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Gomorrah / **** (No MPAA rating)
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"Gomorrah" (Unrated, 136 minutes). Stunning European blockbuster about the cruel reign of the Naples-based Camorra crime syndicate, much larger but less known than the Mafia. Take the POV of the day laborers of crime, who kill each other ruthlessly with little knowledge of who controls them, and little share of the profits. A docudrama curative for the romanticism of "The Godfather" and "Scarface." Rating: Four stars.
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Two Lovers / ***1/2 (R)
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"Two Lovers" (R, 110 minutes). Joaquin Phoenix is superb in an uncommonly touching story of a nice but troubled man wavering between two women: A loving family friend (Vinessa Shaw) and an emotionally fraught but superficially glamorous one (Gwyneth Paltrow). Side steps all the usual cliches about families and children. Rating: Three and a half stars.
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The Secrets / ***1/2 (R)
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"The Secrets" (R, 127 minutes). A brilliant young woman resists the plans of her rabbi father for her marriage, dares to think of becoming a rabbi herself, retreats to a seminary for meditation, and finds a roommate and a dying woman who change her life. An absorbing melodrama, filled with romance and tension, and surprisingly relevant. From Israel with English subtitles. Rating: Three and a half stars.
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Fired Up / * (PG-13)
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"Fired Up" (PG-13, 89 minutes). Two callow and witless high school football players attend cheerleading camp in dreams of seducing the squad. The characters relentlessly attack each other with inane chatter and the forced jollity of minimum-wage workers passing out free cheese samples at the supermarket. Rating: One star.
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Just Another Love Story / ***1/2 (No MPAA Rating)
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"Just Another Love Story" (Unrated, 104 minutes). A vigorous film noir about a cop who is mistaken for the fiance of an accident victim who has amnesia. It's not that simple. All sorts of twists and surprises are laid on, and the closing scenes are astonishing. From Denmark by Ole Bornedal. Rating: Three and a half stars.
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Must Read After My Death / ***1/2 (No MPAA rating)
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"Must Read After My Death" (Unrated, 76 minutes). A cry from the grave. A grandson goes through a family archive of home movies and recordings, to deconstruct the self-destruction of a family with an alcoholic perfectionist as a father and an uncertain martyr as the mother. Fascinating, tragic. Three and a half stars
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Great Movie: The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
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by Roger Ebert
Here is a film about a feeling. Like all feelings, it is one that can hardly be described in words, although it can be evoked in art. It is the feeling that we are not alone, because there is more than one of us. We are connected at a level far, far beneath thought. We have no understanding of this. It is simply a feeling that we have.
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Movie Answer Man: By the time we get to
Phoenix, he'll be laughing
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Q. Has Joaquin Phoenix lost it, or what?
Greg Nelson, Chicago
A. I watched him on "Letterman" and was appalled. There are theories that he was deep in the character of his new hip-hop persona, behaving strangely for his buddy Casey Affleck's new documentary, channeling Andy Kaufman or whatever. I doubt if that particular hip-hop personality is going to inspire many fan clubs.
More seriously: He was on the show to "promote" his new film, "Two Lovers." All he did was assure that his bizarre behavior will be referred to in most of the reviews of the film, which opens here Feb. 27.
He had no right to do that. Independent, original films have a hard enough battle without their stars putting on psycho shows. He had no right to do it to James Gray, who directed it and co-wrote it with Ric Menello. No right to do it to his fellow actors Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw, Isabella Rossellini and the others. No right to distract from the film itself, which was selected for the official competition at Cannes and is running at 83 percent on the Tomatometer. I don't care if he did it deliberately or mistakenly. He should have stayed at home.
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Commentary: Mickey Rourke lets his Indie Spirit fly
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By Roger Ebert
Based on his show-stopping speech at Saturday night's Independent Spirit Awards, if Mickey Rourke wins an Oscar on Sunday night the Oscarcast is going to be a lollapalooza. As his comeback film "The Wrestler" won for best film, male actor and cinematography, Rourke brought the show to a halt and the audience to its feet with an acceptance speech that was classic Mickey. The Indie Spirits are telecast live and unbleeped, which added considerably to the speech's charm.
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