Mega Movie Guide 2004

Sex/Nudity: 9 scenes with innuendo. Violence: 5 scenes. Profanity: 77 instances. Drugs: 5.

Director: Miguel Albaladejo. With José Luis García-Pérez, David Castillo. (92 min.)

Sterritt *** When his mother travels far from home and gets in trouble with the law, a 9-year-old boy is cared for by his uncle, a gay dentist, and the uncle's gaggle of unusual friends. A life-affirming Spanish comedy-drama. In Spanish with subtitles.

Director: Richard Linklater. With Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy. (80 min.)

Sterritt **** Richard Linklater's "Before Sunset" follows-up the 1995 comedy-drama "Before Sunrise," where aspiring American writer (Hawke) and French graduate student (Delpy) get acquainted and take a nighttime walk together, only to part the next morning, leaving us to wonder if they'll ever meet again. "Before Sunset" takes place in Paris nine years later, where we learn that Jesse and Céline haven't been in touch since that special night. Linklater is one of today's most versatile American filmmakers, and "Before Sunset" finds his light shining as brightly as ever.

Staff **** Luscious, enjoyable

Sex/Nudity: 11 mentions. Violence: none. Profanity: 20 mild, 11 strong expressions. Drugs: 1 smoking scene.

Director: István Szabó. With Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons, Michael Gambon. (103 min.)

Sterritt *** Bening is beautiful as a 1930s actress in London who finds the overlaps between her art and her life tricky to cope with, especially when she starts an affair with an enthusiastic fan. Based on W. Somerset Maugham's novel "Theatre," this is a thoughtful, amusing romp.

Sex/Nudity: 20 instances of innuendo. Violence: 1 Profanity: 3 instances. Drugs: 20 scenes with drinking, 13 with smoking.

Director: Joe Camp. With Nate Bynam, Lincoln Hoppe, Chris Kendrick. (97 min.)

Staff **1/2 Colby's stepfather raises dogs in backyard cages. When his "prize breeder" gives birth to a mutt, dad leaves the pup to starve, but Colby raises it in the woods. Depiction of animal and family abuse takes the wicked stepparent plot beyond fairy tales for small children, but scenes of animal bonding show that director Camp has not lost his touch for charming dog stories. By M.K. Terrell

Director: Kevin Spacey. With Kevin Spacey, Brenda Blethyn, John Goodman, Kate Bosworth. (121 min.)

Sterritt ** The life of singer Bobby Darin, from his music-filled childhood to his untimely death, using the same kind of memoir storytelling as "De-Lovely," the recent Cole Porter biopic. Spacey is almost as swinging as Darin was, but his filmmaking leans toward tried-and-true formulas.

Sex/Nudity: 2 instances of innuendo. Violence: 2 scenes of tantrums. Profanity: 58 expressions. Drugs: 12 instances of smoking, 13 scenes with drinking.

Director: Jerzy Sturh. With Jerzy Stuhr, Anna Dymna, Blazej Wójcik. (73 min.)

Sterritt *** A Polish couple finds a lost circus camel in their yard and adopts it - at first pleasing their town, which enjoys its novelty value, but stirring trouble when neighbors resent what they see as the self-reliant airs of a creature and its masters. The drama is a witty parable of the mixed feelings people show toward free choice when it confronts them in everyday life. In Polish with English subtitles.

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