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By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 22, 2001
Recent releases recommended by Times film critic Steve Persall
1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon -- Ang Lee's martial arts fable was the best film of 2000, a dreamy saga of flying warriors, feminist politics and the sheer joy of making fantasies become real on-screen. Golden Globe winner for best foreign language film and best director.
2. Traffic -- Steven Soderbergh's engrossing biopsy of the cultural cancer of narcotics, from the lowest dealers to Washington lobbying parties. An excellent cast includes Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro and Don Cheadle. One of the 10 best films of 2000.
3. The House of Mirth -- Gillian Anderson (TV's The X-Files) plays a tragic heroine in this lavish adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel. St. Petersburg Times correspondent Phillip Booth gave it an A. Tampa Theatre only.
4. Heartbreakers -- Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt play a mother-daughter con team with designs on a tobacco tycoon's fortune. Gene Hackman is hilarious as the grumpy old victim.
5. Pollock -- Ed Harris and Marcia Gay Harden are Oscar-nominated for this occasionally brilliant biography of abstract painter Jackson Pollock.