Film capsules -- 1997-2001

Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (R) 99 min. Garner's rating: 8 Review · Clips
The directorial debut of actress Joan Chen, a poignant and potent tale of a girl's tragic decline in China's Cultural Revolution. Lu Lu and Lopsang co-star. Stratosphere Entertainment. Rated R, with strong violence, sex and rape.

X-Men (R) 101 min. Garner's rating: 6 Review · Clips
X-Men are the latest super-power heroes to leap from Marvel Comics to the big screen. Good mutants battle bad mutants for world dominance in director Bryan Singer's uneven but off-beat summer adventure. Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry co-star. Twentieth Century Fox. Rated PG-13, with moderate violence.

The Yards (R) 115 min. Garner's rating: 9 Review · Clips
James Gray's bittersweet and affecting family drama, played out in the guise of a traditional urban tale of gangsters and corruption among New York subway workers. Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix and James Caan co-star. Miramax. Rated R, with profanity, violence and sex.

Yi Yi (U) 173 min. Garner's rating: 10 Review · Clips
A marvelous, nearly three-hour chamber comedy-drama about the ups and downs of various members of a modern Taiwanese family. Wu Nienjen stars for Cannes Film Festival best director winner Edward Yang. Winstar Cinema. Unrated, with some strong subtitled profanity. In Taiwanese, Mandarin and Japanese, with English subtitles.

You Can Count On Me (R) 111 min. Our rating: 9 Review · Clips
A touching, funny and insightful film about family relationships, as a young woman's brother returns home for a visit and has an unexpected effect on her life. Terrific writing and acting make it one of the season's must-see gems. Starring Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo and Matthew Broderick. Directed by Kenneth Lonergan. Paramount Classics. 111 minutes. Rated R, with profanity, violence, partial nudity and adult themes.

The Young Poisoner's Handbook (R) 100 min. Garner's rating: 8 Review
Benjamin Ross' black comedy about a scholarly English lad (Hugh O'Conor) whose interest turns to murder. Profanity, nudity, violence; for mature audiences only.

Your Friends & Neighbors (R) 100 min. Our rating: 7
Writer and director Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men) explores the sexual mores of modern suburbia. Starring Ben Stiller, Aaron Eckhart, Nastassja Kinski, Amy Brenneman and Jason Patric. Rated R, with graphic sexual dialogue, nudity and profanity.

You've Got Mail (PG) 119 min. Garner's rating: 9 Review · Clips
Two e-mail buddies are unaware that, in fact, they are competitors in the book business, in this delightful if overlong reworking of Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner, from the team that gave us Sleepless in Seattle. Starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Directed by Nora Ephron. Warner Bros. Rated PG, with mild profanity and adult themes.

Zero Effect (R) 113 mins. Garner's rating: 8 Review · Clip
Bill Pullman is excellent as Daryl Zero, the intensely private private eye at the center of this quirky, highly original mystery thriller, with comic undertones, from 22-year-old writer-director Jake Kasdan. Ben Stiller co-stars as Zero's all-important front man. Rated R, with Profanity.

Zoolander (PG-13) 90 min. Garner's rating: 4 Review · Clips
A heavy-handed, over-extended, but occasionally funny satire on vapid male models and the fashion industry, directed by its star, Ben Stiller, and co-starring Owen Wilson and Will Ferrell. Paramount. Rated PG-13, with innuendo.