Cradle Will Rock (R, 1999)

Constructed by writer/director Tim Robbins to show characters with a range of dilemmas and priorities, CRADLE WILL ROCK depicts artists who want to make political statements, artists who want to make money, and artists who are thrilled by art for its beauty. The director -- 22-year-old Orson Welles, just before going to Hollywood to make Citizen Kane -- simply says that his goal is 'to [annoy] all the right people." A young businessman (Nelson Rockefeller) wants to use his fortune for art -- as long as its message is one that does not make him too uncomfortable. An older businessman wants to use his fortune to buy Old Masters -- and to buy the support of politicians, so he can make more money.

How do you stay true to ideals when there is pressure to compromise in order to make a living? How can you sell without selling out? These questions are provocatively posed in "mostly true" intersecting stories surrounding a pro-union play funded -- and then closed -- by the U.S. government.

Today's teens live in a world in which politicians squabble about whether an "elephant dung Madonna" should be hung in a government-funded museum exhibit and rap stars famous for being outrageous and outspoken issue bowdlerized versions of their recordings in order to meet the requirements of chain stores. Older teens, who try to grapple with the problem of holding onto integrity in a complicated world, will appreciate the way those issues are raised in this movie. Teens should notice the irony and symbolism, like the rich people dressing as Marie Antoinette's court for a costume party and the opening newsreel showing art being censored in Nazi Germany.