Films Shown in 2001
MEN OF HONOR - Rated R
- 128 minutes
In
real life Carl Brashear (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) broke the color barrier
in one of the most rigidly whites-only enclaves in America: the elite deep-sea
diving units of the U.S. Navy. Men of Honor depicts Brashear's life,
starting as a sharecropper's son lured by a Navy recruiter -- only to discover
that jobs for blacks are limited to the ship's galley. Brashear becomes
fascinated with the search-and-rescue divers, particularly after seeing
the tough-as-nails Billy Sunday (Robert De Niro).
See reviews
ALL THE PRETTY HORSES - Rated
PG-13 - 112 minutes
Matt
Damon, recently seen on screen in The Legend of Bagger Vance, stars
with Spanish beauty Penelope Cruz, along with Reuban Blades, Bruce Dern,
Sam Sheppard, and a host of others in the latest film by director/actor
Billy Bob Thornton. The tale, based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy, is about
a young Texas cowboy named John Grady Cole (Damon) seeking a better life
in Mexico. When he crosses the border he finds romance, adventure and hardships.
See reviews
REQUIEM FOR A DREAM - Unrated - 102 minutes
Requiem for a Dream
is the latest film by director Darren Aronofsky who burst on the American
Independent scene with his amazing debut film, Pi. Based on the novel
by Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem is a no-holds barred expose of the underbelly
of America's addictive personality. Ellen Burstyn's powerful performance
as the mother of a junkie, who is herself hooked on diet pills, has already
garnered her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Drama (usually
a precursor to an Oscar nomination). Rolling Stone says "no
one interested in the power and magic of movies should miss it!" Entertainment
Weekly says "it may be one of the most disturbing movies ever made…yet
it is impossible to take your eyes off it!"
See reviews
THIRTEEN DAYS - Rated
PG-13 -138 minutes
Kevin
Costner returns to the Cold War genre for the best political thriller this
year. Costner is Kenny O'Donnell, Special Assistant to President Kennedy
in the midst of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis--a series of events that nearly
led to nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia. Even though we know how
it turns out (remember Titantic?), director Roger Donaldson tightens
the suspense and peppers this Oval Office drama with enthralling action
sequences. Costner has a toned-down role, but the real standouts in the
stellar cast are Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp (John and Robert Kennedy,
respectively) as two brothers determined not to play into the hands of battle-hungry
Pentagon leaders.
See reviews
SNATCH - RATED R - 102
minutes
The
much-awaited "next" film from visionary young British Director,
Guy Ritchie (Madonna's newest husband), Snatch follows up his stylish
criminal caper debut film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Set
against the backdrop of the Jewish diamond district in London, Snatch
involves a helter-skelter heist, the rough and tumble world of bare-knuckle
boxing, a colorful Irish gypsy and a dog. Many of Ritchie's cast from his
first film return and are joined by several top notch American actors including
Benicio Del Toro (currently receiving rave reviews as a cop in Traffic)
and Brad Pitt as an indecipherable Irish boxer.
See reviews
SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE - RATED R - 85 minutes
Nosferatu,
the first vampire film -- directed by F.W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck,
is considered by many to be one of the best films to come out of the German
Expressionist, silent era of the 1920's. Shadow of the Vampire is
an imaginative "what if" tale that re-examines the making of that
classic film by director Murnau (John Malkovich) and his involvement with
Schreck (Willem Dafoe), who is either a dedicated method actor that believes
he is a bloodthirsty vampire, or the real thing! An eerie, funny, complicated
film that operates on several levels, Shadow of the Vampire is also
a fine primer on silent film production. Malkovich's performance is top-notch
and Willem Dafoe's insightful performance and his complex make-up have both
earned Oscar nominations.
See reviews
QUILLS - Rated R - 124
Minutes
The pen might be mightier than the sword,
but a quill, when in the hands of the Marquis de Sade, is downright dangerous.
As he did in Shine, Geoffrey Rush turns in a charismatic, Oscar caliber
performance as the demented Marquis, a man imprisoned at an insane asylum
but whose pornographic passages--published illegally with the help of impressionable
Kate Winslet--have all of Paris buzzing. Michael Caine, a self-serving doctor
says he's disgusted by the Marquis' works but has some secrets of his own.
Joaquin Phoenix gives a terrific supporting turn as someone who wants to
be a friend to everyone but ultimately ends up hurting himself. Philip Kaufman,
who brought Anais Nin's sexy diary Henry and June to the screen,
directs this drama, based on the stage play, with humor and savvy.
See reviews
STATE AND MAIN - RATED
R - 102 Minutes
State and Main is a
witty skewering of Hollywood by writer/director David Mamet (The Spanish
Prisoner, The Winslow Boy, House of Games). It follows
a Hollywood film crew into the sleepy town of Waterford, Vermont, for the
shooting of a would-be blockbuster. Hilarious from start to finish, State
and Main boasts a large and memorable cast including William H. Macy
as the smooth-talking director, Alec Baldwin and Sarah Jessica Parker as
ego-driven stars, Charles Durning as the star struck mayor, Patti LuPone
as his overbearing wife, and Rebecca Pidgeon (Mamet's wife) as a local bookstore
owner trying to organize an amateur theater group - who all abandon her
when the film crew comes to town.
See reviews
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON -
Rated PG-13 -120 minutes
One of the "must-see"
film events of the year, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a breathtaking
Chinese fable about love, loyalty and destiny. Filmed by one of today's
most respected directors, Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility, The
Ice Storm, Eat Drink Man Woman) and featuring martial arts stars
like Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, this epic tale elevates the art of
combat into gravity defying ballet. In Chinese with subtitles.
See reviews
CHOCOLAT - Rated PG-13 - 115
minutes
The always
exquisite Juliette Binoche, in her Oscar nominated role for Best Actress,
portrays a spiritual gypsy who sets up an elegant chocolate shop in a small
French village. She has an intuitive approach to matching customers with
just the confection they need. Her candy acts like the kiss of a handsome
prince upon sleeping beauties. This bittersweet fable features a score of
fine actors - Alfred Molina, Johnny Depp, Lena Olin, Leslie Caron and Judi
Dench (Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee), and is directed by the Swedish
filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom who has brought to the screen such delightful
films as The Cider House Rules, What's Eating Gilbert Grape,
and My Life as a Dog.
See reviews
POLLOCK - Rated R - 122 minutes
 |
Veteran screen actor Ed Harris gives a powerful, tortured
portrait of abstract painter Jackson Pollock. Harris' directorial debut
concentrates on the painter's stormy relationship with his wife, and the
bottle, as he ascends in the art world and descends into madness. Marcia
Gay Harden is Pollock's strong-willed wife and Amy Madigan is a hysterically
persnickety arts patron. |
See reviews
MALENA - Rated R - 95
minutes
 |
With Fellini and Leoni gone, Giuseppe Tornatore,
the man behind Cinema Paradiso and The Legend of 1900, is
seen by some critics as Italy's greatest living filmmaker.
Few are as successful at telling intimate stories on such a grand scale,
and this is just as true of his outstanding latest film, Malena.
It is a tale told from the viewpoint of an adolescent boy, Renato, about
a desirable married woman, Malena, living in his Sicilian village at the
beginning of World War II. What he witnesses is the best, and the worst,
that can come from other human beings. |
See reviews
A TIME FOR DRUNKEN HORSES - Unrated (No Objectionable Material) - 80 minutes
Winner
of the Camera d' Or, for Best First Film at Cannes, A Time for Drunken
Horses, written and directed by Bahman Ghobadi, is billed as the first
film ever to come from Kurdistan. It is set on the mountainous snow-covered
border between Iran and Iraq and focuses on three orphan children who scrape
to get money for an operation for their youngest brother, a dwarf-like figure
stricken by a debilitating illness. The children struggle against almost
impossible odds, with backbreaking work, and by joining a band of smugglers
who ply their trade over the forbidding mountains that separate the two
countries. A Time for Drunken Horses has the same conviction as The
Bicycle Thief, Salaam Bombay and Pixote - films that look
unblinkingly at lives on the margin. In Kurdish and Farsi with English subtitles.
See reviews
UNDER THE SUN (UNDER SOLEN) - Unrated (Probably PG-13) - 118 minutes
Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film
Oscar in 2000!
When
a simple, lonely, 40-year-old Swedish farmer places a newspaper ad seeking
a housekeeper, the answer to his prayers may be more than he bargained for!
Set in 1956, Under the Sun tells the tale of burly Olof (Rolf Lassgård)
who lives an idyllic life on his sun-dappled farm. He's a lifelong bachelor
-- since his mother's death nine years ago, he's never cleaned the house.
Ellen (Helena Bergström), the new housekeeper, is a statuesque Nordic
knockout. She doesn't discuss her past, but the comfort and companionship
she provides, without asking for so much as a kronor, are more than
enough to keep Olof, a gentle, naïve soul, from asking questions. "It's
infinitely richer than either Chocolat or The Cider House Rules,"
proclaims one critic!
See reviews
JUST VISITING - Rated
(PG-13) - 88 minutes
Just
Visiting is one of those rare American remakes of a French film that
preserves the flavor of the original and improves upon it. Les Visiteurs
(1993), was the top-grossing comedy in French history, but did only moderately
well in America. The remake, like the original, is broad and swaggering,
but plays better in English. Directed once again by Jean-Marie Gaubert,
the film wisely centers on its two original French stars, Jean Reno and
Christian Clavier. Reno is Sir Thibault, a French knight who, with his vassal
Andre (Clavier), goes to Sussex to marry the beautiful Rosalind (Christina
Applegate). After a series of mishaps involving his bride to be, Thibault
persuades a sorcerer (Malcolm McDowell) to jump them back a little in time,
so they can get things right on a second try. The wizard, alas, miscalculates
and sends them to modern Chicago, where the knight and serf are terrified
by semis, awestruck by skyscrapers and soon involved in the life of Thibault's
granddaughter several generations removed, Julia (Applegate again). A thoughtful
comedy in an era of "dumb and dumber" humor.
See reviews
YOU CAN COUNT ON ME - Rated
R - 111 minutes
Academy Award Nominee for Best Actress -
Laura Linney!
Funny,
touching and inspiring, You Can Count on Me is one of the best pictures
of the year. A big hit at Sundance, where it won the Waldo Salt screenwriting
award, You Can Count on Me is that rarest of treats, a brother-sister
love story (no incest!). It's short on special effects, explosions, and
sentimentality, but long on the things that count, the things that money
can't buy: character, situation, authentic location, and, in the person
of relative unknowns Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo, superb acting. So good,
in fact, that Laura Linney's performance was Oscar nominated for Best Actress.
And in its welcome subtlety, it's also a film that respects rather than
insults its audience's intelligence.
See reviews
AIMÉE & JAGUAR - Unrated (probably PG-13) - 125 minutes
Golden Globe Nominee - Best Foreign Language
Film
In
1943, while the Allies are bombing Berlin and the Gestapo is purging the
capital of Jews, a dangerous love affair blossoms between two women. One
of them, Lilly Wust (Juliane Köhler), married and the mother of four
sons, enjoys the privileges of her stature as an exemplar of Nazi motherhood.
For her, this affair will be the most decisive experience of her life. For
the other woman, Felice Schragenheim (Maria Schrader), a Jewess and member
of the underground, their love fuels her with the hope that she will survive.
A half-century later, Lilly Wust told her incredible story to writer Erica
Fischer, and the book, AIMÉE & JAGUAR, first published
in 1994 immediately became a bestseller and has since been translated into
eleven languages. Max Färberböck's debut film, based on Fischer's
book, is the true story of this extraordinary relationship. The film was
nominated for a 1999 Golden Globe Award and was Germany's submission for
that year's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Both actresses received Silver
Bears at the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival for their portrayals
of "Aimée" and "Jaguar".
See reviews
MEMENTO - Rated R - 113
minutes
The hottest independent film of the year!
 |
Manipulating time and traditional narrative
techniques, Memento ingeniously tells the story of an amnesiac
man and a crime, all in reverse. After getting knocked out by an attacker
who kills his wife, insurance investigator Guy Pearce can't remember
things for more than ten seconds. Without his memory to guide him, Pearce
is forced to depend on notes, charts, tattoos and Polaroids to point
him in the direction of the culprit. The film's pace challenges viewers'
perceptions of trust, identity and memory and ultimately sends them
home with a souvenir full of the creeps. The supporting cast (including
Joe Pantoliano and Carrie-Anne Moss) is unforgettable, while Pearce
lives up to his L.A. Confidential legacy, appearing both in charge
of the moment and lost in it. This Memento's a keeper. |
See reviews
THE TAILOR OF PANAMA - Rated
R - 109 minutes
Starring Pierce Brosnan,
Geoffrey Rush, and Jamie Lee Curtis, The Tailor of Panama is a wry
character thriller about a British spy (Brosnan) who, for his sins, has
been posted to the diplomatic backwater of Panama where he encounters a
tailor (Rush) ready to deliver secrets. Directed by noted British filmmaker
John Boorman (Excalibur), and based on the novel by John le Carre,
the film reveals that when the Cold War ended, its diplomatic gamesmanship
continued as farce. The film is abundant in its gifts, a pleasure for those
who like a story to unfold lovingly over a full arc, instead of coming in
short mindless bursts.
See reviews
THE GOLDEN BOWL - Rated
R - 130 minutes
 |
Starring Anjelica Huston, Jeremy Northam,
Kate Beckinsale, Nick Nolte, and Uma Thurman, The Golden Bowl
is the latest adaption of a Henry James novel from the noted Merchant-Ivory
production team. The golden bowl of the title refers to a beautiful
but flawed gift -- a symbol for many of the film's relationships. Set
during the first decade of the last century, the story begins with the
end of a love affair between an American beauty and Italian prince.
When the bankrupt prince marries a wealthy young woman, the American
turns up at the wedding with surprising results! |
See reviews
WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY - Rated R - 117 minutes
From
the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, comes the spine-tingling French psychological
thriller that has surprised and gripped audiences. With a Friend Like
Harry relates the tale of a family man, Michel (LAURENT LUCAS), who
bumps into Harry (Sergi López), an old school classmate, at a rest
stop in the country. Soon, Harry and his voluptuous fiancée are joining
Michel's family on their vacation. Harry seems to be just what the family
needs - his carefree spirit and charm light up Michel's mundane little holiday.
Yet the friendlier Harry gets and the more generosity and advice he bestows
on Michel, the more mysteriously menacing his effect becomes.
See reviews
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT - Rated
G - 91 minutes
When A Hard Day's Night opened
in September, 1964, The Beatles were already a publicity phenomenon, 70
million viewers had seen them on The Ed Sullivan Show, but they were
not yet cultural icons. This film -- their feature debut -- made them so.
Many critics prepared to condescend, but the film could not be dismissed:
It was so joyous and original that even the early reviews acknowledged it
as something special. Today, after more than three decades, it has not aged
and is not dated; it stands outside its time, its genre and even rock. It
is one of the great life-affirming landmarks in film history. In this digitally
re-mastered re-release, the seminal music of the 60's sounds better than
ever. The film is wall to wall with great songs, including "I Should
Have Known Better," "Can't Buy Me Love,'' "I Wanna Be Your
Man," "'All My Loving," "Happy Just to Dance With You,"
"She Loves You," and others, including the title song, inspired
by a remark dropped by Starr and written overnight by Lennon and McCartney.
Come and see Liverpool's Fab Four again, you'll be glad you did!
See reviews
THE WIDOW OF ST. PIERRE - Rated R - 107 minutes
Juliette Binoche (Chocolat)
stars in The Widow of St. Pierre, a drama based on true-life events.
On a remote French-Canadian island in 1850, Binoche is the ultra-liberal
wife of an adoring military captain (Daniel Auteuil). In this isolated environment,
the modern-thinking couple arouses suspicion, simply by treating each other
as equal partners. When a petty drunk (director Emir Kusturica, in an astounding
acting debut) kills a man, he's sentenced to the death penalty and placed
under the captain's care. The island of St. Pierre has to appeal to France
for both a guillotine and an executioner. While the island waits for the
guillotine (nicknamed "the widow") to arrive, Binoche decides
to rehabilitate the prisoner. This is not a decision that sits well with
the local bureaucrats, who are furious that she would meddle in their business.
See reviews
AMORES PERROS - Unrated
(Probably R) - 153 minutes
Academy Award nominee - Best Foreign Language
Film of 2000
A car crash in Mexico City
begins three interwoven stories that involve dogs and their owners. The
most compelling character, played by Emilio Echevarria, is an ex-terrorist
and tramp who has become an expert hit man. The other two stories involve
a young man in love with his sister-in-law, and a beautiful model who loves
her dog almost as much as herself. This brilliant debut by director Alejandro
Gonzalez is powerful and sometimes shocking. The New York Times called
it "The first classic of the new decade!" In Spanish with subtitles.
See reviews
SHOWER - Rated PG-13 -
92 minutes
Zhang Yang's winning Chinese comedy,
Shower, is about a modern businessman who reluctantly checks up on
his aging father, and mentally challenged younger brother in Beijing, where
the two men run a traditional bathhouse. People soak, chat, sip, and scrub,
as they have done for thousands of years. But the old man is getting frail,
and without his son's help, a lovely, age-old tradition will vanish in the
name of ''modernizing.'' What would dry up, too, Zhang demonstrates in deftly
arranged scenes, is a kind of openness and communal good will. Without ever
dipping into indignity among wet, half-naked men, Shower sparkles
with joy.
See reviews
CHOPPER - Unrated (Probably
R for violence) - 94 minutes
"Chopper" Read is a real life
person. He is Australia's most infamous prisoner, a best-selling author
(9 books, including "How to Shoot Friends and Influence People"),
and a vicious killer. It is uncertain how he got his nickname. Some say
it was because he chopped off the toes of his enemies. Others believe it
was because he had his own ears chopped off in a prison attack, or because
he had his teeth capped in metal. Chopper tells the story of this
eccentric psychopath. The real-life Chopper chose one of Australia's best
known stand-up comedians, Eric Bana (the son in Castle - the down-under
comedy hit of two years ago), to play him in the film. Bana delivers a dramatic
portrait that is truly fearsome.
See reviews
Me You Them - Rated
PG-13 - 107 minutes
This new film from Brazil, based on a
true story, features an enterprising woman who lives with three doting husbands
under one, amazingly tranquil roof. Although Me You Them has its
share of lighthearted moments, it is quietly dramatic and consistently involving
on an emotional level. Regina Casé is an earthy actress who calls
to mind the great Italian performer, Anna Magnani. She wields her unspoken
but very real sexual power like a magic wand. The whole feel of the film
is mythic. Though Case's society is clearly misogynist and macho, and though
she is subject to the depredations of countless male figures in the film,
there is never any doubt that she holds ultimate sway over them all. Me
You Them is filled with small touches that manage to get deeply under
your skin by the time the final credits roll. In Portuguese with English
subtitles.
See reviews
THE SCORE - Rated
R - 124 minutes
Starring Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Angela
Bassett and Marlon Brando
The Score is a heist
picture that has managed to attract some of the best talent in Hollywood.
Robert De Niro's Nick Wells is the lynchpin to the intended heist, a seasoned
safecracker who would love to retire and enjoy the quiet life of a Montreal
jazz club owner, settling down with his lady love, Diane (Angela Bassett).
That's when his longtime partner and buyer, Max (Marlon Brando), offers
him "the score" that will let him do just that. The problem is
it would require Nick to violate one of his primary directives: pulling
off a job in his own backyard. As if doing a job in Montreal weren't bad
enough, Nick will have to rely on a partner about whom he knows nothing,
the "inside man" at the Customs House, a wily and overeager type
named Jack (Edward Norton) who has managed to land himself a job as a night
janitor by pretending to be mentally retarded. As in any good heist film,
twists and turns abound!
See reviews
SEXY BEAST - Rated
R - 89 minutes
Who would have guessed that the most
savage mad-dog frothing gangster in recent movies would be played by Ben
Kingsley? The same Kingsley who leapt to international fame playing one
of the world's great pacifists in Ghandi. In this stunning tale,
Kingsley is an evil ringleader who will do anything to convince retired
London crook Ray Winstone to give up his idyllic life of leisure in Spain
and join the old gang for one last caper. The battle of wills segues into
a war between Winstone and his own criminal past -- the ''sexy beast'' he
was naive enough to think he could lie down with and then abandon. The story
is served up in a dark and stylish way by first-time film director Jonathan
Glazer, known for helming hip Guinness beer commercials and music videos.
Glazer has the quick-cut British gangster look down pat, and Sexy Beast
goes on the list with The Long Good Friday and The Limey as
another in the tradition of great films about Cockney villains.
See reviews
STARTUP.COM - Rated
R - 103 minutes
One of the hot independent films of the
summer, Startup.com tells the story of two longtime friends who go
into business together, create a Web site, raise millions, and at one point
are worth $12 million. The friends are Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman.
Their idea is so compelling that Tuzman quits a job at Goldman Sachs to
move to the Internet. As an inside view of the bursting of the Internet
bubble, Startup.com is definitive. To film this sort of documentary,
you need access. This film has it. One co-director, Jehane Noujaim, was
Tuzman's Harvard roommate. She's also the cinematographer, and her digital
camera has access to startlingly private moments. The other director, Chris
Hegedus, has worked on such spellbinding insider documentaries as The
War Room, the story of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. She
co-produced that one with D.A. Pennebaker, the legendary documentarian,
who is also her husband, and who also produced this amazing film!
See reviews
SONGCATCHER - Rated
PG-13 - 105 minutes
Songcatcher tells the
story of a woman musicologist (Janet McTeer) whose research into the origins
of folk songs is dismissed by her stodgy male colleagues. Undaunted, she
strikes out on her own to rural Appalachia in 1907, where her sister Elna
(Jane Adams) runs a school. The locals are suspicious of her -- the idea
of paying someone money to sing songs into a gramophone is beyond their
comprehension. But when the matriarchal Viney Butler (Pat Carroll) signs
on, others soon follow. Farmer Tom Bledsoe (Aidan Quinn), however, remains
dubious. Writer/director Maggie Greenwald underpins Songcatcher with
plenty of melodrama -- a dark secret, a mining-company villain, infidelity,
and budding romances, but the highlights of the film are the tender moments
when the plot gives way to pure song. In addition to Carroll's songs, musicians
Iris DeMent, Taj Mahal, and others bring the mournful Appalachian mountain
ballads alive. The ensemble cast, which won a special jury prize at Sundance
2000, is extraordinary. Special mention should be made of newcomer Emmy
Rossum, who plays a sweet-voiced orphan. But McTeer's indomitable spirit
towers over the film, imbuing her character with a steely determination.
Her performance, particularly in her tender scenes with Quinn, gives Songcatcher
its heart, while the music provides the soul.
See reviews
THE CLOSET - Rated
R - 85 minutes
A new comedy from France
Starring Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu
The clever wit of French writer/director
Francis Veber has produced some of the best comedies to come out of Europe
in the past 25 years, including The Dinner Game and The Man With
One Red Shoe (remade in America with Tom Hanks). His latest is The
Closet, with longtime friends and collaborators Daniel Auteuil and
Gerard Depardieu. The comic tale focuses on François Pignon (Daniel
Auteuil), considered by many - including his ex-wife and son - a dullard,
a bore. On the brink of suicide after finding he's going to be fired at
the condom factory he has slaved away at for some time, his new neighbor,
an industrial psychologist (Michel Aumont) advises him to pretend he's gay.
Or in François' words, "I came out of the closest I never went
into." By posing as a homosexual, his firing would be looked upon as
if it were based on his sexuality, so the company wouldn't want to take
that chance. To his relief, François is kept aboard, and suddenly
he has become the interest of his office. In addition to all the new-found
attention, one of his co-workers, Félix (Gérard Depardieu),
who usually taunts and embarrasses him, is tricked into believing he'll
be fired if he keeps up his typical harassment. Funny and poignant without
succumbing to slapstick!
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THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION - Rated PG-13 - 102 minutes
Starring Woody Allen, Helen Hunt, Dan Akyroyd,
Charlize Theron, David Ogden Stiers, and Wallace Shawn
Set in 1940, The Curse
of the Jade Scorpion is the latest from writer /director/comedian Woody
Allen. In his 30th film in 32 years, Allen stars as a streetwise insurance
investigator whose old-fashioned way of doing things is threatened when
a sharp-tongued efficiency expert (Helen Hunt) is hired to modernize operations
at his New York firm. The two co-workers are at each other's throats from
the word go, verbally sparring Tracy and Hepburn-style at every opportunity,
so it just about drives them crazy when the seemingly innocent parlor tricks
of a stage hypnotist (David Ogden Stiers) link them not only to each other,
but to a series of mysterious jewel thefts in the area.
See reviews
O - Rated R - 91
minutes
STARRING: Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett, Julia Stiles,
Elden Henson, Andrew Keegan, Rain Phoenix, Martin Sheen
Set in
a co-ed private school in Charleston, South Carolina, O is
an updated retelling of Shakespeare's Othello that blends the Bard,
and a tiny taste of Verdi's opera Otello, with Southern Gothic. Basketball
hero Odin James, the only black student in the upper crust prep school,
has attracted a white girlfriend, Desi, the daughter of the school dean.
Odin is respected and loved by everyone - even the basketball coach pays
more attention to the NBA hopeful than his own son, Hugo. Bitter and jealous,
Hugo sets out to destroy Odin by planting the seeds of jealousy about Desi
and her relation with her best friend, Michael.
See reviews
EVERYBODY'S FAMOUS - Rated
R - 92 minutes
The Official Belgian entry for 2000 Best Foreign Language
Oscar!
A laid-off Belgian factory worker, who
fancies himself a songwriter, is determined to turn his not-so-svelte teenage
daughter into a singing sensation. To achieve his goal, the misguided but
well-intentioned poppa kidnaps a pop superstar and demands an unusual ransom
from her manager.This droll showbiz satire on the pursuit of fame has a
fluffy sweetness and charm that makes it worthwhile. Plus, you can impress
your friends by pronouncing the original title, Ledereen Beroemd!
In Flemish with English subtitles.
See reviews
THE DEEP END - Rated
R - 101 minutes
The Deep End is a tautly
plotted mystery where the heroine is a completely ordinary woman we begin
to care about. Tilda Swinton (Orlando) stars as Margaret, a mother
of three who lives in a handsome home on the shores of Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
Her husband is an admiral, away at sea. She lives with her kids and her
querulous, distant father-in-law. She's worried about the oldest son, Beau
(Jonathan Tucker), who is 17 and has started to run with dangerous company.
She is stunned to learn that not only is he gay, but that he might also
be involved in a murder. Instantly, her maternal duties shift from keeping
the dinners hot to covering Tucker's tracks and avoiding blackmailers who
have a video of his dirty laundry. Swinton, whose name will likely be tossed
around when Oscar-prediction season begins, does an incredible job of portraying
the burdened mother who's trying to save her son and keep the secret from
her family (who have no idea of her ordeal) -- all the while longing for
someone to share her overload of emotions.
See reviews
THE DISH - Rated PG-13
- 101 minutes
In 1969,
nearly one billion viewers around the globe took one giant leap for mankind
with Neil Armstrong's history-making moonwalk. Few, however, are aware of
the pivotal role a very big, 1,000-ton satellite dish -- located in a small,
rural Aussie town -- played in televising the historic lunar landing to
the masses. That's the premise behind The Dish, one of the highest-grossing
films in Australian history. Based on true events, this yarn comes to us
from the Australian filmmaking group that made The Castle, another
huge hit Down Under. The Dish has an elegant, mellow tone that feels
as reassuring as lead actor Sam Neill's cardigan sweaters and pipe, mixing
historical drama and offbeat humor in a quirky sort of way that will make
your spirits soar.
See reviews
BIG EDEN - Rated PG-13
- 118 minutes
With appearances by several Helena actors!
Shot on location in Big Fork, Montana,
Big Eden has bit parts by several Helena actors. The plot involves
neurotic Manhattan artist Henry Hart (Arye Gross), who leaves the SoHo scene
for Big Eden, his hometown. His grandfather (George Coe) is ailing, but
we also get the idea that Henry needs to get away for a while. With Big
Eden a haven of cool lakes and huggy neighbors, it's a wonder Henry ever
left in the first place. One of the reasons was evidently his unrequited
crush on a high-school chum (Tim DeKay), now divorced and a parent. The
film's other main plot thread is delightful: the effect of Henry's arrival
on the stoical owner of Big Eden's general store, Pike Dexter (Eric Schweig),
a Native American somehow moved (though he would never say so out loud)
by Henry's presence. An independent feature, Big Eden has done well
on the Festival circuit since it was shot over a year ago.
See reviews
MADE - Rated R - 95 minutes
Starring Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Peter Falk, Famke Janssen,
and Sean `Puffy' Combs
Made revisits the comic rapport Vince
Vaughn and Jon Favreau had in the sleeper hit Swingers. Made
was written, directed and produced by Favreau, who plays Vaughn's straight
man and loyal friend (think of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis). This time they
apply their off-beat buddy schtick to a tale about two low-level modern
gangsters, Bobby (Favreau) and Ricky (Vaughn), who have possibly learned
most of what they know about life by viewing "The Sopranos." They
have been best buddies since childhood and played football at Hollywood
High. Now they dream of success as professional boxers, while Bobby scrapes
together a living as a personal manager - i.e., driving his girlfriend to
her job as a stripper at bachelor parties. Their big adventure begins when
they are sent by the girlfriend's boss to deliver a package to a gangster
in New York.
See reviews
TORTILLA SOUP - Rated
PG-13 - 103 minutes
This tasty Latino translation
of Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman (which played at the Myrna Loy about
five years ago) will have your stomach growling the whole time. It's a saucy
tale of a difficult widowed chef and his three daughters, in which the awesome
food-prep sometimes rivals the family's sundry dramatic crises, announced
over a series of Sunday dinners. But, eventually, their dramas warm up the
screen. Hector Elizondo is rock solid as the glowering dad with a well-concealed
heart of gold who has lost his sense of taste. Raquel Welch shines as a
gold-digging granny who sets her sites on big daddy, and daughters Jacqueline
Obradors, Elizabeth Peña and Tamara Mello provide plenty of sibling
rivalry, romantic roiling and entertaining ruckus on their way to family
values and, well, just deserts.
See reviews
GHOST WORLD - Rated R
- 110 minutes
Starring Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi
Ghost World is the story
of a bright but lonely 18-year-old L.A. girl, played by Thora Birch of American
Beauty, who, in idle mischief, answers a personal ad and meets another
loner - Steve Buscemi, arguably the most interesting actor of this decade.
What ensues between these two misfits is not your normal romance. The film
takes a risky journey and never steps wrong. It creates specific, original,
believable, lovable characters, and meanders with them through their days,
never losing its sense of humor. Ghost World is the first feature
film by Terry Zwigoff, who did the acclaimed documentary Crumb (1995)
about the eccentric cartoonist and musician. Based on an underground comic
book by Daniel Clowes, who also co-wrote the script with Zwigoff, Ghost
World also features Illeana Douglas, Terri Garr, and Brad Renfro.
See reviews
IRON MONKEY - Rated PG-13
- 90 minutes
Originally released in Asia
in 1993, Iron Monkey features amazing action scenes by the legendary
Yuen Woo Ping who went on to choreograph The Matrix and Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Based on ancient Chinese myth, and laden with
liberal dashes of comedy, this is the tale of a ninja warrior (Yu Rong Guang)
who masquerades as a docile doctor by day. Called by admiring peasants the
"Iron Monkey," the wily ninja, with the help of his lovely assistant
and a famous martial arts figure, fights oppression of the underclass.
See reviews
VENGO - unrated (probably
PG-13) - 90 minutes
From gypsy director Tony Gatliff, who did
Latcho Drom
Vengo is the latest film from director
Tony Gatliff, who is known for the passionate music and earthy depiction
of gypsy life in his films Latcho Drom, Mondo, and Gadjo
Dilo. In Vengo, set in a dusty Spanish village, two gypsy families
are feuding and there must be justice. But first the flamenco must be danced!
World-weary Antonio Canales, haunted by his daughter's demise, tries to
protect his disabled nephew, Rodriguez, from a rival family. While the story
is simple and melodramatic, the soulful performances by acclaimed musicians,
singers and dancers infuse Vengo with excitement.
See reviews
BANDITS - Rated PG-13
- 123 minutes
Starring Bruce Willis, Cate Blanchett, Billy
Bob Thornton
Bruce Willis is self-confident, assertive,
impulsive and in charge. Billy Bob Thornton is bright, high strung, and
a hypochondriac. Together they're the "Sleep-over Bandits," perhaps
the most loveable bank robbers on film since Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid. Cate Blanchett is a bank president's wife, ready for a change from
her high income, low-interest husband. This unlikely trio are the heart
of a fast-paced, often hilarious, caper film which, under the direction
of Barry Levinson (Wag the Dog), provides a sharp focus on character.
See reviews
Mulholland Drive - Rated
R - 147 minutes
This trip down Mulholland
Drive is David Lynch's latest amazing journey, a surrealist dreamscape
in the form of a Hollywood film noir, and the less sense it makes, the more
you can't stop watching it. Unlike some of Lynch's previous work (Wild
at Heart, Lost Highway), this film has received high marks from
major critics, like Roger Ebert, who gave it four stars, and said, "This
is a movie to surrender yourself to. If you require logic, see something
else. Mulholland Drive works directly on the emotions, like music."
Lynch's wild and wonderful yarn involves voluptuous Laura Harring, the victim
of a botched hit and subsequent car accident, who gets amnesia and takes
refuge in a Hollywood bungalow. As she pieces together the mystery, with
wide-eye actress wannabe Naomi Watts, their encounters include gangsters
and studio moguls, magicians and chanteuses, detectives and assassins, red
curtains and pinheaded villains, hotel rooms with hissing radiators, and
a geek-chic film director. There are spontaneous bursts of violence and
steamy subterranean sexual forays appropriate to the noir genre. Many critics
consider this Lynch's long awaited masterpiece.
See reviews
HIMALAYA - unrated (probably
PG) - 104 minutes
Nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film
Oscar in 1999!
 |
This sumptuously photographed epic--set
high in the Himalayas -- tells the tale of a proud old chieftain, who,
after his son dies in a mysterious accident, is determined to lead the
village's annual salt caravan through the treacherous mountains of Nepal.
When the son's best friend, a younger, stronger man also decides to
lead the trek, a power struggle ensues over how modern practicality
can coexist with ancient culture. Directed by French filmmaker, and
National Geographic photographer, Eric Valli, this tale of faith and
tradition features breathtaking vistas, a hypnotic soundtrack and impressive
performances by the largely nonprofessional cast. |
See reviews
LIFE AS A HOUSE - Rated
R - 128 minutes
Starring Kevin Kline & Kristen Scott
Thomas
Kevin Kline (Wild Wild
West and The Ice Storm) is an architect relieved of his job after
20 years. Ex-wife Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient and The
Horse Whisperer) has moved onto greener pastures, son Hayden Christensen
abhors him, and he lives in a coastal ramshackle hut with no plumbing. So,
what does he do? Build the house of his dreams, engage his son and try to
reconnect with his ex. But it gets messy, since there are various escapades
that keep popping out of the closet. With veterans Kline and Scott in the
leads, the performances are strong and this inspirational drama will require
at least two hankys by the time the credits roll!
See reviews
HEIST - Rated R - 110
minutes
Starring Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito, Delroy
Lindo, Rebecca Pidgeon and Patti LuPone
Writer/Director David Mamet's latest
film, Heist, is about a caper and a con, involving professional criminals
who want to retire but can't. It's not that they actually require more money.
It's more that it would be a sin to leave it in civilian hands. Gene Hackman
plays a jewel thief who dreams of taking his last haul and sailing into
the sunset with his young wife (Rebecca Pidgeon). Danny DeVito is the low-rent
mastermind who forces him into pulling one last job. Hackman complains he
doesn't need any more money. DeVito's wounded reply is one of Mamet's funniest
lines: ''Everybody needs money! That's why they call it money!''
See reviews
NOVOCAINE - Rated R -
95 minutes
Starring Steve Martin, Helena Bonham Carter,
Kevin Bacon & Laura Dern
Novocaine features Steve
Martin as a dentist who wants only to do a good day's work at the side of
his oral-retentive hygienist and fiancee, (Laura Dern). He is dutiful, stable,
and boring until his chair is occupied one day by the pleading eyes and
yearning body of a young woman (Helena Bonham Carter). Soon he finds himself
implicated in charges involving drugs, perjury and murder. This screwball
film noir was written and directed by David Atkins who wrote the screenplay
for Arizona Dream (1993), the only American film of the Yugoslavian
mad genius Emir Kusturica. Now in the director's chair, Atkins shows the
same offbeat taste for crime, sex, comedy and labyrinthine plotting. What
complicates Novocaine is not the triangle involving the dentist,
his patient and his hygienist, but the addition of two brothers, who form
the movie's little herd of black sheep, and an "actor" (Kevin
Bacon) who is accompanying the police. Novocaine is funny and ingenious
all the way through with great performances by Steve Martin and Helena Bonham
Carter!
See reviews
THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE - Rated R
- 115 minutes
AFI Award for Best Cinematography of the
Year
Nominated for Golden Globe
The Coen Brothers, creators of such hits
as O Brother Where Art Thou and Fargo, continue with their
offbeat sense of humor in this backhanded homage to film noir. Shot in atmospherically
stark and stunning black & white by Coen vet Roger Deakins, and packed
with plenty of the duo's trademark tongue-in-cheek post-modernism, the titular
Man is Billy Bob Thornton (the hypochondriac in Bandits),
a simple barber who has shut off the world only to stumble from one bad
situation to the next. Thornton's deadpan performance is perfect, and is
well supported by The Sopranos' James Gandolfini and Tony Shalhoub
as a pricey lawyer.
See reviews
KATE AND LEOPOLD - Rated
PG-13 - 121 minutes
Starring Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman (Nominated
for Golden Globe)
 |
Kate McKay (Meg Ryan) is a manically driven
ad executive who discovers love in the most unexpected manner. Her ex-boyfriend
Stuart (Liev Schreiber) is a genius who has discovered a way to travel
back in time to 1876. From that year, he brings back Leopold (Hugh Jackman),
the Third Duke of Albany, who must contend with Manhattan in the Millennium,
as well as burgeoning feelings of love for Kate. |
See reviews
 |
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