All About my Mother/Toto Sobre mi Madre 18
Directed by Pedro Almodovar Starring Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Antonia San Juan, Penelope Cruz, Eloy Azorin
The most mature and sensitive film to date from Almodovar, this is an entrancing experience which draws its characters with great affection and compassion. Superbly performed by an impeccable cast and stamped with Almodovar's trademark flourishes, it is all about women and their stoicism and tenacity as they struggle to cope with the complexities and upheavals of their lives, and the roles they play in order to survive. The principal characters are a single mother who loses her son in an accident, a famous actress and her junkie lesbian lover, a former truck driver who's now a transvestite prostitute, and a pregnant young nun. (In Spanish with English sub-titles.)
GO 18Directed by Doug Liman Starring Sarah Polley, Desmond Askew, Scott Wolf, Jay Morh, William Fichtner, Katie Holmes, Jane Krakowski
Swingers director Liman assembles a spirited ensemble cast for an exhilarating picture of a dozen vividly etched characters over the course of one hectic Christmas Eve night in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and it employs a similar timeshifting structure to Pulp Fiction as it untangles its interconnected narratives, mostly involving sex and drugs, from different perspectives. This heady, stylish entertainment pulsates with an energy that's further charged by a vigorous soundtrack and by Liman's dexterous, swooping camerawork.
Simon Birch
Directed by Mark Steven Johnson Starring Ian Michael Smith, Joseph Mazello, Ashley Judd
This wretched distillation of John Irving's A Prayer For Owen Meany jettisons whole chunks of the novel to concentrate on one year in the life of the undersized, precocious youngster at its centre. He is reduced to a shrill smartass by this saccharine movie's all-too-literal reading of Irving's picaresque novel. Jim Carrey, who appears fleetingly, supplies the maudlin narration.