1. Better Luck Tomorrow - Asian-American honor students face crime and consequences. This Sundance Film Festival hit - the best film of 2003, so far - is the kind of artful anarchy MTV Films should promote, rather than Jackass and The Real Cancun.
2. X-Men 2: X-Men United - The popular Marvel Comics superheroes return with a new villain, more mutants and an admirable sense of purpose beyond stunts and special effects. Now showing in digital projection at Parkside 16 in Pinellas Park.
3. Holes - Times Xpress film critic Billy Norris, 15, thinks this Disney adventure, based upon the award-winning novel, is great fun.
4. Confidence - Ed Burns is the star, but Dustin Hoffman steals this con-game movie with a wonderfully sleazy portrayal of a strip club owner working on a scam.
5. Laurel Canyon - Is Frances McDormand the best female actor working today? Watch her inhabit a role as a sexy record producer with a rock star lover and uptight son the same ages and decide.
