Short Subjectives March 09 2005

Opening Friday

BORN INTO BROTHELS (R) See review.

IMAGINARY HEROES (R) The Travises, an upper-middle-class suburban family, fall apart after a tragedy. The father (Jeff Daniels) disengages from the world, the son (Emile Hirsch) drifts through life, and the mother (Sigourney Weaver) smokes pot and fights with the neighbors.

INSIDE DEEP THROAT (NC-17) See review.

GUNNER PALACE (PG-13) Though directors Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker have been clearly influenced by the ironic juxtapositions and pop music-inflected soundtrack of Michael Moore, their eye-opening documentary about soldiers stationed in Iraq has a more humane agenda. By following the soldiers on their nightly raids of possible insurgents’ houses as they are pelted with rocks by children, the filmmakers show the daily danger faced by these often heartbreakingly young men and women who grapple with the feeling that America has forgotten them. - Felicia Feaster

HEAD ON (NR) Winner of many German Academy Awards, this film directed by Fatih Akin explores a marriage of convenience between two Turks in Hamburg, Germany. Young Sibel seeks to escape the ways of her traditional family with older and self-destructive Cahit.

HOSTAGE (R) Hostage negotiator Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis) experiences a work-related tragedy, and packs up his family to take a low-profile job in a low-crime county. Despite the sleepy town, Talley finds himself in an escalating hostage situation that endangers both his professional and personal life. So it’s kinda like Die Hard.

THE PASSION RECUT (NR) In hopes of reaching a broader market for Easter, Mel Gibson and company have re-edited The Passion of the Christ trying to tone down some of the more extreme moments to get a PG-13 rating. The MPAA still considers the film too intense, however, so this version is unrated, which means the floggings may still be too much to comfortably consume with Cadbury Creme Eggs.

ROBOTS (PG) See [|review].

Duly Noted

ARMY OF DARKNESS (1993) (R) For Sam Raimi’s third installment in the Evil Dead trilogy, Bruce Campbell’s hardware store-clerk turned zombie slayer goes back in time for some medieval derring-do. The breezy swashbuckling and Ray Harryhausen-inspired monsters don’t match Evil Dead 2’s brilliantly sickening slapstick, but still provide some enjoyably berserk drive-in fare. Fri.-Sat., March 11-12, midnight. Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, 931 Monroe Drive. 678-495-1424. - Curt Holman

DAS EXPERIMENT (2001) (R) Based on the 1971 “Stanford Prison Experiment,” this film follows an undercover reporter who signs up for a two-week research project designed to test the psychological effects of prison life. A dozen such human rats play the prisoners and eight more play the guards. The guards are forbidden to use force, but once the fights start, the rules get broken. Wed., March 16, 7 p.m. Goethe Institute Inter Nationes, 1197 Peachtree St., Colony Square. $4. 404-892-2388.

JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY (1960) Bert Stern documents the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival with long takes and close-ups. He spotlights Anita O’Day, Thelonious Monk, Chico Hamilton, Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington and Chuck Berry. Part of the Living Jazz series. Fri., March 11, 8 p.m. Woodruff Arts Center, Rich Auditorium, 1280 Peachtree St. $5. 404-733-4570. www.high.org.

SANTO DOMINGO BLUES (2003) Bachata embodies the hard-drinking, womanizing blues of Santo Domingo. Alex Wolfe’s documentary examines the music’s origins in the brothels and bars on the Dominican Republic with performances by Luis Vargas, Raulin Rodrigues, Luis Segura and others. Part of the Caribbean Connections series. Sat., March 12, 8 p.m. Woodruff Arts Center, Rich Auditorium, 1280 Peachtree St. $5. 404-733-4570. www.high.org.

WOMEN OF COLOR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Iyalode Productions and Auburn Avenue Research Library present two days of workshops, networking and films. Friday’s screening includes shorts, feature-length documentaries and the animation Hairpiece: A Film For Nappy-Headed People. Saturday’s screening includes shorts and documentaries, and ends with a Q&A session with filmmakers Yvonne Welbon and Coquie Hughes. Fri., March 11, 7 p.m.; Sat., March 12, noon. Auburn Avenue Research Library, 101 Auburn Ave. Free. 404-730-4001, ext. 210.

Continuing

ARE WE THERE YET? (PG) Ice Cube follows the accident-prone trail blazed by the Vacation movies as a child-hating bachelor who delivers two hostile tots (Aleisha Allen and Philip Bolden) from Portland to Vancouver. Are We There Yet? amusingly plays off Cube’s crabby demeanor, but for every honest laugh there’s a lame gross-out or a shameless bid for sentiment. Rather than ask Are We There Yet? just stay home. - CH

BE COOL (PG-13) See review, p. 60.

BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE (PG) A kid’s movie about a girl and her dog set in the dying Southern town of Naomi, Fla., this film by Wayne Wang based on Kate DiCamillo’s bestseller mixes cornball pratfalls aimed at the Nickelodeon set with a surprisingly substantive statements about maternal abandonment and how the collapse of Naomi’s industry trickles down to infect its despairing population. Like The Apostle crossed with Lassie, the film marks yet another bizarre but compelling entry in Wang’s schizophrenic career that has encompassed brainy eros (The Center of the World), Hollywood product (Maid in Manhattan) and indie fare (Smoke). - FF

BRIDE AND PREJUDICE (PG-13) Bend it Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha switches from phys ed to Eng lit to offer a Bollywood musical-style version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, transplanted to contemporary India, England and America.

CONSTANTINE (R) Chain-smoking, foul-mouthed exorcist John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) matches wits with demons and angels to help a Los Angeles cop (Rachel Weisz) investigate her twin sister’s death. This loose, flashy adaptation of DC Comics’ Hellblazer Americanizes the character nearly out of existence, and Reeves lacks the presence to credibly play a ghostbusting Dirty Harry. The film provides some exciting visual flourishes and fresh perspectives on redemption and damnation, but mostly Constantine lacks soul. - CH

DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN (PG-13) This adaptation of Tyler Perry’s successful play is set (and shot) in an Atlanta defined by economic and moral extremes. On one hand is the moneyed high life represented by Steve Harris’ attorney. On the other is the “ghetto” warmth and family togetherness of matriarch Madea’s (Tyler Perry) world, where the attorney’s wife (Kimberly Elise) escapes when her husband turns her out of their McMansion. Perry and first time director Darren Grant manage some genuinely funny moments and even some tender ones, but for the most part, Diary’s combination of raunchy comedy, syrupy romance and God-talk just feels ADD, as the film tries desperately - and futilely - to be all things to all people. - FF

HITCH (PG-13) It’s a rare director and actor who can handle the contrapuntal demands of romantic comedy. As inoffensively lovable as Will Smith is, he makes a far better class clown than a love-burned romantic lead. “Hitch” is a Manhattan matchmaker schooling nerdy guys to romance their dream girls who must learn to love again from a newspaper gossip columnist (a brittle Eva Mendes). When Hitch coasts on factory-assembled comic convention (black guy teaches white guy how to play it coooool) the film is on firm ground. When it asks Mendes and Smith to summon up some chemistry, and heads toward a canned matrimonial denouement, the fun turns into grueling ordeal. - FF

IMAX THEATER: Bugs! (NR) A praying mantis and a butterfly “star” in this documentary about the insects of the Borneo rainforest - some of whom will be magnified 250,000 times their normal size on the IMAX screen. 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. The Greatest Places (NR) It’s location, location, location in this de facto “Best of IMAX” overview of the world’s most spectacular places. Fridays at 10 p.m. (CH) Fernbank Museum of Natural History IMAX Theater, 767 Clifton Road. 404-929-6300. www.fernbank.edu.

THE JACKET (R) A Gulf War veteran (Adrien Brody) with massive head injuries returns stateside where he is unable to tell reality from hallucination. When he’s framed for a cop’s murder, he’s committed to an institution for the criminally insane where he becomes the lab rat of a demented Dr. Becker (Kris Kristofferson) who thinks he can cure criminality. John Maybury’s (Love is the Devil) tedious thriller is, in a word, a mess, its occasionally slick MTV style doing little to detract from the essentially banal work at hand. Full of absurd twists and turns, time travel and a requisite, uninspiring love story, none of it makes a lick off sense, and all of it seems a profound waste of time. - FF

MAN OF THE HOUSE (PG-13) Tommy Lee Jones’ tough Texas Ranger teams with Cedric the Entertainer’s streetwise informant to go undercover to protect five University of Texas cheerleaders who happen to be witnesses of a crime.

NOBODY KNOWS (PG-13) Four Japanese children aged 5 to 12 eke out an existence in near-total isolation after being abandoned by their monstrously childish mother. Comparable to a modern-day Diary of Anne Frank and based on a true incident from 1988, the film provides both the fly-on-the-wall details of an exceptional case as well as universal insights into the experience of childhood. Writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda gets remarkably natural performances from his young actors and never shies away from the emotional truths of its painful, powerful story. - CH

ONG-BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR (R) You may not think you want to see a subtitled movie about Thai kickboxing, but believe me, you do. Watching Tony Jaa punch, flip and propel himself through this pulpy, fast-paced tale gives you a heady thrill of discovery akin to the ground-breaking, head-breaking early work of Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan. Apart from the exotic opening scene (a kind of Extreme Capture the Flag game in a tree), the plot won’t win any prizes for originality, but with such brutal brawls and exuberant chase scenes, Ong-Bak is a kick in the head. - CH

THE PACIFIER (PG) See review, p. 61.

THE SEA INSIDE (PG-13) Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, this Spanish film depicts quadriplegic Ramon Sampedro (Javier Bardem) and the endgame of his decades-long battle with Spain’s government and legal system to end his life. At times director/co-writer Alejandro Amenábar succumbs to TV-movie clich&233;s, but Bardem provides a remarkably melancholy, charismatic performance, despite barely moving a muscle. - CH

TRAVELLERS AND MAGICIANS (NR) From the same Buddhist lama, Khyentse Norbu, who directed the upbeat soccer film The Cup comes a mildly cautionary tale about a man (Tshewang Dendup) from a small Bhutan village obsessed with getting to America, who encounters a monk In his travels who gives him some words of advice. The story-within-a-story fairy tale the monk tells Dendup to warn him of the perils of wanderlust is the most compelling and atmospheric and often makes the realistic central story seem overly conventional and routine by comparison. - FF??