A nihilistic drama full of hip misery and forced edginess, Rules depicts the college experience as a land of loneliness, betrayal, drug abuse and sexual humiliation. A young cast (including James Van Der Beek of television’s “Dawson’s Creek”) desperately strives for indie credibility, but they all come away soiled by the sensationalistic sadism on display.

In following the adventures of Violet (Piper Perabo), a sweet wanabe songwriter who learns to exploit her looks as a flesh-baring bartender, Coyote Ugly wants to sell itself as a new form of feminism, in which women exercise their right to be thought of as pieces of meat. Too bad this dubious message is muddled

An ambitious directorial debut from John Malkovich, this is an unassuming adaptation of Nicholas Shakespeare’s novel about a violent guerrilla revolution in an unspecified South American country and the corrupt government’s attempts to quell it. Javier Bardem projects a quiet dignity as the policeman in charge of the investigation. His strong performance helps Malkovich wrestle

An overwrought adaptation of a Sam Shepard play in which a horse-racing scam from the past comes back to haunt three friends (Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte and Sharon Stone, each giving showy auditions for an Academy Award).

Empire pits a Bronx drug dealer (John Leguizamo) against a yuppie broker (Peter Sarsgaard) after the broker coaxes the dealer to try his hand at high finance, only to disappear with the earnest money. What could have been a gritty exploration of cultural conflict instead spends too much time on the generic thug life of

Silly, superficial and even infantile, this misguided drama about a single woman (Madonna) who has a baby after a one-night stand with her gay best friend (Rupert Everett) thinks it’s making a brave social statement about the makeup of the new American family. But it’s too poorly crafted – check out the inept lighting –

Most romantic comedies bury the loneliness and disappointment that is inevitably a part of any romance in one tidy sequence, usually involving the hero or heroine walking despondently in the rain. Shopgirl – adapted from Steve Martin’s novella about a love triangle involving a drifting Los Angeles sales clerk (Claire Danes, sad and sweet), a

Hilary Duff once again showcases her considerable screen charm – her specialty is scrunching her eyebrows so that she looks cute even while in distress – but this modern take on the fairy tale consist mostly of high-school movie cliches. It’s hardly the prince of a vehicle she deserves.

Robin Williams is in serious, simpering mode for this science-fiction drama about a “cutter” who edits footage that a person with a video-recording implant records from the day of his or her birth. The assembled movie, or “rememory,” is then shown at the person’s funeral. Intriguing ethical, technical and even theological questions arise, but writer-director