CRITIC'S PICKS by DAY

Elia Suleiman's Mideast musing, Divine Intervention, scores big.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6
Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay) Samantha Morton (Sweet And Lowdown) stars as a working-class Scottish lass who takes her dead boyfriend's bank card and goes on holiday. (6 pm, Varsity)

CITY OF GOD (Fernando Meirelles) This evocation of Brazilian poverty and the drug trade caused a storm at Cannes. You'll be hearing more about this movie. (9 pm, Varsity)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
Heaven (Tom Tykwer) New film from the director of Run Lola Run and Wintersleepers. (Noon, Elgin)

sweet sixteen (Ken Loach) Soccer player Martin Compston makes an awesome debut as a Glaswegian tough trying to make it in the drug trade. Vintage Loach. (2:30 pm, Elgin)

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8
SPELLBOUND (Jeff Blitz) American kids compete in what amount to cutthroat spelling bees in this fascinating documentary. (6:30 pm, ROM)

Gambling, Gods And LSD (Peter Mettler) Strange non-linear documentary that the director/cinematographer took eight years to make. His subject - altered consciousness - and the running time of 180 minutes may alter yours. (8:45 pm, Isabel Bader)

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9
TALK TO HER (Pedro Almod—var) The Spanish director goes into male territory for a change in this study of the relationship between a journalist and a nurse. (12:30 pm, Uptown)

DIVINE INTERVENTION (Elia Suleiman) A deadpan absurdist comedy about the Palestinian-Israeli situation. Trust me, it's good. (6 pm, Uptown)

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
Fix: THE Story of an Addicted City (Nettie Wild) A documentary about the politics of drug use in Vancouver, from the point of view of drug users. (7 pm, Cumberland)

8 Women (Fran�ois Ozon) Ozon's combination of melodrama, mystery and musical is arch in all the best ways. Better yet, the bitch is back in Catherine Deneuve. (9:45 pm, Elgin)

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
THE Man Without a Past (Aki Kaurismäki) Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes, Kaurismäki is back in form with this deadpan comedy about a man who loses his memory and lives in an abandoned trailer. (2:30 pm, Varsity)

WAITING FOR HAPPINESS (Abderrahmane Sissako) The Buster Keaton of Africa tells this sublime story of a young man returning home to Mauritania only to discover he has no connection. (6:30 pm, Isabel Bader Theatre)

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
THE LAST LETTER (Frederick Wiseman) A deeply moving evocation of a woman reading a letter to her son just as the Nazis have invaded her small town in the Ukraine. (7:15 pm, Varsity)

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson) The director of Boogie Nights. The star of Happy Gilmore? Adam Sandler as a man who has trouble dealing with anger, but meets Emily Watson. If mega-hack Joel Schumacher gets a festival spot for Phone Booth, why not Sandler? (11 pm, Elgin)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
My Mother's Smile (Marco Bellochio) So how would you feel if you were an atheist and your mother became a candidate for sainthood? (3 pm, Uptown)

Hallucinatory doc Gambling, Gods And LSD has power.