Coming Soon

Big Bad Love, Clockstoppers, Death to Smoochy, The Panic Room, The Rookie, Trembling before G-d


New This Week

AFRICAN CINEMA NOW
This week: Sya: Dream of the Python. Seattle Art Museum

American Adobo
Five Filipino best friends look for love in New York City with an Eat Drink Man Woman overtone. Metro

ART CAR FILM FESTIVAL
Two documentaries by Harrod Blank, 1992's Wild Wheels and the director's cut of 1997's Driving the Dream, look at automobiles that have been turned into works of art. 911 Media Arts Center

Blade II: Bloodhunt
This sequel to the 1998 original is directed by Guillermo del Toro and stars Wesley Snipes as human/vampire warrior Blade, based on the Marvel Comics character. Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Oak Tree, Woodinville 12

* Cool & Crazy
A docu-musical about a Norwegian male choir in the tiny fishing village Berlevag. The 30 men range in age from 30 to 90 and their personal stories interweave with scenes of them singing under the midnight sun and in the midst of a snowstorm. Grand Illusion

* Documenting Islam
See Stranger Suggests. Little Theatre

E.T. (20th Anniversary)
For the 20th anniversary re-release, director Steven Speilberg tweaked a few special effects, removed the guns, and added a scene. Cinerama, Metro, Pacific Place 11

The EROTIC FILM SERIES
Dirty movies are just like sex: When they're good, they're very, very good, but when they're bad you wish you could grab your pants and run screaming down the street. So, if the two flicks sent to us are indicative of what the Erotic Film Festival intends to unveil, you'll be in for a little bit of both. Alt Sex Fetish Robot is a fascinating short about people who, well, fetishize robots. Less charming was Tokyo X Erotica, a pornographic Japanese art film that is neither smart nor sexy though it is utterly Japanese. If watching teensy little women getting fucked, humiliated, strangled, and beaten to death is your idea of a good time, you might enjoy this, you sick bastard, but I do not recommend you bring a date. (TAMARA PARIS) Broadway Performance Hall, Egyptian

I Drink Your Blood
This 1970 film features a band of Satanist hippies who terrorize the salt-of-the-earth locals. Grand Illusion

Kid's Winter Movie Matinee
Something for the kiddies, on Monday at three o' clock. Little Theatre

Killing Floor
This 1984 TV movie is about a poor black Southerner during WWI who travels to Chicago to find work. He ends up working the killing floor at a slaughterhouse and becoming involved in the organized labor movement. It's Norma Rae with animal entrails and blood. Independent Media Center

Kissing Jessica Stein
Reviewed this issue. Two women experiment with the boundaries between friendship and sex in this comedy of sexual errors that doesn't deliver the goods. Guild 45th

Paint It Black
A Fabio look-alike plays a serial killer who covers his victims in modeling clay implicating a local sculptor in the crimes. Independent Media Center

SHORT FILM NIGHT
The silent film master at his finest. Charlie Chaplin's Hits of the Past, In The Park, New Janitor, and The Tramp. Sit & Spin

SNEAK
After six years of success in the Bay Area as the "Camera Cinema Club," this film preview series debuts as "Sneak" in Seattle. The film titles are not revealed until the film starts, so it's a cinematic lottery. The movie is followed by a special guest (usually someone from the film) and a discussion, which, depending on what's been screened, could be thrilling or excruciating. For more information check out the website www.sneakfilms.com. Pacific Place 11

* The Son's Room
Directed by and starring Nanni Moretti, this film was winner of the Palme D'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival. It tells the story of Giovanni, an Italian psychiatrist, and his family, as they struggle in the wake of a horrible tragedy. (NATE LIPPENS)

Sorority Boys
To save money three frat boys go undercover in drag at a sorority. Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12

SUPER 8 OPEN SCREENING
This week WigglyWorld's Open Screenings' theme is "Visual Music, Super-8 Style," and they are seeking films that "illustrate sound and explore what music looks like," whether that be abstract, animated, or linear. Little Theatre

THE CONSCIENTIOUS PROJECTOR
This film series takes place March 22-24 on Bainbridge Island at Lynwood Theatre and Bainbridge Island High School. It features films that connect economic, social, and environmental issues. For more information visit www.kitsapcan.org. Bainbridge Island High School

* Trouble Every Day
Reviewed this issue. Claire Denis' brilliant new release. Varsity

* VISUAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
This week: Kinetica 3: Jazz and Abstraction in the Beat Era. It features Chasse Des Touches, Things To Come, Scratch Pad, Mandala, and Yantra, fives shorts from the late '50s and early '60s, and Harry Smith's Film #3 from 1949. JBL Theater at EMP

Yana's Friends
Israeli filmmaker Arik Kaplun chronicles the sordid, heartbreaking, and silly misadventures of a disheveled batch of Russian immigrants who live in a tenement house in Tel Aviv. (JOSH FEIT) Varsity


Continuing Runs

40 Days & 40 Nights
Josh Hartnett may be a hunk, but said hunkiness is not nearly enough to save 40 Days & 40 Nights, the latest example from director Michael Lehmann to prove that, Heathers aside, he is a complete hack. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12

All About the Benjamins
Ice Cube plays a bounty hunter in Miami who repeatedly chases down a small-time crook played by Mike Epps. They stumble upon a 20 million dollar diamond heist and team up to get the loot. (BRIAN GOEDDE) Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12

A Beautiful Mind
Stories about the insane are an inherent paradox. Because for a story to be compelling, it has to have rules, and an inner logic, whereas mental illness doesn't have rules, and treats logic as just another way of seeing. In the case of John Nash (Russell Crowe), the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician who suffered from schizophrenia, there is the added irony that a man of quantitative genius could lose all control of quantitative reality. With a deft directorial touch, the paradox of Nash's world could really come to life. But that would take more of a talent than Ron Howard. (MICHAEL SHILLING) Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12

Big Fat Liar
Kid writes essay. Big fat movie exec steals it for a movie. Kid takes revenge. Even the presence of the great Paul Giammati (in the title role) can't excuse this pile of poo. Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16

Black Hawk Down
As a filmmaker, Ridley Scott is an ad man forever in search of a product to sell. In Black Hawk Down, this director can't be bothered to let messy details like politics, reason, or history overcomplicate his pitch. (SEAN NELSON) Northgate, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

* Festival In Cannes
I recently talked to filmmaker Henry Jaglom, whose films have a way of polarizing audiences with their hyperintentional frankness, on the phone for 90 minutes. (I confess I fall on the side that admires his work.) At one point, we got to discussing his oft-touted idea that his films, which consist largely of long takes of actors talking improvisationally to one another about how they're feeling, are trying to reveal some deep emotional truth through verbal (and therefore intellectual) means. "But the subject of that intellectual expression is an emotional subject," Jaglom said. "It is love and feelings and loneliness, and constant striving for, you know, to feel connected. And maybe it's just a reflection of me and my experience in life, but that's the way most of our life is spent: sitting down and talking to somebody. It's not spent in action sequences, you know?" (SEAN NELSON) Broadway Market

* Gosford Park
Set in 1932, Gosford Park is a meta-mystery, meaning the setting, figures, and tropes of a murder mystery form the frame for the real concern (or concerns): class and gender rivalries; the rise of mass entertainment; and the dark history of the industrial revolution and British imperialism. (CHARLES MUDEDE) Aurora Cinema Grill, Majestic Bay, Pacific Place 11, Seven Gables

Happenstance
That oh-so-dazzling urban urchin, Audrey Tautou, is once again caught up in an intricate web of fateful occurrences on her way to finding true love. (TAMARA PARIS) Metro

Ice Age
The recent boom in computer animation bodes well for the next generation, as their childhoods will hopefully not be squandered on lame-ass 2-D Disney musicals. Ice Age, takes over where films like Shrek and Monsters Inc. left off last year. Pleasant and funny, it is littered with enough sophisticated jokes to entertain the adults, but is really nothing more than a fast-paced, shimmering toy for kids. Which is just the way it should be. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Woodinville 12

* In the Bedroom
This langorous, beautifully acted film about erotic and familial entanglements in a small Maine fishing town one summer builds up to three moments of utter emotional brutality so severe that the long moments in between them thrum like high tension wires. (SEAN NELSON) Metro, Uptown

Iris
The brilliant British writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch (Judi Dench, Kate Winslet), a woman who lives most decidedly in the world of ideas, succumbs to the dementia of Alzheimer's, "sailing into darkness" as she so rightly puts it. (EMILY HALL) Broadway Market, Metro

* Italian for Beginners
The characters of Italian for Beginners begin in a state of despair. This being a romantic comedy, their lives begin to intersect through a series of coincidences--coincidences that could feel contrived, but due to the rough integrity of the script, performances, and direction (shaped in part by the monastic rigors of the Dogme 95 ethic), they feel like the organic waywardness of life. (BRET FETZER) Harvard Exit

John Q
John Q is a problem film. Not in the race-conflict sense, but in the class-warfare sense. The movie represents Hollywood's first attempt to address the failure of our country's health care system. Though I agree with John Q's politics, it is dull and tendentious. (CHARLES MUDEDE) Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

Lantana
A lantana is a pretty pink flower. Lantana the film is a bud that never blooms. The long, slow film opens with a dead body and ends with a couple dancing, and in between are 120 minutes of middle-aged people living miserably. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Broadway Market

Last Orders
The talents of six of the finest British actors alive are squandered by this moist little movie about a journey to deliver a dead man's ashes to the seaside. (SEAN NELSON) Guild 45th

Monsoon Wedding
At first, it seems like Mira Nair is just doing family drama. The film is stylish, brisk, witty, and beautifully filmed (marigolds are so vibrant they would leave bright orange dust on your fingers if you touched them). But within the patchwork of marriage melodrama, Monsoon Wedding presents a subversive argument about the insidiousness of progress and its fluid relationship with tradition. (SEAN NELSON) Harvard Exit

Monster's Ball
Monstrous Balls is more like it. Hank is a racist prison guard (Billy Bob Thornton, perfect), son of a retired racist prison guard (Peter Boyle, who doesn't even try an accent), and father of a young, non-racist prison guard (Heath Ledger, who tries his hardest) in a Georgia State Penitentiary death row. Hank falls into a desperate affair with Leticia (Halle Berry, semi-plausible), a black woman, after both of their sons die. (SEAN NELSON) Meridian 16, Neptune

Piñero
Against all odds, Benjamin Bratt manages to shine as the gifted Nuyorican poet, playwright, actor, chicken hawk, and unapologetic asshole Miguel Piñero in this jumpy and jerky biopic. Poor Piñero deserves better. (TAMARA PARIS) Broadway Market

Resident Evil
If you're going to be foolish enough to make a movie out of a video game, this here is the way to do it. And while Resident Evil the movie may not live up to its gaming origins, it nontheless does exactly what it's supposed to do: entertain, disgust, and turn 13-year-old-boys on--hence Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez. Plus, it has zombies, a genre that has been woefully overlooked for far too long now. If you're a fan of the game, go see it. If you find yourself ridiculously baked, go see it. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Pacific Place 11, Varsity, Woodinville 12

Return to Neverland
After a dynamic sequence in which a flying pirate ship sails through the bomb-torn skies of WWII London, Return to Neverland settles into bland formula. The filmmakers apparently wanted to subvert the girl = mother dynamic of the original Peter Pan, but they were too chicken-hearted to make Jane, the prepubescent heroine, as assertive and feral as most of the 10-year-old girls I know. (BRET FETZER) Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Woodinville 12

Scratch
Doug Pray, who directed the grunge documentary Hype!, wants to restore this early hiphop order ruined by the spectacular success of the rapper. The DJs interviewed in Scratch (Jazzy Jay, DJ Premier, DJ Q-Bert, and so on) consistently express ethics that are defined by an almost Buddhist-like selflessness in the service of hiphop art. The MC is corrupt; the DJ is faithful. (CHARLES MUDEDE) Broadway Market

Showtime
Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro star in this unlikely-buddy-cop film that satirizes reality cop shows on TV. Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Woodinville 12

The Time Machine
Guy Pearce and his cheekbones star in this update of the H.G. Wells sci-fi landmark. Cinerama, Factoria, Majestic Bay, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Woodinville 12

We Were Soldiers
Scrawny little bastard Mel Gibson stars in this jingoistic turd of a Vietnam War film. Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Oak Tree, Woodinville 12