A.O. Scott over at the Times loves A Secret, Claude Miller’s "haunting" new film adaptation of a French novel by Philippe Grimbert. The movie skips through time, covering the pre and post war lives of a fractured Jewish family in France. Scott calls it a story of "confused passion and ethical struggle" that "leaves in place a sense that something horribly and splendidly strange can lie under the surface of ordinary experience.... The film......

Swing Vote, anyone? You know, starring Kevin Costner as an “apathetic, beer-slinging, lovable loser, who is coasting through a life that has passed him by, until his daughter sets off a chain of events which culminates in the election coming down to one vote: her dad’s!” HAHAHA! Take it away, Boston Globe: “Swing Vote is a satire that's afraid to satirize. It's predicated on so many forces of incompetence converging in a single spot......

Compared to the hype that surrounded the first film adaptation, this second X-Files movie is opening almost discreetly this weekend. Is the studio’s subdued promotional effort a sign that I Want to Believe is a mess, or is Space Chimps just sucking all the air out of the room? The Times’s Manohla Dargis says, “I wanted to believe. But with his big-screen blowup of his great and weird television series The X-Files, Chris Carter......

This weekend’s vibe has been officially harshed: The perpetually hassled Frying Pan will not be reopening this weekend, contrary to prior reports. The relocated party boat bar and café was mercilessly shut down last summer by the Man over some sort of uptight permit issue, and owner John Krevey says the square community is basically conspiring against him: "It's been horrible. I'm never going to convince them that an old rusty boat is something worth......

In You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, Adam Sandler affects an Israeli accent to play a Mossad commando turned sex-crazed NYC hairdresser. The script, co-written by Judd Apatow, Robert Smigel and Sandler, works hard to coax laughs out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, throwing in plenty of gross-out humor and comic stylings from Rob Schneider, who plays a dumb Palestinian. Need further discouragement? Variety’s Brian Lowry calls it Schneider’s “most relentlessly unfunny appearance under heavy......

Photo, by ultraclay! at flickr Pity the poor tourist who comes upon this ad hoc weekend subway service advisory message scribbled on a series of dry erase boards at the Fulton St. station in Manhattan. Actually, pity any subway rider who pauses at great length to try to determine the meaning behind this advisory and then comprehends what it ultimately means for them to get to where they need to go. The above photo......

The imposing shadow of Indiana Jones looms, but this weekend belongs to Narnia, when C.S. Lewis’s second book in the series – Prince Caspian – finally gets the Hollywood treatment to accompany that epic Phish song. This installment has a lot more combat than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, as well as the super-brilliant Peter Dinklage. The Voice’s Ella Taylor says it’s fun, you know, for kids, though adults may decide that,......

Speed Racer, from the mysterious sibling filmmakers behind the Matrix trilogy, is opening to well-deserved critical derision. It’s a 135-minute insipid, soulless commodity that lifts some of the Japanese original’s storyline but absolutely none of the charm. The movie opens with a 34% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes; perhaps J. Hoberman’s pan gets it best: “Ideologically anti-corporate, previous Wachowski productions aspired to be something more than mind-less sensation; Speed Racer is thrilled to be......

Forgetting Sarah Marshall opens today, remember? Of course you do, because the movie’s marketing campaign has flooded the city for months with posters like “You Suck, Sarah Marshall,” pissing off a lot of real-life Sarah Marshalls in the process. By now, you know that it stars Jason Segel (Knocked Up) as a jilted slacker who books a Hawaiian vacation to get over his ex, only to find her at the same hotel with her......

If you were planning on taking the F train anywhere this weekend, better put on your reading glasses -- Gowanus Lounge spotted commuters stalled in front of the following sign. The 9-year-old should attempt this for his next subway challenge: Transfers and shuttles and buses, oh my. Read the MTA advisory here, or just slide on those walking shoes and stay above ground.......

MOVIE: Every national election year reminds us of that part in The Dark Crystal where the hideous Skeksis systematically drain the Gelfling’s “essence” and drink it to increase their power. If you don’t know the scene we’re talking about, you need to go see it on the big screen tonight – a regular-sized TV monitor just doesn’t do Jim Henson’s creepy masterpiece justice. The one-night-only screening will be introduced by one of the film’s puppet......