ELLIE PARKER: Naomi Watts plays a neurotic, needy actress-surely a big stretch.

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Ask the Dust

Giving this film an honest review is like telling a friend her newborn baby is ugly. It was obviously a labor of love for director Robert Towne. But this guy wrote Chinatown; he should know better. (Then again, Chinatown was 32 years ago, and he also wrote Tequila Sunrise and Days of Thunder.) Ask the Dust is adapted from a classic down-and-out-in-L.A. novel by John Fante, the furious Italian-American writer Charles Bukowski called a god. The novel's secret is the mix of bile and poetry in the internal monologues of its hero, struggling writer Arturo Bandini. But the movie ditches all that—you get nothing from Bandini (the criminally miscast Colin Farrell) except the asshole on the surface, inexplicably mean as well as weak and inept. Bandini rolls into town seeking fame and fortune. Instead he meets Camilla (Salma Hayek, and yes, you get to see her naked), a saucy Mexican waitress with whom he bickers, then makes up, then bickers some more. Not much else happens. After 6 million years, there's an accidentally hilarious sex scene that goes on so long you'd probably have time to read the novel twice before it's over (a much better use of your time). Finally, when you've reached the point of screaming at the movie to, godammit, just end already!!! comes the clincher: Farrell glues on a fake moustache to indicate the passage of time. Acting is awesome. R. BECKY OHLSEN. Fox Tower.

The Boys of Baraka

Seventy-six percent of African-American males in Baltimore city schools do not graduate from high school. With parents in jail or on drugs, and a similar bleak future awaiting them, boys' lives in the city are a series of broken promises. But the young boys profiled in Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's documentary The Boys of Baraka are inherently fearless and resolute. They do want to get out of the hopeless cycles that have damaged previous generations. The Baraka School is an experimental boarding school in the bush country of Kenya that chooses 20 at-risk boys from Baltimore, aiming to give them an academic foundation that will enable them to get into the most competitive high schools. Mavis Jackson, a recruiter for the Baraka School, tells a group of middle-school boys in Baltimore, "Most of you have about three things that will happen to you by the time you turn 18. You might get an orange jumpsuit with bracelets, or a nice black suit with a nice brown box; the third one is you might get a black gown, a cap and a diploma in your hand." The images in The Boys of Baraka are dire, but it is the eccentric, charismatic boys who make the film amazing. With disappointment branded on their forehead, they bear their atrocious home environment with maturity and fortitude. Their integrity is superior and heartbreaking. Whatever profound transformations occur in Kenya, being trapped in Baltimore is the real test, and these boys face it with equal parts hope and desperation. LAURA MULRY. Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 223-4515. 7 and 8:45 pm Wednesday-Thursday, March 22-23. $4-$7.

Brokeback Mountain

Director Ang Lee's tale of two male ranch hands who fall in love during the summer of 1963 is perhaps the most humanizing film in years. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal star as Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, who meet one summer while herding sheep in the mountains of Wyoming. One night of shared passion leads to 20 years of secret rendezvous, self-loathing, isolation and, most tragically, love denied. Adapted by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana from a short story by E. Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain is a poetic film of picturesque beauty offset by bone-deep melancholy. R. DAVID WALKER. Fox Tower, City Center.

Caché

The comfortable lives of Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche) are disrupted when they start receiving videotapes of the front of their house, along with threatening drawings that trigger Georges' long-suppressed memory of a childhood incident involving an orphaned Algerian (Maurice Bénichou) who lived on his family's estate. Michael Haneke's psych-out forces viewers into the role of creepy observer. R. BECKY OHLSEN. Fox Tower, Cinemagic, Lake Twin.

Curious George

Everyone's favorite inquisitive simian makes his animated big-screen debut. G. Lloyd Mall, Bridgeport.

Dave Chappelle's Block Party

Not since 1973's seminal documentary Wattstax has there been a more wonderful celebration of black culture in America. And just as that landmark concert defined the Afro-wearing era from which it was spawned, so too does Dave Chappelle's Block Party capture what's most beautiful about the contemporary hip-hop generation. In what is literally a block party in Brooklyn, N.Y., comedian extraordinare Dave Chappelle hosts some of the best and brightest performers from the world of hip-hop, R&B and soul. The lineup includes Kanye West, Mos Def, the Roots and a reunion performance by the Fugees. The comedy is laugh-out-loud hilarious, the music is turn-this-mutha-out funky, and the people are just plain real. This is quite simply a great party. R. DAVID WALKER. Lloyd Mall.

Eight Below

Directed by Frank Marshall (Congo), this live-action Disney adventure has Paul Walker as an expedition guide working for scientists in Antarctica. A storm sends Walker and the other humans helicoptering to safety, but Walker pledges to his "kids"—his eight trusty sled dogs—that he'll be back in a matter of hours to collect them. Well, as with all deadbeat dads, those hours turn into weeks, during which the dogs must fend for themselves. The scenery is often beautiful—Disney's nature-based films have always excelled there—and the dogs (who do not talk, thank goodness) are endearing if you're a pooch lover. But the scenes of Walker back in civilization, vacillating between launching a rescue mission and simply moving on with his life, are tedious. PG. ERIC D. SNIDER. Lloyd Mall, Roseway, Eastport, Division Street, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cornelius, Forest, Sherwood, Tigard, Cinema 99, City Center.

*NEW* Ellie Parker

[SHORT RUN] Naomi Watts gives another great performance in this deadpan Hollywood comedy satirizing the realities of a struggling, self-dramatizing actress. Undeniably hilarious scenes dwell on Ellie Parker's everyday activities, like driving in the car while rehearsing obscenities for an upcoming audition and interactions with her insipid boyfriend (Mark Pellegrino), who at one point tells her he hasn't been able to take a dump since she left him. Ellie's horrible taste in men and career shortcomings, along with her cliché-ridden neuroses, are capricious and unsympathetic but dead-on. The humor of this film is absolutely absurd, only because such base situations are rarely found in film. The sound and camera work are harsh (it was originally a short from actor and first-time director Scott Coffey, shot in 2001), but, considering the content, lend to an intimate voyeuristic appeal. No matter what the budget of the film she's working in, Watts consistently astounds with her transformative ability to become her character—in this case a crazy, afraid to be alone, attention-starved woman whom we have all known or been. LAURA MULRY. Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 223-4515. 5 pm Friday-Thursday, March 24-30. $4-$7.

Failure to Launch

The shame of still living at home in your 30s—and make no mistake, it is shameful—is addressed in Failure to Launch, an occasionally very funny but also very sloppy quasi-romantic comedy. It stars Matthew McConaughey as Tripp and Sarah Jessica Parker as Paula, the woman Tripp's parents hire to get him out of the house. Paula does this for a living: She'll meet the guy you've hired her to deal with, charm him, date him, then boost his self-esteem to the point where he decides to get a place of his own, at which point she gently breaks off the romance and he's none the wiser. This being a rom-com, Paula must fall in love with Tripp for real, Tripp must learn of her deceit, and at least one pivotal scene must take place in the rain. But despite the slavish devotion to genre conventions, the script (by TV writers Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember) is peppered with snappy exchanges and witty dialogue, particularly in scenes with Paula's bitter alcoholic roommate, Kit, played with hilarious apathy by Zooey Deschanel. Among the 13,782 romantic comedies that will be released this year, surely this one is among the top 5,000 or so. PG-13. ERIC D. SNIDER. Pioneer Place, Eastport, Division, Moreland, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cornelius, Sandy, Sherwood, Tigard, Cinema 99, Cinetopia, City Center, Vancouver Plaza.

The Grandfather Trilogy

[SHORT RUN] Chicago filmmaker Allen Ross' collected works known as the Grandfather Trilogy grapple with issues of death. Described as a "radical approach to portraiture," the films in this collection paint a cinematic picture of Ross' grandfather. Cinema Project, New American Art Union, 922 SE Ankeny St., 232-8269. 7:30 pm Tuesday-Wednesday, March 28-29. $6.

Highway Courtesans

[SHORT RUN] In this inspiring documentary, a young girl is caught between contemporary ideals and the tradition of her rural Indian town, where the eldest daughter of her family becomes a prostitute. Mercy Corps, a sponsor of the screening, will hold a post-film discussion. Guild Theatre, 829 SW 9th Ave., 221-1156. 7 pm Thursday, March 23. $4-$7.

The Hills Have Eyes

Like Wes Craven's original, The Hills Have Eyes follows a family, broken down in the New Mexico desert and stalked by a tribe of mutated cannibals, and it follows the original to a T for the first act (which isn't necessarily a good thing). In the second half, the film comes into its own with a visit to the mutants' compound—an eerie nuclear test village complete with demolished houses, blast-test dummies and body parts strewn about. Alexandre Aja, who helmed the brutal flop High Tension, seems unconcerned with making us jump. He wants us to writhe. He does so with the subtlety of an ax to the forehead. The French director proves he knows how to mangle, as limbs gush and heads are split during the freaky mutant rampage. The result is mixed—flat and derivative, yet morbidly satisfying. If the film winked, it would come off as a bloody throwback to the campy sci-fi of the '50s. Instead, it's too self-serious. Slasher fans will love it. Others might pass out when the first head is blown into chunks. R. AP KRYZA. Eastport, Division Street, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Sandy, Cinema 99, City Center, Vancouver Plaza.

Films of Isabelle Huppert

[SHORT RUN] The Northwest Film Center continues its retrospective of Isabelle Huppert's career. The Ceremony (Whitsell, 7 pm Thursday) stars Huppert as a devious, guileful postal worker who manipulates a bourgeois couple in a grander plan of vengeance. In the historical drama Saint-Cyr (Whitsell, 7 pm Friday), Huppert plays Madame de Maintenon, the commoner who became the wife of Louis XIV and founded an enlightened school where battles of politics and religion arise. The shocking masterpiece Story of Women (Whitsell, 7 pm Saturday) features Huppert as Marie Latour, the last woman to be guillotined in France, in 1943, on account of her success in providing abortions. The Piano Teacher (Whitsell, 7 pm Sunday) offers a desperate and stupefying look at a woman (Huppert), dedicated to music and at war with her mother, who expresses her sexuality and angst with sadistic and masochistic behavior. Whitsell Auditorum, 1219 SW Park Ave., 221-1156. $4-$7.

Inside Man

The latest film from Spike Lee, starring Denzel Washington. Look for the review next week. R. Opens Friday March 24. Pioneer Place, Lloyd Cinema, Eastport, Division, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cornelius, Sandy, Sherwood, Tigard, Cinema 99, Cinetopia, City Center, Vancouver Plaza.

The Libertine

Talk about disappointing. This should've been my dream movie: a wine-drunk and slutty Johnny Depp as the notorious horndog John Wilmot, 17th-century Earl of Rochester, famous for his enthusiastic debauchery and pornographic verse. Instead, the film echoes Wilmot's short life in its rapid deterioration. Depp's introductory voice-over is promising, but from there the movie sinks into a muddy, foggy mess. It's sort of a love story; Wilmot, whose only true love is theater, falls for actress Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton) and determines to make her a star. But the film's strict adherence to historical fact ends up cluttering its themes. There's a substory about Wilmot redeeming himself in the eyes of his brother, King Charles II (John Malkovich in a really awful fake nose), and then there's some family-values stuff and a clumsy AA commercial (message: Drinking wine will make you pee your pants, get syphilis and go blind!). This may be Depp's best attempt yet at making himself look bad; sorry, Johnny, but even noseless and covered in boils, you're still kinda cute. NR. BECKY OHLSEN. Lloyd Mall, Bridgeport.

The Lords of Flatbush

[SHORT RUN] Before they were Rocky and the Fonz, Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler starred in this coming-of-age take set in 1950s Brooklyn. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 238-8899. 7 pm Friday-Thursday, March 24-30. $4-$6.

Madea's Family Reunion

Tyler Perry is back in drag for this follow-up to Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Not screened for press. PG-13. Lloyd Mall.

*NEW* Manderlay

Lars von Trier used to make movies and write manifestos. And he used to be pretty good at both. But with Manderlay, the Danish director has combined the two, and the sum is a whole lot less than the parts. This follow-up to Dogville uses the same bare-stage setting and stilted dialogue with omniscient voiceover by John Hurt. Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard, replacing Nicole Kidman) gets her gangster lawyers to free the slaves at a Southern plantation and, oh benevolence, give them ownership of the place. Much to her amazement, they are less than overjoyed to be "liberated" and left to starve by some rich white lady. Though set in America, the film is a critique of human idiocy worldwide, and it does raise some thought-provoking issues. But it's so heavy-handed that it feels like a sociology lecture in college. BECKY OHLSEN. Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 223-4515. 7 pm Friday-Thursday, March 24-30. Additional shows 12:30 pm Saturday-Sunday. $4-$7.

Match Point

Trading the familiar haunts of his beloved New York City for London, Woody Allen—even though treading territory explored to perfection in Crimes and Misdemeanors—practically reinvents himself. The otherwise annoying Jonathan Rhys-Meyers stars as Chris Wilton, a poor kid from Ireland turned tennis pro, now rubbing elbows with London's upper crust. The object of Chris' true desire is Nola (Scarlett Johansson), who will drive him to desperate actions, first to possess her and then to discard her. Match Point is not Allen's best film, but it is the director at his best, exploring his standby topics of sexual desire, infidelity and fate. R. DAVID WALKER. Fox Tower, Cinemagic.

Munich

Inspired by true events, Steven Spielberg's taut political thriller takes place in the aftermath of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, where Palestinian terrorists killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team. Eric Bana (Chopper, Hulk) stars as Avner Kauffman, an otherwise mild-mannered agent for the Mossad (the Israeli secret service) who is dispatched on a top-secret mission to eliminate those responsible for the murders in Munich. R. DAVID WALKER. Pioneer Place.

Nanny McPhee

Here is a delightful family comedy with a vibrant color palette, wry performances from the children, and highly focused enthusiasm from the grown-ups. The titular nanny (played by Emma Thompson, who also adapted the screenplay from Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda books) is a magical, horrifically ugly woman—think Mary Poppins with a bucktooth and a bulbous nose—who arrives unbidden to reform the seven Brown children, who have become brats since the death of their mother some months earlier. PG. ERIC D. SNIDER. Vancouver Plaza.

Neil Young: Heart of Gold

The concert film Neil Young: Heart of Gold captures why the old guy's career has lasted four decades, why so many performers who came after him consider him a godfather, and why he is revered in every musical circle from country to grunge. The reason? Because he's so damn good. Directed with masterful understatement by Jonathan Demme (whose Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense is widely regarded as one of the best concert films ever), Heart of Gold takes us to the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and lets us see Young and his band in action, unadorned and without fanfare. There are no tricky camera angles or cool editing tricks, just long, unbroken takes and plenty of closeups. Demme gives us a fly-on-the-wall view of Young's intimate performance and lets the songs speak for themselves. And what songs they are! The lyrics are often poetic but rarely pretentious, and Young sings them all with conviction and heart. ERIC D. SNIDER. Fox Tower.

Night Watch

If you've been paying attention to all the advance buzz surrounding this film—the first part in a trilogy and the highest-grossing film in Russian history—then your expectations are probably high. Well, the payoff is something like this: There are some cool parts in Timur Bekmambetov's effects-heavy tale of good versus evil, but this ain't exactly the be-all-and-end-all, either. The story, convoluted as it is, has something to do with an age-old battle between the forces of light and dark. The Night Watch is a sort of law-enforcement agency of the light, determined to keep the world from being overrun by darkness. Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) is an agent of light who gets caught up in some sort of mishmash when a doom-'n'-gloom prophecy starts to come to fruition. Of course, it is all a bit more confusing than that, as golly-gee special effects ride roughshod over story in this Matrix-like opus (only with vampires and shape shifters). Perhaps if Night Watch were arriving without all the hype proclaiming it to be the best thing since motion met pictures, it might seem better than it is. R. DAVID WALKER. Fox Tower.

The Pink Panther

Reinventing the classic Pink Panther franchise is a project that should be approached with trepidation. The new script is a prequel to the first Peter Sellers film, and Steve Martin, who helped write the screenplay, pulls off Inspector Jacques Clouseau absolutely brilliantly. Martin gives a performance equal to Sellers' and shows there are people other than Will Ferrell who will make you laugh out loud. PG. LAURA MULRY. Lloyd Mall, Eastport, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cinema 99, Vancouver Plaza.

The Shaggy Dog

Tim Allen stars in this Disney remake about a man who turns into a dog. Aren't all men dogs? PG. Lloyd Mall, Eastport, Division, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cornelius, Sandy, Sherwood, Tigard, Cinema 99, City Center, Vancouver Plaza.

She's the Man

The main character in She's the Man is so stupid that I'm amazed she's able to take a shower without drowning. Her name is Viola (Amanda Bynes), and in this Twelfth Night-inspired teen farce, she dresses up like her twin brother to take his place at a prep school, in an elaborate scheme to get even with her ex-boyfriend. In order to achieve "comedy," the simple-minded screenplay (credited to four people, not counting Shakespeare) uses the shtick employed by most comedies about people going undercover: She makes no attempt whatsoever to actually fit in. See, she's supposed to be a guy, but she keeps forgetting and acting like a girl! Isn't that hysterical?! Seriously, every five seconds she forgets what she's doing, says something girly, and then goes, "Ahem! I mean, um [manly voice], what's up, dude?" And each time she does, Bynes overplays the "comedy" of the situation with buggy eyes and flailing hands, like a reject Stooge. That it's a lousy comedy is a given; that it's aggravating and frustrating, too, is just crap icing on the crap cake. PG-13. ERIC SNIDER. Lloyd Mall, Century Eastport, Division Street, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cornelius, Sandy Cinema, Tigard Cinemas, Cinema 99, Cinetopia, Vancouver Plaza

Singles

[SHORT RUN] Cameron Crowe's look at whiny yuppies in Seattle during the 1990s is best known for its lightning-in-a-bottle soundtrack featuring Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone, Paul Westerberg and Alice in Chains. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 238-8899. 9 pm Friday-Thursday, March 24-30. Additional shows 5 pm Saturday-Sunday. $4-$6.

16 Blocks

Too entertaining to be truly bad, and too flawed to be truly great, 16 Blocks is one of those films with as many reasons to watch it as not. Bruce Willis stars as Jack, a washed-up cop saddled with the seemingly no-brain task of transporting motor-mouth witness Eddie (Mos Def) to court. What Jack doesn't know is that Eddie is the star witness in a trial to bring down a crooked cop—along with several of Jack's old cronies—and is being set up to get capped. But when Jack intervenes in Eddie's killing, he pits himself against a small army of killer cops (a redundancy if there ever was one). Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner starts off with a strong film, building great tension and setting up the cliché but fun relationship between Jack and Eddie. But things start to malfunction around the halfway point, and the sure-footed actioner starts to trip over its own two feet. Despite the flaws that come with increasing regularity, the whole affair never gets so bad you have to stop watching, which means all you need to do is decide if you want to start watching in the first place. PG-13. DAVID WALKER. Eastport, Division, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Tigard, Cinema 99, Cinetopia, City Center, Vancouver Plaza.

The Song Remains the Same

[SHORT RUN] Led Zeppelin's classic 1976 concert, filmed in Madison Square Garden, is remastered and back on the big screen for this 30th-anniversary edition. PG. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 238-8899. 9 pm Wednesday-Thursday, March 22-23. $6.

39 Pounds of Love

[SHORT RUN] No, it's not midget porn—you sicko. 39 Pounds of Love is a documentary about Ami Ankilewitz, considered one of the world's greatest medical miracles. When he was a year old, a doctor in Mexico diagnosed Ami with a rare type of muscular dystrophy and said he wouldn't live past age 6. The disease progressed quickly, rendering Ami's muscles useless, but he hung in there. The documentary opens on Ami's 34th birthday party. He now weighs 39 pounds and can move only one finger, which he uses to do computer animation. For his birthday, Ami, who lives in Israel, decides to travel across the United States in search of the doctor who diagnosed him. It's a pretty incredible story, although the film has a slight movie-of-the-week feel and plenty of sap. Ami's animations are woven into the story line, adding some lightness to his own tale of unrequited love, but most of the humor and warmth in the film come from Ami himself and his fiercely devoted friends and family. BECKY OHLSEN. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. 7:30 pm Friday-Thursday, March 24-30. Additional shows 4 and 5:30 pm Saturday-Sunday. $4-$7.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

In his impressive debut as a feature director, actor Tommy Lee Jones, working with a script by Guillermo Arriaga (21 Grams, Amores Perros), drinks deep from the well of filmmaker Sam Peckinpah. A postmodern, existential western, Three Burials takes place in a tiny Texas town along the Mexican border. Jones stars as Pete Perkins, a ranch hand who befriends Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cedillo), an illegal immigrant who is later murdered by Mike Norton (Barry Pepper), an overzealous Border Patrol guard. Estrada's death goes largely ignored, and despite Pete's requests, the body is buried in a lonely grave. Determined to do right by his friend, Pete sets out to recover the body and give it a proper burial in Mexico—a mission he will accomplish with the forced help of Mike. Grim, violent and at times darkly comedic, Three Burials recalls Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia in its grimy, poetic beauty. Jones is great—as both actor and director—bringing to life a modern folk tale of retribution and redemption. R. DAVID WALKER. Fox Tower.

Transamerica

Huffman gives an outstanding performance as Bree Osbourne, a pre-op transsexual caught in a gender limbo—not quite a complete woman, still partially a man. Just as Bree is about to undergo the final operation, she gets a call from Toby (Kevin Zegers), a teen boy looking for Stanley Osbourne. It turns out that before the hormone treatments started, Bree was Stanley. And during a "failed lesbian experiment" in college, Stanley fathered a child—the nearly 18-year-old Toby, now leading a troubled life as a hustler. Despite relying on the age-old cinematic convention of a road trip to convey personal growth and enlightenment, writer-director Duncan Tucker manages to keep Transamerica from degenerating into a jumbled mess of clichés. Instead, he infuses the film and his characters with quirky humanity that keeps them from becoming stereotypes. R. DAVID WALKER. Fox Tower.

Transformers: The Movie

[SHORT RUN] Celebrate the 20th anniversary of this classic tale of good vs. evil, as the fearless Autobots—without the leadership of Optimus Prime—take on the sinister Decepticons. Featuring the vocal talents of Casey Kasem (Shaggy on Scooby Doo) and Scatman Crothers (Hong Kong Phooey). Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 238-8899. 7 pm Wednesday-Thursday, March 22-23. $6.

Tristram Shandy:A Cock and Bull Story

Laurence Sterne's 18th-century novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is an epic, meandering, absurd novel that could never be made into a movie. And that is the brilliance of this film—a sort of cross between Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 and Adaptation. British actor Steve Coogan stars as self-absorbed British actor Steve Coogan, who is starring as Tristram Shandy and his father in a film that jumps back and forth from a cinematic adaptation of Sterne's book to a behind-the-scenes look at the problem-plagued production. Coogan is brilliant, but so is everyone else, including Rob Brydon as Rob Brydon, an insecure co-star co-starring as Tristram's uncle. A nonstop comedic onslaught of both slapstick and cerebral humor, the silly and the sublime, the obvious and the subtle, Tristram Shandy is the sort of film that will have people either falling in love or being totally turned off. Those who don't like comedies that make you think will want to stay away, but for those who like their comedy as intellectually engaging as it is laugh-out-loud funny, this film is not to be missed. R. DAVID WALKER. Hollywood.

*NEW* Tsotsi

Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, this movie about one tough little thug's hope for redemption takes place in a dusty Johannesburg shantytown. Young gangster Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae) and his pals do increasingly violent "jobs" to get by. Out on his own one night, Tsotsi steals a car from a rich woman and discovers as he's driving off that her baby is in the back seat. Director Gavin Hood's film isn't terribly believable, but it has the weight of myth or parable, so maybe realism can take a back seat to optimism just this once. It's hard not to feel completely entranced as Tsotsi's complex reactions to the baby play out on the remarkable face of actor Chweneyagae. R. BECKY OHLSEN. Opens Friday, March 24. Fox Tower.

V for Vendetta

Set in the not-too-distant future where England is a fascist nation that has separated itself from the rest of the world, V for Vendetta is an ambitious film that almost hits the target. Obscured by a mask, Hugo Weaving stars as V, a mysterious "terrorist" out to topple the Orwellian dictatorship that oppresses Great Britain. Natalie Portman stars as the would-be revolutionary who is rescued from peril by V and eventually becomes a pivotal cog in his machine. Adapted from Alan Moore's 1980s comic-book series by director John McTeigue and screenwriters the Wachowski brothers (of Matrix fame)—with enough liberties taken that Moore had his name removed from the film's credits—the film is not without style or cautionary, politicized messages. In fact, the political reality of V for Vendetta is not a far stretch from where the United States is today. And while the film is effective enough to achieve an admirable level of cerebral action drama, the uneven script serves as a stumbling block that keeps the whole thing from ever resting comfortably in the realm of genius. R. DAVID WALKER. Pioneer Place, St. Johns Twin, Lloyd Cinema, Eastport, Division Street, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cornelius, Hilltop, Sandy, Sherwood, Wilsonville, Cinema 99, Cinetopia, City Center, Vancouver Plaza.

The World's Fastest Indian

The coolest thing about this movie—the story of Burt Munro, an ancient New Zealander who set the 1967 land-speed record at Bonneville Salt Flats on an even more ancient Indian motorcycle—is a shelf in Burt's garage full of offerings to the Gods of Speed (mainly broken pistons he made himself). The second-coolest thing is Anthony Hopkins as Munro—a mechanical genius who busted his tail to prove it on the flats. Most of the film is a leisurely road movie in which Munro bumbles his kiwi way through encounters with various quirky characters. It gets sappy in parts, and those who live for things that go fast will probably get a little fidgety, but the payoff comes when Burt finally makes it to Bonneville. Good luck not rooting for the old guy. PG-13. BECKY OHLSEN. Hollywood, Bridgeport, Cinetopia, City Center.