Robert Brinkmann

IN the Robert Altman film "Vincent & Theo," adapted from the letters of Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theo, footage of the 1987 Christie's London auction of "Sunflowers," which sold for $39.9 million, is intercut with the artist lying on a straw mattress in his garret in Belgium, penniless yet unrepentant, while his younger brother and thankless patron assails him for his financial drain on the family. "Do you always have to go so far on principle, Vincent, or does it just come naturally?"

IN the Robert Altman film "Vincent & Theo," adapted from the letters of Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theo, footage of the 1987 Christie's London auction of "Sunflowers," which sold for $39.9 million, is intercut with the artist lying on a straw mattress in his garret in Belgium, penniless yet unrepentant, while his younger brother and thankless patron assails him for his financial drain on the family. "Do you always have to go so far on principle, Vincent, or does it just come naturally?"

Struggling to reduce a loss that could top $2 billion, the Postal Service will increase most mail rates July 1. The basic 34-cent price to mail a letter will stay the same, however. The increases will come just six months after the last rate boost. Postal Board Chairman Robert F. Rider said the agency acted reluctantly Tuesday, but the step was necessary "to assure the financial integrity of the nation's postal system."

"Sugar & Spice," which New Line Cinema released Friday without benefit of advance screenings for critics, despite appearing to be just another cheerleader flick is also amusingly subversive, thanks to sharp writing and direction, by Mandy Nelson and Francine McDougall, respectively.

"Screwed": That's exactly what you're likely to feel if you try to watch this relentlessly unfunny loser, a candidate for the short list of the year's worst major studio release. Pros like Elaine Stritch and Danny DeVito are always fun, but even their presence can't make a dent in this disaster. Amazingly enough, it was written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who have "The People vs.

Was it only a few years ago that John Travolta was a '70s movie sensation, an urban youth movie sex-idol who seemed to blend Brando's brooding with Presley's swagger? In "Shout" (citywide), looking a bit fleshy and tired, Travolta is already trying to pass the torch. But there's nobody to pick it up--at least in this witless, over-pretty dud of a youth musical.

In the new film "The Musketeer," Mena Suvari lives the life of a fairy-tale princess. In this retelling of Alexandre Dumas' classic "The Three Musketeers," Suvari plays an orphaned girl who is swept off her feet by the heroic D'Artagnan, played by Justin Chambers. Tim Roth, the villain, then snatches her, and she must be rescued from the tower of a 17th century castle, where she is the bait to lure the hero for the final showdown. "I'm almost like Rapunzel, who lets her hair down for the prince to save her," Suvari says with a laugh and shaking her golden locks.

So many "serious" movies these days are no-brainers that a movie like "Encino Man" (citywide) is almost refreshing. At least it's upfront about being a no-brainer. Is it as enjoyably dopey as "Wayne's World"? Not really. There's nothing here to match the ineffable nerdiness of Mike Myers' Wayne and Dana Carvey's Garth. Those guys are the Cheech and Chong for the cable-TV '90s generation--gee-whiz dudesters who jangle to each other's dorky rhythms.

Two things are quickly apparent in Michael Lehmann's "The Truth About Cats & Dogs." Nothing about the story, in which a popular radio personality falls in love with a man who thinks she is someone else, is going to be believable. And Janeane Garofalo, who plays that personality, is so much fun, you aren't going to care. Garofalo, the pesky talent booker on HBO's hip "The Larry Sanders Show," is whom Richard Benjamin might wish he'd had when he was shooting "Mrs.

Rock 'n' roll, at its orgiastic best, was often party music exploding past its boundaries, pummeling shrieks of lust and dyonisian frenzy. But the Irish group U2, subject of the concert movie "U2 Rattle and Hum" (citywide), works a different vein. It's starker, purer--its best songs charged with outrage against injustice. "Rattle and Hum" records some savagely compelling live performances from U2's 1987 tour.