A fascinating time capsule-shot in 1968, released in 1970–this is a filmed performance by three angry, talented black poets. Gylan Kain, Felipe Luciano, and David Nelson recite their rhythmic, passionate work to Afro-Cuban percussion (with occasional flute and guitar) on a rooftop and other urban ghetto settings, working out a highly politicized poetics that anticipates rap while conveying much of the essence of black-power rhetoric of the late 60s. More than a simple objective rendering of an event, this film is interspersed with cutaways and found footage in a very effective fashion by director Herbert Danska, probably best known for his 1967 jazz feature with Dick Gregory, Sweet Love, Bitter. To be shown on video; the run will extend through August 13. (Facets Multimedia Center, 1517 W. Fullerton, Thursday, August 6, 7:00 and 9:00, 281-4114) Read more
A visually impressive ‘Scope “western” from mainland China, reportedly the first, directed with flair and economy by He Ping. It may occasionally suggest Sergio Leone in aspects of its spare, confrontational plot, but its subject (Gao Wei as a young hero protecting his child fiancee from bullies) and its style of presenting action (slower and faster than what we are accustomed to in westerns) seems more Asian than European or Hollywood, which is entirely to this picture’s benefit. Whether you take it as pure Chinese or ersatz American or both, it certainly packs a wallop (1991). A Chicago premiere. (Film Center, Art Institute, Columbus Drive at Jackson, Saturday, July 25, 6:00 and 8:00, and Sunday, July 26, 4:00, 443-3737) Read more
A powerful and highly informative feature-length documentary by the Testing the Limits collective (Robyn Huff, Sandra Elgear, and David Meieran) about AIDS activism and, more specifically, the self-empowerment of people with AIDS and AIDS-related diseases. Two of the more eye-opening subjects broached here are discrimination against women with AIDS and the drug profiteering that is promoted and protected by the Bush administration. Many people tend to be scared away from documentaries of this sort because of the unpleasantness of the subject matter, but the passion and determination of the activists seen here (including quite a few, such as Vito Russo, who are no longer alive) make this inspiring rather than hopeless–if only because we see that these activists have been far from ineffectual (1990). (Music Box, Sunday through Wednesday, July 19 through 22) Read more
The first feature by the underrated writer-director Cy Endfield to attract much attention was this pungent noir item, socially corrosive in the best Endfield manner. The plot, based on a story by Craig Rice, follows the ruthless, cynical machinations of a newspaperman (Dan Duryea) taking over a small-town newspaper and boosting circulation by exploiting various aspects of a local murder case, including false accusations made against the victim’s black maid. Herbert Marshall plays a corrupt tycoon, and Howard da Silva is sensational as a cheerfully creepy hood. This isn’t quite on the same level as Endfield’s next feature, Try and Get Me, but it’s still essential viewing (1950). (Film Center, Art Institute, Columbus Drive at Jackson, Friday, July 17, 6:00, 443-3737) Read more
An efficient little thriller that imparts loads of queasiness and reasonable amounts of suspense while serving as an excellent corrective to the shameless celebrations of LA police power and brutality in Lethal Weapon 3. The LA cop in this case (effectively played by Ray Liotta) is a psycho who falls for an attractive yuppie housewife (Madeleine Stowe) after helping her and her husband (Kurt Russell) install an elaborate security system in their house. The movie runs through several changes on the different meanings that police power can have and the ways that burglar alarms can make homes resemble prisons. Neither Lewis Colick’s script nor Jonathan Kaplan’s direction is quite as streamlined as it could be, but you certainly get a run for your money; with Roger E. Mosley and Ken Lerner. (Bricktown Square, Broadway, Burnham Plaza, Golf Glen, Ford City, Esquire, Old Orchard) Read more
Extending the episodic construction of his four previous features and the principle of simultaneity underlying the last of these, Mystery Train, Jim Jarmusch creates a comic sketch film out of five taxi rides and existential encounters occurring at the same time: a teenager (Winona Ryder) driving a Hollywood casting agent (Gena Rowlands) in Los Angeles at dusk; a former circus clown from Dresden (Armin Mueller-Stahl) chauffeuring–or being chauffeured by–a streetwise hipster (Giancarlo Esposito) from Manhattan to Brooklyn, with the hipster’s sister-in-law (Rosie Perez) getting corralled en route; an angry driver from the Ivory Coast (Isaach de Bankole) picking up a self-reliant blind woman (Beatrice Dalle) in Paris; a speedy cabbie (Roberto Benigni) in Rome delivering an obscene confession to an ailing priest (Paolo Bonacelli); and a morose driver (Matti Pellonpaa) in Helsinki recounting a hard-luck story to three drunken passengers (Kari Vaananen, Saku Kuosmanen, Tomi Salmela) at dawn. Although the hints of homage (to Cassavetes, Spike Lee, Benigni himself, and the Kaurismaki brothers) usually promise more than they deliver, and the movie peaks rather early (in the second episode), Jarmusch gets a fair amount of formal play from the sameness of and/or differences between the five episodes, which helps to sustain interest in the minimalist concept. Read more
A visually impressive ‘Scope western, reportedly the first from mainland China, directed with flair and economy by He Ping. It may occasionally suggest Sergio Leone in a few aspects of its spare confrontational plot, but its subject (Gao Wei as a young hero protecting his child fiancee from bullies) and its style of presenting action (slower and faster than what we are accustomed to in western cinema) seems more Asian than European or Hollywood, which is entirely to this picture’s benefit. Whether you take it as pure Chinese or ersatz American or both, it certainly packs a wallop (1991). (JR) Read more
Shot on location in South Africa, this adventure and social allegory, adapted by the highly talented director Cy Endfield from a novel by William Mulvihill, reveals the ethics of a group of plane-crash survivors as they move through the desert wildsincluding a self-absorbed, gun-packing American (Stuart Whitman), an English divorcee (Susannah York), a failed mining engineer (Stanley Baker), and a couple of middle-aged men from eastern Europe. Brittle and acerbic in the Endfield manner, with a fine visual sweep, this is a capable genre piece with little wasted motion; it can also be read as a brutal critique of American self-interest in a third-world context. With Harry Andrews, Theodore Bikel, Nigel Davenport, Barry Lowe, and a lot of justifiably pissed-off baboons (1965). (JR) Read more
An all-star Universal Pictures monster show (1944) about a mad scientist (Boris Karloff) and a hunchback (J. Carroll Naish), not to mention the Frankenstein monster (Glenn Strange), Dracula (John Carradine), and the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.). Director Erle C. Kenton was no James Whale, but he made this fairly enjoyable; Edward T. Lowe and Curt Siodmak collaborated on the script. 71 min. (JR) Read more
A worthy if often predictable sequel (1992) to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids that once again suggests a Joe Dante project developed by othersin this case writers Thom Eberhardt, Peter Elbling, and Garry Goodrow and director Randal Kleiser (White Fang). The setting is Las Vegas and environs, where a brilliant but absentminded, gadget-happy scientist (Rick Moranis) accidentally causes his two-year-old son (played by the twins Daniel and Joshua Shalikar) to grow to a height of seven feet and upward (eventually topping out at more than 100 feet), terrorizing everyone with some fair-to-middling special effects. Credibility is strained by the safe bet that no one will get killed, even though the near deaths are so plentiful that the plot comes to resemble a tricked-up theme park ride. Still, the allegorical possibilities of infantile innocence run amok (particularly as a view of this country in relation to the remainder of the globe) are amusing and potent, and the cast (also including Marcia Strassman as the kid’s mother, Robert Oliveri as his older brother, Lloyd Bridges, John Shea, and Keri Russell) does a good-natured job in holding up its end of the bargain. (JR) Read more
Like his earlier Monsieur Hire, this 1990 feature by Patrice Leconte, written with Claude Klotz and filmed in ‘Scope, is a claustrophobic, bittersweet tale of middle-aged sexual obsession. But I enjoyed it more, perhaps because the colors and moods tend to be brighter, with more of a sense of comedy. After 40 years of dreams about marrying a hairdresser, the hero (Jean Rochefort) meets the manager of a hair salon (Anna Galiena). Peter Greenaway regular Michael Nyman composed the music; with Roland Bertin and Maurice Chevit. In French with subtitles. 84 min. (JR) Read more
A powerful and highly informative feature-length documentary by the Testing the Limits collective (Robyn Huff, Sandra Elgear, and David Meieran), about AIDS activism and, more specifically, the self-empowerment of people with AIDS and AIDS-related diseases. Two of the more eye-opening subjects broached here are discrimination against women with AIDS and drug profiteering as promoted and protected by the Bush administration. Many people tend to be scared away from documentaries of this sort because of the unpleasantness of the subject matter, but the passion and determination of the AIDS activists seen here (including quite a few, such as Vito Russo, who are no longer alive) make this inspiring rather than hopelessif only because this film shows that the major demonstrations of AIDS activists have been far from ineffectual (1990). (JR) Read more
An efficient little thriller that imparts loads of queasiness and reasonable amounts of suspense while serving as an excellent corrective to the shameless celebrations of LA police power and brutality in Lethal Weapon 3. The LA cop in this case (effectively played by Ray Liotta) is a psycho who falls for an attractive yuppie housewife (Madeleine Stowe) after helping her and her husband (Kurt Russell) install an elaborate security system in their house. The movie runs through several changes on the different meanings that police power can have and the ways that burglar alarms can make homes resemble prisons. Neither Lewis Colick’s script nor Jonathan Kaplan’s direction is quite as streamlined as it could be, but you certainly get a run for your money; with Roger E. Mosley and Ken Lerner. (JR) Read more
Slugmeisters Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren play two dead American soldiers who are still slugging it out over Vietnam 25 years later: they’ve been resurrected by a secret Pentagon project that makes them into virtually impregnable killing machines. Although the script of this bashfest (by Richard Rothstein, Christopher Leitch, and Dean Devlin) can’t exactly be accused of intelligence, there’s something satirically suggestive about the theme that justifies the dumb-ass expressions that Van Damme and Lundgren come up with. Director Roland Emmerich doesn’t always sustain the laughs, but there’s a fair amount of action bravura, scenic spectacle, and deadpan humor to go with the obligatory nonsense. With Ally Walker (a TV news reporter who becomes Van Damme’s impromptu date on an endless chase), Ed O’Ross, and, looking understandably embarrassed about the lines he’s asked to deliver, Jerry Orbach. Incidentally, there’s no connection between this film and Cy Endfield’s 1971 British melodrama with the same title. (JR) Read more
The first feature by the underrated writer-director Cy Endfield to attract much attention was this pungent noir item, socially corrosive in the best Endfield manner. The plot, based on a story by Craig Rice, follows the ruthless, cynical machinations of a newspaperman (Dan Duryea) taking over a small-town newspaper and boosting circulation by exploiting various aspects of a local murder case, including false accusations made against the victim’s black maid. Herbert Marshall plays a corrupt tycoon, and Howard da Silva is sensational as a cheerfully creepy hood. This isn’t quite on the same level as Endfield’s next feature, Try and Get Me!, but it’s still essential viewing (1950). (JR) Read more
