Kym, whose life has been a mess of addiction, has left rehab to attend the Connecticut bash, and her self-centeredness is very much in evidence, as it has been throughout the relationship with her sister and everyone else. Her very neurotic presence makes the wedding about her, shifting focus from the prospective bride and groom. The marriage is an interracial one, with Rachel’s intended Sidney black and played nicely by Tunde Adebimpe. The film takes the interracial aspect matter-of-factly without it becoming an issue. Kym is the issue here, and Hathaway makes the most of her acting opportunity.

There is also a worthy performance by Debra Winger as Abby, mother of the sisters, and there are impressive added contributions by Bill Irwin, Anna Deavere Smith, Anisa George, and Matther Zickel in rounding out the assembled entourage.

Maher is especially keen on puncturing holes in literal dogma, laughing at the absurd idea of a man living inside a fish and other Biblical tales. He has his critical lance poised against creationists, and he delights in baiting interview subjects. He also seeks out the oddballs who make a religion out of marijuana or claim to be a descendant of Jesus, as well as those who preach against gays or are converts to Jews for Jesus.

He is filmed in front of the Vatican skewering the Catholic Church. His confrontations throughout are geared to get laughs at the expense of religion, which he holds responsible for death and destruction in human history. At the end, he drops the comedy and makes an appeal for people to rise up and make themselves heard in opposition to the role religion plays.

The setup begins when a CIA operative, Osborne Cox, played by John Malkovich, is taken off a position of responsibility, and bitterly angry, he quits. He decides to write a book about his experiences, and his memoir disc winds up on the floor of a gym where two employees, Linda Litsky, played by Frances McDormand, and Chad Feldhemer, played by Brad Pitt, find it and decided to locate Cox and blackmail him to get it back. Pitt lets himself go with over-the-edge comedy antics in his uncharacteristic role, and McDormand is hilarious as a woman convinced she needs four makeover surgeries to improve her looks.

Meanwhile, Cox, with Malkovich giving another of the film’s ultra-funny performances, is in a terrible marriage, with Tilda Swinton playing his nasty, icy, contemptuous wife, Katie, who is cheating on him with George Clooney as Harry, a woman-chasing former security agent. Harry also winds up sleeping with Linda, while his wife is busy cheating on him. The sexual merry-go-round is amusing in itself, but the main fun is derived from the nuttiness on the espionage front, when Linda and Chad, frustrated by Osborn’s refusal to deal, plot to sell the Russians what they have, which the Russians regard as useless gibberish.

J. K. Simmons is a picture stealer as a low-key CIA honcho who is befuddled by the series of outrageous reports as the doings escalate. He is unflappable in his off-hand desire to just make it all go away.

Peter is being flunked by his father, Professor Hadley, played sternly by Peter Bogdanovich, and it is clear that this is a strained father-son relationship. One night Peter meets Bogart, a wild woman singer who casually sleeps around. Played by Fairuza Balk, she seduces the awkward student (how can I write seduces the awkward Peter?) and she then takes off with him in her car without knowing where they are going. It’s home for her, with her marijuana growing family. But she soon takes off alone and leaves him there.

At first Peter is desperate to leave, but the casual attitude in the hippie lair results in his not getting a ride to the bus. But gradually he comes to understand and respect those who have found their own way of life and are able to exist as long as they keep their growing limited and don’t get greedy and seek a wider business. But, as one might suspect, that is about to change, introducing the element of danger.

The story focuses on Marlee, a single mom having trouble making ends meet and looking after her son, James, who at 12 has to learn to fend for himself.

The opportunity for trouble is never far away, and James succumbs to doing an occasional drug drop. The situation becomes increasingly perilous, and as we follow developments one is drawn into the relentlessly bleak world. Tarra Riggs is effective as Marlee, JimMyron Ross is convincing as James, and Micheal J. Smith, Sr. is good in his important role as Lawrence, a key factor in James’s life.

Working with a screenplay by James McBride based on his novel, Lee goes for broke in piling on the events as African-American soldiers fight their way in Italy during 1944. One recalls the Italian neo-realist films as Lee’s soldiers become involved with the Italian people in various ways, including the befriending of an Italian boy by a U.S. soldier, involvement with the partisans and a situation of betrayal.

There is also the encounter with a young Italian woman. One GI has a crush on her but respects her. Another exploits her sexual vulnerability. That doesn’t say much for the morality of the woman, who goes for the down and dirty soldier instead of the nice guy. Lee doesn’t flinch in showing the horror of war, with potential death at every turn and a brutal massacre by the Nazis. The men in the platoon that is the center of focus are isolated behind enemy lines, and they are also shown as expendable as far as the white military establishment is concerned.

The entire film unfolds as a flashback from what would seem to be a senseless killing by a bank teller in New York. The screenplay struggles to make the connection, which also involves a statue that was seized during the invasion, a statue that turns out to have been valuable.

Most valuable is the effort of the film to pay homage to the many African-Americans who did their part for the country, but were treated as second-class citizens. However, the film attempts to cover too much territory and is thus excessively long. Yet that is understandable given the challenge. An African-American actor once told me he wanted a chance to make his Western, to make his John Wayne film, to do all of the things that white actors and directors have been able to do. It’s as if Spike Lee feels that too, and has tried to pack all of such desires into one huge epic. This is his statement, stylistically and content-wise.

The situation itself isn’t far-fetched. Gere plays a surgeon whose conscience is plagued by the death of a patient and he has come to the remote town in an effort to placate the aggrieved husband who is suing him. (Scott Glenn gives a restrained, moving performance as the widower.) Lane as Adrienne is tending the small hotel owned by her friend Jean (Viola Davis), seizing the opportunity to get away for a much-needed break from her children and the unwelcome aggressive effort of her estranged husband Jack (Christopher Meloni) to get back together with her after having ditched her for another woman.

Paul turns out to be the only guest, and love blossoms quickly, with each finding strength in the other as the second-chance-in-life possibilities loom. What subsequently happens is not far-fetched (a friend of mind had a similar experience). But it is the dialogue throughout that doesn’t ring very true. Also, the whole episode with Adreinne’s hostile teenage daughter, who has to be won over and gain some understanding, seems contrived.

But getting back to basics, Lane is such an accomplished actress and so appealing, that it is a pleasure to see her, and she makes the character believable. Gere is also in excellent form, and one can enjoy watching them rise above the material with which they have to work.

This portrait gives us an overview of Rosset’s life and traces his publishing career. It includes interviews with those around him. Oddly, there is considerable focus on an interview with Al Goldstein, the Screw Magazine publisher. Although colorful, the interview shunts Rosset into a limited arena. While Goldstein reveled in smut, which also deserves defending under the First Amendment, Rosset on a different level contributed to the advancement of literature.

Being a crusading publisher has not been easy, given the financial ups and downs. Indeed, Rosset had to sell Grove Press. (I was hurt by that transaction. Grove had scheduled a paperback edition of my book, “Landmark Films: The Cinema and Our Century”), and although it was already listed in the catalogue, the new owner cancelled many of Grove’s projects, mine included.)

In the plot, written by David Loughery and Howard Korder based on a story by Loughery, a young interracial couple, Chris and Lisa, played effectively by Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington, move into an upscale area. They quickly encounter the hostility of Jackson as neighbor cop Abel Turner, a widower. There’s a personal reason for his anger gnawing at him, about which we eventually learn, and he is also having problems in the LAPD as a result of his excessive use of force. A psychotic aspect of his personality and behavior is clearly evident as and he is overly moralistic and strict in raising his daughter.

Turner takes to harassing the couple and confronting them with an edge whenever they meet. The situation will escalate toward a melodramatic finish. However, the plot also involves issues between Chris and Lisa, with problems stemming from differences as to when they will have a child and opposition to the marriage by Lisa’s father.

The police didn’t expect the number of demonstrators who turned up, an estimated 40,000. In a way typical of how authority cracks down against what is perceived as disruption of city life instead of legitimate exercise of rights, there were violent clashes. A few more militant protestors apparently resorted to incidents of unplanned violence, but the use of force is depicted overwhelmingly as employed by the police. The film chronicles the arrests made and the ensuing battle to vindicate those taken into custody and gain their release.

Into this tension-laden mix, Townsend injects his fictional trappings. The key performances are by Woody Harrelson as Dale, a decent police officer swept up in the events, and his wife Ella, played by the excellent actress Charlize Theron. Ella is pregnant, and it doesn’t take a plot expert to expect that the dramatics will involve a threat to Ella’s well-being when she gets ensnared in the hubbub. Others in the cast include Ray Liotta as Seattle Mayor Jim Tobin, and André Benjamin, Martin Henderson, Connie Nielsen, Michelle Rodriguez, Channing Tatum, Rade Serbedzija and Jennifer Carpenter.