How to lose friends and alienate audiences is the lesson taught by this cleverly titled but noxious British comedy about a Limey scribe trying to carve a notch for himself in the glam world of high-end New York publishing. Despite being based on the popular 2001 memoir of former Vanity Fair contributing editor Toby Young, "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" features a protag so uncouth and inept it's impossible to believe he'd hold his job for more than a week. Producers may have been inspired by "The Devil Wears Prada" to think a male variation could cause B.O. lightning to strike twice, but it's not going to happen, even if Simon Pegg's presence rouses a certain interest, especially in the U.K.

Emily Abt's unprepossessing DV-shot docu "All of Us," about the spread of HIV among African-American women (they comprise 68% of new cases), starts prosaically enough with a female doctor conducting research in the field, then latching onto two HIV positive subjects who humanize the crisis. The women's personalities and strengths command attention, their stories neatly dovetailing with the study's hypotheses. But when the film suddenly, almost subversively, shifts gears, and the questioner becomes the questioned, the pic's dynamic changes radically. "All" opened Sept. 19 at Gotham's Cinema Village prior to a December "Showtime" run.

The paranoid strain in American suspensers proceeds into the terror era with "Eagle Eye," a thriller that imagines an all-seeing national government that even the most conspiratorial-minded viewers will see as a tad far-fetched. Hatched some time ago from an uncredited idea by exec producer Steven Spielberg and problematically posited as a present-day actioner (rather than the future-set drama it could plausibly be), the pic's first 35 minutes sizzle until a Byzantine plot nudges the story toward near-parody in the final act. Returns should be brawny in a wide-release opening frame but will fade quickly by early October.

It's with mixed feelings that we watch the often hilarious "Smother." No, Diane Keaton's not a kid anymore. But she can still sink her actorly teeth into a wacked-out character, and Vince Di Meglio's screwball comedy provides her with one of her best purely comedic roles since "Annie Hall." A movie disguised as a sitcom -- but understatedly, deceptively nuts -- "Smother" has an admittedly small shot at building a cult audience before riding off to Lifetime tube airings and the DVD shelves, where it will likely enjoy a long and happy life.

Crowdpleasing and oh-so-predictable, "The Express" is a muscular movie with social conscience that portrays Ernie Davis -- the first African-American collegian to win college football's coveted Heisman Trophy -- as the heir to Martin Luther King and Jackie Robinson. Rob Brown's performance in the title role is solid and static, but Dennis Quaid's portrayal of coach Ben Schwartzwalder provides a convincing metaphor for a nation going through a crisis of conscience. The sports theme may define the pic's aud, but emotional content could provide a crossover punch.