Film

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Friends with Money, the new film by writer/director Nicole Holofcener who wrote and directed Lovely & Amazing and Walking and Talking.

Sharon Stone returns as a gorgeous novelist (and apparent psychopath) in a sequel to her 1992 smash hit Basic Instinct. This time, she's matching wits and sexual techniques with British actor David Morrissey instead of Michael Douglas. David Edelstein has a review.

You may know them as Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock. Or as Michael Diamond, Adam Yauch, and Adam Horovitz. Or simply, the Beastie Boys. For their new concert film, Awesome; I... Shot That!, they gave cameras to their fans in the crowd.

Actor Seymour Cassel has roles in the new TV series Heist and the film Lonesome Jim. Cassel, who comes from a showbiz family, has been acting in film and TV since 1959. His mother worked in Burlesque, and Cassel grew up backstage, amid chorus girls and sequins.

L'Enfant is a new feature film from Belgian filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes.

Actor Andre Braugher stars in the new series Thief, which debuts at 10 p.m. Tuesday on FX. Braugher plays Nick Atwater, leader of a small gang of thieves. Braugher is best known for his work on the TV series Homicide: Life on the Streets.

Two new documentaries probe the effects of outside influences on third-world countries. In Our Brand is Crisis, the arrival of U.S. campaign consultants threatens the outcome of a Bolivian presidential election. And Darwin's Nightmare is about the devastation of Lake Victoria in Tanzania.

Peter Dinklage plays a defense attorney in the new Sidney Lumet-directed film Find Me Guilty, starring Vin Diesel as a member of the Lucchese crime family who represents himself on trial. Dinklage, a person of short stature, is perhaps best known for his award-winning film The Station Agent.

V for Vendetta stars Natalie Portman as Evey, a wallflower who teams up with a superhero to resist an oppressive futuristic government. The movie's producers include the Wachowski brothers, of The Matrix fame.

The new film Thank You for Smoking follows a fictional American tobacco lobbyist as he defends the rights of smokers with double-talk and snappy irony. The satire is based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Buckley.

The new film The Hills Have Eyes is a remake of the 1977 Wes Craven horror classic. The new version was directed by French filmmaker Alexandre Aja.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews the films that are up for an Academy award under the Best Foreign Language Film category. They are: Paradise Now, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, Don't Tell, Joyeux Noel and Tsotsi.

A hardened young South African gang leader steals a woman's car -– then finds out her baby is in the back seat. So starts the South African film Tsotsi, which is up for an Academy Award for best foreign film.

Several recent DVD releases feature great black entertainers of the 20th century. For classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz, his favorites feature the great tap dance team of Harold and Fayard Nicholas.

Critic at large John Powers reviews the two-DVD edition of the 1939 classic film Young Mr. Lincoln, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda.

Race and politics add to the tension of a detective's search for a kidnapped child in Freedomland, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore. The film's screenplay was written by Richard Price; the story is based on his novel of the same name.

After having its premiere at the recent Sundance Film Festival, Heart of Gold is arriving in theaters around the country. The film is directed by Jonathan Demme and was shot in Nashville, Tenn., last August.

This year's Sundance Film Festival has been a haven for stars -- and those who would like to be stars. Critic-at-large John Powers discusses the festival's scene -- and its movies. Among the standouts: Wrist Cutters: A Love Story and Old Joy.

Steven Soderbergh's Bubble is the source of much hand-wringing in Hollywood. But what has entertainment executives agitated isn't the film's story -- about a murderous love triangle at a doll factory -- but the way it's being released. Columnist Jonathan Bing writes for Variety magazine.

The new low-budget film from director Steven Soderbergh promises to shake things up in the movie industry. Bubble opens in theaters on Friday, Jan. 27, the same day it is broadcast in HDTV. Four days later, it comes out on DVD.