Eschewing the politics behind a 1993 clash between Somali militiamen and U.S. special forces, this battle epic from director Ridley Scott (Hannibal, Gladiator) concentrates on the logistical details of modern warfare. For nearly three hours, the immediate concerns of these grunts – such as how to keep driving an armored car after bits of windshield

Most romantic tragedies turn on contrived, facile melodrama, but the shattering Brokeback Mountain hurts so much because its tragedy feels so true. The movie’s lovers, a pair of cowboys who first meet in 1963 Wyoming (Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger), are kept apart by forces that you can feel: prejudice, societal pressure and above all

An earnest but cliched independent effort about a high-school senior and aspiring animator (Dante Basco) struggling to reconcile his ambitions with his immigrant Filipino heritage. Obvious if well-intentioned lessons abound, meaning you’ll probably want to like The Debut more than you actually do.

Inspirational sports movies aren’t known for their subtlety, but Goal! embraces its feel-good cliches with an enthusiasm that’s embarrassing. Kuno Becker plays a Mexican soccer sensation trying to make it on the pro level in England, and it’s hard to decide what is more cliched during his obvious journey to stardom, the ups (yes, there

Take away director Martin Scorsese’s name, and what do you have with this portrait of industrialist/pilot/filmmaker/weirdo Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio)? Yet another movie biography angling for end-of-year honors, albeit one a bit more sensitively handled and artfully done. The picture certainly has its rewards, including DiCaprio’s laser-like focus, but it pins Scorsese in the past.

Playing fast and loose with the facts behind the making of 1922’s Nosferatu – German director F.W. Murnau’s silent adaptation of Dracula – Shadow of the Vampire posits that the movie’s otherworldly star, Max Schreck, was a bloodsucker in real life. Aided by a bravura title performance from Willem Dafoe – his Schreck is a

Another provocative picture from filmmaker Andrew Niccol (writer-director of Gattaca and writer of The Truman Show), Simone claims it doesn’t take much to be a star. Sometimes, as happens here when a washed-up movie director (Al Pacino) creates a computer-generated actress, you don’t even have to exist. Simone exposes the hollowness of celebrity culture with

The feature directorial debut of Tommy Lee Jones actually stands out more as another fractured tale from screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (21 Grams). Arriaga’s multilayered stories weave about in unexpected directions, and the question here is whether or not Jones can lasso them in. Jones also stars as an aging cowboy whose friend – the illegal

Part documentary, part autobiography and part dramatization, all based on Harvey Pekar’s cult comic-book series, American Splendor cleverly manages to keep the Cleveland crank’s vision intact. For both Pekar and the movie, everyday life is a form of routine performance art, to be endured as much as enjoyed.