Films Shown in 2002
THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE - Rated R - 115 minutes
AFI Award for Best Cinematography of the
Year
Nominated for Golden Globe
The Coen Brothers, creators of such hits
as O Brother Where Art Thou and Fargo, continue with their
offbeat sense of humor in this backhanded homage to film noir. Shot in atmospherically
stark and stunning black & white by Coen vet Roger Deakins, and packed
with plenty of the duo's trademark tongue-in-cheek post-modernism, the titular
Man is Billy Bob Thornton (the hypochondriac in Bandits),
a simple barber who has shut off the world only to stumble from one bad
situation to the next. Thornton's deadpan performance is perfect, and is
well supported by The Sopranos' James Gandolfini and Tony Shalhoub
as a pricey lawyer.
See reviews
KATE AND LEOPOLD - Rated
PG-13 - 121 minutes
Starring Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman (Nominated
for Golden Globe)
 |
Kate McKay (Meg Ryan) is a manically driven
ad executive who discovers love in the most unexpected manner. Her ex-boyfriend
Stuart (Liev Schreiber) is a genius who has discovered a way to travel
back in time to 1876. From that year, he brings back Leopold (Hugh Jackman),
the Third Duke of Albany, who must contend with Manhattan in the Millennium,
as well as burgeoning feelings of love for Kate. |
See reviews
WAKING LIFE - Rated R (language)-
101 minutes
Waking Life is one of
the latest films from director Richard Linklater (Tape is the other),
who jump-started his career a decade ago with the independent film Slackers,
followed immediately by the underground hit, Dazed and Confused.
As with at least two other films this season (Mulholland Drive and
Vanilla Sky), one may ask of Waking Life, "Is it all
a dream?" Or a dream within a dream while collectively dreaming of
being awake? In Linklater's animated head-trip, Wiley Wiggins is the no-name
everydude who drifts from one cerebral conversation to another, with mind-bending
musings on free will, film theory and existentialism. The multi-layered,
free-floating animation, emphasizing and commenting on the amusing philosophical
rap, is definitely worth the watch!
See reviews
TAPE - Rated R - 86 minutes
Starring Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard,
and Uma Thurman
Director Richard Linklater
has had a busy year. Tape is the film that followed quickly on the
heels of his Waking Life, (at the Myrna January 11 - 18) and both
films show a director using video innovatively. Waking Life uses
video as a starting point for a startlingly unique animated film. Tape
uses video as a way to move intimately and freely through a three-way conversation.
Neither film is dominated by its style; both are about their ideas. Tape's
screenplay, by Stephen Belber, based on his own play, explores how the same
events can be interpreted differently through male and female eyes. The
prickly tale, which takes place entirely in a seedy motel room, finds small-time
drug dealer Hawke and high school buddy Robert Sean Leonard indulging in
drinks and drugs and bringing up a 10-year-old sexual encounter Leonard
had with Thurman, Hawke's old flame. Accusations of decency and denial fly,
and things get really heated when Thurman knocks on the door.
See reviews
AMÉLIE - Rated
R - 121 minutes
A BLOCKBUSTER HIT FROM FRANCE!
Nominated for 4 Academy Awards!
From France, Amélie
has been the rage in all of Europe this past year! Directed by visual mastermind,
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (The City of Lost Children), this delightful film
tells the tale of a pixie-ish Parisian waitress, wonderfully played by the
adorable Audrey Tautou. Shy and sheltered, Amélie spends her days
playfully devising elaborate schemes to make mean-spirited folks think they're
going crazy, and, conversely, secretly helping do-gooders improve their
lives. But when she finds love, Amélie isn't quite sure how to approach
the object of her affection. Can Amélie land her beau in the City
of Light? You'll have to see the film to find out. An Oscar nomination for
this Gallic import is a safe bet!
See reviews
GOSFORD PARK - Rated R
(language & brief sexuality) - 137 minutes - Scope
Academy Award nominee in six categories:
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (two), Best Art Direction,
Best Costume Design, and Best Writing (original).
Featuring a large British ensemble cast including: Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi,
Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Kristen Scott Thomas and Emily Watson.
Robert Altman's latest epic,
Gosford Park, is a joyous and audacious achievement that deserves
comparison with his very best films: -- MASH, McCabe and Mrs.
Miller, Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, and
Cookie's Fortune. It employs the genre of the classic British murder
mystery, as defined by Agatha Christie. Guests and servants crowd a great
country house, and one of them is murdered. But Gosford Park is a
Dame Agatha story in the same sense that MASH is a war film. This
is a comedy about selfishness, greed, snobbery, eccentricity and class exploitation,
and Altman is right when he hopes people will see it more than once -- after
you know the destination the journey is magical!
See reviews
MOULIN ROUGE - Rated PG-13
- 128 minutes - Scope
Eight Oscar Nominations! Best Picture, Best
Actress - Nicole Kidman, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound,
Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Make Up.
 |
Moulin Rouge, starring Nicole Kidman
in an Oscar nominated performance, is directed by her fellow Australian,
Baz Luhrmann, the director who brought to the screen such dizzying musical
spectacles as Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet. This
turn-of-the-century love story of bohemian writer Ewan McGregor and
captivating Parisian club courtesan Kidman is played out amidst surreal
architecture, lavish performances and astounding costumes. |
See reviews
IN THE BEDROOM - Rated
R - 135 minutes - Scope
Five Academy Award nominations! Best Picture,
Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Writing (adapted)!
Starring Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, and Marisa Tomei.
Director
Todd Field's first feature is spare, tightly wound and unflinchingly honest.
It garnered him a Best Picture Oscar nomination. Based on a story by Andre
Dubus, the film tells the tale of small-town doctor Tom Wilkinson and his
music-teacher wife, Sissy Spacek, whose lives take an unexpected, tragic
turn when their college-aged son becomes involved in an affair with an older
woman, Marisa Tomei. It's the details, rather than the big picture, that
make this Academy Award material -- mainly because Wilkinson and Spacek
give performances that feel all too real. The confident Field keeps In
the Bedroom moving with an engrossingly slow-burning energy. Don't miss
it!
See reviews
I AM SAM - Rated PG-13
- 133 minutes - Flat
Academy Award Nominee: Best Actor - Sean
Penn
 |
Sean Penn gives an outstanding performance as a mentally
challenged single father left to raise his baby girl on a Starbucks
salary. Dakota Fanning shines as his wonderfully adorable daughter,
who attracts child services when she begins to mentally surpass dad.
Michelle Pfeiffer enters the fray as Penn's high-strung, corporate-climbing
attorney trying to keep his, and her, family together. |
See reviews
MONSTER'S BALL - Rated
R - 108 minutes - Scope
Academy Award Winner - Best Actress - Halle
Berry!
It's not exactly a ball,
but this film does feature two monster performances. Billy Bob Thornton
plays a death-row prison guard, the emotionally tortured son of a racist,
who falls for the wife (Halle Berry) of a convict. Despite the ungodly way
their paths cross, their love affair is surprisingly steamy. Berry does
good (not just good-looking) work; daring to be very unsympathetic in her
treatment of an over-weight son. Sean Combs is nicely understated playing
the dead-man-walking role. The strong acting keeps us focused on the possibilities
of life--with or without parole.
See reviews
IRIS - Rated R - 90 minutes
- Flat
Academy Award winner - Best Supporting Actor
- Jim Broadbent
Academy Award nomination - Best Actress - Judi Dench
Irish author Iris Murdoch's career, including
her courageous battle with Alzheimer's, is a moving true-life story. Jim
Broadbent, so wild as the carnival barker earlier in the year in Moulin
Rouge, gives an Academy Award winning performance as Iris' loving husband
who struggles to make sure his wife (captivatingly portrayed in her later
years by Judi Dench) holds on to her dignity as her disease worsens. The
film is not entirely a downer, though, and spends plenty of time on the
story of young Iris (Kate Winslet) and her zest for life...and for a younger
John.
See reviews
NO MAN'S LAND - Rated
R - 97 minutes - Scope
Academy Award winner - Best Foreign Film
A
shrewd political satire about the futility of war, No Man's Land
was a hot contender at Cannes last year, where it earned the screenwriting
prize for writer/director Danis Tanovic, and won this year's Oscar for Best
Foreign film. A Bosnian filmmaker with a number of war documentaries to
his credit, Tanovic is well-versed in his subject matter. His first feature,
starring Brancko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac and Katrin Cartlidge, centers on
an imagined episode in the war -- a standoff between two soldiers, one a
Bosnian, the other a Serb -- and it plays equally as metaphor and microcosm.
English, Bosnian, and French language -- subtitled.
See reviews
FAT GIRL (A MA SOEUR!) - Unrated (R) - 84 minutes - Flat
A very French tale from director Catherine
Breillat
A moody 12-year-old with an eating disorder,
Anaïs Reboux, goes on summer vacation with her family. Reboux hangs
with her bratty but beautiful 15-year-old sister, Roxane Mesquida, who discovers
amoré with a rakish Italian law student. Reboux grows jealous
of her older sibling's sexual awakening. Although not much appears to happen
on the surface, Fat Girl is filled with disturbing subtext, providing
some very French food-for-thought. Director Catherine Breillat deftly elicits
a compelling performance from young actress Reboux.
See reviews
MONSOON WEDDING - Rated R - 114
minutes - Flat
Forget Four Weddings
and a Funeral, this highly acclaimed comedy-drama is "Two Weddings
and a Downpour"! Director Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala,
Kama Sutra) examines the fragility and strengths of a large family and
the modern-ancient traditions co-existing uneasily in present-day India.
Set in the frenetic four days leading up to the New Delhi wedding of Aditi
(Vasundhara Das), a reluctant Indian bride preparing to marry Hemant Rai
(Parvin Dabas), a Houston-based Indian engineer, the title refers to a rainstorm
on the final day, but "monsoon" is an appropriate metaphor for
the chaos of organizing a family event of these proportions. The soundtrack
- a mixture of traditional and modern Indian music - is, like the film itself,
irresistible.
See reviews
LANTANA - Rated R - 120
minutes - Scope
Winner of multiple Australian Academy Awards!
|
Lantana is an acclaimed Australian
psychological thriller with a fine ensemble cast featuring Anthony LaPaglia,
Rachael Blake, Geoffrey Rush (Quills, The Tailor of Panama),
Barbara Hershey and Kerry Armstrong. The film's complex drama interweaves
lovers, suspicious spouses, psychiatrists and grieving parents as a
moody detective investigates a murder. Lantana, directed by Ray
Lawrence, scored big at the 2001 Australian Academy Awards, winning
in every major category - best film, best director, best adapted script,
best actor, best supporting actor, best actress, and best supporting
actress. |
See reviews
KISSING JESSICA STEIN - Rated R - 97 minutes - Flat
Adapted from the stageplay
"Lipschtick," Kissing Jessica Stein puts a refreshing and
comical spin on the all-too-familiar saga of the contemporary single woman.
Jessica is a hopeless perfectionist, which places her in contrast with her
mother whose idea of an eligible mate for her daughter is any single Jewish
male aged 20 to 45 in good enough shape to accept a dinner invitation. After
a series of hapless dates, Jessica decides to try a same sex relationship
with Helen, who has advertised in the personals. What results is a wry and
intelligent send-up of many of society's foibles, especially with regard
to sexuality. Kissing Jessica Stein features clever dialogue, a zippy
pace and a delightfully eccentric cast of supporting characters.
See reviews
HOLLYWOOD ENDING -
Rated PG-13 - 114 minutes - Flat
Woody Allen's latest comedy!
Selected as the opening-night
film at Cannes, Hollywood Ending is Woody Allen's latest comedy -
a hilarious satire of the egocentric world of Tinsel Town. Starring Tea
Leoni, Mark Rydell, Treat Williams, George Hamilton, and Debra Messing,
the film features Woody as a New York director who has flamed out spectacularly
and is now shooting deodorant commercials in Canada. Things look up when
his ex-wife gets him a splashy comeback gig in Hollywood, but when his anxiety
causes him to develop psychosomatic blindness, just as shooting starts,
it wreaks comedic havoc with his "artistic" vision.
See reviews
Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN (And your mother too) -
Unrated (NC-17) - 105 minutes - Flat
The hot new hit from Mexico!
When two teenaged boys persuade a cousin's
attractive wife to make a trip to a secluded beach, they discover much more
about life than they expected. Director Alfonso Cuaron, made his name in
Hollywood (The Little Princess, Great Expectations) before
returning to his Mexican homeland to create this sexually rowdy road film.
Featuring Mexican teen idol Gael Garcia Bernal, last seen here in Amores
Perros, and the beautiful Spanish actress, Maribel Verdu, this boldly
provocative film won Best Screenplay Award at the Venice Film Festival,
was a smash hit in its own country, and has astonished and captivated American
audiences in recent months.
See reviews
SALTON SEA - Rated R -
104 minutes - Flat
Starring Val Kilmer and Vincent D'Onofrio
The Salton
Sea is a hip new black comedy starring Val Kilmer as Danny Parker, a
man who has suffered one of those horrible life-altering tragedies that
reconstructs a person's character, transforming a mild-mannered jazz trumpeter
into a tattooed, spike-haired speed freak who is also an undercover agent
for the cops. Drawing inspiration from Memento, Pulp Fiction
and several trendy British thrillers about drug lads, Salton Sea
contains one element of startling originality -- its bad guy, nicknamed
Pooh-Bear and played by Vincent D'Onofrio in a great demented performance.
The Salton Sea is a sharp film about otherwise dull subjects: crooked
cops, sadistic drug dealers, femme fatales, guns and justice.
See reviews
ENIGMA - Rated R - 117 minutes
- Scope
A true tale told in satisfying fashion!
 |
This impressive first offering from rocker
Mick Jagger's Jagged Films teams respected British director Michael
Apted (Gorillas in the Mist, Coalminer's Daughter) with
Oscar-winning writer Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love, Brazil)
to produce a classy tale based on real events of World War Two. This
twisting, detail-oriented film features Dougray Scott as a British mathematician
trying to crack an impossible new German code before Nazi U-boats sink
Allied ships. Adding to the pressure is the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend,
the appearance of a troubling secret service agent, a recent mental
breakdown, and the cute stubbornness of fellow puzzle fanatic Kate Winslet. |
See reviews
ABOUT A BOY - Rated PG-13 - 101
min. - Scope
Starring Hugh Grant and Rachel Weisz
About a Boy is Hugh
Grant's latest romantic comedy, and in this one he drops his stuttery Jimmy
Stewart routine and comes through with some genuine emotion. As the independently
wealthy Will, he fills out his days watching TV, shooting pool, sipping
coffee, and sidling up to women. He has figured out that single moms are
ripe for the plucking and joins a single-parent support group pretending
to have a 2-year-old son. The ruse backfires, but into his life comes a
fatherless 12-year-old boy who teaches Will what it means to care for someone.
About a Boy is sophisticated and nuanced, and every character is
bursting with emotional contradictions.
See reviews
WINDTALKERS - Rated R - 134 minutes
- Scope
Starring Nicolas Cage and Christian Slater
Windtalkers brings to
the screen a tale inspired by true events of World War II, when the military
used Navaho soldiers, and their unique language, to send coded messages
during operations in the Pacific. Two U.S. Marines (Nicolas Cage, Christian
Slater) are assigned to protect the Navajo code senders. More so, they are
assigned to "protect the code at all costs." This means that if
they face possible capture on Japanese soil, the two U.S. Marines must kill
their "windtalkers." Under John Woo's creative direction the action
allows you to feel the brutality of the war and to appreciate what a few
brave Native Americans did for their country.
See reviews
MINORITY REPORT - Rated PG-13
- 144 minutes - Scope
Starring Tom Cruise
Minority Report,
directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, is one of this season's
most anticipated films. Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, who also
originated the now legendary Bladerunner, this film is a sophisticated
sci fi thriller made by a master filmmaker at the top of his form, working
with a star who generates complex human feelings while playing the action
hero. Cruise is chief of the Department of Pre-Crime in Washington D.C.
of 2054, where there has not been a murder in six years due to psychics
who can foresee the future. Soon, it appears, there will be a murder--committed
by Cruise himself. Minority Report is a virtuoso high-wire act, daring
much and achieving it with superb grace and skill. Not to be missed!
See reviews
MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING - Rated PG - 95 minutes - Flat
The sleeper hit of the summer!
My Big Fat Greek Wedding,
an independent film, is fast becoming the sleeper hit of the summer. Based
on the one-woman show of the same name by "Second City" alumna
Nia Vardalos, who scripted and stars here, this romantic comedy features
Toula, a frumpy, 30-year-old woman from a richly, rigidly traditional Greek-American
family trying to discover her own personal worth. She's played with charm
and gusto by Vardalos in her first major film role. The film itself relishes
the romantic and comic elements of family life for proud Greek Americans,
in particular. Yet as with all deliciously specific texts, this one makes
the leap to Irish, Jewish, Polish … whatever … easy and rewarding.
If you liked Monsoon Wedding, you'll love this film!
See reviews
DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS - Rated
PG-13 - 90 minutes - Flat
Even people clueless about skateboarding
can enjoy Dogtown and Z-Boys, a 2001 Sundance award-winner that chronicles
the hidden history of how the sport took off in the early 1970s. It grew
out of the Southern California youth culture that, three decades ago, developed
the extreme angles now taken for granted in this popular activity. Director
Stacy Peralta is himself seen as one of the rough-and-tumble adolescents
who gathered in the Dogtown section of Santa Monica and Venice. Surfer dudes
with attitude, they needed some form of recreation when the waves were not
up to snuff. Many of them joined the Zephyr Skating Team, so named for a
surf shop/teen hangout owned by board designer Jeff Ho. With extensive footage
from the era, the story traces the rise and fall of the Z-Boys and their
high flying fun.
See reviews
REIGN OF FIRE - Rated PG-13 -
102 minutes - Scope
Starring Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale
Though post-apocalyptic
hero films have been around a long time, there's increasingly only one model
that creative filmmakers seem interested in emulating - the "Mad Max"
films of the 1980's. Reign of Fire, directed by Rob Bowman of TV's
X-Files, was initially co-scripted by Mad Max writer Terry Hayes, and it
spices up the original genre with a healthy dose of mythic dragon lore.
The year is 2020 and the world is ravaged to the verge of oblivion after
two decades of unsuccessfully battling real, honest-to-Hades fire-breathing
dragons. The creatures thrive in evolutionary fits and starts, hibernating
when all life has been decimated and emerging again only after nature has
replenished their food supply. Christian Bale is the leader of a colony
in a desolate region of England, and the lone survivor of the cataclysmic
incident from which the first dragon was unleashed. Matthew McConaughey
is a cigar-chomping American Marine who arrives out of the mist, with tanks
and a helicopter, claiming to know how to slay the dragons.
See reviews
DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA YA SISTERHOOD -
Rated PG-13 - 116 minutes - Scope
Starring Sandra Bullock,
Ellen Burstyn, Fionnula Flanagan, James Garner, Cherry Jones, Ashley Judd,
Shirley Knight, and Maggie Smith, this adaptation of Rebecca Wells' two
best-selling novels, "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood"
and "Little Altars Everywhere," is a two hanky big screen experience.
Callie Khouri, the Oscar-winning scripter of Thelma & Louise,
chose as her directorial debut a charming story of mother-daughter dynamics
and lifelong friendships among women. The story spans 60 years, beginning
in 1937 Louisiana, where four young girls stage a whimsical pagan ceremony
that unites them as Ya-Ya Sisters. In the present day, Vivi (Ellen Burstyn),
the leader of the Ya-Yas and a self-styled drama queen, renounces her successful
playwright daughter, Sidda (Sandra Bullock), over a Time magazine interview
in which she speaks of a difficult childhood. Into the rift step the other
three Ya-Yas (Fionnula Flanagan, Maggie Smith, and Shirley Knight), "mama's
henchmen," who fly to New York and kidnap Sidda to Louisiana in order
to affect a rapprochement between mother and daughter.
See reviews
K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER - Rated
PG-13 - 138 minutes - Scope
Starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson
Director Kathryn Bigelow's K-19: The
Widowmaker is loosely based on an actual 1961 Cold War incident -- suppressed
until the mid-nineties -- in which the reactor on Russia's first nuclear-powered
sub malfunctioned during a sea trial in the North Atlantic and almost provoked
a confrontation with the U.S. Liam Neeson plays Captain Mikhail Polenin
of the K-19, who is removed from command and replaced by Harrison
Ford's Alexei Vostrikov, while remaining onboard as executive officer. K-19
portrays the Cold War from the Russian side and as a technical achievement
is on a par with Das Boot. Ford and Neeson, both first-class actors,
provide the requisite drama when things go awry in cramped quarters.
See reviews
FULL FRONTAL - Rated R
- 106 minutes - Flat
Starring David Duchovny, Nicky Katt, Catherine
Keener, Mary McCormack, David Hyde Pierce, Julia Roberts and Blair Underwood.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
On the heels of his three
most commercially successful efforts to date -- Oscar winners Erin Brockovich
and Traffic, along with Ocean's Eleven - Director Steven Soderbergh
has returned to his independent roots, roughing it with this low-budget
comedy-drama, Full Frontal. What Soderbergh has called "A movie
about movies for people who love movies," is a very inside look at
the Hollyweird lifestyle, adapted by Coleman Hough from her own play and
laced by Soderbergh with cameos and references to all manner of films old
and new. In addition to actress Julia Roberts, who worked for scale, Full
Frontal includes David Duchovny of TV's X-Files fame, plus a
host of other familiar faces.
See reviews
TADPOLE - Rated PG-13 - 77 minutes
- Flat
Starring Sigourney Weaver, Bebe Neuwirth, John Ritter,
and Aaron Stanford.
Oedipus meets Rushmore in Tadpole.
In this entertaining lark, which may become the sleeper hit of late summer,
newcomer Aaron Stanford is at the top of the class as a sophisticated 15-year-old
who speaks French, quotes Voltaire and, oh yeah, totally has the hots for
his stepmom, Sigourney Weaver. Things become even more complicated when
Stanford gets busy with his mom's friend Bebe Neuwirth. Director Gary Winick
keeps it light--but not stupid. Stanford's performance will make him as
hot in Hollywood as he apparently is with the ladies.
See reviews
THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES - Rated PG - 107 minutes - Flat
Starring Ian Holm, Iben Hjelje, Tim McInnerny and
Tom Watson
This
historical fable, based on Simon Leys' "The Death Of Napoleon,"
is something like a 19th-century take on Trading Places as the Imperial
Eagle himself, Napoleon Bonaparte (Ian Holm), exits the debacle of Waterloo,
heads to the island of St. Helena and then pulls the old switcheroo, leaving
behind a look-a-like, Eugene Lenormand (also played by Holm), in his place.
The ensuing saga, in which these characters' fates are intertwined, is one
of rags-to-riches and vice versa, as Napoleon bides his time in the shadows,
anxiously waiting for the day he will return to the throne, and Lenormand
bathes in the luxury of a lifestyle he could only have dreamed about previously.
See reviews
The DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS - Rated R - 110 minutes - Flat
Starring Jodie Foster, Emile Hirsch, Jena
Malone, Kieran Culkin and Vincent D'Onofrio
Based on the novel by Chris
Fuhrman, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, is a coming-of-age comedy/drama
set in the South in the early 1970s. Repressed under the iron fist of Sister
Assumpta (Jodie Foster), who clumps around the classroom on a wooden leg,
Francis (Emile Hirsch) and Tim (Kieran Culkin) spend their free time drawing
comics, imagining themselves as action heroes Captain Ass Kicker and The
Muscle, battling their arch nemesis, Peg Leg. When Sister Assumpta discovers
their sketchbook, the boys plot their revenge in an ambitious scheme that
can only end badly. The film stylishly illustrates the fantasy scenarios
developed by its adolescent protagonists with sophisticated cartoons by
Spawn's Todd McFarlane.
See reviews
MYSTIC MASSEUR - Rated
PG - 117 minutes - Flat
Starring Om Puri, Aasif Mandvi, Ayesha Dharker,
James Fox, and Zohra Segal
The Mystic Masseur,
directed by Ismail Merchant, the Indian-born producer of Merchant-Ivory
collaborations like Howards End, is more comedic than is typical
of his previous work but shares with the best Mechant-Ivory films a detailed
recreation of a period setting and an ensemble of notable performances.
Mystic Masseur is the first film adapted from a work by the revered
Nobel Laureate, V.S. Naipaul. Set amidst the large and prosperous Indian
community in mid-20th century Trinidad, it is a magical, bittersweet fable
about a young aspiring author whose unexpected talents as a healer bring
him local fame and enable him to advance his ambitions as a writer.
See reviews
SIMONE - Rated PG13 -
117 minutes - Scope
Starring Al Pacino & his computer
Anyone familiar with Andrew Niccol's
work, as screenwriter on The Truman Show and writer/director of Gattaca,
knows he is fascinated with issues of perception and illusion, especially
as they relate to the human condition. With Simone he has essentially
turned The Truman Show inside-out, replacing the depiction of a real
man-turned-unwitting celebrity with a cautionary tale about the meteoric
rise of a celebrity who is artificial. Both films are an all-out assault
on celebrity-obsessed, media-driven society but Simone is by far
the more comedic of the two. Al Pacino stars as Viktor Taransky, a film
director whose career is in decline. Thanks to modern technology, however,
Viktor finds a way to finish his latest film and get back in the Hollywood
rat race.
See reviews
NINE QUEENS - Rated R
- 115 minutes - Flat
From Argentina
When money gets tight and
times get tough, a veteran con man and a rookie hustler team up for a day
of clever schemes and small time cons. As they work the streets, they find
a one in a million chance at wealth in a counterfeit set of extremely valuable
stamps known as the "Nine Queens." But what once seemed to be
an opportunity for big money gets turned upside down as millionaires, hustlers
and thieves compete for the swindle of a lifetime. Set in Buenos Aires,
this award-winning Argentinean film displays a great blend of deception
and comedy. Written and directed by Fabian Bielinsky, Nine Queens
is in Spanish with English subtitles
See reviews
POSSESSION - Rated PG13
- 102 minutes - Scope
Starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam
Director Neil LaBute, who
gained notoriety with his scathing critiques of relationships in Your
Friends and Neighbors and In the Company of Men, takes a 180-degree
turn with Possession, a bona fide romance about two pairs of lovers,
one in modern-day London, the other from the Victorian era. Roland Michell
(Aaron Eckhart) is a brash American with a fellowship to study Victorian
poet Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam). In his research, Roland stumbles
upon a love letter linking Ash to fellow poet Christabel LaMotte (Jennifer
Ehle). For corroboration, Roland consults Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow),
a brilliant, if cold, English academic who has dedicated her life to the
study of LaMotte, a feminist and lesbian whom Maud admires for her forward-thinking.
Together they try to prove Roland's theory.
See reviews
ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS - Rated R - 108 minutes - Flat
From Denmark!
Italian For
Beginners is a charming romantic comedy by writer/director Lone Scherfig.
It is set in Copenhagen, where bumbling, recently widowed minister Anders
W. Berthelsen comes upon a collection of misfits, including rage-filled
sports-bar manager Lars Kaalund, his meek boss Peter Gantzler and the helpless,
hapless young Anette Stovelbaek. At first, these strange folk seem to have
little in common, but Scherfig unites them, Robert Altman style, via a night-school
language class. The results of this motley crew being thrown together are
both funny and touching, but Scherfig's real achievement is the unflinching
honesty with which she observes the characters. The Dogma 95 style of filmmaking
has yielded some terrific results, but who'd expect its back-to-basics approach
to produce a successful romantic comedy? Italian's at the top of
its class! In Danish with English subtitles.
See reviews
THE GOOD GIRL - Rated
R - 93 minutes - Flat
Starring Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston decisively breaks with
her "Friends" TV image in an independent film of satiric fire
and emotional turmoil. It will no longer be possible to consider her in
the same way. In The Good Girl, she plays Justine, a clerk at Retail
Rodeo, a sub-Kmart, who attempts to escape her desperately boring life and
marriage by embarking on an affair with a fellow clerk.
See reviews
CROP CIRCLES: THE QUEST FOR TRUTH - Unrated - 115 minutes - Flat
The Mel Gibson thriller
Signs offered Hollywood's take on the issue, now Crop Circles:
The Quest for Truth offers a real-life investigation into the worldwide
phenomenon of crop circles. Are they alien mapping symbols? Messages from
God? Scientifically explicable natural occurrences? Or merely elaborate,
man-made hoaxes? In his latest documentary, Academy Award-nominated William
Gazecki (Waco: The Rules of Engagement) offers new and compelling
information about these mysterious field formations.
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ATANARJUAT THE FAST RUNNER - Rated R - 172 minutes - Flat
Based on an Inuit legend
The first ever Inuktikut-language
feature, Atanarjuat the Fast Runner, is an extraordinary debut not
just for a director but for an entire culture. Documentary maker Zacharias
Kunuk's first feature film has more in common with "Beowulf,"
or "The Odyssey"" than anything ever before seen on the screen.
Like all classics, the tale is a universal one. It is based on an ancient
Inuit legend, set in the north Baffin region of the Canadian Arctic. Conflict
is created in the small community of Igloolik when Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaaq)
falls for Atuat (Sylvia Ivalu), who is already promised to Oki (Peter Henry
Arnatsiaq). The cinematography is superb, the landscapes austere, the music
incredibly moving, the performances (all of them) of the highest order.
Kunuk directs with a sensuous eye, offering one of the greatest chase scenes
in the movies one minute. Atanarjuat will make you laugh, make you
cry and keep you on the edge of your seat for nearly three hours. In Inuit
with English subtitles.
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BARBERSHOP - Rated PG-13
- 102 minutes - Flat
The surprise hit of late
summer, Barbershop, is about Calvin (Ice Cube), a hardworking brother
from the South Side of Chicago who inherits the neighborhood barbershop--the
social hub of the community--from his father. The shop is failing, the bank
is closing in, and Calvin wants out. Mired in debt, but desperately wanting
to make sure this local institution remains forever "The Barbershop,"
Calvin makes a call. He sells the shop to a local loan shark (Keith David,
Requiem for a Dream), on the condition that the sign outside will
always say "Barbershop." With a strong cast including Cedric the
Entertainer and the rapper Eve, Barbershop is a cut above the season's
other comedies.
See reviews
ONE HOUR PHOTO - Rated
R - 96 minutes - Flat
Starring Robin Williams
Not
since American Beauty has a film so effectively skewered the American
Dream. One Hour Photo not only calls into question the façade
of suburban family life but does so with a mature, multilayered approach.
In his most formidable, and perhaps darkest, role to date, Robin Williams
is Sy "the photo guy," the manager of a one-hour photo shop inside
a suburban discount department store. Sy seems decent enough, but when he
returns home after work his otherwise virtually bare apartment reveals Sy's
perturbing side: an entire wall methodically papered with pictures of his
favorite customers, the Yorkins. Gradually he has inserted himself into
a fantasy about their perfect life, creating a role for himself as "Uncle"
Sy. But not all is as it seems in the Yorkin household, and when Sy discovers
this, he takes matters into his own hands.
See reviews
LAST KISS - Rated R -
114 minutes - Scope
Romantic comedy from Italy!
It's
love, Italian-style, as director Gabriele Muccino takes a largely rosy and
occasionally in-depth look at romance among several handsome and prosperous
couples: an immature man who can't commit; a middle-aged matron wanting
to leave her long-suffering husband; and a new father who can't handle the
sudden responsibilities of parenthood. The crosscutting and complex relationships
keep things interesting in this comedic take on amore.
See reviews
SECRETARY - Rated R -
104 minutes - Flat
Starring James Spader & Maggie Gyllenhaal
This year's Sundance hot
potato, Secretary, featuring Erin Cressida's daring script based
on a short story by Mary Gaitskill, was awarded the festival's Special Jury
Prize for Originality. Maggie Gyllenhaal delivers a name-making turn as
the titular secretary in a challenging physical performance, while James
Spader, as a squirming, sexually perverted lawyer, is in full control of
his role. When Spader hires a former psychiatric patient as his submissive
secretary, the two develop a tightly-wound relationship made in S&M
heaven. Full of creepy, quirky moments, this is a great bizarre love story
-- proof that there's someone out there for everyone!
See reviews
LOVELY AND AMAZING - Rated
R - 91 minutes - Flat
If you liked Ya Ya Sisterhood, this
one's for you!
Lovely & Amazing
is a lively and engaging comedy about obsessions and how they can dominate
a family. Written by director Nicole Holofcener, it's full of perceptive
dialogue about the subtleties of ever-evolving relationships. Jane (Saving
Grace's Brenda Blethyn), the mother of three daughters, is having liposuction
to lose a few pounds so she'll feel better about her appearance. Elizabeth
(Emily Mortimer of Love's Labour's Lost), Jane's middle daughter,
is an aspiring actress who is concerned about her looks: She's afraid that
she's not attractive enough to get cast in a good part. The oldest daughter,
Michelle (Catherine Keener of Being John Malkovich), a former homecoming
queen, is in a stale marriage and is frustrated because no store is interested
in purchasing her art. Jane's youngest is Annie (Raven Goodwin), an adopted
eight-year-old African-American, who begins to take on some of the family
characteristics. Holofcener has assembled a terrific ensemble to play her
believably quirky and conflicted characters, who are forced by an unexpected
event to break out of their daily routine of worrying about themselves in
order to help each other.
See reviews
THE BUSINESS OF FANCYDANCING - Unrated (R?) - 103 minutes - Flat
From Sherman Alexie, who wrote Smoke Signals
The Business
of Fancydancing is the film directing debut of Sherman Alexie, the American
Indian author and national poetry "slam" champion from Spokane
who wrote Smoke Signals, the acclaimed film based on his book The
Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Fancydancing takes
a fresh, experimental approach to the adage "You can never go home."
The tale involves the spiritual growth of Seymour Polatkin (Evan Adams of
Smoke Signals), a gay poet who has moved off "the rez"
to Seattle and enjoys a successful literary career. His best friend Aristotle
Joseph went to college with Seymour but dropped out to return to the reservation
where "Indians like us belong." Several years later, Seymour has
received word that their old friend Mouse the Violin Player (Swil Kanim,
who performed at the Myrna Loy) has killed himself. Seymour heads back to
the rez for the funeral where Agnes Roth, his college girlfriend who is
both Spokane and Jewish, is a school teacher and now Aristotle's lover.
See reviews
KNOCKAROUND GUYS - Rated
R - 91 minutes - Scope
Starring, Vin Diesel, John Malkovich, Dennis
Hopper, Barry Pepper, and Seth Green
Knockaround Guys features
Barry Pepper (who stars in Spike Lee's upcoming The 25th Hour) and
Vin Diesel (who recently headlined the superagent action film XXX),
along with A-list actors John Malkovich and Dennis Hopper in a crime drama
that's a fast-paced riff on the themes of father-son expectations, honor
and betrayal. It's also Brooklyn meets the West as Pepper, son of mobster
Hopper, loses an important bag of cash in Wibaux, Montana. What follows
is a wry clash of culture between menacing New York hoods, of whom Vin Diesel
is one, a couple of skateboarding stoners, and a corrupt small town sheriff.
See reviews
TUCK EVERLASTING - Rated
PG - 90 minutes - Scope
Back in town by popular acclaim!
Starring past Academy Award winners and nominees William Hurt, Sissy
Spacek, and Ben Kingsley
Tuck Everlasting is
adapted from the 1975 Natalie Babbitt novel of the same name. Set around
the turn of the century it tells the tale of 15-year-old Winnie Foster and
her encounter with the everlasting Tuck family and the Man with the Yellow
Coat. The Tucks drank from a magic-imbued stream over a hundred years ago.
Winnie (Alexis Bledel of TV's Gilmore Girls) learns their secret
-- a secret that the mysterious and amoral Man in a Yellow Coat (Sexy
Beast's Ben Kingsley) will do anything to have. As she falls in love
with 17-year-old Jesse Tuck (Insomnia's Jonathan Jackson), and the
Man in the Yellow coat closes in, Winnie must make a decision that will
affect the rest of what could be a very long life. Tuck Everlasting
is a love story and a parable about the circle of life.
See reviews
MOSTLY MARTHA - Rated
PG - 103 minutes - Scope
A great food film from Germany!
Audiences will savor Mostly
Martha for the same reason they responded to Babette's Feast,
Big Night, and Tortilla Soup:gourmet food lovingly prepared
and stunningly photographed. In this tale from Germany, a master chef (Martina
Gedeck) takes in a young niece she barely knows. The girl is a bright but
sorrowful eight-year-old who finds refuge from grief by refusing to eat
-- complete anathema to her aunt's belief system. At work, these developments
coincide with the hiring of an Italian sous-chef (Sergio Castellitto), a
gentle, gregarious soul who manages to charm the little girl. Mostly
Martha provides food for thought about balancing maternal nurturing
with fabulous nourishment.
See reviews
MOONLIGHT MILE - Rated
PG-13 - 123 minutes - Scope
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman,
Susan Sarandon, and Ellen Pompeo
Writer/director Brad Silberling's
poignant and intense new film, Moonlight Mile, is inspired by a loss
in Silberling's own life. The TV actress Rebecca Schaeffer, his girlfriend
at the time, was killed in 1989 by a fan. Silberling has grown very close
to her parents in the years since then and has used the experience as the
starting point for this film. Jake Gyllenhaal is the fiancé of the
dead girl, played by newcomer Ellen Pompeo. Her parents are played by Dustin
Hoffman and Susan Sarandon. The father encourages the fiance to join in
his business as a real estate developer. The mother, protected by intelligence
and wit, looks closely and suspects a secret the young man is keeping, which
leaves him stranded between the past and future.
See reviews
JONAH - A VEGGIETALES MOVIE - Rated G - 85 minutes - Scope
After long-standing success
in the direct-to-video format, this latest VeggieTale is the first to hit
the big screen. It's unabashedly faith-based as well as cheerful good fun
for the entire family. Devised brightly, boldly and simply, it tells a tale
within a tale. Kids being driven to a pop concert have the wheels of their
bus shafted by porcupines. They take refuge in a fish restaurant occupied
by very lazy pirates who "don't do anything." But the pirates
-- one of whom appears to be the popular VeggieTale star Larry the Cucumber
in disguise -- did do something fairly important once, as they reveal in
a shaggy dog story about how they sailed the Mediterranean with Jonah the
prophet, when he was ducking God's order to go preach his message to the
dastardly fish-slapping sinners of Nineveh.
See reviews
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE - Rated
R - 95 minutes - Scope
Winner - Best Director prize at this year's
Cannes Film Festival!
Starring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson
Punch-Drunk Love is
a modern-day Cinderella story starring Adam Sandler as the person in distress.
With director P.J. Anderson's poetic touch (Magnolia), this film
bears little resemblance to Sandler's usual lowbrow features. Here Sandler
reveals unsuspected depths and tones as an actor. He plays a jittery executive
in a company with a novelty line, and he has seven sisters, who are all
on his case at every moment. When he meets the adorable Emily Watson, a
bashful British woman, she decides, against all logic, to fall in love with
this mumbling misfit. Punch-Drunk Love, with its gambler's faith
in chance, is about the life-changing nature of connections, which defy
explanation.
See reviews
BLOODY SUNDAY - Rated
R - 110 minutes - Flat
Co-winner of the 2002 Berlin
Film Festival's Golden Bear, Bloody Sunday is an exceptionally accomplished
historical recreation, a meticulous documentary-style rendering of the tragic
January, 1972 clash between British soldiers and Irish civil rights marchers
in the city of Derry, Northern Ireland. Written and directed by Paul Greengrass,
Bloody Sunday plays out its narrative without any substantial embellishment:
Minute by minute, hour by hour the fateful day is allowed to unfold, with
occasional glimpses into the personal lives of participants and the activities
of march organizers and British police interspersed throughout. Most of
the time it feels more like newsreel footage than staged cinema, a quality
that immediately places it alongside such efforts as The Battle of Algiers
and The Killing Fields.
See reviews
SLAUGHTER RULE - Rated
R - 112 minutes - Scope
A "Made in Montana" film directed
by Andrew & Alex Smith. Featuring Kim Delong of Carroll College's Drama
Department in a supporting role!
First-time filmmakers, Alex
and Andrew Smith who grew up near Missoula, tackle a challenging subject
matter - the relationship between men and the boys they mentor. The tale
involves Roy (Ryan Gosling) who is cut from his rural Montana high school
football team by a coach who tells him, "You ain't angry enough,"
shortly after his estranged father passes away. In need of a male role model,
he is approached by an eccentric loner, Gideon (David Morse), who taps him
to quarterback his independent league's six-man squad. Emboldened by the
aggressive play -- rules like "no roughing the passer" don't apply
-- Roy disregards the rumors swirling around Gideon and his enigmatic history
with boys. Morse, usually seen in supporting parts, is striking in this
role, and Gosling, who recently starred in the controversial Believer,
continues to prove his exciting talent. Beautifully photographed by Eric
Edwards and well designed by John Johnson, the realistic Montana landscapes
and character-revealing sets evoke a maturity that belies the filmmakers'
youthfulness.
See reviews
FRIDA - Rated R - 124
minutes
Starring Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Geoffrey
Rush, Ashley Judd, Edward Norton and Antonio Banderas.
The life of Mexican artist
Frida Kahlo is a compelling topic for a biopic in itself, but star/producer
Salma Hayek and director Julie Taymor have infused Frida with a unique
visual style that makes the film a work of art in itself. The story focuses
on the relationship between Frida Kahlo and her husband, artist Diego Rivera
(Alfred Molina). They first meet when Frida is in college and then again
after a terrible accident severely handicaps her. They marry, though he
pledges only loyalty to Frida, not fidelity (his affairs are central to
the story while hers are only casually alluded to), and embark on a whirlwind
adventure that finds them debating left-wing politics with influential artists
of the time (played by Ashley Judd and Antonio Banderas), butting heads
with Nelson Rockefeller Jr. (Edward Norton), and housing exiled political
philosopher Leon Trotsky (Geoffrey Rush). What brings this story to life
is Hayek's tour-de-force performance as Frida, a role the native
Mexican was seemingly born to play.
See reviews
PINOCCHIO - Rated G -
90 minutes
From the fertile imagination
of Italian funny man, Roberto Benigni, the creator of the Oscar winning
Life is Beautiful, comes a live action version of the classic kid's
tale, Pinocchio. A box office smash in Italy, this film is dubbed in English,
so both kiddies and adults can enjoy Benigni's magical shenanigans!
See reviews
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