Short Subjectives October 10 2001

Opening Friday
?BANDITS (PG-13) Fans of the straight-faced Bruce Willis of The Sixth Sense will be disappointed to see his smirk return in this buddy/caper/road movie, in which mismatched thieves (Willis and the ubiquitous Billy Bob Thornton) embark on a bank robbing spree down along the West Coast. With the also ubiquitous Cate Blanchett.

CORKY ROMANO (PG-13) “Saturday Night Live’s” Chris Kattan plays a zany veterinarian who passes as an FBI agent to save his Mafia family — or is he passing as a mafioso to save his FBI family? Something like that. With Peter Falk, Fred Ward and Chris Penn.

HAIKU TUNNEL (R ) Jacob and Josh Kornbluth co-write, direct and act in a corporate satire about a temp (Josh) who’s life turns upside down when he takes a permanent job at a huge company. Harry Shearer plays an office orientation leader.

IRON MONKEY (PG-13) A masked hero fights 19th century tyrrany in this Hong Kong film that’s reminiscent of Zorro, Robin Hood, but mostly Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as it has a similar setting and that film’s high-flying action choreographer, Yuen Wo Ping, as director. Unlike recent Jackie Chan imports dubbed into English, this 1993 re-release is subtitled, although the gravity-defying fight scenes lose nothing in translation.--CURT HOLMAN

L.I.E. 1/2 (NC-17) The unlikely, unsettling friendship of a motherless teen (Paul Franklin Dano) and a sensitive pedophile (Brian Cox) gives this Sundance favorite its explosive premise. Although it provides a credible portrayal of troubled teens, and character actor Cox gives a superbly complex performance, the contrived plotting and “shocking” comic relief frequently undermine the delicately-rendered relationships at the heart of the story. --CH

SORDID LIVES (Not rated) Del Shores, the writer of Daddy’s Dyin’... Who’s Got the Will?’’ presents a campy, Texas-trailer-park soap opera with Beau Bridges, Bonnie Bedelia and Delta Burke — who could have been cast for their first names alone. Featuring a Tammy Wynette transvestite and Olivia Newton-John as a honkytonk Greek chorus.

Duly Noted
?BEAT STREET (PG) Melle Mel, Kool Mo Dee and Rae Dawn Chong star in this upbeat tribute to graffiti art, rap music and most of all, breakdancing. Released in 1984, it should serve as a time capsule and nostalgia piece for today’s audiences. Dinner and a Movie at MoorEpics, The Poetry Planet, 227 Mitchell St., Oct. 12 at 9 p.m.

DOWNTOWN 81 1/2 (NR) A picaresque crawl through the post-apocalyptic, graffiti and pusher occupied Lower East Side of the ’80s, painter Jean Michel Basquait brings this new wave funkytown to life along with a cast of scenesters including Fab Five Freddy, Cookie Mueller, Debbie Harry and Vincent Gallo in a sloppy but charming yarn about an artist in the city. GSU’s cinefest, Oct. 12-18.--FELICIA FEASTER

FOLLOWING 1/2 (R). The black-and-white debut work by Memento’s writer-director Christopher Nolan shares the follow-up’s fascination with scrambled narratives and film noir attitudes. A would-be writer gets involved in stalking, burglary and blackmail, but is he being set up? Though frequently intriguing, Following suffers from a convoluted structure, simplistic relationships and a miscast femme fatale. IMAGE Film & Video Center, Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m., Regal Hollywood 24. $5 members, $6 public. --CURT HOLMAN

ME YOU THEM (PG-13). In a Northeastern Brazilian village, a hard-working woman (Regina Case) effectively ends up with three husbands under one roof. Director Andrucha Waddington finds some mild domestic comedy in her premise, although the movie tends to be less concerned with finding laughs than showing the conditions in an arid, poverty stricken town.High Museum’s Latin American Film Festival, Rich Auditorium, Woodruff Arts Center. Oct. 13 and 16 at 8 p.m., $5 general admission. --CH

NEW YORK IN THE ’50s 1/2 (NR) A documentary that aims to debunk the popular notion that the ’50s were all about consumerism and Kerouac, a host of expert witnesses including Robert Redford, Gay Talese, Calvin Trillin, William F. Buckley, Village Voice founder Ed Fancher, Joan Didion and Nat Hentoff are called in to bolster author Dan Wakefield’sclaim that the ’50s were also about drinking, psychoanalysis, babe-chasing, writing, Salinger and, yes, Kerouac, too, dammit. GSU’s cinefest, Oct. 12-18. --FF

DEAD OR ALIVE Subtitled Hanzaisha, Takashi Miike’s action film pits Japanese mobsters against police officers and reportedly boasts a wild, fast-paced opening sequence. GSU’s cinefest, Oct. 5-11.

SUMO BRUNO: THE STORY OF A BIG MAN’S DREAM NR Enjoyably lightweight, this tale of a 420-pound loser who trains to be a sumo wrestler so he can compete in the Amateur Sumo Wrestling Championships offers some unexpected commentary on the German beauty ideal as well as a surprise ending to make The Full Monty brand-fluff go down a bit easier. Goethe Institute Atlanta’s Recent Films from Germany series, Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m. — FF

WAITING FOR THE MESSIAH (PG-13). A Jewish twentysomething and a middle-aged banking employee both see their lives drastically change when a major Argentine bank collapses. Director Daniel Burman’s character study encompasses the different classes, generations and religious of modern Buenos Aires.High Museum’s Latin American Film Festival, Rich Auditorium, Woodruff Arts Center, Oct. 12 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 15 at 4 p.m. $5 general admission.

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., and Saturday at midnight at Blackwell Star Cinema, 3378 Canton Road, Marietta.

Continuing
?AMERICAN OUTLAWS Jesse James (Colin Farrell), and brother Frank (Gabriel Macht), two brothers from Missouri, led a gang that robbed banks, trains and stagecoaches throughout the West from 1866 to 1881, and became one of the era’s most legendary bandits. (Scott Caan plays Cole Younger who competed with Jesse for leadership of the gang; Ali Larter plays Jesse’s girlfriend). Directed by Les Mayfield.

AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY (PG-13). The debut film of veteran editor Eva Gardos depicts the experience of Hungarian immigrants (Tony Goldwyn, Nastassja Kinski and Ghost World’s Scarlett Johansson) as they face challenges assimilating into the suburbs of the American 1950s and ’60s. Not to be mistaken for American Rhapsody, Joe Eszterhas’ salacious book on the Clinton scandals.

APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX 1/2 (R) Closer to Francis Ford Coppola’s original intention for his film, this Apocalypse, featuring 53 additional minutes and the inclusion of scenes that had previously been mere legend in film circles, enhances the myth of this stunning Vietnam war film but does not necessarily make for a better film.-- FF

BREAD AND TULIPS (PG-13) An unhappy housewife (Licia Maglietta) falls in with the charming characters in a tiny corner of Venice in Silvio Soldini’s quirky new comedy that Italians reportedly adore.

BROTHER (R) Japan’s premier bad-ass Beat Takeshi wrote, directed and stars in this international co-production about a displaced yakuza soldier who starts up operations in the United States, bludgeoning, bashing, blading or blowing the brains out of anyone who gets in his way. A little muddled, but a top-notch performance by Beat and over-the-top violence carry the day. Up-and-comer Omar Epps co-stars as one of the American yakuza. -- EDDY VON MUELLER

BIG EDEN 1/2 (PG-13). Writer-director Thomas Bezucha’s debut film offers a sweet-natured look at a gay love triangle in the small Montana town of Big Eden that’s so tolerant as to seem to good to be true. The film’s cheerful spirits, cozy country-and-western songs and loving scenes of food preparation give it plenty of charms, but its lack of realistic edges or deep exploration of its characters keep it from being very substantial. With Ayre Gross, Eric Schweig and George Coe.-- CH

BULLY (Not Rated) America hide your children, that “wake up and smell the coffee” chicken hawk Larry Clark has done gone and made himself another movie full of ripe, nekkid teens and a bracing social message about how it’s, like, wrong or something to kill your best friend even if he was meaner than a sackful of rattlesnakes. Based on fact. — FF

DIVIDED WE FALL 1/2 (PG-13) This Czechoslovakian comedy/drama about a husband and wife (played by an intensely likeable pair of actors, Boleslav Polivka and Anna Siskova) hiding a Jewish fugitive in their larder during World War II tries to deal in some of the messy moral ambiguities brought out in wartime, but more often just offers a thrilling comic romp in the Life is Beautiful tradition.-- FF

DON’T SAY A WORD (R) Michael Douglas seems bored as a New York psychiatrist whose daughter is snatched by crooks who demand he extract valuable information from the mind of one of his patients (Brittany Murphy), a catatonic woman with a murky past. Despite the potentially interest in Murphy’s character,the film boils down to routine police procedurals (stretch), cars speeding through city streets (yawn), and Douglas trading climactic blows with the baddies (zzzzzz). — MB

DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN (Not rated). The directors of classic rockumentaries Monterey Pop and Don’t Look Back offer a concert film of music from and in the spirit of O Brother Where Art Thou? Showcasing bluegrass, gospel and blues musicians who couldn’t get arrested in today’s hats-and-headsets Country climate, Mountain resembles an unusually authentic and diverse “Austin City Limits,” with highlights from Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley, the Fairfield Four and the late Bill Hartford.--CH

GHOST WORLD 1/2 (R) Terry Zwigoff follows his superb documentary on underground cartoonist R. Crumb with a sharp feature based on Daniel Clowes’ comic book serial about hip best friends (Thora Birch and Scarlet Johansson) who drift apart after high school graduation. The film hilariously shows young people faced with the insipid mediocrity of consumer culture vs. the loneliness of personal authenticity, embodied by Steve Buscemi as a hapless record collector. The kind of film David Lynch or Woody Allen should be trying to make, Ghost World provides ideal performances from its leads while refusing to offer easy solutions to their dilemma. — CH

THE GLASS HOUSE (PG-13). Looking more like Helen Hunt every day, Leelee Sobieski plays a girl who, with brother Trevor Morgan, is orphaned when their parents die in a mysterious auto accident. Their legal guardians (Diane Lane and Stellan Skarsgard) prove to have sinister designs in this domestic thriller seemingly designed along the lines of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.

GLITTER (PG-13) Mariah Carey presents a a vanity piece so self- absorbed, it makes Prince’s Purple Rain look like a model of modesty and restraint. The pop diva, displaying all the acting ability of a chia pet, plays struggling back-up singer who hits big — in six months! Drained of all vitality and refusing to embrace a single original notion, the film offers enough unintentionally funny moments to make it a future camp classic. — MB

HAPPY ACCIDENTS 1/2 (R) Brad Anderson’s follow-up to his breezy indie romance Next Stop Wonderland is about a therapy-obsessed singleton (Marisa Tomei) who finds herself drawn to a loveably goofy regular guy (Vincent D’Onofrio) who claims to have traveled back in time from the year 2470 to meet her. This mildly cute but mostly trite romance is the kind of scatterbrained sci fi fluff beloved by Hollywood and faux-art filmmaker Hal Hartley. — FF

HARDBALL (PG-13) Not a big-screen version of the Chris Matthews political hollerin’ match, but another one of those uplifting, underdog sports stories, with Keanu Reeves coaching an impoverished, trash-talking team of Little Leaguers from a housing project. Recent Little League scandals won’t help this one.

HEARTS IN ATLANTIS PG-13. Based on a Stephen King novella, this blend of Stand By Me’s golden-hued boyhood nostalgia and Dolores Claiborne’s grimy working-class gothic is an often troubling, multifaceted coming-of-age that tells the story of the relationship between a reclusive psychic (Anthony Hopkins) and an 11-year-old kid (Anton Yelchin) during the summer of 1960.-- FF

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (R) A fantastic, not-to-be-missed debut film from John Cameron Mitchell (adapting his off-Broadway play) who stars in this audacious rock musical as an East German transsexual nursing a broken heart as he plays abysmal rock gigs in restaurants and ice cream parlors across the country. — FF

IMAX Lost Worlds: Life in the Balance (Not Rated) Harrison Ford narrates an IMAX film exploration of the world’s biological diversity, from the Poles to the Tropics, with an in-depth focus on the lush, remote plateaus of Venezuela. Opening Sept. 21 at Fernbank Museum, 767 Clifton Road. Ocean Oasis (NR) Though indifferently structured, this portrait of the ecology of Baja California and the Sea of Cortes captures undersea life as never before and surfaces briefly to check out the desert and the mountains. With incredible cinematography, even by Imax standards, the images are so sharp you can look tiny fish in the eye and read personalities into their facial expressions. Through Jan. 1, 2002. Fernbank Museum of Natural History IMAX Theater. — STEVE WARREN

JEEPERS CREEPERS “Jeepers Creepers” composers Johnny Mercer and Harry Warren must be spinning in their graves with the release of this absurd horror yarn, in which a cannibalistic winged demon goes on a murderous rampage whenever he hears the title tune. Adding a slick contempo sheen to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre template, this finds two college-age siblings (well-played by Gina Philips and Justin Long), stranded in the middle of Nowhere, USA, stopping to investigate when they spot a menacing figure dropping bodies down a pipe. They find a basement full of corpses, but, even worse, they learn that the Creeper (a cross between Freddy Krueger and the Creature from the Black Lagoon) is now after them. — MB

JOY RIDE (R) 1/2 Director John Dahl seemed to single-handedly resurrect film noir with his Nineties thrillers Red Rock West and The Last Seduction, but his latest flavorless chiller,about a deranged truck driver “Rusty Nail” on the tail of the two fresh-faced brothers who’ve humiliated him seems more inspired by the recent spate of ironic teen slashers.--FF

MAX KEEBLE’S BIG MOVE (PG) Learning that his family is relocating, Home Alone 3’s Alex D. Linz settles scores and burns bridges at his annoying school - then faces the consequences of his actions when the “big move” falls through. The trailer has glimmers of cleverness a la “Malcolm in the Middle.”

SERENDIPITY 1/2 (PG-13) Two New Yorkers (John Cusack and Pearl Harbor’s Kate Beckinsale meet cute and leave their future up to fate. Several years later they’re on the verge of marrying others, but they each decide to take one last crack at finding the love that got away. It’s a shame the picture’s very premise seems forced, because the performances are engaging (Eugene Levy steals it as a terse salesman) and the dialogue extremely sharp. — MB

TRAINING DAY 1/2 (R ) As a rookie cop, normally wooden Ethan Hawke raises himself out of a career-long slumber to keep pace with the extraordinary Denzel Washington as a corrupt narcotics officer. The work by both actors keeps uswatching even after the movie surrounding them falls apart, and what started out as tantalizingly clouded eventually comes into dreary black and white focus, turning the film into a fairly routine (not to mention contrived) police shoot-‘em-up.-- MB

TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME (R) Keith Chestnut and Vivica A. Fox costar in this romantic comedy about a man who’s caught stepping out on his woman and the wily ways she tries to win him back.

ZOOLANDER (PG-13) 1/2 Ben Stiller serves as actor, director, co-writer and co-producer for a surprisingly timid spoof with a handful of splendid gags. Stiller and Owen Wilson are perfectly cast as vapid male supermodels who become involved in assassination conspiracy, with cameos from everyone from Fabio to David Bowie. -MB ’’