The Five Best Films

1

Velvet Goldmine (8)

Explicitly about glam rock, implicitly about youth culture in general, Haynes' camp flight-of-fancy shoots off in so many directions, it's hard to know where to look first. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ewan McGregor and Eddie Izzard all vie for our attention.

2

Funny Games (8)

A cautionary lesson on screen violence, courtesy of Michael Haneke. At once heavy-handed and unsettling, Funny Games treads through a stock slasher-pic plotline that's as deliberately structured as a waltz.

3

Mulan (U)

Disney cannibalises ancient China for its most winning, witty outing in years. Feisty lass Mulan sings her way through a skirmish with the Hun.

4

Buffalo 66 (5)

Perhaps not quite as indispensable as reviews would have us believe, Gallo's exercise in acting-directing fireworks is worth catching - a beady- eyed, drolly amusing look at damaged souls adrift in New York.

5

The Truman Show (PG)

Peter Weir's spry send-up of the television nation, with Jim Carrey contributing a career-best turn as the unwitting Everyman soap star. But surely you've seen this already?