Good Film Hunting

Monsters and natural disasters get all the attention, but there’s more to the summer movie lineup.

FRIDAY

Bulworth. Producer-writer-director Warren Beatty plays an imperiled U.S. senator who becomes involved with young South-Central L.A. resident Halle Berry. (Fox)

Clockwatchers. Parker Posey, Lisa Kudrow, Toni Collette and Alanna Ubach are credit-firm temp workers whose bond is threatened by a new arrival. (BMG Independents)

French Exit. Daphna Kastner (“Julia Has Two Lovers”) co-wrote and directs a look at the rivalry and romance of two screenwriters, set against a backdrop of Hollywood parties and natural disasters. (Cineville)

A Friend of the Deceased. Unable to cope with the fallout of post-Communist freedoms, a Kiev academic hires a hit man to end it all for him. When he changes his mind, it may be too late to cancel the contract. (Sony Pictures Classics)

Go Now. “The Full Monty’s” Robert Carlyle plays a Scotsman whose contented life of work, soccer and romance is suddenly threatened. Michael Winterbottom (“Welcome to Sarajevo”) directs. (Gramercy)

The Hanging Garden. Chris Leavins plays a gay man who returns to his family in Nova Scotia after 10 years and finds them more dysfunctional than ever. (Goldwyn Films)

The Horse Whisperer. Director Robert Redford plays a Montana man who communes with troubled steeds. He becomes involved with big-city editor Kristin Scott Thomas, her traumatized daughter and their horse. (Touchstone)

Jour de Fe^te. A rare color version of Jacques Tati’s 1949 debut, a satire of modern society’s obsession with speed. (Miramax)

Lawn Dogs. Poet and playwright Naomi Wallace’s drama about a 10-year-old girl and the young man who mows her lawn in an affluent Kentucky suburb. (Strand)

Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen’s. Fay Wray and Sharon Stone are among the customers in this cinema verite account of the fabled eatery’s final two weeks. (Northern Arts)

Plump Fiction. Tarantino is just one of the cinematic sacred cows gored in a spoof with Julie Brown and Sandra Bernhard. (Legacy)

Quest for Camelot. Warner Bros. Feature Animation follows “Space Jam” with a fully animated adventure set in Arthurian England. (Warner Bros.)

MAY 20

Godzilla. Forty years after totaling Tokyo, the lizard sets his sights on New York. (TriStar)

MAY 22

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Altered states should prevail in the match of co-writer and director Terry Gilliam and source author Hunter S. Thompson, who’s portrayed by Johnny Depp. (Universal)

The Opposite of Sex. Christina Ricci as a troubled teen who moves in with her half-brother and wreaks havoc with everyone she encounters--including Lisa Kudrow and Lyle Lovett. (Sony Pictures Classics)

Still Breathing. Hollywood’s Formosa Cafe (“L.A. Confidential,” “Swingers”) is a key setting as con artist Joanna Going mistakes eccentric street performer Brendan Fraser for her wealthy mark. (October Films)

MAY 27

I Got the Hook-Up. Rap mogul Master P wrote and stars in a madcap adventure about a pair of hard-luck hustlers and their cache of bootleg cell phones. (Dimension)

MAY 29

Almost Heroes. You’ve heard of Lewis & Clark, but what about their rivals Edwards & Hunt? The late Chris Farley (in his final film) and Matthew Perry take the leads, Tom Wolfe writes and Christopher Guest directs. (Warner Bros.)

Beyond Silence. The gift of a clarinet opens a new world and presents conflicts for the daughter of a deaf couple in this Oscar-nominated German film. (Miramax)

Broadway Damage. Writer-director Victor Mignatti salutes the grand romantic gesture with the story of three young friends with big dreams in Manhattan. (Jour de Fete Films)

Hope Floats. Forest Whitaker directs Sandra Bullock as a single mom coping with emotional turmoil when she returns to her Texas hometown and mom Gena Rowlands. (Fox)

The Last Days of Disco. Those days are experienced by a group of club-going college graduates in Manhattan. (Warner Bros.)

Little Boy Blue. A Texas adolescent (Ryan Phillippe) is trapped in twisted games orchestrated by his disturbed father. John Savage and Nastassja Kinski also star. (Castle Hill)

JUNE 1

The Mother and the Whore. A new print of Jean Eustache’s 1973 anatomy of sexual escapades. (Artificial Eye)

JUNE 5

Cousin Bette. Jessica Lange and Elisabeth Shue co-star in this adaptation of the Balzac novel. Former La Jolla Playhouse director Des McAnuff directs his first film. (Fox Searchlight)

Dirty Work. “Saturday Night Live’s” Norm McDonald joins a cast that includes Chevy Chase and Artie Lange in a comedy about a revenge-for-hire enterprise. Bob Saget directs. (MGM)

Insomnia. Stellan Skarsgard (“Breaking the Waves,” “Good Will Hunting”) stars in an intense thriller about a murder investigation in a small Norwegian town. (First Run Features)

A Perfect Murder. Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow and Viggo Mortensen play cat-and-mouse when a man hires a killer to dispatch his unfaithful wife--and he happens to be her lover. (Warner Bros.)

The Truman Show. Peter Weir directs Jim Carrey as the unwitting subject of an around-the-clock TV show. (Paramount)

JUNE 12

The Beyond. A new print of the rare, original English-language version restores Italian spatter-meister Lucio Fulci’s 1981 shocker to all its gory glory. (Rolling Thunder)

Can’t Hardly Wait. A graduation party is the setting for a series of encounters and challenges as the kids face the unknown future. (Columbia)

Don’t Look Back. D.A. Pennebaker’s 1967 documentary on Bob Dylan’s visit to London is shown in a new 35mm print. (Artistic License)

Hav Plenty. New Year’s weekend and two mismatched people add up to a look at love in the ‘90s in writer-director and co-star Christopher Cherot’s film. (Miramax)

High Art. Ally Sheedy as a mysterious bohemian who lures a young woman (Radha Mitchell) into her decadent world. (October Films)

Land Girls. They’re the women who volunteer to replace English farm workers who have gone to fight in World War II. Their romances involve farmers and airmen stationed at a nearby base. (Gramercy)

Passion in the Desert. Based on the Balzac story about a French army officer’s sojourn in the exotic sands of Egypt. (Fine Line)

6 Days, 7 Nights. Gruff cargo pilot Harrison Ford and vacationing magazine editor Anne Heche are stranded on a tropical island in a romantic adventure directed by Ivan Reitman. (Touchstone)

JUNE 19

Henry Fool. Writer-director Hal Hartley’s comic study of friendship and forgiveness concerns the roguish title character and a lonely garbage man. (Sony Pictures Classics)

I Went Down. Playwright Colin McPherson’s first screenplay is a taut telling of a colorful hostage drama unfolding in the boggy badlands of Ireland. (TSG)

Mulan. Disney’s 36th animated feature, based on the ancient Chinese legend about a girl who sneaks into the army to save her father and her country. (Walt Disney)

The X-Files. The intrigue for Mulder and Scully centers on the bombing of a Dallas office building. (Fox)

JUNE 26

Doctor Dolittle. Eddie Murphy succeeds Rex Harrison as the physician who talks with the animals. (Fox)

Gone With the Wind. This re-release features a restored Technicolor print and the overture, intermission and exit music designed by producer David O. Selznick and director Victor Fleming. (New Line)

Mark Twain’s America. 19th century photographs become 3-D Imax images in this exploration of the author’s life and the nation he captured in his work. (Sony Pictures Classics)

A Merry War. In 1930s London, Helena Bonham Carter longs for middle-class respectability while her eccentric boyfriend Richard E. Grant wants to write poetry and taste freedom. (First Look)

Out of Sight. Screenwriter Scott Frank follows “Get Shorty” with another Elmore Leonard adaptation, about prison escapee George Clooney and hostage Jennifer Lopez. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. (Universal)

Picnic at Hanging Rock. A director’s cut of Peter Weir’s 1975 depiction of an eerie outing in the outback. (Kit Parker Films)

Smoke Signals. Writer Sherman Alexie based his script about the friendship of two contrasting young American Indian men on his award-winning short story “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.” (Miramax)

Voyage to the Beginning of the World. Portugal’s Manoel de Oliveira directs Marcello Mastroianni in his final screen role--a film director on an odyssey of self-discovery. (Strand)

JUNE TBA

Charlie Hoboken. Insurance salesman by day, hit man by night. Austin Pendleton and Tovah Feldshuh join newcomer Ken Garito in Tom Mazziotti’s comedy outing. (Northern Arts)

Mr. Jealousy. Noah Baumbach follows “Kicking and Screaming” with a screwball romance about a man (Eric Stoltz) whose suspicious nature threatens to derail his relationship with Anabella Sciorra. (Lions Gate)

Talk to Me. Newcomer Cheryl Clifford is a woman whose adoption of a telephone alter-ego improves her romantic fortunes. (Northern Arts)

JULY 1

Armageddon. NASA chief Billy Bob Thornton . sends oil driller Bruce Willis into space, where he must help destroy an Earth-bound asteroid. (Touchstone)

JULY 3

Talk of Angels. Political and sexual passions boil over for an Irish governess (Polly Walker) and the son (Vincent Perez) of an aristocratic family in Spain on the brink of civil war. (Miramax)

JULY 10

Buffalo 66. Busy Vincent Gallo stars, directs, wrote and composed the score for his portrait of an ex-con caught in a web of vengeance. (Lions Gate)

Lethal Weapon 4. New detective Chris Rock makes three when he joins Mel Gibson and Danny Glover to combat an Asian crime family in L.A. (Warner Bros.)

Madeline. Hatty Jones takes the title role and Frances McDormand plays Miss Clavel in the screen version of Ludwig Bemelmans’ children’s books about a Paris schoolgirl. (TriStar)

Marie Baie Des Anges. The love of two young free spirits struggles to survive the cruel realities of the world that surrounds them. (Sony Pictures Classics)

Pi. Sean Gullette is a renegade mathematician whose exploration of ordered chaos entangles him with sinister forces ranging from the stock market to a kabbala sect. (Live Entertainment)

Small Soldiers. Stan Winston gives life to pint-sized commandos who battle a band of monsters in this blend of live action and computer animation. Directed by Joe Dante. (DreamWorks)

Whatever. Two Jersey girls indulge their rebellious urges in the N. Y. art underground. of the early ‘80s. (Sony Pictures Classics)

When I Close My Eyes. A woman’s attempt to commune with her deceased fiance through an old address triggers a complex and unsettling series of revelations. (Fine Line)

JULY 15

There’s Something About Mary. “Dumb and Dumber” auteurs Bobby and Peter Farrelly direct a comedy about private eye Matt Dillon, client Ben Stiller and search object Cameron Diaz. (Fox)

JULY 17

Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss. A photographer falls for one of his models during an ambitious project--a series of pictures of classic screen kisses depicted by drag performers. (Trimark)

Firelight. Writer-director William Nicholson’s drama about a governess (Sophie Marceau) who secretly bears a landowner’s child, then later joins his household. (Miramax)

The Mask of Zorro. Retired Zorro Anthony Hopkins grooms troubled drifter Antonio Banderas to take over the gig, which involves toppling a tyrant. (TriStar)

My Life So Far. This memoir of an unusual family is produced by David Puttnam, directed by Hugh Hudson and features Colin Firth, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Malcolm McDowell, among others. (Miramax)

Polish Wedding. Claire Danes, the sensuous daughter of Gabriel Byrne and Lena Olin, follows lusty family tradition when she embarks on her romantic escapades. (Fox Searchlight)

Safe Men. Sam Rockwell and Steve Zahn are bad singers and worse safecrackers, as they discover when a case of mistaken identity entangles them with the Jewish Mafia of Providence, R.I. (October Films)

The Thief. The Russian-French production follows a nomadic scavenger across the 1950s USSR, where she becomes involved with a charismatic con man. (Stratosphere Entertainment)

JULY 24

B. Monkey. Oscar nominee Michael Radford (“Il Postino”) directs an international cast in the story of a woman who hopes her new love will enable her to escape her dark past. (Miramax)

Dead Man on Campus. Tom Everett Scott stars as a party-minded college freshman who pins his hopes of passing on an arcane loophole in the school’s charter. (Paramount)

Jane Austen’s Mafia! Director and co-writer Jim Abrahams brings his parodic touch to the saga of an organized crime family headed by Lloyd Bridges. (Touchstone)

Saving Private Ryan. Steven Spielberg directs Tom Hanks in the story of a squadron that’s been mysteriously diverted on D-day to rescue a missing paratrooper. (DreamWorks)

Very Bad Things. The dark comedy from first-time writer-director Peter Berg features Christian Slater, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Stern, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Jon Favreau, among others. (PolyGram)

JULY 29

The Parent Trap. Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson and Lindsay Lohan star in this remake about twins trying to get their folks back together. (Walt Disney)

JULY 31

BASEketball. “Airplane!” and “Naked Gun” director David Zucker directs Comedy Central’s “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone in this skewering of sports. (Universal)

Be the Man. In his film debut, daredevil Super Dave Osborne attempts to open a school for would-be fall guys. (MGM)

Dance With Me. Vanessa L. Williams and pop heartthrob Chayanne are dancers whose romance has a Latin beat. (Columbia)

Full Tilt Boogie. A colorful documentary on the making of the Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino vampire-fest “From Dusk Till Dawn.” (Dimension)

The Governess. Minnie Driver plays a nanny in pre-Victorian England who becomes involved in her employer’s invention of photographic images. (Sony Pictures Classics)

The Negotiator. F. Gary Gray directs Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey as Chicago police hostage negotiators enmeshed in a frame-up. (Warner Bros.)

JULY TBA

The Continued Adventures of Reptile Man. Tony Curtis is an actor who finds it hard to shed his old TV hero role. (Northern Arts)

Levitation. Sarah Paulson as a woman whose search for her birth mother becomes a spiritual journey. (Northern Arts)

Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember. The documentary is based on interviews with the actor, conducted near the end of his life by his companion, director Anna Marie Tato. (First Look)

AUG. 7

Ever After: A Cinderella Story. Drew Barrymore is Cinderella and Anjelica Huston is the wicked stepmother. (Fox)

54. The glamour and decadence of the fabled disco Studio 54 are seen through the eyes of bartender Ryan Phillippe. Mike Meyers plays club owner Steve Rubell. (Miramax)

Snake Eyes. Producer-director Brian De Palma and writer David Koepp follow “Mission: Impossible” with the story of Atlantic City police detective Nicolas Cage and the assassination of the secretary of defense. (Paramount)

Wrongfully Accused. Violinist Leslie Nielsen must evade capture while pursuing the real killer--a one-armed, one-legged man. (Warner Bros.)

AUG 14

Air Bud: Golden Receiver. The sharpshooting canine is targeted for kidnapping by circus impresarios. (Miramax)

The Avengers. Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman play John Steed and Emma Peel, aligned against diabolical scientist Sean Connery in this adaptation of the ‘60s TV spy series. (Warner Bros.)

The Best Man. An Italian’s return home from America puts him in the middle of a traditional wedding and timeless romance. (October Films)

Clay Pigeons. Montana gas jockey Joaquin Phoenix’s affair with his best friend’s wife triggers a murder frame-up. (Gramercy)

Return to Paradise. Two men face a moral dilemma when a friend is sentenced to hang in Malaysia unless they join him and share his prison term. Vince Vaughn, David Conrad and Joaquin Phoenix star. (PolyGram)

Virus. Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland versus an alien life form that regards humans as a virus that must be eliminated. (Universal)

AUG 21

Disturbing Behavior. Frequent “X-Files” director David Nutter teams with “Con Air” screenwriter Scott Rosenberg in a thriller about a small town’s solution to teenage rebellion. (MGM)

Esmeralda Comes by Night. Jaime Humberto Hermosillo’s satire centers on a brazen bigamist (Maria Rojo) so charming that her current and future husbands rally to free her from jail. (Fine Line)

Knock Off. CIA man Jean-Claude Van Damme vs. the Russian Mafia. At stake: a deadly new technology heading for the terrorist black market . (TriStar)

AUG 28

Rush Hour. Havoc ensues when rogue LAPD detective Chris Tucker is assigned to keep Hong Kong cop Jackie Chan away from the FBI investigation of a kidnapping. (New Line)

Your Friends and Neighbors. Director Neil LaBute explores sexual mores in suburbia. (Gramercy)

AUG TBA

Bandits. That’s the name of a rock band formed by four female prisoners whose escape and flight through Germany makes them cult heroines and chart stars. (Stratosphere Entertainment)

Blade. Welsey Snipes plays a half-vampire immortal dedicated to saving humans from the blood-suckers. (New Line)

Divine Trash. Documentary on the early career of John Waters includes footage of the making of the underground classic “Pink Flamingos.” (Stratosphere Entertainment)

First Love, Last Rites. Director Jesse Peretz sets his exploration of first love in the steamy bayou country of Louisiana. (Strand)

The Hairy Bird. A group of students at an exclusive girls school plots to derail a merger with a boys academy in 1963. (Miramax)

Hands on a Hardbody. S.R. Bindler’s documentary showcases a Texas contest whose winner takes home a truck. (Legacy)

Modulations. Interviews, cutting-edge visuals, studio footage and live performances trace the evolution of electronic music, from avant-garde composers to Prodigy. (Strand)

Next Stop, Wonderland. The romantic comedy sets a nurse and a would-be biologist on converging tracks in Boston. (Miramax)

Slums of Beverly Hills. Marisa Tomei, Alan Arkin, Natasha Lyonne and Carl Reiner in a story about coming of age in 1976 in the bad part of Beverly Hills. (Fox Searchlight)

FO Bulworth: Warren Beatty plays a struggling U.S. senator who combines politics, hip-hop and rap music. (Friday)