Best yet: 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'

The fifth release in J.K. Rowling's durable franchise -- "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (Warner Bros.) -- is scarcely less fresh than the very first, thanks to the ongoing quality of production and employing different directors for recent installments in the series.

At the start, teenage wizard Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), who's on summer break from Hogwarts, is being cruelly taunted by his overbearing cousin, Dudley (Harry Melling). But when, moments later, two horrible Dementor creatures attack them, Harry uses magic to save Dudley and himself.

For thus using sorcery in the Muggle (i.e., real) world, Harry is to be expelled from Hogwarts School, though his allies in the Order of the Phoenix, a group dedicated to combating the evil Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), inform him there's to be a final hearing run by Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy).

Fudge discredits Harry's claims that the "Dark Lord" has truly returned (as transpired in the last film), and the "trial" seems fated to end with Harry's permanent expulsion. He's acquitted thanks to the last-minute intercession of headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon). Once back at Hogwarts, however, Harry's treated like a pariah.

Only his chums Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) stick by him, but Harry is tortured by an intense feeling of loneliness, and further plagued by nightmares. It becomes clear that Voldemort is somehow infiltrating Harry's brain, and Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) works with Harry to evade Voldemort's mental intrusion.

To undercut both Dumbledore and Harry, Fudge installs the pink-bedecked Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. But underneath her perpetual smile and cloying sweetness, she proves a steely lady indeed.

She forbids the actual practice of the magic that Harry and his colleagues know they will need to defend themselves against the evil forces. And at every turn, she brazenly undermines Professors McGonagall (Maggie Smith), Trelawney (Emma Thompson), and even Dumbledore himself.

With Hermione's prodding, Harry forms a secret splinter group of students that calls itself Dumbledore's Army to master the techniques that its members can use to vanquish Voldemort when he returns.

Besides Umbridge -- and Staunton is a real bright spot with her funny/scary portrayal -- there's also a new Harry ally in the person of the unflappable Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch), and Hagrid's half-brother giant, Grawp (Tony Maudsley). Harry gets his first screen kiss from classmate Cho Chang (Katie Leung).

With director David Yates confidently at the helm, this installment is arguably the best yet. Performances by the blue-chip British cast are excellent, and the maturing Radcliffe and his young friends exhibit greater depth. Other pluses are more wondrous effects, a coherent narrative and sensible balance between action and human drama, and a meaningful subtext about the power of love and personal choice in doing good. As Harry's godfather, Sirius (Gary Oldman), explains, "We all have light and dark inside. What matters is what we choose to act on."

The film contains some scenes of peril, moderate fantasy violence and scary imagery, which may preclude very young viewers. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

-- Harry Forbes

Talk to Me (Focus)
The redemptive power of friendship and a towering performance by star Don Cheadle are the talking points of "Talk to Me" (Focus), a formulaic but still touching and inspiring biographical drama about the late African-American disc jockey Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene.

Now little known, he emerged from prison after serving a sentence for armed robbery, and became one of the most prominent radio personalities of the Vietnam-Watergate era and an activist in the black-power movement.

The film begins in 1966, when Washington radio executive Dewey Hughes (a fine Chiwetel Ejiofor) hires the boastful, foul-mouthed, but genuinely funny and insightful ex-con to host a morning radio show. Convincing station owner E.G. Sonderling (Martin Sheen), against his better judgment, that the times they are a-changin', Hughes wants to update his "respectable R&B station," WOL-AM, so that it speaks to the streets.

Greene's forthright flamboyance lands like a Molotov cocktail amid the mellow vibes of venerable disc jockeys Sunny Jim Kelsey (Vondie Curtis-Hall) and "Nighthawk" Bob Terry (Cedric the Entertainer). But soon the phones are ringing, the fan mail is pouring in, and Greene's voice on the airwaves helps calm a city rioting after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hughes admits to Greene that the latter can say everything Hughes himself wants to articulate but can't, bolstering the mentor-protege relationship -- which develops into a complicated friendship.

As the Afroed 1960s give way to the sideburned 1970s, Greene's star rises, with Hughes' help. The two become surrogate brothers, with Hughes' own biological brother, Milo (Mike Epps), serving life in prison. Eventually Greene realizes Hughes sees him as an alter ego. Greene enjoys Hughes getting him a White House invitation and setting him up as host of a weekly TV commentary program.

But when he's asked to do a comedy routine on "The Tonight Show" -- Hughes' dream, not his -- the fallout of his subsequent actions changes things between them. But the movie ultimately demonstrates the transcendence of friendship.

Be warned, however, that for all its merits, director Kasi Lemmons' film is packed with exceedingly explicit language, limiting its appeal to many.

The film contains pervasive rough, crude and crass language and several instances of profanity, sexual encounters with partial nudity, innuendo, alcohol abuse, rioting, infidelity, domestic discord and assorted fighting. (L, R)

-- Frank Lovece

My Best Friend (Mon Meilleur Ami) (IFC)
A ruthless, self-centered antiques dealer (Daniel Auteuil) must prove to his disbelieving business partner (Julie Gayet) that he has a best friend, but after learning that none of his acquaintances consider him a friend, he decides that a good-natured cab driver (Dany Boon) may fit the bill. Director and co-writer Patrice Leconte's perceptive study on the nature of friendship begins as a lightweight comedy, but builds in bittersweet profundity as it goes along, and has a nail-biting climax involving, of all things, the TV show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" In French, with subtitles. A few rough and crude expletives, a lesbian character and an unethical act. (A-III, PG-13)

Harry Forbes is director and Frank Lovece is a guest reviewer of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies.