The action is set at an old orphanage, which was recently purchased by Laura (Belén Rueda) -- a former resident about 30 years ago.  Laura and her husband (Fernando Cayo) plan to re-open the joint to a handful of kids, who will also serve as playmates for their son, Simón (Roger Príncep).  Not so scary so far, but The Orphanage has everything working in its favor.  Simón starts talking to invisible friends (always creepy), an old social worker who seems to know more than she's letting on appears out of nowhere (always creepy), they're in a big, creepy house in the middle of nowhere (always creepy).  Oh, yeah -- there's also that little kid who wears a burlap sack with uneven eyeholes (always always always creepy).  When Simón goes missing, Laura totally loses her shit and starts seeing/hearing/feeling things that nobody else can.  So they think she's crazy.

I don't want to give anything else away.  This is one fantastic little movie that will definitely rank toward the top of this festival's offerings.

The Brave One - Neil Jordan's career has been full of ups and downs since he made a name for himself 15 years ago with The Crying Game, and One is mostly on the up side.  It stars Jodie Foster in yet another role as an innocent white woman suffering through some sort of scary, dangerous situation, and then fighting and clawing her way out of it.  Here, Foster plays Erica, the host of a popular New York City radio show called Street Walk, where she romanticizes -- not quite Guy Maddin-style -- a Manhattan of yesteryear.  Then her beau (Naveen Andrews) gets murdered and Laura lands herself in a three-week coma, all thanks to a random act of Central Park nighttime violence.  Once she awake and on her own, Laura finds herself terrified of the city she once loved . . . at least until she buys a black market gun and start poppin' caps all up in they asses.

I'm not sure what's tougher to believe: The quickness to which Laura takes to vigilante justice; or the odds of her living in Manhattan and never having been exposed to any form of violence until the deadly mugging, which is quickly followed by traumatic incidents in a bodega and a subway car.  Once she's got the taste of blood, Laura starts seeking out her victims instead of waiting to randomly encounter dangerous situations.  Almost like she has some sort of . . . oh, I don't know -- Death Wish?  The thing that keeps One from totally sailing off the tracks Terrence Howard, who plays a cop that grows close to Laura, and the two begin a very entertaining cat-and-mouse game while still maintaining their friendship.

Lust, Caution - Ang Lee -- what do you do after winning the Oscar for Brokeback Mountain?  I mean, you've got the cinematic world at your feet.  Hollywood would let you make just about any picture you want (not Hulk II, though), so what's it going to be?  Call it in with some cheap-o biopic about a music icon?  Maybe a remake of some forgotten classic?  No?  Wait, you're going to what?  Make a nearly three-hour, non-English period flick with no bankable stars and an NC-17 rating that will keep you out of 97% of theatres across the country?  Oh, you're a clever one, Ang Lee.  They'll never see that coming.

The good news for the people who might actually venture off the beaten path and see Caution is that it's one exquisite film.  During the 15-minute climax, I found it difficult to breathe (and that had nothing to do with the monster who came in late, sat next to me, and cleared her big, fat, phlegmy throat for 130 minutes).  The film is buoyed by both gorgeous photography from Rodrigo Prieto and an unforgettable performance from newcomer Tang Wei, who plays a Hong Kong University student named Wang Jiazhi.  She almost haphazardly falls into the lead role in a rabble-rousing 1939 play meant to garner support and donations for the Chinese to defend their lands against the aggressive Japanese forces, and for an interesting summer project, Jiazhi and her cohorts decide it would be fun to put their skills to greater use: By infiltrating the life of a heavily-guarded turncoat named Mr. Yee (Tony Leung) and murdering him before he can aid the filthy aggressors any longer.  Kind of makes those kids from Superbad seem like slackers, eh?

It's fairly clear, given the dates and structure of the film, that their idea doesn't go off as planned, but that doesn't stop the persistent kids, who have now become full-fledged members of the Resistance.  Can Jiazhi use her yet-untapped feminine charm and acting chops to lure Mr. Yee into a false sense of security and give him the old Columbian Necktie before he figures out what she's up to?  And what depraved sexual positions will he put her in before the dust settles?  You'll have to wait and see for yourself, during that bit where I couldn't breathe.

Jar City - The latest from Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur focuses on a murder investigation led by a chap named Erlendur (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson).  The murder might be tied to a 30-year-old rape, and a potential cover-up by a retired cop.  Meanwhile, a geneticist named Örn (Atli Rafn Sigurðsson) and his wife have just witnessed the slow, agonizing death of their five-year-old daughter.  What do the two things have in common?  That's the crux of City's story, and if you can't figure it out by the time the two threads dovetail, you're officially out of the Scooby Gang.  A nice movie, but the kind that gets lost in the shuffle of a big festival like this.

Captain Mike Across America - Much like The Big One, this new documentary shows a filmmaker traveling around the country and getting standing ovations everywhere he goes.  Not a lot of people would have the stones to do this once, let alone twice, but most people are not Michael Moore.  Does that make one lick of difference?  Absolutely not, because the target audience for this film is already firmly entrenched in Camp Mike.  But that brings up an interesting point: Are die-hard Bush-haters going to want to see a film that revisits the optimism and energy injected into the consciousness of America in the weeks leading up to the 2004 presidential election when they already know it's going to have a miserable ending?

That's what Captain Mike is about, by the way.  After the political assassination known as the Swift Boat Ads stripped Democratic nominee John Kerry of a seven point lead in the polls, Moore and a bunch of his liberal Hollywood friends (like Eddie Vedder, Joan Baez, R.E.M., and a uproariously funny Roseanne Barr) went on a 60 city tour in several battleground states in an attempt to get more people to vote.  Or, as Moore explains in a title card (he takes this route instead of the usual narration), to save Kerry and the Democrats from themselves.  Meanwhile, Republicans ate babies in the dark while sitting on pentagrams, thinking of ways to foil Moore's tour.  When the filmmaker tossed clean underwear and Ramen noodles into the masses when people promised to register to vote, the Grand Old Party accused him of bribery.  When Moore's tour really began to pick up steam and Kerry began to make up the ground he lost to the kindly Swift Boat folks, the Grand Old Party turned to bribery to have the rotund Sicko director banned from speaking.  Because that Grand Old Party totally supports the rights of the people and their various freedoms.  Again, totally preaching to the choir (of which I'm obviously part), so I'm not sure what the intent is here.  All I know is I liked it.