The Independent recommends: Film

WHIT STILLMAN is a maker of anthropological comedies. His previous features, Metropolitan and Barcelona, focused on the attempts of the intellectual middle-classes to control their environment through a manipulation of codes and etiquette which could reasonably be described as Jamesian. His new film, The Last Days of Disco, continues the theme. It's set in "the very early Eighties" and follows the insecure Alice (Chloe Sevigny) and her benignly narcissistic friend, Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale), as they gravitate towards the hippest nightclub in town.

On general release

Saving Private Ryan is not a masterpiece, but it earns its place here by virtue of its devastating battle sequences and a fine performance by Tom Hanks (above). It isn't the explicit violence which is shocking, but rather the relentless motion of the camera. The ensemble playing is also excellent, despite a poor screenplay.

On general release