Short Subjectives February 28 2001

Opening Friday
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (PG) 1/2 Luminous and beguiling, Wong Kar-Wai’s brooding tale of a lovesick couple in 1960s Hong Kong achieves a tone of aesthetic beauty and aching desire rarely approached by contemporary filmmakers. Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung star as neighbors in a cramped apartment building who drift, almost reluctantly, into a relationship of deep yearning and unspoken desire, while their spouses are busy will dalliances elsewhere. Wong’s visual finesse (lushly photographed by Christopher Doyle) imbues the delicate plot with a unique flavor of romance-noir, and the carefully chosen music and brilliantly realized period fashions only make this heady romantic brew only more intoxicating. -- Felicia Feaster
THE MEXICAN (R) Jerry Welbach (Brad Pitt) heads South of the Border to complete one final task (retrieving a “cursed” antique pistol known as the “Mexican”) for his mob boss. But girlfriend Samantha (Julia Roberts) has promised to give him the heave ho unless he cuts ties with the wise guys. Choosing life over love, Jerry heads out in search of the gun and Samantha is taken hostage by a hit man (James Gandolfini) to ensure the “Mexican’s” safe return.
POLLOCK (R) * This cinematically conventional biopic of abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock is a vivid portrait of a veritable sphinx. Directed by and starring Ed Harris, Pollock follows the professional rise and obligatory unraveling of the gifted painter, focusing on his marriage to fellow artist Lee Krasner. As evocative as Harris’s portrayal of the sinewy and scowling artist is, he fails (or chooses not) to offer any insights into Pollock’s swollen ego, alcoholic rage and generic mad genius behavior, leaving Pollock unavoidably unsatisfying as a result. — FF
SEE SPOT RUN (PG) David Arquette plays the Adam Sandler role in a virtual remake of Big Daddy that adds a dog to the young boy he has to bond with to win his lady love. They all are chased by hitmen because the dog is the FBI’s top canine agent and has bitten off one of Paul Sorvino’s testicles. With so much plot, See Spot Run has less depth than Big Daddy — and that’s a terrible thing to say about any movie! Michael Clarke Duncan plays the dog’s FBI partner in a humiliating piece of buffoonery and racial stereotyping. — Steve Warren
Opening Wednesday
BLOW DRY (R) The working-class city of Keighley E experiences a stylist invasion when it hosts the glamorous National Hair Championships. Retired hairdresser Phil (Alan Rickman) blows off the hoopla until several out-of-towners bend the rules and he’s forced to team up with his rivals — ex-wife-turned-lesbian Shelley (Natasha Richardson) and her new partner Sandra (Rachel Griffiths) — to ensure there’s no foul play.
Duly Noted
AIMEE & JAGUAR (NR) Based on the true story of an anti-Semitic mother and wife of a Nazi soldier who falls deliriously in love with a Jew in 1943 Berlin as Allied bombs shower the city, this German film reads like the plotline of a Fassbinder film. Though this unconventional love story gets a fairly conventional treatment by first time director Max Farberbock, the film sustains interest courtesy of the marvelous performances by Maria Schrader and Juliane Kohler as the love-struck lesbians. Feb. 23-March 1 at 12, 4:15 and 8:30 p.m., GSU’s cinéfest. — FF
APPLAUSE A melodrama about a washed-up burlesque queen who sacrifices herself for her daughter, shown as part of the “Silent Heaven IV: Silence of the Nights” film festival’s Early Sound Night sponsored by the Silent Film Society of Atlanta and Emory University’s Film Studies’ Program. Kameradschaft screening follows. March 4 at 7:30 p.m., 112 White Hall, Emory.
BEING THERE The film adaptation of a comic novel by Jerzy Kosinski will be screened in conjunction with the exhibit “Book Unbound” at the Dalton Gallery. March 8 at 7 p.m., 101 Dana Fine Arts Building, Agnes Scott College, 141 College Ave.
A BERLIN ROMANCE In this delicately wrought, beautifully photographed East German film, a boy from West Berlin (Ulrich Thein) and a girl from the East (Annekatrin Burger) enact the immortal drama of young romance. In addition to the usual obstructions of family, finances and divergent career paths, Uschi and Hans must also contend with the messy socio-economics of the Cold War. By resisting political didacticism, Gerhard Klein’s film is not only a genuinely touching love story but also a rare and convincing dramatization of everyday life in pre-Wall Berlin. March 7 at 7 p.m., as part of Germany’s Other Cinema film festival at the Goethe Institut Atlanta. — Bret Wood
THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB As West Hollywood photographer Dennis (Timothy Olyphant) prepares to celebrate his 28th birthday, he weighs the redeeming (they make single gay life bearable) and exasperating(they drive him crazy) attributes of his friends. March 2-8, GSU’s cinéfest.
DON’T CHANGE YOUR HUSBAND One of Cecil B. DeMille’s romantic dramas starring Gloria Swanson, which dabbles in the prospect of extramarital affairs. Redemption, a rare talkie with John Gilbert and Renee Adoree, also screening as part of the “Silent Heaven IV: Silence of the Nights” film festival sponsored by the Silent Film Society of Atlanta and Emory University’s Film Studies’ Program. March 4 at 1 p.m., 112 White Hall, Emory.
DR. MABUSE THE GAMBLER As part of the “Silent Heaven IV: Silence of the Nights” film festival sponsored by the Silent Film Society of Atlanta and Emory University’s Film Studies’ Program, German Night includes two films by Fritz Lang about the many faces of Dr. Mabuse (Dr. Mabuse: King of Crime also screening). The gambler, physician and magician mesmerizes all he meets and toys with the weaknesses of the rich and influential, setting them up for blackmail. A look into the vices available to Germans in 1922. March 2 at 7:30 p.m., 112 White Hall, Emory.
FATHER SERGIUS Tolstoy’s story of an officer who became a monk on the eve of his wedding and suffered tortures of the flesh thereafter, shown as part of the “Silent Heaven IV: Silence of the Nights” film festival’s Russian Night sponsored by the Silent Film Society of Atlanta and Emory University’s Film Studies’ Program. Silent with English subtitles. Peasant Women of Riazan also screening. March 3 at 7:30 p.m., 112 White Hall, Emory.
GOYA IN BORDEAUX Writer and director Carlos Saura explores the final months of 82-year-old famed artist Franciso de Goya, who lives in exile in Bordeaux with the last of his lovers, as he recounts the main events of his life — political involvement, his one true love, the delights of fame — for his daughter Rosario. In Spanish with subtitles. March 9 at 8 p.m., Rich Auditorium.
GIRL ON THE BRIDGE A carnival knife-thrower comes upon a suicidal 22-year-old woman standing on the edge of a bridge over the Seine. He convinces the hopelessly lost girl to join his risky act, and she finds a purpose to life in this modern-day fairy tale. Feb. 23-March 1 at 2:30 and 6:45 p.m., GSU’s cinéfest.
HARUKOMA NO UTA As part of the Japan Foundation’s series focusing on minorities in Japanese society, Song of the Spring Pony (English translation) is a story about Keiji, a young boy who suffered from infantile paralysis and is tormented by schoolmates because of his handicap. March 8 at 7:30 p.m., 206 White Hall, Emory.
HISTORY LESSONS Experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer’s final installment of the history trilogy, which constructs a filmic lesbian history, celebrating lesbian life during the pre-Stonewall era. Shown as part of the retrospective celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Atlanta Film and Video Festival. March 3 at 8 p.m., Harlan Cinema, Emory University.
KAYOKO NO TAMENI Based on Lee Hwe-Song’s novel of the same name, director Oguri Kohei’s 1984 film explores the thoughts and lives of young Koreans living in postwar Japan. These young Koreans have faced a number of hardships, including discrimination and loss of their Korean identities. March 1 at 7:30 p.m., 205 White Hall, Emory.
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (R) The cult classic of cult classics, the 1975 horror spoof follows an all-American couple (Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) to the castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a drag-queen/mad scientist from another galaxy. It’s all fun and games until Meatloaf gets killed. Dress as your favorite character and participate in this musical on acid. Fridays at midnight, Lefont Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce De Leon Ave.
SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS ASIFA-Atlanta presents a screening of cartoon classics spanning three decades. Guests are encouraged to wear pajamas and bathrobes. March 6 from 8-9:30 p.m., Fountainhead Lounge, 485 Flat Shoals Ave.
STAR 69 Local filmmakers Bazyl Dripps and Tara Kenney present the spooky short that has been shown at film festivals around the country. Fish’s for Stancie by Maxwell Guberman also screening. March 5 at 8 p.m., the Fountainhead.
TENDER FICTIONS Barbara Hammer’s personal narrative examining the relationship between artist and community with humor and wit. The screening is part of the retrospective celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Atlanta Film and Video Festival. March 4 at 7 p.m., Hill Auditorium, High Museum of Art.
THE TWO WOMEN FRIENDS In Berlin, Elli falls in love with a carpenter named Karl and they get married. Soon after the wedding, Karl begins to physically abuse his wife. She finds solace in her friendship with another battered woman, and the two friends cook up a secret plan. Director Axel Corti’s 1977 film is in German with subtitles. Feb. 28 at 7 p.m., Goethe Institut Atlanta.
THE WOLVES OF KROMER Thanks to heavy-handed metaphor and predictable politics, this potentially biting drama of rogue “wolves” skulking about the English countryside is defanged at the hands of director Will Gould. James Layton and Lee Williams are a pair of fur-clad gay wolves cruising for sexual adventure, even as they are stalked by a mealy-mouthed representative of the Catholic church. March 2-8, GSU’s cinéfest. -- FF
Continuing
ANTITRUST (PG-13) 1/2 Though not as memorable as Arlington Road, the last paranoid thriller in which Tim Robbins played a villain, Antitrust is a good popcorn movie that’s aimed at a younger audience and should do the job for them. Robbins is a Bill Gates-like computer mogul, Ryan Phillippe the hotshot garage geek who goes to work for him but discovers his dark secrets and has to bring down his empire. It’s like a chess game, only more visual. The geek-speak dialogue sounds credible without being intimidating. — SW
BEFORE NIGHT FALLS (NR) ’80s artist Julian Schnabel steps up to the filmmaking plate again after his promising 1996 Basquiat to deliver another noteworthy portrait of an idiosyncratic artist rebelling against convention. This time it’s Cuban dissident writer and homosexual Reinaldo Arenas (Javier Bardem), who was aggressively persecuted by Castro’s forces after the revolution for both his work and his sexuality. This bio-picture, featuring bizarre cameos from Johnny Depp and Sean Penn, is lyrically constructed, with a surreal rhythm that manages to span decades in Arenas’ often brutal, lonely life without losing a sense of the artist’s perspective. — FF
CHOCOLAT (PG-13) 1/2 Free-spirited Juliette Binoche opens a chocolate shop in a repressed village, setting up a didactic conflict of indulgence versus denial. The French locales, food and faces are lovingly photographed (the disarming ensemble includes Judi Dench, Johnny Depp and Alfred Molina), but it cannot equal the comparably themed but richer Babette’s Feast. Chocolat melts in your hands, not in your heart. — CH
CHUNHYANG (NR) Easy on the eyes but hard on most Western ears, Im Kwon Taek’s celebration of Korean culture has moments of Kurosawa-like sweep and incredible beauty. It tells of 18th-century lovers, the son of a governor and the daughter of a courtesan, who marry secretly before he goes away for three years. When she refuses the advances of the new governor she is sentenced to death. The copious narration is sung/chanted/spoken in pansori form, making a kind of folk-opera with exotic sounds that are not an easily acquired taste. — SW
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (PG-13) An enchanting tale set in early 19th-century China, Ang Lee’s (Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm) atmospheric Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon rekindles the Hong Kong flame of gravity-defying martial arts action and tender sentiment. Lee invests the usual astounding acrobatics with his characters’ pangs of regret, love and loss as two martial arts masters, (Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh) teach a spoiled young aristocrat (Zhang Ziyi) about the moral responsibilities of the Giang Hu martial arts way in this subversive, beautifully realized coming-of-age story. — FF
DOWN TO EARTH Though he’s given strong supporting performances, Chris is not yet the Rock on which to build a movie. In this remake of Heaven Can Wait he plays a would-be comic who’s called up to heaven prematurely and sent back in the body of a rich white man. There are a few good lines and moments, but it feels overall like a mediocre sketch comedy. A Chris Rock concert movie would have been far more entertaining. I thought the Warren Beatty version was overrated, so as much as I like Rock, I can’t work up much enthusiasm for an inferior remake. — SW
THE GIFT (R) Where do I go to return The Gift? Cate Blanchett plays a small town medium who gets embroiled in violence and sleazy behavior in a script, co-written by Billy Bob Thornton, that plays like “Peyton Place” with ESP. Director Sam Raimi injects a few shocks, but the film proves too over-the-top to be taken seriously, and with too many classy performers (including Keanu Reeves and Hilary Swank) for camp value. — CH
HANNIBAL (R) The sequel to The Silence of the Lambs substitutes a well-cast Julianne Moore for Jodie Foster, but more problematically offers director Ridley Scott’s baroque gloss for Jonathan Demme’s solid sobriety. The results can border on camp, especially when the eerie Anthony Hopkins bites into culinary puns, but the well-crafted cat-and-mouse scenes keep the suspense at a delicious simmer. — CH
HEAD OVER HEELS (PG-13) Freddie Prinze Jr., the Prinze never known as an artist, can’t convince us he’s an actor, let alone a killer, so we don’t seriously suspect him for a moment when new girlfriend Monica Potter, a blonde Julia Roberts wannabe, thinks she sees him commit a murder. While the characters and situations would seem to lend themselves more to wit than lowest-common-denominator humor, this dumbing-down of the plots of Rear Window and Charade suggests those films might have been more successful if they’d included an exploding toilet scene. — SW
IMAX AT FERNBANK: ADVENTURES IN WILD CALIFORNIA (NR) It’s “California Dreamin’” for the new millennium as IMAX and Everest director Greg MacGillivray pack a lot of extreme sports and environmentalism into 40 unhurried minutes, including sky- and sea-surfing sequences that put Hollywood movie stunts and special effects to shame. You’ll see baby otters and bald eagles being prepared by humans for life in the wild and trees that have lived for 3000 years. You’ll ride a roller coaster at Disneyland, walk down the red carpet at the Academy Awards and descend 125 feet into a hollow space in an ancient sequoia. Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m., 1, 3 and 5 p.m., Sun. 1, 3 and 5 p.m. and Fri. 8 and 10 p.m.
BEAVERS (NR) 1/2 Two furry rodents build a dam and a family in an IMAX nature film that strains to fill 40 minutes. There’s glorious photography of the wilderness of Alberta, Canada, blessedly little narration, and fascination in watching these natural-born engineers at work. Fans of Animal Planet should enjoy this giant-screen study of another of nature’s wonders. Mon.-Sat. at 10 a.m., noon, 2 and 4 p.m., Sun. at noon, 2 and 4 p.m., and Fri. at 7 and 9 p.m.. Films run through March 23 at Fernbank Museum of Natural History, 767 Clifton Road. — SW
LEFT BEHIND (PG-13) If I go to hell for this lukewarm review, the road will be paved with the fundamentalist filmmakers’ good intentions. Based on a novel that projects the prophecies of Revelation onto modern times on the assumption they’ve begun to come true, it wastes too much time making a mystery of what every viewer knows: the millions who suddenly disappeared went to Heaven in the Rapture. In a less predictable plot line, two men try to take over the world by ending war and hunger. With the prophecies carved in stone and the wheels set in motion, resistance should be futile. — SW
MALENA (R) Cinema Paradiso’s Giuseppe Tornatore offers another nostalgic glimpse of an Italian childhood, focusing here on adolescent Renato (Giuseppe Sulfaro) and his obsession with a shapely war widow (Monica Belucci) during World War II. The film treats Belucci as a sex object, but that’s part of the point, as the rest of Renato’s village judges her character based on her appearance. The moments of broad comedy and gorgeous photography make up for its uncharitable view toward the Italian people. — CH
MISS CONGENIALITY (PG-13) 1/2 Despite plot holes you could sail the Titanic through, so-so comedy and borderline-pathetic action scenes, this is a star vehicle for Sandra Bullock and she carries it off triumphantly as an FBI agent whose feminine side emerges when she goes undercover as a contestant to save a beauty pageant from a mad bomber. Benjamin Bratt makes a good foil as the fellow agent she’ll wind up with once they resolve their character flaws. While the script could have used a lot more polishing, director Donald Petrie salvages it by focusing on the characters and letting his actors save the day. — SW
MONKEYBONE (PG-13) Let the Grinch keep Christmas! Here’s a really imaginative fantasy — think The Wizard of Oz with sex and death — from Henry Selick (The Nightmare before Christmas). Comatose cartoonist Brendan Fraser fights for life and the woman he loves (Bridget Fonda) in a fantasmagorical purgatory while being tormented by Monkeybone, the cartoon character that represents his repressed libido. Selick blurs the lines between live action, puppetry, CGI and various forms of animation. Chris Kattan is terrific as a dead gymnast with a broken neck. — SW
O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (PG-13) 1/2 George Clooney plays an escaped convict dragging his buddies across the Depression-era Deep South in search of hidden treasure and also trying to stop his wife’s remarriage in this uneven but brilliantly bizarre screwball send-up of ’30s folk history and Homer’s ancient epic, The Odyssey. The film features a number of Coen Brothers alums, including John Goodman (standing in for the Cyclops) and John Turturro (who almost gets turned into a frog). The title comes from Sullivan’s Travels, which you should also see, dammit. — Eddy Von Mueller
THE PLEDGE (R) Less than the sum of its parts, which include odd, beautifully photographed locations and small appearances by big actors, this serious version of Fargo, adapted from a Friedrich Durrenmatt novel, was directed somberly by Sean Penn as an American art film. Jack Nicholson plays Jerry Black, a Reno police detective whose retirement party is interrupted by the rape/murder of an 8-year-old girl. Jerry obsessively structures his life around solving this and related crimes, with ironic results. The Euro-pacing rules out mainstream audiences; others may be mildly disappointed, but Pledge is no lemon. — SW
RECESS: SCHOOL’S OUT (G) 1/2 It’s Die Hard in grade school, as T.J. and his friends, AWOL from specialized summer camps, foil a plot to abolish summer vacation by creating permanent winter on Earth. As in “Disney’s Recess” on TV, characters close in age to those of “South Park” are involved in situations that rapidly become surreal — like older “Rugrats.” Children should relate to the goings-on, and most of the movie, including a soundtrack of ’60s hits, should be equally easy for grown-ups to take. I enjoyed it enough that I’ll have to go to Critics Camp this summer for reprogramming. — SW
SAVING SILVERMAN (PG-13) Steve Zahn and Jack Black, who were on the fast track to success, take a detour in this moronic comedy that may have seemed funny on paper. They try to keep their pal Jason Biggs from marrying controlling bitch Amanda Peet by doing the only logical thing: kidnapping her, faking her death and hooking him up with Amanda Detmer, the girl he loved in high school who is about to take her final vows as a nun. All this and Neil Diamond, too! It would have taken far better direction than Dennis Dugan (Big Daddy) provides to save Saving Silverman. — SW
SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE (R) A snarling, slavering, demonic Willem Dafoe delivers the ghoulish goods in this slightly stuffed but beautifully mounted historical-horror-comedy-biopic about the making of Nosferatu in 1922. John Malkovich plays a strong second fiddle as F.W. Murnau, a director so dedicated to making the ultimate vampire movie that he hires a real vampire to play the lead. — EVM
SNATCH (R) As in his debut film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Guy Ritchie doesn’t construct plots so much as geometry exercises, setting groups of heavily-armed cockney hoodlums and hitmen in motion and seeing how often they collide. Nominally concerned with fixed boxing matches and the scramble for a stolen diamond, Snatch offers more of the same, with better jokes, a broader canvas and Brad Pitt stealing the show as a gypsy boxer whose accent is hilariously impenetrable. — CH
SWEET NOVEMBER (PG-13) I won’t reveal The Secret, which the trailer gives away and was in the 1968 version, but you know this light romantic comedy has to turn heavy by the end. Apparent madcap Charlize Theron offers to make workaholic Keanu Reeves a better person if he’ll live with her for a month, a concept that taps into men’s fantasies of sex without strings and women’s fantasies of being able to change a man. Director Pat O’Connor does what he can with a mediocre script and chemistry-challenged stars, but I kept wishing he had made Sweet February to trim the running time. — SW
3000 MILES TO GRACELAND (R) Five Elvises steal $3.2 million from a Vegas casino in this loud, unpleasant, excessively violent film aimed at people who like to watch music videos and pyrotechnics. It comes down to winner-take-all between former cellmates Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner. We’re supposed to root for Russell, the lesser of two evils, so he can pair up with Courteney Cox and be a negative role model for her young son, who’s already a kleptomaniac. Kurt + Kevin = Krap. — SW
TRAFFIC (R) 1/2 A well-crafted, engrossing story of the drug war as it touches characters from Tijuana to Washington, D.C., from cops and politicians to teenagers and suburban wives, Steven Soderbergh’s drama moves along at a ferocious clip. Even with its large cast of newcomers and Hollywood old-guarders, this psychological action film affirms Soderbergh’s talent for making good, populist dramas that exceed the usual Hollywood standards. — FF
UNSHACKLED (PG-13) 1/2 Less hokey than most “inspirational” movies, Harold Morris’ true, locally-filmed story, with which he hopes to scare kids straight, involves the integration of a Georgia prison by forcing white and black racists to coach a basketball team together. (“Remember the Titans in prison” would be the pitch.) We’re never quite convinced Morris (Burgess Jenkins) is such a bad ass or that Doc Odomes (James Black) is a goody-goody until they become cellmates and learn to “know each other’s hearts”; and we’re never sure what makes Stacy Keach’s smirking warden tick. — SW
VALENTINE (R) This old-school slice-and-dice flick follows the formula of stupid young people getting killed one at a time, apparently by someone with an old score to settle. The characters are unlikable, the details inconsistent, some murders unmotivated, and the ending, which involves a twist for its own sake, makes no sense at all. Marley Shelton, Denise Richards, Jessica Capshaw and Jessica Cauffiel play prime targets, David Boreanaz one of about a dozen suspects. Perhaps someone thought the Scream generation was ready for a new wave of bad slasher movies. I hope they were wrong. — SW
THE WEDDING PLANNER (PG-13) 1/2 Comedically challenged Jennifer Lopez plays Mary, who has been so busy planning other people’s weddings she forgot to have one of her own. She’s working on a big one when she meets Mr. Right (onetime Next Big Thing Matthew McConaughey), who happens to be the groom. Call me The Wedding Panner, but never spent as boring a 105 minutes as I did watching this dud, and I’m not exaggerating as much as the person who labeled this lifeless mess a “romantic comedy.” — SW