The Cup/Phorpa
PG
Directed by Khyentse Norbu Starring Jamyang Lodro, Orgyen Tobgyal
The first feature film from Bhutan, the first made entirely in the Tibetan language and the first directed by a Buddhist monk, Khyentse Norbu's comedy was a popular success at the Cannes and Toronto festivals last year. Inspired by a true story, it deals with some young monks in a Tibetan monastery and follows their determined attempts to watch the 1998 World Cup on television - to the bemusement of their abbot who has never heard of soccer, but is relieved to hear it has nothing to do with sex.
The ostensibly slender storyline offers telling insights into the monastic lifestyle and catches the sadness of the exiled monks who long for news from home and a return to Tibet. The film's gentle spirit is bouyed by its humanity and by the naturalistic performances of its non-professional cast.
Dogma
Directed by Kevin Smith Starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Linda Fiorentino, Jason Lee, Salma Hayek, Alan Rickman, Chris Rock
Good Will Hunting co-stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are reunited as fallen angels who find a loophole to re-enter Heaven when a New Jersey cardinal (George Carlin) launches his "Catholicism Wow" campaign by offering a plenary indulgence to anyone entering his church. Linda Fiorentino steals the show as a woman of failing faith who is chosen to save the world, while Alanis Morissette plays God in this loquacious and uneven, though sometimes very amusing comic fantasy.
End Of Days
Directed by Peter Hyams Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Robin Tunney, Kevin Pollack
This over-the-top action-fuelled blockbuster is laced with millennial angst and set almost entirely over the three days in the run-up to the last night of 1999, as the forces of good are embodied in a flawed, run-down ex-cop played by Arnold Schwarzengger - and evil is represented by no less a figure than Satan, who takes the human form of an investment banker played with a swaggering insouciance by Gabriel Byrne.