The Strokes “First Impressions of Earth” RCA “First Impressions of Earth” is not the best Strokes album by any stretch of the imagination. It lacks the fine-tuned polish of “Room on Fire” and the tossed-off vibe that made “Is This it” a modern classic. Read more...

“Brokeback Mountain” Directed by Ang Lee Focus Features Gay cowboys. Yes, that is the premise of “Brokeback Mountain,” Ang Lee’s new film about the solitude and anguish felt by victims of desperate isolation in a suddenly changing world. Read more...

“The Family Stone” Directed by Thomas Bezucha 20th Century Fox The members of the eponymous family of “The Family Stone” fit liberal stereotypes to a T, though they may stop short of being the “left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers” described in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall.” A staple of almost every holiday movie is the dysfunctional family, but few have been as unbelievable as this one, led by “Annie Hall” co-star Diane Keaton. Read more...

“The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada” Directed by Tommy Lee Jones Sony Pictures Classics When Mike and Lou Ann Norton move into their new trailer home, the window looks out onto a dusty road and a sign that reads, “Liberty means freedom from high interest rates.” It sounds stupid, like a crooked salesman’s way of conniving some sorry sucker, but the idea resonates throughout the film “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.” Freedom in this film ““ written by Guillermo Arriaga (“21 Grams,” “Amores Perros”) and the first directed by Tommy Lee Jones ““ is about many things: the freedom of an outlaw, the freedom of the dead, the freedom of moving away, the freedom of having an affair. Read more...

This is definitely not your parents’ Woody Allen film. With “Match Point,” the latest offering from the filmmaker, Allen has departed from many of the conventions of his earlier work. Read more...

New Year’s Eve has always been one of the biggest party nights of the year. And in case you didn’t know, there are better ways to celebrate it than camping out in front of the TV set watching a taping of Dick Clark counting down the time until it’s 2006. Read more...

Slowly, streams of blood-red dye begin to appear in a river, representing the bloodshed of World War II. The redness then transforms into long, flowing pieces of beautiful, red kimono cloth. Read more...