This film is a germaphobe’s worst nightmare. You’ll finish watching this movie and want to wash your hands. There have been other disease outbreak films before, but none have been this realistic, which of course makes it more frightening.

Beth Emoff (Gwyneth Paltrow, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE) comes back from a business trip in China and she’s sick. At first she thinks it’s just the flu, but before she knows it she’s having convulsions and her husband Mitch (Matt Damon, GOOD WILL HUNTING) is taking her to the hospital. The disease spreads fast and within a month Mitch and his daughter Jory (Anna Jacoby-Heron) are virtual prisoners in their home as Minnesota becomes like a scene out of a zombie flick.

Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne, BOYZ IN THE HOOD) is heading up the CDC investigation into the new disease. As Dr. Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle, THE KING’S SPEECH) discovers, the bug is mutating faster than they can find out what it is. Cheever sends Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet, THE READER) to Minnesota where the disease originated in the States. She’s on the front lines of the battle against local interests and the public health. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization sends Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard, INCEPTION) to Hong Kong to find the source. She’ll discover what Chinese officials are willing do to protect their people and image.

One of the more interesting characters is Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law, THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY), an alternative medicine / big pharma conspiracy blogger. But as Dr. Ian Sussman (Elliot Gould, M*A*S*H) says, a blog is just graffiti with punctuation. Krumwiede was the first to break the news of a Japanese man dying on a bus. As the disease spreads, he becomes a prophet to many in the anti-establishment world, much like Jenny McCarthy became the face of the anti-vaccine craze. On his vlog he films himself taking a natural cure when he gets sick, claiming the CDC is hiding the truth about the source and cure of the disease.

Director Steven Soderbergh, working from a script by Scott Z. Burns (THE INFORMANT!), crafts a captivating hyperlink film where the event becomes the main character more than the people. That said he still brings in humanity. Damon’s Mitch shows first hand the human toll, losing loved ones, while trying to keep it together in order to keep his daughter safe. Living in the epicenter of the disease is a harrowing ordeal when supplies become short and basic law starts to break down. Cheever has a moral dilemma when he learns certain top-secret information. Does he share it with his loved ones or stay true to his post? We meet many of the brave people trying to save lives and truly respect their sacrifices.

This isn’t a performance film, but a presence film. The big names in small roles add weight to every aspect. Two performances stuck out though. Law is snarky as the determined blogger. He believes strongly in everything he’s peddling, but is he doing more harm than good? The other performance comes from Ehle, who plays the lead scientist looking to develop a vaccine. You’ve probably seen hundreds of actors spout out technical jargon in films and on TV, but she makes us believe every word she is saying. You never get the impression she is just trying to speed through it. Her enthusiasm and authority gives her role a quiet heroism. I also don’t want to miss mentioning John Hawkes (WINTER’S BONE) as a janitor that works at the CDC, Demetri Martin (TAKING WOODSTOCK) as Dr. Hextall’s partner and Bryan Cranston (TV’s BREAKING BAD) as the military liaison Cheever must report to.

This isn’t an alarmist thriller where scientists have to hijack helicopter in order to save loved ones. In a world where pseudo-science is rampant, this is a light in the dark. A champion for science and those that believe in it. The film makes you wonder if de-funding the CDC is more dangerous than de-funding the Pentagon. Disease kills more people worldwide than terrorism.

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Director Rodrigo Garcia has history of making hyperlink films where the lives of various characters overlap. MOTHER AND CHILD actually focuses on less characters than his NINE LIVES or THINGS YOU CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT HER. With a touch of poetry, the film is a character piece about what it means to be a mother and have a mother.

Karen (Annette Bening, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT) is a nurse, who is caring for her ailing mother Nora (Eileen Ryan, MAGNOLIA). Though it happened more than 35 years ago, the dying woman won’t let her daughter live down a teen pregnancy. That child was given up for adoption and later named Elizabeth (Naomi Watts, KING KONG). Now she’s a ruthless businesswoman whose determination impresses her new boss Paul (Samuel L. Jackson, PULP FICTION). And turns him on. Meanwhile, Lucy (Kerry Washington, THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND) is struggling with her inability to get pregnant and decides to adopt with husband Joseph (David Ramsey, CON AIR).

While it never spells it out, the film looks at how the mother/daughter relationship of the characters influences their whole lives. Karen has received nothing but ridicule from her mother. At work, she’s a cold taskmaster, which doesn’t make things easy for the new nurse Paco (Jimmy Smits, TV’s DEXTER), who just wants to meet new people in his new city. Karen resents how close her mother seems with their maid Sofia (Elpidia Carrillo, PREDATOR) and her young daughter Cristi (Simone Lopez).

Elizabeth makes Karen seem warm in comparison. She falls into bed with men for momentary pleasure. She has nothing but contempt for her cheery neighbors Steven (Marc Blucas, TV’s BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) and Tracy (Carla Gallo, SUPERBAD). It would bring her joy just to wipe that smile off the face of the pregnant Tracy. She boldly seduces Paul and ends it just as boldly. It seems she did it just to see how easy it was to do. When she winds up pregnant, her reaction is as complex as all of her behavior is.

Sofia really wants to be a mother, or so she thinks. The lack of a pregnancy has created tension between her and her husband. She can’t stop talking when she interviews with Ray (Shareeka Epps, HALF NELSON), a woman putting her unborn child up for adoption. But Sofia’s honesty is what impresses Ray, who has her own issues with her mother Leticia (Lisa Gay Hamilton, JACKIE BROWN), who had her when she was young. Sofia’s mother Ada (S. Epatha Merkerson, TV’s LAW & ORDER) believes having a baby should be much easier than all of this.

Garcia attempts to varying degrees to flesh out many of his characters. Karen has the biggest arch. In coming to terms with her own issues with her mother, she begins to come into herself and allow herself to be happy again. She seeks out the daughter she gave up. Garcia finds a bittersweet twist to how one might expect that search to end up. Of course, Bening is simply amazing, especially in handling the changes in the character. While the film makes leaps in time, Bening never makes the shifts in her character seem abrupt.

Watts makes Elizabeth the film’s most fascinating and frustrating character. The character is unlikable. Watts rightfully never apologizes for her character’s behavior. Elizabeth is lashing out at a world where she has never found any happiness. Her mother giving her up has profoundly affected her whether she’d ever admit it or not. Because, Garcia leaves many questions about why she does what she does, we are left wondering about her, which has a good and bad effect depending on the question.

In developing so many characters, Garcia sometimes wanders away from his core theme of mothers and daughters. This develops loose ends. Characters that seem very important are developed and then put in the background. Smits’ Paco is the biggest victim of this problem.

Those are weaknesses and not problems though. How Garcia brings his story full circle is surprising. At first it seems like an unfair emotional sledgehammer. But as the camera moves away from the final shot, we get a sense of how the ending is happier than it could have been if it ended in a more conventional way and still remained true to its unique characters.

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X2 writer Michael Dougherty’s anthology horror flick has been sitting on Warner Bros. shelves for years now. Through some midnight screenings, it has gained a bit of cult status. Quality is certainly not the reason why this fright fest has gone direct-to-DVD. While I have my theories on why WB was reluctant to release this chiller, they are only speculation. But keep reading and you might discern some of my thoughts about why the studio might get skittish with this horror flick despite its mild violence quotient compared to other resent gore fests.

The film tells five interlocking stories all set in one town on Halloween. Emma (Leslie Bibb, IRON MAN) is not nearly into Halloween as much as her husband Henry (Tahmoh Penikett, TV’s BATTLESTAR GALACTICA). When she blows out the candle on their jack ‘o lantern, Henry warns her that there are Halloween rules that need to be followed. Steven Wilkins (Dylan Baker, HAPPINESS) is the town principal with a persistent son named Billy (Connor Christopher Levins, EIGHT BELOW) and a secret in the backyard.

Four teenagers, the snooty Marcy (Britt McKillip, BRATZ: BABYZ THE MOVIE), the nice and handsome Schrader (Jean-Luc Bilodeau, TV’s KYLE XY), the nerdy Sara (Isabelle Deluce, STEALING CHRISTMAS) and the chubby Chip (Alberto Ghisi, MARTIAN CHILD) are collecting jack ‘o lanterns. They find a jackpot at the house of “idiot savant” Rhonda (Samm Todd). Marcy wants to give the pumpkins as an offering to the ghosts of the infamous school bus massacre.

Laurie (Anna Paquin, TV’s TRUE BLOOD) is out on the town with her older sister Danielle (Lauren Lee Smith, THE LAST KISS) and a couple of friends. Each year its tradition to go to a new town and find dates the night of Halloween. This year the girls dress up like fairy tale characters and Laurie is Little Red Riding Hood. But in her search for a date, she doesn’t find a wolf, but a vampire.

Mr. Kreeg (Brian Cox, THE 25TH HOUR) is the crabby next-door neighbor of Mr. Wilkins. He’s not too fond of trick or treaters, but when the large-headed child with a burlap mask named Peeping Tommy (Quinn Lord, THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE) shows up, he might want to rethink sicking his dog on kids that come to his door. This trickster isn’t going to leave empty handed whether he has to kill for his reward or not.

Each of the stories has a CREEPSHOW vibe. They’re simple tales of horror with dark ironic twists that are easily foreseen. However, the way Dougherty intertwines the tales makes for a more engaging experience. Additionally, each of the tales is equal to the others, making the switch from one to the other less disruptive to the narrative flow.

Visually, Dougherty creates some arresting imagery. Peeping Tommy is quite creepy looking and an ominous figure that lurks in the shadows of all the stories. With THE ORPHANAGE, THE STRANGERS and now this film, burlap is getting a bad rap these days. Moreover, I have to say, the jack ‘o lantern on fire scene in the film story is another inspired visual.

With the gore levels mild, relying on chills and dark humor instead, TRICK ‘R TREAT harkens back to horror flicks of the 1980s. With its use of mental handicapped children as plot points, it also captures the less PC elements of the decade as well. Its supporters taut it as the best horror film in 30 years. I don’t agree. But with its vintage plot and creative visuals, this horror flick ends up being an entertaining campfire flick.

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A great cast does not a great rom-com make. At times the acting lifts this fairly surface level romantic laugher to an engaging level, but in the end everything is so predictable and trite that one wonders how the producers landed such a high-wattage lineup. Instead of focusing on one couple, this film tries to juggle interlocking stories, which just waters down the material even more. I definitely wasn’t into this one.

Gigi Haim (Ginnifer Goodwin, TV’s BIG LOVE) has a notorious track record of obsessing over each new guy she meets. Her latest obsession is real estate agent Conor Barry (Kevin Connolly, TV’s ENTOURAGE), but he is far more into the aspiring singer Anna Taylor (Scarlett Johansson, MATCH POINT). Gigi gets a dose of reality when she meets Conor’s friend Alex (Justin Long, DRAG ME TO HELL), who says to her that if a guy doesn’t call, he’s just not into you plain and simple. Gigi takes this bit of info like it’s the cure for some disease and tells all her friends. This makes Beth Bartlett (Jennifer Aniston, TV’s FRIENDS) wonder if she can handle being with her longtime boyfriend Neil Jones (Ben Affleck, JERSEY GIRL) when he has made it clear that he does not believe in marriage. Gigi’s other friend Janine Gunders (Jennifer Connelly, A BEAUTIFUL MIND) wonders if her marriage to Ben (Bradley Cooper, THE HANGOVER) is solid when she suspects that he is lying to her. Only if she knew that he has developed a crush on temptress Anna, who is good friends with Mary Harris (Drew Barrymore, CHARLIE’S ANGELS), who works for the magazine that runs ads for Conor.

Well, now you get the run down of the character connections. Gigi is the central character, a very exaggerated version of the sign obsessed female. She is always looking for the signs that a guy likes her and doesn’t know how to read any of them properly. She starts looking to Alex for advice and he’s willing to give it, but is that a sign? This budding romance is predictable from start to finish. The characters are really just an assemblage of dating hang-ups. The women are confused by the jerky commitment phobic men. The men are either some level of player or in the case of Affleck’s Neil, the perfect guy except for that one thing… and we’ll see how long that lasts. Oh did I give something way? Come on this film isn’t interested in its characters just the perfect endings.

The cast is so charming though one can glean moments of entertainment from them. Goodwin is very charming. The early moments between Aniston and Affleck are some of the best until their plotline goes on autopilot. Connelly brings real vulnerability and pain to her marriage on the rocks character, but she also has ridiculous scenes of awkward obsessions. Once again she isn’t a character, but a concept. But then again what do you expect from a movie based on a self-help book?

At over two hours, this rom-com also drags. Too much time is spent on too little. You never get to know a thing about these characters outside of their one-sentence plot description. The reason that people of the opposite sex aren’t into these characters is because they’re boring.

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Based on the animated short film A BUCK’S WORTH, this ambitious stop-motion animated feature takes on the not-so-bargain-bin topic of the meaning of life. Various lives intersect in an apartment complex. A Dear John loser. An unemployed, master cook do-gooder. A lonely old man. A young boy saving for a toy. A hallucinating man-boy. A ladies-man repo man. A supermodel. A suicidal homeless angel. You know the typical characters in an animated feature.

Starting the feature like the short film (which can be viewed on AWNtv), Jim Peck (Anthony LaPaglia, TV’s WITHOUT A TRACE) has an unsettling run-in with a homeless man (Geoffrey Rush, SHINE), who later sprouts wings and moves into the house of lonely widow Albert (Barry Otto, STRICTLY BALLROOM), who is so desperate for human interaction that he gets excited when telemarketers call. Depressed after his encounter with the homeless man, Jim puts more pressure on his do-gooder son Dave (Samuel Johnson, TV’s THE SECRET LIFE OF US) to try working with his brother Lenny (Ben Mendelsohn, AUSTRALIA). The problem is that nice-guy Dave isn’t cut out for the repo business. He’s more interested in finding the answers to life from a book priced at $9.99.

Meanwhile, the sad teacher Michelle (Claudia Karvan, AQUAMARINE) walks out on her boyfriend Ron (Joel Edgerton, SMOKIN’ ACES), who loafs around all day drinking beer, smoking pot, and fooling around with three two-inch-tall immature college students. The little boy in the apartment, Zack (Jamie Katsamatsas), wants a new action figure badly, but his father, instead of buying him the toy, gives him 50-cent pieces for drinking his milk. Zack saves them away in his pinky bank, which he becomes quiet attached to. During a repo job, Lenny meets supermodel Tanita (Leeanna Walsman, STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES), but how far will he go for love?

Written with Etgar Keret, director Tatia Rosenthal combines the real with the surreal. All the characters are in the pursuit of happiness, but they’re all going down their own paths, which just happen to crisscross from time to time. Some characters are clueless and others are depressed. Rosenthal’s pacing is deliberate, creating a somber mood, punctuated from time to time with dry wit and strange fantasy. She handles the fantasy with a matter-of-fact approach. Albert is so lonely that he doesn’t mind at all that the freeloading, obnoxious angel has squatted in his house. Lenny and Tanita’s relationship goes to bizarre fetish territories that are quite unexpected, yet oddly romantic… in a twisted sort of way. In all accumulates into wonderful sardonic wit.

The stop-motion is good, especially the subtlety of the acting. Because it’s a simple dramedy, the animators never given complex action to tackle. It’s a testament to Rosenthal’s talents as a director that she kept the talky film visual interesting. Her camerawork is rarely static. While the pacing does lag a bit in the middle, due to keeping all the storylines in the air for the whole film, the lesser interesting segments never bring down the entire production, and all the stories end with nice touches of whimsy and/or honesty. The title might signal cheapness, but $9.99 is actually a rich production.

Opens in L.A. at the Laemmle Music Hall (9036 Wilshire Blvd.) for its Oscar run this Friday, Dec. 12.

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With this film, director/writer David Gordon Green has produced four wonderful independent dramas. I eagerly await his first mainstream comedy, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, coming later this year. I hope that stoner comedy is a big hit so that he’ll have more clout to do bigger productions in the vein of this film. What distinguishes all his films is his attention for personality, especially when it comes to the way people talk and the way they fall in love. There’s a sweet romance woven into this tragic drama that reminds us that turbulent relationships probably started beautifully at the beginning.

Based on Stewart O’Nan’s novel, the drama takes place in an average-sized Pennsylvania town, centering around three workers at a Chinese restaurant. Annie (Kate Beckinsale, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING) is a waitress, who struggles to take care of her four-year-old daughter Tara (Gracie Hudson), because she is separated from her troubled husband Glenn (Sam Rockwell, MATCHSTICK MEN), who has turned to religion to deal with his depression and alcoholism. At the motel, Annie has a routine of meeting with a married man named Nate (Nicky Katt, SECONDHAND LIONS), who is more of a diversion than a solution to her problems. Working with Annie is high schooler Arthur (Michael Angarano, LORDS OF DOGTOWN) and sassy Barb (Amy Sedaris, STRANGERS WITH CANDY). Arthur is dealing with his professor father Don (Griffin Dunne, AFTER HOURS) walking out on his mom Louise (Jeanetta Arnette, BOYS DON’T CRY), while he’s developing a sweet romance with the quirky new girl Lila (Olivia Thirlby, JUNO).

Though this is not an original Green story, it has the qualities of his self-written work. Annie is the town beauty who Arthur has had a crush on since he was small. She was his babysitter, and she kids him that she use to bathe him. He even caught Annie and Glenn making out when they were dating in high school. It’s that same story of two young people getting married too young. Glenn has never really grown up, while Annie has only grown resentments for a life that isn’t like she wanted. That’s why the cute and charming romance between Arthur and Lila is so crucial, because it hints at the hopeful love between Annie and Glenn when they were younger. Leaving the promise that Arthur’s relationships will turn out better than theirs or his parents.

Beckinsale has said she is done with the sex bomb roles, and this character returns her to her legit roots. She is very good as Annie, but the most interesting part of the choice is her bravery to be unlikable. In a typical film, she would be the easy character to sympathize with as the single mom with a violent drunk husband. However, she is short with her daughter, having an affair with a married man and treats Glenn unfairly at times. But if all we knew of life was from films then all women in troubled marriages are angels being oppressed by men who turned into devils the day of the honeymoon. Rockwell gives another great performance in a career that has been on the verge of exploding for years. He plays Glenn as a sensitive man who has a great deal of hang-ups left over from youth, especially when it comes to his insecurity over his beautiful wife. His newfound religion is just a last ditched attempt to fix a completely broken life. But all his prayers don’t fill or hide the obvious cracks in his relationship with his wife.

Angarano’s Arthur is an average kid dealing with a collection of abnormal problems. He drinks and smokes dope to deal with his selfish father. Could this be the same way Glenn dealt with his parents at that age? Angarano has an innocent face, making him very likable. Thirlby’s Lila is just what he needs. Anagarano and Thirlby have great chemistry, capturing young attraction and flirtation so well. Could they go the way of Glenn and Annie, or find something better? I also liked the performances of Katt, Arnette and Sedaris. Katt’s loser Nate adds a dose of humor without being a caricature. Arnette brings a sadness to her part that subtly defines the years of ups and downs with a man who can’t make up his mind on what he really wants from life. Sedaris, who I’ve only known from broad comedy, is excellent in this more serious role as the career waitress who likes to joke around until she feels people are playing a cruel joke on her.

In the first scene of the film, the tragic ending is foreshadowed, but some have complained that the finale doesn’t bring all the elements of the film together. I couldn’t disagree more. The ending seems like a foregone conclusion knowing the characters. Additionally, with having Arthur and Lila’s relationship just hint at Annie and Glenn’s beginnings, we are left with hope that this new love story turns out better.

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Emilio Estevez wrote and directed this drama following the lives of 22 people in the Ambassador Hotel the day Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. Though his name supplies the title to this Altman-esque feature, Bobby Kennedy is not a character. The real politician is however seen in archival footage woven throughout the narrative. The various stories are meant to peek into the various cultural currents that were running through America at the time from the hippie movement to the war in Vietnam. The stronger stories keep the film from lagging under its own ambitions, making it a compelling look into the ways RFK’s death altered the course of America and the lives of its people.

One of the film’s best stories is kitchen worker Jose, who has tickets to go see Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale beat the consecutive shut out record. However, racist kitchen manager Timmons (Christian Slater, ROBIN HOOD) has assigned him a double shift without telling him. So Jose gives his tickets to the dignified cook Edward Robinson (Laurence Fishburne, WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?), much to the dismay of angry fellow kitchen worker Miguel (Jacob Vargas, 2004’s FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX), who wants to make money on it. Diane (Lindsay Lohan, MEAN GIRLS) plans to marry fellow high school student William (Elijah Wood, LORD OF THE RINGS) in an effort to keep him out of Vietnam. Kennedy campaign workers Cooper (Shia LaBeouf, TRANSFORMERS) and Jimmy (Brian Geraghty, JARHEAD) play hooky from their duties to find drug dealer Fisher (Ashton Kutcher, TV’s THAT 70S SHOW), who gives them acid so they can get closer to God. And waitress/wanna-be actress Susan Taylor (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, GRINDHOUSE) knows they’re high. Wade (Joshua Jackson, TV’s DAWSON’S CREEK) is running RFK’s campaign and sets up a meeting with Bobby and dedicated black campaign worker Dwayne (Nick Cannon, DRUMLINE), who is just shy of militant.

The weaker stories involve hotel manager Paul (William H. Macy, THE COOLER), who is married to the hotel’s beautician Miriam (Sharon Stone, TOTAL RECALL), but is having an affair with the younger switchboard operator Angela (Heather Graham, BOOGIE NIGHTS), who confides her problems in fellow operator Patricia (Joy Bryant, SKELETON KEY). Tim Fallon (Estevez, FLATLINERS) is the exasperated husband of drunken lounge singer Virginia (Demi Moore, ST. ELMO’S FIRE). He’s not happy when his wife’s manager Phil (David Krumholtz, SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS) books them into a month-long gig in Vegas in the middle of the summer. John Casey (Anthony Hopkins, PROOF) is the retired doorman, who still comes to the hotel everyday to play chess with permanent fixture Nelson (Harry Belafonte, CARMEN JONES). Lenka Janacek (Svetlana Metkina, MINI’S FIRST TIME) is a poor Yugoslavian reporter desperate to get an interview with Bobby. Jack (Martin Sheen, TV’s WEST WING) is a businessman who has paid his way into the evening’s party. His wife Samantha (Helen Hunt, AS GOOD AS IT GETS) obsesses about what to wear and how she will impress the important people.

The film works best when it uses the characters actions and personalities to mirror the hot topics of the era as well as the hot topics of today. Themes cover race relations, drugs, war, women’s rights, poverty and even global warming. One clip of Kennedy shows him talking with elementary school students about cleaning up the air. Miguel represent the angry boiling in minority communities while Edward represent the calm leader willing to work within the system to bring upon change. Resounding today, Cooper and Jimmy story shows them embracing the freedoms of the day, but regretting what harm they may have caused by not playing their part in what they feel is right. Even the weaker stories find poignancy in single scenes like a great conversation between Virginia and Miriam about the place of women in the world.

The film only drags when it deals with the personal dramas of some of the characters. The Fallons relationship has been done many times before and often better. Paul’s peccadilloes aren’t really interesting at all. Yet, in the end, for the most part, the stories come together in interesting and thoughtful ways. Though some conclusions are forced or abrupt, the emotions Estevez is trying to convey still work.

BOBBY does have something to say about how the world was and how it has turned out since that fateful day. The use of real footage of Kennedy powerfully brings home that point. Sometimes it’s so powerful, you wish Estevez would have just made a straight documentary and forgot about the standard fictional personal dramas and focused of the missing title character. But that’s not the film he made. As it is, the film stands as a time capsule of the era it portrays and sadly reminds us how little we have come in many respects since then.

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The quintessential “Altman” feature follows 24 major characters through five days in Nashville, leading up to a political rally/ country concert. More free flowing than any of director Robert Altman’s other hyperlink films, this feature clearly has no main character and moves along on the simplest plot theme, building wonderful character moments, which lead back to its core themes of fame and politics. The “plot” is thin, but the narrative is a complex and brilliantly constructed tapestry of intertwining narratives, surrounded by nearly an hour of music.

Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson, MAGNOLIA) is a Nashville icon with his big hair and white, spangled jump suit. The film begins with him recording an insipid ballad about the bicentennial. Linnea Reese (Lily Tomlin, 9 TO 5) is a white gospel singer, who is married to lawyer Delbert (Ned Beatty, DELIVERENCE), who is helping organize the political rally for third party candidate Hal Phillip Walker, who is unseen throughout the film. Linnea and Delbert have two deaf sons, which Delbert cannot relate to at all. Linnea is hounded by womanizing folk rocker Tom Frank (Keith Carradine, CHOOSE ME), who is having an affair with his bandmate Mary (Cristina Raines, THE SENTINEL), who is married to his other bandmate Bill (Allan Nicholls, SLAP SHOT). Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET) is a reigning queen of Nashville, but she is mentally and physically burnt out by the pressures of the music business and her controlling manager/husband Barnett (Allen Garfield, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY).

John Triplette (Michael Murphy, TANNER ‘88) is Walker’s Los Angeles-based advance man, who has little patience for the Southern ways. Opal (Geraldine Chaplin, HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS) is a clueless, star-struck reporter for the BBC, who always pokes her nose in where it is not wanted. Mr. Green (Keenan Wynn, PIRANHA) is a Nashville resident who is caring for his dying wife. Martha (Shelley Duvall, THE SHINING), who is now calling herself L.A. Joan, comes to visit her uncle Mr. Green, but spends more time trying to hook up with every guy she meets. Tricycle Man (Jeff Goldblum, INDEPENDENCE DAY) is a mysterious tricycle-driving biker, who performs magic tricks and pops up in unexpected places. Buddy Hamilton (David Peel) is the lawyer son of Haven, who has a secret desire to sing, but is forced to be his dad’s business manager. Lady Pearl (Barbara Baxley, NORMA RAE) is Haven’s mistress, who is still reeling from the Kennedy assassinations. Connie White (Karen Black, FIVE EASY PIECES) is the second most popular female singer in Nashville, who won’t even perform on the same stage as Barbara Jean. Tommy Brown (Timothy Brown, M*A*S*H) is a successful black country singer.

Pfc. Glenn Kelly (Scot Glenn, THE RIGHT STUFF) is a Vietnam soldier who has a crush on Barbara Jean. Norman (David Arkin, M*A*S*H) is the chauffeur who tries to give advice and struggles to make it in the music biz. Kenny Fraiser (David Hayward, VAN NUYS BLVD.) is a deceitful loner who carries around a fiddle case and rents a room from Mr. Green. Albuquerque (Barbara Harris, FAMILY PLOT) is a ditzy, trashy blonde who spends the length of the film running from her older, farmer husband Star (Bert Remsen, MCCABE & MRS. MILLER) as she tries to find a way to break into the music biz. Sueleen Gay (Gwen Welles, CALIFORNIA SPLIT) is a waitress/ wanna-be singer, who can’t sing, that discovers the dark side of the entertainment business. Wade Cooley (Robert Doqui, COFFY) is a disgruntled black man who seems to be working several jobs during the course of the film and is tired of the Nashville scene.

How the various stories overlap and build upon themselves is amazing. One of the greatest scenes is one where Tom sings a love song and all his “conquests” are in the room, reacting very differently to his new tune. The details of how Haven has his hand in various areas of Nashville business and politics are sprinkled throughout. He’s been on the top for so long mainly because he knows how to play the game really well. One of his songs foreshadows the inter struggle of another character. Barbara Jean’s breakdown on stage is heartbreaking. Sueleen’s big break is equally sad. The closing rally is shocking is more than one way. Many plot lines come to a close in surprising, emotional ways. Many of the film’s surprises are from the way people react to situations not the situations themselves.

Early on we hear a recording of Hal Phillip Walker saying that politics touches everyone’s lives even if they don’t think it does. Altman and writer Joan Tewkesbury set this idea up early on and weave the reality of the statement into the narrative. Fame is also skewered throughout. What people must do to hold onto fame and what people will do to gain it — or in some cases what they will do just to get close to it — is all addressed. A tragic event is foreshadowed, but the identity of the “villain” is kept open. But this is done so, less for suspense, even though it still does create tension, but more so to show the possibility for acts of violence from many sectors of the alienated American society.

NASHVILLE is a film that truly represents its time. Following political assassinations and Watergate, the film depicts a cross section of American society. Irony drips from many of the scenes. Altman is very subtle about his criticism of warped American values. It’s as if the film is saying that America has transformed its core ideals into catchy slogans that are meaningless because they are only spoken and never carried through in our actions. But then again the ending is surprising in the way people react to what happens. It can be viewed various ways — both positively and cynically. If you want to be positive, you can say that America rises to the occasion when things are rough. If you want to be cynical, you can say that America tries to cover up the bad stuff with a pointless, happy song. PS… a big thanks goes out to Tim Dirks of filmsite.org (one of the best movie sites on the Net) for his great character list on this film, which helped immensely in the writing of this review.

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Despite some structural problems, FAST FOOD NATION shines with intelligent debate, an impressive cast and a layered approach at looking at the entire fast food industry from the corporate level to the meat supply level to the store level. Based on the bestselling non-fiction book, director Richard Linklater and co-writer Eric Schlosser find a way to bring out a bit of the human side behind the disturbing facts that were revealed in the original tome. Seen side by side with the documentary SUPER SIZE ME, one may never eat a fast food hamburger ever again.

For the film’s corporate look, the fast food chain Mickey’s is riding the success of their new burger the Big One. Marketing exec Don Anderson (Greg Kinnear, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE) is sent to Colorado to investigate one of their beef supply facilities after an independent report reveals a high level of crap in the meat, literally. For the supplier side, we follow a group of illegal Mexican immigrants — Raul (Wilmer Valderrama, TV’s THAT 70S SHOW), Sylvia (Catalina Sandino Moreno, MARIA FULL OF GRACE) and Coco (Ana Claudia Talancon, THE CRIME OF FATHER AMARO) — as they cross the border and get jobs at the meat packing plant. On the local store level, Amber (Ashley Johnson, TV’S GROWING PAINS) is working to make enough money to go to college, because her mother Cindy (Patricia Arquette, FLIRTING WITH DISASTER) can’t afford to send her.

Other key cast members include: “coyote” Benny (Luis Guzman, BOOGIE NIGHTS); jerky meat packing supervisor Mike (Bobby Cannavale, THE STATION AGENT), who takes advantage of the pretty illegals; Amber’s fellow fast food store worker Brian (Paul Dano, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE), who dreams of robbing one of the stores; Mickey’s store manager Tony (Esai Morales, LA BAMBA); rancher Rudy Martin (Kris Kristofferson, BLADE); Harry Rydell (Bruce Willis, DIE HARD), the Mickey’s exec who makes the deals with the meat packers; Amber’s uncle Pete (Ethan Hawke, BEFORE SUNRISE), who wants to see Amber really make something of her life; and young activists Andrew (Aaron Himelstein, TV’s JOAN OF ARCADIA), Alice (singer Avril Lavugne) and Paco (Lou Taylor Pucci, THUMBSUCKER).

Part of the film’s problems lie in the fact that the screenplay runs out of things for Don to do and abandons the thread about half way through the film. It’s more captivating than the Amber story at times, which brings attention to its absence toward the end. Additionally, some dramatic power is lost within the heavy amounts of dialogue. However, there was enough character development and conflict to keep the story moving.

Don has been moving his family around a lot and despite his discovery of disheartening facts about his company, he is stuck towing the company line to keep his job. Amber’s journey from working hard at Mickey’s to trying to find something bigger to believe in, drags at times dramatically, however the subtle characterization of her, her mother and her uncle combined with a great performance by Johnson, brings life to the segment. Johnson has come a long way since her days as the cute addition to the Seaver family on GROWING PAINS. The most emotional and dramatically power segment is the Mexican immigrants. Raul and Sylvia dream of a better life in the U.S., however Sylvia can’t handle the meat packing plant. Coco learns the hard way how illegal immigrants are treated. Later on we learn just how disposable they are. Because it’s the most heartbreaking of the stories, I wish we would have seen more closely where they came from so we could see the full contrast between Mexico and the U.S. lifestyles.

Some people find the final slaughter floor scene very disturbing, however any person who has ever hunted or fished won’t find it too awful. I actually felt the industrial accident scene was more frightening. In the end, FAST FOOD NATION is a thought-provoking indictment of the fast food industry, which puts profits over public safety at every turn. Ideas and interesting characters help bring this real life horror story to life. This scary tale brings new meaning to the term splatter film.

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Though it’s not one of Robert Altman’s masterpieces, A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION is still a fitting closure to the career of one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. The sly, dry and somber humor of Garrison Keillor works well with Altman’s signature style. The film is equal part concert film, backstage dramedy and an ode to witty radio entertainment, which the PRAIRIE HOME radio show has singularly kept alive long past the time when the form of entertainment has died everywhere else.

The plot is simple; it’s the last performance of the PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION radio show before an axeman (Tommy Lee Jones, THE FUGITIVE) sells the radio station to some corporation. Keillor playing himself moves along with the show as if it’s like any other. He’s not a sentimental fella. Singing duo Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson (Meryl Streep, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, & Lily Tomlin, I HEART HUCKABEE’S), however, reminisce about the good ole days and how their family started performing to Yolanda’s daughter Lola (Lindsay Lohan, MEAN GIRLS). Dusty (Woody Harrelson, WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP) and Lefty (John C. Reilly, CHICAGO) perform their humorous country and western tunes.

The pregnant stage manager Molly (Maya Rudolph, 50 FIRST DATES) just tries to keep things working as best as she can. Veteran crooner Chuck Akers (L.Q. Jones, CASINO) is having a fling with the lunch lady (Marylouise Burke, SIDEWAYS) and Donna (Sue Scott), the make-up lady, is sad to see the show end. And as if he strolled in from another story, Guy Noir (Kevin Kline, A FISH CALLED WANDA), an out-of-work private eye, works the show as head of security. A mysterious woman (Virginia Madsen, SIDEWAYS), dressed in a white trench coat, catches Guy’s eye and may have the answers everyone is looking for.

The key to understanding the tone of the film is in a passage where Keillor describes the people of Minnesota as a people who believe that if today’s a good day than they know the bad days are just around the corner. This dark humorous look at life permeates the backstage exploits. Take note to how the death is handled. It embodies the feelings and themes.

If one is familiar with the radio show, they will be satisfied, because for the most part the movie is just a filmed performance for most of the running time. We get lots of folksy songs, Keillor’s signature stories and humorous advertisements and classic radio routines, including a funny sound effects segment performed by Tom Keith. Keillor has a respect for the radio performers of the past and honors them with his slickly performed show. Altman in turns does the same with the film, capturing a look at how radio variety shows run. It captures the vibe, but never feels dated.

The cast is stellar, bringing the right feel to the material. Though he doesn’t have the experience in front of a camera, Keillor is a natural performer whose subtle laconic style in the behind-the-scenes moments and smooth delivery during the on-stage portions makes for smart comedy. Having also written the script, Keillor masterfully balances both highbrow and lowbrow humor with the same narrow-eyed sarcasm, making it flow effortlessly. Other highlights include Streep and Tomlin’s backstage banter, Streep’s musical performances, a lowbrow tune about bad jokes from Dusty and Lefty and Kline’s droll performance as a signature movie character who has been forgotten in modern cinema.

In the end, the film captures the radio show for prosperity. But we also get a bit of Keillor’s philosophy on life as well. We conclude that all things in life come to an end eventually. Keillor is unsentimental about that fact and has come to accept it as a part of living. Altman’s film does the same. Keillor tells Lola at one point that he’s not going to ask to be remembered. It’s either going to happen or it’s not — and he’s not going to beg. There’s a classic dignity in that idea that encapsulates the film. Altman never asked to be remembered, but he will be because of what he has accomplished. The closing moment of this film is poignant knowing that it is Robert Altman’s closing moment. So I ask, whom is Virginia Madsen coming for in the end?

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