Entertainment Reviews

SANTA FE, N.M. - Hey, Anna! Hey, Renee! There's a new Violetta in town, and she's staking a compelling claim to the role, orange wig and all.

"The Shimmer" (Vanguard Press, 336 pages, $25.95), by David Morrell: Football-sized lights hover over the dark horizon outside Marfa, Texas, bouncing, shimmering, even changing colors. Some can see them, others can't. Theories abound as to what they are, but no one seems to know for sure.

SHANGHAI (Hollywood Reporter) - A battle between good and evil is waged for the sake of a wee petal in "The Magic Aster," an animated Chinese fairy tale that's devoid of fun or personality.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A spirited cast headed by the engaging Tricia O'Kelley lends effervescence to "Weather Girl," a brightly written but generically directed (both by Blayne Weaver) low-budget romantic comedy that cries out for a less conventional approach.

TAORMINA, Italy (Hollywood Reporter) - "Sister Smile," Stijn Coninx's film on the life of the Belgian "Singing Nun," Jeanine Deckers, owes much of its success in Belgium and France to star Cecile de France.

Wilco, "Wilco (The Album)" (Nonesuch)

TAORMINA, Italy (Hollywood Reporter) - The likes of Bogey and Bergman are nowhere to be seen in Nour Eddine Lakhmari's tour through the nocturnal underbelly of Casablanca, or "Casanegra," as the city's underclasses call it. Lakhmari picked up the prize for best director at the Taormina festival for this film about two childhood friends, young men striving to rise above the surrounding squalor.

OAKLAND, California (Hollywood Reporter) - In the aftermath of 9/11, more than 1,200 men, many of South Asian descent, were detained by U.S. authorities, according to the ACLU. Of these, more than 1,000 were released months and years later for lack of evidence.

ATLANTA - The old West may have been a slower, dustier time, but it was chock full of danger, and the era is well portrayed in "Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood," an engaging new first-person shooter title from Ubisoft.

Twisted Sister "Stay Hungry (25th Anniversary Edition)" (Rhino)

Moby, "Wait for Me," (Mute).

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Although the legions of actors and writers dreaming of their big score won't have much sympathy for Nia Vardalos, her predicament can't be easy.

NEW YORK - Ballet fans tend to choose favorites among dancers, debating their attributes ad nauseam. But during Nina Ananiashvili's 16 years with American Ballet Theatre, there was little debate. She was at the top of nearly everyone's list.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Working-class boy with artistic aspirations is caught between the Brooklyn mob and Manhattan dreams in "The Narrows," a been-there, done-that drama that recently bowed in New York and Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES - The problem with "Bruno" is Bruno himself. Compared to Borat — and it's impossible to avoid the comparison — there simply isn't enough to the character to build an entire feature-length film around him.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - We all knew Borat. Borat was a friend of ours. Bruno, you're no Borat.

Capsule reviews of films opening this week:

EDINBURGH (Hollywood Reporter) - Adrien Brody writes another offbeat chapter in his idiosyncratic filmography with the uneven cop-vs.-killer thriller "Giallo."