Movie Guide

Director: Thom Fitzgerald. With Olympia Dukakis, Parker Posey, Don McKellar, Sarah Polley. (110 min.)

Sterritt ** Euthanasia is the subject of this offbeat drama about a policewoman (Posey) investigating a series of deaths in New York's gay community. The topic is thought-provoking, the flashback-based structure is interesting, and there are surprising twists near the end. But there's also an overdose of sentimentality that badly dilutes the picture's impact.

Director: Emile Gaudreault. With Luke Kirby, Ginette Reno, Paul Sorvino, Claudia Ferri. (90 min.)

Staff ** The proper way for Italian kids to leave home is to grow up and get married. Twenty-something Angelo Barberini (Kirby), son of Italian immigrants in Montreal, still has some growing up to do, but he wants to do it in his own apartment. He's also not about to get married, because he's gay. These bombshells have predictable effects on his traditional family, but Reno's charming performance and some hilarious moments help this Canadian import rise above clichés. By M.K. Terrell

Sex/Nudity: 8 innuendoes; 3 scenes of implied sex. Violence: None. Profanity: 25 profanities. Drugs: At least 15 drinking and smoking scenes.

Director: Carl Franklin. With Denzel Washington, Eva Mendes, Sanaa Lathan, Dean Cain. (114 min.)

Sterritt ** See review.

Director: Richard Linklater. With Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White, Sarah Silverman. (108 min.)

Sterritt **** See review.

Director: James Cox. With Val Kilmer, Lisa Kudrow, Carrie Fisher, Eric Bogosian. (99 min.)

Sterritt ** The relentlessly sordid life of John Holmes, better known as porn-film icon Johnny Wadd, after his "stardom" has disintegrated and he's living a rotten life as a drug addict with the sleaziest friends and foes you can imagine. The murder-mystery plot is told in rough-and-tumble style, full of sound and fury but signifying almost nothing in the end.

Director: Woody Allen. With Allen, Jason Biggs, Stockard Channing, Christina Ricci. (108 min.)

Sterritt ** A rising comedy writer (Biggs) has oddball conversations with an older colleague (Allen) while dealing with a girlfriend (Ricci) who's almost as eccentric as both of them. This is a quintessential Allen comedy: squirmy relationships, dark Jewish humor, an assumption that everybody in Manhattan has money and a touch of glamour, and - as with most of Allen's films since the first years of his career - not nearly as many laughs.

Sex/Nudity: 16 scenes, including innuendo and implied sex. Violence: 3 scenes. Profanity: 2 profanities. Drugs: 19 drinking, smoking, and drug scenes.

Director: Vladimir Michalek. With Vlastimil Brodsky, Stella Zázvorková. (97 min.)

Sterritt ** Part caper movie and part scenes from a marriage, this Czech comedy-drama focuses on an elderly man who escapes from his tedious marriage by pulling off small con jobs. The acting is wonderful and the story is engrossing until it takes a wrong turn, leading to a sentimental ending that's out of tune with the film's earlier emotionally complex moods. In Czech with English subtitles.

Sex/Nudity: 1 innuendo. Violence: 2 minor scenes. Profanity: 3 profanities. Drugs: 12 drinking and smoking scenes.

Director: Mike Figgis. With Sharon Stone, Dennis Quaid, Stephen Dorff, Juliette Lewis. (117 min.)

Sterritt ** A family from the big city moves to a rural home and is menaced by a psychopath whose family used to own the place. After two experimental movies in a row, the gifted director of "Leaving Las Vegas" apparently felt he needed another box-office hit. Unfortunately, this isn't it. Figgis brings strong visual imagination, but he can't rescue Richard Jefferies's screenplay from plot holes bigger than the manor itself.

Staff ** Flat script, Stone cold, gripping at times.

Sex/Nudity: 6 scenes, including innuendo, implied sex. Violence: 14 scenes, including murder, fights. Profanity: 29 profanities. Drugs: 8 drinking and smoking scenes.

Director: Olivier Assayas. With Connie Nielsen, Charles Berling, Chloë Sevigny. (120 min.)

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