MOVIE REVIEWS

Also, 'Sea of Dreams' and 'Over the GW'

A kind of hip-hop "Dreamgirls" minus the glitz and price tag, "Antonia" is an absorbing, often moving musical-drama from Brazil. Set in a bleak São Paolo suburb, the film follows the gritty lives of four childhood friends who constitute an aspiring rap group called Antonia. Director Tata Amaral cast singers and hip-hop stars to play the leads, including Negra Li, a.k.a. "The Queen of Brazilian Rap," as the group's anchor, Preta; R&B sensation Leilah Moreno as the scrappy Barbarah; freestyler Cindy as the inconveniently pregnant Lena; and singer-dancer Quelynah, who rounds out the quartet as Mayah. Fortunately, these sexy women can act as well as they sing; we're in their corner for the whole bumpy ride as, one by one, a series of violent and emotional setbacks leave Preta the group's sole member. Each loss stings, but manager Marcelo (Thaíde), who defies convention as an honest handler, finds creative ways to reinvent the dwindling act. The musical numbers, a mix of rap and pop, are uniformly vibrant, with Antonia's heartfelt rendition of "Killing Me Softly" a highlight. Though the script is credited to Amaral and Roberto Moreira, the movie was reportedly heavily improvised. To the credit of everyone involved, you'd never know it. This is an authentic and impressive piece of filmmaking.

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"Antonia." MPAA rating: PG-13 for some thematic material, language and brief violence. In Portuguese with English subtitles. At Laemmle's Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869. Hokey fable in an idyllic setting"Sea of Dreams," a stilted romantic fable by director and co-writer José Bojorquez, places attractive actors in an idyllic setting but fails to capture any of the magic it strains so hard to produce. Set on an enchanted island, the movie applies a mythic structure to a befuddling purpose with unintentionally comic results. Grecia, a little girl thought lost to the sea, washes up in a small raft with seashells in her hair. At first, she brings good fortune to the village as golden fish fill the nets of its fisherman, but a tragedy reveals her complex relationship to the sea. The villagers believe any man who loves her will die in the water and they shun her as if she were a leper. Jonathan Schaech, who also narrates, plays Marcelo, a visiting photographer retracing the steps of his painter-father. When Marcelo catches sight of the now adult Grecia (Sendi Bar), he rejects the island's superstitions and pursues her to a bizarre finale. The hokey melodrama also features Seymour Cassel, Sonia Braga and Mexican star Angelica Maria.

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"Sea of Dreams." MPAA rating: PG for mild thematic elements, brief sensuality and incidental smoking. Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes. In selected theaters. A drug-addled trip to nowhere"Over the GW" -- as in, the George Washington Bridge -- may be based on the horrific rehab experiences of writer-director Nick Gaglia (who also shot, edited, produced and appears in the no-budget film), but it's not vivid or harrowing enough to command attention. Worse, at a mere 76 minutes, the movie skips past what seems like lots of crucial exposition in favor of vague flashbacks and confusing inserts. The awkward documentary-style interviews don't help.

On the plus side, Gaglia wisely cast the highly watchable George Gallagher as his alter ego, Tony Serra, a Bronx teen whose well-meaning parents (Nicholas Serra, Julia Moriarty) place their druggie son in a New Jersey rehab clinic, unaware it's unlicensed and "alternative." Gallagher gives a convincing, tightly wound performance as a lost young man stuck under the thumb of the program's abusive director (an over-the-top Albert Insinnia) and his cult-like staffers. Unfortunately, Gaglia diffuses Tony's potentially strong story by adding the boy's drug-using sister Sofia (Kether Donohue) into the mix, and soon we're following both of their long, strange paths to sobriety -- and focusing on neither. Truth may be stranger than fiction, but there's no substitute for competent filmmaking.

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"Over the GW." Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 16 minutes. Laemmle's Grande, 345 S. Figueroa St., L.A. (213) 617-0268.