Peter Weir's post-modern picture of our media age features a remarkably restrained Jim Carrey as a mild-mannered insurance agent who, at 30, finally realises that his entire life is the subject of a round-the-clock television show, and that everyone he knows - even his wife - is an actor within the scenario. Shamefully passed over for Oscars last month, this is rich, imaginative, thoughtful and stimulating cinema.
Dancing At Lughnasa (PG)
The beautifully crafted and superbly acted film version of Brian Friel's Tony-award-winning play about five sisters in Donegal in the mid-1930s, has been judiciously adapted for the screen by Frank McGuinness and is sensitively directed by Pat O'Connor. The exemplary cast features Meryl Streep, Kathy Burke, Sophie Thompson, Brid Brennan, Catherine McCormack, Rhys Ifans and Michael Gambon. The music, at its most effective in the thrilling scene when the sisters dance together, is by Bill Whelan.
There's Something About Mary (15)
Only Titanic was more successful at the Irish box-office last year than this provocative comedy, which has something to offend just about everybody. It's directed by brothers Bobby and Peter Farrelly, and anyone who has seen their Dumb And Dumber and Kingpin will have an idea of what to expect. Cameron Diaz is characteristically effervescent as a young woman who is the object of desire for a number of men, played by Ben Stiller, Matt Dillon, Lee Evans and Chris Elliott.
Love Is The Devil (18)
Derek Jacobi gives a sublime and complex portrayal of the volatile gay artist, Francis Bacon, in John Maybury's impressive, impressionistic film portrait which focuses on Bacon's tempestuous seven-year affair with George Dyer (a quietly powerful Daniel Craig), the minor criminal who becomes his lover in a sado-masochistic relationship.
The Last Days Of Disco (15)
Whit Stillman's witty, sharply scripted third film is set in early 1980s Manhattan as a disparate group of young people fall in and out of love. The soundtrack features over two dozen well-chosen disco hits of the time and the impressive cast includes Kate Beckinsale, Matt Keeslar and Mackenzie Astin.
Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (18)
Replete with movie references - most pointedly (and enjoyably) to The Italian Job - Guy Ritchie's sharp, entertaining crime movie set in London's underworld features Vinnie Jones, Nick Moran, Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher and in a cameo, the Irish boxer Steve Collins.
The Horse Whisperer (12)
Robert Redford cuts through the contrived melodrama of Nicholas Evans's best-selling novel and fashions a visually striking and involving drama, a story of physical and emotional healing. The radiant Kristin Scott Thomas plays an uptight magazine editor who loosens up when she comes into contact with a laid-back Montana farmer (Redford), renowned for his skill with horses.
Mercury Rising (15)
Harold Becker's efficient and engrossing thriller features Bruce Willis as a disillusioned FBI agent coming to the rescue of a young autistic boy (Miko Hughes) whose life is in peril when he cracks a top secret national security code. All of the villains are US government agents in this paranoia-steeped picture which co-stars Alec Baldwin.
I Want You (18)
The moody, intense new Michael Winterbottom film is an initially intriguing drama with Alessandro Nivola as an ex-convict who returns to his bleak home town where his former lover (Rachel Weisz) befriends a mute 14-year-old Bosnian boy.
