Donald Clarkeand Michael Dwyerreview the latest releases
SEX AND THE CITY *
Directed by Michael Patrick King. Starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth, Jennifer Hudson, Candice Bergen 15 cert
The bonking New Yorkers return for their first big-screen outing. The film has nothing you could call a plot, the dialogue is packed with moronic double entendres, the attitude to race is mind-bogglingly offensive, and the endless materialism is quite nauseating. There is, presumably, even more witless, reactionary garbage on the two-disc special edition. DC
HONEYDRIPPER ***
Directed by John Sayles. Starring Danny Glover, Charles S Dutton, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Stacy Keach, Mary Steenburgen PG cert
Set in Alabama in the 1950s, the film follows several African- Americans as they prepare for a visit from a prominent rhythm'n'blues guitarist. Like all of Sayles's films, this warm drama swells with integrity and a passion for justice. Sadly, it also feels a little patronising and cosy. More Johnny Mathis than Little Richard. DC
FLIGHT OF THE RED BALOON/LE VOYAGE DE BALLON ROUGE ****
Directed by Hou Hsiao- Hsien. Starring Juliette Binoche, Simon Iteanu, Hippolyte Girardot PG cert
Binoche plays a single mother who, despite being saddled with a hopeless absent husband, supports her son by narrating puppet shows. This thoughtful drama alludes to the great children's film The Red Balloon but, with its long takes and phobia of close- ups, it never looks like anything other than the work of Hou Hsiao-Hsien. DC
SMART PEOPLE **
Directed by Noam Murro. Starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, Thomas Haden Church, Christine Lahti 15 cert
Quaid, an English lecturer, romances ex-student Parker and copes with snarky daughter Page (pure Juno) as his mid-life crisis stumbles over the horizon. There are good things in this indie comedy, but it is a little too reminiscent of a dozen other campus pictures. The strummy folk soundtrack is particularly annoying. DC
THREE AND OUT **
Directed by Jonathan Gershfield. Starring Mackenzie Crook, Colm Meaney, Imelda Staunton, Gemma Arterton 15 cert
For a dizzyingly contrived series of reasons, Crook, a train driver, agrees to help depressed Meaney end his life. The sentimental melodrama is less irritating than the awful comedy, but you couldn't say any of it works. Deserves an award for the most inappropriate use of WB Yeats in a movie ever. DC
XXY ****
Directed by Lucía Puenzo. Starring Inés Efron 16 cert
Puenzo's assured and mature debut is a coming-of-age drama compassionately dealing with the dilemma of a 15- year-old hermaphrodite (Efron). The film is honest and non-judgmental, sensitive yet unflinching. MD
PUFFBALL *
Directed by Nicolas Roeg. Starring Kelly Reilly, Miranda Richardson, Donald Sutherland 18 cert
Roeg, one of the finest directors of his generation, returns for the first time in a decade. The result is a disaster. Puffballdetails the dispute between a pregnant Kelly Reilly and neighbouring bumpkins in an appallingly caricatured version of the Irish border country. Ugly, incoherent, boring and very long. What a shame. DC
