* The African Queen
SAM's Katharine Hepburn series wraps up with this Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart vehicle, set on the titular riverboat during World War I. Seattle Art Museum, Thurs March 11 at 7:30 pm.
Drive Thru: Australia
A surfing movie from the folks who brought you Drive Thru: California and Drive Thru: Japan. Rendezvous, Thurs March 11 at 7:30 pm.
The Drug War Film Festival
Drugs good, war on drugs bad. Do we really need so many documentaries on this subject? 911 Media Arts, Fri March 12 at 8 pm.
First Aid For Choking
Drama and haircuts, from local director Megan Griffiths. Consolidated Works, Wed March 17 at 7 pm.
* A Great Wonder
In Peter Pan, the Lost Boys escaped from the responsibility of normal life by running off and living together, away from the adults and all their adult rules. In 1989, a civil war broke out in the African country of Sudan. During this time thousands of boys and girls started living apart from adults, not by choice but because all the adults were killed while the kids worked in the fields. These boys and girls became known as the Lost Boys of Sudan, and they traveled from refugee camp to refugee camp for years. - Kim Shelton's documentary, which won the Best Documentary Feature at last year's Seattle International Film Festival, follows three Sudanese orphans (two boys and one girl) who end up in Seattle and must learn to adjust to the American way of life. At first it begins like any newsmagazine report, observing as the foreigners adjust to foster families, high school, and society in general. They even watch a Tom Brokaw show dedicated to their plight. - What makes this better than a standard TV segment, though, is the period of time spent with these orphans. After nine months, one of the boys (now 18) feels imprisoned by the rules of his foster family. Another wonders why people are so interested in his story if they have no intention of doing anything about the violence in Sudan. Like all good documentaries, A Great Wonder raises more questions than it can answer. (ANDY SPLETZER) Little Theatre, Fri-Sun 7, 9 pm.
* Irish Reels
Say what you want about Seattle's film scene (and you'd better say something good, since it's really rather splendid), but this sleepy burg isn't lacking for festivals. From the massive SIFF to the Northwest Film Forum's beautiful Childish Film Festival (with visits, yearly, from the Polish and the Jewish), our city seems to average a film festival a month. And since it's March, it's time for the Irish to get their screentime, hence the seventh annual Irish Reels Film Festival, wrapping up this week at Seattle Center. See www.irishreels.org for more information. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) All films are free and screen at the Center House. Roger Casement, Sat March 13 at 2 pm, Inside the Circle, Sat March 13 at 4 pm. Did Anyone Notice Us?, Sun March 14 at 2 pm, Living the Revolution, Sun March 14 at 4 pm.
* Jewish Film Festival
See Blow Up. The ninth annual Jewish Film Festival opens this week with a decidedly international array of narrative and documentary features. On opening night, the festival will screen The First Israeli in Space, which despite the Muppets-redolent title is a sober documentary about Ilan Ramon, the late Columbia astronaut. Several movies touch upon the Jewish experience in Europe, including the Oscar-nominated documentary Prisoner of Paradise (about Kurt Gerron, the German-Jewish actor who made a Nazi propaganda film while interned at the Theresienstadt concentration camp), the controversial Decryptage (a doc that makes the case that the contemporary French media exacerbates European anti-Semitism), and Mendel (a Norwegian narrative film about a young 1950s refugee learning to cope with his new Scandanavian home). Discrimination and culture clash in Israel also make appearances in the gay-in-the-military love story Yosi & Jagger, the Arab-Jewish communists of the documentary Forget Baghdad, and the African perspective of James' Journey to Jerusalem. Films screen at Pacific Place and Cinerama. See Movie Times for details.
Kitchen Stories
Set in the '50s, Kitchen Stories follows a group of researchers from Sweden's Home Research Institute as they travel to Norway to study the kitchen habits of bachelors. Director Bent Hamer throws in an assload of beautiful landscape images and some charming visual jokes into a movie that is ultimately very slight. The investigators bring lifeguard chairs into the kitchens in order to observe from on high, which is funny. They are not supposed to talk to the subjects in order to keep their objectivity, but that method is proven to be faulty right away when the subjects change their patterns of behavior to hold onto a sense of privacy. Taking the non-controversial stance that companionship is better than loneliness, this is the sort of safe art film that you can take your parents to. (ANDY SPLETZER) Varsity, Fri-Sun 2:10, 4:30, 7, 9:20 pm, Mon-Thurs 7, 9:20 pm.
* Nights of Cabiria
Contrary to Fellini's conscious intention, the three early films he directed that feature his wife Giulietta Masina (La Strada, Cabiria, and Juliet of the Spirits) exist as a trilogy of sorts, half meditation on the mythology of the feminine and half testament to the unique talent of Masina. In Nights of Cabiria she plays a briny, frustrated whore, a victim of misplaced vulnerability, disposable almost unto death. Fellini caught a great deal of heat for his sexist portrayal of women in the course of his films. But in retrospect Fellini's characters are as much expositions of the values of the Italy he loved and fought with as they are extensions of his own personality and world view. Both novices and fans of the director will be well served in this pristine resurrection of a Fellini classic. (Riz Rollins) Rendezvous, Wed March 17 at 7:30 pm.
"Reel" Cinerama Film Festival
Two of the seven total films made in the three-strip Cinerama format (This Is Cinerama and How the West Was Won) will be shown at this year's festival, wrapping up this week at (where else?) Cinerama. This Is Cinerama, Thurs March 11 at 3 pm, How the West Was Won, Thurs March 11 at 7 pm.
Running on Empty
The "debut" of Running on Empty, a "wakeboard" video described by its distributor as a "sick" compilation. The "director" and a variety of wakeboard "pros" will be in attendance. Kane Hall Room 130, University of Washington campus, Sat March 13 at 8 pm.
Save Our Lands, Save Our Towns
... save our neighborhoods, save our cul-de-sacs, save our asphalt, save our storm drains, save our rats. A film about managing sprawl. Hamilton Middle School Library, Thurs March 18 at 7 pm.
Sneak
The Sneak series of film previews continues its third season. For more information, see www.sneakfilms.com. Pacific Place, Sun March 14 at 10 am.
* Strange Brew
McKenzie Brothers Bob & Doug (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas), are cast as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in this very Canadian 1982 reading of Hamlet. Sunset Tavern, Mon March15 at 8 pm.
The Thief of Bagdad
This 1940 film from the UK is visually extravagant take on the familiar Arabian Nights tale of a vagabond and a genie. Egyptian, Fri-Sat midnight.
Walpurgis Night
Ingrid Bergman stars as a put-upon secretary in this 1935 film, directed by Gustaf Edgren. Nordic Heritage Museum, Thurs March 11 at 7 pm.
The Wanderers
This 1979 film by Philip Kaufman depicts gang members coming of age in the halcyon days of 1963 New York. Movie Legends, Sun March 14 at 1 pm.
Where Has Eternity Gone?
A documentary about a pair of Internet preachers who regularly commune with the spirit of John Lennon. Apparently, during the 2000 election Mr. Lennon asked the preachers for help in defeating Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, and the preachers consented to work for this righteous cause. Plays with the shorts The King of the Jews and Armor of God. Consolidated Works, Fri-Sun 8 pm.
NOW PLAYING
* 21 Grams
Though fragmented and seemingly random, 21 Grams is musical; it feels, moves, and concludes like a massive musical composition. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
50 First Dates
After suffering a head injury, Lucy (Drew Barrymore) has lost her short-term memory. She wakes up every morning with a clean slate, remembering everything up until her accident, but nothing after that. Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) is a commitment-fearing man-whore, taking advantage of Hawaii's plethora of tourists looking for hot one-night stands. It's a match made in heaven. But stupid emotions get involved (they always ruin every perfect plan), and Henry falls for Lucy. In order to continue a relationship, he has to come up with new ways to get her attention every day. Sounds silly, for sure. But know what? It's cute and funny too. (MEGAN SELING)
Against the Ropes
Against the Ropes is a dull, bland, and obvious piece of tripe. Meg Ryan is shockingly miscast, the direction is lazy, and the picture as a whole is surprisingly feeble-headed. I beg of you: Stay far, far away. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Agent Cody Banks: Destination London
Christopher Frizzelle was sent to review this movie. Unfortunately, he missed the screening, probably because he was too busy destroying the hopes and dreams of innocent young poets.
Along Came Polly
You know a movie can't be all bad when Phillip Seymour Hoffman falls down within the first 20 seconds. (EMILY HALL)
The Barbarian Invasions
Really, I can't understand how this film has gotten any good reviews at all. (ANDY SPLETZER)
Barbershop 2: Back in Business
This movie will make you laugh as long as you don't recall that it's being released during the month we celebrate black history, in which case it will make you cry. This piece of shit cinema is what we get after 500 years of struggle for liberation, civil rights, and black nationhood. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Big Fish
Tim Burton's Big Fish is an ungainly, rambling piece of work built upon a bed of lies. The liar: a man named Ed Bloom who has spent his life spinning outrageous tales about himself, including run-ins with witches and giants, Siamese twins, and massive, uncatchable fish (hence the title). Sappy and cluttered, the entirety of Big Fish doesn't quite hold together. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Broken Lizard's Club Dread
With jokes that are purposefully stupid, but not dumb enough to be funny, Broken Lizard's Club Dread has all the plot of a slasher film but none of the suspense. It's an unfunny "comedy" with long stretches of boring plot twists. Trying desperately to become a pale imitation of Scary Movie, it turns out to be a pale imitation of Volunteers. As created by the sketch comedy group Broken Lizard, the characters are nothing more than cardboard cutouts, with only the new island masseuse Lars (Kevin Heffernan) coming close to being likeable. Oh, and Bill Paxton puts more energy than needed into Coconut Pete (a Jimmy Buffett knockoff), but all for naught. A friend of mine who saw Broken Lizard's Super Troopers says it's funnier and not as dull, so you might want to rent that instead. (ANDY SPLETZER)
* City of God
Set in hell (a heated Rio de Janeiro ghetto) and narrated by a young newspaper photographer named Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), Cidade de Deus (City of God) describes the rise and fall of the legendary, psychopathic gangster Li'l Zé, who, after murdering every obstacle in his way, mercilessly rules the ghetto's turbulent drug trade. Though great to watch, Cidade de Deus curiously fails to comment on the reason why most of the people who live and die in the ghetto are brown, beige, and black. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
* Cold Mountain
Anthony Minghella steers the film into a few minor rough spots (including a somewhat clumsy beginning, and an occasionally annoying performance by Renée Zellweger as a lodger who helps Nicole Kidman on her farm), but the picture as a whole delivers a big, heartfelt epic. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
Mary (Lindsay Lohan) is a New York City teenager forced to move to New Jersey, where, displaced, she can't understand how she's supposed go about her goal of becoming world-famous. Every teenager, like every fag, wants to become world-famous, but what Mary (who demands that everyone call her Lola) has going for her is, yes, the exotic nickname, but also a thin teenage figure and giant, heaving balloons for breasts, which the costumers for this movie have accentuated to the point of indecent exploitation. The story of Mary clawing her way to the top of the ranks of the New York City pop music megastar echelon while simultaneously enduring the daily doldrums of high school is basically retarded, and the actor playing Mary's high-school love interest is clearly a fag-in-waiting, but this quasi-musical (it's for kids) is riveting because, again, Lohan's breasts are really, really juicy. (CHRISTOPHER FRIZZELLE)
The Cooler
In The Cooler, director Wayne Kramer has managed to give audiences something all too rare in films these days: a sexy scene that not only causes the audience to flush, but makes sense to them as well. But the film itself feels cluttered and unfocused, especially as it limps toward a ridiculous climax. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights
Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights works hard to drench its viewers with all the hot Latin passion they can handle. The end result: the tripiest tripe in Tripetown. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
The Dreamers
Bertolucci's film fails on nearly every front it engages; messy and confused, the picture annoys when it should inspire, frustrates when we wish it would fascinate, and its NC-17 release, though splendid to see, will most likely flounder. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Eurotrip
Both homophobic and homoerotic (there are more penises in this movie than you'll find in a straight porno), this playful teen comedy is actually funny at times, throwing a bevy of gags at the wall (incest jokes, Hitler jokes, Pope jokes, fag jokes, S&M jokes, and even a little mime skit). Some stick and keep things moving at a pleasant clip. (JOSH FEIT)
* The Fog of War
War is never a clean affair, and looking back on Vietnam--even with a firsthand guide such as the film's subject, Robert McNamara--it appears no cleaner. Some have complained about McNamara's refusal to fully admit his guilt--they seem to want him to apologize for the whole affair. No such words appear to be coming from the former secretary of defense, but what he offers instead is in some ways more interesting. McNamara is quite obviously riddled with guilt about Vietnam, which was a pitiful tragedy. As The Fog of War artfully shows us, McNamara is now a pitiful, tragic figure himself. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Girl with a Pearl Earring is stuffy to a fault, no matter how many shots of Scarlett Johansson's pout director Peter Webber can fit in, and the final tally falls somewhere between the best of Merchant Ivory and the worst of Merchant Ivory. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Good Bye Lenin!
See review this issue.
Hidalgo
Hidalgo screams Disney with its Wild West (and East, although it was actually shot in Morocco and Africa) adventure, and especially the hammy relationship between Frank Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen) and his horse, who could easily play Mr. Ed if called upon for the upcoming remake of the '60s television series. Whenever Hopkins makes a fool of himself, Hidalgo the Wise raises his eyebrows, or snorts, and even bleeds if the mood calls for it, making Hidalgo quite possibly Mortensen's most romantic film to date. (KATHLEEN WILSON)
House of Sand and Fog
House of Sand and Fog is about many things, including stature and safety, racism and compassion, history and addiction. What it is not about, sadly, is subtle directing. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
In America
Director Jim Sheridan always turns up the emotion in his films, but at least his earlier movies took place in faraway Ireland. When all this emotion is suddenly close to home and out of its usual cultural environment, it's rather obnoxious and exasperating. Like a truck whose brakes have been tampered with, the emotion in this movie rolls uncontrollably down a steep road, swerving from side to side, until it finally hits a big tree. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Last Samurai
We have all seen The Last Samurai before when it was called Gladiator, or Lawrence of Arabia, or Dances with Wolves, and because of this, all the film can offer is the sight of Tom Cruise wielding a lengthy sword--a thought sure to excite fans of childish metaphor, but they may be the only ones. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Latter Days
See review this issue.
* Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
After greeting the first two films with slack-jawed reverence, I found myself viewing the third with a kind of grumpy anticipation. What I soon discovered, however, was that the begrudging-ness of my affection for the film was no match for Peter Jackson's swashbuckling craft. If this is just a fantasy, Jackson seems to say, it's going to deliver on every level available. (SEAN NELSON)
* Lost In Translation
Lost in Translation is a tiny movie, as light as helium and draped upon the thinnest of plots. It is as close to a miracle as you're likely to get this year. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Love Actually
"Trite" doesn't begin to describe Love Actually. (JENNIFER MAERZ)
* Master and Commander
If Master and Commander sounds soundly square, that's because square is exactly what the film is; massive and solidly made, Peter Weir's picture is a throwback, of sorts, to the works of David Lean, delivering the sort of rousing, smart, and earnest adventure rarely seen nowadays. Big and loud, thrilling and expensive, it is the type of film that only major Hollywood studios can produce. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Miracle
The prominent display of muscular young men achieving glory through physical exertion is not the only way in which sports movies are like pornography. The other big similarity lies in audience expectations; because the destination is a foregone conclusion in both forms, the pleasure of watching has got to be all about the journey. Miracle is good because it delivers a solid 90 minutes of credible buildup to a finale that is a matter of public record. (SEAN NELSON)
Monsieur Ibrahim
Had the movie remained within the limits of its basic plot, and stayed enclosed within this vibrant section of Paris (the busy narrow street; the boy's dark, book-packed apartment; the bright piazza where a teen girl practices American dance moves; and the small but well-stocked store), it would have been perfectly charming. But instead, the director, Franÿois Dupeyron, wanted something more than all he had--a warm relationship that develops between two people who come from opposing religions, ages, and races. This something more that the director wanted to squeeze out of the modest scenario is a major statement, a declaration about the fate of all mankind. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
* Monster
There are many things that work in Monster, beginning with the much-praised performance by its lead, Charlize Theron. Saddled with 20 extra pounds, buried beneath grime and makeup, Theron is outright amazing. However, on the whole, the picture is so bleak and depressing that it is nearly intolerable. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
* My Architect
My Architect isn't really about architecture, nor even about Louis I. Kahn himself, except insofar as the late master builder and his immortal buildings remain an enigma to his son Nathaniel, the filmmaker behind this extraordinary documentary. Nathaniel Kahn's film is about the void created by a father's absence from his children's lives, and the way that void is continually filled and depleted by the father's reputation. More specifically, My Architect questions the conceit that artistic genius needn't be beholden to petty human strictures like family. Complicating matters is the (well-documented, apparently unarguable) fact that, unlike most fathers who abandon their wives, lovers, and kids for the sake of their art, Louis I. Kahn actually was a genius. (SEAN NELSON)
Mystic River
For all the "inexorability" and "meditation" of its violence, Mystic River feels desperately contrived. (SEAN NELSON)
* Osama
The Taliban in Osama are relentlessly cruel to women, and this is why the film is so impressive and courageous; the director, Siddiq Barmak, so wants to get to the essence of suffering--to precisely what a moment in suffering feels like to the accursed--that it never seems to have a border, a point at which it began and will end. Suffering is, by its nature, eternal. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
The Passion of the Christ
Under Mel Gibson's direction, there is not a whiff of threat in Jim Caviezel's Jesus, and once all the blood has dried, the major villains are little more than mindless monsters, with the Jews, in the end, receiving the brunt of the blame. Because of this, Jesus himself loses most of his humanity as well, and causes The Passion of the Christ to lose its effectiveness for anyone beyond rigid believers. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
* The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Initially, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised was meant to be a simple profile of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez--a headstrong brown man who has the balls of a bull, the air of a visionary, and the courage of a madman. While filming, though, Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain suddenly found themselves documenting, on April 12, 2002, the fall of a president besieged by his right-wing (and evidently CIA-supported) opponents. Chavez is defiant at first, but then surrenders, not because he is scared but because he doesn't want blood to be shed. And this is the truth that The Revolution Will Not Be Televised brings to light, a truth that was pretty much ignored/obscured by CNN and other American news sources: Chavez does not see himself as the most important human in Venezuela--if such were the case he would have fought to the death to stay in power. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Secret Window
From horror monarch Stephen King comes this story of messy divorce and every writer's worst nightmare--being accused of plagiarism by a rampaging madman.
Something's Gotta Give
Do you really want to see Jack Nicholson's bare ass? (EMILY HALL)
Spartan
Sinister plots at the White House, the president's daughter gets kidnapped--it's one big, fat West Wing episode, care of David Mamet.
Starsky & Hutch
Despite my high praise for Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, Starsky & Hutch is not a great success. It's barely a marginal success--funny Ha, not funny Ha Ha. Far too obvious on many occasions, often derailed by Ben Stiller's overreaching, the film as a whole is little more than predictable fluff. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)
Touching the Void
I'm not sure if Joe Simpson and Simon Yates are still active mountaineers, but it is clear that just speaking about their famous climb in this drama-documentary, detailing it in that near-formal language which distinguishes professional mountaineers from amateurs, gives them a pleasure that is satanic in its size and intensity. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
* The Triplets of Belleville
Writer-director-animator Sylvain Chomet invokes the same absurdly entertaining nostalgia that Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro tapped into for Delicatessen and City of Lost Children. The world Chomet has created contains the same deadpan sadness that lies at the base of those films--the world may be a cold and lonely place, but with a little inventiveness you can prosper. (ANDY SPLETZER)
Twisted
Nothing in Philip Kaufman's thriller Twisted is worth recommending. It's set in San Francisco and concerns an alcoholic cop (Ashley Judd), whose father killed himself after killing her mother. She was only six when this happened, and now the tragedy looms over her life like a dark cloud over the city of San Francisco. However, she has a father figure in the proud police commissioner, Samuel L. Jackson, who knew her parents and has brought her up to become what her real father ultimately failed to be, a good cop. The police commissioner also likes to drink wine; indeed, wine has a leading role in this depthless film. After being promoted to homicide, Judd is handed her first case, which by sheer coincidence involves solving the murders of men she has had one-night stands with. Yes, she sleeps around; yes, she likes her sex rough and with all the risks that a condom might protect her from. Because of the freaky sex, and a serial killer who is darkly connected to her unsafe habits, Twisted has several similarities with two other equal bad films, Jane Campion's In The Cut and Mathieu Kassovitz's Gothika. (CHARLES MUDEDE)
Welcome to Mooseport
Coming down off a presidency can be hard, especially if your hometown is Mooseport, Maine (or--cross your fingers--Crawford, Texas).
