Severely funny meditation on circumstance, celebration of conflict, live action cartoon; ‘Drive’ may be the most ecstatic and tirelessly alive film I've seen all year. It’s a particular kind of funny; not “laugh track” funny, but a farcical caricature of colorful characters and devilishly satisfying occurrences mixed up in a romantic comedy slathered on a slapstick-rich, quasi-silent film meshed with comic timing and careful attention to reaction.
The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (C)
In most spots of our most recent cartoon-crossover-updating-megabucks-kids-scheme, the writing more than qualifies to meet the gargantuan standard set by the now defunct sixties TV cult fave. Rather disappointing then, that an overstuffed second half would make me realize how untalented Piper Perabo is and how much I was beginning to loathe this garish “entertainment”.
All the Pretty Horses (C)
Gracefully exonerate all involved by saying this film was cut by foolish executive who didn't believe filmgoers could handle a four hour movie? No, that would be ludicrous. There'd be structural problems in this sparingly (by which I mean poorly) written, well-acted literal horse opera. Another example of beautiful cinematography, music and stars put in a void of a vacuum of a black hole of a script.
Almost Famous (A)
Full of cinematic rarities and booming with loud music, thrillingly authentic spotlight-cast images of a plethora of idols take shape as Cameron Crowe's entirely engaging memoir collects the magical atmosphere of the cool and the uncool and creates something entirely new and alive. Wonderful performances from Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson and Phillip Seymour Hoffman only intensify the high you get from this funny, moving, forget-yourself-from-frame-one piece of film gold.
American Pscyho (C+)
Christian Bale owns the film - and he's hilarious - but Mary Harron suggests too explicitly that the purposefully overblown and grisly murders he commits may be a fantasy he has created. This gives the commentary a sense of pretentiousness and irritability that sells the film to mindlessly simplistic hypotheses such as, well, "Rich people are the root of all evil". Duh. (Tired echo: The book is more skillful.)
An Affair of Love (A)
Animal Factory (B)
Not really the prison movie to end all prison movies, this light, stagey little number written by Reservoir Dog Eddie Bunker comes off the way 'Trees Lounge' did - - - the characters and their relationships are all much more developed than your average film. As a prison movie, it works nearly the whole time - - - but still seems to be somewhat, I don't know, less than what it's aiming to be.
Autumn in New York (D)
Flat-toned, old-fashioned (but in a bad way) love story with Gere as his stock womanizer and Ryder tapping her pseudo-naivete reserve. Concerning age difference taboos, ‘Autumn’ flat-lines any appeal with disastrous chemistry.
Bait (C+)
Because throughout, it is a good technology thriller, Jamie Foxx is actually somewhat funny and David Morse is given yet another great scenery chewing baddie cop to play. Of course, in the final scenes the serial killer/computer hacker/master gold thief must've smoked a wicked bong because he gets dumber than a bag of hammers. Uneven presentation of an otherwise promising suspense yarn.
Bamboozled (B)
Spike Lee makes a racial statement and for once, asks that whites and blacks share the blame. A bit too hand-tooled and the mini DV looks atrocious, but when Man Tan and Sleep and Eat begin debasing themselves on the New Millenium Minstrel Show, Lee has raised issue with, let's face it, the WB network. Well timed.
Battlefield Earth (D+)
The plus denotes how much fun I had laughing that this film (and the commentary, which I'm watching a little bit of at a time to make it last). Truly bad special effects, ridiculous dialogue and storylines - - - its as if they looked at what had been green-lighted and said, "PFFFFTTTTT! Let's render camp!". Inadvertently funnier than most comedies released this year.
The Beach (C-)
As Richard, selfish and naive protagonist extraordinare, DiCaprio manages both to be both boyish and irritating. ‘The Beach’ is guilty of the following atrocities : containing a scene where Richard drinks snake’s blood, shaming American travelers simply because they’re American, attempting intellectual and independent (attaining neither) and shamelessly advertising electronic addictions iMac, Excite.com and Gameboy in a film about people who shuffle off the coils of modern society.
Bedazzled (B-)
Spilling over with charm and just enough Harold Ramis influenced originality to be a motion picture that utilizes the appealing qualities of both its stars (Fraser and Hurley), without pimping them to death in the opening five minutes. Big extra points for including the ravishing Frances O'Connor (Mansfield Park, Kiss or Kill) as the much sought after heroine.
Before Night Falls (A-)
A wonderfully surreal biopic of Reinaldo Arenas, directed with a painter's attention to the undefined montage and lulling literary bliss of the Cuban Revolution. Arenas is played with a beautiful harmony by Javier Bardem, whose anti-progressive, almost timeless appearance over thirty years rings an effectively nice off-key note.
Best in Show (B-)
'Best in Show' retreads territory immortalized in 'Waiting for Guffman' (a companion piece it could easily be interchangeable with). The old adage "funny is funny" is firmly in place, making it heartily worthwhile - especially for those unfamiliar with ppast efforts by Christopher Guest.
Beyond the Clouds (A-)
Be sure to leave some time for pondering and walking around
after you see Antonioni’s flat-out
captivating narcotic swell of a film. Dreamlike, it is
one of those films in which everyone in it seems to be a philosopher, every
word is worth savoring and each character says it as such. This introspective,
beautifully written takes it’s time to observe people and, in turn, they
become art.
The Big Kahuna (B)
Often a “salesman-as-a-metaphor-for-life” pitch alternating it’s tone occasionally to the “salesman-are- blunt-so-the-cards-are-suddenly-on-the-table” pitch; ‘Kahuna’ covers all it’s bases. The ease of it’s job seems overlooked : it’s about deception. Genuinely well-acted, it’s pseudo-Mamet material - but it goes deeper than that. It’s a nnear-bungled attempt at tackling the faded male ego. Not comparable to ‘Death of a Salesman’ by a long shot. Noble, though.
Big Momma's House (D-)
After three or four set-ups that are engineered to get Martin Lawrence inside that damn "rubber Mama suit", you'd expect the rest of the movie to cheerfully milk this premise. Instead, it retreads 'Blue Streak' in being both unfunny and patronizing. That, and it takes poor Paul Giamatti (who just wanted a paycheck out of it) to the bottom with it.
Billy Elliot (D+)
Not sure what everyone's getting so excited about. Great opening sequence. Great closing sequence. Bad "everything in between". The kid isn't that great a performer. The 80's Thatcher political scheme is so dated, I almost can't see the point in dredging it out to foot the poverty bill in this film's need to have a poor life to move up from. But then, it's just a bad film, anyway.
Black and White (C)
Might have made a better series on PBS as a set of docu-dramas exploring the nooks and crannies of hip hop culture, it’s connection to black culture and the arrogance of white culture. All the film radiates is one slithery grub in the necessary and interesting can of worms it has opened. The characters end up in a fairly straightforward confrontation with their consciences, morphing into the "moral decision making time" montage as the film collapses into gangster melodrama.
Bless the Child (D)
Turns out to be a really, really funny movie. Honestly.
Boiler Room (C-)
‘Boiler Room’isn't an independent film or some sort of cutting edge innovation. True: Ribisi point blank holds the movie; but the excessive big-ball dangling, frequently flat half-baked excess of morality plays, gambling parallels and class warfare are interpreted as simply "Start-movie-here-BACKTRACK-continue-and-finish-uneventfully”.
Book of Shadows : Blair Witch 2 (C)
Would be a nice comment on both manipulation caused by appropriating images and the way the media sells what they think we want based on our outcry of stupidity - - - if it didn't contain the worst actors on the planet who spout some of worst dialogue written. A step backwards for the great documentarian Joe Berlinger.
Bounce (C-)
Uh-huh. He switches tickets with her husband, who dies in a plane crash as a result and then the ticket switching guy falls for her. And its not sinister or anything. And Ben Affleck is the guy. And Tony Goldwyn is her husband. (And her, incidentally, is Gwyneth Paltrow). Uh....Nope.
Boys and Girls (C)
Often charming, likeably conservative fantasy whose rise and downfall seem to be both its slow-moving pace and its non-stop dialogue. I liked it because it was as close to a teenage romance as we're likely to get without being completely embarrassing or hopelessly manipulative.
Bring It On (B+)
I loved 'Bring it On'. Between sparse editing, a quick-draw set of funny, almost perfectly entertaining scenes add up and create a short, lean piece of fast-paced entertainment that you barely know you're watching. It's like the ideal version of how highschool cheerleaders are. And for some reason, that's really appealing to me.
Cast Away (B+)
A great film because it has this unconventional feel to its topic of interest - namely, Chuck Noland, a man obsessed with time before finding out what time really is. Watching a man's resourcefulness is endlessly fascinating and Hanks is brilliant, but I wondered why the film turned aimless when its faced with answering questions in the third act regarding the whole existential matter? Anybody?
Cecil B. Demented (C)
Title character (clearly the anti-Waters) leads vicious tirade against bad cinema. Little more than an injection of kitsch into otherwise drained market with dead-on Griffith lampooning herself. Devolves into solid joke fired on audience until tolerance collapses and any fun is drowned in bitter, blurry message.
The Cell (D+)
Unstable world drained of vitality; used-up caricatures, half-cooked narrative undertones supplemented with child abuse cum nihilism vis a vie sadist euthanasia. Acting seems lost to upstaging visuals Tarsem labors into properly symbolic host to unpleasantness for unpleasantness' sake.
Center Stage (C)
"So, these kids are learning at the Nazi school of ballet in the big city and the principle character finds that irregular dancing is the key to her improvement, right - - - and the whole thing is like a soap opera with Peter Gallagher, only we make it really widescreen and about thirty minutes too long. Any objections?"
Chicken Run (B+)
A claymation short, flattened and served up as a claymation feature, 'Chicken Run' is easily the very picture of "not-quite-mindblowing-but-oh-so-close". What really shows in is the painstaking effort to cover the seams in translating British humor into a ridged American script without losing it's appeal. Delightful - if labored.
Chocolat (B-)
As far as fantasy-driven movies about the healing power of food and the romance of strangers, this one is certainly charming, light and well-cast. However, these types of movies should have a stronger air of mystery about them and this one is as predictable as they come; though often, its sense of simplicity renders the outcome of scenes decidedly unimportant anyway.
Chuck & Buck (B)
Nicely disturbing piece of quasi-comedy with the title characters embarking on a role reversal that would make Shakespeare scratch his head. The idea that one can't grow up without closure from the other is interesting - - - but the last twenty minutes (and the feverishly simple conclusion the film draws) sell it more than a little short.
The Contender (C-)
An unconscionably ambitious film with the unstable documentary feel of 'West Wing' constantly lurching into the grandstanding manipulation of 'Braveheart'; a quiet film ominously lurking inside of a loud, boisterous finger pointing epic. Writer-director Lurie has a contradictory delusion that Washington is akin to hell and a fantasy camp for idealists, leading to a conclusion that nearly negates his entire message.
The Crew (D)
Old wiseguys making elderly jokes in a Florida hotel while they rekindle their youthtime occupations and fire off lameness at an alarming speed. Burt Reynolds, Dan Hedaya, Richard Dreyfuss and Seymour Cassel have ruined their entire careers by committing the quintessential sell-out. The film: Un-Funny.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (A-)
One of the more entertaining films I've seen this year. Mixing a wonderfully realized story with arguably the best martial arts I've seen on film is a great idea. This film succeeds brilliantly with an admirable feminist agenda to boot - - - Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun-Fat and Zhang Ziyi all give spirited, mythically dead-on performances.
Croupier (C+)
Magnetic and contrived; surprising and disappointing; the gimmicky 'Croupier' is a magic trick : it's full of it's own deceit. Clive Owen's chillingly assured performance as a gambler in denial (heightened by the effective voice-over) is nearly wasted as Hodges burns up his fuel in excess, robbing us of truly savoring the final product.
Coyote Ugly (D)
Feather-light exploitation that fails on every level. Piper Perabo is the worst actress working today. I hope she's proud. Another of Bruckheimer's money-making schemes that falls so flat on its ass, I wonder if he even green-lighted it - - - just said, "Tits! Music! Bar!" - - - whatever.
Cyberworld 3-D (B)
A composium of digital themed vignettes, some former creations rendered 3-D; others wild-eyed fantasy set pieces anchored with music and snap out visual shocks and pleasures. The unfortunate thing limiting this visionary collection is stale, patronizing presentation through dimwitted plot cheat envisioning vignettes as bug-ravaged computer programs.
Dancer in the Dark (A-)
An entertaining epic of top drawer improvisational direction that mixes martyrdom and musical into a revoltingly exciting reflection on the healing powers of fantasy. Full of strong performances- especially singer Bjork - who is at once innocently reserved and ecstatically passionate.
Deterrence (B)
Rod Lurie’s screenplay is brimming with intelligent dialogue, impeccable pacing and more than its share of oversimplified emotional reaction that movies like 'Fail-Safe' could elicit with their subject matter alone. Luckily, Kevin Pollack (as the president!) keeps the film booming along.
Dinosaur (D)
Disney’s “We-can-release-whatever-dribble-we-want-we’re-beloved-by-children -everywhere” ideal is souring. The dinossaurs look like penises with legs and speak with about as much clarity. Sure there are none of the sappy songs, but at what a price: this is for kids who aren’t interested in anything remotely close to the concept of imagination.
Dr. Seuss's 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' (C+)
Thought I'd probably need a vomit bag, but Ron Howard shuffles off the stench of Hollywood very nicely by standing on the sidelines and allowing Jim Carrey to politely run the damn movie as if he were the president of Universal pictures. His performance is another of the great comedic showings in recent years. I almost feel good that he's back from the dignified run of things ('Man on the Moon', 'The Truman Show'). Almost.
Dr T. & the Women (B)
Not really all that Altman-esque, this one has a very literary and wonderfully ironic screenplay. The ensemble cast works - but not as well as Gere, who gives onee of his best performances as (surprise! surprise!) an unsleazy Southern gent. Maybe the first film this year that's obtuse enough to pass for independent but certainly deserves nothing more than the audience gobbling multiplex.
Down To You (D)
Somewhere a teenage film school hopeful is on a double date, thinking to himself that this "movie" he was dragged into isn't all that bad. If nothing else, it utilizes all the same features his camcorder does. And somewhere a queen is crying. Somewhere a king has no wife. And the wind cries - scary.
Drowning Mona (C+)
Everything is just nearly good. I'd take what is a mediocre approach, give it a full dose of low-key narrative interruption, deleting slowness, flashiness and music and make ‘Drowning Mona’ into a nice spoof of quiet, disturbing independent films instead of a talky, predictable ensemble diversion.
East is East (C-)
Shows us its message in the first fifteen minutes and then struggles to decide (practically every other minute) whether it wants to milk comedy or shock out of Om Puri hitting Linda Bassett in the face while saying “bastard”and “bleedin”over and over and over again. Nearly impossible to separate the “dad’s-way-or- no-way”plot from the “goofy-mixed-kids-coming-of-age-in-the-goofy-seventies’-plot” - so why try.
The Emperor and the Assassin (B+)
Steeped in the tradition of dramatic Chinese films, this is a beautifully staged political chess game, wonderfully realized as a historical epic with extremely strong characters that is often a challenging and moving collection of great scenes, quiet decisions and heartbreaking realizations. Admirable, but but sensationalized account of the past which we take as both wonderful and slightly souring
The Emperor's New Groove (C+)
This would be one of the most fun, entertaining, goofball animated pieces in years had it not been so simple and, you know, DISNEY packaged.
Erin Brockovich (A-)
The addictively molded story of a single woman using wits to defeat an abhorrent modern enemy: the faceless insurance company. This is a beautifully shot feel-good detective story disguised as a woman's triumph (Julia Roberts is every bit as good as you'd expect), but is essentially intelligent entertainment that doesn't fade out of memory the next day.
Eye of the Beholder (D+)
What starts out gleefully deceptive - though k.d. lang's performance ought to be a dead give-away that we're going nowhere - becomes a quick fix in repetitive cinematic emptiness. Both principles seem to be looking offscreen at something (probably their paychecks) the whole time they're supposed to be acting. The story wouldn't make much sense even if it weren't meant to fantasy-driven - - which I don't think it is.
Fantasia 2000 (B+)
Though it's got wonderful sequences - it doesn't work as a whole film for the same reason most compilation films don't work: the weak links are constantly breaking the chain, forcing decisions like whether the film or the sequence pleased me? And, on an IMAX screen, I felt as if I were abusing the privilege of such a large screen, and therefore, I felt the subject matter not really fit for it’s forum.
The Filth and the Fury (B+)
Probably a rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth-type faux pas of a cliché to say that 'The Filth and the Fury' is made in the grand style of it's subject, but I’m going to say it anyway. The whole thing smacks of a cheap, cut-and-paste construction that's downright effective all over (sometimes technology and expensive equipment are just unnecessary). It's electrifying. It's exciting. It's rousing. It's obnoxious entertainment about obnoxious entertainers.
Final Destination (C)
Yes! It resembles an episode of ‘The X-Files’in its creepy, pseudo-supernatural tones, but suffers the slings and arrows of cinematic repetition. It never quite caramelizes its episodic and stringy structure. After an expert opening act, it devolves at lightning speed into yet another botched attempt to blend a realistic tone in a far-fetched premise.
Finding Forrester (C+)
Van Sant, after almost hitting the mark with To Die For, has made it a point to put out nothing but mainstream chewables and here he is returning to already well-treaded territory, without simultaneously recouping and improving on the flaws of Good Will Hunting. (Of course, after that remake of Psycho, he's lucky to be working at all). To make a long story short, if you felt Van Sant & Co. challenged Will Hunting too little in that film for it to be worth your while, you'll feel the same way about what is done with Jamal in this film.
The Five Senses (C-)
So, since its Canadien and echoes the films of Atom Egoyan, I'm supposed to like it? Great performances in an overt, almost too-obvious interpretative sense-exploitation flick. By the end, I was so sure that all the interlocking sequences were meant to bring to my mind PT Anderson, I scowled. How dare they? Get your own material, pal!
Flinstones in Viva Rock Vegas (C)
Pure Convention. Take a formula and add characters. Nice to see that its a prequel, though it is so half-baked I'm almost tempted to fault it for that. Nevertheless, Mark Addy and Stephen Baldwin make a goofy Fred and Barney. Not really like the cartoon characters - more like a drunken stand-up act mocking Hanna-Barbera's most profitable creations.
Frequency (B)
Finally, Gregory Hoblit finds a gimmicky film he can have some fun with. Though ironically, his trick ending doesn't have the punch of his 'Primal Fear' or the "duh, I knew that"slap of 'Fallen', its the fact that the rest of the film is so absorbing and so much more, I don't know, Not Manipulative than the others I've mentioned. Nice follow-up role for Jim Caveziel ('The Thin Red Line').
Get Carter (D)
Stallone wading through a re-make of a film that obviously didn't have enough promise to be remade. Why doesn't that sound ridiculous to me?
Ghost Dog : The Way of the Samurai (B-)
Though entertaining and easily recognized as a Jarmusch
film, the main character is so thin we can
see why no one can ever catch him. It's the usual film
elements that Jarmusch, lauded as the last independent filmmaker to stay
loyal to the movement, usually ignores. Enjoyment will vary with taste.
The Jarmusch comedy moments are there right alongside the aimless, slow-paced
ones.
Girlfight (C)
The bullying and often cold performance by Michele Rodriguez, who has trouble convincing us of her transformation (but not of her transference) is just one of many reminders that this quintessential indie flick, though well-organized (director Kusama confidently stages some nearly electrifying boxing bouts), flubs anything remotely intimate into laughable or insincere formula baggage.
Girl on the Bridge (A-)
In luminous black and white emerges a beautifully detached love story, intimately constructing clever, double-edged swords of amorousness and professionalism. Softly evokes French new wave style and, though deftly manipulating the metaphor knife throwing affords it, unfortunately possesses little substance beyond it’s satisfying glitz.
Gladiator (B-)
The most addicting piece of mediocre cinema you'll see this year. Its awesome like 'Titanic' and Ridley Scott's own '1492' because of how gleefully dumb it is; it purports to take its own quasi-serious take on the event picture seriously and never looks back. Russell Crowe is fast becoming the most bankable actor on the planet. This is his third most glorius role.
Gone in Sixty Seconds (C)
Nic Cage, though somewhat electric and in his "Bruckheimer-summer-thrill" groove, is lost to a film in need of more speed-edited driving vistas, more music and more overall excess - and much less attention to the hackneyed script the original film was so content to ignore.
Grass (C)
"Marijuana should be legalized", as if shouted from rooftops, condensed into a ninety-minute documentary (incidentally, it isn't much more than cheaply made, distracted propoganda lacking a coherant thesis) and made only for those with bud on the brain.
Groove (C-)
My major quarrel is with the simple fact that there aren't enough ravers raving for a film about ravers raving. A rarely electrifying peek into the episodic misadventures of John Hughes-ish stock characters hell-bent on aggrandizing the rave culture. Director Harrison would have better employed a tighter documentary-like style and some actors that had an ounce of talent.
Gun Shy (C)
As good as a film can be when its romantic subplot is based upon a flatulence joke. Platt and Neeson transcend some sort of comedic entertainment that rapidly fades as the film closes on a really, really idiotic (even for this film) note. Executive producer Bullock, believe it or not, was better in '28 Days', the more lousy of the two films.
Hamlet (C)
Director Almereyda's 'Hamlet' (less face it, tired material at this point) is a distracted mess of potent images which evoke the tone of the story but alternately, the film itself longs to find far too many clever updating methods, never really arriving at why it should update the play in the first place. At a mere two hours it's paced as if it were a full text adaptation. Hawke brooding is dead-on; the film’s brooding makes it anticlimactic.
Hanging Up (B-)
The women-brood-over-the-wrong-their-lovelife-has-afforded-them movie that I'll take over the rest. 'Hanging Up', surprisingly, handles the tragic camaraderie of divorced family life with nifty time shifting techniques and oddly deviant performances from both Meg Ryan and Walter Matthau. Worth seeing, if only because it doesn't suck as much as you'd expect.
Here on Earth (D-)
There are gratuitous slow-motion shots, non-stop whispering - even the eventual scantily photographeed sex scene; all meant to be taken at face value, plugging headlong into a lugubrious void inhabited by one terrible, really just sickeningly bad performance by Leelee Sobieski. Eventually, it drones into an egregious blueprint for how teenagers function when their hormones and emotions collide and what not. Unwatchable.
High Fidelity (A)
Beautiful honest, full of sharp wit and incisive attention to deeper realities, its both a sympathetic portrayal of material fetishists and a realistic fantasy unwilling to break from how surefire it is and how damned easily we can relate. Much more than a Cusack vehicle, this is an affecting study of romance that actually improves on some of the themes from the wonderful book it hails from.
Highlander : Endgame (F)
Apparently when they said "There can be only one" in the original Highlander, they weren't referring to the number of sequels which would be allowed to follow it. This one takes all of an hour to begin making any sense. By that time, you've begun to make fun of it in so intense a manner, turning it off would ruin your fun.
Hollow Man (D+)
The special effects, cool at first, dissipate into effete rehashes, shown to us over and over again without anything to give them meaning and seem to be a ploy for the paper doll characters. Bacon, whose character I liked, seems to be the only one enjoying the bad-natured spirit of his situation (he's undermined by the script which gives him so little to do). It wants us to believe it's got a whole mess of wild-eyed ideas reproducing at an alarming speed, but all it manages is: “Invisible man enjoys power trip at expense of morality”.
The House of Mirth (A-)
By making single minded pessimism into deeply tragic, two-fold period vibrance, Terence Davies' has created the most amazing Edith Wharton yet: sharp, full of top drawer acting and mercilessly cold (while not resorting to detail laundry listing and cheap shot turn-of-the-century villains). Gillian Anderson is marvelous.
The Idiots (B+)
The Dogme efforts teeming with improptu comedy and touching intimacy. The group of misanthropes hell-bent on "finding their inner idiot" are more than just bored lifers looking for a cheap thrill; they, like director Lars Von Trier, have their sights set on the inner pulse of life - which 'The Idiots' just nearly capturees.
Into the Deep 3-D (B)
Like watching a fish tank on acid. Or a science class filmstrip on acid. Or being in the ocean on acid. If that's your thing, climb aboard. If not - - - the 3-D may just cause you to FREAK OUT!
Jesus' Son (A-)
A fanciful pop masterpiece, 'Jesus' Son' is a rarity in motion pictures: a variation on a tired theme (the junkie- lovers -road-movie) that feels as spry and fresh as if it had invented it. All this would not be possible, however, without the spry and entirely likable performance by Billy Crudup, front runner, in my book for the 'Best Actor of the Year' award in the court of public opinion.
Joe Gould's Secret (D+)
Tucci's film does exactly what his main character is doing : trying to become part of the movement, if only long enough to write a piece about it for the New Yorker. As it becomes more and more distracted by it’s own fascination by it’s subject, Ian Holm violently twitches, overacting as much as one can possibly muster. All of the good things in the film are totally and completely marred by it’s aimlessness. A character says, at one point, “There are levels of discomfort”. No kidding.
Judy Berlin (B+)
Clearly crafted by a director who knows the observational and aesthetic value of the window and how it registers in the cinema world, where it can be appreciated it for it's human qualities as well as what it means in the face of the mysteries of life. Haunting, occasionally too meandering for any film's good - 'Judy Berlin' is often a great film even when it's not great entertainment.
Keeping the Faith (C)
A corny routine that fumbles itself inside an impossibly dull love story. Too deep when it should be light; peppy and screwball in the face of it's rare, reverent epiphanies. Norton's film's heart, firmly in the right place, and it's actors, deftly in tune with its intentions, are playing too hard for the occasion. It's a hoax of vanity : attractive actors hook us with funny antics, then drag us through flat scenes you'd only find in a movie.
The Kid (C+)
Okay, Bruce Willis' fantasy put me to sleep - but in the way that it collects some scenes that I'm not sure could gel if Steven Spielberg was directing them - and makes something sorta watchable, if goopy and overblown, out of them. Note to Bruce: stop asking to work with kids, cuz this one is fat and irritating.
La Buche (C+)
Alright, enough with the damn women-brood-over-the-wrong-their-lovelife-has-afforded-them already! 'La Buche' works because the ensemble pulls together and jarrs the audience with a hard-edge dose of buffet-style emotional elements. Haunting, Funny, Tragic: pick your descriptor and then add water.
The Legend of Bagger Vance (B)
Diluted all over by its marquee value, 'The Legend of Bagger Vance' does the impossible: it overcomes interpretation of a self-help book (repetition in this film feels like waves of warm water over your body) and the aching, almost cinematically crippling need of Robert Redford to grandstand with music and voice-over that undermine good performances by Matt Damon and especially, Will Smith. Pure joy to watch.
Little Nicky (D)
Reminds me of that moment when the popularity of the "I Didn't Do It" Boy (aka Bart Simpson) runs out and, desperately, he emits the phrase "Wuzza Wuzzel". Little Nicky is prime "Wuzza Wuzzel". As the audience watching and creating the failure of the "I Didn't Do It" Boy said, "That's what passes for entertainment these days? Wuzza Wuzzel?". I'm afraid so.
Loser (C+)
Purely idyllic teen fare that, when it isn't entertaining
is sorta below most of its target age group (which is pretty sad). Understandably,
it desires a heavy crane to tote your disbelief around with, especially
because they ask you to believe that Jason Biggs could be the hero - -
- much less carry the damn picture.
Lost Souls (D)
The big screen becomes Janusz Kaminski's testing ground
for his cinematography outings. It should be preceded with the words: I
made this film just in case Steven Spielberg ever wanted me to shoot a
horror movie for him. Unwatchable, incoherent blather.
Love & Basketball (B-)
Though it tends to be a forgettable film about the pressures
of sports on high school kids (because we confuse it with all the other
films about that boooooring subject), 'Love and Basketball' is high-powered
as a love story because its principles (Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps) and
its writer-director (Gina Prince-Blythewood) know the value of both chemistry
and likabilty, which these two characters possess in spades.
Love's Labour's Lost (A-)
Branagh's film is beautifully whimsical, expertly staged
and marvelously acted. He, as always, celebrates the beauty of the
stage with mannerism, overstated lighting and near-silent era acting from
a collection of thespians who seem to have baccalaureates in comic timing.
It's a celebration of the American musical and also, the return of a Shakespearean
titan.
Madadayo (B+)
The story of a professor beloved by his students, painted
as if the teacher were a fire his pupils gather around in search of enlightenment
through childlike wit, wisdom and song (enacted beautifully by Tatsuo Matsumura).
The master visual storyteller's swan song reminded is a concentrated and
potent drug that leaves us feeling serene and balanced.
Me, Myself & Irene (C-)
A couple of belly laughs hardly account for the boring
antics of Farrelly stock characters, some of which have been used
more than twice in their films. Hint: don't dust off a script turned down
ten years ago and expect poor Jim Carrey to foot the bill. Let's face facts
: 'Kingpin' was a fluke.
Meet the Parents (C)
Perhaps the driest comedy of the year (not in a good way,
though). Ben Stiller plays yet another embarrassingly out-of-his-league
schlep, but it is DeNiro, turning out an unlikely and thoroughly sinister
character who does the coemdic trick and makes the film somewhat more than
simply unpleasant. Writing for female characters is, given the fiance-ritual
of the title, is inappropriately weeeak.
Men of Honor (D)
If I were Carl Brashear, the gentleman
on whose life this film is the basis, I'd be so embarrassed and disappointed
by this sappy, sentimental, goopy, gloppy, painfully cinematic rendering
of my accomplisments.
Mifune (A-)
'Mifune' is the best Dogme film yet; a labor of love;
a piece that could only have come from gradual experimentation bent on
melding the craft and precision of a liberating doodle into an art form
of genreless movie magic. Not only does it nail the romantic comedy and
it's tragic strands, 'Mifune' is a film that uses reality to paint with
all the colors of the dull, grainy rainbow we call life.
Mission : Impossible 2 (C+)
Not quite a good spy thriller, not quite a good John Woo
film - 'M:I - 2' resides in a strange cinematic limbo where the villain
is boring - but it's got a cool motorcyle chase, so, you know, it's okay.
Mission to Mars (D-)
The premiere collection of clichedom, insincerety,
sluggish acting, A-list actors humiliating themselves admid dead momentum
and an ending to another movie that mysteriously contains the same characters
and which picks up where 'Mission to Mars' left off.
Mystery, Alaska (D+)
Even Maximus can't save the cliche-riddled body of Jay
Roach's misfired cinema sports hymn, justly shelfed for two years. Everything
you'd expect from a bad sports movie - excepting the genius hockey footage,
the film's savior - exists in the diagesis of this iced-over piece of rotting
cinema cheese.