Comic treats, mad beats and accomplished feats

PREVIEW: SWEET HOME ALABAMA

(Touchstone Pictures)

Directed by Andy Tennant

Reese Witherspoon stars AS former Alabama trailer trash who's moved up the New York City social ladder and is about to marry the mayor's son. But first she has to return home and obtain a divorce from her working-class husband. After last summer's Legally Blonde is there any doubt that Witherspoon is a great comic talent? There shouldn't be after this film.

Lewis Beale

PREVIEW: SWEPT AWAY

(Sony Screen Gems)

Directed by Guy Ritchie

Ritchie's sun-drenched remake of Lina Wertmuller's 1974 Italian romance stars Mrs. Ritchie, the Material Girl, as, well, a material girl who discovers humility (and true love) while shipwrecked with a lowly sailor (Adriano Giannini, son of the great Giancarlo Giannini, who played the role in the original). As a movie star, Madonna's still seeking the ideal port; has her husband finally steered her in the right direction?

Julie Horvath

PREVIEW: RED DRAGON

(Universal Studios)

Directed by Brett Ratner

Ratner mans this remake of Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986), based on the first of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter novels. Anthony Hopkins plays a younger, pre-Starling Lecter, while Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ralph Fiennes round out the appetizing cast.

Henry Cabot Beck

REVIEW: THE RULES OF ATTRACTION

(Lions Gate Films)

Directed by Roger Avary

James Van Der Beek--in the role of his career--headlines a cast of gorgeous indulgents at a privileged, Dionysian university. Taking Bret Easton Ellis' 1987 novel to the screen, Avary's pounding direction conveys the pain and confusion of his characters directly to the viewer: Like the morning after a late night, you're dazed and even a little nauseous, but you're pleased to have had the experience.

Scott Lyle Cohen

REVIEW: WHITE OLEANDER

(Warner Bros.)

Directed by Peter Kosminsky

When her maniacal mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) is jailed for murdering a lover, Alison Lohman's Astrid is left in the care of a string of foster parents (Robin Wright Penn, Cole Hauser, Renee Zellweger), and forced to make the leap from adolescence to womanhood amidst acridity and abuse and, ultimately, alone. Adapted from Janet Fitch's best-selling novel, Oleander is a rose. Newcomer Lohman is magnificent, the breakout actor of the season.

SLC

REVIEW: PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE

(Columbia Pictures)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Anderson's latest tells the story of Barry Egan (Adam Sandler), a pitiful everyman limited by the banalities of life--a lousy salesman's job, nagging sisters--and crippling uncertainty. Less sweeping in scale than Magnolia (1999), and with a soundtrack arid tempo that suggest impending doom, the film explores Egan's tortured journey, from righteous phone sex operators, through brightly lit frozen food aisles, to a tentative love affair with his sister's co-worker (Emily Watson). A hit at Cannes, the film candidly reveals America's broken emotional landscape.

Sara Switzer

REVIEW: BROWN SUGAR

(Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Directed by Rick Famuyiwa

Back in the day, a little girl fell for an emerging art form called hip-hop. Twenty years later, the girl is a woman (Sanaa Lathan) who's fallen for her married best friend (Taye Diggs). Part love story and part hip-hop love letter (with a tight soundtrack arid appearances by Mos Def and Queen Latifah), Sugar is a sweet-natured date movie that will take you back to the days when keeping it real meant following your heart.

Susan Johnston

REVIEW: BLOODY SUNDAY

(Paramount Classics)

Directed by Paul Greengrass

This searing docudrama depicts the events of January 30, 1972, when British soldiers policing a civil rights march in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, shot 27 unarmed civilians, killing 13 men (a 14th died later). Although some observers have accused Greengrass of making anti-British propaganda, he took care to depict sympathetically the flustered brigadier directing the army operation and a private horrified by the slaughter. It's the most powerful film about the Troubles since Alan Clarke's Contact.

Graham Fuller

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