Beach, The (2000)

Thriller Rated R

A clever cautionary tale about the dangers of a would-be Shangri-la, The Beach dangles sun, sand and skin before our eyes – and then cruelly snatches it all away. Leonardo DiCaprio puts his good looks to subversive use as Richard, a young American abroad whose sexual betrayals turn an idyllic island into paradise lost.

Blood & Chocolate (2007)

Horror Rated PG-13

There’s something refreshingly low-tech about this werewolf romance which compensates for the shagginess that otherwise defines the production. Set in contemporary Bucharest, the movie follows a young werewolf (Agnes Bruckner, exuding carnality) who feels compassion, not hatred, for full-fledged humans. That compassion turns to love when she falls for a visiting American artist (Hugh Dancy).

ABC Africa (2001)

Documentary Rated NR

The parade of suffering yet smiling kids peering into the camera in ABC Africa is endless, and that’s the point. This compassionate, impressionistic documentary, from acclaimed Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, tries to come to grips with the 1.6 million orphans in Uganda whose parents succumbed to AIDS. The film provides some facts, but more importantly

Martian Child (2007)

Drama Rated PG

“Coleman … seems to have been cast not for his chemistry with Cusack but for his adorable lack of key baby teeth.

Ararat (2002)

Drama Rated R

How can an artist be true to the tragic past? That’s the question driving Ararat, a movie that poses the query to itself as much as it does to endeavors such as Schindler’s List. An extremely personal effort from Canadian-Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter), Ararat features his usual abstract approach, this time to

Art School Confidential (2006)

Drama Rated R

Like the socially awkward art students it depicts, Art School Confidential is at turns endearing and cringe-inducing. It’s best to focus on the endearing qualities. This is the third feature from director Terry Zwigoff, whose previous odes to misfit souls are Bad Santa and Ghost World (as well as the documentary Crumb). Zwigoff is in

Ask the Dust (2006)

Drama Rated R

If only writing in real life could be as romantic as it often is in the movies. Ask the Dust, from writer-director Robert Towne), stars Colin Farrell as Arturo Bandini, an aspiring novelist in Depression-era Los Angeles who is dirt poor but still manages to afford a dapper if distressed wardrobe and a vintage room

Assassination of Richard Nixon, The (2005)

Drama Rated R

Another showy but unflattering role for Sean Penn, who plays Samuel Bicke, based on the man who tried to hijack a plane in 1974 in an ill-fated attempt to crash it into the White House. Perhaps the Achilles heel of Bicke – the man’s actual name was spelled Byck – was his belief that it

Assassination Tango (2003)

Drama Rated R

This may be a greater labor of love for writer-director-star Robert Duvall than his other auteurist effort, 1997’s The Apostle, though it’s the far lesser film. A valentine to the dance form the actor adores, Assassination Tango nevertheless suffers from infatuation. Duvall’s clearly taken with the tango, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be taken with

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

Thriller Rated R

At least this remake doesn’t try to pump up the B-movie elements of its 1976 source with A-list pretensions. This is exploitation material that’s happy to stay that way. Once again, an ill-equipped band of cops and criminals at a nearly abandoned precinct – it is scheduled to close the next day – are attacked