Short Subjectives December 30 2004

Opening Friday

THE GREEN BUTCHERS (R) In this black comedy, two Danish pals open a open a butcher shop and see their fortunes improve when an accidental death inspires them to add a mysterious - but highly popular - cut of meat to the menu.

?Duly Noted
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 Meat Loaf gets killed. Dress as your favorite character and participate in this musical on acid. Midnight Fri. at Lefont Plaza Theatre and Sat. at Peachtree Cinema & Games, Norcross.

?Continuing
ALEXANDER (R) Alexander the Great (Colin Farrell) conquered the known world but collapses in a brooding heap in Oliver Stone’s botched biopic of nearly three hours. Alexander’s enlightened internationalism makes him ahead of his time, just as his unmistakable bisexuality makes him ahead of our own. But apart from Angelina Jolie and Val Kilmer’s campy excesses as Alexander’s parents, the film offers no colorful relationships, memorable dialogue or even coherent battle scenes. Alexander could put the entire genre of epic film in bad odor for years. — Curt Holman

THE AVIATOR (PG-13) It’s not perfect, but Martin Scorsese’s bio-picture of ingenious, mentally unbalanced billionaire, aviator and film director Howard Hughes is as entertaining as all get-out, capturing both the nearly supernatural creativity and the flip side of Hughes’ debilitating, obsessive manias. DiCaprio proves up to the task of embodying this wildly contradictory man, adding both pathos and perversity to Scorsese’s portrait of a deeply flawed but iconoclastic American. This meaty epic provides the added bonus, for Scorsese fans, of shedding light on his career-long propensity for obsessive, charismatic film antiheroes, and for illuminating the many connections the director undoubtedly sees between Hughes and his own creative pursuits always endangered by human fallibility and even madness. — Felicia Feaster

BEAR CUB (NR) A warmhearted little charmer from Spanish director Miguel Albaladejo, Bear Cub takes place in a hip Madrid gay subculture where Pedro (José Luis Garcia-Pérez) hangs with a group of fellow burly, hairy, teddy bear men. But that idiosyncratic subculture just provides set-dressing for the real heart of the film, about the increasingly tender relationship between Pedro and the beloved nephew (David Castillo) he cares for while the boy’s irresponsible hippie mother gallivants around India. — FF

BEING JULIA (R) In this adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s novel Theatre, Annette Bening gives one of the year’s best performances as a 1938 London stage diva who falls in love with a much younger man and learns the difference between acting and living. Apart from Bening’s rich, rewarding portrayal, Being Julia offers a light-hearted but fairly frivolous melodrama about temperamental theater artists. But the story builds to a satisfying conclusion and Juliet Stevenson provides an amusing turn as Bening’s no-nonsense dresser. — CH

BEYOND THE SEA (PG-13) See review on page 49.

BLADE TRINITY (R) In his third film outing, half-breed vampire slayer Blade (Wesley Snipes) reluctantly teams with junior troubleshooters (scene-stealing Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds). Whenever the characters (including Parker Posey, of all people, as a jaded vampire) aren’t trying to kill each other, they’re walking in slow motion towards the camera — it’s that kind of movie. Debut director David Goyer falls short of the gothic, propulsive Blade II, but provides the minimum requirement of movie mayhem and hip dialogue. — CH

CLOSER (NR) A clever, but hardly earth-shattering adult drama about the interlocking sex lives of two couples in contemporary London, Mike Nichols’ titillating but contrived film adapts Patrick Marber’s hit 1997 stage play. Julia Roberts and Jude Law prove remarkably banal as the adulterous pair who set the sexual roundelay in motion. Far better are Natalie Portman as an emotionally vulnerable stripper and a laceratingly clever Clive Owen as Roberts’ cuckold husband and one of the most intriguing combinations of masculine vulnerability and vengeance to strut across a movie screen. — FF

CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS (PG) A middle-aged couple (Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis) decide to skip Christmas when their only child joins the Peace Corps. The cinematic equivalent of a lump of coal, this adaptation of John Grisham’s Surviving Christmas could have gained depth by exploring the characters’ motivations, instead of using dialogue as simply a break between seasonal slapstick. — Heather Kuldell

DARKNESS (PG-13) Anna Paquin and Lena Olin star in this Spanish-produced horror film about a teenage girl whose family moves to a remote country house haunted by ominous secrets.

FAT ALBERT (PG) See review on this page.

FINDING NEVERLAND (PG) Director Marc Forster finds a connection between Scottish author J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp) and his most famous creation, Peter Pan. Both desire to avoid the bitter realities of death and growing up by escaping to a Neverland of perpetual childhood. Depp gives a magical performance in this wonderfully bittersweet, loose adaptation of Barrie’s life, which imagines how his friendship with four young boys and their widowed mother (Kate Winslet) — and their shared experience of death — might have inspired him to create Peter Pan. — FF

FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (PG-13) This remake of the spiffy 1965 adventure flick features Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Tyrese Gibson, Mirando Otto and Hugh Laurie as airplane passengers stranded in the desert by a plane crash. Sort of like “Lost,” only without the ocean. Or the angsty flashbacks. Or the monsters you never see.

I HEART HUCKABEES (R) “Screwball sophistry” could describe this fast-talking, deep-thinking comedy from Three Kings director David O. Russell. A frustrated environmental activist (Jason Schwartzman) finds himself torn between the forces of order, represented by Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman’s “existential detectives,” and a nihilistic — but sexy — French intellectual (Isabelle Huppert). Huckabees tests your tolerance for deadpan whimsy but pays off with persistent laughs and relevant commentary on suburban sprawl and celebrity-obsessed corporate culture. — CH

IMAX THEATER: Amazing Journeys ?(NR) Here’s the movie Imax was made for! Neither didactic nor evangelical, it ?appeals to all ages and images you’ll never forget. The film examines migration ?-- of monarch butterflies, gray whales, red crabs, zebras and wildebeest, birds ?and humans. Director George Casey adds cinematic touches of comedy, drama and ?suspense to avoid a dry documentary feel in what may be the best Imax film yet.

Forces of Nature ?(NR) Volcanoes and tornadoes and earthquakes, oh my! Not to mention the scientists ?who study them to improve their forecasting ability in hopes of saving lives. ?It’s like watching the best of the Weather Channel on a giant screen — without ?getting your local forecast.Closes Jan. 2.

NASCAR: The Imax Experience ?(PG) Stock car racing seems a perfect subject for 3-D Imax but this survey course ?-- “NASCAR 101” — doesn’t begin to realize the potential. Fans have seen it ?all before and if non-fans had any interest, they’d be fans. The film includes ?surprisingly little racing footage, and cuts away too quickly from the shots ?that put you in the action. Closes Jan. 2. Africa: The Serengeti ?(NR) An East African safari captures “the Great Migration” of more than two ?million wildebeests, zebras and antelope over 500 miles across the Serengeti ?plains, with such predators as lions and cheetahs in hot pursuit. Opens Jan. ?3. Fernbank Museum of Natural History IMAX Theater, 767 Clifton Road. 404-929-6300. ?www.fernbank.edu. — Steve Warren

THE INCREDIBLES (PG) Former costumed crime-fighter Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) and his family must pass as ordinary suburbanites until a mysterious archvillain inspires them to flex their super-muscles once more. Pixar’s latest computer-animated classic fits in more with James Bond and Marvel Comics than family films like Finding Nemo, and the metaphors for conformity and mid-life crisis will strike deeper chords with parents than kids. But the spectacular derring-do in the second half will inspire all audiences to cry “Look! Up on the screen!” — CH

THE INHERITANCE (NR) Though this Danish family melodrama often comes across as a more elegantly repressed European Dynasty, director Per Fly’s affecting drama proves more reminiscent of Douglas Sirk’s incisive social commentaries. Fly reveals not only the tangled web of family, but the soul-destroying effect corporate life on one man (The Celebration’s Ulrich Thomsen) who inherits his father’s steel business and finds his wife and integrity slowly slipping away. — FF

KINSEY (R) Writer-director Bill Condon lays out the importance of Alfred Kinsey, whose ground-breaking — and still controversial — research on American sexuality emphasized facts, not disapproving morality. At times Condon oversimplifies to score easy points against repressive figures, but Kinsey uses the complexity of sex to explore how “normalcy” proves to be a slippery concept. Neeson’s fascinating portrayal captures both Kinsey’s scientific passions and his shaken confusion when he realizes that keeping emotions separate from sex is easier said than done. — CH

LEMONY SNICKET’S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (PG) In this gloriously gothic adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s best-selling, darkly comic children’s books, the woeful but resourceful Baudelaire orphans match wits with their conniving Uncle Olaf (Jim Carrey). Casting Carrey as a ham actor turns out to be a disastrous choice that feeds the comic’s most affected instincts. But Liam Aiken and Emily Browning make appealingly melancholy young heroes, and their last-minute escapes from Olaf’s death-traps prove deliriously creative. — CH

THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU (R) Wes Anderson compounds his investment in self-contained snow-globe worlds and obnoxious fathers who begrudgingly nurture wistful boys in this outrageously fanciful story. A Jacques Cousteau-type ocean explorer (Bill Murray) tracks the deadly “jaguar shark,” even as his illegitimate son (Owen Wilson) attempts to corner the wily adventurer. Story plays second fiddle to oddball bits of business and Anderson’s meticulously stage-managed film world. Despite a scattershot story line, Anderson’s unique, always emotionally rich world view gives his films their charming integrity. — FF

MEET THE FOCKERS (PG-13) Meet the Parents’ Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller) introduces his prospective in-laws, including Robert De Niro’s control freak, to his touchy-feely parents (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand). Streisand and Hoffman take palpable pleasure at teasing De Niro and provide broad but rich comic turns that, alas, can’t redeem Fockers’ forced humor of Stiller’s humiliation. Plus, with so many jokes about breast milk, procreation and parenting, it’s like a commercial to get out there and breed. — CH

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (R) The man who would grow up to be a violent revolutionary and the star of every counterculture’s T-shirt, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, receives some emotional backstory in Brazilian director Walter Salles’s earnest but lightweight film. Before he took up firearms, Che traveled with best friend through South America, and discovered the kind of poverty and injustice his bourgeois Argentinean upbringing denied. Bernal and the scenery are beautiful but this bio-picture lacks the fire in the belly its radical subject deserves. — FF

OCEAN’S TWELVE (PG-13) Director Steven Soderbergh’s nostalgia for the slick European heist flicks of earlier decades gives the Ocean’s Eleven sequel just enough fizz to make it worthwhile. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and the rest return for a convoluted series of robberies and double-crosses that feel a little too much like the stars’ own European press tour. Jokes about co-star Julia Roberts’ own celebrity would feel overly self-conscious if they weren’t genuinely funny. — CH

ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) (NR) Though Marlon Brando’s “I could have been a contender” speech has lapsed into screen cliché, director Elia Kazan’s film remains as true and vital today as it was upon its release in 1954. Brando is one of the longshoremen contentedly laboring on Hoboken’s wiseguy-controlled docks, whose sense of justice is awakened by good girl Eva Marie Saint, whose brother has been murdered by the mob. Boris Kaufman’s cinematography imprints the film with an inescapable, sullied working class atmosphere. But On the Waterfront will forever belong to Brando, who crafted a tragic hero out of a no-account palooka who life has been so successfully degraded, he’s nearly lost his soul in the process. — FF

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (PG-13) A crazed musical genius (Gerard Butler) bedevils a 19th century French opera house, especially a lovely ingenue (Emmy Rossum). Fans of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical will lap up director Joel Schumacher’s faithful film adaptation: The baroque, lavish production design serves the excesses of the musical score, and gives you the feeling of being immersed in an elephantine Broadway show. — CH

THE POLAR EXPRESS (G) On Christmas Eve, a boy losing faith in Santa Claus rides a magical train to the North Pole. The groundbreaking “performance capture” computer animation captures the expressions of live actors (including Tom Hanks in five roles) with impressive subtlety, but more often the characters look stiff and glassy-eyed. The script feels like a series of false crises, so when the train becomes a roller coaster or when Santa’s elves bungee-jump to avert disaster, Express leaves an aftertaste like tainted egg nog. — CH

RAY (PG-13) Director Taylor Hackford presents a refreshingly candid and earthy biopic of blind pianist Ray Charles (Jamie Foxx), whose womanizing and drug addiction emerge, the film suggests, from a kind of competitiveness with sighted musicians. Roof-rocking tunes like “Hit the Road, Jack” and “What’d I Say” capture the excitement of live performances, while the script and Foxx’s justly-praised performance persistently look beneath Charles’ cheerful, avuncular persona to find the fiercely determined artist underneath. — CH

SIDEWAYS (R) A failed novelist (Paul Giamatti) takes his oldest friend, a has-been actor (Thomas Haden Church) for a pre-wedding trip through California wine country in the latest examination of American mediocrity from About Schmidt director Alexander Payne. The film expounds a surprisingly sincere belief in wine as a metaphor for life, and for a while unfolds as a mellow, impeccably acted idyll (with terrific supporting turns from Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh). Payne eventually sheds his merciless insights on his self-absorbed male characters, but like a fine wine, his harsh sensibilities have mellowed with age. — CH

SPANGLISH (PG-13) James L. Brooks’ (Terms of Endearment) dramedy concerns a recent Mexican immigrant (Paz Vega) and cleaning lady whose earthy maternal wisdom transforms the lives of a rich Los Angeles family. Brooks opens with canny observations on the divide between white and brown, rich and poor in casual-chic L.A. where domestics are embraced as part of the family. But when he steers from his social commentary Vega’s romantic attachment to her employer (Adam Sandler, whose saccharine sensitivity makes your teeth ache), Brooks’ message derails. Spanglish becomes more interested in showing how Vega’s old-school, domestically skilled brand of femininity could teach neurotic, hyper-competitive American women a thing or two about womanly charm. — FF

A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT (R) A young Frenchwoman (Amelie’s Audrey Tautou) launches an obsessive search for her fiancée (Gaspard Ulliel), officially declared lost in the no-man’s-land of World War I. Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet applies his visionary intricacy to a sprawling account that alternates between quirky comedy and graphic war-time horrors. Jeunet’s approach sacrifices some emotional depth for novelistic breadth, but by the end the film fills us with a sense of awe that encompasses the world at its most terrible and beautiful. — CH