Terror in limbo

Few other films have offered us entry into the bizarrely violent demimonde of Latin America and have taken such a strange journey through scenery that borders on the surreal. Its beauty, wit and subtle romantic tragedy show that the director has found a novel way of being John Malkovich — with Javier Bardem.

The Matrix Reloaded

Geezer: HHH / Weezer: HHH

The Wachowski Brothers’ The Matrix (1999) was a masterful cocktail of action effects and mind-bending sci-fi, laced with a swig of cultural criticism and a snifter of Buddhism. But this first sequel proves that a seminal masterpiece is a tough act to follow — with Laurence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves.

Blue Car

What’s special here is director Karen Moncrieff’s uncomfortably accurate grasp of teenage rebellion, righteousness, uncertainty and self-doubt, and Agnes Bruckner’s startling performance as a teen that most of us, in some small part, once were — with David Strathairn.

Shanghai Ghetto

In the late ’30s, some 20,000 European Jews fled the increasing threat of Nazi persecution by immigrating to Shanghai, China. Their sad but little-known Holocaust side-story is well rendered in this new documentary by Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Dana Mann.

Down With Love

If this film weren’t so focused on being cheek-pinchingly cute, it might have actually accomplished something. But it never aspires to do anything other than evoke the lightweight sex comedies of Rock Hudson and Doris Day, while making money off the names Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.