Our critics' selections
The Hangover Bachelor Party meets Memento in Todd Phillips' outrageous Las Vegas-set comedy, in which a night to remember is completely forgotten thanks to drugs and drink. Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, and Ed Helms have to retrace their steps the next day, detective-style, to find out what became of the missing groom. And who put that baby in the closet? R
The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow's white-knuckle war movie tracks a U.S. Army bomb squad in Baghdad at the height of the Iraq conflict in 2004. Extraordinarily tense and intense, the film loses none of its urgency even as the United States now begins its withdrawal. Without a doubt the strongest of the films to examine the Iraqi conflict - and how battle transforms the soul. R
Whatever Works Woody Allen returns to New York and collars Curb Your Enthusiasm cranky guy Larry David to star as a suicidal genius who takes in a young runaway from the sticks (Evan Rachel Wood) and then has to contend with her eccentric, fundamentalist mom (Patricia Clarkson). A surprisingly nimble screwball farce, albeit one that goes over familiar Woodman themes (love, death, hypochondria). PG-13
