CONFESSIONS OF A TEEN DRAMA QUEEN (PG) Expect coming-of-age cuteness galore as big city gal Lindsay Lohan (Freaky Friday) is dragged kicking and screaming to suburban hell when her parents relocate to a small town in New Jersey. Also stars Adam Garcia, Alison Pill and Carol Kane. (Not Reviewed)
DAWN OF THE DEAD (R) One might ponder the reasons for remaking George Romero's nearly perfect horror classic, but, hey — the bottom line is that you can never have too many zombie movies. Actually, the word "zombie" is never even uttered in the 2004 version, and the creatures themselves more closely resemble the shrieking sprinters of 28 Days than the lumbering icons from Romero's original. Also missing in action are the original's famous images of the living dead strolling about the shopping mall where our heroes are trapped, or any other swipes at our happily zombified consumer culture. What we get instead is a competent but much more conventional thrill machine, filled with a steady stream of decent scares and even more flying hunks of bloody flesh than you'll see in Mel's Passion. It's an adequate fright flick but not much more, with a final 20 minutes that degenerates into just another extended and overly chaotic chase scene. The whole thing is bolstered by a self-consciously ironic soundtrack of heavy metal and jazzy lounge tunes about "the sickness" that seems to think it might actually work as a stand-in for the original movie's wit. It's not. Stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer and Ty Burrell. 
DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA NIGHTS (PG-13) Not so much a sequel as a "re-imagining" of the 1987 hit, told from the perspective of an 18-year-old American girl in Cuba on the eve of the revolution. Diego Luna from Y Tu Mama Tambien plays the Yankee babe's sexy pool boy, who also just happens to be the island's best dirty dancer. Stars Romola Garai. (Not Reviewed)
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (R) The new movie from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) is a wistful tale about the end of a love affair. It's also a wicked black comedy/sci-fi yarn that deconstructs its own narrative through an almost maddeningly complex structure that inevitably mirrors the workings of the human mind itself. Two lovers, Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslett), end their relationship and, through some strange (but, in accordance with the movie's own wacko logic, totally mundane) procedure, have each other wiped from their memories. It's here that the bulk of Eternal Sunshine unfolds, within Joel's brain during the erasing process, as his memories play out, mutating into ever more wildly exaggerated forms before finally folding in on themselves, then withering and disappearing. It's a strange trip, to be sure, sort of like what Fantastic Voyage might have been if some acid-gobbling metaphysicians had been at the helm. Director Michel Gondry pulls out all the stops depicting what goes on inside Joel's brain, assaulting the viewer with a relentless barrage of audacious effects, ultra-rapid edits and all other manner of edgy, convoluted flourishes. Not all of it works, of course, but there are moments of considerable beauty and insight, not to mention a couple of awfully funny bits. Also stars Kirsten Dunst, Tom Wilkinson and Elijah Wood.
THE FOG OF WAR (PG-13) Errol Morris' Oscar-winning documentary offers a rare and somewhat perplexing look at Robert S. McNamara, the controversial Secretary of Defense who presided over the Vietnam War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Philip Glass' richly dramatic score bubbles away just beneath the surface, amplifying the ironies, contradictions, nuances and horrors of history, McNamara-style. The former Secretary of Defense displays a blazing intelligence and what appears to be a deeply felt sense of morality, although Morris allows McNamara's own words to occasionally paint the speaker into a corner, even calling into question his status as a reliable narrator. That's ultimately part of the considerable pleasure in this aptly titled film, though: sifting through the wealth of information and insights to arrive at some sort of truth. 1/2
