A product of the 1970s and the San Francisco Art Institute, Errol Morris became an overnight sensation with 1988’s The Thin Blue Line, a film which examined the case of Randall Dale Adams, on death row for the murder of a Dallas area police officer… and eventually led to his release. “It’s hard for me to even imagine how people experience my films,” he said while promoting his new film, Standard Operating Procedure. “I’m so involved with thinking about them and making them. It’s always been my hope that they can be taken on lots and lots of different levels. They can be taken as just entertainment. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. They are, after all, supposed to be movies.”

The hero of Redbelt is a man clearly guided by a profound belief in a moral code. Moreso than any other character, it seems Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mike Terry serves as the voice of Mamet. There are interesting subtexts to the story, which on its surface isn’t all that different from, say, Rocky or The Hustler. But Mamet’s not after something as specific as a “Jiu-Jitsu film” or as generalized as a commentary on honor: the film functions not only as story, but as an extended metaphor; and that’s a curious thing to find in a Mamet film, which, as a rule, are more concrete than abstract. But when you’re expecting the Big Speech this time out, you might just get silence (or merely a slap in the face); and just when you’re looking for the big Moment of Cynicism, you might want to be prepared for a deep swig of—would this be pushing it too far?—hope for the human condition.

Eduardo Verástegui has lived the movie-star life… South of the Border style. He is right, I think, in observing that we “have this tendency and inclination to imitate or copy what we see on film or television, and what we read in magazines or interviews.” But he has unhitched himself from the star cart, instead lending his talents to entertainment with a purpose. “I have to see this as an opportunity,” he says, “to say a few words of hope, so when people read those interviews they will be influenced in a positive way. Because I myself, when I was a teenager, all these things that I did—many of them—I was influenced by the magazines I was reading and the TV shows I was watching, and the movies I was watching. And now that I look back, I think, My gosh! I can’t believe I was influenced by this person’s interview! I was imitating everything that people were saying in that interview; and they were not good things, you know?”

There’s not a lot to say about the film, other than to remark that’s it’s a very fun little flick that doesn’t pander to the usual conventions of high-schooler dramas. It feels a lot like Coppola’s S.E. Hinton adaptations—Rumble Fish and The Outsiders—without being quite so self-conscious or arty. This is director Michael Mayer’s first real stab at a theatrical release, and if he connects with the right audience he could have a success on his hands. But the star of this show is Shannon Lucio as Polly. She’s already put together a smallish if decent résumé of TV and film work; but here I felt as if I was watching an early Grace Kelly crossed with Bridget Fonda… or something. There’s real talent there, and a good deal of charisma.

documentaries left and right are being pejoratively tarred with the adjective “propagandistic”—as if that’s somehow a new development. But, as serious students of film know full well, it has always been impossible, with the brain disengaged, to digest cinema of any sort and still expect to find truth. Kudos to Errol Morris, then, for taking the opportunity, when releasing Standard Operating Procedure, to educate us not only about Abu Ghraib but about documentary filmmaking as well. If you want to learn a thing or two about what makes films (and human psychology) tick, read Morris’ two-part column in the New York Times (and all of the attached comments)… and then go see SOP.

Chiwetel Ejiofor, who stars as Jiu-Jitsu guru Mike Terry in David Mamet’s upcoming film Redbelt, is very much drawn to playing men of character. “These people still do exist,” he says, “even though, in the wider society, it’s become unpopular to point out people like this without trying to find fault in them, without trying to find where they’ve maybe done the wrong thing. But society runs well, for the most part, because there are people of good conscience and good self-knowledge and awareness—even if they don’t consciously have a code of ethics that they live by.”

“I’m a loud and proud atheist, and I make no bones about it. I think Christianity is a disaster—that religion in general is an affliction on society—that what we have here is a set of myths that people use to shape their lives, and it’s all a big mistake,” says Myers. “They can acquire comfort from it, and I can understand that; I was a member of a church for many years. [But] sensitive-minded liberal Christians are sitting there silently while fundamentalists are taking over the schools. So we are screaming loudly, and we’re screaming loudly at the Christians in general—not because the Christians are entirely to blame for these problems, but because too many of them have been sitting there just too darn quiet.”

Richard Jenkins portrays a quiet power awakening, while Hiam Abbasss, as Mouna, communicates an equally gentle and alluring beauty. A mature couple hasn’t been this appealing onscreen since—I don’t know—On Golden Pond? They’re just not as theatrical and lively, or as old. Their romance is also more tragic, yet beautiful. In The VisitorThomas McCarthy has written and directed a quietly worthy film that says: Guess what, Walter? It’s not your apartment any more. You don’t deserve it. You’re just taking up space. When you’ve figured out what it means to really be alive, maybe it will mean something to you.

In a country where we hide our senior citizens away in house-like boxes where they can be conveniently fed and cared for, Young @ Heart reminds us that our elders have more to offer than we think. Conductor Bob Cilman has been directing the chorus after which this film is named. The sole prerequisite? Having completed at least seven decades of life. Lest you (mistakenly!) dismiss this as some geezer novelty act with old folks singing “My Darling Clementine,” suffice to say that the opening number serves notice that you’re in for something unique—and while my lips remain sealed, their opening song was a hit for The Clash, and it sets the tone for the film. These are not folks who will “go gently into that good night.”

Expelled, which argues that “Darwinian thinking” is exercising a stranglehold in our schools and scientific institutions, certainly provides proof of bias—in both intentional and unintentional ways. And the vituperative response from detractors who haven’t even seen the film proves that, yes, there is a much larger war going on out there. On the entertainment level—the one that probably counts the most to audiences (and should, to critics)—the film comes in at about a B level. When it comes to its subject matter, though, Expelled fumbles the ball quite a bit. At the end of the day, I don’t find that the film makes a compelling case. Yes, I am inclined to believe that the opposition fights pretty dirty; I simply don’t think those folks are really the same cabal that Expelled wishes us to believe that they are. But if they are—and I stress, if they are; and they might be—Expelled simply plays too nice to catch them red-handed.