No Child Left Alone, er Behind, 'opt out' provision lets parents keep kids' names out of military recruiters' hands; and Big Oil rolling in the hurricane dough

BY JIM HIGHTOWER

Screens

Film Reviews

Domino

Attention-deficit filmmaking reaches a new pinnacle in Tony Scott's hyperstylized portrait of a bounty hunter as an iconic bad girl.

Elizabethtown

Cameron Crowe's romantic comedy doesn't make the attraction between the characters played by Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom believable and then goes off in dozens more unprofitable directions.

Everything Is Illuminated

An amusing road trip through Ukraine leads to epiphanies of history and memory in actor Liev Schreiber's only partially illuminating adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's novel.

The Gospel

An R&B singer rediscovers his roots in this faith-based drama that successfully captures the ecstatic experience of gospel performance.

In this amazingly candid documentary, soldiers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division talk about their lives and their mission in Fallujah, Iraq, in early 2004, just weeks before the full strength of the Sunni insurgency becomes apparent.

Screen Door Jesus

Kirk Davis’ slick, locally produced film, adapted from the stories of Christopher Cook, plunges into Texas' small-town religious mores and comes up with some insightful revelations in this character-driven pastiche.

The War Within

This fiction film, in which the lead character is but one cog in a plot to detonate a series of bombs in New York City, portrays a terrorist’s point of view in a jarringly matter-of-fact manner.

arts & culture

Arts Reviews

Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll

Portraying the radical bastards of Eric Bogosian's one-man show 'Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll,' Ken Webster is a babbling bear on crystal meth

Il Trovatore

Austin Lyric Opera's 'Il Trovatore' featured voices in good form, from the leads to the chorus, but the relationships among the characters was clearly missing

'Lin Rich'

A coruscating sensuality fills the paintings of Lin Rich, with the objects and people of everyday life taking on the luxuriance of color and form well-applied

columns

Page Two

It was 20 years ago today, Ed Lowry taught the gang to play.

BY LOUIS BLACK

Postmarks

Our readers talk back.

Letters at 3AM

People of all political persuasions are beginning to face the reality that Americans' demand for oil is outpacing our supply and refining capacity, which in turn will cripple our economy's ability to grow. Our disposable society will become a scavenging society, and, on the brighter side, a more inventive society.

BY MICHAEL VENTURA

About AIDS

The OZ Parties are open to all people living with HIV/ AIDS and their friends, families, and partners, a place to socialize in a comfortable and enjoyable environment where HIV is not an issue. Mix, mingle, and enjoy the evening with old friends and new on Saturday night, Oct. 29, starting at 9pm. Austin's best-dressed ghouls will be at 8435 Jamestown.