Cinema Review - Me without you

Itll soon be time to polish your wands again. This time, though, itll be a wizarding fantasy of an altogether darker nature as The Lord Of The Rings hits the screens. But first, a round-up of everything, including a couple of really good films, which are trying to flourish before Potter and Frodo bash it out at the box office.

So, Me Without You, which kicked off this years London Film festival, stars Anna Friel and judging by the other press reaction youd think it was a Friel vehicle. It isnt. Its a film about female friendship with Friel as Marina. Shes had a mixed up childhood, which sends her spiralling through years of rebellion.

Michelle Williams plays her posh Jewish mate who agrees to their promise to be best friends forever, until she becomes involved in some hideous romances, which in turn make her a different person. Soon she starts to feel the friendship is too claustrophobic.

This is a mediocre film that spans the friendship of the girls through the 70s and 80s with no great revelations along the way. Thats not to say that it needs them. Me Without You is a simple British tale with a full pallet of funny outfits to mark the times. Its Williams, though, who proves that even a girl from Dawsons Creek, even if her accent slips now and then, can still steal a strange little British film from our own ex soap-star, Anna Friel. I enjoyed Me Without You, a bit slushy and thin, but wallpaper enough to be better than paint drying.

Too harsh for some, Storytelling (18) is a brilliant movie about, uh, story-telling. Todd Solondtz, the hottest auteur writer-director around has made a film that is arguably easier on the public than his last movie, Happiness. He weaves two stories about two kinds of storytelling. In Toby's scenario, the non-fiction segment, a documentary film-maker abuses the trust of a school slacker and his family. The fiction is provided by a sharper piece about a creative writing student Vi (Selma Blair). She writes a short story fictionalising her real life. Where she breaks up with her boyfriend (Leo Fitzpatrick), who has cerebral palsy and has a fling with their black tutor (Robert Wisdom). Its strong stuff, but Solondtz and his cast provide utterly compelling arthouse cinema.

In cinema terms, light years away from Storytelling youll find Vondie Curtis Halls Glitter. (Who? No idea). This is the story of a young singer, Billie Frank, played by Mariah Carey in her film debut.

As Billie, she doesnt quite marry a ginger millionaire twice her age, but she does overcome a turbulent childhood and struggles to find her true family and her true voice. Billie is discovered by Julian Dice, a charismatic, irresistible bad boy DJ, who soon becomes her partner, producer and lover. With Dice, she begins an exciting, but often volatile and precarious, journey as she struggles through both her personal and professional life, riding the roller coaster to super stardom.

Glitter is bound to be right up there with Showgirls vying to be one of the worst films of all time. In that competition it will gain cult status. I hated it so much I have to move on to a really excellent film, The Piano Player, is adapted from Elfriede Jelinek's novel The Piano Teacher.

Its a stunning look at how a middle-aged woman, a piano professor at the Vienna Music Conservatory, is slowly self-destructing. Erika Kohut, who had a weird love-hate relationship with her mother, was torn by her emotions to music and her dark desires. One day, after one of her students expressed his feelings during the private class, her inhibited desires explode...

Again, not one for the kids. But truly a masterpiece. Not much for all the family this week. Fear not. If youre bored with Harry Potter youd better join me. Im about to take a long journey through the Mirkwood, bound for Hobbiton where a certain Hobbit by the name of Baggins is about to take on the first part of an adventure thatll knock your socks off, I hope.