Short Subjectives February 19 2003

?Opening Friday
DARK BLUE (R) L.A. Confidential novelist James Ellroy provided the story for this police drama about LAPD officers (including Kurt Russell and Ving Rhames) investigating a racially charged murder during the trial for the Rodney King beating.

GODS AND GENERALS (PG-13) Ted Turner Pictures offers a would-be epic of the first two years of the Civil War that feels like it was shot in real time. Gettysburg writer-director Ronald Maxwell does a fine job at battlefield re-enactment, especially for the extended sequence of Fredericksburg, but has no clue how to make such figures as Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson (Stephen Lang) into intriguing characters. The film’s tedium is easier to forgive, though, than its whitewashing of the institution of slavery, which here merely seems like a bad career choice.--Curt Holman

THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE (R) A reporter (Kate Winslet) races the clock to learn whether a condemned “death penalty abolitionist” (Kevin Spacey) was framed for murder. The preposterous sleuthing provides a weak vehicle for the film’s anti-capital punishment boilerplate. The flashbacks about how Spacey’s character’s life was ruined by false accusations and politically correctness play better, but the actor still hasn’t rediscovered the icy charisma that drove his work before his American Beauty Oscar.--CH

OLD SCHOOL (R) Returning to his distinguished oeuvre of college comedies, director Todd Phillips (Frat House, Road Trip) takes a promising gimmick, of three thirtysomething friends (Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn) who decide to start their own fraternity. Phillips unfortunately forms that tasty notion into a tasteless soy retread inspired by films like Animal House, but without the brains to retool the collegiate comedy genre. Vaughn and Ferrell, however, make a valiant effort to inject some much needed goofiness into their parcel of the film.-- Felicia Feaster

br>?Duly Noted
AFTER SCHOOL SPECIALS (NR) This round-up of five queer-themed shorts from the festival circuit takes a collective peek at adolescent awkwardness, teenage confusion and early-adult isolation. The best of the bunch, “No Prom for Cindy,” casts a rugged 45-year-old gay man in the role of a 14-year-old girl, arriving at a surprisingly poignant commentary on junior high conformity. IMAGE Film & Video and Out on Film. Feb. 19 at 8 p.m. Red Chair Restaurant and Video Bar, 550-C Amsterdam Ave. $5, free for IMAGE members. 404-352-4225. www.imagefv.org. --Tray Butler

DEACONS FOR DEFENSE (NR) Forest Whitaker, Ossie Davis and Jonathan Silverman star in this Showtime production about a group of African-American men in Bogalusa, La., who form an armed militia rather than subscribe to Martin Luther King’s views on nonviolent resistance. Black Cinema Cafe. Feb. 24, 7 p.m. Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road. Invitation required. To obtain an invitation, e-mail Blackcinemacafe.com.

THE DELICATESSEN SHOP OWNER (1978) (NR) When a police inspector investigates the murder of a cosmopolitan aristocrat in a middle-class German mining town, the case reveals much about the nation’s class tensions. Germany in the Crosshairs: German Detective Thrillers on TV. Feb. 19, 7 p.m. Goethe Institut Inter Nationes, 1197 Peachtree St., Colony Square. $4. 404-892-2388.

EYES ON THE PRIZE (1987) (NR) Atlanta City Council member Ivory Lee Young hosts a screening of the epic six-part Civil Rights documentary. The first part, “Awakenings, 1954-1956,” looks at two events with far-reaching repercussions: the murder of Emmett Till and Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her bus seat. “Fighting Back, 1957-1962” focuses on the efforts at school integration in Arkansas and Mississippi. Feb. 22, 2 p.m. Atlanta City Council chamber, City Hall, 55 Trinity Ave. Free.

LIFE AS A FATAL, SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE (2000) (NR) Poland’s masterful Krzysztof Zanussi’s (The Year of the Quiet Sun) story of a doctor whose cynicism seems to eat away at him as surely as the terminal cancer that will soon kill him is an intellectual, profound and deeply humane look at doubt and belief. It features such notables of the Polish cinema as Zbigniew Zapasiewicz as the doctor and Krystyna Janda as his ex-wife. Passport to Polish Cinema, Feb. 21, 8 p.m., Woodruff Arts Center, Rich Auditorium. $5. 404-733-4570. www.high.org.--Felicia Feaster

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) (R) The cult classic of cult classics, the musical 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. Midnight Fri. at Lefont Plaza Theatre and Sat. at Marietta Star Cinema.

SPIRIT OF MY MOTHER (1999) (NR) Ali Allie wrote and directed this story of a single mother (Johana Martinez) in Los Angeles who makes a homecoming to Honduras. Afro-Latin Film Festival. Feb. 21, 7 p.m. Hammonds House Galleries of African American Art. 503 Peeples St. $5 donation. 404-752-8730.

TOSCA (NR) Benoit Jacquot’s inventive, entertaining interpretation of Puccini’s opera stars real-life married divas tenor Roberto Alagna and soprano Angela Gheorghiu as lovers whose involvement in politics jeopardizes their relationship and lives. Marvelous performances, sensual chemistry and Jacquot’s use of behind-the-scenes sound stage footage add a contemporary note to Puccini’s classic opera. Peachtree Film Society, Feb. 18, 7:30 p.m., Lefont Garden Hills. $7.50 ($6.50 for PFS members). www.peachtreefilm.org --FF

br>?Continuing
ABOUT SCHMIDT (R) Jack Nicholson does an about-face in his performance as a smaller-than-life midwestern insurance executive facing multiple crises — mostly funny ones — upon retirement. Election director Alexander Payne’s critique of American mediocrity can feel snide and elitist, but also has considerable comic invention, from Schmidt’s inappropriate letters to an impoverished African boy to Kathy Bates and Dermot Mulroney as the prospective in-laws from hell.--CH

ADAPTATION (R) One of the best and brightest films of the year, this brilliant follow-up to director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman’s Being John Malkovich follows the self-loathing tribulations of Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) as he struggles to adapt cerebral New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean’s (Meryl Streep) book The Orchid Thief for the screen. An astoundingly inventive exploration of writing’s emotional and psychological complexity, the film also goes far deeper than its clever meta-construction to become a tender, lovely glimpse into the search for elusive dreams and desires in all of our lives.--FF

ANTWONE FISHER (PG-13) The screenplay’s the story here, and Denzel Washington (in his directorial debut) gets out of its way, letting his actors relate it honestly without gumming it up with show-off stylistics. Antwone Fisher wrote the script, based on his own life story, and he and Washington luck out by having engaging newcomer Derek Luke handle the heavy lifting, playing a troubled sailor whose anti-social behavior brings him into contact with a Navy psychiatrist (Washington) who eventually helps him get to the root of his emotional problems. — Matt Brunson

BIKER BOYZ (PG-13) Adapted from a New Times article about African-American motorcycle gangs, though doubtless greenlit because of the success of The Fast and the Furious, this stars Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) as a young cycle ace who squares off against a veteran racer (Laurence Fishburne). Good performances help us swallow the rampant melodrama — even Kid Rock, cast as a rival biker, isn’t bad — but ultimately, the picture isn’t especially fast or furious, just fleeting. — MB

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (PG-13) Steven Spielberg’s most purely entertaining film since the early 1980s finds Leonardo DiCaprio as a chameleon-like high schooler who flees his broken home by brazenly passing as an airline pilot, an Atlanta pediatrician and more. Tom Hanks finds plenty of rueful humor as the Joe Friday-esque FBI agent who’s always one step behind. When other filmmakers remake classics like Charade, they’re striving for the kind of ease, star power and fluency that this film generates without breaking a sweat.--CH

CHICAGO (PG-13) First-time feature director Rob Marshall reclaims the musical genre from Moulin Rouge with this sexy, robust, big-screen version of Bob Fosse’s cynical stage hit. As Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones play Jazz Age murderesses vying for the attentions of superlawyer Richard Gere, showbiz and the legal system prove to be opposite sides of the same tarnished coin. The entire cast, including John C. Reilly and Queen Latifah, reveal remarkable musical showmanship, selling the hell out of the vaudeville-style numbers.--CH

CITY OF GOD (R) This gritty crime drama from Brazil uses the flashy, pulp-fiction techniques of Tarantino and Scorsese to draw attention to the violence and crushing poverty in Rio’s sprawling slums. Tracking a bloodthirsty drug dealer and a meek photographer from the ’60s to the ’80s, the filmmakers make the most of every cinematic trick at their disposal, although their greatest resource is a sense of social outrage that mourns how penniless orphans become larcenous killers. At Lefont Plaza Theatre.--CH

CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND (R) George Clooney directs a feverish biopic of Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell), who would have us believe that, while launching “The Dating Game” and “The Gong Show,” he was moonlighting as a CIA assassin. Despite memorable camerawork, Julia Roberts as a Mata Hari and a head-spinning script by Adaptation writer Charlie Kaufman, the film feels joyless, never capturing the hucksterish eagerness to entertain that motivated Barris himself.--CH

DAREDEVIL (PG-13) The same accident that blinded Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck) also enhanced his other senses, giving him a bat-like sonar vision that he uses to fight crime. Though Jennifer Garner (“Alias”) sparkles as ninja vixen Elektra, and Colin Farrell makes bad-guy Bullseye an almost likable psychopath, the film fails to live up to the standards set by X-Men or Spider-Man, other recent adaptations of Marvel comic books. — TB

DARKNESS FALLS (PG-13) The tagline reads, “Evil Rises. Darkness Falls,” but they forgot the third caveat: “Slumber Ensues.” The sort of lazy endeavor that gives shockers a bad name, this dreadful flick concerns itself with the legend of the Tooth Fairy, an elderly woman who was wrongly lynched 150 years ago and whose spirit now terrorizes the town of Darkness Falls. This dopey thriller makes less sense as it ambles along, constantly changing the rules of its own myths and tripping over itself to provide the sort of fake scares that are emblematic of bad horror films. — MB

DELIVER US FROM EVA (R) LL Cool J plays a ladies’ man hired by three guys to seduce a bad-tempered sister-in-law, Eva (Gabrielle Union). The premise has echoes of The Taming of the Shrew, recently remade as 10 Things I Hate About You.

FINAL DESTINATION 2 (R) From that title, we can only assume that the prior film was really just the Penultimate Destination. A group of young people survive a disastrous highway accident (which looks truly terrifying on the trailer) and learn that they’re living on borrowed time.

FRIDA (R) Tony Award winning director Julie Taymor brings a slightly off-kilter sensibility to this strong bio-picture of the tempestuous life and times of Mexican painter and feminist icon Frida Kahlo. Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina as the love of her life, Diego Rivera, are convincing and human as the terminally at-odds husband and wife whose fascinating involvement with the art and radical politics of the ’30s and ’40s makes them long overdue for such a film treatment. --FF

GANGS OF NEW YORK (R) Though Martin Scorsese’s historical epic has a more conventional plot line than his more morally ambiguous, violence-soaked films, Gangs of New York is no small feat. A vortex of crime and corruption based on the real life mire of 1800s Manhattan street gangs, Gangs is a smarter than average epic, though far short of Scorsese’s best work. Its greatest saving grace is a brilliantly charismatic, psychopath leader of the Native gang, Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis) whose often justified guttersnipe rage far outshines the milquetoast heroism of his Irish gang rival played by Leonardo DiCaprio.--FF

THE GURU (R) Party Girl director Daisy von Scherler Mayer has removed any sliver of her previous offbeat charm from this trite story of spiritually trendy New Yorkers who glom onto a struggling Indian actor (Jimi Mistry) masquerading as a spiritual leader and “Guru of Sex.” Heather Graham returns to familiar territory as a sweet porn star who advises the new age swami in this fluffy romantic comedy with a rank center.--FF

HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS (PG-13) Kate Hudson’s magazine columnist puts her ideas about feminine dating mistakes to the test with Matthew McConaughey, who believes he can win any woman in 10 days. Though predictable to a fault, the romantic comedy wrings a certain charm out of the formula and takes a couple of well-placed stabs at the genre in the process.--Tray Butler

THE HOURS (PG-13) Stephen Daldry’s splendidly literate film uses Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway to unite three women, cutting between the day Woolf (Nicole Kidman) is writing it, a 1950s housewife (Julianne Moore) is reading it, and a 2002 book editor (Meryl Streep) is somehow living it. The film’s increasing reliance on theatrical monologues means the pay-off doesn’t equal the brilliant set-up, but its nevertheless a lush, rich film experience, with Kidman donning a prosthetic nose and being more liberated as an actress than she’s ever been.--CH

IMAX Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West (NR) Jeff Bridges narrates this sweeping documentary that traces the famed explorers’ 8,000-mile trek across America. Through March 28. Whales (NR) Follow orca, blue, humpback, right whales and dolphins through oceans around the globe in this doc narrated by Patrick Stewart. Through March 28. Africa: The Serengeti (NR) The year-long Great Migration of more than 1.5 million African animals is recorded on film, with narration by James Earl Jones. 8 and 10 p.m. Fridays through March 23. Fernbank Museum of Natural History IMAX Theater, 767 Clifton Road. www.fernbank.edu.

THE JUNGLE BOOK 2 (G) Disney continues to make unnecessary sequels to its classic cartoon features, with Mowgli (Haley Joel Osment) returning for another rumble in the jungle. John Goodman is a natural choice to replace Phil Harris as the laid-back Baloo, but what’s next? Sleeping Beauty Hits the Snooze Button?

JUST MARRIED (PG-13) Dude, where’s my honeymoon? The slapstick teen romance depicts Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy as newlyweds who face one disaster after another once they tie the knot.

KANGAROO JACK (PG) Jerry O’Connell tries to retrieve a fortune in mob money hidden in a jacket worn by a runaway kangaroo. The kangaroo raps in the trailer, which we can only hope is a bad dream.

THE LION KING (G) Disney’s highest grossing film ever gets the IMAX treatment. Sort of like Hamlet on the plains of Africa, it depicts a young lion trying to reclaim his place atop the food chain from his usurping uncle. It’s not really in the league of classics like Pinocchio or Beauty and the Beast, despite its all-star voice cast and Elton John/Tim Rice songs that a generation of kids knows by heart. Regal Cinemas Mall Of Georgia IMAX, 3379 Buford Drive, Buford.--CH

LOCKDOWN (R) First time director John Luessenhop has seen his share of prison films and often has a hard time adding any original ideas to this story of three friends falsely accused of a crime and sent to a maximum security prison. But this feature also has a taut, suspenseful construction and some powerful performances that buoy every play to Big House convention. --FF

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS (PG-13) The middle film based on Tolkein’s Middle-Earth epic is so full of spectacle it makes Fellowship of the Rings look like director Peter Jackson was just clearing his throat. It’s also a more black-and-white affair, stressing mortal combat over moral struggles as heroes like Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) resist the forces of evil. The schizophrenic Gollum, an all-CGI creation superbly voiced by Andy Serkis, has the most complicated inner life and proves the film’s unlikely star.--CH

MAID IN MANHATTAN (PG-13) It wants to be Jennifer Lopez’s own monogrammed version of Pretty Woman, but the end product is more like Pretty Woeful. Lopez plays a hotel employee who, in one of those “mistaken identity” crises pulled off with more elan by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, finds herself wooed by a compassionate Republican who believes she’s another hotel guest. Ralph Fiennes is uncharacteristically relaxed as the politician, but this unimaginative effort marches with martinet precision through the usual cringe-worthy circumstances. --MB

MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING (PG) While not as accomplished as Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, this is nevertheless a gratifying romantic comedy that gently tweaks stereotypes even as its characters wallow in them. Adapted by Nia Vardalos from her own one-woman show, the film centers on the plight of a 30-year-old lonelyheart (Vardalos) who risks the wrath of her family when she falls for a non-Greek (John Corbett).--MB

NATIONAL SECURITY (PG-13) Martin Lawrence and Steve Zahn play mismatched security guards who must contend with real cops — and real killers. Zahn’s dorky mustache and crewcut might be good for a giggle, but hasn’t Lawrence done the “fake” cop stuff a bit much?

THE PIANIST (R) Though less stylish and darkly humorous than typical Roman Polanski fare, this true story of Polish pianist and Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) will be fascinating stuff for Polanski fans who will find copious allusions to the director’s life and films in this somber and enlightening story.--FF

THE QUIET AMERICAN (R) This respectable, nuanced, if at times slightly passionless adaptation of Graham Greene’s 1955 novel is well-served by Michael Caine’s cynical personification of a classic emotionally and morally detached Greene hero. Caine is a jaded British correspondent whose neutral view of politics in a ’50s Saigon where French, Communist and American forces vie for power begins to change with his growing friendship with a mysterious American (Brendan Fraser).--FF

RABBIT-PROOF FENCE (PG) This archetypal tale of resisting oppression resembles a runaway’s tale from Uncle Tom’s Cabin transported to the outback setting of Walkabout. In 1931 three Aboriginal girls of mixed parentage are stolen from their families to be forcibly integrated into white society, until they escape and try to make their way home along the 1,200-mile fence of the title. With a chilling blandness, Kenneth Branagh plays the career bureaucrat who believes the policy of state-sanctioned kidnapping is doing the Aborigines a favor. At Marietta Star Cinemas.--CH

THE RECRUIT (PG-13) At first, this elaborate spy game, about a veteran CIA agent (Al Pacino) who takes a rookie (Colin Farrell) under his wing, looks like it might be one of the elite thrillers that keep us guessing right to the end. Indeed, the first half smacks of David Mamet at his trickiest, but the fun dissipates during Hour Two. Having acclimated ourselves to the movie’s internal logic, we can see where this is heading, and the lack of surprises provides time to dwell on the plot holes. — MB

RUSSIAN ARK (NR) Nothing short of a masterpiece, Alexander Sokurov’s sublime, dreamy, brilliant survey of the opulence and despair of Russia’s history was shot entirely within the confines of the Hermitage Museum and in a single continuous steadicam shot using a High Def video camera in almost constant movement. At Lefont Plaza Theatre.--FF

SHANGHAI KNIGHTS (PG-13) The sequel to Shanghai Noon gives Jackie Chan a fine foil in Owen Wilson and some wonderful slapstick fight scenes that use every available prop from umbrellas to Ming vases. But the action comedy set in Victorian London denies its stars a decent script, instead marching them through lazy historic anachronisms and Brit-bashing stereotypes more shameless than Austin Powers.--CH

TALK TO HER (R) A surprisingly grown-up and restrained Pedro Almodovar shifts into hyper-serious mode in this disappointingly inert film with the ardent tone of a women’s picture but dominated by the romantic agonies of two men. Sensitive guys Javier Camara and Dario Grandinetti try to sustain relationships with women who have both ended up in a coma on the same hospital ward and end up developing a deep bond with each other. All of Almodovar’s inventive, garish imagination seems to have flown the coop in this soapy stab at adult themes with occasional forays into creepy, kinky sexual compulsion. At Lefont Garden Hills Cinema.--FF

TWO WEEKS NOTICE (PG-13) Sandra Bullock pratfalls her way through this inane romantic comedy as a klutzy environmental lawyer who reluctantly agrees to work for a millionaire playboy (Hugh Grant), but discovers her true feelings for him only after submitting her titular resignation. The hackneyed script from Marc Lawrence (Miss Congeniality, Forces of Nature) feels lifted from a handful of better films, and both leads show a “let’s-just-go-with-it” kind of resignation.--TB

THE WILD THORNBERRIES MOVIE (PG) With such ambitious animated works as Monsters, Inc. being created specifically for the big screen, it’s becoming increasingly hard to justify plunking down hard-earned cash to sit through yet another adaptation of a currently popular cartoon television series. This time, it’s The Wild Thornberrys Movie, a takeoff on the show about a 12-year-old girl who, like Dr. Dolittle, has the ability to talk to the animals. This is basically a glorified TV episode — not painful, but awfully hard to get excited about. — MB