13 Ghosts, Donnie Darko, High Heels & Lowlifes, Intimacy, K-Pax, Waking Life

Akira
My introduction to Akira was from a punky-nerdy Hollywood Video clerk who said, "You haven't seen this?" Then, with a tone of total reverence: "Dude." The storyline is sci-fi fantastic, which I didn't much take to, but the depiction of post-apocalyptic Tokyo and its battling motorcycle gangs is absolutely stunning. To see a new print of this superb anime on the big screen will be very Dude. (Brian Goedde) Varsity

Buchanan Rides Alone
Yet another Budd Boetticher western starring Randolph Scott (RANDOLPH SCOTT!) as a complex hero who just wants to get back home. Unfortunately for him, he passes through the wrong corrupt town, crosses the wrong corrupt patriarchy, gets arrested, befriends the right Mexican, escapes with that Mexican, and participates in a shootout. Fortunately for us, though... not on video. Grand Illusion

* Chloe in the Afternoon
This film follows the dubious trajectory of one married man's capacity to rationalize his desire to cheat. Spending more and more time with the ex-girlfriend of an old friend, the man embarks on a course of emotional and sexual brinksmanship that is the specific province of the spiritual dabbler. The friendship bears every sign of being a romance, but he feels justified because they're not having sex. When the inevitable conflict arises, and our turtlenecked hero is forced to make a choice, the lie of total freedom with total commitment steps into the spotlight. Chloe is the real pinnacle of the Moral Tales cycle, incorporating all the key elements of the other films (unreliable voiceovers, men made ridiculous by their own declarations of principle, bad clothes) in a subtle, slow-boiling stew of self-indicting sexuality that becomes curiously riveting, especially in the heartbreaking final scenes. You get the sense that director Eric Rohmer was really obsessed with the ridiculousness of Man, enough that he made six films specifically bent on portraying it. But you also get the sense that he was wrestling with his desires and trying to justify them with the patina of ineluctable universality in which all guilty adulterers eventually bathe. Come to think of it, Moral Tale #5 seems like the spiritual antecedent of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, and is probably a better film. (Sean Nelson) Grand Illusion

From Hell
Speculated Upon This Issue. You're a naughty one, saucy Jack. A Jack the Ripper tale from the brothers responsible for such crap as Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, Allen and Albert Hughes. Johnny Depp and Heather Graham star. Factoria, Meridian 16, Metro

Funny Girl
The film that launched a thousand drag careers returns. Barbra Streisand stars as Fanny Brice, lauded vaudevillian comedienne, who marries the (um, let's see, abusive? domineering? unappreciative?) Nick Arnstein, played by Omar Sharif. Cinerama

* Jack Strange, Literary Hero
Jack Strange, Literary Hero is a locally produced short with a sharp wit and a terrific visual sense of humor that combines elements of North Beach beatnikism and Dr. Seuss surrealism in an effort to dramatize, however fantastically, the crippling romance of writer's block. If I were the kind of person to offer this kind of movie-math equation, I might say it's kind of like Barton Fink meets The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, but I'm not, so I'll just say this: It's smart, good-looking, and inventive, three fine attributes for a date or a movie. The filmmakers are hosting a fundraiser so they can get the thing ready for festivals and such. You should go. (Sean Nelson) 911 Media Arts Center

The Last Castle
Robert Redford and James Gandolfini star in this story of power struggles and hypermasculine one-upsmanship behind the bars of a military prison. Also starring that really great actor from You Can Count on Me, Mark Ruffalo. Because it's directed by Rod Lurie (The Contender), expect the world this film presents to be divided into two camps: liberals and fascists. Metro

LESBIAN AND GAY FILM FESTIVAL
Previewed this issue. The sixth annual Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival includes over 100 films and videos at three different venues, for seven glamorous days. See Movie Times for full info, or visit www.seattlequeerfilm.com. Cinerama, Egyptian, Little Theatre

Lover's Lane
Distinguishing Features, Warren Etheridge's monthly screening series devoted to local film, returns with this screamer from Jon Ward, starring Anna Faris and Richard "Les Nessman" Sanders. Seattle Art Museum

LUNAFEST
A film festival to benefit breast cancer research and sponsored by Luna Bars, those gross little faux candy bars that are supposed to be all good for you or whatever, featuring films by, for, or about women. Lunafest "will showcase shorts, documentaries, and features as well as student films, and will cover a variety of topics, including women's health issues, sports, diversity, breaking barriers, and overcoming challenges." Despite the rather flagrant marketing tactics (how does one come out against breast cancer research?), this festival actually looks kind of good--especially the documentary about the American Basketball League. So, against our better judgment, here's a web address with all the info you'll need: www.lunabar.com. Pigott Auditorium

* Music + Film at EMP
This week: Kiss My Grits, a documentary about women in punk rock (which includes interviews with local luminaries) and the insect animations of Ladislaw Starewicz (with live original score by Tin Hat Trio). JBL Theater at EMP

* OLYMPIA FILM FESTIVAL
See Stranger Suggests. Despite the number of film fests going on in town right now, this one is worth an hour's drive--not only for the movies they're showing, but for the sense of community that runs through Olywood like a plumb line. The locus is Olympia's fabulous Capitol Theater. See www.olywa.net/ofs for details; online ticket purchase: www.buyolympia.com. (Sean Nelson) Capitol Theater

Riding in Cars with Boys
A film for 40-year-olds of all ages. Drew Barrymore plays a Connecticut townie bad girl who gets knocked up at age 15, then spends the rest of her lapsed Catholic life negotiating the disappointments and joys of a life lived in service to an accidental baby. Because the film is directed by Penny Marshall, it is very very bad, indeed painfully so. The lovely Drew Barrymore (whom a lot of people seem to hate, but I just can't help loving) tries very hard, and turns in what counts for her as a strong performance. But the movie is mawkish and cloying, full of screenwriter homilies and syrupy strings, so all of Barrymore's efforts are in the service of the devil. This movie does have one saving grace, however: the great Steve Zahn, proving once again that he is to contemporary film what Robert Downey Jr. was to '80s film--the very best and often only good thing in a series of truly awful movies, capable of elevating even the flimsiest, underwritten roles into scene-stealing gems of naturalism and invention. (Sean Nelson) Metro

Starlet!
A sexploitation classic about casting couch cuties and the evil men who sexploit them. Featuring the great Stuart Lancaster. Grand Illusion

* Va Savoir
This latest film from underappreciated French master Jacques Rivette is a romantic comedy (this from the man best known for super-long works like La Belle Noiseuse, which runs about four hours) about Camille, an expatriate French actress who returns to Paris to star in a play, and becomes entangled in a bizarre love hexagon with her former lover, her current director, the student helping the director find an obscure manuscript, her half-brother, and his wife (who happens to be involved with Camille's ex). Harvard Exit

* 2001: A Space Odyssey
Kubrick's classic meditation about time, space, and evolution returns, all tricked out with remastered sound and restored picture. Pauline Kael must be spinning in her grave. Cinerama

Bandits
Not great, but certainly no travesty. Barry Levinson's new movie about two bank robbers (Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton) and the woman they both love (Cate Blanchett) fares well, especially when placed aside the stream of crap Hollywood has been cranking out over the past few months. Fairly funny and occasionally smart (save for a somewhat unbelievable ending), the movie is a breeze of oddball character development and marginally ludicruous scenarios. In other words, it's pretty fun. One bad note, however: Levinson needs to learn how to point a camera again. Much of Bandits is poorly shot, and it sometimes switches between film and video footage for no apparent reason (other than to annoy the audience). (Bradley Steinbacher) Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center

Bread and Tulips
Saddled with a loud, bombastic, plumbing-fixture-selling husband with a hair-trigger temper and two disaffected teenage boys, Rosalba (the utterly lovely Licia Maglietta) seems all but eclipsed by her family. When, on a summer vacation in the south of Italy, her tour bus leaves a rest stop without her, she seizes the opportunity to head home to Pescara for some quality time alone. Instead, she ends up in Venice: prime romantic real estate, yes, but also a superior place to lose yourself. Which she promptly does after falling in with an eccentric crowd that includes an aging anarchist florist, a wacky masseuse straight out of Ally McBeal, and Fernando Girasole, a sad, suicidal maitre d'. Sweet, dopey, predictable, and still charming, Bread and Tulips is the story of a housewife discovering why freedom is so much more romantic than life at home. (Emily Hall) Seven Gables

The Closet
An accountant at a condom factory realizes he's about to be fired. Divorced, alienated from his 17-year-old son, he contemplates suicide, but is instead given some rather odd advice from his neighbor, a retired psychiatrist: Announce at work that you are gay, and the powers that be will be too frightened to fire you, lest they get slapped with a nasty lawsuit. The accountant takes his neighbor's advice, and, well, hilarity ensues. Or, if not hilarity, at least a few laughs here and there. (Bradley Steinbacher) Uptown, Varsity

Corky Romano
That one guy from SNL plays a sissy Mary who becomes a mobster. Capice? Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11

Don't Say a Word
Don't say a word about how fucking lame this movie is? How lurid, ludicrous, and exploitative (hmm, let's see... how can we get Famke Janssen to spend an hour in her underwear...)? How mannered and profligate (how you gonna waste Oliver Platt AGAIN, Hollywood?) and preposterous, verging on the obscene? Okay, I won't. It's about head shrinker Michael Douglas, his crazy girl patient (Brittany Murphy, who must be just tiny), his laid-up wife (Janssen), their daughter, and the bank robber terrorists who kidnap her. One thing though: the end, when the bad guys get buried alive in a collapsing grave, is kind of neat. Oh, wait... spoiler alert? (Sean Nelson) Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center

Hardball
Keanu Reeves plays the sleaziest man on the planet who winds up coaching a kids' baseball team in the projects so he can pay off a gambling debt. He soon becomes a decent man. At one point in the early stages of this picture's production, someone must have pointed out that this script was a bloody mess, and that it provided totally unconvincing evidence that such a foul creature (Reeves' character) could be worthy of vindication. Thus, America's best-loved idiot (Reeves proper) was brought on board to give this character an intrinsic innocuousness. Therefore the wounds of the script were left to gush untended; the anguish of the viewer is simply interminable; and the banality of poor Keanu Reeves has been raped. (Kudzai Mudede) Aurora Cinema Grill, Meridian 16

Hearts in Atlantis
Anthony Hopkins plays a magical old geezer with the power to see the future or some shit in this new Stephen King adaptation from Scott Hicks, the guy who directed Shine. Will Hopkins (who's undeniably great... when he's not in crappy films) and the redoubtable Hope Davis be enough to redeem this heaving torrent of moist schmaltz? Factoria, Majestic Bay, Metro

Innocence
Andreas and Claire were once young lovers in post-WWII Belgium. Now, half a century later, they find themselves neighbors in Melbourne, where Andreas has been a widower for 30 years and Claire is in an agreeable though passionless marriage. Unable to resist the tug of nostalgia, they resume their tempestuous affair, much to the chagrin of their loved ones. A big hit at Cannes and SIFF alike. Harvard Exit

* Iron Monkey
Directed by the man who coordinated the fight sequences in The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Yuen Wo Ping, Iron Monkey (1993) is centered around a kind doctor (Yu Ruang-Guang), his beautiful assistant (Jean Wang), and a corrupt libertarian (James Wong) who governs a provincial city on the outskirts of a great civilization. Like Bruce Wayne, the doctor has another identity: He is a kung fu master, who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. Yes, it's "an Asian Robin Hood," as so many critics have eagerly pointed out. But it's also an "Asian Western" with a heady dose of the Russian provincial comedy, made world-famous by Nikolai Gogol's play The Inspector General. Invariably described as an exercise in pure cinema because of its commitment to the visual music of human movement, what really makes Iron Monkey fascinating are the rooftop scenes that happen at night. Nothing comes close to the beauty of eating/romancing/fighting/running from rooftop to rooftop above a sleeping city; it's as if the kung fu masters were specters of a collective dream rising up from a thousand bedrooms. (Charles Mudede) Aurora Cinema Grill, Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center, Varsity

* Joyride
A taut, smart thriller directed by John Dahl, the potboiler-switcheroo auteur responsible for such gems as Red Rock West, The Last Seduction, and the very underrated Unforgettable. Steve Zahn (yay) and Paul Walker (zzz) star as two brothers on a road trip who mess around with a CB radio and unintentionally arouse the murderous ire of a psycho truck driver. By the time they pick up Leelee Sobieski (rrr), there's a cross-country chase afoot. Thanks to the gut-churning suspense factor that is Dahl's specialty, the picture seems to be building up to some barely plausible twist. But just when you're trying to figure out who's duping who, the pure modernistic thrill of seeing a big old semi bearing down on some unsuspecting youngsters kicks into high gear. Pure pulpy pleasure. (Sean Nelson) Aurora Cinema Grill, Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro

* L.I.E.
Some movies implicate their audience by making them cheer on a dastardly act. This painfully beautiful drama does the reverse: It makes us dread an event which never comes, and when it doesn't, forces us to reevaluate our feelings not just about the film and its characters, but about the moral universe they inhabit. The story concerns a young boy in Long Island whose sheltered life turns rocky, much to the delight of a neighborhood chicken hawk. But despite the potentially lurid trappings, the film is an unsettlingly sensitive dramatization of the process of growing up out of the shadow of parental protection. (Sean Nelson) Neptune

Liam
Stephen Frears' period piece about a working-class Liverpool family in the '30s struggling to keep house and home together against a tumultuous socioeconomic backdrop. Catholicism, Communism, fascism, and alcoholism take turns dueling for the attention of the title character, a scrawny, stuttering little guy who feels the weight of all the historical and personal gravitas asserting itself all over his world. The film is heavy, but well acted (by Ian Hart, especially), and worth a look. (Sean Nelson) Broadway Market

Max Keeble's Big Move
When Max learns that his family is moving in a week, he takes the opportunity to wreak havoc on all the bullies that make his junior high a living hell. Then he finds out his family isn't moving after all, goes Zen, and prepares to die. Though it's a Disney movie aimed at kids, the subject matter strikes a deep chord in the hearts of all bully victims, past and future. (Sean Nelson) Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

* Mulholland Drive
This new work from David Lynch is confounding and bizarre (for a change). Originally conceived as a network TV pilot, Drive takes a long time establishing its characters--an aspiring actress, a glamorous amnesiac, a luckless Hollywood producer, and a mysterious gang of Mafiosi who are dead set on making sure a certain woman gets a certain part. Like all of Lynch's post-Wild at Heart work, Drive is more concerned with atmosphere and suggestion than linear meaning. But like all Lynch, period, it's beautifully constructed, bizarre, and funny. It's just impossible to say definitively whether this is good or not. (Sean Nelson) Guild 45th, Meridian 16

My First Mister
A teenage goth drama queen (Leelee Sobieski) finds an unlikely soulmate in Randall, a bemustached men's-store manager nearly three times her age (Albert Brooks). Though the movie's stylistic and thematic trajectory points to the curious middle distance between the MTV and Lifetime networks, and the script relies rather heavily on a shopping-mall understanding of youth culture (which might actually be prescient, come to think of it, since American youth culture is more or less defined by shopping malls), a great many good, tender, and true moments peek up out of what could have been a rankly sentimental sinkhole. One might attribute this to the stellar performances of Sobieski (who crafts a credibly in-progress teenager, sidestepping archetypes with stealth and humor) and the inestimably great Brooks. (Sean Nelson) Metro, Uptown

* The Others
A well-executed gothic horror film in a Jamesian vein, starring Nicole Kidman as a postwar mom on a tiny British isle desperate not to let her new servants (including the great Fionnula Flanagan) expose her "photosensitive" children to daylight. The claustrophobic tension of the incredible house (the film's only set, and its true star) mounts through the eerie film as the truth, and like the characters' lives, unfurls methodically in this truly frightening endeavor from Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar. As an added bonus, the always-gripping Christopher Eccleston (Jude, Elizabeth) has a supporting role. (Sean Nelson) Pacific Place 11, Varsity

Rush Hour 2
Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan reteam as a black cop and a Chinese cop in this sequel which, being exactly as funny and entertaining as its predecessor, transcends all critical inquiry. Zhang Ziyi, from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is in it, though. (Bradley Steinbacher) Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16

Serendipity
John Cusack stars as John Cusack with a bad haircut, opposite the unremarkably beautiful Kate Beckinsale, in the very worst movie I've ever seen. Premise: They meet over Christmas shopping in Bloomingdales, sort of fall in love but not really, part ways, get betrothed to other people, and spend the rest of the movie trying to find each other again. Fine. The injury comes from the script relentlessly stabbing you in the gut with its transparent plot twists, maddening dialogue, and desperate "fateful coincidences." The fact that this film was ever made defies reason. If you like John Cusack, it will hurt your feelings. If you don't, it will make you want to die. (Meg van Huygen) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Majestic Bay, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11

* Together
Q: What do you get when you combine a '70s commune full of Swedish hippies, a soundtrack that features hits by ABBA and Nazareth, and a VW bus painted with flowers? A: This strangely sitcommish but thoroughly engaging little movie. Just when you think it's going to Cute Hell, the filmmakers add a wrinkle of probing intellectualism or kinky human frailty to keep things interesting. Throw in a middle-class domestic-abuse refugee and her kids, a pre-op transsexual, some hilariously passive-aggressive dialogue about the importance of nonaggressiveness, a nymphomaniac, and a central character who suffers like a sweet-natured Job trying to keep the whole thing together (as it were); stir; cock your head in wonder; and enjoy. (Sean Nelson) Guild 45th

Tortilla Soup
A remake of Ang Lee's 1994 Eat Drink Man Woman. This time the focus is upon a Latino community in Los Angeles, where a retired Mexican American chef prepares lavish meals for his emotionally distraught daughters. Harvard Exit

Training Day
This capsule was written before seeing the film: "Denzel Washington stars as a dirty NYC copper who guides new recruit Ethan Hawke through a day in the life of a Machiavellian urban warrior." This message was received in response: "By the way, Training Day was set in L.A., not NYC. And it totally fucking sucked." -Ian. C. Jacobson. This rebuttal, then, was written after seeing the film: "What should have been and pretty much is a run-of-the-mill, overstylized L.A. cop morality play achieves glory because of the ravenous, flesh-chewing, blood-spitting performance of Mr. Denzel Washington, who has never had so complex a villain to play. He's usually overtly heroic, but on those occasions that his characters have been allowed to show a mean streak, they've always been tempered by a strain of nobility. In Training Day he's a complete bastard, and it's the best, most fun performance he's given in years. And Ethan Hawke, who plays the rookie on the receiving end of Denzel's fierce training, is not bad either. As for the film itself, the dramatic meat under the actors' flashy skin: it's nothing but a dumb, self-justifying Hollywood psychodrama full of platitudes about violence and corruption, with little in the way of actual insight into anything real or human... except the real, human beauty of watching a great movie star kick so much ass." (Sean Nelson) Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Northgate, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

* Zoolander
This movie is a complete delight, fueled by the dual brilliance of Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, who play rival supermodels who become embroiled in a global assassination plot. Not every joke succeeds, but the gut laugh success rate is pretty astounding, and the moments of total comic transcendence (such as the male supermodel gasoline fight) are many. It's such a pleasure to watch an American farce that doesn't make you feel like a moron for enjoying the funny parts. In Zoolander, even the between-gag bits are good. A-fucking-men. (Sean Nelson) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11