Michael Apted

It's possible at this point to consider Yo La Tengo as a musical version of Michael Apted's long-running "The Up Series," documentaries that since 1964 have followed the same 14 children as they've grown and changed. Started in Hoboken, N.J., by guitarist husband Ira Kaplan and drummer wife Georgia Hubley, Yo La Tengo has been documenting lives through music for a quarter of a century now, creating solid, virtually unimpeachable rock 'n' roll that offers a model for dual creativity. On the 13th Yo La Tengo album, the couple works through complicated emotions with as much elegance and grace as ever.

Michael Apted's "Moving the Mountain" is a major achievement, illuminating China's student-led democracy movement that culminated so tragically in the Tian An Men Square massacre in June, 1989. Drawing upon his formidable skills as both a director and documentarian, Apted confidently clarifies the complex chain of circumstances that led to that brief but profound outcry for democracy.

The scenario for "Blink" (citywide) is so convoluted that even Hitchcock might have gotten tangled up in it. Emma Brody (Madeleine Stowe) is a country-rock musician, a violinist, who lost her sight as a child when her mother rammed her head into a mirror. A corneal transplant operation has restored Emma's sight--sort of. She sees things as a blur and, in some cases, she retains images that only become clear a day or two later. (Her optometrist calls this phenomenon "ocular flashback."

Wife beaters with large bank accounts are above the law. Abused wives, especially those who used to work for tips, are toast. The only recourse for these women is to change their identity, muscle up and kill the bum. This is not the only simplistic notion that drives "Enough," the preposterous new Jennifer Lopez rabble-rouser. It is merely the most reckless, particularly at a time when more abused women are giving up on The System and polishing their aim at rifle ranges.

When Directors Guild of America President Michael Apted announces the nominees for the guild's outstanding directorial achievement in feature film for 2003 on Tuesday morning, the real question on everyone's mind will be: Which of them will get the Oscar? Since it was first handed out in 1948, the DGA's award has become one of the most reliable bellwethers for the Oscars, mostly because many of the guild's 12,700 members are also part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

"Everyone has a limit." "Self-defense isn't murder." "Love is a scary thing." These are some of the advertising come-ons Sony Pictures Entertainment is using to entice moviegoers to see the new Jennifer Lopez thriller "Enough," in which an ordinary woman turns the tables on her predatory husband. The film opens Friday.

The Directors Guild of America on Saturday named Ang Lee best director of 2005 for his mournful western, "Brokeback Mountain." The controversial film about the ill-fated romance between two cowboys has already won numerous critical honors and four Golden Globe Awards, and is considered the Academy Awards' front-runner. The 58th annual DGA ceremony was held at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. Carl Reiner was the host.

It was another Disney week at the nation's box-offices with four of the company's films, produced by its three divisions, scoring in the Top 10: "Medicine Man," "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," "Father of the Bride" and the enduring "Beauty and the Beast." This kind of dominance by one studio is rarely accomplished among the top-grossing films.

The fund-raiser at Hotel Bel-Air on Friday night had the ambience of a private party. There was magician Howard Posener drawing laughter from the indomitable baroness Margaret Thatcher as he fooled her with party tricks. So clearly it was meant to be a good time, not some mere formality. Tickets, at $1,200 a plate, benefited the Adolescent Medicine program at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and the International Centre for Child & Family Studies.

Wartime code breaking has become a popular theme running through today's films. It is a key plot device in this year's Oscar-winning "A Beautiful Mind," in which Nobel laureate mathematician John Nash, played by Russell Crowe, tries to break a secret code as he struggles with schizophrenia.