Opening Films

by Inlander Staff
*** The Good Thief -- A remake of Jean-Pierre Melville's suave 1955 masterpiece of effortless cool, Bob the Gambler, The Good Thief is a snazzy, cosmopolitan lark steeped in themes of fakery and duplicity, suiting Neil Jordan's wildly eclectic career. Nick Nolte, with more gravel in his voice than a Texas highway, plays weary yet cheery Bob Montagnet, a Marseilles career gambler and sometimes heroin user. Nolte plays him to the craggy, leonine hilt, a chivalrous savage. (RP) Rated: R





*** Lewis & amp; Clark -- The IMAX folks have packed a lot into this vivid account of the two adventurers' travels across the American wilderness. Narrator Jeff Bridges does pretty much all the speaking, while actors play out the scenes. And those scenes are played out in breathtakingly beautiful settings, spellbinding on the giant screen. Much of the story gets into details of important characters -- such as Indian guide Sacagawea -- who were left out of our history books. (ES) Unrated





Laurel Canyon -- A sort of "Greenwich Village of the West," Laurel Canyon is an avenue of bohemia in the Hollywood Hills. Frances McDormand is a record producer whose much younger lover (Alessandro Nivola) is crashing at her house while she tries to help his band come up with a hit. Meanwhile, her son Sam (Christian Bale) and his fiance Alex (Kate Beckinsale), both recent Harvard med school grads, are moving to L.A. and plan to stay with her, too. Rated: R. Playing at the Met on Wednesday, May 7, at 3, 5:30 and 8 pm, Friday, May 9, at 3 pm and Monday, May 12, at 5:30 and 8 pm.





The Lizzie McGuire Movie


Based on the hugely popular Disney Channel TV series, The Lizzie McGuire Movie follows the junior high student (Hilary Duff) through the various clothing crises, social missteps, romantic entanglements and family annoyances that constitute her daily life. But then she gets to go to Italy for the summer and, in the process, gets a better understanding of herself and her world. Rated: PG





**** Stevie -- Steve James' Stevie, is a portrait deeper, denser and darker than his hopeful classic, Hoop Dreams. James revisits the young man he once mentored through the Big Brothers program; shortly after his first visit the young man is accused of a terrible crime. Stevie is at its core a painfully empathetic, richly etched portrait of a 27-year-old man who has confounded everyone. But it's also a challenge to our preconceived notions of poor Southerners and family bonds. Not Rated. (RP) Playing at the Met on Thursday, May 1, at 5:30 and 8:30 pm.





**** X2: X-Men United -- Director Bryan Singer returns, with the main cast intact, along with a couple of new faces -- most notably Alan Cumming as the teleporting, Bible-spouting Nightcrawler -- to continue the story of good mutants and bad mutants and their struggle with humans who don't want them around. The sequel is bigger, better, funnier, sexier and more violent than the original. The past of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) starts to become clear, and his climactic fight with Yuriko aka Deathstrike (Kelly Hu) achieves moments of screen greatness. (ES) Rated PG-13





**** Don't Miss It *** Worth $7 ** Wait For The Video * Save Your Money








& lt;i & Capsule reviews are written by Ed Symkus (ES) and Ray Pride (RP), unless otherwise noted. & lt;/i &





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Publication date: 05/01/03