COMING SOON

About Adam, Faithless, Me You Them, Memento, Series 7, Someone Like You, Spy Kids, The Tailor of Panama, Tomcats


NEW THIS WEEK

*Berlin-Cinema
Berlin-Cinema especially borrows much of its style and tone from Wenders' Wings of Desire--but director Gloor-Fadel actually does a much better job of portraying the German city as a land of ghosts, haunted by its own past; by its current mania for constructing boxlike buildings devoid of history; and, fortunately, by filmmakers--the only profession, as one of Godard's epigrammatic ruminations has it, that "can show the historians or judges where to look." (Bruce Reid) Wed only. Little Theatre

The Brothers
Just in time for the economic recession comes this tale of four upwardly mobile African American yuppies who must "cope." Opens Fri. Metro

Debut
A proletarian amateur actor, whose credits include the lead role in a community theater production of Baba Yaga, assays the character of Joan of Arc in this award-winning 1970 film from Moscow. Sat-Sun. Grand Illusion

*Driver 23
See Stranger Suggests. A real-life Spinal Tap, and perhaps the best cinematic adaptation of Don Quixote to date. Wed only. JBL Theater at EMP

*Gummo
See Stranger Suggests. The grade "F" (Seattle P-I), "zero stars" (Seattle Times) masterpiece returns for a three-day run. Mon-Thurs. Grand Illusion

*GUY MADDIN DOUBLE FEATURE
Directed by Canadian genius Guy Maddin, Careful is a beautifully tragic comedy of repression. Filmed with the old-fashioned constraints of early sound films (large gestures, post-dubbed sound, intertitles, and tinted b/w film), it's the kind of film that you've never seen before--unless you've already seen it before, in which case, like me, you will probably try to be first in line to see it again. His follow-up feature, Twilight of the Ice Nyphs is easily as startling. (Andy Spletzer) Fri-Sun. Grand Illusion

Hamlet
Kenneth Branaugh, in his unabridged production of Hamlet, tries to pack too much into his luggage set. Ironically, the film's four hour life span ends up feeling cramped with the actors, most of whom are household names, spraying out verse like rapid fire from an automatic weapon. As expected, the costumes are ornate, the palace is grandiose, the scenes are pompous, the filming aerodynamic, and the rhetoric epiphanic and exquisite. (Suzy Lafferty) Mon-Tues. Egyptian

*Hard-Boiled
Hard Boiled is one of the most exciting action movies ever made. Chow Yun-Fat turns in a magnificently assured performance as Tequila, a hardened flat foot, pitted against the powerful Hong Kong gun smuggling rings that killed his partner. Under the superlative direction of John Woo, the movie's ultraviolence is indulgently stylized to preposterously sexy proportions, culminating in an over-the-top 30-minute finale so exhilarating that it encroaches on the boundaries of physical pleasure. Phew, it's all too much stimulation for me, really. I reckon I'll have a bowl of oatmeal. (Kudzai Mudede) Fri-Sat. Egyptian

Heartbreakers
Reviewed this issue. Sigourney Weaver brings her formidable acting talents and heavily airbrushed face to this comedy about a pair of con artists. Opens Fri. Factoria, Meridian 16, Metro, Redmond Town Center

Independent Exposure
It's an uneven lineup of Independent Exposure this month, but there are some utter gems that stand out in that much sharper relief. Debate, the opening short, is a distilled vision of the 2000 presidential debates. Reduced to their soundbytes and defensive quips, both candidates manage to once again remind us of why we'd be no better off either way. The second short, A Good Man is Hard to Find is a remarkable piece of work. An elliptical portrait of the filmmaker's friend, the film bursts forth with insight and a distinctively British wit. Finally, Ari Gold's closing piece, Culture, has the good sense to be one damn good minute long. (Jamie Hook) Thurs only. Speakeasy

The Last Bath
Also known as Dark Dreams, this is a psychedelic porn film made in Seattle 25 years ago. Here's the plot as best as I understand it: a man--who works in a photography darkroom--lives on a Lake Union houseboat, and he dreams about getting and giving oral sex. Hitchhiking home along Aurora one day, two nurses pick him up and bring him to a country cabin and have sex with him, which may also be a dream. Often these dreams and fantasies are accompanied by freaky music with lots of reverb, and surreal scenes colored like outtakes from the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Recently unearthed director Karl Krogstad will be on hand for both screenings. (Andy Spletzer) Fri-Sat. Grand Illusion

The Lifestyle
This film shows what no Hollywood feature would dare: average Americans having sex. Welcome to the world of swingers, those over-40 empty-nesters who discreetly hold mixers in order to swap partners. Like any subculture, they have their own conventions and their own crazy rules (female bisexuals are g-r-r-r-eat, but male bisexuals would be asked to leave). If you've ever wondered what happens to folks who place ads in The Stranger's Alternatives personals, this is the film for you. (Gillian G. Gaar) Thurs-Sat. Little Theatre

Perte-De-Signal
A collection of dull, ponderous, boring video shorts that only occasionally manage to find any kind of a voice at all. It is widely known that Canada is not considered a terribly "dynamic" country, but these films surprised even me! The second short, Mechanical Rodeo, features a woman rolling her eyes for about three minutes. That's all--just a woman, rolling her eyes, and it's the best one of the bunch. That should tell you something. (Jamie Hook) Fri only. 911 Media Arts

Say It Isn't So
Produced by Bobby Farelly, this film, it seems, has absolutely no idea of what made previous gross-out comedies (Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary) successful, which was to some extent a surreal lack of resonance that surrounded extreme absurdities and allowed them to co-exist seamlessly with a movie's landscape.The premise here is that the characters of Chris Kline and Heather Graham fall in love only to discover that they are brother and sister. Kline later finds out that they are not, and sets of in search of his sweetheart. Take my word for it: I've seen mad cows with a more refined sense of comedic timing. (Kudzai Mudede) Opens Fri. Metro

Screenwriter's Salon
Cinema Seattle's Screenwriter's Salon this month features a new script from Abra Chernik. Eva Nightingale is the story of a young artist suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, and her mentally disturbed older brother. Why this script? Well, the story is set in and around Seattle. That's why. Mon only. Richard Hugo House

SUBlimina
A collection of films exploring the the evolution of drug films. Among the seven titles are the landmarks Marijuana, in which Sonny Bono talks turkey--hilariously--about the evil weed, and LSD: Insight or Insanity?, a typically cautionary look at the drug that made many of us who we are today. Fri-Sun. Consolidated Works

The Taste of Others
Reviewed this issue. The French are up to their farcical ways again in this bubbly ensemble comedy. Opens Fri. Varsity Calendar

THREE COLORS TRILOGY
Kieslowski's widely regarded trilogy is uneven, and indeed compares unfavorably with his more profound Dekalog, but it certainly holds its own. Blue is all fractured color and truncated dialogues; a fever that builds to a sweet dream. White finds Kieslowski oddly comic, and indeed is the best film of the bunch. It is also the most overtly political. Red is perhaps the most uneven, with its overly wrought emphasis on fate and the need for human compassion. Still, it is also the most gorgeously filmed. (Jamie Hook) Fri-Sun. Egyptian

*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. (Steve Wiecking) Wed-Thurs. Egyptian

Too Much Sleep
An awful piece of cinema about boring, stupid people doing irrelevant things, Too Much Sleep is about as painful a way to spend 89 minutes as I can imagine. A night watchman must enter the suburban ghost-world of New Jersey in order to find his stolen gun. Of course, this being a "quirky" American independent film, he meets all manner of urban eccentrics, and eventually sleeps with a requisite pretty woman. Watching it all is like having the inside of your skull scraped out by a tribe of monkeys, all of whom are retarded. Avoid. (Jamie Hook) Opens Fri. Uptown


CONTINUING RUNS

15 Minutes
Witless cliché, cardboard acting, implausible plot-- all are evident from the get go. This is writer/director John Herzfeld's second Hollywood movie (his first was Six Days in the Valley); still, it wouldn't be too radical at this stage to suggest that a public stoning lingers somewhere in this man's future. (Kudzai Mudede) Factoria, Metro, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

Before Night Falls
In Julian Schnabel's 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

Blow Dry
The British Hair Federation decides to host its annual hair dressing competition in a town that just happens to be the home of a legendary hair-cutting virtuoso, played by Alan Rickman. Blow Dry could top off a landfill with the carcasses of its failed jokes and the plot largely plagiarizes that of Strictly Ballroom. (Suzy Lafferty) Meridian 16, Metro

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 plane crash strands him somewhere in the South Pacific. One comes away from the film feeling a trifle molested. (Jamie Hook) Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16

Caveman's Valentine
Caveman's Valentine is a classical whodunit about a madman named Romulus Ledbetter (Samuel L. Jackson) who lives in a cave in Central Park. The process of solving a murder mystery leads not only to the person who committed the murder, but more importantly to a warm, glowing place where the mad father is finally forgiven by his bitter daughter. (Charles Mudede) 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

Company Man
Milquetoast Alan Quimp must fend off his ball-breaking wife Daisy and her tycoon dad by pretending he's a deep-cover CIA agent. Through a series of inexcusably silly accidents, Quimp becomes an actual secret agent in Cuba, moments before Castro takes over. Company Man sucks in so many ways, but the cast is clearly having such a damned good time, its sins scarcely merit Biblical outrage. (Kathleen Murphy) Uptown

*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. 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? (Charles Mudede) Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Oak Tree

Enemy at the Gates
Enemy at the Gates is the story of a Russian World War II sniper (Jude Law) and the German sniper (Ed Harris) who is sent to eliminate him. When the dueling snipers embark on a cat-and-mouse chase to assassinate each other, the movie becomes genuinely exciting. (Kudzai Mudede) Factoria, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center

Exit Wounds
Exit Wounds tells the story of how Steven Seagal, with the help of rapper DMX, cleans up a corrupt police precinct one bad cop and unattended jelly donut at a time. Steven Seagal has lost a bit of weight for this one and there is a lot of chemistry between he and his onscreen partner DMX. Unfortunately for DMX, however, the chemistry between Steven Seagal and any actor will always result in the organic compound that I like to refer to as shit. (Kudzai Mudede) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Northgate

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) Lewis & Clark, Pacific Place 11

Get Over It
Yet another reminder that while the youth of the Third-World prepare themselves with nuclear physics, political sciences, and developmental economics, our kids are just happily a-fuckin' in the bushes like there's no tomorrow. This time around said reminder comes in the form of a "laugh-a-minute-ride" with some plot about a young man getting dumped by his girlfriend and then falling for his best friend's sister. The truth is it's not actually too bad if you like this sort of thing. (Kudzai Mudede) Grand Alderwood, Oak Tree, 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, 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) Metro

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. 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 The Seventh Circle of Hell. (Kudzai Mudede) Factoria, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, 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

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. (Emily Hall) Guild 45th, Pacific Place 11

Quills
Quills seeks to rehabilitate the Marquis de Sade's image into that of Brave Soldier in the Noble Battle against Hypocrisy. Which not only flattens and dulls the film's subject, it also makes for one hell of a hypocritical movie in its own right. (Bruce Reid) Pacific Place 11, Varsity

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) 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) Lewis & Clark

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. The funniest part was David Arquette doing his great George Jefferson breakdance. (Maggie Brown, age 10) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, 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) 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

Sweet November
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 and thinking of hot dogs. Then he pops off his mill and bounds toward the microwave. Keanu pops it open 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) Pacific Place 11, Southcenter

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
Jennifer 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

When Brendan Met Trudy
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. 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) Uptown

The Widow of Saint~Pierre
In 1849, on Saint-Pierre, a French-ruled island off the Newfoundland coast, a sailor, after getting drunk and killing a man as a kind of stupid prank, is sentenced to death by guillotine. You couldn't ask for a more ready-made parable (based on the historical record, yet) of the horror of the death penalty, the inhuman machinery of the state, and the grandeur of the human spirit. (Richard T. Jameson) Harvard Exit

*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