Movie Guide

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet. With Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Arthus de Penguern, Yolande Moreau. (121 min.)

Sterritt *** See review, page 15.

Director: Laurent Firode. With Audrey Tautou, Faudel, Eric Feldman, Irene Ismailoff, Eric Savin. (96 min.)

Sterritt ** A department-store clerk, an elderly woman, and a sidewalk philosopher are among the diverse characters of this French fantasy-romance about lives that intersect by chance, in keeping with the notion that a hurricane in the Pacific might be caused by a butterfly beating its wings on the Atlantic days before. The movie has magical moments, but it's too contrived to gather much comic or dramatic power. Originally titled "Le battement d'aile du papillon." In French with English subtitles

Director: Joel Coen. With Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, James Gandolfini. (116 min.)

Sterritt **** See review, page 15.

Director: Pete Docter. With voices of John Goodman, Jennifer Tilly, Billy

Crystal, Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Frank Oz. (90 min.)

Sterritt *** See review, page 15.

Director: Hal Ashby. With Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant, Jack Warden, Carrie Fisher. (112 min.)

Sterritt ** Beatty plays a woman-chaser who goes into the hairdressing business for its romantic possibilities, but manages to lose all his favorite lovers on a single fateful night. He and Robert Towne cowrote the screenplay for this popular 1975 comedy, aiming for an ambitious blend of sexual and political satire that the finished product doesn't quite pull off.

Director: Richard Linklater. With Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Robert Sean Leonard. (86 min.)

Sterritt *** A small-time filmmaker, a self-deluded drug dealer, and a rising young lawyer meet in a motel room 10 years after their high-school graduation, and smoldering old conflicts soon disrupt their friendly get-together. This offbeat comedy-drama is written like a play - three characters, one setting - but Linklater keeps it lively with imaginative camerawork and razor-sharp editing. There's little to like about the trio of people he lays bare for us, but their secrets have a morbid fascination that's hard to resist.

Director: Barry Levinson. With Bruce Willis, Cate Blanchett, Billy Bob Thornton, Troy Garity. (109 min.)

Staff ** Mildly amusing is probably not what veteran director Barry Levinson was going for when he teamed macho-man Bruce Willis with chatterbox-hypochondriac Billy Bob Thornton as odd-couple bank robbers in this quirky caper. Cate Blanchett adds spice in her role as a runaway wife who falls for both men at once. Ultimately, it's an offbeat comedy that's a few beats off. By John Kehe

Director: Gary Fleder. With Michael Douglas, Brittany Murphy, Sean Bean, Jennifer Esposito, Oliver Platt, Famke Janssen. (110 min.)

Sterritt ** Douglas plays a New York psychiatrist treating a troubled teenager who's been faking most of her afflictions for years; then his daughter gets kidnapped by a twisted criminal who's after a crucial number buried in the teen's memory. The movie has promise as a psychological thriller, but the filmmakers show far more interest in chases and shoot-outs than characters and ideas.

Directors: The Hughes Brothers. With Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Ian Holm, Robbie Coltrane. (137 min.)

Sterritt *** Depp plays a 19th-century police inspector whose hunt for Jack the Ripper smokes out an enormous number of complications. The movie works well as a straight-out horror yarn, proving that the Hughes Brothers are more versatile than their previous "ghetto pictures" suggest. But it lacks far more interesting speculations on mysteries of myth and history, space and time, good and evil, life and death.

VS/N: 7 scenes, including sex and nudity. VV: 26 highly gory scenes. VP: 24 harsh expressions. VD: 15 scenes with alcohol, 7 scenes with cigarettes, 5 scenes with drugs.

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