* Balseros
Directed by Carles Bosch and José Maria Domenech, Balseros is a beautiful, depressing work. A documentary on seven Cuban refugees, it first chronicles the group's journey via makeshift raft from their homeland, and then returns five years later to examine the lives of the refugees once they've attempted to settle in America. What begins as a hopeful journey for the refugees is eventually beaten down for some by the truth of the American dream, and that truth is this: It ain't all success and sunshine. A smart, well-made film. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Little Theatre, Fri-Sun at 7, 9 pm.
* Double Indemnity
Billy Wilder, one of the cinema's least identified woman haters, lets his flag fly in this boilerplate noir starring Fred MacMurray as the chump who gets his clock cleaned by titanic ball-stomper Barbara Stanwyck while Edward G. Robinson slowly puts it all together. It's difficult to deny the artistry of this classic, but its actual power has been dulled by two generations of naked imitators. (Sean Nelson) Columbia City Cinema, Fri at 7:30 pm.
Dr. Lamb
If there's one thing those folks over there in Hong Kong know well, it's how to hack up a beautiful woman's body with style. And if there's one thing us folks at The Stranger know well, it's racism... or is that chauvanism? Anyway, the Grand Illusion screens Danny Lee and Billy Tang's Dr. Lamb, the gruesome, gruesome tale of a limb-collecting serial killer. Grand Illusion, Fri-Sat at 11 pm.
Dr. Strangelove
"I don't think it's quite fair to condemn a whole program because of a single slip-up, sir." Columbia City Cinema, Sat at 7:30 pm.
* Everyday God Kisses Us on the Mouth
Brutal and yet beautiful, realistic and yet magical, Every Day God Kisses Us On The Mouth is fascinating from beginning to end. Set in Romania, the film concerns a middle-aged man, Dan Condurache, who is released from prison (where he served time for murder), and returns home to find that his fat, younger, affluent brother has fucked and impregnated his wife. He tries but fails to overcome the humiliation and finally kills his brother. The murder initiates a series of murders that become, as the movie progresses, more and more absurd. Absolutely excellent cinema. (CHARLES MUDEDE) Grand Illusion, Fri at 7, 9 pm, Sat-Sun at at 5, 7, 9 pm, Tues-Thurs at 7, 9 pm.
Interdisciplinary Conference on Fellini and His Legacy
See Blow Up. See Movie Times for details.
* My Neighbor Totoro
Hayao Miyazaki's (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke) breakthrough film, Totoro, promises to reduce the most cynical dolt into a giggling school girl with some of the cutest sequences ever set to celluloid. If you don't like it, you're just an asshole. Columbia City Cinema, Sat at 2 pm.
Polish Films of the Avant-Garde
See Blow Up. University of Washington, Husky Union Building, Sat at 8 pm.
Pride and Joy
The latest in their Blues-based film series, Experience Music Project presents Robert Mugge's decade-old film about the 20th anniversary of Chicago's Alligator Records. JBL Theater, Wed at 7 pm.
* Ringu
Remember how creepy it was when the girl crawled out of the television near the end of The Ring? It's even creepier in this, the original Japanese version. Egyptian, Fri-Sat at midnight.
Rosemary's Baby
"He has his father's eyes." JBL Theater, Thurs at 7:30 pm.
* Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
See preview this issue. See www.seattlequeerfilm.com for full details.
* SILENT MOVIE MONDAYS
This week features G.W. Pabst's most famous work, the smoky, sensual silent Die Büchse der Pandora (or Pandora's Box), starring Louise Brooks. Paramount, Monday at 7 pm.
South Korean Jetlag
See Blow Up. 911 Media Arts Center, Fri at 8 pm.
The Three Stigmata of Marshall McLuhan
Blow Up. Little Theatre, Thurs at 5:30 pm.
The Weather Underground
In the late '60s, a group of white, middle- and upper-class university students decided to take the revolution from theory into the heart of American reality. They were the most radical members of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), the then-leading student organization opposed to the war in Vietnam. Believing that marching and non-violence was not enough to awake sleeping white America, they turned to terrorism, setting off bombs in strategic public locations. They wanted to be, and in sense were, the real deal. These were interesting times indeed. And the members of The Weather Underground had the wind of life in their sails: they were handsome, trendy, urbane, and articulate. Their heroes were the handsome, trendy, urbane, articulate leaders and members of the Black Panther Party, with whom they longed and strove to form a close relationship. At one level, the documentary The Weather Underground, which is directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel, and narrated by actress Lili Taylor, is about this longing--the group's often violent attempts at emptying themselves of all that is white, so as to be welcomed without suspicion with open arms into the dangerous realm of black American radicalism. At another level, the documentary is about the group's failed idealism. "I know it sounds crazy now, but we really wanted to change the world, we really wanted the revolutions sweeping across the Third World to enter and transform America," more or less say the interviewed former members of The Weather Underground, all of whom are now middle-aged; one of whom is in prison serving a 75-year sentence for being involved in a botched armed robbery with the Black Liberation Army. The tone of this documentary is decidedly sad, which is why it is a failure. Considering our present political situation, and also the tradition and tendency of Western narratives, it's easy (far too easy) to be sad about lost youth, spent energy, and fallen dreams. (CHARLES MUDEDE) Varsity, Fri-Sun at 12:15, 2:30, 4:40, 7, 9:20 pm, Mon-Thurs at 7, 9:20 pm.
NOW PLAYING
* American Splendor
As a comic-book movie, American Splendor is more like Crumb and Ghost World than like Spider Man or The Hulk. Along with a deadpan sense of humor, the focus is entirely on character and not at all on spectacle. There's also a tone found in underground comics that this movie perfectly captures. Smartly constructed and often surprising, American Splendor indulges in how artificial the filmmaking process is, and ends up with a heartfelt portrayal of a very real man. (ANDY SPLETZER)
Anything Else
Woody Allen's films used to radiate a luxurious nostalgia for a New York gone by; now they're just nostalgic for old Woody Allen films. (EMILY HALL)
* Bubba Ho-Tep
Aside from its crackpot intelligence, fine acting, deadpan absurdity, and startling sweetness, however, Bubba Ho-Tep is exactly what you'd expect. (SEAN NELSON)
* Cabin Fever
There is much that is right about Cabin Fever, director Eli Roth's attempt to revive the somewhat dormant gore genre. But there is one thing that is not right about Cabin Fever, and that, to put it bluntly, is the finger-banging scene. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
* Casa De Los Babys
Adoption is as much as a crapshoot for the adoptive parent as it is for the adopted baby--neither entity has yet to take form. And that is the heart of Casa de los Babys. Most of the central characters in the film don't matter--there are mothers all over the film, either wanting, relinquishing, or enduring children. In the end the audience is left to wonder what will happen, and I guess that's the point Sayles is trying to make: It's a crapshoot. (KATHLEEN WILSON)
Cold Creek Manor
In a word: yawn. (MEGAN SELING)
* Demon Lover
Demon Lover, Olivier Assayas' new film, tackles everything from porn to Japanese culture to corporate espionage. Any film that plays with your head as thoroughly as this one does is worth seeing--just be prepared to be frustrated, confused, and maybe even angered. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Dirty Pretty Things
I'm sad to announce that Dirty Pretty Things is a failure. True, it is a beautiful failure, as it is beautifully shot, with beautiful set designs, and beautiful actors (Amistad's Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays, with great success, a fallen but still noble Nigerian doctor, and Amélie's Audrey Tautou, who plays with considerably less success a vulnerable Turkish immigrant); but in terms of its concept, plot, and general message, the movie falls apart shortly after it starts. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Dopamine
Sundance will never shake its growing reputation as an incubator of mediocre work if it keeps throwing all its weight behind movies like Dopamine. Having gone through the Sundance Institute labs, the Sundance Film Festival, and now the Sundance theatrical-release series (before heading into a long life on the Sundance Channel), this movie has been polished down to your standard low-budget romantic comedy. (ANDY SPLETZER)
Duplex
Ben Stiller stars in another of his desperately middling marriages of Hollywood sub-royalty (Drew Barrymore) and cookie-cut plot in yet another Danny DeVito-directed film (in the tradition of Throw Mama From the Train, War of the Roses, and Death to Smoochy) about a murder for convenience--this time for the sake of a rent-controlled apartment.
The Fighting Temptations
Cuba Gooding Jr. continues his winning streak of zany fish-out-of-water comedies (in the now-illustrious tradition of Boat Trip and Snow Dogs) with a role as a shallow chump who must successfully champion a ragtag gospel choir or risk losing his family's inheritance. And as you might well expect, Cuba's fish-out-of-water has long since begun to smell like shit. Costarring Beyoncé Knowles' abs, the paper-thin story is unimportant--functional only in its ability to daisy-chain together a series of rags-to-riches musical sequences, of which you are assured many. (ZAC PENNINGTON)
Freaky Friday
Despite the generally amiable Jamie Lee Curtis and the overwhelming presence of feigned teen rock band sequences (the greatest joy that the pubescent live-action genre affords), the new Freaky Friday movie is not the old Freaky Friday movie. Absent: Jodie Foster, Barbara Harris, Boss Hogg, and (in the most unfortunate oversight) the earth-shattering car-chase/water-skiing/hang-gliding finale. (ZAC PENNINGTON)
Good Boy!
The only thing better than a talking dog movie (in this case, talking dogs from outer space) is a talking dog movie voiced by third-tier Hollywood celebrities. The agents of Matthew Broderick, Brittany Murphy, and Carl Reiner suggest "broadened horizons," and have a good laugh at their clients in Good Boy.
* Holy Land
Set against the violent political background of modern-day Israel, The Holy Land tells the story of Mendy, a yeshiva student who falls for a Russian prostitute named Sasha and becomes torn between his strict religious background and his overactive libido. Once Mendy is entrenched in his newly scandalous lifestyle, though, his world becomes more complicated--and depressing--the more he tries to figure it out, and his new friends only confuse things more by blurring the line between needing his friendship and making him feel used. (JENNIFER MAERZ)
House Of the Dead
The prequel to the video game series of the same name, House of th... wait, WHAT did I just say?!?!
* In This World
Harrowing, I guess, would be the right word for this story of two Afghan boys making the dangerous overland journey from a refugee camp in Pakistan to London. Director Michael Winterbottom used nonactors for the two lead roles, and allowed the story to be shaped by their evolving relationship so that the film's natural documentary feeling is earned beyond the rather nauseating handheld jitters. (EMILY HALL)
Intolerable Cruelty
To malign Intolerable Cruelty as the worst Coen Brothers film to date is really only a testament to their decades of consistency--a legacy of quirk and pop vision that seems to only improve with age. And despite its relative visual artlessness, Cruelty boasts quality (if not altogether brilliant) performances, a decent amount of humor, and some of the Coen's lyrical delivery. Even the worst Coen Brother's movie is still a Coen Brother's movie. But with its slapdash directions--and their names deeply buried amongst the screen credits--the whole debacle comes off with the sense that they owed somebody a favor. (ZAC PENNINGTON)
* Kill Bill Vol. 1
The first half of Quentin Tarantino's opus has very little character development, only the thinnest of stories, and more severed limbs than you can count. It is perhaps the most fun you will have at the cinema this year. BRADLEY STEINBACHER
* Lost In Translation
Lost in Translation is a tiny movie, as light as helium and draped upon the thinnest of plots. There is very little conflict, and even fewer twists and turns. It is as close to a miracle as you're likely to get this year. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
* Luther
Luther is successful because it's not really about Martin Luther at all, but about the general mood of an important period in Western history. The way the film is edited, written, photographed, and directed captures, as if from a mountaintop, a wider, larger arena of events, so that what is seen is not an individual but a whole society under great transformation. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Mambo Italiano
The décor at Buca di Beppo takes more of a stab at intelligent humor about Italians than this played-out "comedy" does. (JENNIFER MAERZ)
* Matchstick Men
Ridley Scott has never been known for a feather touch; when given the choice during his lengthy career between beauty of image and subtlety of character, image has almost always trounced. But surprisingly, subtlety is in abundance in his new picture Matchstick Men, and the result is his best film since Thelma & Louise. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
My Life Without Me
See review this issue. Harvard Exit
* Mystic River
For all the "inexorability" and "meditation" of its violence, Mystic River feels desperately contrived. Whether director Clint Eastwood has some deep understanding of the nature of violence remains unclear. What is certain is that he knows how to make a movie, even a dumb one, well worth watching. I only wish someone would send him some better books. (SEAN NELSON)
Once Upon a Time In Mexico
Forget about everything the El Mariachi "trilogy" has come to represent in the past, and see Once Upon a Time in Mexico for Johnny Depp. That is the only aspect of the film that doesn't sell the audience short. (KATHLEEN WILSON)
Open Range
Part standard Western, part attempted romantic epic, Open Range starts patiently and solidly, but ends up rushing through its climax; the romance, such as it is, takes it in the teeth, and what was meant to be big and important is instead messy and clumsy. Which is too bad, because it has one of the best shootouts in years. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Out Of Time
Denzel Washington gets set up again (can't America just leave a successful, sensitive, and respectable African American man alone? I mean, can't they?!?!), this time as a respected police chief, who must cover his tracks before being pinned with a murder.
Prey For Rock and Roll
This Gina Gershon car wreck is a compilation of everything that sucks about the entertainment industry--bad posturing, sappy clichés, and using a big name and the right stylist to market your crappy product to the masses. (JENNIFER MAERZ)
* Returner
See review this issue. Uptown
Runaway Jury
See review this issue. Lewis & Clark, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12
The Rundown
The Rock, the guy from Dude, Where's My Car? (no, the other one), Ewen Bremner, and Christopher Walken--in a cast destined for greatness--come together to fight crime or some shit in the Amazon. Most assuredly trash, but have you see the Rock's eyebrows? Hypnotizing.
* School Of Rock
Like Kindergarten Cop, the concept behind Rock is one of those near-hokey ones where "kids teach us more than we teach them," and where, in the end, everybody wins in some way because everybody loosens up a bit. What makes this movie different, though, is that it tackles the parts of rock culture where people take themselves way too seriously, a subject that could use a little unwinding of its panties. (JENNIFER MAERZ)
Seabiscuit
Maybe I'm too cynical for Triumphant Lessons like this, but I like a little more grit under the nails of my Hollywood movies, and the manicured emotions in Seabiscuit are a bit too Hallmark for me, even if they are based on a true story. (JENNIFER MAERZ)
Secondhand Lions
This movie just sucks. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
* The Station Agent
See review this issue. Egyptian
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Tobe Hooper's classic gets a makeover courtesy of the cast of the WB. Will it be any good? Will Leatherface still inspire fear? Will Jessica Biel get naked? These and other questions are surely on the minds of geek boys everywhere. Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Pacific Place 11, Varsity, Woodinville 12
* Thirteen
That the teenage years are difficult is not news--it's something we've known for years, thanks to after-school specials and blunt and terrifying movies like Kids. But stories about teens going out of control tend to inspire more polemic than art, encouraging viewers to identify the problem--the broken home, the oblivious parents, the oversexualized media--and turn the story into a message. What makes Catherine Hardwicke's Thirteen more potent is that she offers no such easy outs, but rather points out the vulnerability of the whole structure (family, school, self) that keeps a teen from self-destructing. (EMILY HALL)
Under The Tuscan Sun
There are cute Italian people, cute Polish laborers, beautiful wildflower-filled vistas, and the obligatory gay best friend--a stock role salvaged by the splendid Sandra Oh. The movie is pleasant anyway. (CLAUDE ROC)
Underworld
There is much Matrix-like action, crackpot dialogue, and a PVC-clad heroine (Kate Beckinsale) who looks sexy as all get out, but can barely muster a sprint thanks to her garb. The result: a boring, uninspired hack work. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Veronica Guerin
See review this issue. Grand Alderwood, Guild 45th, Meridian 16
Wonderland
See review this issue. Metro, Uptown
