A so-so romantic comedy about people working on a TV talk show in Manhattan, simultaneously enlivened and made hard to take by the cast. The problem, at least for me, is that the leads (Ashley Judd, Hugh Jackman, and Greg Kinnear) are so busy being cute that sometimes they forget to act like human beings, while the secondary female cast is treated rather cruelly, presumably for not being as cute as the leads. These are common (albeit creepy) limitations of silly Hollywood comedies of this kind, and if you haven’t minded them elsewhere you probably won’t object to them here. Adapted by Elizabeth Chandler from Laura Zigman’s novel Animal Husbandry and directed by Tony Goldwyn (A Walk on the Moon); with Marisa Tomei and Ellen Barkin. 97 min. (JR) Read more
A watchable thriller, about two abused gangsters’ molls (Rachel Weisz and Susan Lynch) in Glasgow who join forces to save their own skins. It isn’t exactly Thelma & Louise, but it periodically recalls that picture, and arguably goes some distance beyond it in making virtually all its male characters apart from a likable dog named Pluto brutal scumbags who deserve everything they get. Writer and coproducer Simon Donald offers an efficient plot, and director Bill Eagles knows how to pace the actors and action while delivering it. With Tom Mannion, Maurice Roeves, and Iain Glen. 86 min. (JR) Read more
Another prowar movie to go with Saving Private Ryan (which it visibly imitates), safely set during World War IIspecifically at the battle of Stalingradthough it seems perfectly willing to make us feel better about killing Arabs in the present. (Maybe to show that it has its heart in the right place, it ends like Reds in a hospital.) Jude Law is a Soviet sharpshooter, English actors plays most of the other Russians (including Bob Hoskins, camping like crazy as Nikita Khrushchev), and Ed Harris is a Nazi sharpshooter. There’s never much risk of reality intrudingjust a lot of histrionic James Horner music (fortunately only semiaudible under the gunfire) and plenty of designer stubble on the soldiers’ faces. The director delivering these time-tested goods is Jean-Jacques Annaud, who with Alain Godard adapted William Craig’s book. The actorswho also include Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, and Ron Perlman outfitted with a jaw full of fillingsdo a pretty good job, though not good enough to sustain 133 minutes. (JR) Read more
A first-rate Hollywood entertainment–at least if one can accept the schizophrenia of combining a cop/buddy action thriller with an angry satire about the shamelessness of the media. I didn’t much care for writer-director John Herzfeld’s previous outing, 2 Days in the Valley (1996), and I suppose it could be argued that the shotgun marriage he performs here between somewhat contradictory genres smacks of cynical contrivance. But the jabs against various kinds of TV excess work much better for me than the diatribes of Network a quarter of a century ago–perhaps because they’re less self-righteous and more conducive to reflection. (The title is derived from Andy Warhol’s line about fame.) And some of the action sequences–notably a chase on foot through busy Manhattan traffic and a couple caught in a burning apartment–work surprisingly well. The plot pits a media-friendly cop (Robert De Niro) and a younger fire marshal (Edward Burns) against a newly arrived Czech murderer, who’s figured out ways to turn the absurdities of this country’s laws and media to his advantage, and his dorky Russian sidekick, a film freak who compulsively videotapes everything. The adroit storytelling keeps one alert throughout the movie’s two hours. Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, City North 14, Ford City, Gardens, Golf Glen, Lawndale, Lincoln Village, McClurg Court, Norridge, North Riverside, 62nd & Western, Three Penny. Read more
Suzhou River
**
Directed and written by Lou Ye
With Zhou Xun, Jia Hongsheng, Hua Zhongkai, Yao Anlian, and Nai An.
Suzhou River, a first feature playing this week at Facets Multimedia Center, is an affecting, romantic, and fascinating mood piece from China. It’s been getting a bit of flak from critics who call it a rip-off of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, but I don’t think that’s an accurate description. The plot of Vertigo is clearly a main source of writer-director Lou Ye’s inspiration, and his score contains periodic allusions to Bernard Herrmann’s brand of romantic longing. But there are clear differences in the characters, settings, and milieus.
Vertigo gave us James Stewart as a retired cop in sleek San Francisco falling for an upper-crust beauty (Kim Novak) he’s been hired to tail, who falls mysteriously to her death; he then finds her resurrected as a shop girl (Kim Novak again), whom he tries to transform into the woman he loved. Suzhou River, set alongside a large dirty river in Shanghai, is initially about a young, nameless videographer–the narrator of the story–who becomes involved with Meimei (Zhou Xun), a go-go dancer who swims underwater dressed as a mermaid for the amusement of customers in a sleazy tavern. Read more
A first-rate Hollywood entertainmentat least if one can accept the schizophrenia of combining a cop/buddy action thriller with an angry satire about the shamelessness of the media. I didn’t much care for writer-director John Herzfeld’s previous outing, 2 Days in the Valley (1996), and I suppose it could be argued that the shotgun marriage he performs here between somewhat contradictory genres smacks of cynical contrivance. But the jabs against various kinds of TV excess work much better for me than the diatribes of Network a quarter of a century agoperhaps because they’re less self-righteous and more conducive to reflection. (The title is derived from Andy Warhol’s line about fame.) And some of the action sequencesnotably a chase on foot through busy Manhattan traffic and a couple caught in a burning apartmentwork surprisingly well. The plot pits a media-friendly cop (Robert De Niro) and a younger fire marshal (Edward Burns) against a newly arrived Czech murderer, who’s figured out ways to turn the absurdities of this country’s laws and media to his advantage, and his dorky Russian sidekick, a film freak who compulsively videotapes everything. The adroit storytelling keeps one alert throughout the movie’s two hours. (JR) Read more
A collaboration between the living Steven Spielberg and the late Stanley Kubrick seems appropriate to a project that reflects profoundly on the differences between life and nonlife. Kubrick started this picture and came up with the idea that Spielberg should direct it, and after inheriting a 90-page treatment Kubrick had prepared with Ian Watson and 600 drawings he’d done with Chris Baker, Spielberg finished it in so much his own manner that it may be his most personal film, as well as his most thoughtful. It might make you cry; it’s just as likely to give you the creepswhich is as it should be. This is a movie people will be arguing about for many years to come (2001). With Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, and William Hurt. PG-13, 145 min. (JR) Read more
Angelina Jolie stars as a superwoman, in a 2001 movie based on a video game that’s unafraid to look absurd but lacks the self-conviction needed to come off as camp. This bears most of the earmarks of Indiana Jones movies but few of the thrills, apart from some nifty set design. It’s refreshing that the title adventuress isn’t saddled with a romantic interest, but the character has so little personality of any kind that the gains are limited. (And the characters set up to be her domestic fixtureswith shades of Batman and Star Wars and including a nerdy Brit version of Gyro Gearlooseseem more obligatory than lovable.) Simon West directed a screenplay by Patrick Massett and John Zinman. With Jon Voight, Iain Glen, Noah Taylor, and Daniel Craig. 105 min. (JR) Read more
Though I still like John Huston’s 1952 movie with the same title a bit more, this steamroller by Baz Luhrmann about 1899 Paris and 2001 pop TVa definite improvement over the repulsive Strictly Ballroomis diverting, energetic, and even reasonably satisfying, so long as you aren’t looking for a real musical to take its place. What it mainly reminded me of were some of Ken Russell’s better romps in the 70s (The Devils, The Music Lovers, and, best of all, Savage Messiah), with roughly the same amount of feeling, nerve, and postmodernist extravagance (though they weren’t calling it postmodernism back then). The central mythical archetypesthe cabaret star and courtesan (Nicole Kidman), the evil duke she’s promised to, and the penniless writer (Ewan McGregor) she’s in love withare handled with feeling and panache. Craig Pearce collaborated with Luhrmann on the script. PG-13, 126 min. (JR) Read more
This 1965 allegory by writer-director Tadeusz Konwicki, which hasn’t been shown in the U.S. for several decades, might be called terminally Polish, but that doesn’t prevent it from also suggesting at times Tennessee Williams (Orpheus Descending, filmed as The Fugitive Kind) and William Inge (Picnic). Perhaps the best reason for seeing it is actor Zbigniew Cybulski (1927-’67), who’s being honored by the Chicago Cultural Center this week with screenings of three exceptional black-and-white features, including Ashes and Diamonds and The Saragossa Manuscript (see separate listings). All three are worth seeing, but this is the one in which Cybulski’s talent and black-leather-and-shades mystique really shine. His character hops off a train to revisit a small village, where he has various skirmishes with the locals, flirts with the daughter of a former lover, has creepy nightmares connected to World War II, appears to cure a couple of ailing children like a faith healer, and attends a climactic “anniversary” party where he leads everyone in an exceptionally weird dance (which gives the movie its title) before some outsiders turn up suggesting he may not be who he seems. (We’re not even sure what his name is.) Cybulski’s vibrancy makes this sexy movie a striking theatrical event that speaks volumes — even when we aren’t quite sure what’s going on. Read more
Deborah Foreman plays a joker who invites college friends to spend a weekend in her family’s mansion on a remote island, where each of them gets killed. This comic scare show (1986, 88 min.), directed by Fred Walton and shot in Panavision, is almost certainly panned and scanned here, so expect to do without a third of the image. (JR) Read more
If you can get past all the commercial safeguards (such as more happy endings than you can shake a stick at), this is a notable first feature from novelist, lawyer, stand-up comic, and now director and screenwriter Gary Hardwicka comedy about four young black men who are friends and how they relate to women and each other. The psychological and psychoanalytical probes into sexual and emotional problems keep this reasonably lively, and the actors respond well to the material. With Morris Chestnut, D.L. Hughley, Bill Bellamy, Shemar More, Tamala Jones, and Gabrielle Union. 103 min. (JR) Read more
If I were gay, the text of David Drake’s one-man show would probably make me cringe with its boilerplate history of gay lib and gay pride. But as performed by Drake before a live audience, directed by Tom Kirkman, and edited by Caitlin Dixon, it’s sufficiently commanding and inventive to overcome its cookie-cutter treatment of gay individualsat least part of the time. 81 min. (JR) Read more
This dry Brazilian comedy, vaguely inspired by a TV documentary, concerns a woman (Regina Case) who spends ten years living pretty happily in a rural house with her three husbands (Lima Duarte, Stenio Garcia, and Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos). Despite a certain amount of folkloric hokum, the film works quite well: it manages to suggest the magical realist tradition without actually belonging to it, uses gorgeous ‘Scope framing to take full advantage of the landscapes of northeastern Brazil, and despite explaining almost nothing psychologically makes everything fall into place with a certain logic. This is only the second feature of Andrucha Waddington, but he seems so relaxed around his characters that we’re encouraged to go along with the dreamy drift of their lives. Elena Soarez wrote the purposeful and mysterious script. 107 min. (JR) Read more
Actress and screenwriter Agnes Jaoui makes her directorial debut with this poignant 2000 comedy about the difficulties of getting beyond one’s own social circle. The film’s main triumph is Jean-Pierre Bacri’s wonderfully touching and delicately shaded performance as a married businessman living in a suburb of Rouen who becomes infatuated with his English tutor (Anne Alvaro), a stage actress turning 40 who lives in a world very different from his. Jaoui herself plays a waitress-barmaid who moonlights as a hash dealer and becomes involved with the businessman’s bodyguard. She’s quite sensitive as a director of actors, though the fact that she cites Woody Allen as a model shows how much she thinks as a writer-performer. The script, by her and Bacri, is one in a series of collaborations that includes Cedric Klapisch’s Un air de famille and Alain Resnais’ Same Old Song. In French with subtitles. 112 min. (JR) Read more
