DRAMA
This is easily the best Harry Potter film yet, though a few qualifiers need to be added to that endorsement. Darker than the earlier films and filled with greater emotional nuance, it is likely to appeal more to adults and adolescents than to younger kids. And if you haven't seen the two previous Potter movies or read J.K. Rowling's wildly popular novels upon which they are based, you may have a tough time figuring out who's who and what's what and miss out on the shadings and some of the jokes.
Harry Potter (Radcliffe), now 13, is still a wizard-in-training at Hogwarts, a school for the magically inclined. He finds himself in apparent danger when an evil wizard, Sirius Black (Oldman), escapes from Azkaban prison. Harry is told that Black passed on information that led to the death of our hero's parents and that he's now after Harry.
Unlike earlier Potter films, where you often felt as if you were watching kids ape grown-up action heroes, the emphasis here is on an adolescent Harry and his pals meeting dangerous challenges with measured courage and ingenuity rather than just derring-do. Director Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamà También), new to the series, tightens the focus on characters and relationships. The supporting cast remains a dazzling who's who of British character actors, though returning vets Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman are underused. Emma Thompson is the standout freshman, contributing a hilarious bit as dithering Sibyll Trelawney, a vision-challenged professor of divination. And while the late Richard Harris's magisterial aura is missed as Albus Dumbledore, successor Gambon makes for a seemingly more approachable headmaster of Hogwarts. (PG)
Anne Reid, Daniel Craig
CRITIC'S CHOICE
Grandmothers have sex too. You just don't see it pictured on screen much. Here's your chance—one well worth taking.
In this compassionate drama about love and family and making a place for oneself, May's husband dies while the older couple are visiting their adult offspring in London. May (Reid) stays on, not wanting to return to her smalltown home alone. She soon befriends Darren (Craig), the vagabond carpenter who's renovating her son's home and dating her daughter. She makes him tea. After May glimpses Darren shirtless, tea isn't the only thing being stirred between the two.
With an appreciation for the vexing complexities of human relations, The Mother shows how desperately we all want to connect and how impossibly difficult that can sometimes be, even with family. Director Roger Michell (Changing Lanes) and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi have crafted a film that's moving without being mawkish. Reid, an English actress little known in the U.S., is pitch-perfect as May, a woman who has never asked herself until now what it is that she wants. Craig is equally impressive as Darren, not shying away from showing his character's weaknesses as well as his ingratiating charm. (R)
Tom Arnold, Snoop Dogg, Kevin Hart
COMEDY
A slapdash effort that looks as if it were made on a patched-up wing and a prayer, Soul Plane tries to wring laughs from a motley collection of smutty gags and racial stereotypes. High-class comedy this is not, though it manages to earn a slight chuckle or two as it flies by in a breezy 86 minutes. Can you wait for the DVD to see this one? Absolutely, if even that.
The setting is the maiden flight of the sole plane operated by a new black-owned airline, NWA. Its slogan: "We fly, we party, we land." Crammed into the aircraft are a lecherous blind man, a dope-smoking pilot (Dogg), a nervous white guy (Arnold) and others. When the pilot passes out after ingesting what he mistakes for hallucinogenic mushrooms, NWA's owner (Hart) must try to land the plane. Think Airplane! updated, dirtier and low on fuel, and you begin to get the idea. (R)
Shrek 2
Everyone's favorite ogre must win over his bride's parents in an amusing follow-up to the 2001 hit. The pop-culture references whiz by, making this as much fun (if not more) for adults as it is for kids. (PG)
Super Size Me
In an entertaining attack on Big Macs, documentarian Morgan Spurlock dines solely on McDonald's fare for 30 days. The results will make you warier of ordering fast food. (Not rated)
The Story of the Weeping Camel
If you can't make it to the Mongolian desert for vacation, this captivating up-close look at the barren land and its residents is the next-best thing. A documentary that includes fictional plot elements, it focuses on an extended family of herders. When one of their camels rejects her new off-spring, the family sends their son to a far-off town to fetch a musician to come and play in an ancient ritual designed to reunite parent and child. (PG)
Since Otar left
An art-house gem, this bittersweet film is a find. Three generations of women sharing an apartment in Tbilisi, Georgia, cope with the difficulties of daily life in an ex-Soviet Republic. (Not rated)
Already tiring of this summer's bombastic blockbusters? Bigger isn't always better. Instead, give some of these intimate, griping dramas a look.
Mystic River (Warner, $39.98)
Director Clint Eastwood's moving examination of three childhood pals (Kevin Bacon and Oscar winners Sean Penn and Tim Robbins) torn apart by a pair of tragic events.
Extras: The three-disc set offers breezy, illuminating commentary from Robbins and Bacon, three informative Charlie Rose interviews and a superfluous CD of River's Eastwood-penned score, which loses its punch when isolated from the film. (R)
The Station Agent (Miramax, $29.99)
This touching and often comic gem about a dwarf (a superb, understated Peter Dinklage) who inherits an abandoned train depot earned Independent Spirit and Sundance awards.
Extras: Genial but restrained commentary from the director and cast; deleted scenes, including a sweet coda with costars Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale. (R)
Monster (Columbia TriStar, $26.95)
Charlize Theron deservedly won an Oscar for her bravura turn as serial killer Aileen Wuornos. (The riveting documentary Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, also new to DVD, delves even deeper into Wuornos's twisted psyche.)
Extras: The disc oddly spotlights the film's composer, with only a brief glimpse at Theron's startling makeup transformation. (R)
City of God (Miramax, $29.99)
Nominated for four Oscars, this revelatory, brutal film about two boys growing up in Rio's gangland slums plays like a Brazilian GoodFellas.
Extras: The documentary News from a Personal War, a bleak but penetrating look at the real-life violent stalemate between Rio's police, drug dealers (many are barely teenagers) and residents. (R)
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