STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN Between concert performances of second-tier stars such as Joan Osborne, Ben Harper, Gerald Levert and others singing Motown standards, the anonymous original studio musicians who played on all those hits and called themselves the Funk Brothers inscribe their deeds in the rolls of history. But how far does her tampering reach? Did she poison her husband's ex-wife, and what does she plan for the young woman who suddenly appears, and may be her husband's daughter? Huppert, glacial on the surface but anything underneath, isn't afraid to explore the dark corners of human nature. Isabelle Huppert is chocolate-company heiress and wife to a respected concert pianist. MERCI POUR LE CHOCOLAT Claude Chabrol, a fixture of French cinema, delivers another elegant study in perversity. It's all high-class melodrama, but Gael Garcia Bernal is subtly effective as Amaro - a man so idealistic that his own weakness comes as a surprise to him. Father Amaro, just 24, discovers his own feet of clay when he falls for a devout 16-year-old girl. A senior priest is in cahoots with drug lords, another assists mountain guerrillas. THE CRIME OF FATHER AMARO Radiating pure intentions, a newly ordained priest starts work in a Mexican village and discovers a parish built on corruption. There's not a false note, no trace of "acting" - just a searing realism that's very rare onscreen. Nothing looks rehearsed, and each of the dozens of actors seems to respond to the action as it unfolds. Greengrass films in documentary style, capturing an urgency and impending chaos among police, demonstrators, religious leaders and British soldiers. MeyerīLOODY SUNDAY Director Paul Greengrass has crafted a brilliant record of one day in Irish history, when British troops opened fire on demonstrators in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and killed 13 unarmed civilians. Contains violence and rampant ethnic and religious slurs. The skinny former Mousketeer carries himself with such self-assured menace that he becomes imposing. ![]() But Gosling gives an impassioned performance throughout. Director-writer Henry Bean never establishes what made such a bright kid turn into a monster. It's also based on a faulty premise, which it follows into melodrama and silliness. THE BELIEVER This movie about a Jewish kid turned neo-Nazi is blessed with a searing lead performance by Ryan Gosling ("Murder by Numbers").
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