RECOMMENDED Lulu (Marian Shoif) works at a casino in Los Angeles’ burgeoning Koreatown in “Phantom Love,” Nina Menkes’ latest surreal examination of female realities, from outside and in. Lulu’s a loner, and her younger sister (Juliette Marquis, “This Girl’s Life”) is dazed from prescription drugs, nearing a breakdown. Surreal-reality breaks out all around. Psychosexual melodrama still has potential in the right hands, loosed: “Last Year at Marienbad” begets “Next Year On Vermont Avenue” (and India, as well). Menkes, whose earlier movies include “The Bloody Child,” works with brilliantly sculptured black-and-white 35mm images (shot by Chris Soos), fiercely compelling, in a school alongside Bela Tarr and Guy Maddin. There are dreamy raptures here. 87m. (Ray Pride)
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
