This 94-minute Imax documentary by Stephen Low (1991) has the same nonaesthetic features of other films in this formatmost notably a TV-like lack of precise composition necessitated by the curved screenbut its subject, the risky Canadian-American-Russian expedition to pick over the wreckage of the Titanic, has an inherent fascination and haunted poetry that triumphs over the sometimes hokey, often trumped-up presentation; at times the film becomes a kind of undersea 2001. Oddly, the crew participants are encouraged to relate to the camera like actors and some of the camera angles suggest a fiction film (significantly, storyboards are alluded to in the final credits). But a judicious combination of period photographs (some genuine, some composite), a contemporary interview with one of the few living Titanic survivors, and views of the ship’s remnants two and a half miles below the ocean’s surface give this the curious, paradoxical feel of a scientific ghost film. (JR) Read more
An excellent one-hour documentary (1987) that charts the pivotal year in the career of Elvis Presley when he went from being an obscure rockabilly/blues performer who drove a truck to a national icon with several gold records to his credit. Armed with fascinating archival footage and rare still photographs, Alan and Susan Raymond, who originally made this for cable, do a persuasive job of suggesting that, contrary to most versions of the all-American success myth, Elvis’s artistic freedom and the authenticity of his relationship with his audience dwindled as he became more and more rich and famous. Indeed, the shape and direction of his career as a whole can be discerned during his first year as a starwhen he went from performing at southern dances to singing Hound Dog in a tux to a basset hound in a top hat on Steve Allen’s TV show. (JR) Read more
Released in 1975, near the end of Arthur Penn’s most productive period (which began in 1967 with Bonnie and Clyde), this haunting psychological thriller ambitiously sets out to unpack post-Watergate burnout in American life. Gene Hackman plays an LA detective tracking a runaway teenager (Melanie Griffith in her screen debut) to the Florida Keys while evading various problems of his own involving his father and his wife. The labyrinthine mystery plot and pessimistic mood suggest Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald, and like them screenwriter Alan Sharp has more than conventional mystery mechanics on his mind. One of Penn’s best features; his direction of actors is sensitive and purposeful throughout. With Jennifer Warren, Susan Clark, Edward Binns, Harris Yulin, Kenneth Mars, and James Woods. 95 min. (JR) Read more
I haven’t read Louisa May Alcott’s novel or seen any of the previous screen adaptations, so what I like so much about Gillian Armstrong’s lovely 1994 version, adapted by Robin Swicord, is basically what it says and does on its own terms. Set mainly in Concord, Massachusetts, during the Civil War, and focusing on a mother (Susan Sarandon) and four daughters (Winona Ryder, Trini Alvarado, Claire Danes, and Kirsten Dunst/Samantha Mathis), the film has a fresh and imaginative feel for period detail that the talented castwhich also features Gabriel Byrne, Christian Bale, Eric Stoltz, John Neville, and Mary Wickesobviously benefits from. The craft, intelligence, storytelling ability, and feeling for character that Armstrong previously showed in My Brilliant Career and The Last Days of Chez Nous are revealed again with the magical creation of this film’s universe. Armstrong, as an Australian, brings an outsider’s perspective to the material, revealing facets and nuances of the American past that natives might be less likely to discover. Sentimental, romantic, and nostalgic in spots, this movie still has a tough clearheadedness that isn’t usually found in commercial movies, especially those by male directors (The Age of Innocence included); maybe if you went back to The Magnificent Ambersons, you’d find something closer. Read more
This epic, compulsively watchable 170-minute documentary (1994), about two Chicago inner-city basketball whizzes, William Gates and Arthur Agee, striving to land the right grades and scholarships to make it to the big time (and stay there), is a heady dose of the American dream and the American nightmare combineda numbing investigation of how one point on an exam or one basket or turnover in a game can make all the difference in a family’s fortunes. It’s a depressing (albeit energizing) saga that often feels like a noncomic application of the worldview of Preston Sturges. Chicago filmmakers Steve James, Frederick Marx, and Peter Gilbert, with Kartemquin Films and Minnesota’s KCTA TV, spent seven years tracking the lives and careers of their two principals, and there’s little doubt that the presence of the camera and filmmakers becomes part of the unfolding story (a fact that the movie might have acknowledged a little more). (JR) Read more
An amiable, partially contrived documentary by Mika Kaurismaki (1994) in which Jim Jarmusch joins Sam Fuller as Fuller returns to a Brazilian rain forest where 40 years earlier he scouted locations and shot 16-millimeter footage for a Hollywood adventure story that was never made. What keeps this fun and watchable are Fuller and Jarmusch holding forth for the camera and each other, but the settings and the Karaja Indians they visit hold plenty of fascination as well. Winner of the international critics’ award at the Berlin film festival. Music Box, Saturday and Sunday, April 1 and 2. Read more
Jerky in both senses of the term, this slapdash comedy follows the efforts of the half-wit son (Chris Farley) of a midwestern auto parts manufacturer (Brian Dennehy) to follow in his father’s footsteps after the old man kicks off on his wedding day. (Bo Derek is the woman he’s just married, and she’s up to no good.) Directed by Peter Segal (Naked Gun 331/3: The Final Insult) from a desperately unfunny script by Bonnie and Terry Turner, this has a cheesy, unreal plot that vaguely suggests an overhauled Roger & Me with a happy ending. David Spade costars and Lorne Michaels, who should hang his head in shame, produced. (JR) Read more
Although most of the elements are familiar and virtually all of the characters are unpleasant, this is a better than average melodrama–mainly because of the volcanic power of Kathy Bates in the title role, but also because of some attractive cinematography by Gabriel Beristain and disciplined script work by Tony Gilroy in adapting a Stephen King novel. (William Goldman, credited as a consultant, likely lent a hand to the writing as well.) Centered on a remote island off the coast of Maine and teeming with regional accents, the plot involves a bitter, hard-nosed maid (Bates) who’s suspected of murdering her wealthy longtime employer. Her long-alienated daughter (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a neurotic and ambitious New York journalist, turns up to reluctantly help her out. The story is full of achronological flashbacks, delayed revelations, bitter recriminations, and long-term grudges, but Bates gives it all more flavor and substance than the conventions require, and the other cast members–including Christopher Plummer, David Strathairn, John C. Reilly, Eric Bogosian, and Judy Parfitt–do their best with relatively limited parts. Taylor Hackford directed, with a fair amount of panache. Ford City, Biograph, Bricktown Square, Gardens, Lincoln Village, Esquire. Read more
This 1994 feature about a friendship between two intellectual writers in the 50s and 60s doesn’t qualify as writer-director Carlos Reichenbach’s best work, but it’s an excellent introduction to one of the most interesting and creative Brazilian filmmakers around. His artistic interests and surreal imagination evoke Raul Ruiz as well as the French New Wave. Three Penny, Saturday and Monday, March 25 and 27, 8:45.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Still. Read more
This fumbling and formulaic semiremake of The Private War of Major Benson (1955) is basically just an excuse to let comic Damon Wayansfunctioning here as cowriter and executive producer as well as starstrut his stuff. But he’s strutting in a void, and not even two gold teeth will light his way. The initial premise, good for a couple of laughs at most, is that he’s a professional marine consumed with blood lust who can’t adjust to his honorable discharge and a new job training boys in a Virginia prep school’s junior ROTC; after that, it’s whatever strikes Wayans’s and the filmmakers’ fancies from one moment to the next. That includes some threadbare noncomic material about bonding with the recruits. Directed by Nick Castle and cowritten by Dean Lorey and Gary Rosen; with Karyn Parsons, Michael Ironside, and Albert Hall, and a strained cameo by William Hickey. (JR) Read more
Although most of the elements are familiar and virtually all of the characters are unpleasant, this is a better than average melodramamainly because of the volcanic power of Kathy Bates in the title role, but also because of some attractive cinematography by Gabriel Beristain and disciplined script work by Tony Gilroy in adapting a Stephen King novel. (William Goldman, credited as a consultant, likely lent a hand to the writing as well.) Centered on a remote island off the coast of Maine teeming with regional accents, the plot involves a bitter, hard-nosed maid (Bates) who’s suspected of murdering her wealthy longtime employer. Her long-alienated daughter (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a neurotic and ambitious New York journalist, reluctantly turns up to help her out. The story is full of achronological flashbacks, delayed revelations, bitter recriminations, and long-term grudges, but Bates gives them all more flavor and substance than the conventions require, and the other cast membersincluding Christopher Plummer, David Strathairn, John C. Reilly, Eric Bogosian, and Judy Parfittdo their best with relatively limited parts. Taylor Hackford directed, with a fair amount of panache. (JR) Read more
I’ve always assumed it would be impossible to photograph such a glorious and mysterious sight as the northern lights, but Canadian experimental filmmaker Peter Mettler has done it. His fascinating, beautiful, and evocative documentary feature (1994) about his trip to the Canadian arctic is a mixture of science and poetry that indirectly recalls Michael Snow’s La region centrale, though it’s much easier to watch. Mettler and the Chicago-based composer of his score, Jim O’Rourke, will be present for a discussion, and O’Rourke will give a concert afterward. Film Center, Art Institute, Columbus Drive at Jackson, Sunday, March 19, 7:00, 443-3737.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Still. Read more
A dynamite program. Happiness is the most famous and probably best film by the late, neglected Russian pioneer Alexander Medvedkin, “the last bolshevik” in Chris Marker’s recent video of that title (see separate listing). This late silent film (1934) with a music track was only recently made available in this country on video (which is unfortunately the only way Chicago Filmmakers can show it, though it’s a good transfer). It’s a hilarious and daring surrealist masterpiece that combines some of the pie-eyed “magical realism” of a Gogol with what might be described as a mordant communist folk wisdom. On the same bill, one of Marker’s earliest essay films, Letter From Siberia (1957), which provides an excellent introduction to his thoughtful, ironic style. Each picture is about an hour long; both are rarely screened and well worth seeing. Kino-Eye Cinema at Chicago Filmmakers, 1543 W. Division, Saturday, March 18, 8:00, 384-5533. Read more
Three female friends grow up in a small town in Ireland in the mid-50s and attend college in Dublin in this nostalgic soap opera that’s vaguely evocative of Peyton Place, though generally less memorable. Adapted by Andrew Davies from Maeve Binchy’s novel and directed by Pat O’Connor; with Chris O’Donnell, Minnie Driver, Geraldine O’Rawe, Saffron Burrows, Alan Cummings, and Colin Firth. (JR) Read more
A charmless, mirthless, and juiceless fantasy in ‘Scope from Disney, enlivened only by its natural locations. A spiteful 12-year-old farm boy in the American west of 1905 heaps scorn on his father’s tall tales about Pecos Bill until he finds himself transported to a universe where Pecos Bill and other folk heroesPaul Bunyan (inexplicably got up to resemble a Mongolian rabbi), John Henry, and Calamity Janeactually exist and help him fight off the greedy developers who want to sell his father’s farm. Directed by Jeremiah Chechik from a script by Steven Blom and Robert Rodat; with Nick Stahl, Patrick Swayze (as Pecos Bill), and Oliver Platt. (JR) Read more
