ART

ESSAYS

FICTION

FILM

GRAND INQUISITOR

INTERESTS

LINKS

POETRY

REVIEWS

  (Click here to return to main page)

     Welcome to the Film section: Its intent is to introduce the works of local filmmakers as well as independent filmmakers from all over the world. At this time, due to the large size of motion picture files, and the infant status of my web site, that's not possible....but yet someday. So the next best things would be essays, commentary, discussion and news.

      Periodically, I list noteworthy films now showing in the Baltimore area. Some comments of my own are included to perhaps help you in your celluloid-consumption decisions. Let's take it away, shall we?

       Time's too precious of a commodity, so I've decided to do away with doing brief previews for every flick opening on any given week. So I'll just cap with a couple of lines the ones I'm interested in. The rest will get a quick and painless(or painful, depending on the case) one-liner.

Updated 4/19/00

      *American Psycho takes us into the world of Patrick Bateman, a affluet yuppie with killer good looks, and that's not the only thing about him that's killer. Mary Harron directs the film version based on Bret Easton Ellis' controversial novel.

     *U-571 carries Matthew McConaughey and several other manly men,like Harvey Keitel, in a tale set during WWII as Ally agents take control of a German submarine and find themselves running silent deep for their lives when the mission goes wrong.

     Love and Basketball is an uncharacteristic love story about a couple who are both basketball players and whose relationship's tested by the trials of the sport.

     Keeping The Faith is the directorial debut of actor Edward Norton, about two friends,one a rabbi, the other a priest, who fall for their childhood friend now grown-up into a captivating Jenna Elfman.

     Rules of Engagement finds Samuel L Jackson accused of a bogus martial crime and defended by Tommy Lee Jones.

     Gossip finds Dawson's Creek's Pacey,Joshua Jackson,accused of murder;all started by a College class assignment about rumor mongering.

     28 days follows cutesy Sandra Bullock thru yep, 28 days of rehab.

     Still Showing

    *Waking The Dead tells the story of a politician running for office and dealing with the specter of his dead lover, who he thinks might be alive. Directed by Keith Gordon (he played the lead in John Carpenter's Christine--obscure reference), this film looks like a hopeful, haunting dramatic piece.

     *Ghost Dog offers Forrest Whitaker as the titular character, a hired assasin who finds himself marked by the mobsters he once worked for. A soundtrack by Wu-Tang Clan rapper RZA and direction by Indie-film deity Jim Jarmusch make this film sound very interesting.

     *Boys Don't Cry features a Oscar-nominated performances by Hillary Swank and Chloe Sevigny. The film, originally released last fall but re-released due to its Oscar nominations, tells the real life story of Teena Brandon, a woman who choose to live as a man named Brandon Teena, her love affair and her subsequent murder by male acquaintances. I miss this one the first time around so here's another chance.

     Romeo Must Die showcases hot-martial-artist Jet Li in a story set in the criminal underworld, but if only the rest of the cast and the plot itself weren't such half-cooked gumbo...

     Final Destination is about a teenager who gets off an airplane when he foresees it's crash--the rest is mediocre teenage-horror pulp sustained by ex-X-files producer James Wong.

     Erin Brockovich is Julia Roberts in short-shorts, tank top and cheap sunglasses doing some acting, playing a feisty, somewhat-trailer-trashy paralegal who pushes the lid off a high-heaven-stinking corporate coverup; Steven Soderbergh directs.

     Whatever It Takes is teenage-romantic mush for those kids wandering aimlessly at the malls and even more so for the ones who actually got a date to take to the movies.

     Here On Earth is...more teenage-romantic mush but it looks like it's slightly more grown-up mush, but only by about six months.

     The Ninth Gate stars Johnny Depp in his third horror film in a row (is he turning into a specialist actor?! His next film's rumored to be From Hell, yet another horror film): An overlong, Roman Polanski film about a book dealer chasing a tome also wanted by Satanic (yawwwnn) agents.

     *What Planet Are You From?  asks every woman in this flick casting Gary Shandling as the romantic/comic lead in a story of an alien trying to mate sucessfully with earth women--Good F*****g luck!

     *The Next Best Thing only seems like the next so-so thing, (unless you love Madonna's acting) posing Rupert Everret against Benjaming Bratt for the M-goddess affections. The catch here is that one man is gay and the father of her baby, the other straight and not the father of her baby.

     My Dog Skip presents a coming-of-age story (groan) about a boy (Frankie Muniz from Malcolm In The Middle) and his peppy, cute dog--A Ready-for-Pax-Network-Family-Flick!!       

     *Wonder Boys seems like one of those films in the recently- minted genre of "Dramedy" (half tearjerker,half bonetickler) which has Michael Douglas doing some acting. It's the story of a  famous, curmudgeonly writer working on a great epic novel and the romantic/life misadventures unfolding around him. Directed by Curtis Hanson, his followup after the great Hollywood Confidential, the film stars "it-young-actor-of-the-moment" Toby Maguire and even a between jail-sentences Robert Downey Jr.

     *Judy Berlin is an independent film starring Eddie Falco (from the much-hyped cable series The Sopranos) in a suburban story in the same vein as American Beauty with the twist of a David Lynch influence. Eric Mendelsson directs.

     Reindeer Games is the latest Ben Affleck flick,directed by sometimes-genius director John Frankenheimer: This is no Ronin but a forgettable action film.

     The Talented Mr. Ripley is Matt Damon, or is he Ripley acting as Matt Damon, or Matt Damon acting as everyone else.

       The Green Mile is the silver screen adaptation of Stephen King's prison serial novel, starring heavyweight-talent actor Tom Hanks.

      The Sixth Sense is the hit psychological-supernatural thriller 

     American Beauty is a much-hyped drama which peels back the sanitized, deceitful skin of  suburban America to reveal the lurid, agonizing dysfunction within.

                                              Armando Valle  

     Armando Valle can be e-mailed at:[email protected]

    (Click here to return to main page)