Films Shown in 2003
MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING - Rated PG - 95 minutes - Flat
My Big Fat Greek
Wedding, an independent film, was the sleeper hit of the year. Based
on the one-woman show of the same name by "Second City" alumna
Nia Vardalos, who scripted and stars here, this romantic comedy features
Toula, a frumpy, 30-year-old woman from a richly, rigidly traditional Greek-American
family trying to discover her own personal worth. She's played with charm
and gusto by Vardalos in her first major film role. The film itself relishes
the romantic and comic elements of family life for proud Greek Americans,
in particular and for people of every ethnic background in general.
See reviews
GANGS OF NEW YORK - Rated R -
2 hours 40 minutes
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis,
Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Brendan Gleeson.
Director Martin Scorcese's
long awaited epic finally arrives on screen, a spacious, robust film that
grabs ahold and doesn't let go for nearly three hours. It begins in 1846
New York City, a kind of Wild West metropolis without any real sense of
order, where the cultured citizens of Manhattan live hidden away from the
dirty life on the streets around Five Points, which are ruled by a network
of street gangs. It's here that two groups of gangs face off against each
other--the natives are led by the charismatic Bill Cutter (Day-Lewis) and
the immigrants by Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson). At the end of the battle,
Vallon is dead and his young son Amsterdam is sent off to prison school.
Then 16 years later, the now-grown Amsterdam (DiCaprio) comes back to get
revenge by concealing his identity and working his way into Cutter's gang.
Along the way he meets old friends (Thomas, Gleeson, Lewis, Reilly) who
are now in completely different places. He also falls in love with a local
pickpocket-hooker (Diaz).
See reviews
STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN - Rated PG - 108 minutes - Flat
Think of the Supremes, Gladys
Knight, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Martha Reeves, Stevie Wonder and the
Temptations. You hold decades of pop musical history in your mind -- The
"Motown Sound". Who were the instrumentalists on those hits? This
affectionate new documentary, Standing in the Shadows of Motown,
tells you. Paul Justman's documentary, based on a book by Allan Slutsky,
gives belated praise to Motown's house musicians, the men who played under
all the Motown hits recorded in Detroit. It will bring back fond memories.
See reviews
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE - Rated
R - 119 minutes - Flat
Michael Moore, who leapt
to fame with Roger and Me - a telling look at the automotive industry,
is back with another satirical documentary that skewers bureaucracy. Bowling
for Columbine takes as its starting point the 1999 Columbine high school
massacre, where two students shot to death 12 of their peers and a teacher
in Littleton, Colorado--which Moore feels is emblematic of the whole gun
problem. He also explores American imperialism, racism and welfare.
See reviews
CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND - Rated R - 112 minutes - Scope
Starring Sam Rockwell, George Clooney, Drew Barrymore,
Julia Roberts
Along with masterminding
such schlock tube fare as "The Dating Game" and "The Gong
Show," nutty real-life TV producer Chuck Barris claims to have doubled
as a CIA assassin! Scripted by mind-bender specialist Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation,
Being John Malkovich) from Barris' autobiography, and featuring the
directorial debut of actor George Clooney, this film is one of the year's
most weirdly engaging and unpredictable character pieces. Sam Rockwell's
multilayered performance as Barris brings deserved mainstream attention
after years of strong work in supporting roles.
See reviews
ADAPTATION - Rated R - 115 minutes
- Flat
Four Academy Award nominations, including best actor
Nicholas Cage. Nominations include Chris Cooper-Best Supporting Actor and
Meryl Streep-Best Supporting Actress.
From the fertile minds of
director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman of Being John Malkovich
fame comes the equally loopy Adaptation. What the duo did to actor
John Malkovich in their last movie they now do to writer Charlie Kaufman
himself. Except here, Charlie is played by Nicolas Cage and also has a twin
brother named Donald (also played by Cage). Coming off the success of Being
John Malkovich, the highly neurotic Charlie is determined not to repeat
himself, so he takes on the job of adapting The Orchard Thief, the
non-fiction novel by Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) about renowned orchid breeder
John Laroche (Chris Cooper). However, Charlie's stuck on how to translate
the book for the screen, and his writer's block is not helped by his unrequited
crush on Caroline (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and the irritating success of his
confident twin brother, who blithely writes an inane serial killer screenplay
called The 3 that immediately excites great interest in Hollywood.
That's just part of the convoluted tale of Adaptation, which adroitly
mixes real-life personalities (Orlean, Laroche and even popular screenwriting
teacher Robert McKee, sharply impersonated by Brian Cox) along with fictional
characters, such as Caroline and Donald Kaufman (his apparent existence
given his writing credit on this film notwithstanding).
See reviews
FRIDA - Rated R - 124 minutes
- Flat
Starring Academy Award nominee for Best Actress
- Salma Hayek, plus Alfred Molina, Geoffrey Rush, Ashley Judd, Edward Norton
and Antonio Banderas.
Star/producer
Salma Hayek and director Julie Taymor have infused Frida with a unique
visual style that makes this biopic on the life of Mexican artist Frida
Kahlo a work of art in itself. The story focuses on the relationship between
Frida Kahlo and her husband, artist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). Their
stormy marriage carries them on a whirlwind adventure that finds them debating
left-wing politics with influential artists of the time (played by Ashley
Judd and Antonio Banderas), butting heads with Nelson Rockefeller Jr. (Edward
Norton), and housing exiled political philosopher Leon Trotsky (Geoffrey
Rush). What brings this story to life is Hayek's tour-de-force performance,
a role the native Mexican was seemingly born to play.
See reviews
FAR FROM HEAVEN - Rated PG-13
- 107 minutes - Flat
Four Academy Award nominations, including Julianne
Moore nominated for Best Actress.
In
director Todd Haynes' hugely enjoyable homage to Douglas Sirk's color-saturated,
mid-'50s melodramas (complete with a swelling score by Elmer Bernstein),
Julianne Moore, in one of her two noteworthy performances this year (The
Hours being the other), plays a small-town housewife who thinks she
has it all, only to find she has nothing. Her husband is a touchingly tragic
Dennis Quaid. Overflowing with gorgeous style, Haynes' little slice of Heaven
assails the racial and sexual hypocrisy of American life.
See reviews
RABBIT PROOF FENCE - Rated PG
- 94 minutes - Flat
Starring Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Kenneth
Branagh
Directed
by Philip Noyce (The Quiet American), Rabbit-Proof Fence is
an extraordinary true tale of perseverance set against the deplorable backdrop
of government-sanctioned racism in 1931 Australia. This stirring film reveals
the story of three kidnapped Aboriginal girls who run away from an indoctrination
camp and walk 1,500 miles across the Outback, along a rabbit-proof fence,
to return to their native village.
See reviews
THE HOURS - Rated PG-13 - 115
minutes - Flat
Academy Award for Best Actress - Nicole Kidman!
The Hours focuses on
crucial moments in the lives of three women - the almost unrecognizable
Nicole Kidman as noted author Virginia Woolf, Julianne Moore as a post-war
housewife who is reading Woolf's novel "Mrs. Dalloway," and Meryl
Streep as a modern day book editor. Through these interwoven stories the
film contemplates the roles imposed upon women and the consequences of rejecting
them.
See reviews
THE PIANIST - Rated R - 148 minutes
- Flat
Three Academy Awards! - Best Director, Best Writing,
and Best Actor!
Director Roman Polanksi
has spent most of his professional life hoping to make a film about the
Nazi occupation of Warsaw, a historical atrocity Polanski himself survived.
The resulting film, The Pianist, is finally here and it's the 69-year-old
director's best movie since Tess. Based on Wladyslaw Szpilman's 1946
memoir "Death of a City," it features an Oscar nominated performance
by Adrien Brody as Szpilman , who was playing piano for the Polish state
radio when the Luftwaffe attacked in September 1939. The Pianist
is a powerful Holocaust drama and a welcome return to form for Roman Polanski.
See reviews
THE QUIET AMERICAN - Rated R
- 100 minutes - Scope
Michael Caine in his Oscar nominated role for Best
Actor!
 |
This tangled tale of love and war, based
on and truthful to Graham Greene's book of the same title, is Michael
Caine's best role in ages. He portrays a veteran London Times journalist
in heated 1952 Saigon, involved with a young Vietnamese mistress. When
Brendan Fraser, a soft-spoken and suspicious medical-aid officer, develops
a yen for the young woman, a war of emotions erupts. Directed by Phillip
Noyce (Rabbit-proof Fence, Patriot Games, Dead Calm),
the correlation between the war over the woman and the struggle outside
is executed perfectly. |
See reviews
CHICAGO - Rated R - 113 min.
- Scope
Oscar winner - Best Picture !
Catherine Zeta-Jones - Best Supporting Actress!
Chicago continues the
reinvention of the musical that started with Moulin Rouge. A dazzling
song and dance extravaganza, the film stars Renee Zellweger and Catherine
Zeta-Jones as dangerous ladies and Richard Gere as a slick, high-priced
attorney who boasts he can beat any rap, for a $5,000 fee. This cheerfully
lurid story, fueled Bob Fosse, John Kander and Fred Ebb's original stage
production of "Chicago," which opened in 1975 and has been playing
somewhere or other ever after - on Broadway again since 1997!
See reviews
TALK TO HER - Rated R - 113 minutes
- Scope
Academy Award winner - Best Original Screenplay
Noted
Spanish writer/director Pedro Almodovar's Oscar-winning new film, Talk
to Her, tells the story of two men, Benigno and Marco, both keeping
guard over comatose women. The former is a nurse who cares for a young dancer
injured in a car accident and with whom he has fallen in love, the latter
a writer dating a famous female bullfighter recently gored in the ring.
The men meet in the hospital, and as they get to know one another their
disparate stories emerge. (In Spanish with English subtitles)
See reviews
SPIRITED AWAY - Rated PG - 124
minutes - Flat
Academy Award winner - Best Animated Feature
One of the first Japanimation
films to win an Academy Award, Spirited Away, comes from the fertile
imagination of Hayao Miyazaki. Like his last film, Princess Mononoke,
Miyazaki's allegory grapples with, and reflects on, contemporary issues.
Spirited Away is a modern story about a 10-year-old girl who is in
the process of moving to a new home with her parents. On the way, they get
diverted into a deserted village. Almost immediately, her parents disappear
and she finds herself suddenly alone, with the deserted town becoming quickly
inhabited by a wide variety of spirits.
See reviews
ANTWONE FISHER - Rated PG-13
- 120 minutes - Scope
Starring Denzel Washington
Antwone Fisher is actor
Denzel Washington's directorial debut - an adaptation of the true story
of a naval seaman who worked through deep anger and confronted his tumultuous
past in order to move on with his life. Washington stars in the film as
Dr. Jerome Davenport, a kindly naval psychiatrist who, through helping Fisher,
also helped himself. Derek Luke stars as Fisher in his first major screen
role. Fisher himself wrote the screenplay, based on his autobiography "Finding
Fish".
See reviews
THE WAY HOME - Rated PG - 85
minutes - Flat
From Korea!
Despite the unfamiliarity of Korean cinema,
audiences will sense something unique and special about The Way Home,
from writer/director Jeong-Hyang Lee, one of the few female filmmakers presently
working in the Korean industry. A heartfelt family drama, The Way Home
is primarily a two-character piece about a spoiled, city-bred seven-year-old
boy who is sent to live with his aging grandmother in her rural village
while his mother looks for work. Upon his arrival, the boy discovers all
the amenities to which he has grown accustomed -- fast food, convenience
stories, immediate technological gratification on every level -- are nowhere
to be found. Instead, he finds himself at the mercy of a traditional lifestyle
that has all but vanished.
See reviews
IDENTITY - Rated R - 90 minutes
- Scope
Starring John Cusack, Ray Liotta, and
Alfred Molina, Identity borrows liberally from the likes of Stephen
King, Agatha Christie, Wes Craven, John Carpenter and many other horror
filmmakers and wordsmiths. Set in a rundown motel in the Nevada desert,
on a ubiquitous 'dark and stormy night,' the story brings together a disparate
but connected group of 10 individuals. They include a limo driver, a cop
transporting a prisoner, a prostitute looking to go straight and a spoiled
actress, among others. Soon enough, bodies start piling up and the survivors
have to try to figure out who among their group is intent on killing everyone
else.
See reviews
CONFIDENCE - Rated R - 98 minutes
- Scope
 |
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Edward Burns, Rachel
Weisz, and Andy Garcia, Confidence has the perfect elements for
a highly entertaining caper film - a clever script, enjoyable performances,
and atmospheric cinematography. The storyline involves Edward Burns
as a low level con artist who gets in over his head when he scams a
crime kingpin. |
See reviews
IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY - Rated
R - 109 minutes - Scope
It Runs in the Family
features three generations of the Douglas clan of Hollywood. Kirk, his real
life ex-wife Diana (whom he divorced 50 years ago), son Michael, and his
son Cameron in a family farce that rivals "Reality" TV - yes,
family members dealing with generations of problems. Once again, papa rules
the roost. Still feeling the effects of a stroke, the 87-year-old Kirk D.
shows great spirit overseeing his oddball family. Michael D. is a married
Manhattan attorney who puts work first and nearly has an affair with a fiery
coworker. Cameron D. doesn't have much common sense, but he and dad share
a common trait: Trying desperately to live up to their father's expectations...and
failing miserably. Also featured is Bernadette Peters as Michael's wife.
See reviews
THE GOOD THIEF - Rated R - 109
minutes - Flat
Starring Nick Nolte
It's unusual for a name director like
Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) to remake a movie, much less a revered
classic like the 1955 French crime drama Bob Le Flambeur. However,
from virtually the first second, Jordan draws you into this exotic, clever
film, which updates the original with details involving sexual identity
and current politics, but remains faithful to Bob Le Flambeur's main
story and tone. That's not to say that The Good Thief is a simple
copy of the French film. It brings its own quirky personality to the table
even as it sticks to the original tale of a group of likable thieves who
hatch a daring plan to knock over a casino. Nick Nolte is letter-perfect
as the hard-living expatriate American, junkie and gambler who's hit rock
bottom and needs a big score to stay alive. As he assembles a crew and devises
a plot to steal millions, an evocative portrait of his world emerges, replete
with gallantry, intrigue and villainy, in equal measure.
See reviews
BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM - Rated
PG-13 - 112 minutes - Flat
New from Britain!
Cryptic
as the title may seem, Bend it Like Beckham is as meaningful to the
British as "Dunk it Like Shaq" would be to Americans. The focus,
however, of Bend it Like Beckham isn't the famed English soccer star
of its title, nor his legendary ability to "bend" a kicked ball,
but rather a pair of 18-year-old soccer-playing girls--one English, the
other English-Indian--who bond over the inability of their respective families
to appreciate their passion for the sport, only to later discover that they
are both falling for their coach. This British import is an exhilarating
tale of individual triumph that skillfully blends comedy, romance, drama
and pointed social commentary.
See reviews
DOWN WITH LOVE - Rated PG-13
- 102 minutes - Scope
Renee Zellweger goes campy !
Though
Rock Hudson and Doris Day only made three films together, the effect of
those films on the generation that came of age during the '60s has been
immeasurable. Down With Love is both an homage to and a satire of
the Hudson/Day films. It's 1962 and Barbara Novak (Renée Zellweger)
has just authored a book entitled "Down With Love," a daring declaration
of sexual liberation that calls for women everywhere to do like men and
separate their feelings of love from their desire for sex. To help promote
the book her editor has arranged for a cover story in the men's magazine
"Know," whose star writer is a notorious playboy, Catcher Block
(Ewan McGregor). Catcher intends to trap and expose Ms. Novak for what he's
convinced she is: just another hopelessly romantic, all-American female.
See reviews
A MIGHTY WIND - Rated PG-13 -
92 minutes - Flat
Another hilarious mocumentary from Christopher Guest
When it comes to parodies,
no one does it better than Christopher Guest. This Is Spinal Tap,
which he co-wrote (but did not direct - that duty went to Rob Reiner), is
a scathing look at heavy metal bands that has often been imitated, but never
equaled. Waiting for Guffman convincingly skewers small-town theater,
and Best in Show is a brilliant satire about dog shows that is laugh-aloud
funny yet still strangely affectionate. Now, with A Mighty Wind,
Guest sends up folk music. This mocumentary chronicles a reunion concert
featuring three once-popular folk music bands, organized as a tribute to
a recently deceased music producer. The concert is headlined by three acts
from the '60s: The Folksmen, a trio (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean,
Harry Shearer) whose lone hit is more than thirty years old; The New Main
Street Singers, a "neuftette" of nine whose image is pure Pat
Boone even though one of their members (Jane Lynch) is an ex-porn star;
and Mitch & Mickey (Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara), fondly remembered,
but no longer America's sweethearts. The concert is to occur live at New
York's Town Hall and be broadcast nationwide on Public Broadcasting. Of
course, not everything goes smoothly.
See reviews
ASSASSINATION TANGO - Rated R
- 113 minutes - Flat
Robert Duvall's latest!
Actor Robert Duvall's latest
directorial outing, Assassination Tango, joins his other off-beat
films: Angelo, My Love, about the travails of a Gypsy community,
and The Apostle, about a troubled fire-and-brimstone preacher. In
this film, Duvall portrays an elderly, pony-tailed, loving boyfriend, father
figure and dance aficionado, who also moonlights as a professional hit man.
When he's sent off to Buenos Aires to kill a general, and the hit is delayed,
he stumbles across a vivacious tango teacher and falls in love with the
Argentinean dance. Assassination Tango is Duvall's love letter to
the tango, a real life passion of his.
See reviews
NOWHERE IN AFRICA - Rated R -
141 minutes - Flat
Academy Award winner - Best Foreign Film!
Nowhere in Africa, deserved
winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, blends the intimate
charm of a family film with the breadth of an epic tale. Seen mainly through
the eyes of a young Jewish girl, it's the true story of a family that left
Nazi Germany in 1938 for a safe haven in the wilds of Kenya. Stephanie Zweig's
popular novel about her experiences during the Holocaust is genuinely moving,
bolstered by consistently fine performances. Nowhere in Africa packs
a hefty emotional punch.
See reviews
WHALE RIDER - Rated PG-13 - 101
minutes - Scope
Winner - audience awards as most popular film at
both the Toronto and Sundance film festivals!
This audience-grabbing New
Zealand import is a modern retelling of a Maori legend, which states that
the firstborn son of a coastal tribe's chief will become the new leader.
When that firstborn son turns out to be a girl the tradition's lineage is
broken and a long conflict ensues between the young girl and her stern,
traditional grandfather, who blocks her efforts and rejects her destiny
at every turn. Keisha Castle-Hughes, in a remarkable debut performance,
shows what a feisty 12-year old girl is capable of achieving. Based on a
bestselling novel, the film features gorgeous cinematography, fine performances,
cross-cultural appeal, a beautiful soundtrack and a solemn respect for culture
and tradition. Whale Rider is strongly reminiscent of another powerful
film fable, The Secret of Roan Inish!
See reviews
SPELLBOUND - Rated G - 96 minutes
- Flat
One of the best "sports"
documentaries of the year, Spellbound follows eight young people
as they race towards the top--and only--prize in the world's toughest, most
unforgiving challenge--the National Spelling Bee. The timelessness of this
tale and the skill and love evident in its making rank Spellbound
as a classic. The contest is intense and we feel the pressure right alongside
the parents. Expect a few tears shed at the emotionally cathartic finale.
This is a documentary that will involve you, these are kids you will love,
this is a picture of America at its most American. It's a powerful reminder
that our future is in our children--and that the kids are all right.
See reviews
28 DAYS LATER - Rated R - 113
minutes - Flat
The stylish British horror film that's becoming
a cult hit!
28 Days Later is a horryfing
examination of human nature and society in extreme circumstances. Set in
present-day London, a man wakes up in the hospital after a bicycle accident
to find not only the building but seemingly the whole city deserted. Gradually,
he pieces it together: A newspaper headline screams "EVACUATION";
a message board is papered with missing persons flyers. Eventually, he finds
others, though they are raving mad and immediately attack him. He is rescued
by a pair of survivors, who explain that, over the course of the past 28
days, a virus has devastated civilization. Spread by saliva or blood, it
takes hold in seconds and infects its victim with murderous rage.
See reviews
NORTHFORK - Rated PG-13 - 94
minutes - Scope
Featuring James Woods, Nick Nolte, Anthony Edwards,
Daryl Hannah in a story set in Montana!
Northfork, the final
film in a trilogy (Twin Falls Idaho and Jackpot) from twin
brother writing-directing team, the Polish brothers, is a classic for all
time - a hauntingly beautiful fantasy story that focuses on a tiny 1955
Montana town about to be covered by a dam. As Federal agent James Woods
leads a committee trying to get citizens out of the way, a woman abandons
her sickly, adopted child with town preacher Nick Nolte. The child then
dreams about angels, in a family that includes Daryl Hannah and Anthony
Edwards, and the tale becomes decidedly other-worldly.
See reviews
THE SECRET LIVES OF DENTISTS - Rated R - 105 minutes - Flat
From Director Alan Rudolph
The
Secret Lives of Dentists is the latest from veteran director Alan Rudolph,
one of the most interesting, intellectually lively, and hard-to-pin-down
filmmakers America has produced in the past 30 years. When a dentist (Campbell
Scott) suspects his wife (Hope Davis) of cheating, it creates a cavity in
his life -- and his sanity. The revelation hits him so strongly that he
starts hallucinating that a patient of his (Denis Leary) is also his secret
confidant. This singularly intelligent domestic comedy benefits from fine
performances from the leads, Scott and Davis, who always tend to shine in
their individual indie projects.
See reviews
WINGED MIGRATION - Rated G -
89 minutes - Flat
A
sleeper hit in Europe, Winged Migration follows the migration of
various species of birds through seven continents, 40 countries and every
season. A labor of love for Jacques Perrin, who directed, co-wrote, co-produced
and narrated the film, it was a tremendous effort, involving more than 450
people, including pilots, who tracked the birds as they flew thousands of
miles to their nesting places. As one would expect, the footage is absolutely
stunning, with all the permutations of life and death played out in the
often dramatic experiences of these winged wonders.
See reviews
DIRTY PRETTY THINGS - Rated R
- 107 minutes - Flat
Director
Stephen Frears latest film, Dirty Pretty Things, takes yet another
look at the plight of immigrants in London. He explored the subject in 1985's
My Beautiful Launderette and again in 1987 with Sammy and Rosie
Get Laid (both of which played at our theater). In Dirty Pretty Things,
he explores the delicate subject of illegal immigrants with stunning assurance.
Frears opens up a colorful world in which Chinese, Turks, Africans and Indians,
existing in the shadows of mainstream life, find ingenious ways to protect
each other from the Immigration authorities. Newcomer Chiwetel Ejiofor gives
a nuanced performance as a Nigerian doctor forced to flee his homeland,
and Audrey Tautou, who came to international attention for her wide-eyed
beauty in the French film Amelie gives an even richer performance
here. Dirty Pretty Things is a shimmering gem of a movie.
See reviews
THIRTEEN - Rated R - 100 minutes
- Flat
Thirteen, the first
feature by production designer-turned-writer/director Catherine Hardwicke,
manages to skirt cheap sensationalism in one of the most honest and harrowing
looks at female adolescence ever to reach the screen. Hardwicke co-wrote
the script with teenager Nikki Reed who also plays the older girl leading
the main character, Evan Rachel Wood, astray. What drives this edgy film
are the performances. Wood is frighteningly convincing as the hysterical
main character, and Reed is seductive as her guide to the dark side. But
Holly Hunter, who earned Sundance's Tribute to Independent Vision accolade
this year, is singularly powerful as a single mom at a loss as to what to
do with a daughter spiraling out of control.
See reviews
THE MAGDALENE SISTERS - Rated
R - 115 minutes - Flat
The Magdalene Sisters
won the top prize at the 2002 Venice Film Festival. Director Peter Mullan's
riveting look at a little-known aspect of the Catholic Church is set in
Ireland, four decades back in time. It's an era when girls are still the
property of their parents, who in turn obey the priesthood with unquestioning
faith. Daughters who stray -- sex outside of marriage is the primary offense
-- are condemned to involuntary servitude at commercial laundries run by
merciless Sisters of Mercy. The idea behind these "Magdalene Asylums"
is that poor living conditions, inadequate food and hard work, seven long
days a week, equals atonement for sins. Mullan encourages uniformly strong
performances from his wonderful cast in physically and psychologically challenging
roles.
See reviews
AMERICAN SPLENDOR - Rated R -
101 minutes - Flat
Winner of the Grand Jury
Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, American Splendor is a model
of the possibilities intrinsic to independent film. Part biopic, part documentary,
part comic-book adaptation, the film is a hybrid film unlike any other.
Character actor Paul Giamatti ravishes his role as Harvey Pekar, the author
of the underground comic book after which the film is named. By day he works
as a file clerk at the VA hospital with his wacky friends. By night he recounts
the torturous monotony and everyday frustrations in a strip illustrated
by clumsy stick figures. His friend Robert Crumb likes his ideas and offers
to draw the characters, and a hit comic book is born. Despite critical acclaim,
Harvey never makes enough money to quit his job as a file clerk, and his
strip continues to portray his mundanities there as well as his relationship
with his wife Joyce (Hope Davis) and his bout with cancer. Throughout, a
cartoon version of himself visits Harvey, illustrating quite literally the
cantankerous thoughts batting about in his brain. It is a visual flair that
adds a witty flavor to the film. Harvey muses on the other Harvey Pekars
listed in the Cleveland phonebook. He is legitimately puzzled by the existence
of Harvey Pekars in his hometown, and, although he's never met these men
who share his name, he is genuinely saddened when he hears that one of them
has passed away. Who are these people? What's in a name? Who is Harvey Pekar?
- he asks. It's a question he attempts to answer throughout the film, throughout
his comics, throughout his life.
See reviews
RIVERS AND TIDES - Unrated (PG?)
- 90 minutes - Flat
If you liked Winged Migration, you should
see this ravishingly beautiful film!
|
Rivers and Tides, Andy Goldsworthy
Working With Time is a sensual and poetic journey into the world
and mind of the renowned sculptor. Using materials from nature, Goldworthy
allows the elements to have the last say in his beautiful creations,
as his ingenious patterns of wood, leaves, stone and ice erode over
time. Filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer followed the artist for over a
year intimately documenting his improvisational process and capturing
the serene spectacle of his works. |
See reviews
OUT OF TIME - Rated PG-13 - 105
minutes - Scope
Starring Denzel Washington
Denzel
Washington stars in this smart comic thriller about a tiny Florida town's
police chief who is the prime suspect in a murder. Worse yet, his separated
wife (Eva Mendes) is also the homicide detective on his back. Is he an innocent
man? Did he really kill his on-the-side girlfriend, who also happens to
have inoperable cancer? Crafted and crafty, Out of Time makes for
a dandy evening out.
See reviews
CASA DE LOS BABYS - Rated R -
95 minutes - Flat
Starring Daryl Hannah, Lili Taylor, Marcia Gay Harden,
Maggie Gyllenhall and Mary Steenburgen
In writer / director John
Sayles' (Lone Star, Secret of Roan Inish) newest film, Casa De
Los Babys, a group of American women bond as they await delivery of
babies they are adopting in an unnamed Latin American country. Stuck in
a cheap hotel, nicknamed by its staff Casa de Los Babys, the women come
across as typically self-absorbed Westerners, albeit with significant personality
differences. They include a born-again Christian (Mary Steenburgen) desperate
for a child; a young woman (Maggie Gyllenhall) hoping adoption will save
her troubled marriage; a mysterious wealthy woman (Marcia Gay Harden) with
significant personal problems; and a tough-talking New Yorker (Lili Taylor)
who just doesn't want to get pregnant. Over a couple of days, they banter,
fight and slowly reveal their innermost secrets and desires.
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LOST IN TRANSLATION - Rated R
- 102 minutes - Flat
Starring Bill Murray
Moving away from his Saturday
Night Live "wild and crazy guy" image, Bill Murray gives one
of the best performances of his career in Lost in Translation. Writer/director
Sofia Coppola steps out from her famous father's shadow (Francis Ford Coppola)
and proves she has her own unique style. Patterning her film on the time-honored
premise of lonely strangers in strange surroundings finding solace in each
other's company, Coppola transcends all the usual romantic clichés,
almost daring the audience to second-guess her by framing the picture around
two figures who would normally have nothing in common if not for the fact
that they're both Americans simultaneously suffering the culture shock of
a first-time visit to Japan. Aging movie star Bob Harris (Bill Murray) has
arrived in Tokyo to shoot a whiskey commercial while recent college grad
Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is simply tagging along on a job with her
photographer husband (Giovanni Ribisi). Murray and Johansson generate the
kind of on-screen chemistry that rarely graces American cinema these days.
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LUTHER - Rated PG-13 - 124 minutes
- Flat
Starring Joseph Fiennes, Alfred Molina, Jonathan
Firth, Claire Cox and Peter Ustinov
In
1506, Da Vinci was completing The Mona Lisa, Michelangelo was ready
to start on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and Henry VIII was about
to become King of England. Nobody had heard of Martin Luther, a young Catholic
Monk living in Germany. Despite the accomplishments of his then more famous
contemporaries, this not-so-simple Monk had a more world-changing effect
than all three of them combined. Luther became the moral force of the Reformation,
the priest who defied Rome, nailed his 95 Theses to the castle door
and essentially founded the Protestant movement. This historical drama features
Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) as the enigmatic Luther, and
Sir Peter Ustinov in a grand performance as Frederick the Wise.
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LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION - Rated PG - 92 minutes - Flat
Bugs Bunny is back ! - Along with Brendan Fraser,
Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin, Timothy Dalton, Joan Cusack and Heather Locklear
Come
enjoy the icons of the golden age of movie cartoons - Bugs Bunny, Daffy
Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Wylie Coyote - as they interact with a cast of live
actors. Their wacky antics take place in the great tradition of cartoon
road pictures. Daffy has been fired by a high-level executive, Kate Houghton
(Jenna Elfman), who is told in no uncertain terms--by none other than Bugs
Bunny himself--to get him back. Meanwhile, Daffy has embarked on a trek
with security guard/stuntman DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser of the "Mummy"
films, who also voices the Tasmanian Devil here) in search of DJ's father,
Damien Drake (Timothy Dalton), an actor who plays a secret agent but is
in reality an actual secret agent who pretends to be an actor. Then there
is the Acme chairman (Steve Martin) bent on TAKING OVER THE WORLD. It's
Wabbit Season again!
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MYSTIC RIVER - Rated R - 140
minutes - Scope
Starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence
Fishburne, Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden
Clint Eastwood's latest
directorial effort, Mystic River, is a psychological thriller with
Oscar buzz swarming around it. Injected with elements from classic Greek
tragedy, the film reveals how an incident from the past impacts three former
childhood friends. At the film's outset, the trio are innocently playing
hockey in their neighborhood until one of them is lured away and sexually
abused. When he escapes, nothing is ever the same again; a dark shadow has
been cast and the close bond between the friends is irrevocably shattered.
Decades later a murder brings the three together again, - an ex-con, a police
detective, and the still traumatized abuse victim.
See reviews
SHATTERED GLASS - Rated PG-13
- 94 minutes - Scope
Starring Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Hank
Azaria and Chloe Sevigny
PETER SARSGAARD NOMINATED FOR GOLDEN GLOBE FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Journalist Stephen Glass
(Hayden Christensen), a writer for the liberal publication The New Republic,
cooked up over 90 percent of the stories he published (slightly preceding
Jayson Blair's same trick at The New York Times). Shattered Glass
is a smart, methodically laid out story of how a young and eager journalist
on the rise charmed his way into the editorial bosom of a prestigious magazine.
Christensen gives a perfectly subtle performance playing a quietly obsequious
guy who finally hits a wall. Peter Sarsgaard, as the editor who provides
that wall, gives an equally sharp performance. As an investigative drama
Shattered Glass smashes a lot of illusions about contemporary media.
See reviews
THE STATION AGENT - Rated R -
88 minutes - Flat
The hit of the Sundance Festival: BEST DRAMA, BEST
SCREENPLAY, BEST PERFORMANCE
An unexpected favorite at
the Sundance Film Festival, where it captured acting, writing and audience
awards, The Station Agent is the gentle portrait of a tentative friendship
among three quite disparate people. Finbar (Peter Dinklage), whose separation
from humanity is largely due to his dwarfism, is working at a model-train
store when his boss suddenly drops dead and leaves him with an abandoned
train depot in rural New Jersey. He goes there looking for solitude, but
his life soon intersects with a quirky artist (Patricia Clarkson) and a
hot dog vendor (Bobby Cannavale), who befriends the little guy with his
unending chatter and puppy-dog enthusiasm. You'll want to schedule a stop
for The Station Agent.
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