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 | Preaching to a Select Choir There are some who contend that Western corporate interests (represented by institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) serve to impoverish and debilitate millions of African citizens, but many more are either unaware of or indifferent to these issues. The former may gravitate toward Mauritian director Abderrahmane Sissako’s [b]Bamako[/b], provided they can find it playing in some small art-house cinema. For the latter, there’s always [b]Shrek the Third[/b].More |  | An American in Paris, Struggling to Survive Calling all angels! André (Jamel Debbouze, best known to American audiences for his bit role in [b]Amélie[/b]) is a luckless loser who is drowning in a sea of gambling debts. Worse yet, his creditors have lost patience, giving him a few scant hours in which to make good…or else. Stuck in Paris -- though claiming, rather dubiously, to own a posh apartment in New York -- André appeals to the American embassy, then to the Parisian police. When they turn him away, there is only one option left: suicide.More |  | From France, A Sweetly Seductive Farce Pierre (Daniel Auteuil) has a problem. His wife is convinced that he’s cheating, with good reason; his supermodel mistress is tired of waiting for a divorce; and the paparazzi are following him all over Paris, hoping to ensnare him in a tempestuous scandal. What’s a philandering tycoon to do?More |  | Panahi Scores with Lighthearted Populist Allegory Director Jafar Panahi has never been afraid to test the patience of censors in his native Iran, a rigid theocracy in which even the slightest offenses may carry weighty punishments. His latest documentary-style feature, [b]Offside[/b], is hardly as sobering as 2000’s [b]The Circle[/b], in which he chronicled the plight of women struggling to thrive in a society dominated by institutionalized sexism. Yet it is no less daring, as Panahi focuses on six young women desperate to attend the Iranian national soccer team’s 2005 World Cup qualifier against Bahrain.More |  | Matters of the Heart, Unevenly Expressed Jon Kasdan, son of [b]The Big Chill[/b]’s Lawrence, makes a competent directorial debut with [b]In the Land of Women[/b], though his script wallows too often in trite, greeting-card sentiment. Despite that significant handicap, he commands strong performances from his stars. Meg Ryan and "The OC’s" Adam Brody succeed in breathing life into material that is, at times, transparently thin, though Ryan’s stiff countenance is a trifle unsettling.More |  | Verhoeven Goes Home Again, With Memorable Results [b]Black Book[/b] marks director Paul Verhoeven’s return to his native Netherlands after an absence of more than two decades, during which time he enjoyed a successful run in Hollywood with high-splatter blockbusters including [b]Total Recall[/b], [b]Basic Instinct[/b] and [b]Starship Troopers[/b]. [b]Black Book[/b] is more high-minded than those films -- it’s a World War II drama that chronicles one woman’s tireless struggle to survive the Holocaust -- but it is, in its own way, no less lurid. Filled with unrestrained eroticism and sensationalized violence, it is deliciously trashy entertainment, the kind that Verhoeven does best.More |  | Through the Past, Darkly [b]The Wind That Shakes the Barley[/b], recipient of the Palme D’Or at last year’s Cannes film festival, is the latest from English director Ken Loach, a committed leftist who has spent much of his 45-year career turning his political meditations into popular entertainment. [b]Barley[/b] is no exception.More |  | Love, Explained in a Series of Lackluster Lectures Mars Callahan has a lot to say about love. Callahan, whose [b]Poolhall Junkies[/b] was a passably entertaining glimpse into the lives of hustlers searching for some worldly purpose, has rarely met a cliché he didn’t work into a script, and his latest meditation on life and romance is full of them. There are some interesting ideas bandied about in [b]What Love Is[/b], crudely adorned with graphic sex fantasies and testosterone-fueled gusto, but when all is said (and never done), we are left with the kind of trite, philosophical musings that have inspired so many sitcoms.More |  | The Case For (And Against) Ralph Nader As the foremost consumer advocate of the 20th century and the most controversial presidential candidate of the 21st, Ralph Nader is as fascinating as he is polarizing. Given his achievements in the fields of automobile and pharmaceutical safety, it could be argued that Nader has done more for America than some presidents. Yet he remains a figure of bitter contention, reviled in some circles for siphoning off enough votes in a few critical states to hand the 2000 election to W.More |  | Emotional Dispatches From a City of Lost Children [b]The Dead Girl[/b] is a raw, unflinching glimpse at the wounded, interconnected lives of those touched by a murder. The victim is Krista (Brittany Murphy), a runaway-turned-prostitute who has the misfortune, one fateful night, of hitching a ride with a serial killer. Left behind are her estranged mother, her emotionally broken roommate and others whose connections to the crime are a bit more tenuous. Then there’s the killer and his frustrated wife, who wonders where her husband disappears to for days at a time.More |
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