We’re in that brief span between the Academy Awards and the summer movie season where studios generally release pictures of dubious merit.

Thankfully, that doesn’t apply to the art houses. Case in point, Brazil’s “City of God.” This powerful, kinetic drama tells the story of two friends who choose different paths while growing up in Rio’s most violent neighborhood — one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer.

Also opening is “Phone Booth,” the long-delayed sniper film starring Colin Farrell as a publicist finds himself trapped in a booth while pinned down by an anonymous rifleman.

Vin Diesel follows up “Triple X” with “A Man Apart,” a revenge thriller about a DEA agent battling a crime cartel.

And finally there’s “What a Girl Wants,” a fish-out-of-water comedy about an American gal who goes to England to bond with her uptight politician father.

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