Infidelity

Death Becomes Her

This 1992 black comedy by Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Back to the Future trilogy) features some of the most eye-popping special effects of the '90s in its story of a narcissistic star (Meryl Streep) who steals the husband (Bruce Willis) of another woman (Goldie Hawn) and continues her rivalry with her even after death. A magic potion keeps both women going despite the punishment of murderous bullets and fatal plunges, and the joke is that even as they rot they remain vain about appearances. Though he's fashioned a one-note movie, Zemeckis gets a lot of mileage out of such impressive sights as Hawn walking around with a hole in her chest the size of a basketball, and Streep--her head and arms twisted 180 degrees--moving like a broken crab. It's weird, it's sick, it's hilarious, and the stars push the whole project to a classy entertainment. Isabella Rossellini is great as a scantily clad witch who sells the immortality brew. The DVD release has a full-screen presentation, optional French and Spanish soundtracks, optional Spanish subtitles, and Dolby sound. --Tom Keogh

Election

Matthew Broderick makes up for years of wet-noodle performances with his low-key but unsparing characterization of Jim McAllister, a high school teacher at George Washington Carver High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Driven by a strange mixture of loathing and lust for pathologically overachieving student Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), McAllister encourages a dim but popular athlete, Paul (Chris Klein from American Pie), to run against her in the election for student-council president. Director-cowriter Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth) turns this deceptively simple premise into a complex and scathing comedy of ambition, corruption, and desire, all at its most naked and petty. Every scene contains some painfully funny nuance that will make you wince in a mixture of astonishment and empathy. Witherspoon flips effortlessly back and forth from adolescent vulnerability to steely-eyed strength; she's becoming a contemporary Carole Lombard. The movie itself feels like a magnificent throwback to the richly layered comedies of the '30s, which drew their humor from sharply drawn characters and twisting plots instead of explosions of bodily fluids. With a wealth of smart, cutting details, Election rewards multiple viewing. --Bret Fetzer

The Graduate

Few films have defined a generation as The Graduate did. The alienation, the nonconformity, the intergenerational romance, the blissful Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack--they all served to lob a cultural grenade smack into the middle of 1967 America, ultimately making the film the third most profitable up to that time. Seen from a later perspective, its radical chicness has dimmed a bit, yet it's still a joy to see Dustin Hoffman's bemused Benjamin and Anne Bancroft's deliciously decadent, sardonic Mrs. Robinson. The script by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham is still offbeat and dryly funny, and Mike Nichols, who won an Oscar for his direction, has just the right, light touch. --Anne Hurley

Nominated* for seven Academy AwardsÂ(r) and winner for Best Director, this ground breaking and "wildly hilarious" (The Boston Globe) social satire launched the career of two-time OscarÂ(r)-winner** Dustin Hoffman and cemented the reputation of acclaimed director Mike Nichols. Pulsating with the rebellious spirit of the '60s and a haunting score sung by Simon and Garfunkel, The Graduate is truly a "landmark film" (Leonard Maltin). Shy Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) returns home from college with an uncertain future. Then the wife of his father's business partner, the sexy Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), seduces him, and the affair only deepens his confusion. That is, until he meets the girl of his dreams (Katharine Ross). But there's one problem: she's Mrs. Robinson's daughter!

Desperately Seeking Susan

This likeable, feminist screwball comedy about several incidents of mistaken identity is remembered more as the film that made Madonna a movie star. She's flip, hip, and energetic as Susan, the wild tramp with whom bored, suburban New Jersey housewife Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette) becomes obsessed after reading of her sexual conquests in the personal ads. Of course, since Madonna essentially played herself, the role's hardly a stretch. Director Susan Seidelmen presents a series of zany incidents too complicated to recount, but the result is that Roberta swaps lifestyles with her fixation to explore New Wave culture on New York's Lower East Side. It's territory Seidelmen knew well as her more offbeat, indie debut, Smithereens, reveled in the same setting. But where Smithereens took a more edgy approach to its characters, Susan is a fairy tale romantic comedy, and eventually becomes as conventional as the suburban characters it mocks by settling conflicts with predictable Hollywood formulae. Still, there's much to be enjoyed. The film's at its funniest when juxtaposing New York hip and New Jersey suburbia, like when Arquette's straight, suit-and-tie husband dances with Madonna in a punk club. The performances, too, are engaging, especially Arquette and Aidan Quinn, playing a romantic film projectionist who becomes her grubby Prince Charming. --Dave McCoy

If you know what to look for, you can find almost anything in the personal ads...including the loveof your life! Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction) is "irresistible" (Newsweek) and, in her first starring role, pop star Madonna (Evita) gives a "marvelously comic" (Time) performance in this "delightful madcap comedy" (US) about mistaken identity. Bored New Jersey housewife Roberta (Arquette) fills her days by reading the personal ads and following an ongoing romance between "Jim" (Robert Joy) and "Susan" (Madonna), a mysterious drifter who leads the kind of free-spirited life about which Roberta can only dream. And dream she does, until the day she actually shows up at the couple's prearranged rendezvous in New York City...and after a bump on the head, a bout of amnesia turns Roberta into Susan and opens the door to intrigue, laughter and love!

That Old Feeling

Carl Reiner made this enjoyable romantic farce about a divorced couple who commence an affair at their daughter's wedding. Reiner lets the idea bounce around the story's setting and characters so that the full comic effect of the illicit relationship can be felt more chaotically, building on its own irony. Bette Midler and Dennis Farina are quite believable and likable as the not-so-estranged-anymore couple, and Paula Marshall is very good as their exasperated daughter. Not a masterpiece, but one of Reiner's best films in years, with a distinctively European flavor to the comedy. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, production notes, cast and crew bios, theatrical trailer, Dolby sound, optional Spanish and French soundtracks, and optional Spanish subtitles. --Tom Keogh

A Guide for the Married Man

Directed with a lascivious eye by Gene Kelly, A Guide for the Married Man has the illicit kick of finding a vintage copy of Playboy in your dad's sock drawer. With its zoom shots of ample cleavage and jiggling bottoms, this sophisticated sex farce is Naughty with a capital N. Walter Matthau stars as a desperate husband with a roving eye who is "ready to take the plunge." Robert Morse costars as his philandering best friend who becomes his "coach." Morse's "pointers" are acted out by a stellar cast of comic actors. Scoring highest are Carl Reiner as a vainglorious movie star arranging a cross-global tryst; Joey Bishop as a husband who steadfastly denies, denies, denies even after he is caught in the act by his wife, and Terry Thomas as a man driven to an early grave after his paramour (Jayne Mansfield) loses her bra in his home. The film's bevy of beauties includes ravishing Inger Stevens as Matthau's unsuspecting wife and Sue Ann Langdon as the neighborhood tease. Just to make the film even more '60s, The Turtles perform the title song. A Guide for the Married Man is so wrong, so dated, and so sexist. It's a wonder it hasn't been remade! --Donald Liebenson

Director Gene Kelly demonstrates wonderful style and sophistication in this adult farce that stars Walter Matthau and Robert Morse as two husbands with one thing on their minds. Matthau is Paul Manning, a happily married "typical suburban male." Wanting other women but having no idea how to go about it, he turns to his friend, Ed (Morse), for a few tips on infidelity. And Ed willingly dishes up some of the funniest advice and anecdotes ever seen-brought to life by a top cast that includes Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Joey Bishop, Sid Caesar, Art Carney, Phil Silvers and Jayne Mansfield. Despite its delicate subject matter, this wild, wicked comedy is executed with such charm and affection that it won strong critical praise and was one of the top moneymakers of its year.

The Graduate (Special Edition)

Few films have defined a generation as The Graduate did. The alienation, the nonconformity, the intergenerational romance, the blissful Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack--they all served to lob a cultural grenade smack into the middle of 1967 America, ultimately making the film the third most profitable up to that time. Seen from a later perspective, its radical chicness has dimmed a bit, yet it's still a joy to see Dustin Hoffman's bemused Benjamin and Anne Bancroft's deliciously decadent, sardonic Mrs. Robinson. The script by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham is still offbeat and dryly funny, and Mike Nichols, who won an Oscar for his direction, has just the right, light touch. --Anne Hurley

Manhattan Murder Mystery

Woody Allen was going through his off-screen scandal with Mia Farrow when Manhattan Murder Mystery was produced, so Diane Keaton was brought in to fill the role intended for Farrow. The reunion of Keaton and Allen only improves this already enjoyable Allen comedy, since they're so comfortable with each other's neuroses that they're delightfully convincing as a married couple who suspect their neighbor of murdering his wife. Actually, it's Keaton who obsesses about the possible foul play; Woody just wants them to mind their own business. But pretty soon they've recruited their friends (Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston) as amateur sleuths, and the movie turns into a Nancy Drew mystery for sophisticated Manhattanites. With a typical abundance of Woody Allen witticism and some memorable comic suspense, this engaging throwback to vintage Hollywood mysteries is guaranteed to please even the most noncommittal Woody Allen fans, and the Allen-Keaton chemistry is, as always, a genuine pleasure. --Jeff Shannon

Mighty Aphrodite

Mira Sorvino won an Oscar for her performance as a bubbleheaded hooker and porn star who happens to be the mother of a bright young boy adopted by a Manhattan couple (Woody Allen and Helena Bonham Carter). The story finds Allen's sportswriter character becoming curious about the identity of his son's biological mom, and he strikes up a relationship with her without revealing why. This 27th feature written and directed by Allen is a nice combination of smart comedy and some of the wackier energy of his earliest movies. (Between scenes, there's a running gag involving a Greek chorus--actually filmed among some real Greek ruins--who do song-and-dance interpretations of the script's events.) This isn't Allen at his best, but it is a fine minor work graced by Sorvino's spin on the cinema's archetypal dumb blonde. --Tom Keogh

The Ladies Man

Over the years, Tim Meadows has proven himself to be a very funny supporting player on Saturday Night Live, but he never really had a breakout character that he and Lorne Micheals could spin off into a movie--until now. Based on his lisping "Ladies Man" character, Meadows plays Leon Phelps, a late-night sex advice host of a radio show who gets fired for racking up one too many FCC fines. His producer (Karyn Parsons) gets fired with him, and she combs the Chicago stations looking for another gig while he tries to find the one old flame who would be willing to support him for the rest of his life. You see, Phelps is a sexaholic who tends to sleep with frustrated wives, much to the chagrin of the husbands who inevitably catch them in bed together. A mob of husbands have formed a group, under the leadership of Will Ferrell (playing a tired stereotype of the closeted homosexual), dedicated to hunting down Phelps and killing him. The embodiment of the '70s swinger, Phelps personifies both the good (sexual skills) and the bad (the wardrobe and fashion sense) of that icon, though the movie ends with your standard pro-family propaganda when he inevitably finds love and stability with his producer. The laughs do not come fast and furiously, sidetracked as they are by the so-called plot, but one thing must be said and said out loud: Billy Dee Williams is fantastic as the bartender-narrator. --Andy Spletzer