5 Things You Should Know About

VIDEO GAMES

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed LucasArts; out now

You're Darth Vader's apprentice. When somebody tries to mess with you, you don't initiate trade negotiations--you unleash the Force on his puny, goody-good Jedi ass. You shock him, you boomerang your light saber at him, you grab him by the midi-chlorians and chuck him off a cliff. It's an authentically dark Star Wars tale and the perfect antidote to years of Ewok-flavored cuteness. A

MOVIES

The Duchess Directed by Saul Dibb; rated PG-13; out now

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (Keira Knightley), was an 18th century scandal magnet for having both a swine and a swain--an icy, cheating husband (Ralph Fiennes) and a Whig politician lover (Dominic Cooper). This middling drama is less a history lesson than a tour of sumptuous real estate. The loveliest acreage is Knightley's alabaster back. C+

MOVIES

Righteous Kill Directed by Jon Avnet; rated R; out now

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, twin heirs to Marlon Brando's Method mantle, play New York City detectives on the trail of a cop who's a serial killer. The first movie in which the stars share prime screen time could have been an event--if it had happened 30 or 20 or even 10 years ago. Not now, not here. Instead of a World Series of acting, we get a wan Old Timers' Game. C

BOOKS

Ms. Hempel Chronicles By Sarah Shun-lien Bynum; out now

Bynum's dreamy, experimental debut, Madeleine Is Sleeping, earned a 2004 National Book Award nomination. In her second book, her prose tacks traditional but sacrifices none of its lilting charm. Ms. Hempel is a seventh-grade English teacher besotted by her students but ambivalent about her profession; Bynum's portrayal makes this humanist appealingly human. It's a pleasure to be in her class. B+

BOOKS

Indignation By Philip Roth; out now

A young Newark, N.J., Jew heads off to college to grapple with the alien demands of the goyische world in this bizarre, flawed little book. Told in flat, uninflected prose--it reads like Portnoy's Complaint on sedatives--it's full of huge chunks of undigested philosophy and dialogue that could not possibly be spoken by a human being. It's hard to believe Roth used to be witty. D