Film

Film critic David Edelstein reviews The Constant Gardener, the new thriller based on the John Le Carre novel. The film is directed by City of God's Fernando Meirelles and stars Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz.

Known today equally as a musician and actor, Ice Cube was born O'Shea Jackson. He first gained notoriety in the late 1980s with the revolutionary group N.W.A. He now also acts in and produces movies, including this year's comedy Are We There Yet? (This interview originally aired Jan. 10, 2005.)

Critic-at-large John Powers comments on the history of roles for offbeat women in Hollywood. Powers recently saw the hit film The 40-Year-Old Virgin and got to thinking about the actress Catherine Keener, who co-stars.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews this weekend's new releases: thriller Red Eye and the comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin, starring Steve Carell of The Office.

Neil Clark Warren is the founder of the online dating service eHarmony. The company performs extensive personality profiling and then introduces couples with matching values and interests. Warren is an Evangelical Christian with strong ties to the conservative Christian community.

In Junebug, a story of characters and culture clashes, Embeth Davidtz plays a Chicago art dealer who meets her new in-laws on a business trip to North Carolina, including a very pregnant Amy Adams.

The anti-Vietnam War documentary Winter Soldier is having its first major theatrical release -- 34 years after it was made. It focuses on a three-day gathering in 1971 when Vietnam veterans, including former Marine pilot Rusty Sachs, told of the atrocities they had participated in or witnessed during the war.

Bill Murray and his deadpan delivery star in a Jim Jarmusch film about an aging Don Juan who learns a 19-year-old son he has never met is looking for him. A strong cast offers support.

The film Hustle & Flow follows the story of a Memphis pimp who dreams of becoming a rapper. Relative newcomer Craig Brewer wrote and directed the film, which won the 2005 Audience Award at Sundance. Brewer and star Terrence Howard discuss the gritty movie.

Classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz tells why he likes the soundtrack for the Preston Sturges film Unfaithfully Yours, now out on DVD.

Cultural historian Christopher Frayling's new book Once Upon A Time in Italy: The Westerns of Sergio Leone is a large-format, beautifully illustrated book that chronicles the history of the spaghetti western through researched text and interviews with Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese and Eli Wallach.

March of the Penguins is a stunning and endearing documentary about a year in the life of an Emperor penguin flock in Antarctica. Morgan Freeman narrates.

The new documentary Grizzly Man by German filmmaker Werner Herzog tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, who lived for 13 years -- and died -- among the bears in Alaska. Treadwell and his girlfriend were found dead in October 2003, killed by the animals he had grown to love so much.

A Memphis pimp with a midlife crisis tries to make it as a rapper in Hustle & Flow, a film featuring the prodigious acting talents of Terrence Howard. He spent nearly two years researching a role that he initially did not want to accept.

John Leguizamo, who got his start as a stand-up comedian, stars in the new Spanish-language film Cronicas. He plays a tabloid reporter from Miami who travels to Ecuador to track down a serial killer.

Wedding Crashers stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as two divorce mediators spending their spare time pursuing women at weddings. The comedy features what the reviewer describes as "crackerjack timing" by the co-stars.

Critic-at-large John Powers says that two current blockbusters, Batman Begins and War of the Worlds, are deeply influenced by America's post-Sept. 11 obsession with terrorism.

Don Roos wrote and directed the new film Happy Endings, starring Tom Arnold, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lisa Kudrow and Laura Dern. Roos, who also directed The Opposite of Sex and Bounce, is known for creating dysfunctional characters who bump into one another in unpredictable ways.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews War of the Worlds, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise. Edelstein calls the movie "a masterpiece," combining momentous special effects with a subtle depiction of the human struggle.