Edward Zwick's The Siege - about an Arab terrorist assault on New York - has been denounced as offensive by Islamic groups in the States. Perhaps the film suffers from trying to play its cards too craftily - because, if anything, it's a corrective to films like James Cameron's crassly insensitive True Lies. This is a highly intelligent action movie that for once treats Islam and its observers with some seriousness. At the same time, it tries to play America's terror of Islam against itself to polemical effect, and there's where it comes unstuck. more...

Hollywood and Washington have a great deal in common. There are many superficial similarities between the two cities - scandals, egos, a fondness for expensive special effects - but they are united by something more fundamental. They are cities that exist solely to sell the world a dream. more...

Twilight (pictured) Rental, CIC, Cert 15
A nostalgic, literate, classy private eye movie with an undertow of corruption and a palpable aura of disappointment permeating its seedy Hollywood milieu. It's Chandleresque in its combination of wealth and low life, too, and the title is appropriate for its battle-weary cast. Paul Newman is an ex-private eye and ex-cop down on his luck and living with Gene Hackman, a successful actor, and his wife, Susan Sarandon. more...

Au Revoir Les Enfants | Enemy of the State | The Siege | Pecker more...