Latest video/DVD releases reviewed

Directed by Mike Newell. Starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dominic West, Juliet Stevenson, Marcia Gay Harden 15 cert

Young women at a posh college in the 1950s have their horizons broadened by a curiously wide-mouthed art teacher with dangerous beatnik leanings. Cynics have suggested that this monumentally boring (if attractively staged) period piece might constitute an attempt by the producer (one J. Roberts) to sabotage the career of all her young rivals in one fell swoop. As Roberts herself is the most preposterously miscast, this is unlikely. Donald Clarke

Directed by Richard Linklater. Starring Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White PG cert

The consistently entertaining new movie from the versatile, always interesting Linklater is an infectiously energetic comedy featuring the irrepressible Black as a slacker who cons his way into a private school and transforms some students into high-voltage rock 'n' rollers. Michael Dwyer

Directed by Denys Arcand. Starring Rémy Girard, Stéphane Rousseau 18 cert

The winner of two awards at Cannes last year, Arcand's superb sequel to The Decline of the American Empire reunites disparate Quebeçois friends when one of them is dying. The new film proves as wise and deeply touching as it is cynical and politically incorrect, and flawlessly performed by a terrific ensemble cast. Michael Dwyer

Directed by John Hamburg. Starring Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alec Baldwin, Hank Azaria, Bryan Brown 15 cert

Like approximately 86 per cent of romantic comedies, this fitful romp concerns an uptight bloke (Stiller) whose life gains some zip when he bumps into a crazy, freewheeling waitress (Aniston). Nothing the two leads do is in any way surprising or interesting, but the peripheral entertainments - Azaria's beach bum, Baldwin's greasy executive, Seymour Hoffman's aging teen star - are all topnotch. Donald Clarke