Film

Film Shorts

Antique Smut, Down to Earth, George Washington, In the Mood for Love, Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Recess: School's Out, Sergio Leone Shootouts, Sweet November

*Almost Elvis + El Rey De Rock 'N' Roll
See Stranger Suggests. Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has in fact now officially re-entered the building via two fine documentaries on the art of impersonation. Wed only. JBL Theater at EMP

Around the Fire
Fumblingly earnest, John Jacobsen's Around the Fire is far from the worst movie ever made about drug addiction--the setting is novel and there's a nice absence of preachiness--but telegraphs all its punches so thoroughly you'd know they were coming; then again you already do, since you've seen them all before. Presented as part of the Warren Report's Distinguishing Features series, and followed by a moderated discussion with the filmmakers. (Bruce Reid) Tues only. Seattle Art Musuem

Burlesk King
See review this issue. From the fleshpots of Manila comes this tale of a dancing fool in search of his mother. For mature audiences! Opens Fri. Egyptian

*Father Brown
An eccentric and lovable priest whose hobby is detection attempts to foil and unmask a criminal mastermind. Alec Guinness keeps this bit of thistledown in the air. Watch him when he removes his glasses, the way the squint rolls across his face, the way he teeters. Or watch him resist seasickness, question his resolve, and then, abruptly, give in. This is comedy fueled by prodigious observation; it wouldn't be funny if it weren't so true. With the spookily elegant Joan Greenwood, Peter Finch younger than you would believe Peter Finch could ever have been, and a rich supporting cast. Based on the stories of G. K. Chesterton, one of my favorite antiquated authors; the success of Kevin Smith's Dogma suggests Chesterton is due for a revival. (Barley Blair) Thurs Feb 8 only. Seattle Art Museum

*The First Teacher
A classic Soviet "Eastern," telling the tall tale of a comrade trying to set up a school in the wastelands of Siberia. Sat-Sun only. Grand Illusion

Hannibal
The joys of eating human flesh are again on parade in this sequel to The Silence of the Lambs. With Julianne Moore as a pot roast! Opens Fri. Metro

Madcat Film Festival
See review this issue. Contrary to expectation, this is not a festival of documentaries about angry cats, but rather a smorgasbord of experimental works by women. Fffft! Hiss! Thurs-Sat only. Little Theatre

*Open Screening
Northwest Film Forum helps keep Super-8 alive with a lovely evening of lovingly made films. This time up it's "Objects of Desire." Films must be submitted by 5 pm Monday at the latest; call 329-2629 for more info. Wed Feb 14. Little Theatre

*Pretty in Pink
Molly Ringwald, as an inventive and resolute high-schooler, undergoes the pains of being a poor girl in love with a rich guy. Current teenagers may not enjoy this archetypal teenage film because the protagonists are not current, but anyone with a past as an outcast teen--i.e., any adult--will feel a kinship. She ends up with the wrong guy but hey, that happens. Molly Ringwald is fresh and comely, Jon Cryer and Annie Potts offer zesty support, and Andrew Dice Clay has a knockout cameo as a bouncer. Harry Dean Stanton and Andrew McCarthy struggle in underwritten roles. The real star is Marilyn Vance, who did Ringwald's funky, adorable clothes. Designing costumes in 1986 that still read superduper in 2001 (most of them) is high skill. (Barley Blair) Fri-Sat only. Egyptian

Ratcatcher
See review this issue. A fetid river plays Romeo to the slums of Glasgow's Juliet in this morbid new drama. Opens Fri. Varsity Calendar

Rough Dancer
A staged reading of Margaret Friedman's screenplay. For reservations, contact warren@thewarrenreport.com. Mon only. On the Boards

Saving Silverman
Jason Biggs is about to marry "the wrong girl," and his two rowdy buddies (Jack Black and Steve Zahn) will stop at nothzzzzzzzzzzzz. Trapped in this shamelessly derivative mess, they struggle to answer the question, "Women: manipulative and emasculating, or vapid and pliable?" Judging by Silverman's sizable kitsch insurance policy, the accountant who approved this one knew it would take an omnipresent Neil Diamond to ensure the assload of money this film will undoubtedly make. You've seen this one before, sadly. (Jason Pagano) Opens Fri. Metro

The Zero Collective
Formed a little over a year ago by a ragtag group of ambitious local filmmakers, the Zero Collective screens three short films: Drawing From Colors, Tired, and Clever Elsa. Fri only. 911 Media Arts

Before Night Falls
In Julian Schnabel's new film, Before Night Falls, the life story of Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas manages to be utterly straightforward despite the hallucinatory, incantatory style of his writing. Arenas was a proud and, by his own account, promiscuous homosexual, and his works were deemed dangerous by Cuba's repressive regime. But Before Night Falls is, for the most part, boring. Furthermore, it makes Arenas sound like a hack poet. And that, my friends should be a punishable crime. (Emily Hall) Broadway Market

Cast Away
Cast Away takes lurid delight in cataloging the various losses that accrue upon once-wealthy FedEx international systems supervisor Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) after a freak Christmas Eve plane crash strands him somewhere in the South Pacific. The stupid simplicity with which Hanks is shown crafting his world so utterly subverts any but the most priapic observations that one comes away from the film feeling a trifle molested, or just bored. (Jamie Hook) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Northgate

Chocolat
The film critic in me has control over my emotions; it can and will repress my wolflike desire to fill this page with hungry words that praise the celestial beauty of Juliette Binoche. My straightforward review will open with a detailed plot summary ("The movie is about a French village whose serenity is shattered by a mysterious woman who moves into town with her illegitimate daughter and opens a sexy chocolate store."), and then state the truth ("The movie is unremarkable!"). Because that, ladies and gentlemen, is the job of a film critic. (Charles Mudede) Aurora Cinema Grill, Guild 45th, Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center

*Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Legendary warrior Chow Yun Fat can never declare his love for fellow martial-arts expert Michelle Yeoh. Instead, he entrusts her with Green Destiny, his nearly magical sword. It's an attempt to wed emotionally reticent drama with the exhilarating freedom of Hong Kong-genre filmmaking, but director Ang Lee can't quite pull off the combination; for too long a time, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's shifting gears only jam. The film finds its rhythm and earns the accolades it has received once it leaves the stars behind and gives its heart over to the young and engaging Zhang Ziyi. (Bruce Reid) Grand Alderwood, Neptune, Uptown

Double Take
This road and buddy movie was based on a story by Graham Greene called "Across the Bridge." But this small piece of information is entirely irrelevant. Indeed, the fact that Greene's literary estate is receiving royalties from this film must strike one as nothing more or less than a bizarre oddity. What is relevant to this film is Orlando Jones, who is supposed to be Hollywood's next big comic. Is he hot or not? The answer is no. Why? Because he is not intrinsically funny. As for the film, it's not too bad. (Charles Mudede) Pacific Place 11

Finding Forrester
A kid from the Bronx excels at both basketball and composition, befriends a hermit writer, undergoes a crisis from which the writer must extract him, thereby helping the writer overcome his own reclusive blah blah blah. (Barley Blair) Factoria, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Redmond Town Center

The Gift
Set passively in a Georgia swamp--the very landscape of horror--The Gift is about a woman, Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett), who has a special and unusual gift: She's psychic. She uses this gift to help the community. Then! She starts seeing bad stuff. A murder occurs. She uses her gift to solve the murder. Nothing remains here of horror director Sam Raimi's insane ambition to make films of terror and slapstick so exciting they would significantly alter the entire genre each time he passed through. His candle has gone out in the Hollywood wind. (Paula Gilovich) Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

Head Over Heels
This movie should only be seen under the following circumstances: None. Okay, maybe one: as a revenge prank. Even then, there are only a few wretched people in America on whom I would wish it. Watching this movie is like sitting through a 90-minute monologue by a kid whose dream is to make manager at Taco Bell. (Evan Sult) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11

House of Mirth
British director Terence Davies' The House of Mirth, starring Gillian Anderson and Dan Aykroyd, adapts Edith Wharton's 1905 novel about New York high society--the tragic story of a beautiful young woman looking to marry a rich husband and finding herself torn between her need for financial security and her desire for personal integrity. Davies' film brings his trademark style to Wharton's novel, and the result is on the one hand singular and moving, and on the other stiff and narratively confusing. If one is able to get over the initial discomfort due to the overly mannered acting style, one may, by the end, find oneself authentically moved by the film's tragic denouement. (Caveh Zahedi) Seven Gables

Invisible Circus
Fired up by the political radicalism of '60s San Francisco, Cameron Diaz flies off to Europe with boyfriend Christopher Eccleston and starts hanging out with the wrong crowd before killing herself in Portugal. This story is told in flashback from the six-years-later perspective of younger sibling Jordana Brewster, in Europe herself to sort out the enigma of her idolized and idealized late sister. One underrated element of complete incompetence is that it makes merely dull what by all rights should be outrageously offensive; just so here, where Eccleston's bedding of both sisters is kept from stomach-churning repulsiveness only because the inept camerawork, silly dialogue, and atrocious acting have long since removed any sense of reality by then. (Bruce Reid) Meridian 16

Left Behind
Despite a plot that kicks off with hundreds of millions of people being bodily snatched to heaven in the Rapture, Left Behind proceeds as any number of dull, uninspired Hollywood thrillers or horror films have done. And that's the creepy part--not once does the movie cross over into some out-of-left-field rant. Instead, the values affirmed, and the narrative methods used to convey them, are wholly in keeping with mainstream movies. Okay, it's hard to imagine another movie getting so fired up over the world converting to a standard monetary unit, but replace the numerous shots of lost ones' glittering cross necklaces with cop badges, or the grieving father finding comfort in the Bible with him reaching for a gun, and you've got the same old story. Rather than stand in hilarious contrast to Hollywood's supposedly secular offerings, Left Behind only shows how totemic and mythologized they really are. (Bruce Reid) Opens Fri. Galleria

Miss Congeniality
Sandra Bullock plays Gracie, a tomboyish FBI agent who goes undercover--beauty pageant-style--in order to capture a terrorist preying on contestants. Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

*Moonlight Whispers
Takuya Hidaka (Kenji Mizuhashi) and Satsuki Kitahara (Tsugumi) start dating. It's innocent and absolutely charming until they decide to have sex. Hidaka's disappointed by the experience; he would rather tape-record her going to the bathroom and masturbate to that later. Even though Kitahara is unable to deal with his perversions she can't get Hidaka out of her head. To remedy the situation, she eventually has to get in touch with her inner dominatrix. The hardest thing to understand about this film is why it's called Moonlight Whispers. A better title would be something like I Was a Teenage Pervert--something less arty and more honest. Just like the movie itself. (Andy Spletzer) Grand Illusion

*O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Set in Depression-era Mississippi, George Clooney stars as Everett Ulysses McGill, a suave and well-groomed petty criminal doing hard time on a chain gang. Shackled to Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson), he convinces them to join him in escaping by promising to split a fortune in buried treasure with them. The inspiration for the movie is the music: T-Bone Burnett has collected all sorts of music from the era and from the region, and it's a joy to hear so much bluegrass in a major motion picture. (Andy Spletzer) Factoria, Harvard Exit, Redmond Town Center

The Pledge
An aging, chain-smoking, and lonesome Jack Nicholson plays a retired Reno police detective who, during his last investigation, promises the parents of a brutally raped and murdered 8-year-old girl that he will, upon his eternal salvation, apprehend the culprit. Almost immediately, they find a mentally deficient Benicio Del Toro instead. Through an odd interrogation, Del Toro confesses the crime to Aaron Eckhart (the best part of the flick, incidentally), but Jack doesn't buy it. Of course Jack is decent (although reserved), and Robin Wright Penn is bearable. But Sean Penn's direction here is kind of smug, kind of condescending--not bad, just really not that good. Neither is the movie. (Chris Dougherty) Aurora Cinema Grill, Grand Alderwood, Metro, Pacific Place 11, Southcenter

Quills
Quills seeks to rehabilitate the Marquis de Sade's image into that of Brave Soldier in the Noble Battle against Hypocrisy. Which not only flattens and dulls the film's subject, it also makes for one hell of a hypocritical movie in its own right. (Bruce Reid)

Save the Last Dance
Save the Last Dance is a hip-hoppin' drama about a rhythmically challenged white girl from the Midwest who sets out to endear herself to the spatially gifted, yet morally shaky, young brothers and sisters of a black, inner city Chicago high school. And how responsibly does this movie handle the potential conflagration of bad racial stereotypes it presents? I ask you all to picture matches, dynamite, and a very drunk monkey. (Kudzai Mudede) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Oak Tree

*Shadow of the Vampire
E. Elias Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire revisits the set of film director F. W. Murnau's 1922 horror classic Nosferatu to tell an imagined story of Murnau (John Malkovich) and his obscure star Max Schreck (played brilliantly by Willem Dafoe). Murnau casts an actual vampire, offering--in exchange for Schreck's willingness to "play himself"--to sacrifice his unsuspecting leading lady in the final scene of the film. The unavoidable need to please the producers has created a work that must, out of necessity, clothe its more radical ideas in the less threatening guise of allegory. Even so, it is a wholly entertaining and engaging film, full of charm and whimsy; one that walks a subtle tightrope between creepiness and hilarity. (Caveh Zahedi) Guild 45th, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16

Snatch
I remember reading that after he saw a screening of Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels in London, Tom Cruise leapt to his feet and screamed, "This movie rocks!" I'm sure he'll probably scream the same thing about Snatch. I thought it was funny and well made, if kind of rambling and pointless and smart ass, and the people at the screening seemed to like it. So, there you go. If you liked Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, you're gonna like Snatch. If you didn't, well, Brad Pitt is pretty funny (and let's not forget hunky!), so maybe it's worth a matinee or something. I dunno. (Bradley Steinbacher) Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree

*Spaceman
Kidnapped by aliens at the tender age of four and reprogrammed as a killing machine, Spaceman becomes marooned on his home planet Earth after an unseen but presumably cataclysmic crash. What's a trained killer with a work ethic to do? Take a job at a grocery store, of course. After years of helming The Onion, director Scott Dikkers understands that absurd material is best approached with utmost seriousness. It looks and sounds like Saturday-afternoon Japanese schlock, but turns its laserbeam wit on modern villains like security guards and assistant managers instead of the slightly more benign rubber monsters. And somehow, spotting the exposed wires that make its fantastic flight possible only adds to the fun. (Tamara Paris) Grand Illusion

*State and Main
A Hollywood film crew descends on a small Vermont town to make a movie, bringing their sophisticated mores with them. David Mamet has said that he was thinking of Preston Sturges when he put this film together, and it's a worthy successor to the Master. (Barley Blair) Metro, Pacific Place 11

Sugar & Spice
I guess I went into the situation a bit too naïve. I didn't expect Golden Globes, but I certainly didn't expect... this! Lincoln High's cheer squad captain meets the love of her life and, like any statistical high school love affair, gets knocked up. She and her dopey all-American fiancé get ditched by their parents and are left to fend for their stupid selves. Slowly growing broke, she and her menstrually synched cheer squad sisters know the only way to quick cash is turning tricks or robbing banks. Of course this pretty gang of giggles has enough self-respect to ditch the tricks and attempt the latter to save their captain from becoming "just another fat ass in Chic jeans." About an hour and 20 minutes later, and after a disgustingly happy ending, Sugar & Spice just left me bitter, a reminder that the pretty girl always wins and I'll always be stuck on the "B squad." (Megan Seling) Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16

Thirteen Days
Taking its title from Robert Kennedy's book but its worldview from hagiography, Thirteen Days portrays the Cuban missile crisis as an episode in the life of St. Jack Kennedy. You may enjoy this movie, and that's okay, but I want you to hate it too. While Bruce Greenwood as Bobby Kennedy shows some extraordinary examples of body acting and Kevin Costner gives a performance of madcap ripeness as the Kennedy henchman Kenny O'Donnell, that's pretty much it for the enjoyment. And why should you hate such an innocuous piece of fluff? You should hate anything--any work of art, any literature, any fiction, any history--that pretends there is an obvious answer to any serious question. (Barley Blair) Aurora Cinema Grill, Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Redmond Town Center

Traffic
The big message in Traffic is perfectly laid-out by its tagline: "Nobody gets away clean." Read the poster and you've saved $8.50. Drugs lead to bad things, that is the moral, and I believe I learned it in ninth-grade health class. All the flashy directorial touches and sterling performances in the world can't cover the fact that Traffic is just another example of Hollywood tackling a complex problem with the simplest and most conservative of solutions. (Bradley Steinbacher) Grand Alderwood, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Varsity

Valentine
You'd think that Hollywood's incessant need to kill off all the co-eds would've died with the Scream trilogy, or at least Scary Movie. Does no one know when to quit? But Valentine isn't the usual pointless, plotless, kill-'em-all-in-cold-blood flick we've grown accustomed to--this one is about life lessons. In our younger years, some people seemed to think their Debbie Gibson tour jacket made them hot shit. And as they grew up into the snotty, spoiled little hoochies they were, their lesson still hadn't been learned. And now, well, the only plausible solution Hollywood can seem to conjure up is that they must die. By iron, by electrocution, by their heads being slammed into jagged glass... it's good for laughs, if nothing more. (Megan Seling) Factoria, Meridian 16, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center

The Wedding Planner
The Wedding Planner is a harmless, sweethearted example of what I call the "Sandra Bullockization" of the romantic comedy. This means if you're a Bullock fan, you're in for a good year. And this is your kind of movie. Lopez, playing Maria, the titular Planner, manages to be successful, self-deprecating, beautiful, and devoid of love. She is rescued from death by dumpster by Matthew McConaughey, hunky blond pediatrician and Perfect Catch, but discovers that he is engaged to one of her customers. Predictable hilarity ensues. (Traci Vogel) Factoria, Majestic Bay, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

What Women Want
Mel Gibson, playing high-level advertising exec Nick Marshall, gets tripped up in his slick 'n' chauvinistic act when, instead of being handed the promotion he expects, a woman (Helen Hunt as Darcy McGuire) is hired in his place. Rolling his eyes, Nick heads woefully home, gets drunk, falls in the tub and electrocutes himself. And suddenly Nick is in the best position to know what women want--he can hear their very thoughts! A flat, stale, and extremely profitable Hollywood film. (Traci Vogel) Meridian 16

*Yi Yi
Yi Yi opens at a wedding and closes at a funeral, and in between lies a remarkably observant summation of the ups and downs of a middle-class family in Taipei. A computer engineer and his wife, Min-Min are pulled away from his brother-in-law's wedding when Min-Min's mother suffers a stroke and goes into a coma. They eventually bring her home and are encouraged to talk to her in a game attempt to bring her back to consciousness. These one-sided conversations with the comatose woman allow the family members a forum to work out their individual concerns. Do not miss this opportunity to see this wonderful film that will draw you in and make you forget about time and space. (Andy Spletzer) Harvard Exit

*You Can Count on Me
In Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me, "adult" and "sadness" and "American" become a knot of synonyms as the story focuses on the pure inability a brother and sister have with one another now that they're adults. It is as though being an adult, and a member of a grownup American family, is the path of loneliness and sadness. Without any trendy embitterment, the sad path of the story is inspired, beautiful, and desirable. And the case is made for loneliness as the Great American Pursuit. (Paula Gilovich) Broadway Market