OPENS JUNE 18, CERT 12A, 102 MINS They say fatherhood changes all men, but rarely can it have transformed the modus operandi of one as much as it has Smith's. The scatological slacker behind Clerks, Chasing Amy and Dogma has gone all gooey on us, making a film about how great it is to forsake shallow city life and change nappies. There are some nasty one-liners, but it's all a bit (whisper it) Richard Curtis. Ben Affleck is left holding the baby when J-Lo dies during childbirth. He blows his cool, loses his high-flying job and leaves Manhattan to raise his daughter in drab Jersey. Years pass, and he's settling into the quiet life when videostore worker Liv Tyler, taking pity on his porn habit, offers him his first sex in seven years. Reinvigorated, he tries to re-enter his old circle, but after a chance meeting with Will Smith (Matt Damon and Jason Biggs also cameo), reconsiders his priorities. On its own terms, it's sweet and funny, but you wouldn't know this was a Kevin Smith film if it didn't say so on the tin. At one point, it even says, "Accept who you are." Man down!

OPENS JUNE 4, CERT 15, 98 MINS This revelatory performance from Lee Evans sees him shed all traces of his familiar zany persona (along with his body hair) and replace it with a subterranean blue-grey skin hue that looks barely human. Evans plays Sean Veil, a man so traumatised by his arrest and near conviction for a series of brutal murders that he decides he must account for every minute of his subsequent life, for fear of being accused again. To this end, he places himself under surveillance. Scores of tiny cameras map his every movement in his dungeon-like home. And on the rare occasion he goes out, Sean straps a portable camera to his chest. First-time writer/director John Simpson makes fantastic visual use of this narrative device?the film is told through snatches of grainy digital footage shot from spy cameras that peep at Sean from precarious angles. Unfortunately, though it's impressively realised, Simpson's movie tails off towards the end. But when it works, it's a genuinely sinister little thriller.

OPENS JUNE 18, CERT 15, 80 MINS This is the story of Mark "Gator" Rogowski, the US pro-skateboarding champion who crashed and burned in the early '90s, ultimately ending up in jail for murder at the age of 24. Just six years before, he was earning over $100,000 a year from tournaments and endorsements. But his celebrity faded with the advent of street skating (he was a star of the ramp), and his sanity swiftly followed. One minute he had a pop-star lifestyle?girls, parties, big house?the next he was a reclusive timebomb:drunken, lonely, unable to deal with the world. Then, in 1991, he raped and murdered Jessica Bergston, a friend of his ex-girlfriend. We only hear a repentant Gator talking to director Helen Stickler on a crackly phone line from jail, but archive footage compensates, especially some arrogant TV interviews from the late '80s ("I love getting arrested!"). The film is rough at the edges, and its storytelling is sometimes confused, but it is an entertaining slice of pop cultural history.

OPENS JUNE 11, CERT 12A, 70 MINS The Makhmalbafs are the first family of Iranian film?the Coppolas, if you like, of Middle Eastern cinema. Father Mohsen is a veteran director, and his daughter Samira, although only 22, has three pictures under her belt, the last of which, At Five In The Afternoon, was an acclaimed portrait of post-Taliban Kabul. Now comes the debut film from Samira's little sis, 14-year-old (yes, 14!) Hana. It's a documentary about the filming of At Five In The Afternoon, concentrating on Samira's attempt to cast non-professionals as her leads. As you'd expect from a film made by a 14-year-old, it's rough and ready, and lacks the visual panache of its subject. But Joy Of Madness is also less didactic, full of touching portraits of ordinary people coping with life after the Taliban. Plus there's a cherishable star turn from the indefatigable Samira as she cajoles bemused Afghanistanis into working for her. The film may be a bit slight to warrant a cinema release?its ideal home is surely as an extra on the At Five In The Afternoon DVD?but there's still fascinating material here.

OPENS JUNE 18, CERT 12A, 88 MINS Each June, in the small, well-heeled town of Siena outside Florence, thousands gather in the vast, sloping square to witness the infamous palio, a horse race which over the years has attracted the ire of animal rights activists, been the scene of vicious fist fights and become mired in shady dealing. It also inflames the passions of the 11 Siena districts who compete in the race. John Appel's documentary is set in the tiny Civetta district in the weeks prior to the race. Civetta has not won the palio since 1979, and this sorely affects the pride of its residents. But this year they have their best chance in living memory to make amends... The Last Victory grippingly depicts the strangely cloistered lives of the Civetta residents and their peculiarly intense attachment to their neighbourhood, as well as their huge emotional investment in the race. As the day approaches, there's no joy in their faces, be it the 92-year-old Edigio or a young female student?only the sickly dread of failure. And, by the end, you're just as nervous as they are.