American Mullet
About four years too late in the clever social commentary department, the makers of the documentary American Mullet focus in on a handful of colorful characters with the titular hairstyle, and edit around them to give the masses something to laugh at. Because, you know, you're always better than somebody. 911 Media Arts Center, Fri at 8 pm.
Destry Rides Again
An unlikely assortment of stars for an earnest Western, Destry stars James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich in a 1939 flick about a gun-shy deputy in a lawless settlement. Seattle Art Museum, Thurs at 7:30 pm.
Love the Hard Way
See review this issue. Varsity, Fri-Sun at 1:50, 4:20, 7, 9:30 pm.
The Man Who Lived Twice
See Blow Up. Rendezvous, Thurs Aug 7 at 8 pm.
* Paris, Texas
Wim Wenders' mythopoeic evocation of America--well, Sam Shepard's America--remains every bit as lovely, moving, and, yes, pretentious as the day it was released. The weightily elliptical narrative of Harry Dean Stanton wandering in from the desert and reuniting with the son he'd abandoned years before has always felt insufficient to carry all the themes with which it's burdened, and the lugubrious pacing is trying as often as it is hypnotic. But the casting of Stanton remains one of the masterstrokes of '80s filmmaking; his gaunt frame and haunted eyes (testifying as much to the hunger of an overlooked actor getting his first juicy lead role as to the character confronting his past) are real enough to burn away the film's excess artiness. (Bruce Reid) Grand Illusion, Fri-Thurs at 8:15 pm.
The Road Warrior
"Lingerie. Oh, remember lingerie?" Grand Illusion, Fri-Sat at 11 pm.
* Secretary
Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Lee Holloway, nymphet secretary just released from a loony house, who develops a subversive relationship with her employer, played by James Spader. Part of Secretary's singular quality is that the heroine's problem is never resolved. She entrenches herself deeper and deeper in her "sick" dependency, and ultimately, it becomes her virtue. (MEG VAN HUYGEN) Egyptian, Fri-Sat at midnight.
Shrek
"That'll do, Donkey. That'll do." Grand Cinemas Alderwood, Renton Outdoor Cinema, See Movie Times for details.
* Some Like it Hot
See Blow Up. I have watched this movie a million times and still can't help but split into laughter when Tony Curtis pretends to be a playboy millionaire with a broken heart. Pure genius. (Charles Mudede) JBL Theater, Mon at 8 pm.
Sullivan's Travels
See Blow Up. Grand Illusion, Fri-Sun at 4:15, 6:15 pm, Mon-Thurs at 6:15 pm.
Twisted Flicks: The Invisible Man
See Blow Up. Fremont Outdoor Movies, Sat at dusk.
Viveza Friend Film Festival
See Blow Up. Rendezvous, Thurs-Fri at 7 pm.
* Waiting for Guffman
"Eight months? Seven? I don't know, somethin' like that. It's fun... Just do the cones... make sundaes, make Blizzards, 'n'... put stuff on 'em, 'n'... see a lot of people come in, a lot of people come to the D.Q.... burgers... ice cream... anything, you know? Cokes... just drive in and get a Coke, if you're thirsty." Redhook Brewery Moonlight Cinema, Thurs at dusk.
NOW PLAYING
* 28 Days Later
How do you like your pop-apocalypse, sci-fi horror? If you like it loud, smart, and scary as all get out, you cannot miss this. Animal activists accidentally release a rage virus on London that turns the population into cannibalistic predators who could outrun a zombie anytime, anywhere. The unaffected few band together and end up in a military compound where the soldiers are as bad as the infected. Yes. This film kicks ass. (SHANNON GEE)
American Wedding
The third film in the now bi-yearly American Pie series, whose plot revolves around the wedding of the boy who had sex with a pie, and the girl who had sex with a flute. All I know is, somebody's gonna end up with his dick caught in an engagement ring. Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific
Bad Boys 2
A Miami drug dealer plans his escape to Cuba--that is, if Will Smith and Martin Lawrence don't riddle him with bullet holes first. Riddle is indeed the right word here, for Smith and Lawrence's raison d'être in Bad Boys II appears to be to dispose of enemies with as many rounds as possible; from the very opening of the film, when the duo bring a swift end to a Ku Klux Klan meeting, ridiculous amounts of firepower are expended. Why use two rounds to disable an opponent when you can use 50? Why shoot that bad guy when you can blow him 30 feet into the air? This is Michael Bay 101. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Bend It Like Beckham
Essentially a traditional coming-of-age story, though with a spicy ethnic twist: A hot Anglo-Indian teenage girl in outer London pursues her dream of professional soccer stardom against the wishes of her traditional Sikh parents--immigrants who, still steeped in Indian culture, are only concerned with her educational and marriage prospects, and consequently just don't get it. Stuff happens and challenges are overcome. (SANDEEP KAUSHIK)
BonHoeffer
In the compelling documentary Bonhoeffer by Martin Doblmeier, we learn that this handsome theologian--who was born to an accomplished German family, collected black American spirituals, and claimed the heart of a very beautiful aristocratic woman--openly (or as openly as possible) opposed Hitler. He was by theory a pacifist, but by action a conspirator, who assisted in several failed attempts to assassinate the Führer. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
* Capturing the Friedmans
To watch the Friedman family fall apart after the father and youngest brother are accused of molesting kids in the family basement is like watching a Greek tragedy unfold, five people inexorably pulled down by their flaws, by personality, fate, and human failing--the angry elder brother, the bitter mother, the passive, tired father. This doesn't mean that Capturing the Friedmans is simple; you'll spend hours afterward arguing what really happened, and who behaved, in the end, the worst. Those arguments might surprise you. (EMILY HALL)
Charlies' Angels: Full Throttle
What I wanted to see was a parable about the power of an older, wiser woman striking back at the young, naive, and pert-breasted. And Demi Moore looks amazing, it is true. But it isn't possible to read anything into this movie: If you try to apply your brain to it, it snaps back like a rubber band. Reality is just a construct anyway, subject to flat, shimmering moments of CGI. (EMILY HALL)
Dirty Pretty Things
See review this issue. Seven Gables, Uptown
Dumb and Dumberer
This movie is stupid. (MEGAN SELING)
* Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo proves yet again Pixar's current chokehold on big-screen animation. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Freaky Friday
Swapping out one uncomfortably attractive, mannish actress (Jodie Foster) for another (Jamie Lee Curtis), the folks at Disney consume and redigest their own shit for another round of nonsensical voodoo in a remake of the 1976 "classic." Metro
Gigli
See review this issue. Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Metro, Woodinville 12
The Housekeeper
See review this issue. Harvard Exit
How To Deal
So Mandy Moore thinks she's too fast for love and wants nothing to do with something that makes people act so retarded. During the summer before her senior year, her parents get divorced, her sister gets married, her best friend gets laid, and her father remarries a Barbie doll. She's lost all hope. That is, until a greasy-haired boy starts flirting with her and she falls for his lines like any dumb girl would (he pulls the Yedi Mind Trick on her ass, for chrissakes! Talk about cheeseball!). See this movie you will not, like this movie you will not. (MEGAN SELING)
* The Hulk
Whether or not you buy the beast onscreen is dependent upon just how far you yourself are willing to leap--but the old tale has been given a modern overhaul and may in fact be the most grown-up comic-book movie ever assembled. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
I Capture the Castle
Taking back the English period piece from those Merchant-Ivory hacks, this is one girls coming-of-age film that anyone can enjoy. Two sisters live with their family in a remote castle, and their romantic prospects are severely limited until two American brothers inherit the land they are living on. The star of the movie is good, old-fashioned repression, and it is refreshing to see the more traditional happy ending replaced by unresolved longing. (Andy Spletzer)
Johnny English
Be warned: Despite its appearances, Johnny English is not a British film. It is an American film. Which means, in short, he gets shit stuck in other shit. And is shat upon. Shit, shit, shit. Shit every-which-a-way. (ZAC PENNINGTON)
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life
It's come to this: a movie where all the references are not to previous adventure flicks, but to special effects from previous adventure flicks. That's what happens when you run out of ways to pit the evil against the less evil. What it is, is Raiders of the Lost Ark all over again, with a race to find an ancient artifact that holds an unholy power that could flatten the world, and to get there unless the unscrupulous baddie gets there first. (Really, the similarities are uncanny, down to a coded map to the relic's location, and a medallion that holds the clue.) But originiality of plot line is hardly the reason to see this, of course. The reason is Angelina Jolie, in a parade of urban guerrilla/rave girl outfits. She is rather magnificent, even when she's ridiculous. (EMILY HALL)
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
A lame exercise in myth-historical revisionism in which the action is dull, the dialogue witless, the effects absurd (Mr. Hyde looks like the Hulk; Nemo's Nautilus looks like a binary code ejaculation), and the story about as lucid as Ronald Reagan. While they may never run out of comics to make into would-be summer blockbusters, they certainly appear to have run out of good ones. (SEAN NELSON)
Masked and Anonymous
See review this issue. Guild 45th
The Matrix: Reloaded at IMAX
Okay, so an already bloated movie is about to gain mucho weight, which means über-geeks will get a chance to see Trinity's PVC-clad heart-shaped ass in three-story-tall glory. This is an enhancement, to be sure, but much like Attack of the Clones' stint at IMAX, The Matrix: Reloaded's transition from big screen to really fucking big screen seems completely unnecessary.
* Pirates of the Caribbean
Watching Pirates of the Caribbean, I realized how supremely disappointing it is that in the 108 years since the Lumière brothers first fumbled with their primitive cinematograph, we are only just now being given a zombie pirate movie. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Scorched
See review this issue. Meridian 16
Seabiscuit
Based on the best-selling book of the same name, Seabiscuit chronicles the true story of an unmanageable horse (Seabiscuit), an outcast trainer (Chris Cooper), and a scruffy jockey (Tobey Maguire) who all come together thanks to a rich businessman with a big heart (Jeff Bridges) and go from the under-horse, to big winner. Set in the Depression, the tale of the rise, fall, and second coming of these characters is interesting enough, except that the whole thing gets bogged down under these really hokey pretenses, where Bridges and Cooper are given lines about not throwing a life away just cause it's a little damaged, or that a horse that doesn't give up racing just because he's too small is a good lesson for all the underfed families suffering from the Depression's fallout. Maybe I'm too cynical for Triumphant Lessons like this, but I like a little more grit under the nails of my Hollywood movies, and the manicured emotions in Seabiscuit are a bit too Hallmark for me. (JENNIFER MAERZ)
The Son
The best thing about The Son is not its story (a competent carpenter who works at an improvement institution for bad boys), but how it is made. Like the box that is made with extraordinary care by the film's carpenter, who knows everything about wood (soft and hard), this film too was shaped with extraordinary care. Here, directors the Dardenne brothers have carved something clear and marvelous out of the raw stuff of cinema. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Spellbound
Jeffrey Blitz's amazing documentary Spellbound chronicles eight near-teens as they compete in the National Spelling Bee. At least, that's the film's obvious premise; the less obvious one, what the documentary really is, is a love letter to America. National pride via a national bee. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Spy Kids 3D
With shots that stand to age as well as Jaws 3-D, the real tragedy here is that the children of America live in a world where this sort of tripe stands as a pale approximation of the majesty that was Captain EO. (ZAC PENNINGTON)
The Swimming Pool
François Ozon's latest tribute to the sexy superiority of French women. Starring Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
After a late-'90s dance around the rim of the cinematic dustbin, Arnold Schwarzenegger is reprising his most famous role as the T-101, this time taking on the beautiful and dreaded T-X. It has been 83 years since the passing of the 19th Amendment, and now, finally, women are able to claim victory in the battle for equality. They have their own ultimate killing machine. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
* Whale Rider
Audiences at Toronto and Sundance loved this film and so will you if you like triumphant tales of charismatic youngsters who defy the stoic immobility of old-fashioned patriarchs. (Shannon Gee)
The Winged Migration
Following geese, cranes, swans, puffins, penguins, pelicans, and gulls, the makers of the insect documentary Microcosmos spent four years capturing impossible images of birds, via a bevy of methods and a gaggle of cinematographers, for Winged Migration, a documentary that is as much about the wonders of flight as the migration of birds.
