YES

2004, Rated R

To say her films look and sound like no other is the greatest compliment one can give veteran filmmaker Sally Potter. Feminist themes involving politics, philosophy and culture have made Potters' films popular with a small but discerning crowd. The sex-shifting period drama Orlando remains her best-known work, The Tango Lesson is her most personal, but Yes is her most artful drama yet. It's also politically timely. Joan Allen is radiant and passionate as an Irish-American scientist known simply as "She," who abandons her white-collar husband (Sam Neill) for an affair with a Lebanese surgeon (Simon Abkarian) who works in London as a prep cook. Allen's scenes with Abkarian are powerfully lifelike. Potter supplies the dreamlike music with help from Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass. Cameraman Aleksei Rodionov bathes the restaurant kitchen, office boardrooms and swimming pool locations in beautiful blues and whites. The highlight of Yes is the iambic pentameter that makes up its rhyming dialogue. The words spoken by Allen and the shaggy-haired Abkarian are musical, and they make their Arab-Anglo romance all the more beautiful and heartbreaking. (Steve Ramos) Grade: B

THE DEVIL'S REJECTS

THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (LIONS GATE)

2005, Unrated

A quasi-sequel to writer/director Rob Zombie's House of 1,000 Corpses, this ode to the '70s B movies -- think Bonnie & Clyde via Tobe Hooper -- gleefully revels in its hillbilly mayhem. It's 1978 in rural Alabama and the Firefly family, a sadistic clan of killers led by a deranged clown named Captain Spaulding (a ceaselessly creepy Sid Haig) is being hunted down by Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe), a righteous cop who's as unhinged as those he's tracking. Zombie's cast emotes admirably -- the scenes between a typically intense Forsythe and a captured Mama Firefly (Leslie Easterbrook) are wonderfully over the top -- and the director clearly cares about his whacked-out creations. Yet besides an early tension-filled motel-room sequence in which Otis Firefly (a bland Bill Moseley) violates Three's Company's Priscilla Barnes, The Devil's Rejects is considerably less penetrating than its creator intends, devolving into an unnecessary morality play marked by slow-motion camera work and a booming soundtrack of Southern Rock staples. Among the various DVD extras on this special unrated edition is a 224-minute "making of" documentary. That it's more compelling than the actual movie says a lot. (Jason Gargano) Grade: C

MILLIONS

MILLIONS (FOX)

2004, Rated PG

Director Danny Boyle steps away from his terrifying zombie thriller 28 Days Later for a magical fantasy steeped in a child's spirit of goodness. Millions, with a script by the extraordinary Frank Cottrell Boyce, is as heartfelt, humanistic and emotionally real as any family film in recent years. A father (James Nesbitt) moves his two young sons (Lewis McGibbon and newcomer Alex Etel) into a new suburban home. The magic begins when the younger boy, Damien (Etel), discovers a bag stuffed with Irish pound notes. Bank robbers want the money back, but Damien, a lad who knows the Catholic saints by heart, considers the money a gift from God and the means to do some good. Boyle's trademark style of acrobatic photography makes every scene dazzling. But Millions is about the power of faith and family, with or without saintly intervention. Bonus commentary by Boyle and Cottrell Boyce discuss the inspiration behind Million's tale and their aim for the film's many magical images. They understand that storytelling, more than skill with color lenses, earns it classic status. (SR) Grade: A

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: SEASON TWO

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: SEASON TWO (FOX)

2004, Not Rated

If The Simpsons married Soap, this would be the resulting love child. Quirky to be sure, Arrested Development is a carefully crafted sitcom, which really plays to the strengths of its brilliant cast. At the center of the dysfunctional Bluth family is middle son Michael, played surprisingly well by Jason Bateman, who somehow manages to not get run over by the rest of the cast, serving as a straight-man, yet getting big laughs of his own. Season Two finds the scandalous clan trying to cope with the fact that their financial empire is gone, though few in the family seem to realize the gravity of the situation, instead pursuing their own self-interests with impunity. The show is a critical favorite, and while all the adulation might be a bit much, it certainly is the best sitcom on TV right now. Bonus material includes commentary on selected episodes, deleted scenes, bloopers, campaign videos from "The Immaculate Election" episode and "Season One in 3 Minutes" to help get you up to speed. (P.F. Wilson) Grade: A