Directed by actor Todd Field, in a remarkably assured feature film debut, In the Bedroom starts out a finely drawn family drama and builds with a menace so subtle that you almost don’t notice it until violence strikes as it does in real life: suddenly, shockingly, and completely unexpectedly, even though, in retrospect, the signs that it was imminent are all there.

Ed Burns takes us back to the angst-ridden New York dating scene once more in his most engaging and most accomplished film yet. Shot partly documentary style, it follows a game of romantic musical chairs amongst Manhattanites who, notably, represent not only well-off professionals but the ex-bridge-and-tunnel working class, too: TV producers mix with schoolteachers, … more…

Whether you support or oppose the current U.S. military actions in Afghanistan, you’re unlikely to be unmoved by this disturbing documentary about a people forced back into the Middle Ages by their unwanted rulers, who have taken religious fanaticism to its disgusting extreme. As a group of Italian aid workers struggles to set up a … more…

Hong Kong action meets MTV in this feature debut from Thai writer/directors Danny and Oxide Pang, yet another brotherly team of hotshot young filmmakers. A love of Quentin Tarantino and martial arts flicks exudes from their tale of living and dying by the sword, or the gun, as it were. Hitmen Kong (Pawalit Mongkolpisit) and … more…

Spy Game is a Tony Scott film, so you know there’ll be lots of cell phones whipped out and hot faxing action, glowing green blips on a CRT and false-color satellite photos, guys in dark suits sitting around conference tables and insidious government conspiracies afoot.

Take two of the most vapid, most unbearably unwatchable young actors working today — Matthew Lillard (Wing Commander) and Shannon Elizabeth (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) — and lock them in haunted glass house. Add heavy-metal-album-cover imagery: a ghost with spikes through his undead head, the specter of large-breasted chick slashed all over her … more…

The simian line is a crease in the hand of rare individuals that palm readers interpret to mean the bearer too easily confuses the needs of the heart and the demands of the head. Katherine (Lynn Redgrave: All I Wanna Do), a middle-aged New Jersey real-estate broker, bears this line… or so fortune teller Arnita … more…

Novocaine is nothing if not an object lesson for men on keeping it in their pants. Frank Sangster, DDS (Steve Martin: Bowfinger), seemingly has it all: successful dental practice, the love of a beautiful woman — his hygienist, Jean (Laura Dern: Jurassic Park III). But a late-night appointment with a gal with Trouble written all … more…

Oh, I was positively aquiver with anticipation in the days leading up to the advance screening of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone I attended. Like a kid waiting for Christmas morning, I was — the day couldn’t come soon enough. And now, Friday can’t come soon enough: I’m going again on opening night. I’m glad I bought those tickets two weeks ago.

You know what Shallow Hal is? Shallow Hal is the gorgeous, popular guy in high school every insecure, self-conscious, too fat/too skinny/too tall/too short/too plain girl has a crush on. The guy who, suddenly sweet and sensitive, reveals his secret crush on Miss Hopelessly Unpopular right in the middle of the cafeteria, right in front of all his friends, and asks her out, and she — daring to hope — said Yes… and then he laughs in her face. And his friends laugh too. And she’s mortified, and kicks herself mentally for believing him even for a second.