Sorry it's been so long, folks--I was busy with the move, classes, and a whole lot of other things, but lately I have finally had the time to see a few movies, dig out some older reviews, and amalgamate enough of them together to create this newsletter. You can expect a much shorter wait than nine months for the next one, I promise...

ON SCREEN:

MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING: Julia Roberts plays a well-known restaurant critic from Chicago whose best friend, another journalist, happens to be a man (Dermot Mulroney). The two of them dated briefly many years ago, then became good friends and made a pact with each other that they would marry if they turned 28 and were still single. Now she is about to turn 28, is still interested in him, and what should happen but the exact thing that I'm sure you're about to guess... To make matters worse, Mulroney's fiancee (played by Cameron Diaz, whose acting has improved dramatically since She's the One) is disgustingly cute, perfect, and lovable in nearly every way, and utterly without the rough edges that Roberts and Mulroney pride themselves on having. Fortunately, the whole plot isn't as predictable as the beginning, and the viewer actually gets to wonder how things are going to turn out (one of the greatest thrills that any movie can give us). Julia has this wonderfully neurotic role in her genes (although one can't help wondering why a talented woman like her character has made getting a man such a disproportionately large part of her life), and comes across as a likable Everywoman just as she did in Pretty Woman. The worst problem is that Mulroney doesn't put enough life into his role to seem worth all the fuss. Furthermore, there is too much scene-stealing; Roberts' other best friend, her gay editor George (played by Rupert Everett), snatches away the attention with brilliant dexterity every time he appears on screen. An impressive young actor by the name of Ned Schmitke, playing the ultimate in paranoid managers, makes off with the first big scene in a way that makes me sure we'll see more of him later on. Also, Philip Bosco adds yet another line-item to his long resume of rich old WASP patriarchs (including Children of a Lesser God and Working Girl) with his role as Diaz's rich father. The opening title sequence is actually a music video of the old 1950's hit "Wishin' and Hopin'", lip-synched by a group of four female dancers dressed as a bridal party. While the choreography (by Toni Basil, who also did the legendary video "Once in a Lifetime" for the rock group Talking Heads) is quite clever, the whole sequence--like all the other musical sequences in the film--goes on just a bit too long.

OUT OF THE PRESENT: tells the story of one year aboard the Russian space station Mir--and interestingly, the year is 1991, meaning that our heroes, the two cosmonauts on whom the action focuses, are sent up by the Soviet Union and brought back by the Commonwealth of Independent States! Like For All Mankind, which focused on the Apollo missions, this joyous documentary intends to give us a genuine idea of what life in space is like, and mostly succeeds. Unlike the latter film, it also brings us into a different culture. There are moments of hilarity (the spacemen, and one spacewoman, pitch each other across Mir's interior, enjoying their zero-grav surroundings), suspense (footage from the 1991 coup and subsequent democratic revolution), and astonishing lyric beauty (an experiment with a parachute in the vacuum of space, and many views of Earth from Mir's orbit). Be forewarned, though, if (unlike me) you don't like movies that take a slow pace--the Earth-from-space sequences get a little long. Also, there are no subtitles in the 1991 revolution footage, so it is hard to follow what's going on.

ON TAPE:

WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT: The harrowing story of rock star Tina Turner's introduction into show business by way of her husband, pioneering producer Ike Turner, and the abuse she suffered at his hands as they ironically became one of the best-known R&B acts of the 1960's, almost defines the phrase "harrowing story." The film uses well-researched period detail--and the impressive acting talents of Angela Bassett and Lawrence Fishburne--to great effect, and gets us to cheer (quite deservedly) for Tina when she finally resists her husband and strikes out on her own. Not surprisingly for a film of this kind, certain details are left out (Turner had already had a child out of wedlock by the time she met Ike in the late 1950's). Furthermore, the title song--a big hit for Tina in 1984, after she got her divorce--is presented as the ultimate triumph of her career, a burden it can't even begin to carry (tragically, it's nowhere near as good as her classics with Ike like their cover of "Proud Mary"). These are minor points, however, when judged against the strength that Bassett brings to her role, and the success she and the director (Brian Gibson) have in involving us in her story. Also, I love the use of "Disco Inferno" as comic relief!

THE HARRAD EXPERIMENT: I'll start with a synopsis, like I usually do: It's the 1960's, and a pair of radical social reformers, Dr. George Tenhausen (James Whitmore) and his wife Margaret (Tippi Hedren), manage to land quite a contract. The board of directors of a small and (up until now) square liberal arts college somewhere in the rural U.S. have given them the run of the place. This gives them a chance to implement their experimental designs for correcting all that is wrong with our woebegone society by instituting on the freshman class such daring innovations as opposite-gender roommates, encouraged sexual activity, and (I am not making this up) mandatory nude calisthenics--all of it leading up to the ultimate utopia, 3- or 4-person group marriage. Shortly afterward, a snowball lands in Hell, which immediately freezes over. All of this nonsense, as you might have guessed by now, is motivated by an incongruous combination of 1960's idiotic radical politics at their worst and a desire to show lots of footage of naked young people cavorting about. What little perverse fun one can take from the proceedings is in seeing two future stars among the cavorters, both of whom probably now shudder at the mention of this film: Don Johnson and Bruno Kirby (of When Harry Met Sally/City Slickers fame). Most of the acting is unbearably sanctimonious, except for that of Hedren, which is annoying, overblown, and unbearably sanctimonious. I looked hard for a genuine saving grace, and did manage to find one in the (then) youthful Laurie Walters, who plays the shy one in the class; sadly, I have never seen or heard of her in any other film besides this piece of horseshit.

STAR WARS: Needless to say, I was anxious to see the re-release of this, a movie that did more for me than any other to define cinematic greatness. I am pleased to say--in case there is anyone who hasn't seen it already--that the revamped version is worth seeing, even though there isn't a great deal of new material. What is new is mostly computer animation, and takes place almost entirely in the early part of the film on the desert planet of Tattooine. New desert creatures roar and snort, and a leaner and meaner Jabba the Hut is featured in a scene with Han Solo just before the trader escapes the planet (this scene was included in the original script, and was filmed with a stand-in for Jabba, but then ended up on the cutting-room floor; an animated Jabba was collaged onto it for this re-release). My recommendation would be to see this and then find a video of the older version so as to make comparisons, but you would have to be a real Star Wars junkie to do that.

GET SHORTY: John Travolta plays a "collection agent" (i.e. a small-time hood) operating among the various sleazeballs that constitute the mob in Miami. While on a "business" trip to Los Angeles, he's asked to collect from an imprudent Hollywood producer (Gene Hackman) and soon finds himself immersed in another seedy, amoral racket--movie production--with a rather motley crew: the producer, a savvy b-picture actress (Renee Russo) and a pompous star (Danny Devito). It's a great ensemble, but Travolta is so unbelievably slick, smooth, and deadpan that he almost carries the film all by himself. Although she needs to work on her facials, Russo is believable enough to prove that, at least once in a while, models can make the transition into actors. There's a lot of deliciously wicked humor in the script (in this aspect, it bears a resemblance to Mel Brooks' The Producers in more than just subject matter), but my favorite scene is one in which Travolta changes from Hackman's tormentor to his partner in crime in the space of a few drinks! Watch for some surprising walk-ons, especially near the end. My only quibble (besides Russo's aforementioned limitations) is that there's a bit more violence than is really necessary in what is basically a comedy.

Until next time...