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• Being Julia (2004) (R) -- A movie version of the 1930 novel "Theatre" by W. Somerset Maugham. Annette Bening and Jeremy Irons play a successful London acting couple, Julia Lambert and Michael Gosselyn. Their marital and professional stability is threatened by the appearance of a young admirer, Tom Fennell (Shaun Evans), who seduces Julia and turns out to have fairly unsavory motives.

• Birth (2004) (R) -- A supernatural melodrama starring Nicole Kidman as a young woman who becomes enthralled with a spooky boy who claims to be the reincarnation of her late husband.

• The Machinist (2004) (R) -- A psychological suspense melodrama starring a severely emaciated Christian Bale, who dropped about 60 pounds to embody a tormented drill press operator in an advanced stage of chronic insomnia and self-starvation. The cause of his distress is concealed until the denouement, but it also generates hallucinations. A beefy, smirking figure (John Sharian) reappears to taunt and mislead him. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Ironside, Anna Massey and Aitana Sanchez-Gijon are conspicuous supporting players.

• Ray (2004) (PG-13) -- Taylor Hackford's biographical drama about singer Ray Charles, portrayed in adulthood by Jamie Foxx. The supporting cast includes Kerry Washington as his first wife, Regina King as a prominent mistress, Clifton Powell as a devoted manager and Curtis Armstrong as a recording executive. Mr. Hackford collaborated on the screenplay with James L. White.

• Saw (2004) (R: Harsh language, grisly violence and mature themes.) A twisted serial killer abducts a series of morally challenged victims and forces them to play games for their own survival. The film, which promises chills along the lines of "Seven" and "Silence of the Lambs," stars Cary Elwes and Danny Glover.

• Sideways (2004) (R: Coarse language, simulated sexual situations, violence and crude humor.) A wine tasting trip turns into a chance for some serious soul searching for two mismatched pals (Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church). Writer-director Alexander Payne ("About Schmidt") is stirring Oscar talk with this highly anticipated drama.

• Undertow (2004) (R: Graphic violence with gruesome illustrative details; occasional profanity and sexual candor; thematic concentration on imperiled or fugitive children) -- . A lamentable shift in an awkwardly commercial direction from the young regional filmmaker David Gordon Green, who appeared to be evolving a lyrically intuitive style in his second feature, "All the Real Girls." As before, he uses small-town and rural settings in North Carolina, but the circumstances grow intolerably sordid and weird as he struggles to do something distinctive with a murder melodrama about fraternal enmity that leaves two boys running for their lives. The plot recalls "The Night of the Hunter" while failing to recapture any of its apprehensive or sentimental finesse. With Dermot Mulroney and an impressively menacing Josh Lucas as older brothers; Jamie Bell and Devon Alan play the young runaways.

• Voices of Iraq (2004) (No MPAA Rating: adult subject matter) -- A mosaic of impressions from Iraqis, united by largely optimistic outlooks in the wake of American intervention and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Compiled from digital camera records in several parts of the country, where about 150 participants kept video diaries for co-producers Eric Manes, Martin Kunert and Archie Drury. Exclusively at the Landmark E Street Cinema.