Boys Life 3, Enemy at the Gates, Exit Wounds, Panic, Say It Isn't So, Series 7, Widow of St. Pierre
15 Minutes
Robert De Niro demonstrates how much time someone will waste if you give them enough money in this new film. Opens Fri. Metro, Pacific Place 11
Ballad of a Soldier
The romantic tale of a soldier with a six-day pass to see his mother is sidelined by an attractive young lady. Now doesn't that sound realistic? Mon-Thurs. Grand Illusion
Caveman's Valentine
Reviewed this issue. Samuel L. Jackson is typecast as a schizophrenic with dreads in this new film, from the director of Eve's Bayou. Opens Fri. Varsity
Company Man
Reviewed this issue. From the director of Hedwig and the Angry Inch comes a new film about a high-school English teacher trying to overthrow Castro. Opens Fri. Meridian 16, Metro
The Cranes are Flying
From the director of I Am Cuba comes this melodrama of lovers torn apart by WWII. The innovative, wide-angle camerawork drew such admirers as Godard and Scorsese. Winner of the 1958 Palme d'Or and Gran Prix at Cannes. Fri-Sun. Grand Illusion
Everett Women's Film Festival
A selection of films by and about women. Highlights include Deborah Hoffman's hilarious and heartbreaking Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter and Chen Kuo-Fu's The Personals. For more information, call 425-259-9088. Fri-Sat.
SUBlimina
Noir kitsch from the golden age of American propaganda. This week's series includes three films addressing the spiritual needs of the new American. Fri-Sun only. Consolidated Works
Get Over It
Harvey Weinstein commissions yet more pornography through his personal production company, Miramax. Kirsten "Barely Legal" Dunst stars. Opens Fri. Metro
*The Horse's Mouth
In the final film in SAM's "A Round of Guinness" film series, Alec Guinness stars as recently sprung, gruff-throated artist Gulley Jimson, a man down on his luck but up for a commission of any sort. He is given a wall in the wealthy Beeder's mansion, and the mannered complications begin. Guinness, acting from his own script, was never better: He brings the perfect touch of broken down, fantastical grandeur to Jimson, laying it all out in a fantastic, gravelly voice. A fitting farewell tribute to one of Britain's great actors--one whom we perhaps colonized (as Obi Wan) a bit too hastily. (Jamie Hook) Thurs March 8 only. Seattle Art Museum
*Infra-Man
All you need to know about this excellently bad Hong Kong sci-fi move (vintage 1975) is that the chief villain is Princess Dragon Mom, and that the Infra-Man's costume is visibly made from tinfoil and red paint. Ten minutes into the film, the atomic scientist charged with saving the world says, "Things have become so bad that they have never been worse." If his is describing the film, he is factually accurate, but revealing a painfully anti-poetic soul: This film is wonderful! I honestly challenge any working American director to better it! (Jamie Hook) Fri-Sat. Egyptian
*IRISH REELS FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL
Reviewed this issue. A collection of authentic Irish films, shorts, and documentaries that avoid the tired thick-brogue-and-Guiness clichés and stereotypes of Irish people. Thurs-Sat. 911 Media Arts, Seattle Art Museum
The Lodger
Hokum W. Jeebs and his mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ accompany a rare screening of Hitchcock's breakthrough silent film, in which the master assays London under Jack the Ripper's reign of terror. Hokum Hall
*The Masterworks of Oskar Fischinger
The first in a series of films on the theme of "Visual Music," The Masterworks of Oskar Fischinger sets the bar almost impossibly high. Fischinger's films are brilliant, and achingly simple: Bursts of light and color are set dancing to music, and the results are some of the most strangely moving works of cinema ever. It is almost impossible to adequately describe these rare birds: suffice it to say, visual music is, for once, an apt metaphor. Beethoven's symphonies erupt in flocks of swirls and squares, all soaring about the four corners of the screen with inspired abandon. Liszt is an assault of color, reds and yellows floating out like impossible rivers, assembling for a moment brilliantine geometries and elaborate architectures before fracturing off into nothingness again. This is great stuff. (Jamie Hook) Wed March 14 only. JBL Theater at EMP
Nico and Dani
There is a good deal of Kids in this new Spanish film about two young friends finding sex over a summer on the beach. Nico and Dani are 16-year-old hormone factories; their mutual-masturbating ritual ("Let's do a Krampack," one invites, and opens his trousers) fuels visions of virginity banished. The problem is, Dani soon realizes he likes the fellers--especially Nico. The strangely innocent perversity is nicely handled, and we see the emergence of Dani's confused voraciousness clearly. While the film is nothing new, the acting is arrestingly naturalistic, making this a NAMBLA-riffic way to spend a few hours. Opens Fri. (Jamie Hook) Egyptian
*Seattle Jewish Film Festival
Reviewed this issue. This year's ambitiously programmed festival features eight full days of Jewish obsession. Opens Sat. Cinerama
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
This Russian feature is based on a Carpathian folk tale about a woman who uses sorcery to open her man's eyes to her charms. The film trades heavily on Paradjanov's trademark obsessions with color and movement. Sunday's screening will be introduced by University of Washington professor Andreas Johns. Sat-Sun. Grand Illusion
*Sound and Fury
Reviewed this issue. A searing documentary about the controversial use of cochlear implants among the deaf. Opens Fri. Varsity Calendar
*The Terror of Tiny Town
Serial killers, flesh eaters, and monsters? Whatever. Nothing is as frightening as a completely straight-faced western shot entirely with midgets riding Shetland ponies+ on miniature sets. Fri-Sat. Grand Illusion
When Brendan Met Trudy
Peter McDonald (the young actor who held his own against Brendan Gleeson in I Went Down) gets another chance to exercise his delicate deadpan and his inventory of funny walks in this enjoyable trifle. Shy boy meets brash girl, girl loosens up boy, girl pursues career despite occupational hazards. Roddy Doyle's first original screenplay is mighty insistent on filmic knowingness--no scene is without its quotation, comment, or reworking. The author of the Barrytown trilogy (from which The Commitments, The Snapper, and The Van were made), Doyle here explores middle-class, suburban Dublin. If (like me) you like romantic comedies, you're willing to put up with attraction by authorial fiat and characterization by mannerism; in exchange, you get the pleasure of a happy ending. (Barley Blair) Opens Fri. Uptown
911 Media Arts is currently accepting applications for its Artist in Residence program, providing artists with a budget and honorarium towards the creation of a new media work. For more information, see www.911media.org, or call 682-6552. Deadline is March 26.
One Reel is currently seeking submissions for its short film festival. Films must be under 30 minutes in length, completed after Jan 1, 2000. Applications available at bumbershoot.org, or call 281-8111. Deadline is May 1.
Seattle Underground Film Festival is now accepting entries for its third year. All formats are welcome (Super 8mm, 16mm, 35mm) and there will also be a video category as well. Submissions may be in any length, on any topic, and in all languages. For festival guidelines and entry form via e-mail, contact bolexman@msn.com, or write to SUFF, PO Box 4477, Seattle, WA 98104. Deadline is June 1.
WigglyWorld Studios presents an opportunity for King County artists to create an original trailer for the Grand Illusion or the Little Theatre through the Northwest FilmForum's Trailer Training program. Budget and honorarium included. Call 329-2629 for information. Deadline is March 30.
CONTINUING RUNS
3000 Miles to Graceland
This movie should be avoided like a sex change operation paid for by the Romanian National Health Service. It's bland and predictable; director Demian Lichtenstein's music video-style cinematography is a sublime irritation; and it appears that whole "starring Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell" thing wasn't a cynical prank after all. (Kudzai Mudede) Factoria, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center
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. Furthermore, it makes Arenas sound like a hack poet. And that, my friends should be a punishable crime. (Emily Hall) Broadway Market
*Best In Show
The latest from the folks who brought you Waiting for Guffman follows several dog owners on their quest for the blue ribbon at the 2000 Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. Dogs are always funny. (Jason Pagano) Broadway Market
*Billy Elliot
Granted, the story is unoriginal (a small town boy beats the odds and becomes a ballet dancer), but its setting (a working-class family struggling through the worst of the Thatcher years) disrupts the sleep of the tired narrative and unexpectedly, steadily, it comes to life. (Charles Mudede) 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. (Jamie Hook) Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16
Chocolat
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!"). (Charles Mudede) Aurora Cinema Grill, Guild 45th, Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center
*Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The film is 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, the 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) Aurora Cinema Grill, Grand Alderwood, Majestic Bay, Neptune, Uptown
Down to Earth
A black bike messenger (Chris Rock) is suddenly killed by a truck and goes up to heaven. The angels, who look like mafia hit men, realize that the death was premature, and so return the brother back to earth in a body once owned by a white billionaire. With this white, bloated body he must win the heart of a beautiful soul sister from the hood. Need I say more? Simply amazing. (Charles Mudede) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree
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) Pacific Place 11
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. (Paula Gilovich) Pacific Place 11
Hannibal
Hannibal is a mess; an overblown, audacious, painstakingly long, gratuitous mess. Hannibal Lecter in his second outing is an annoying little old man, the sort you'd just love to push down a flight of stairs. Worse still he's a limey, a fish-and-chip-worshiping limey! That the man has killed over 15 Americans isn't a case for the fucking F.B.I.; it's a case for Immigration! (Kudzai Mudede) Factoria, Meridian 16, Metro, Northgate, Redmond Town Center
The 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. (Caveh Zahedi) Seven Gables
The Mexican
This movie was never meant to be a singular entity: It feels like two movies, hemorrhaged by nature, that have been forcefully welded together by DreamWorks Studios. The first of these movies is The Mexican--it features Brad Pitt, an antique gun, and the Mob: It is vaguely interesting and Brad Pitt is very handsome. Secondly, there is what I will call National Lampoon's Seventh Circle of Hell--it stars Julia Roberts, a green V.W., and a sensitive hitman. It is a disgrace and Julia Roberts' performance is criminal. For over two hours this movie bends over backwards in order to justify Ms. Roberts' character as anything other than a malignant, superfluous extravagance. It fails. (Kudzai Mudede) Factoria, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center
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. (Kathleen Wilson) Pacific Place 11
Monkeybone
All you need to know of this film is that it stars both Brendan Fraser and a cartoon monkey, and that at about 40 minutes in, the cartoon monkey has taken over control of Brendan Fraser's body. That's it. Directed by Henry Selick, of The Nightmare Before Christmas? Based on Kaja Blackley's graphic novel, Dark Town? Unimportant. Brendan Fraser. Cartoon monkey. (Jason Pagano) Factoria, Meridian 16, Metro, Redmond Town Center
*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. (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. (Kudzai Mudede) Pacific Place 11
Pollock
This is actor Ed Harris' directorial debut (he also stars), and seems in too big a hurry to establish the iconic events of painter Jackson Pollock's life--see Pollock urinate in Peggy Guggenheim's fireplace, see Pollock overturn the Thanksgiving table, see Pollock accidentally discover drip painting--without letting any of these moments achieve any natural resolution. It's like being hustled past works in an exhibition without being allowed to linger. (Emily Hall) Guild 45th
Recess: School's Out
I loved the movie Recess: School's Out. It is full of exciting and hilarious scenes. It's funny because in the movie (and in the TV show), everybody does the same thing at recess. For example, there is a King of Recess, there are kids that dig holes, and the kindergartners always run around doing pesky stuff. I advise people to go to this movie. (Sam Lachow, age 10) Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center
Save the Last Dance
A hip-hoppin' drama about a rhythmically challenged white girl from the Midwest who sets out to endear herself to the 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) Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark
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. Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16
See Spot Run
See Spot Run was a great movie about a dog named Agent 11 who was trained by the F.B.I. since he was a puppy. Agent 11 is trying to catch these bad Mafia guys. The head Mafia guy hires these two other Mafia guys to kill Agent 11 but he escapes and winds up staying with the main character played by David Arquette. The funniest part was David Arquette doing his great George Jefferson breakdance. (Maggie Brown, age 10) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11
*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). Full of charm and whimsy, the film walks a subtle tightrope between creepiness and hilarity. (Caveh Zahedi) Meridian 16, Metro
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. So, there you go. If you liked Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, you're gonna like Snatch. (Bradley Steinbacher) Meridian 16, Metro
*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) Pacific Place 11, Varsity
Sweet November
Sometimes the soiling of a film comes with one stroke. Keanu Reeves, the workaholic ad exec, is trying to perform his American duty of reinventing the hot dog. He is running on his treadmill, sweating bullets in his modern apartment and thinking of hot dogs.Then he pops off his mill and bounds toward the microwave. Keanu pops it open and hunts and spears the microwaved hot dog with a fork and puts the sweaty hot dog in his mouth. That's when it was over for me. (Paula Gilovich) Aurora Cinema Grill, Grand Alderwood, Pacific Place 11, Southcenter
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. 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) Admiral, Crest, Lewis & Clark
Traffic
The big message in Traffic is perfectly laid-out by its tagline: "Nobody gets away clean." 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, Majestic Bay, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Varsity
The Wedding Planner
Every leading lady, from Julia Roberts in The Mexican to Jennifer Lopez here, seems to be playing the character of Sandra Bullock--down to the squinchy cute face and the whiny comedic asides. 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) Pacific Place 11
*Yi Yi
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 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) Metro
*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's as though being an adult, and a member of a grownup American family, is the path of loneliness and sadness. (Paula Gilovich) Broadway Market
