Tom Arnold, whose career has fizzled since he appeared in True Lies, cowrote and stars in this comedy about an actor whose career has fizzled since he appeared in True Lies. His suicide attempt is interrupted when his agent (Henry Winkler) brings him a million-dollar offer to write and costar in a True Lies sequel, but the movie’s a vanity project bankrolled by a billionaire producer (Joe Mantegna) starring the producer’s son (Eric Gores), who has cerebral palsy, and intended to premiere at the kid’s 18th birthday party. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis must have a soft spot for the disabled kids of billionaires, because both have cameos near the end of this vulgar and dreadfully dopey enterprise; more impressively savvy is director Penelope Spheeris, who plays herself directing the movie-within-a-movie and manages to seem superfluous in both roles. With Richard Edson and Linda Hamilton. PG-13, 93 min. (JR) Read more
A live-action version of the MTV animated series, set in the postapocalyptic year 2415. I couldn’t get very involved in the plot, but this is fairly enjoyable camp, and the snazzy visual design includes sets that evoke Antonio Gaudi and southern California bunker architecture. There’s also the grand spectacle of Charlize Theron in a cat suit as the title character, tangling with all sorts of other divas (male and female, black and white) while mussing up her perfect hairdo only slightly toward the end. Karyn Kusama (Girlfight) directed; with Marton Csokas, Sophie Okonedo, Frances McDormand, and Pete Postlethwaite (in the Alec Guinness part). PG-13, 93 min. (JR) Read more
French film director (and philosophy professor) Eugene Green hails from New York, but you’d never guess it from the gentle Bressonian drifts of his style and the curious ways his actors address the camera. In his three features to date he’s moved from a Flaubert story (Every Night, 2001) to a medieval fairy tale (The Living World, 2003) to this tale (2004) set around the title bridge in Paris, interweaving the stories of a drifting, suicidal literature student (Adrian Michaux) and a classically trained singer (Natasha Regnier). The mannerist mood verges on deadpan parody, yet this is far from cynical or unfelt, and the music is potent. With Denis Podalydes and Olivier Gourmet. In French with subtitles. 126 min. (JR) Read more
This first feature by film and jazz critic Thierry Jousse, a former editor of Cahiers du Cinema, seems as obsessed with sound as its hero, a composer and performer of electronic music (Laurent Lucas) who’s preparing an album with a musician friend (Noel Akchot Read more
