This Is My Father 15
Directed by Paul Quinn Starring Aidan Quinn, Moya Farrelly, James Caan, Colm Meaney, Moira Deady, Stephen Rea
A touching and compelling picture of joyous young love dashed by the forces of oppression and repression in 1930s Ireland, Quinn's film begins in the present when, prompted by the discovery of an old photograph, a middle-aged Chicago teacher (Caan) decides to explore the story of the spirited 17-year-old Fiona (Farrelly) who would become his mother. Aidan Quinn is remarkably subtle and affecting as the naive, hard-working orphan who becomes involved with her in a relationship which incurs the wrath of her alcoholic mother (Gina Moxley) and the stern parish priest (Eamonn Morrissey).
Practical Magic
Directed by Griffin Dunne Starring Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock
This witless witchcraft yarn set in New England deals with a death curse placed on any man who's ever loved by an Owens woman. Bullock and Kidman play two Owens sisters raised by eccentric aunts (Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing) - and initiated into their witchly ways, not to mention their appalling hippie dress "sense". This time Aidan Quinn has a thankless role as a snooping detective.
54
Directed by Mark Christopher Starring Ryan Phillippe, Mike Myers, Breckin Meyer, Salma Hayek, Neve Campbell
It's the late 1970s and the old disco hits pound out on the soundtrack as a naive young stud is freed from a life of drudgery when his physical assets earn him work and a sexually active lifestyle in a decadent environment where he's taken under the wing of a seedy surrogate father. No, this isn't Boogie Nights, but the blandly superficial 54, named after the notoriously hedonistic New York nightclub, Studio 54, run by the flamboyant, sleazy Steve Rubell who's played by an aptly over-the-top Myers in this pedestrian morality tale.
Psycho
Directed by Gus Van Sant Starring Anne Heche, Vince Vaughn, Viggo Mortensen, Julianne Moore
Van Sant's remake of the Hitchcock classic is dutiful to the point of being pedantic, but ultimately, it's a redundant and pointless exercise, more silly than sacrilegious. In setting the new version in the present, Van Sant has succumbed to a commercial concession without adding any remotely interesting contemporary resonances, and he gets the casting almost entirely wrong.