jackson Pollock's life--see Pollock urinate in Peggy Guggenheim's fireplace, see Pollock overturn the Thanksgiving table, see Pollock accidentally discover drip painting--without letting any of these moments achieve any natural resolution. (Emily Hall) Varsity

Spy Kids
Fellow earthlings, I regret to inform you that even now as we speak, it is too late. Spy Kids is headed towards us like a juggernaut and only the childless have means of escaping. (Suzy Lafferty) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro

The Tailor of Panama
Brit superspy Andy Osnard (Pierce Brosnan) has been banished to Panama for overindulging his appetites. He sizes up the tense, complicated international scene at the Canal and finds himself a hapless expat British tailor (Geoffrey Rush) to squeeze for information. Boorman's film is far too awkward and self-conscious to allow the audience to sink into spy fantasia; as a result, Brosnan's absurdly dashing spy becomes utterly grotesque, even sickening. (Evan Sult) Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Metro

Town and Country
Somewhere in this indecisive jumble lies what might have been a really sharp, sweet film. What you actually see, however, is a morass of class smugness, emotional smarminess, and a sense of humor as thick as an old man's prostate. Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Garry Shandling, and Goldie Hawn play two upper middle-age couples who, 20 years into friendship and marriage, start to fumble around with infidelity and mid-life crisis. Aside from Diane Keaton's immutable greatness, what's good about Country is the stuff that must've gotten cut--the scenes you have to imagine. (Sean Nelson) Aurora Cinema Grill, Grand Alderwood, Pacific Place 11

Traffic
All the flashy directorial touches and sterling performances in the world can't cover the fact that Traffic is just another example of Hollywood tackling a complex problem with the simplest and most conservative of solutions. (Bradley Steinbacher) Metro, Varsity

* With a Friend Like Harry
This Hitchcockian thriller took France by storm last year, winning several Cesar awards (France's version of the Oscar). 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 (this film is about the difficulty of making art) rise like cream to the top of this film: The first taste is awfully sweet, even if it doesn't linger long. (Jamie Hook) Harvard Exit