Critics' Voices

By TIME''S REVIEWERS. Compiled by Georgia Harbison

MOVIES

HEAR MY SONG. This Anglo-Irish hit, about a nightclub manager (Adrian Dunbar) who hopes to lure a retired Irish tenor (played with well-calculated reserve by Ned Beatty) from exile for one last concert, has for a time a jaunty, quirky air. But director Peter Chelsom allows eccentricity to deteriorate into cuteness.

KAFKA. In his first film since sex, lies, and videotape, Steven Soderbergh serves up a flimsy whodunit starring Kafka (played by Jeremy Irons, the male Meryl). It's a film-school movie, with devices lifted from The Third Man: vertiginous staircases, malevolence glistening off the cobblestones, a madman's drool caught in the Prague moonlight. As someone murmurs, "All a bit much, don't you think?" Yes, pity -- and not nearly enough.

THIS IS MY LIFE. "And my mother wants to be a stand-up comic." In Nora Ephron's adorable yet unsentimental comedy, Dottie Ingels (Julie Kavner) is an up-to-date Stella Dallas: an Everymom whose greatest responsibility is to live for herself.

MUSIC

JOHN PIZZARELLI: ALL OF ME (Novus/RCA). Smooth, well-groomed versions of standards, with Pizzarelli (son of sure-handed jazz guitarist Bucky) providing some nimble chording and easygoing vocals. He sings a little like a Sesame Street Chet Baker, but his gently swinging ways still send tunes like the title track out under full sail.

BOOKS

OUTERBRIDGE REACH by Robert Stone (Ticknor & Fields; $21.95). Owen Browne, a fortyish American male, plunges into an improbable sailboat race around the globe. The hero's wife and a cynical documentary filmmaker observe Owen's quest with different interests in mind. The conclusion is shattering and not to be forgotten.

RISING SUN by Michael Crichton (Knopf; $22). Japan-bashing has never been more exquisitely calibrated for best-sellerdom. There is a whodunit at the heart of this commercial thriller, but the identity of the bad guys is never in any doubt. Lay out some plastic for this novel before publishers' row becomes a subsidiary of Sony.

THE SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM by Richard Kluger (Viking; $23). Robin Hood has only a minor role in this novel of 13th century England. The Sheriff, maligned by history and Hollywood, is shown to be a dutiful official confronting personal and moral dilemmas and the origins of constitutional government. A real parchment turner, richly imagined and beautifully written.

TELEVISION

THE DENNIS MILLER SHOW (syndicated, weeknights). The former Saturday Night Live newscaster has made a surprisingly smooth transition to the talk-show couch. Miller's esoteric references (from Stephen Sondheim to Herman Melville) are sometimes too self-conscious, but he's hip, intelligent and -- a rarity on TV -- authentically curious.

NIGHTMARE CAFE (NBC, Fridays, 10 p.m. EST). At a supernatural all-night diner, passersby relive key events from their past. TV could certainly use a Twilight Zone for the '90s, but this tacky, poorly acted horror-fantasy series from Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street) will make no one forget Rod Serling.

THEATER

SIGHT UNSEEN. A trendy artist revisits the woman who first inspired him and tries to steal the sole memento of that time, a portrait of her. Writer Donald Margulies weaves a glittering web of satire about the art scene, the media, the exploitative side of creativity and rueful romance. This off-Broadway succes d'estime has vaulted to a commercial run.

CONRACK. Novelist Pat Conroy (Prince of Tides) has helped turn his autobiographical tale, The Water Is Wide, about a young white teacher and rural black pupils, into a sweet Jon Voight movie and, now, a poignant musical at Washington's Ford's Theater.

ETCETERA

MERCE CUNNINGHAM DANCE COMPANY. Now 72, Cunningham has been making modern choreography for 50 fiercely independent years. His dance seasons at Manhattan's City Center Theater are an aficionado's delight. This time, as usual, he mixes new works (three of them) and welcome revivals (like the 1981 Channels/Inserts). March 17-29.

THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE: THE WORLD OF BEATRIX POTTER, Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Childhood would be a fallow field without the carrot patches and flopsy bunnies of this great storyteller. But Peter and his friends weren't Potter's only creations, and the show also delves into a trove of her naturalistic sketches. Kids will love the accompanying tea parties and interactive video games. Through May 4.

THIRD-DEGREE BYRNE

What is the sound of one Head talking? Check out David Byrne. Since leaving Talking Heads, the brainiest rock band of the '80s, to go solo, Byrne has found his muse in the unexpected: an album of Latin salsa (1989's Rei Momo) and a mystical orchestral soundscape (last year's The Forest). Now Byrne has transplanted his rock roots into fertile tropical soil. In UH-OH (Luaka Bop), / released last week, jangling electric-guitar riffs alternate with piquant Caribbean rhythms, often in the same song, while Byrne aims his quirky intelligence at sex-change operations, domestic discord and even the Deity: "Well God can turn the world around/ And he can push it in the dirt/ And he can tear it all apart/ He don't care who'all gets hurt/ Oh, something ain't right." The mix is intoxicating -- a dark elixir candy-coated with buoyant melodies and lyrics that smile even as they bite. At once scathing and funny, swinging and strange, UH-OH is Little Creatures with dancing feet.