In America stars the incandescent Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine as two young Irish parents who have lost their only son. Trying to run away from their grief, they move (illegally) to a junkie-infested apartment building in New York City with their two daughters, Christy (Sarah Bolger) and Ariel (Emma Bolger). Though they struggle with meagre jobs and suffocatingly hot weather, a friendship with an artist in an apartment below them (Djimon Hounsou) becomes a catalyst that allows them to rebuild their family.

In America is splendidly acted throughout--of particular note are the two girls, real-life sisters whose on-screen charisma is clearly a family trait. But it's Morton who anchors the movie; her every emotion seems to glow from her skin. The commitment of the actors keeps the movie compelling, despite some dangerously sentimental patches. --Bret Fetzer

Writer Paul Rudnick knows a good idea when he hears one. When Tom Hanks talked about his openly gay high school drama teacher after winning the Oscar for Philadelphia, Hanks had already warned the teacher about the prime-time speech. For Rudnick's comedy, golden-boy star Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon) announces at the Oscars (in a great lampoon of the ceremony) that his high school teacher was his inspiration, and by the way, he's gay. It's a shock to Howard Brackett's (Kevin Kline) small world in the corn belt. That includes his students, parents, coworkers and most importantly, his soon to be bride (Joan Cusack). Rudnick, the most successful and outspoken gay screenwriter-playwright (Jeffrey, The Addams Family) working today has hit cinematic gold. Besides Brackett's running around in crisis control, Rudnick allows a great deal of time to what others think. A typical line: "Mr Brackett's not gay! He just likes poetry and Shakespeare and uses his napkin!"

In & Out is a screwball comedy first, a banter of how society deals with homosexuality second. Kline is at the top of his comedic talents here; a weaker actor would permit Joan Cusack to steal the entire movie as the bemused bride. Cusack, an Oscar nominee for the role, nails some of the funniest moments from any film that year. Seemingly forgotten as a cinematic presence, a clean-shaven Tom Selleck and his 24-carat gold personality is something to reckon with again. As a Hollywood reporter on the case, Selleck, without moustache, comes off more as George Clooney's older brother than as Magnum PI. The movie is helmed by Frank Oz, the voice of Miss Piggy, who has quietly put together a very impressive list of comedies: Little Shop of Horrors, Housesitter and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. --Doug Thomas

Richard Brooks's In Cold Blood is a faithful 1967 screen adaptation of Truman Capote's extraordinary non-fiction book about the course of two killers in this world--their lives, their senseless slaughter of an entire family, and their executions. Robert Blake and Scott Wilson are remarkable as the murderers, but what has kept this film special over the decades is Brooks's blunt, clearheaded, and non-sensational approach to the story. (The term "semi-documentary" has been applied to Brooks's style on this film, and it's an entirely fair description.) The experience of watching In Cold Blood is naturally unsettling, but the director--as with Capote--leaves final judgments about justice to the beholder. --Tom Keogh

"In Country" is both an exploration of post-war syndrome and a coming-of-age film of a Vietnam Veteran who cannot free himself of the nightmare he lived overseas;