Airplane!
A zany, 1980 send-up of all manner of travel disaster flicks. Egyptian, Fri-Sat midnight.
* La Dolce Vita
See Stranger Suggests. Beautiful living and dissipation in Rome, circa 1959. Varsity, Fri-Mon 12:40, 4:15, 8 pm, Tues-Thurs 4:15, 8 pm.
* Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains
See Stranger Suggests. Everyone who's seen it calls this 1981 film about a punk girl band one of the best rock 'n' roll movies ever made. If you couldn't care less about that, it also stars the always wonderful Diane Lane. Grand Illusion, Fri-Sat 11 pm.
Man With a Movie Camera
One day in the life of Moscow (circa 1929), as filmed by Dziga Vertov's "kino-eye." Movie Legends, Sun Sept 5 at 1 pm.
Mutiny on the Bounty
A famous miniature revolution in a very confined space spawned this Oscar-winning film by Frank Lloyd. Wawona, Sat Sept 4 at 7:45 pm.
One-Eyed Jacks
A stylish revenge Western directed by and starring the late Marlon Brando. Rendezvous, Wed Sept 8 at 7:30 pm.
* Time of the Wolf
In the tradition of Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice, German-born director Michael Haneke's Time of the Wolf is a film about the end of the world. In The Sacrifice, the end is brought about by a nuclear exchange between the superpowers; in Time of the Wolf, there is no explanation as to why Europe has returned to the dark ages. The film begins with a bourgeois family arriving in a Euro minivan at their country cottage--but then, all at once, things go terribly wrong, and the truth is revealed: This is not a vacation; this is an evacuation from a city. In Haneke's afterworld there is no money, nor are there stores or acts of kindness. Law and order is maintained by the strong (those with guns and big muscles), and water is the most important commodity. Like wild animals, people move in packs; like bush men, they gather firewood and hunt for food; and like the damned, they wait for a train that will take them somewhere else that might be better than the bleak countryside that is menaced by wolves. The movie is impressive, especially its first half, which throws us into the middle of the end--the blackest night in the history of Europe. The end of the film, however, offers something that looks like hope. It comes in the form of a boy who decides to sacrifice himself for the world. This ending brings the film very close to The Sacrifice, which had a philosopher who decides to sleep with a witch in order to save the world. It is curious that Europe would find its salvation in a boy, whereas Russia imagined it as a woman--that is something to think about. (CHARLES MUDEDE) Grand Illusion, Weekdays 6:30, 8:45 pm, Sat-Sun 2, 4:15, 6:30, 8:45 pm.
Twist
The tediously overworked quasi-gay subgenre of hustler movies gets the literature overlay of Dickens' Oliver Twist in this budget-conscious Canadian gloom fest. It is the kind of cocktease that is peddled to gay film festivals every year: Youngish actors play gritty rough trade but are just doing it for the money, man. They end up profiled in Out and The Advocate, being questioned about a same-sex kiss of which they say some open-minded blather, and a fan base is created that they pray to outrun with a future commercial success and better scripts. Think My Own Private Idaho minus innovation and involving characters. But if Gus Van Sant's rent-boy flick is the benchmark of the genre, then Twist is the watermark: disturbing, a little worrisome, ugly but ultimately harmless. The movie pulls out every talk show dysfunction contrivance it can: There is drug use, common law wife abuse, runaway teen prostitution, incest, near-incest, beatings, a mugging, murder, and suicide. It doesn't take long to collapse under the weight of so much angst and melodrama. The story of Oliver Twist, stripped of its later odious musical incarnation, was a tragedy about families--biological and self-created. This movie takes the tragedy and hammers it home so relentlessly and earnestly that it benumbs the viewer. The boys are blank and their fates are foredoomed, so that all you can do is watch their downward spirals. (NATE LIPPENS) Varsity, Fri-Mon 2:10, 4:30, 7, 9:20 pm, Tues-Thurs 4:20, 7, 9:20 pm.
Unsung
A dark comedy about a karaoke video producer named Bruce, featuring lots of local music. Twilight Exit, Sun Sept 5 at 7 pm.
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Alien vs. Predator
The title says it all. Except that said personages are in Antartica. Maybe they should have called it Alien vs. Predator in Antartica. Then they could have made Alien vs. Predator in Borneo and Alien vs. Predator in Kazakhstan as sequels.
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid
The fountain of youth is actually a flower! But big, bad snakes have gotten to the elixir first.
Anchorman (Con)
Why does it always have to end this way? The idea sounds so amusing at first--making fun of a '70s news anchorman (Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy) who takes advice from his dog and drinks and smokes on the set. Add in funny guy cameos from Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson, and Ben Stiller as rival television personalities, and you already have the pretense for a blockbuster comedy. But whenever there's a Saturday Night Live staffer (or ex-staffer) involved, there's always the chance for the jokes to be extra sluggish, sappy, or flat out stupid, and Anchorman unfortunately chokes on all three. (JENNIFER MAERZ)
* Anchorman (Pro)
I beg to differ. Anchorman is one of the most inspired pieces of comedic surrealism ever to be released in the guise of a mainstream summer movie. Will Ferrell, unmoored from the mediocrity of SNL, has been let loose to create a film whose absurdity extends far beyond the zany '70s fashions you see on the posters. Talking dogs? Extended four-part harmony? Jazz flute? Gang warfare among rival TV journalists? Yes on all counts. And though Ferrell is characteristically hilarious, it's Daily Show regular Steve Coryell who steals the show as the retarded weatherman. (SEAN NELSON)
* Before Sunset
The best romances force you to care unreasonably about their characters, and watching Jesse and Celine reunited, I couldn't help but feel a bittersweet twinge; I was 21 when Before Sunrise was released--just as dreamy and dewy as I could be--and now, nearly a decade later, their return feels like the arrival of beloved, yet somehow forgotten, friends. I fell in love with them then and, as I found out, I'm still in love with them. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Benji: Off the Leash!
The return of the lovable pooch Benji.
* The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
Although "Beat" Takeshi Kitano's attempts at inserting choreography are probably better as an idea than they are in execution, the movie is still funny and light, and deliciously gory to boot. It is also deceptive. For one thing, it's a kind of quasi-musical. There isn't much singing, and the big dance number doesn't come until the very end, but Kitano most definitely had something musical in mind. (ADAM HART)
* The Bourne Supremacy
The clock is ticking from the very first moment of this outstanding sequel, which meets the unenviable challenge of besting its predecessor, the fantastic Bourne Identity. Amnesiac super spy/assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon, who is now as hard as a diamond) comes out of hiding to confront his masters, who, as fate would have it, are already scouring the earth looking for him because they think he murdered some Russians and stole some secrets. And guess what: He did! Just not the Russians they think he killed. Sorry, forget the plot. Remember the dizzying fight scenes, the indefatigable cloak and dagger in which everyone is the smartest person in the room (and Bourne is the smartest of them all), the best car chase ever filmed (fact!). Remember director Paul Greengrass's masterful handheld choreography. Best of all, remember the supporting cast: Brian Cox, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, Franka Potente, all of whom, along with Damon--whose robotic beauty has never better served a character than this one--help to elevate the Robert Ludlum pulp into a high lowbrow masterpiece. (SEAN NELSON)
Collateral
As polished and pleasant as all this scenery is (and as good as both Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx are), Collateral nonetheless fails, both as a thriller and as yet another entry into Michael Mann's brooding-men oeuvre. What may have been intended as a thinking man's thriller--patient, observant, character-driven--is thoroughly derailed by a surprising source: Mann's inability to shoot action. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
The Cookout
An NBA star signs a massive deal with his hometown team, but he wants to show he's still a neighborly guy, so he decides to throw a barbecue. Boy, that's gotta be one exciting barbecue.
The Corporation
Basically, the movie looks down upon the masses of people who thoughtlessly consume products made by corrupt corporations. But you know what? I identify more with the masses than I do with the filmmakers; if I want to spend 145 minutes being told I'm an idiot, I'd rather spend that time in the singles bars. (ANDY SPLETZER)
Danny Deckchair
See review this issue.
De-Lovely
De-Lovely is perfumed with preciousness, and ultimately suffers from the self-consciousness of its Hollywood gloss, as well as the difficult-to-swallow progressiveness of its characters. (Oddly enough, the sub rosa insinuation of Cole Porter's homosexuality in the 1946 biopic Night and Day rings much truer to the life one imagines a gay man leading in the '20s and '30s.) Still, the fine performances of Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd diminish the film's more troublesome liberties. (SEAN NELSON)
* 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)
Exorcist: The Beginning
The soundtrack may be big and booming, and there may be plenty of super-gory violence, but Exorcist: The Beginning just fails to be scary. Nothing about it has an ounce of authenticity, and since nothing is believable, nothing is frightening. The only thing worth anything in the entire film is the bang-up makeup jobs done on the demon-possessed--an old-school tribute to 1970's latex. But even that's not worth nine bucks. (KELLY O)
* Facing Windows
Throughout the film, Ferzan Ozpetek's golden light conveys romance and elegy at once, and several times he brings striking images of great beauty and depth to the screen. The film's opening sequence depicts a bloody handprint fading over time as dawn light illuminates the wall that carries it, moving the narrative forward by 50 years. The handprint faded from the wall but replayed in my mind long after the film's screening. (MIKE WHYBARK)
Fahrenheit 9/11
Michael Moore is a propagandist, taking the fight to the opposition on their terms, and winning. Because of his motives and his audience, this propagandist is the most important filmmaker we have, and Fahrenheit 9/11 is the best film he's ever made. (SEAN NELSON)
* Festival Express
There's not much movie to Festival Express. It's just (beautiful) performance footage, behind the scenes b-roll, and some modern day reminiscences from key talking heads. The concert scenes are as good as the bands themselves. The Grateful Dead are way better than you'd think, especially since they hadn't devolved into the year-round wankathon they're now remembered as. And I'm not much of a Janis Joplin fan, but the film shows her at her peak. Buddy Guy's rendition of "Money" is astonishing, though, if only for his guitar tone, and The Band's raw, funky genius is rescued from the polish and choreography of The Last Waltz. What makes the film indelible are the train scenes, where all these amazing musicians hang out, jam, drink, and get high for a solid week, stopping only to play amazing shows and restock the liquor cabinets. The Utopian vibe casts the beginning of the end of the rock era in a light that's too sweet to be bittersweet. Best of all is an impromptu singalong of "Ain't No More Cane," featuring a very wasted Rick Danko, Janis Joplin, and Jerry Garcia, whose casual camaraderie and romantic triangulation glows with warmth. Then you realize that everyone in the frame is dead and it hits you like a freight train. (SEAN NELSON)
* Garden State
Zack Braff's debut film, Garden State, which he wrote, directed, and stars in, may very well be a similar act of egogasm (when you put Simon and Garfunkel on the soundtrack of your examination of disaffected twentysomethings, you're just asking for it), but it features enough odd grace notes among the rampant navel-gazing to warrant a watch. (ANDREW WRIGHT)
* 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; for the first time in the franchise's existence, a film has achieved the level of art. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
* Hero
Initially, Yimou Zhang, the director of such intimate character pieces as Raise the Red Lantern and To Live, may seem an odd choice to successfully rekindle the flaming swords and arrows of the martial arts genre, but from the opening frames he sells you. Hero melds modern wirework effects with the director's own mastery of character to create an awesome chop-socky epic with an honestly moving emotional backbeat. This time, at least, the hype can be believed. I could watch it every night. (ANDREW WRIGHT)
I, Robot
Will Smith's seventh summer blockbuster is set in Chicago, which in the year 2035 has quadrupled its number of skyscrapers to become that same gigantic city that has been around since Fritz Lang's Metropolis. In this future world, robots have replaced software and the Internet as the commodity that produces the earth's richest man. In the first part of the movie, Will Smith is basically a blade runner in a society that doesn't want blade runners; in the next half of the film, he is blade runner in a society that desperately needs a blade runner--a talented robot killer. The movie is not bad or good; it is what it is--a big summer movie with lots of special effects. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Intimate Strangers
Directed by Patrice Leconte, Intimate Strangers has a strong start and a weak finish. The opening is strong because the premise actually works. But once the accountant is exposed, the comedy dies and a drama is born. With the comedy gone for good, all that's left to enjoy are the film's set designs and the cinematography, which works hard to capture the bourgeois elegance of Sandrine Bonnaire's face. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Little Black Book
Brittany Murphy hasn't exactly earned a reputation for starring in good movies (Uptown Girls, anyone?), and Little Black Book is no exception. The premise, of a girl who snoops in her boyfriend's Palm Pilot to look up his old girlfriends, is lame enough. And the plot doesn't make it any better. (AMY JENNIGES)
* The Manchurian Candidate
The film is far from flawless--silly flourishes include the painful cliché of the retired professor the hero turns to for advice, and a gross pantomime of mental illness that's lifted straight out of A Beautiful Mind--but it's just as mesmerizing and suspenseful as the original. (ANNIE WAGNER)
* Maria Full of Grace
Following an angelic (i.e., stunningly gorgeous) young woman--pregnant and sick of life in her one-factory town--who joins up with the local drug lord for a single trip across the Colombian border, this first film from writer-director Joshua Marston is an admirably restrained, even-handed debut that wisely avoids making sweeping societal pronouncements, shrinking Maria's world--whether she's in rural Colombia or big-city New Jersey--to the small circle of people who directly impact her life. (ADAM HART)
Mean Creek
Don't be fooled by the intriguing trailer. Like Open Water, Mean Creek is a strong premise gone horribly awry. Five small-town Oregon teenagers banding together to punish a school bully sounds like a great launch pad for a contemporary update of River's Edge, the ultimate treatment of teen amorality. Unfortunately, in the hands of young director Jacob Aaron Estes (of course he would have three names), it's a moralistic drag whose 87 minutes feel like a long, miserable weekend. (SEAN NELSON)
* Napoleon Dynamite
In this charming new film, 24-year-old writer/ director Jared Hess mines the nebulous area between popular chic and weirdo freak, where outcast attributes are both quality, subtle comedy, and a charmingly dark part of our collective high-school unconscious. (JENNIFER MAERZ)
* Open Water
This year's Sundance bidding champ, Open Water, made with a skeleton crew and produced on a budget unfair to most shoestrings, has a central gimmick that's hard to trump: actors in the water messing around with real live sharks. Where husband-and-wife team Chris Kentis and Laura Lau excel is in creating the steadily mounting feeling that something could go terribly wrong at any moment, both in front of and behind the camera. (ANDREW WRIGHT)
* Outfoxed
In terms of display, Fox News has all of the codes of a neutral network--serious-looking anchorpersons at prime time, political analysts in power suits, casual morning shows--and this is why people believe it is legitimate: It looks like the real thing. But this is old news; anyone who lives in this city knows very well what Fox News is all about--that it's staffed by absolute nutters who yell at their guests and tell them to shut up. So why is this documentary of any value to us? Because the Fox News it describes is even creepier than you imagined. The little internal memos from the top that strictly dictate policy, the micro-management of employees and information, the encouraged "us against the rest" mentality--this has added up to an institution that has completely lost contact with reality. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Paparazzi
A celebrity gets even with a pushy paparazzi.
Princess Diaries II: Royal Engagement
The once very awkward and geeky Princess Mia is all growed up and graduated from college, and she's finally old enough to be crowned queen. Just so happens, the pretty princess' grandmother (the lady from The Sound of Music), who is currently queen, decides to "step down" (it's a Disney movie, brah, of course they're not going to kill anyone off), which would allow Princess Mia to be Queen Mia. Yippee! But there's a catch! Oh no! Mia can only be crowned queen, according to the rulebook, if she's married. And so if the very single Princess Mia can't bag a man in 30 days or less, a handsome and naíve jerk-off is gonna be crowned king! (MEGAN SELING)
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). (MEGAN SELING)
Seducing Dr. Lewis
To live in St. Marie-La-Mauderne is to live in hell. But this is precisely what the director, Jean-Franÿois Pouliot, wanted to show: A town whose condition is so dreadful that its attempts to trick a hip young doctor, David Boutin, into staying seems totally absurd. And it is here, at this very point, that one is supposed to find and enjoy the comedy--in the absurdity of it all. But the comedy is not there. You look hard but can only see shabby fish-folk who probably smell and snore as they sleep in this horribly hopeless town. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Shrek 2
Shrek 2 can best be described with a shrug. As in: It's fine, no big deal, just what you would expect. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Spider-man 2
Going into a Spider-man film we surely expect the spectacular, but even the spectacular has limits. All films, even fantasy ones, need to at least touch upon reality. It can be the lightest of touches, but there must be substance there for us to grab onto--otherwise, why should we bother watching? In Sam Raimi's vision of Spider-man, however, his normally manic camera joins with CGI to create a work that is often completely fraudulent. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
They're smart, they've got big heads (proportionally speaking). What more do you need to know?
Suspect Zero
Ben Kingsley is a serial killer who prefers other serial killers as his victims.
* Tae Guk Gi
See Stranger Suggests. Here is a truism: When the battle scenes in a war movie become too graphic, the movie essentially becomes an antiwar movie. This is the case of Tae Guk Gi, an epic about two brothers who are swept into the middle of the civil war between North and South Korea. The movie, which is directed by Je-Kyu Kang, makes obvious statements about how the war was meaningless--there were no real differences between the enemies, and ultimately what took place was brother killing brother, father killing son, son killing sister. However, these apparent criticisms of the civil war (which has yet to be resolved), and war in general, are not as powerful as the images of combat--exploding bodies, bullets striking heads and guts, grenades blowing off limbs. To show this is in great detail, which Tae Guk Gi does, is to make a final case against the state of war. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Vanity Fair
See review this issue.
The Village
Here's a twist: M. Night Shyamalan's The Village is thick-headed, obvious, and dull. Actually, thinking back on the abominations Unbreakable and Signs, that's not really a twist at all. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
We Don't Live Here Anymore
If I were in charge of Hollywood, this movie would be called Still Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and not just because this dirge about the shallow moral lives of two partner-swapping New England academic couples feels like an update of Edward Albee's masterpiece. It's that the film has almost no sense of humor, and could really use one. (SEAN NELSON)
What the #$*! Do We Know?!
This ungainly, inane film 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)
Wicker Park
An adaptation of a French thriller about a guy who becomes obsessed with a girl he sees in a cafe.
Without a Paddle
Without a Paddle is bad. Really bad. Terrible. Thoroughly derivative and unfunny, and obviously conceived at every step of production as nothing more than a cynical stab at key demographics. (ADAM HART)
Yu-Gi-Oh!
A dubbed version of an anime adventure tale. The imdb.com message boards are all abuzz with discussion of the scintillating topic "Which is better? Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokemon," if that tells you anything.
