Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of five): ****

A shoo-in to attract foreign film buffs who enjoy arthouse movies of the more mainstream variety, Queen to Play (Joueuse, in the original French) is a smart, small but intensely enjoyable movie -- one that I think would draw the kind of satisfied, word-of-mouth audience that made The Grocer's Son a surprise arthouse hit.

It stars a fine actress -- one who is consistently popular with this particular audience -- Sandrine Bonnaire (Angel of Mine, Intimate Strangers, Vagabond, Her Name is Sabine) and our own Kevin Kline (doing his first full-out French-language role), with help from Jennifer Beals (looking gorgeous in a small but pivotal role) and French hunk Francis Renaud (The Code, Chrysalis), who brings great warmth and humanity to Bonnaire's confused husband. Written and directed by Caroline Bottaro, a newcomer who has previously directed only one 15-minute short, the movie deftly juggles intelligence and emotion, plot and theme, bringing everything home to rest in thoroughly winning fashion without, thankfully, overplaying anything.

Reviewer: James Van Maanen
Rating (out of five): * * *

A coming-of-age (but not coming-out) movie that takes us back to a British all-girls school during the 1930s -- complete with requisite lesbianism, nude scenes, and a backward glance at the young ladies, fashions and automobiles of pre-WWII-- Cracks, the first full-length film from Jordan Scott (daughter of Ridley) is a ripe piece of cinema that is, fortunately, still a short distance from going bad. You can bite into its succulent fruit and enjoy the sweet taste, while realizing that, by tomorrow, it will have passed optimum status. But that's tomorrow. Why carp when we still have today?

Reviewer: James Van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ****

Back in the spring of 2002, a film from USSR-born Israeli writer/director Dover Kosashvili opened in New York City, later arriving on DVD and cable channels. Late Marriage (Hatuna Meuheret) -- an enormously sexual, smart and angry broadside against Israeli fundamentalism -- knocked the socks off a lot of us, though it may have appeared at the time that its strong and sexy leading man Lior Askenazi (Walk on Water) was the linchpin many of us remembered most. For his part, Kosashvili went on to make Matana MiShamayim (English title: Gift from Above) in 2003, which, though nominated for eleven Israeli Film Academy awards, was not much seen outside its home country.

Reviewer: Philip Tatler IV
Rating (out of 5): ****½

Poor 15 year-old Billy Caspar. His father is gone, his mother is distant, his brother is a bullying lush, and his schoolmaster has dubbed him inconsequential, another disposable member of "the generation that never listens." All that awaits Billy is to fail high school and join his peers over at the coal mine that functions as the only industry in the depressed Yorkshire hamlet Billy calls home.

But on one of Billy's frequent wanderings through the surrounding woods and farmlands, he discovers a young kestrel (the eponymous Kes). He endeavors to train the bird and, in the process, discovers a purpose outside of the brutal determinism governing his working class milieu. The above synopsis - boy escapes oppressive childhood via feathered friend - could easily devolve into cliché and treacle. However, with Kes, Ken Loach rose to the forefront of visionary, British social realist directors by turning a time worn tale into an indelible meditation on childhood and (naturally, this being Loach) class struggle.