Hey, folks--I hope all of you are enjoying your summer. Several people have asked me about the newsletter; as you might guess, being a new father has made it hard for me to make the time (not least because my son is obviously much more interesting than any movie!) As you can see, I have finally managed to put one together...
 

ON SCREEN:
 

ATANARJUAT/FAST RUNNER (Canadian): Wow. For once, words really do fail me when I try to use some of them to describe a great movie. The late author Paul Apak Angilirq, a Canadian Inuit (also known as Eskimo, although I understand that that term is now considered offensive), took a legend told to him in his childhood and made a script out of it. Then, he and director Zacharias Kunuk filmed it with an mostly-Inuit cast and crew on an appropriately foreboding (and beguiling!) location in their home province of Nunavut in the far north. The result is an absolutely stunning cinematic experience, almost as overwhelming as Gandhi or Lawrence of Arabia, and a new audience and lease on life for an ancient story. The titular character (Natar Ungalaaq), a brave warrior with a difficult background, finds himself the victim of classic jealousy and rivalry in his small clan of three families, fomented by his rival Oki (Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq) and Oki's seductive sister, Puja (Lucy Tulugarjuk). If this plot line doesn't sound ground-breaking to you, you're right--and the familiarity of the subject makes the appeal all the more universal. The climax is one of the most arresting sequences I have ever seen in a film, one which I dare not describe in any more detail, except to say that I will never forget it. Overall, this film is a glimpse of a very different culture from yours or mine that nevertheless manages to involve us to the point of immersion in the lives of its characters. I recommend this movie heartily. RATING: 9.
 

ON TAPE:
 

BOYS AND GIRLS: This movie is almost perfect for a rating of 5, because it's not horrible, but it's not especially good, either. It is essentially a note-for-note remake of When Harry Met Sally, with a few key aspects changed--most notably, the sexes are reversed! Freddie Prinze Jr. plays Meg Ryan (in other words, the prissy-but-brought-out-of-his-shell-by-the-other-one friend), and the gorgeous Claire Forlani plays Billy Crystal (i. e. the bold-and-promiscuous-but-secretly-longing friend). There are also changes of coast (UC Berkeley and San Francisco instead of New York) and age (college instead of working-and-dating), but these aspects are obviously superficial--deep down, this is just a blatant retread. That said, there are worse blatant retreads out there; Forlani and Prinze aren't too bad together, although they don't have the chemistry of Ryan and Crystal. The best performer is Jason Biggs of American Pie fame, playing a cliched Crazy Roommate who steals every scene he enters! He is easily more entertaining than the two leads, and almost single-handedly makes the movie worth watching, although you have to be a fan of his (I suppose that means that I am one!) Similarly, I think that romantic-comedy fans (like myself) might enjoy this movie more than other people, but I am guessing that many of them (like myself) revere When Harry... quite a lot, and would therefore be bothered by the unoriginality. (By the way, if you're a Blair Witch Project fan like me, and you're curious to see someone from that movie in another role, BWP's Heather Donahue plays a small-but-important role in Boys..., and isn't too bad.) RATING: 5.
 

BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER: I suppose I was somewhat prejudiced in favor of this film, since I have absolutely no respect whatsoever for the idiotic "ex-gay" movement, an idea deeply rooted in hatred of gay people. (For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, some conservatives around the country have advocated that gay people, instead of embracing who they are, attempt to change themselves into straight people through some combination of therapy, prayer, and self-flagellation. The gay people who supposedly succeed at this are called "ex-gays" by the promulgators of this idea. If you are straight, and you disagree with me about this idea's merits, think about this: can you imagine any amount of therapy ever changing you from straight to gay?) A heavy-handed and didactic attack on this movement would have turned even me off, although I would have agreed with it anyway. Fortunately, But I'm a Cheerleader takes a very different approach, opting for a broadly absurd, somewhat John Waters-ish satire. Natasha Lyonne (who was tiresome in American Pie, but is much better here) plays a star cheerleader and (possible) budding lesbian. She gets whisked off by her straitlaced parents (Mink Stole and Bud Cort from Harold and Maude, both of whom are perfectly and campily cast) to Camp True Directions, where the boys all wear blue and the girls all wear pink. It's also where a hard-boiled drill sergeant of a camp director (Cathy Moriarity) and her weak-kneed assistant (RuPaul, seen here out of drag) drum every last bit of homosexuality out of their confused adolescent heads--or do they? The Watersesque (is that a word?) approach works well for the subject matter, using absurd humor to highlight the absurdity of its subject. Moriarity is a bit over the top (her performance reminds me a little too much of Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest), but most of the other players hit just the right note of camp, especially Lyonne and Clea DuVall from Girl Interrupted, who plays a camp veteran and possible love interest for Lyonne. This one gets my recommendation, although you have to be willing to accept a large dose of silliness in your humor. Also, diehard advocates of the "ex-gay" idea will be affronted, but personally, that's just fine by me. RATING: 8.
 

I SPY RETURNS: I have been lucky enough to see a few reruns of the old 1960's comedy/adventure series, I Spy, which is now best known as the show that introduced Bill Cosby to a wide audience. Cosby and costar Robert Culp spent most of that series snooping, surveilling, charming, and joking their way around the world. In this reunion movie, they end up going to yet another glamorous locale (Vienna) to keep an eye on the old spy service's two newest recruits--their own adult children! Other than that, the plot is typical defection-protection stuff that doesn't hold up to close scrutiny, but that hardly seems to matter, because the chemistry between the much-older Culp and Cosby is still so damned entertaining after all these years. On the minus side, George Newbern (playing Culp's son) and the very beautiful Salli Richardson (playing Cosby's daughter) try hard to be as enjoyable as their elders, but don't quite succeed (and maybe to even compare them is unfair). The same has to be said for Jonathan Hyde, playing Cesar Baroodi, a standard-issue bad guy who seems to be on loan from a Bond movie. Overall, if you liked the old series (or if you like Cosby generally), you will find this very enjoyable, and you may be surprised even if you've never seen it, although you really have to like the genre. RATING: 7.
 

APPENDIX: THE INFAMOUS TOP TEN LIST (LAST REVISED IN MARCH, 2009)
 

As a postscript, I thought that you might enjoy reading this Top Ten list that I started keeping back in 1997, in response to a request by "Uncle Gutty," a critic from England who has his own movie review web page (viewable at geocities.com/guttysreviews). I would, as always, be interested in any reactions that anyone has to this list, and I would also be interested in anyone else's top ten. I would also be curious to know if anyone else finds it challenging to come up with these kinds of lists. For me, it was a real project! (If there is enough interest, maybe I could make a newsletter out of various top tens from readers.) By the way, this is not the same project as the favorite scene list I made several years ago; that can be viewed at http://www.geocities.com/museumcataloging/movies1198.htm (it is also updated periodically).
 

HONORABLE MENTIONS: This could be a very long list, but here are some that stand out (in alphabetical order, not in order of preference):
 

Aguirre Wrath of God, All the President's Men, Amistad, Annie Hall, Balance, Battleship Potemkin, Be Kind Rewind, The Bicycle Thief, The Blair Witch Project, The Caine Mutiny, Central Station, Chasing Amy, Children of a Lesser God, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Cool Hand Luke, The Crying Game, Deliverance, David and Lisa, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Do the Right Thing, Dreams, Duel, Eat Drink Man Woman, 8 1/2, For All Mankind, The Graduate, The Great Escape, Hannah and Her Sisters, Harold and Maude, Hoop Dreams, Hotel Rwanda, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Interiors (I think of Annie Hall, Interiors, and Manhattan as a kind of trilogy), Ju Dou, The Killing Fields, The Last Waltz, Lilies of the Field, A Little Stiff, Mean Streets, Metropolitan, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, On the Waterfront, Open Doors, Pather Patchali, The Producers, Rocky, She's Gotta Have It, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Station Agent, La Strada, Stranger Than Paradise, Strawberry and Chocolate, Swimming to Cambodia, Swingers, Trainspotting, West Side Story, When Harry Met Sally, and The World of Apu.
 

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Thanks as always for your interest, and see you at the movies (if for no other reason, because they're always air-conditioned!)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

TONY