Mega Movie Guide 2005

A psychiatrist's wife falls in love with a demented mental patient. Patrick McGrath's novel provides a solid and suspenseful story, even if it loses much of its bite in Mackenzie's hands. Grade: B
- D.S.

Director: Richard Linklater. With Billy Bob Thornton. (111 min.)

Remake of the 1976 comedy about a burned-out ballplayer who finally grows up while coaching a hopeless kids' baseball team. Thornton is excellent as the coach. Look out for lots of foul language, though. Grade: B
- D.S.

Sex/Nudity: 7 instances.
Violence: 9 scenes of schoolyard fighting.
Profanity: 125 strong and mild expressions.
Drugs/Alcohol: 16 with drinking/smoking.

Director: Rebecca Miller. With Daniel Day-Lewis, Beau Bridges, Catherine Keener. (112 min.)

Marvelously acted story about an anarchist, his teenage daughter, and their struggle to keep up a life of happy solitude despite the distractions of his love life and a developer who wants houses to spring up around them. Smart and engrossing. Grade: B
- D.S.

Director: Christopher Nolan. With Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson. (141 min.)

How a young man became the Caped Crusader instead of just Bruce Wayne, millionaire playboy. Neeson plays a ninja, which shows how desperately the story stretches for angles. But you finally get answers to the Joker's excellent question: "Where does he get those wonderful toys?!" Grade: B
- D.S.

Sex/Nudity: 1 instance of innuendo.
Violence: 29 intense scenes.
Profanity: 11 mild profanities.
Drugs/Alcohol: 4 with drinking, 1 with drug dealing.

Director: Jacques Audiard. With Romain Duris, Aure Atika. (107 min.)

Inspired by the 1978 thriller "Fingers," this superbly acted thriller focuses on an aspiring concert pianist who intersperses his piano lessons with errands for his mobster friends. As stylish as it is suspenseful. In French with subtitles. Grade: A
- D.S.

Director: Hans Petter Moland. With Tim Roth, Nick Nolte. (125 min.)

Decades after the Vietnam War, a young Vietnamese man and his little brother risk their lives on a voyage to Texas, where their American father may live. The subject is compelling but the story is slow. Grade: B
- D.S.

Sex/Nudity: 9 scenes.
Violence: 9 occurrences.
Profanity: 8 profanities.
Drugs/Alcohol: 16 drinking, smoking, and hard drug use

Director: Wayne Wang. With Jeff Daniels, Cicely Tyson. (106 min.)

New to a small town where her father is the preacher, a young girl makes new friends including a couple of aging women and a friendly pooch she names after the grocery store where she finds him. Bland, amiable, innocuous. Grade: B
- D.S.

Directors: Scott McGehee, David Siegel. With Richard Gere, Flora Cross. (104 min.)

Eliza is an 11-year-old spelling prodigy. Her father, Saul, believes she communicates with God according to the precepts of kabbalah, which hold that the alphabet contains the secrets of the universe. As Eliza advances to the national spelling bee championship, her mother becomes unhinged and her brother rebels by joining the Hare Krishnas. "Bee Season," at its core, is about something powerful: The ways in which family members wreak destruction on each other with the best of intentions. Grade:B
- Peter Rainer

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