* Black to the Future: A Black Science Fiction Film Festival
See Stranger Suggests. The film portion of this festival includes a bunch of short films and film essays, plus live concert footage and a screening of John Sayles' Brother From Another Planet. All films screen at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center. Film Rap with Warren Etheredge and Understanding Chaos, Sat June 12 at 5 pm. Urban Soup, Gettosake Entertainment Compilation, and Those Who Walk in Darkness, Sat June 12 at 7 pm. Sun Ra: Space Is the Place, Sat June 12 at 9 pm. Invisible Universes: A History of Blackness in Speculative Fiction, Last Angel of History, and George Clinton with Parliament Funkadelic: The Mothership Connection, Sun June 13 at 5 pm. Kickin' Chicken, Brother From Another Planet, Sun June 13 at 7 pm.
Cremaster 3
The final Matthew Barney fantasia, starring New York City and various Masonic symbols. Grand Illusion, Weekdays 4:30, 7:45 pm, Sat-Sun 1:15, 4:30, 7:45 pm.
Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworker's Struggle
Another socially conscious documentary from Wallingford Neighbors for Peace and Justice. Keystone Church, Fri June 11 at 7 pm.
Hemo the Magnificent & Other Classroom Classics
Disney-produced educational films, shown in 16 mmm. Linda's, Wed June 16 at dusk.
Living Hell
A 2000 Japanese horror film in which a wheelchair-bound boy suffers at the hands of two sadistic female relatives. Grand Illusion, Fri-Sat 11 pm.
A Mighty Wind
As with Christopher Guests' other films, Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, the results of A Mighty Wind are alternately hilarious and flat. Actor John Michael Higgins will be in attendance at both screenings. (SEAN NELSON) Big Picture, Mon June 14 at 6, 8:30 pm.
The Patchwork Girl of Oz
The 1914 adaptation of L. Frank Baum's novel, featuring a male acrobat in the role of Scraps, the eponymous patchwork girl. Rendezvous, Wed June 16 at 7:30 pm.
* Red Hollywood
For those not in the know about the House Un-American Activities Committee's witch hunt for commies. Featuring interviews with some of those accused and blacklisted, along with an occasionally innovative use of montage meshing actual footage with Hollywood re-creations, Red Hollywood is a decent, well-thought-out primer about one of our nation's most hysterical times. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Consolidated Works, Fri-Sun 8 pm.
SuperCluster III
A program of video shorts by local artists, followed by live music by Siren and Pseudo. Rendezvous, Thurs June 10 at 8 pm.
Winchester 73
Anthony Mann's 1950 film opened the floodgates to the classic era of Hollywood Westerns. Movie Legends, Sun June 13 at 1 pm.
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13 Going on 30
As you could probably gather on your own, this movie is dumb, dull, and lacking any sort of charm. And besides that, the stupid 13 Going on 30 promo package that the movie people sent got stupid "wishing dust" all over my stupid desk. Fucking glitter. (MEGAN SELING)
Around the World in 80 Days
Jackie Chan circumnavigates the globe.
* Bon Voyage
Bon Voyage has a big theme (Germany's invasion of France), big actors (in terms of reputation), and big emotions (a young man's eternal love for a famous but shallow movie actress). The speed of the film's narrative is always high, and the characters are kept in constant motion, rarely stopping to rest and look at the big world around them. If this were an American movie, it would have been described as intelligent and even profound; but as a French movie, it is big, dumb, and lots of fun. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Breakin' All the Rules
Jamie Foxx gets dumped by his girlfriend and then writes a book about it.
The Chronicles of Riddick
Vin Diesel and Judi Dench get their sci-fi on.
Coffee and Cigarettes
Meandering has always been one of the major tools in Jim Jarmusch's arsenal, but here it is taken much too far. In the past, people have been known to complain, rather wrong-headedly, that Jarmusch pictures are dull and unengaging; with this film, sadly, their complaints finally hit the mark. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
* Cold Mountain
Anthony Minghella steers the film into a few minor rough spots (including a somewhat clumsy beginning, and an occasionally annoying performance by Renée Zellweger as a lodger who helps Nicole Kidman on her farm), but the picture as a whole delivers a big, heartfelt epic. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
* The Day After Tomorrow
German director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Godzilla) has saved the disaster film. The Day After Tomorrow returns the spectacle back to we the people. For the first time since 2001, the spectacle of mass destruction is the source of pleasure rather than terror. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
* Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut
Having studied the film carefully a few times, I still can't tell if the plot's weird calculus--what actually happens, to whom, and where, and when--actually adds up to anything more than a semi-random sequence of related but unconnected events. What I can say, however, is that the film resonates with a uniquely American kind of sadness. (SEAN NELSON)
* Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Whereas the last Michel Gondry/Charlie Kaufman collaboration, Human Nature, eventually crumbled under its own quirkiness, Eternal Sunshine finds director and scribe fitting perfectly together. This is a film that travels far beyond most of our imaginations. It is also one of the most beautifully assembled romances you will ever see. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Garfield: The Movie
Bill Murray once starred in Stripes, Meatballs, Rushmore, and numerous other funny-as-shit classics. For those movies, we will always love him. But the next generation, the generation that is currently young and dumb enough to be easily entertained by a fat, computerized cat, what are they going to know Bill Murray as? The fuckin' voice of Garfield in Garfield: The Movie! I don't really understand why this movie had to be made, let alone why Billy agreed to have anything to do with it. It is 73 minutes long. Obviously nothing interesting happens. It isn't funny. At the screening I attended, a part that drew a good amount of laughs was Garfield asking "Got milk?" after drinking some milk. I mean, is that funny? What? No. Stop it. (MEGAN SELING)
* Good Bye Lenin!
Because of Christiane's exceptionally delicate condition, her son Alexander cannot inform her that East Germany is no more, that the party and the socialist ideals that consumed much of her adult life are now a thing of the past. To protect her nerves as the outside world becomes more and more like West Germany, the inside of Christiane's room is maintained in the state of East Germany. The trick, and it is a trick devised by the clever director (Wolfgang Becker), works. In other hands it would have been silly and exhausted in a matter of minutes, but Becker manages to get over an hour's worth of comedy and drama out of it. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Alfonso Cuarón, who has taken the directing reigns from Chris Columbus this time around, has not turned the Potterheads' god into bullshit. Early word on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was that it was the best of the series, and for once early word was correct; this third installment is indeed the best of the bunch, and for the first time in the franchise's existence, a film has achieved the level of art. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Hidalgo
Hidalgo screams Disney with its Wild West adventure, and especially the hammy relationship between Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) and his horse, Hidalgo. Whenever Hopkins makes a fool of himself, Hidalgo the Wise raises his eyebrows, or snorts, and even bleeds if the mood calls for it, making Hidalgo quite possibly Mortensen's most romantic film to date. (KATHLEEN WILSON)
I'm Not Scared
Soaring across plains of southern Italy, Michele is a coming-of-age hero waiting to happen, and happen he does when he comes across a hole in the ground behind an old, abandoned villa and spies a kidnapped child. Complicating matters, meanwhile, is the mounting certainty that Michele's own father is implicated in the abduction. These vectors are both the bane and the salvation of this picture, which successfully transcends genre, only to suffer under the weight of its own unlikeliness. (SEAN NELSON)
Kill Bill Vol. 2
As a whole piece (as it was originally intended), Kill Bill would've toppled over, eventually landing with a thud upon its inevitable anti-climax. There are some surprising fits to be found in Vol. 2 (including the Uma Thurman squaring off with Elle Driver, a romp that owes much to the Coen Brothers' Raising Arizona), but the final tally fails to shatter the earth--a shame, since Vol. 1 built hopes up so high. Lest we forget, Kill Bill, at its heart, is little more than a stock revenge flick--so why then does Tarantino waste so much of our time, and put forth so little apparent effort, in bringing the tale to a close in Vol. 2? I can hazard a guess: His desire to make something far more important than it should be trumped his ability to make something great. The resulting film is, when spackled together, one-half genius and one-half a failure. This half is the failure, and, in the end, it taints the genius. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
* Life of Brian
Originally released (with all the expected controversy) in 1979, The Life of Brian has been puffed and polished for its 25th anniversary. And though it's not quite as funny as The Holy Grail, the film still holds up; smart, quick, and untroubled by the possibility of offending, Python's slapping about of organized religion may be the perfect afterwash to Mel Gibson's epic. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Man on Fire
Denzel Washington stars as a bodyguard in Mexico with a passion for vengeance.
* Mean Girls
Mean Girls is no Heathers--it lacks the surreal quality of the teenage years, the quality that's found a strange but correct analogue in supernatural teen dramas like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sabrina the Teenage Witch--but it's pretty good. Really, when you think about what sort of crap is out there for teenagers, about how teenagers live and interact and what Hollywood thinks is at stake for them (Chasing Liberty, anyone?), Mean Girls starts to look great. It's funny, lively, and smart, with a couple of characters who seem realer than not, and had I seen it as a teenager it might have changed something for me. (EMILY HALL)
The Mother
A familial love triangle from the UK, featuring Anne Reid as the grandma who sleeps with her married daughter's lover, a carpenter named Darren.
Raising Helen
More than anything, actually, this movie feels like a PG-13 version of Sex and the City, where instead of the cherubic moneybags Carrie Bradshaw you have the fairly well-off and cherubic Helen Harris, both of whom everyone always adores. (JENNIFER MAERZ)
Robot Stories
Greg Pak's Robot Stories offers four tales, each of which is only marginally successful. "My Robot Baby" stars Tamlyn Tomita (of Karate Kid II fame) as a woman who adopts an egg-shaped robot baby with her husband; "The Robot Fixer" revolves around a mother who tries to connect with her ailing son by at long last finishing his toy collection; "Machine Love," starring director Pak, delves into the oft-mused-about question of whether machines can feel; and finally, "Clay" tackles the idea of immortality--specifically, conscious immortality after the body has perished. Each story is solidly made, especially given the film's budget, but none really offers anything new to ponder. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Sacred Planet
No one who has graduated from the fifth grade ever goes to see IMAX movies. So I can't imagine that it's worth my time to tell you about the latest IMAX addition, Sacred Planet, because what do you care? You don't want to go see a beautifully filmed educational movie showing some of the most breathtaking areas of the world (like Namibia, Thailand, and Borneo). Even if it is narrated by Robert Redford, you're still not gonna go! But I went. And I'm glad I did. Because besides it being all pretty and stuff, there's this really funny part when a big dumb bear is trying to catch a slippery little fish in the shallow part of an Alaskan river. And no matter how much he paws and pounces around in the water that dumb bear just can't catch that damn fish. Hahahaha. Stupid bear. (MEGAN SELING)
Saved!
See review this issue.
Shrek 2
Shrek 2 can best be described with a shrug. As in: It's fine, no big deal, just what you would expect. It is a harmless home run--uninspired, for the most part (especially when compared to the original), but certainly watchable. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Soul Plane
An award from a discrimination lawsuit gives a lowly passenger the chance to create a new airline in his own funky image.
* Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
The five seasons are governed by very different generic conventions--meaning it's entirely possible to enjoy one and abhor the next. The opening parable "Summer" is successful, but the next two episodes (a coming-of-age vignette and a cop drama) come up short by comparison. Then "Winter"--by far the most successful segment, and the only full episode to feature director Kim Ki-duk as the main character--explodes into an astounding ode to labor and atonement. (ANNIE WAGNER)
The Stepford Wives
A breezier, techier version of the 1975 original, with Nicole Kidman and Bette Midler as the rookie wives destined for robotdom.
* Super Size Me
It is uncannily hard to watch the preparatory stages of Morgan Spurlock's diet experiment in Super Size Me, the stage during which he visits doctors and nutritionists who calibrate, in every thinkable way, the ways in which he is perfectly healthy. Watching this man--all happy, puppyish energy and handlebar mustache--prepare to throw himself under the wheels of the fast-food juggernaut has the eerie air of readying for sacrifice. Why would a person do such a thing? Don't we all know that fast food is bad for us? Well, apparently we don't know, or didn't know, precisely the horrifying extent. And lest you think that this film is only for Fast Food Nation types, that it's aimed only at those who already have the information, remember that Spurlock put his own body on the line to get your attention. That's why he did it. He did it for you. (EMILY HALL)
Troy
Bland, but pretty--a fairly solid description of Troy on the whole. Wherever Wolfgang Peterson's talent ran off to, I'm sure he'll pay a handsome reward for its return, for Troy is far too stock and far too obvious to be a success. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Van Helsing
Monster huntin' was better back in the 19th century.
What the #$*! Do We Know?!
I never got around to figuring out what a quantum leap is, but now I think I know: It's when you make a short jump from quantum mechanics to New Age self-help kookiness. That's what happens in this ungainly, inane film, which purports to be about quantum physics but is really about the power of positive thinking, with a midlife-crisis plot (starring Marlee Matlin) and some childish cartoon figures and a series of talking heads who can't stop using the word "paradigm." (EMILY HALL)
