Wendy R. Weinstein

SPANGLISH

It is such a pleasure to step into a James L. Brooks movie. From Terms of Endearment to Broadcast News to As Good As It Gets, Brooks hooks his audience, enveloping them in his characters' complex lives. In Spanglish, he once again delivers flesh-and-blood characters with minds, unexpected...

LA PETITE LILI

FIRST RUN/Color/1.85/Dolby Digital/104 Mins./Not RatedCast: Nicole Garcia, Bernard Giraudeau, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Ludivine Sagnier, Robinson Stévenin, Julie Depardieu, Yves Jacques, Anne Le Ny, Marc Betton, Michel Piccoli.Credits: Directed by Claude Miller. Screenplay by Miller, Julien Boivent,...

ANASTASIA

Swim aside, Little Mermaid, Anastasia's coming through. She's riding locomotives, horses and Parisian high society with the grit of Annie Oakley and the wide, arched brows of Audrey Hepburn. Blessed with the no-nonsense voice of Meg Ryan (and the rich singing voice of Liz Callaway), Anastasia is...

WIND IN THE WILLOWS, THE

Director Terry Jones fills the current void in family entertainment with his witty and whimsical version of Kenneth Grahame's children's classic, The Wind in the Willows. Along with a number of his Monty Python cohorts, he infuses this Edwardian paean to friendship and nature with zany humor and...

ANTZ

If only President Clinton had the time or inclination to lend his vocal talents to an endearing animated ant, he might join Woody Allen as a scandalous public figure redeemed, at least, in the eyes of children (and many of their parents). As the voice of the worker ant Z in DreamWorks' first...

MULAN

Disney turned East seeking inspiration and found it in Mulan, a thoughtful coming-of-age adventure story about a brave and clever daughter risking her life to save her ailing father in Imperial China. Having fun with the comic possibilities of cross-dressing and gender confusions, this...

TWILIGHT

Despite its nimble opening and phenomenal cast, Twilight eventually runs out of steam. Robert Benton's contemporary film noir takes on the weary, dispassionate quality of its central character, Paul Newman's Harry Ross, a burnt-out, retired detective and ex-cop, a noble failure-maybe too noble...

TANGO

It is fitting that Carlos Saura's sumptuous yet meditative Tango opened commercially on Valentine's Day weekend, for it is a lover's vision of both the classic dance form and filmmaking itself. Like Fran‡ois Truffaut's Day for Night and Federico Fellini's 8 1/2, Tango explores the collaborative...

ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER

All About My Mother earned the former enfant terrible of Spanish filmmaking, Pedro Almodžvar, the Best Director Award at Cannes, and the prestigious invitation to open the New York Film Festival. Dedicated to actresses who have played actresses (Gena Rowlands, Bette Davis, Romy Schneider), this...

MYSTERY, ALASKA

Jay Roach, who struck gold in his directing debut with Austin Powers, and then platinum with the sequel, comes up empty with Mystery, Alaska, an unintentionally funny movie set in a remote mountain town. (The picture was actually shot in Alberta, Canada.) To be fair, Roach did not have much to...