One-Liners

SYNECDOCHE NEW YORK (A-minus) - Rewatched this one, though I vowed after seeing it in the theaters, "I loved that, but I don't think I ever want to see it again." I still wouldn't advise watching it on video just before bedtime. Whoosh. Philip Seymour Hoffman shoulders this one while at the top of his game. But just look at this lineup of female co-stars, which I would put up against Carl Hubbell any day: Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Emily Watson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Hope Davis. If you have the patience for Charlie Kaufman, you'll be rewarded in the end.

AMERICANO (C-minus) - A rather pointless exercise and a listless effort both behind and in front of the camera by Mathieu Demy, the son of French film royalty. Demy plays Martin, who would be a mopey Frenchman even if he wasn't growing apart from his girlfriend and his mother hadn't just died. Martin goes to Los Angeles to tend to his mom's affairs, and it's there that he's informed by her friend Linda (Geraldine Chaplin) that his mom had a young female friend. That friend is Lola, who, it turns out, headed for the border not knowing Mom bequeathed her apartment to Lola. Martin hijacks Linda's classic Mustang, points it toward Tijuana, and hunts down Lola. Poor Salma Hayek is stuck with the same thankless role that Marisa Tomei had in "The Wrestler" -- soccer-mom stripper with a sad streak. None of this works. Hayek, like Tomei, has kept her 40-something frame in shape. Unfortunately, Martin is such a cipher that he drags everyone down with him, and by the end we just don't care enough how it all turns out.