ANGELA'S ASHES -- Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, others
ARAB FILM FESTIVAL -- Broadway Performance Hall, Little Theatre, Henry Art Gallery
DOWN TO YOU -- Meridian 16, Metro, others
THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN -- Egyptian
THE GAMBLER -- Grand Illusion
LA CIUDAD (THE CITY) -- Varsity Calendar
PLAY IT TO THE BONE -- Meridian 16, Metro, others
TITUS -- various theaters
TOPSY-TURVY -- Broadway Market
AMERIKAN PASSPORT -- 911 Media Arts
BEST OF BRITISH FILM -- Seattle Art Museum
THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO DE LA CRUZ -- Consolidated Works
DOWN BY LAW -- Little Theatre
INDEPENDENT EXPOSURE -- Speakeasy
MAX OPHULS RETROSPECTIVE -- Grand Illusion
OUTSIDE IN: NEW CHINESE FILM -- Seattle Art Museum
January 28 -- The Flowers of Shanghai, Isn't She Great, Eye of the Beholder, Hamlet (old version)
February 4 -- Scream 3, Saragossa Manuscript, Onegin, West Beirut, Gun Shy, Simpatico
*42 Up
Michael Apted has been filming a bunch of Brits every seven years, ever since they were seven years old. Now they're 42. Wow. Thurs Jan 20 at 4:15, 7, 9:45. Varsity Calendar
Alaska: Spirit of the Wild
More of a nature documentary than a ghost story. Omnidome
*All About My Mother
Pedro Almodovar's highly acclaimed new film, a mature look at women (with the obligatory drag queen). Thurs Jan 20 at 5:15, 7:30, 9:45. Egyptian
Amazon
An IMAX examination of the lush forests and exotic animals of the Amazon river basin. Omnidome
Amerikan Passport
When I met the director of this documentary, Reed Paget, during the film festival, he was unhappy that I wrote a rather unflattering review of his movie. He demanded an explanation, so I told him that I thought his movie -- in which he toured, with his video camera, political hot-spots like China, Russia, and South Africa in the late '80s and early '90s -- was unoriginal and unenlightening. His answer to my criticism was that the film was made for Americans, who, as we all know, are ignorant about the outside world. It was not made for someone like me, a foreigner who demands a little more than the average American. We agreed to disagree. But later I learned that while at the Chicago Under-ground Film Festival he described me as an Oxford-educated African, too well-to-do to appreciate the importance of his gritty documentary, which filmed the big events from a populist perspective. He's so wrong: I was educated at Fairhaven in Bellingham. The rest I agree with. Fri Jan 21 at 8; $5. (Charles Mudede) 911 Media Arts
Angela's Ashes
In a miserable, Depression-era America and then, woefully, the slums of Ireland, Frank McCourt watches his mother Angela (Emily Watson) suffer while three of his siblings die in squalor and his ne'er-do-well father (Robert Carlyle) drinks away their money and, with time, his own wounded soul. Though Alan Parker's film provides vivid, loving re-creations of almost all of the most cherished passages from McCourt's best-selling reminiscence, Angela's Ashes is curiously unmoving in cinematic terms. It's a fine film that seems strangely static; it has all of the book's drama and almost none of its own -- though Watson's stoic sadness could not be better suited to the material, and there are great degrees of love and confusion in Carlyle's pained silences. Better still are all of the child actors. The film ends up doing justice to a devastating book without being devastating itself. (Steve Wiecking) Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, others
Anna and the King
Thailand hates it, the movie-going public is indifferent, and Jodie Foster has since decided not to star in the sequel to Silence of the Lambs. What else can go wrong? Cinerama, Factoria, Metro
Any Given Sunday
Oliver Stone takes on football, with all the pomp and bombast you'd expect. Starring Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, and a surprisingly good Jamie Foxx. Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro
*Arab Film Festival
The Fourth Arab Film Festival is back in town this week, with a compelling program of films and documentaries from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, and the United States. A major component of this year's series is the retrospective devoted to Egyptian filmmaker/indie Arab cinema star Youssef Chahine; his films The Sparrow, The Land, Cairo Station, Alexandria Why?, and Alexandria Again and Forever will be screened. An excit-ing opportunity to experience a culture which is so often misrepresented in the media. Fri-Thurs Jan 21-27 at the Broadway Performance Hall, Henry Art Gallery, and the Little Theatre. $8 per movie; call 322-2564 for advance tickets; or visit www.arabfilm. com. Little Theatre
*Being John Malkovich
It's the best film of 1999 and it has a monkey in it. Coincidence? We don't think so. Meridian 16, Varsity
BEST OF BRITISH FILM
SAM's series of British comedies and dramas continues with David Lean's 1944 London family drama This Happy Breed (Thurs Jan 20 at 7:30); the following week, it's Lean's Blithe Spirit (1944), adapted from Noël Coward's play and starring Rex Harrison (Thurs Jan 27 at 7:30). Call 625-8900 for more info. Seattle Art Museum
Boys Don't Cry
Bellingham native Hilary Swank deserves every accolade she's received for her portrayal of Brandon Teena, a boy born in a girl's body who was killed by hateful people who couldn't, or just wouldn't, understand that. Broadway Market
The Cider House Rules
Based on the John Irving novel, a period piece about life and abortion. Starring sexy child-actor Tobey Maguire. Guild 45th, Redmond Town Center, Uptown
Cradle Will Rock
Tim Robbins' messy but entertaining look at Orson Welles' political struggles with the titular play in 1936. Harvard Exit
*The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz
Mexican director Luis Buñuel's 1955 "tale of reckless abandon" is the first in a two-part series that pays tribute to the serial killer comedies(!) of the '40s and '50s. In Criminal Life, Archibaldo, who feels a persistent urge to murder, is frustratingly stopped every time he tries to kill someone: His intended victims always die first somehow! Will the lovely Laetitia -- a soon-to-be-victim -- help him get rid of his violent compulsions and see the error of his ways? Fri-Sun Jan 21-23 at 8; call 650-4917 for details. Consolidated Works
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
The title rhymes. That's funny. It stars Rob Schneider, the "Copy Guy" from Saturday Night Live. That's not funny. Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center
Dogma
Potty-mouthed writer/director Kevin Smith takes on faith and poop-monsters in his love letter to the Catholic religion. City Centre
*Down by Law
Moody indie master Jim Jarmusch's tale about a pimp, an unemployed DJ, and an Italian tourist (John Lurie, Tom Waits, and Roberto Benigni) scheming to escape from their prison cell. Thurs-Fri Jan 20-21 at 5:30, 7:30, 9:30. Little Theatre
Down to You
Freddie Prinze, Jr. (She's All That) and Julia Stiles (10 Things I Hate about You) join forces to make yet another lame teen movie. Meridian 16, Metro, others
The Emperor and the Assassin
Chen Kaige's (Farewell My Concubine) epic historical romance, starring the beautiful Gong Li. Fri-Thurs Jan 21-27 at (Sat-Sun 1:30), 4:45, 8. Reviewed this issue. Egyptian
*The End of the Affair
Self-tortured Ralph Fiennes stars with the amazing Julianne Moore and the beleagered Stephen Rea in this story about a love triangle and God. (Bruce Reid) Pacific Place 11, Seven Gables
The Eruption of Mount
St. Helens
The mountain blew up in 1980, and has been blowing up on film ever since. Omni-dome
Fantasia 2000
The latest Walt Disney sweeping-animation-and-classical-music extravaganza, this time in thrilling 3D. Bring your own mind-altering substances. Pacific Science Center
Galaxy Quest
The cast of a Star Trek-like show are recruited by a (presumably good) alien race to save them from a (presumably bad) alien race. Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center
The Gambler
In 1866, the great Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky dictated a novel to a stenographer in order to meet a fast-approaching deadline with an unscrupulous publisher, lest he lose the rights to all of his past and future books. What they wrote together turned into The Gambler. He was 45, she was 25 years younger, and against all odds they fell in love and eventually married. This is a great story, full of cinematic potential -- potential that is unfortunately squandered by overacting, a script that is too abstractly stagy, and a baroque directing style full of showy dissolves and other distracting cinematic tricks. Hungarian director Karoly Makk balances the story of the writing of the novel with re-creations of chapters of the novel itself, yet neither element quite works. It's a shame because, handled properly, this movie could have been great. Fri-Thurs Jan 21-27 at (Sat-Sun 3), 5, 7, 9. (Andy Spletzer) Grand Illusion
Girl, Interrupted
Director and screenwriter James Mangold (Cop Land, Heavy) makes an authoritative attempt at adapting Susanna Kaysen's 1993 memoir about her experiences in a mental institution, offering us a flawed but surprisingly faithful version of Kaysen's struggles with emotional turbulence. Young, distracted Susanna (Winona Ryder) is all darting eyes and raw skin, suffocating in stiff, suburban Massachusetts during the late '60s. An attempted suicide later, Susanna is promptly sent to Clay-moore -- a mental institution where she is expected to recover discreetly, far from the eyes of her parents' friends. Ryder gives a convincing performance, though her acting feels familiar and predictable, but it's the amazing and completely believable supporting cast -- Clea Duvall as a pathological liar, Brittany Murphy as a sexually abused anorexic, Elisabeth Moss as a girl who tried to burn her face off, and Angelina Jolie as a sociopath -- that breathes life into an otherwise dreary, self-indulgent hospital stay. (Min Liao) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Metro, Northgate
The Green Mile
Tom Hanks' death row is forever changed when a magical prisoner is admitted. (Andy Spletzer) Factoria, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center, Varsity
The Hurricane
Norman Jewison's third, and hopefully final, "problem film" (his first two being 1966's In the Heat of the Night and 1984's A Soldier's Story) is his least successful. In the Heat of the Night had Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier in top form, A Soldier's Story boasted a great black cast, but with the exception of dependable Denzel Washington, The Hurricane is marked by weak performances. The movie is based on a true story about Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a star boxer who was framed for multiple murders by a racist cop. Hurricane (played by Denzel) spent the next 20 years behind bars, where he wrote a book, thought a lot about the nature of American racism, and had a song devoted to him by Bob Dylan. The only interesting take this film has on his story is that it shamelessly portrays white Canadians as morally superior to their barbarian, gun-toting brethren south of their border -- a myth they have treasured since the days of slavery. (Charles Mudede) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree
INDEPENDENT EXPOSURE
One great thing about digital video is that it allows people to easily indulge in their obsessions. The best piece in this month's Independent Exposure screening at the Speakeasy, "One More Thing," does just that. In this tribute to Columbo, Russ and Taly Johnson went through a ton of episodes and collected the very moment where Columbo is about to leave a suspect, then returns to ask "one more thing." A brilliant distillation of the show. Other worthy shorts this month include the rich textures and tone of Veronica Hunter's (misspelled) "Catapillar"; the smart, but hard to describe, geometric animations of Ed Counts' "Zoetrobics"; the horror movies and '50s kitsch of Mark O'Connell's "Happy Monday"; and the fragmented storytelling of an otherwise traditional tale of teen isolation, "Debutante," by Mollie Jones. Most disappointing was "Das Klown (the Clown)," which is too smug and self-satisfied with its slide show format. As always, a mixed bag, but definitely worth checking out. Thurs Jan 27 at 7:30, $4. (Andy Spletzer) Speakeasy
Island of the Sharks
Them there's SHARKS on the IMAX screen! Swim with them at your peril. Pacific Science Center
*La Ciudad (The City)
David Riker's portrait of present-day Latino immigrants in New York, and the challenges they face when dealing with life in a strange new world. A favorite on the film festival circuit. Fri-Thurs Jan 21-27 at (Sat-Sun 1, 3), 5, 7, 9. See also Stranger Suggests. Varsity Calendar
Liberty Heights
The Baltimore trilogy of Barry Levinson (Diner, Avalon) concludes with this beautifully shot movie that touches on racism and anti-Semitism. Uptown
Magnolia
Paul Thomas Anderson proves once again, after Boogie Nights, that he is an excellent filmmaker and a terrible screenwriter. Why, oh why, does he insist on writing his own scripts? In Magnolia, Anderson challenges himself and the audience right off the bat by introducing a seemingly irrelevant framing device, followed by nearly a dozen characters. He relentlessly pushes the camera forward in scene after scene, while the soundtrack sometimes gets so excited it jumps ahead of the image. This adrenaline high carries the film well into its second hour (of three!). Then Anderson tries to flesh out his characters, and the movie grinds to a complete halt. Like Tarantino, Anderson is adept at lifting good bits from other people's movies and making them his own; unlike Tarantino, he can't write a decent monologue to save his life. As for the themes of love and regret and the need to forgive, they all fall flat thanks to the lack of three-dimensional characters. (Andy Spletzer) Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Pacific Place 11
Man on the Moon
Underperforming, shallow, yet still entertaining movie about the off-putting comedian Andy Kaufman. Starring Jim Carrey. Aurora Cinema Grill, Meridian 16, Metro, Redmond Town Center
Mansfield Park
A poor girl is sent to live with wealthy relatives where she becomes the most popular girl there, thanks to her lower-class enthusiasm and upper-class pride. Based on the novel by Jane Austen. Harvard Exit
*MAX OPHULS RETROSPECTIVE
This series comes to a close with Lola Montès (1955), Ophuls' last -- and some say greatest -- film, about the passionate, tumbling-roller-coaster life of the femme fatale/circus member/courtesan who made some bad choices and loved some bad men, but had her bright moments and triumphs nonetheless. Sat-Sun Jan 22-23 at noon. See review in Stranger Suggests. Grand Illusion
Next Friday
Those who enjoyed Friday and Players Club will not be disappointed by Next Friday. The story is just as bad. It's about an escaped prisoner who wants to kill Ice Cube, so Cube's father (John Witherspoon) sends him off to the safe suburbs to stay with his uncle, who bought a big house there after winning a million bucks in the lottery. But he soon learns that his uncle is about to lose his house (back taxes) and needs money ($3,200) to keep it. So it's up to Cube to save the day. Now I must make a confession. This film is way too crude for my tastes; there is not one drop of intelligence (or beauty) in the whole damn thing, and Cube's depiction of women is more than deplorable -- they are either stupid, or horny, or liars, or all three. And as for his portrayal of Chicanos, no white director could get away with that, and, in this regard, I think Cube should not be exempt from harsh criticism simply because he is from "tha hood." (Charles Mudede) Redmond Town Center, Uptown
*OTTO PREMINGER DOUBLE FEATURE
Enjoy the classic Bonjour Tristesse, starring Jean Seberg and David Niven on the French Riviera, then stay for the little-seen but just as classic Bunny Lake Is Missing. Where did Bunny go? You have to see it to find out. Thurs Jan 20. Grand Illusion
*OUTSIDE IN: NEW CHINESE FILM
This series of modern/avant-garde Chinese films continues with A Confucian Confusion (1994), former Seattleite Edward Yang's comedy about change and adjustment in the modern Taiwanese economic scene. Wed Jan 26 at 7:30, $6. Seattle Art Museum
Play It to the Bone
Thanks to some shady fight promoters, two washed-up L.A. middleweights (Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas) are given a shot to box on a pay-per-view undercard bout; the catch being they have to make it to Vegas that very evening. Grabbing a ride with their former girlfriend (Lolita Davidovitch, playing director Ron Shelton's stock female "muse to the athlete" character), the three mind-fuck and bicker for much of this "boxing" movie before a single punch is thrown. The boxing segments are adequately done, and there are some insights to be gained regarding the highs and lows of professional fighting, but the two main characters are (I can't believe I'm saying this) too sympathetic. Boxing is about rooting for one person or the other, and here there's no one to root against. This leaves Play It to the Bone's exciting final match meta-phorically, if not figuratively, bloodless. In other words, it ain't no Rocky. (Wm. Steven Humphrey) Factoria, Meridian 16, Metro, Redmond Town Center
The Red House
Delmer Daves' crime drama about a man's efforts to keep people from discovering a "ghastly secret" hidden in a mysterious red building. Fri-Sat Jan 21-22 at 11. Grand Illusion
Sleepy Hollow
Johnny Depp plays Constable Ichabod Crane, sent to upstate New York in order to solve a rash of beheadings utilizing his newfangled "forensic science." A comedic period piece directed by Tim Burton. Aurora Cinema Grill
Snow Falling on Cedars
An island in the postwar Pacific Northwest is the setting for a murder trial that reunites reporter Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke) with Hatsue Miyamoto (Youki Kudoh), the great love of his young life, who was sent to a Japanese-American internment camp and now suffers besides her accused husband, Kazuo (Rick Yune). Hicks has created a truly stunning visual design for the story, weaving burnished memories into every gorgeously wounded frame. Still, what fells the film is its lack of a compelling center; it starts to bore you without anyone to carry its consuming passions. Smoking around its edges are intriguing details about the appalling treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II, but the romance that supposedly burns beneath all the pain of history is as remote as the hollowed cedar tree that acts as a touchstone for its lovers. (Steve Wiecking) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Metro, Pacific Place 11
*Stuart Little
Stuart Little is about a mouse who has to learn how to live in a family, but he has some major problems to solve. For example, a gang of cats tries to kill him, he gets caught in a washing machine, and he almost sinks in a boat race. Only someone as little as Stuart could get caught in those kinds of problems. The computer animation was fabulous! The clothes Stuart wore were great -- my mom wanted to get the pants. Michael J. Fox was a perfect choice to be Stuart Little, because Stuart is a funny mouse and Michael J. Fox is a funny guy. In some parts it's a little scary and intense, like Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, but I still think Stuart Little is a great movie for your whole family to see. (Sam Lachow, 9 years old) Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center
Supernova
In Event Horizon, the space crew comes across a magical sphere and it ends up being hell. In Barry Levinson's Sphere, an underwater research crew discovers a sphere and it ends up being a spoiled brat. In Supernova, a deep space ambulance/hospital comes across a sphere and it is very sexy. This is why Supernova is the better film: Nothing beats a sexy sphere. Though the film is uneven (one has the impression it was supposed to be as slow and as considered as Tarkovsky's Solaris before it was recut by the studio), it is still a beautiful film to watch. Ice blue in color, it has gorgeous sets, a sensuous spaceship, a computer named Sweetie that's coming to terms with her nascent erotic impulses, two great looking leads (James Spader and Angela Bassett -- whose floating sex scene is regrettably short), and, most importantly, the best "jump" to hyper-space sequence I have ever seen on the big screen. (Charles Mudede) Aurora Cinema Grill, Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Pacific Place 11
Sweet and Lowdown
Woody Allen casts Sean Penn as a self-absorbed musician who falls in love with a mute. Metro
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Anthony Minghella's last film, The English Patient, earned the writer/director quite a lot of praise and a shelf's worth of awards for how ingeniously he'd adapted a seemingly unfilmable novel. His latest film deserves no less, though for subtler reasons. Patricia Highsmith's classic crime novel The Talented Mr. Ripley (1954) succeeds best as an unforgettably empathetic portrait of the mind and thoughts of Thomas Ripley -- forger, connoisseur, and one of the most fascinating socio- paths in literature. The movie version of The Talented Mr. Ripley captures both the sparkling surface and the ominous rumblings below, which is why it surpasses an earlier, contemporaneous Ripley adaptation from 1960: Rene Clement's attractive but shallow Purple Noon. (Bruce Reid) Factoria, Neptune, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center, Southcenter
Titus
Prideful General Titus (Anthony Hopkins) ritually sacrifices the eldest son of pleading, defeated Goth Queen, Tamora (a ferocious Jessica Lange), and sets in motion a dizzyingly vicious hurricane of vengeance. What's most remarkable about Julie Taymor's film is her ability to tell Shakespeare's thrilling, violent tale while successfully damning the cruel legacy of human nature; she has her meat and eats it, too. Her carnivorous ensemble, meanwhile, tears into it with drooling finesse. Almost everyone in the large cast has a juicy bit, including a preening Alan Cumming as an infantile emperor and Harry Lennix as Aaron, the spiteful, oppressed Moor. If the film sometimes seems caught within the frame, like a series of psychedelic set-pieces on a particularly tractable stage, it's more than made up for with the force of Taymor's vision. Her astonishing final flourish sees nightmarish tumult as the mindless extension of a child's game, and turns Titus into a cry for a better world. (Steve Wiecking) Cinerama
*Topsy-Turvy
Mike Leigh's latest. A three-hour comedic opus about Gilbert & Sullivan. Reviewed this issue. Broadway Market
*Toy Story 2
The second highest-grossing animated film of all time (behind The Lion King). Woody and Buzz take on issues of death and collectability. Grand Alderwood, Metro, Pacific Place 11
