‘I’ve a naughty little tale to tell,’ the Marquis de Sade informs us as Quills opens. It’s actually the opening line to the latest bit of juicy pornography he’s writing, but of course it applies to the story Quills tells, a fictional account of de Sade’s final years spent in a French insane asylum. As promised, Quills is bawdy and often surprisingly funny, but more frequently it’s like a dark and disturbing flip side of Shakespeare in Love, exploring the inner and outer demons that torment and inspire writers and the necessity of leaving writers to exorcise those demons on their own, no matter whose sacred cows get slaughtered.

It’s weird to think that there’s an entire generation of children out there for whom Glenn Close will be associated with kidnapped puppies and not with boiling rabbits. But 102 Dalmatians seals it: Her Cruella is back, vampier and funnier than ever, and kids will love her all the more. Their parents will have a fine time as well if they tag along to the multiplex.

Don’t believe the marketing of Bounce. This isn’t a romantic comedy. I can understand why Miramax took the happy route — it’s a lot easier to get an audience in to see a film if they believe it’s happy, funny, and, well, bouncy than if they knew it was a drama about grief, pain, guilt, and what it takes to get over such things. But don’t let reality deter you: Bounce is a genuinely moving and engrossing film brought to warm and authentic life by its gifted and intelligent stars.

And the result of all that creative effort? PG-13 pornography, an SI swimsuit issue for the big screen with lots of slo-mo hair tossing, blouses unbuttoned down to there, asses shoved in the camera, closeups on moist lips. Vapid and self-consciously kitschy, these gals are a 13-year-old boy’s fantasy of a strong woman. This is Hollywood aiming T&A at little girls, but I wouldn’t let any little girl I cared about see this film.

In an attempt to make himself feel like a man and impress the girl of his dreams, nebbishy restaurant cook Yasuda (Tomoro Taguchi) concocts a scheme to rob a bank. But his careful plans fall to pieces, and try as he might to salvage them, things go from bad to worse, and he finds himself … more…

The wish to understand “the fundamental interconnectedness of all things” is what drove Douglas Adams’s philosophical detective Dirk Gently, and I’ve adopted that as my personal motto. Which is probably why I was fascinated by this new documentary from director Michael Apted. Through interviews with seven smart and witty scientists — pharmaceutical chemist Gertrude Elion, … more…