American Pimp, Amores Perros, Beat Street, The Book of Life, Bridget Jones' Diary, Day For Night, Hit and Runway, Shadow Magic
The AdventureS of Joe Dirt
David Spade plays a radio DJ searching for his white trash parents. Kid Rock is in this movie. Opens Wed. Meridian 16
Along Came a Spider
Morgan Freeman's blight to prove that he is smarter than the criminally insane is explored in this thriller... again. Opens Fri. Metro
Angèle
An early film from Marcel Pagnol, this 1934 melodrama follows Angèle from Provence to Marseille as she navigates the path of love. Thurs April 5. Seattle Art Museum
THE BEST OF WIGGLYWORLD STUDIOS
Reviewed this issue. Eleven locally made short films, all projected on glorious 16mm film. And a tidbit: The first director up, Mike Walker, just finished a feature with Jeff Daniels (Chasing Sleep) due out this spring. So don't just sit there and pretend this city will never produce filmmakers: go support them! Thurs-Sun. Little Theatre
Blow
Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) makes another comeback attempt in this cocaine thriller, in which he plays a gay drug dealer. Ahh, but the film stars Johnny Depp, that lothario, as the man who brought the cartels stateside. Perhaps it is grand? Opens Fri. Factoria, Meridian 16, Varsity
*Bonjour Tristesse
See related article this issue. This film captures everything I love about life and cinema: sunshine, blue water, booze, music, fast cars, youth, beauty, and lots of wasted time. (Charles Mudede) Mon-Thurs. Grand Illusion
The Day I Became a Woman
Reviewed this issue. Three women's lives are assessed in this new feminist feature from the world's most important cinematic culture, Iran. Opens Fri. Uptown
The Dish
Here at last is a film that is about a radar dish and it really is about a radar dish! The huge dish, which is in the middle of Australia (which is another way of saying nowhere), is the star of the film. In fact, it overwhelms even the stars (Sam Neill, Patrick Wharburton) and the plot (which is about Australia's participation in the Appollo 11 moon mission of 1969). The movie begins with the dish and ends with the dish, and all of the actors and the plot are erased by the total presence of the dish. During the film, we get to see the dish from near and far; and to hear the deep groan of the dish, as it turns skywards in search of the missing astronauts. No leaks, no breaks, no digressions, just one obsession which fills up the entire screen, the greatest dish on Earth! (Charles Mudede) Opens Fri. Guild 45th
Family
A 1956 Chinese political drama telling the tale of three brothers exposing state corruption, joining revolutions, and having a grand time. Sun only. Seattle Asian Art Museum
Josie & The Pussycats
Cute girls in cat costumes in a band with a plot to take over the world? Run to the theaters--and keep on running! Opens Wed. Metro
Just Visiting
A 12th-century French nobleman and his manservant are magically transported to present-day Chicago. Opens Fri. Metro
Kingdom Come
Family man LL Cool J walks his panther right into his mother's living room in this new comedy about the importance of family. Opens Wed. Varsity
*Life is Sweet
Here is the mark of a great film: The first two times I watched it, I had to turn it off. This masterpiece from British director Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Topsy-Turvy) tells the tale of a working class family in a dreary suburb North of London. And it tells the story of life itself. Truly, the small world Leigh conjures up--the father's ongoing plans to open a rolling fish and chip stand; the mother's disastrous turn at waitressing at her friend's gourmet restaurant; the twin daughters' engaging love/hate--is as big and beautiful as life itself. And if the ugliness of small lives at first drive us away--they certainly did me--it is because Leigh knows that pride goeth before a fall, and to fall in love with this fantastic film, we must sacrifice. Just like life itself. (Jamie Hook) Fri only. Seattle Art Museum
Monologue
Russia's own version of The Graduate, this 1972 film tells the tale of a professor and his wayward daughter. Moscow was never the same. Sat-Sun. Grand Illusion
The Music Films of Robert Mugge
Join director Robert Mugge in person as he presents his two latest documentaries, Hellhounds on My Tail: the Afterlife of Robert Johnson and Rhythm and Bayous: A Road Map to Louisiana Music. Lots of great music. Wed March 11. JBL Theater at EMP
Newsreal
The pilot episode of a new, politically minded television show, featuring street-level investigation of charged issues. Fri only. Independent Media Center
Noches Estrelladas
This mysterious benefit for the "Washington Production Team"--a new group aimed at increasing Hollywood production locally--promises "a star-studded evening" where you can "mingle with some of Los Angeles' hottest producers and directors." Of course, the group fails to mention a single name. Fri only. Audio Visual Factory
PokémOn 3
The press kit for this film boasts that this is "the third big-screen installment of this infinitely popular series." Infinite means never-ending. Either they're lying, or we're doomed. Opens Fri. Metro
The Price of Milk
A good girl and a good boy live happily on a milk farm. A wicked girl persuades the good girl to behave badly as a test of the boy's love. Ho-ho-ho, much hilarity ensues. I have a pretty strong stomach for whimsy, so I could probably have stood the main plotline. But there's a subplot involving Rangi Motu (wonderful in Once Were Warriors) and a soccer team of nephews that took the movie over the top on my own personal droll-o-meter. Terrific art direction and set dressing, though, sort of bucolic meets Urban Outfitters, delicious combinations of pasture and funk. You could stick your fingers in your ears and just watch. (Barley Blair) Opens Fri. Broadway Market
*Princess Mononoke
As anyone who's seen a Hayao Miyazaki film will attest, the story you follow is secondary to the sights you behold. The craggy reality of his twisting tree trunks capped with windblown tufts of leaves; the weighty presence of the rocks, whether rough or slicked smooth by water; the breathtaking vividness of light when the clouds part; the crouched expectancy of animals at rest--all of these are rendered as gorgeously as any animation I've ever seen, and in fact make a better plea for ecological sanity than the sometimes heavy-handed script. (Bruce Reid) Fri-Sat Egyptian
*Project Grizzly
See Stranger Suggests. The heartwarming tale of a rugged Canadian mountain man and his bearproof suit. Fri-Sun. Grand Illusion
Spike and Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation
As a franchise promising the most revolting underground animation available, after the most recent Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation you can't help but wonder exactly how long ago its producers stopped giving a shit. Forty-five minutes of painfully gratuitous one-note gags are built around maybe four or five amusing shorts (two involving monkeys), and an amazing, brand-new piece by evil genius Don Hertzfeldt (Billy's Balloon), who again proves that "sick and twisted" can mean other, more inspired things than "toothless crack whore gives blowjob, expels fetus." (Jason Pagano) Opens Fri. Varsity
We Found It in the Basement
A collection of smut, action, and scenes in poor taste discovered in the basement of the Grand Illusion during a recent renovation. This is where scenes censored by Mormons with scissors end up. Fri-Sat. Grand Illusion
15 Minutes
15 Minutes is a crime drama/cop buddy/social commentary that doesn't establish its muddled manifesto with anything like the sort of swiftness it employs in merely establishing itself as a bad movie. (Kudzai Mudede) Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center
*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
The Brothers
The Brothers is a coming of age comedy/drama about four successful young black men, a sort of Waiting to Exhale for men. I saw on BET the other night that although the average life expectancy in America is 80 years, the life expectancy of a black man in America is 57 years. So if I do the math right, whereas this movie is two hours of insignificance in Whitey's run time, it's damn near three hours of Black time disappeared from my life. (Kudzai Mudede) Lewis & Clark, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center
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. The stupid simplicity with which Hanks is shown crafting his world so utterly subverts any but the most priapic observations that one comes away from the film feeling a trifle molested. (Jamie Hook) Grand Alderwood
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, Meridian 16, Metro, Redmond Town Center
*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? Simply amazing. (Charles Mudede) Lewis & Clark
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. And if the film is at times rather silly... well, it's from Britain and its a minor miracle that they even have running water out there let alone significant movies. (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: he's healthier, younger looking, his flexibility is once again bordering upon functional, and there is a lot of chemistry between him and his onscreen partner DMX. Not that the film is good: it's bad. (Kudzai Mudede) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Oak Tree
*Faithless
In Faithless, a white-haired, worn-faced filmmaker ("Bergman," in the credits) conjures up a collaborator, Marianne (Lena Endre). Through her he plays out his memories of catastrophic infidelity. Beginning with the shock of recognition that casts her conductor-husband's best friend David (Krister Henriksson) into new light as a potential lover, she relives the whole arc of betrayal. An admirably unfashionable movie on many fronts, Faithless counts morality as a possible virtue, values the fragile complexity of human beings, and mourns the ease with which we break each other. (Kathleen Murphy) Broadway Market
Get Over It
Yet another reminder that while the youth of those pesky Third-World contenders to America's world dominance 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. (Kudzai Mudede) Pacific Place 11
Gladiator
Director Ridley Scott tramps through the standard gladiator movie plot like a tipsy party host, embracing each and every cliché like a dear old friend. War hero General Maximus (Russell Crowe) is stripped of his position by a scheming new Caesar (Joaquin Phoenix). Escaping too late to save his family, Maximus falls into the hands of a slaver, and with the help of a former love, seeks his revenge by finding glory within the Coliseum. (Tom Spurgeon) Cinerama, Lewis & Clark
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) Aurora Cinema Grill, Meridian 16, Pacific Place 11
Heartbreakers
Part of the premise for the movie Heartbreakers, in which Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt play a mother-and-daughter con team, is a fervent understanding that men will screw women over, and that women must beat those suckers at their own petty game. But as every cool-headed dealer knows, the revenge con never works; emotions, invariably, will trip you up. Heartbreakers is certainly amusing, but its unimaginative approach will disappoint viewers who want to feel the wicked cinch of the complex con. (Traci Vogel) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11
Me You Them
Set in Northeastern Brazil--a poor, arid region that is hell to live in but photographs beautifully--this sweetly funny movie tells the story of a woman jilted on the church steps who ends up with not one husband but three. Regina Casé won the Brazilian Oscar for this role. Handsome rather than pretty, with big breasts, big jutting knees and elbows, a lantern jaw, and a hundred toothy, fetching smiles, she's voracious and yet winsome. (Barley Blair) Seven Gables
*Memento
See Stranger Suggests. Telling the backwards tale of Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), a vengeful investigator suffering from short-term memory loss trying to hunt down his wife's murderer, Memento effectively mines the rich soil of the film noir mystery with universally corrupt characters and a watertight, intricate plot. (Jamie Hook) Opens Fri. Egyptian
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 National Lampoon's Seventh Circle of Hell--it stars Julia Roberts, a green V.W., and a sensitive hitman. It is a disgrace and Julia Roberts' performance is criminal. (Kudzai Mudede) Meridian 16, 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
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) Redmond Town Center
Say It Isn't So
Chris Kline and Heather Graham fall in love only to discover that they are brother and sister. Chris Kline later finds out that they are not and sets off 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) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Pacific Place 11, Southcenter
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. Agent 11 is trying to catch these bad Mafia guys. The head Mafia guy hires these two other Mafia guys to kill Agent 11 but he escapes and winds up staying with the main character played by David Arquette. The funniest part was David Arquette doing his great George Jefferson breakdance. (Maggie Brown, age 10) Factoria, Lewis & Clark
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) Metro, Uptown
Someone Like You
In the lead roll, Ashley Judd chews, licks, and snacks her way through nearly every scene, all the while remaining trim and fit despite no apparent exercise regime. So much for empowerment. As for the rest of Someone Like You's message, don't expect anything more than feisty Judd getting a bee in her bonnet after getting dumped, and then, after launching into a self-righteous, quasi-scientific tirade, forgetting all of her resolve when her bull returns. (Kathleen Wilson) Factoria, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center
Spy Kids
Fellow earthlings, I regret to inform you that even now as we speak, it is too late. Spy Kids is headed towards us like a juggernaut and only the childless have means of escaping. (Suzy Lafferty) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Northgate
*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
The Tailor of Panama
John Boorman directs this adaptation of a John le Carré novel in which Brit superspy Andy Oxnard (Pierce Brosnan) has been banished to Panama for overindulging his appetites. Anxious to return to the action at home, he sizes up the tense, complicated international scene at the Canal and finds himself a hapless ex-pat British tailor (Geoffrey Rush) to squeeze for information. All Panama shudders at the consequences. Boorman's film is far too awkward and self-conscious to allow the audience to sink into spy fantasia; as a result, Brosnan's absurdly dashing spy becomes utterly grotesque, even sickening. But it's the real footage of a smoking, bombed-out Panama City in the service of a Brosnan spy thriller that truly made my skin crawl; worse, Boorman probably thought of this corpse-fucking as sincerity. (Evan Sult) Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Metro
Tomcats
Tomcats is a raunchy, made-for-fratboy comedy. It involves a young man who wishes to marry off his friend in order to win a bet. And now I am at the part of the review where I can toss up uninspired and obvious adjectives such as outrageous, risqué, and zany just to get it over with, and you know what, I'm disinterested enough in this pile of rubbish to do so. (Kudzai Mudede) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree
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, Varsity Calendar
*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. And the nearest one is far to the south. You couldn't ask for a more ready-made parable 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
