ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER
*****
Spain
This gaudy, gently eccentric ode to
womanhood officially certified Almodóvar's mid-career flowering and
much-cited maturity. It features one of his original muses, Cecilia Roth
in the performance of her career, as a single mother in Madrid who
witnesses her son's death on his 17th birthday, and goes to Barcelona to
find the boy's father.
The prostitutes,
transsexuals and transvestites are still present - if anything, they are
more vivid than ever before - but Almodóvar treats them with a new-found
tenderness, even a new-found peace of mind. His sense of transgression is
as vital to his worldview as ever but the exuberant, well-meaning panic
behind it is gone. In a sense, his compassion for 'the lapsed' is that
much more effective for his having bypassed caricature and exaggeration in
their portrayal and exposed them as flawed, beautiful and fundamentally
human.
wr/dir: Pedro Almodóvar
cast: Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Antonia
San Juan, Candela Peña, Penélope Cruz
AMERICAN BEAUTY
*****
USA
This certainly isn't the first time
the movies have instructed us to look beyond the pristine suburban veneer.
But witty, clever and beautifully crafted as it is, it may very well be
the most absorbing example of that awards-baiting sub-genre: the upper
middle-class family crisis.
Don't be put off by its Oscar-friendly status, however. This
is a screenplay written by the man who created TV's most idiosyncratic and
incisive drama series, and he is a master at capturing and dissecting angst
ranging from teen- to middle-aged. And for his first stab at directing for
the screen, Sam Mendes - impeccably assisted as he is by the great Conrad
L. Hall - comes up with creative, finely tuned approaches to these issues.
And the acting is a dream.
dir: Sam Mendes
wr: Alan Ball
ph: Conrad L. Hall
m: Thomas Newman
cast: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes
Bentley, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney
AMERICAN PIE
*½
USA
High school boys get horny.
Sensational in its day. Long time ago, now.
ANALYZE THIS
****
USA
A powerful gangster seeks
therapy from a meek psychiatrist.
The increasingly rare occasion when Hollywood gets a formula right, catching
several skilled comics at the top of their game.
dir:
Harold Ramis
cast: Robert de Niro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow, Joe
Viterelli
ANGELA'S ASHES
***
USA/Ireland
A pretty but uninspired adaptation of what that year became the favourite
novel of many housewives.
AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME
**
USA
More vulgar than the first, and lamer.
BEING JOHN MALKOVICH
*****
USA
A puppeteer stumbles upon a
portal that leads into John Malkovich's head.
Needless to add, a wild, unique, bold and brilliant farce.
dir: Spike Jonze
cast: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John
Malkovich
BEAU TRAVAIL
***
France
A former Foreign Legion Officer
reminisces over his days in Africa.
A celebration of men's bodies. Occasionally poetic. But often dull.
dir:
Claire Denis
cast: Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT
***
USA
Fake documentary footage
of 'three
student filmmakers who disappeared in the woods near Burkittesville,
Maryland, while shooting a documentary in October 1994.'
The most profitable film in
cinema history that spawned countless imitations and parodies - mostly
parodies - and became a
sensation. It is certainly original and occasionally skilful even, but
mostly amateurish and far from satisfying.
dir:
Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez
cast: Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams
BOWFINGER
***
USA
An enjoyable but soft, lame, meek and unconvincing wanna-be Hollywood satire.
BOYS DON'T CRY
****
USA
The life of Teena Brandon, a
cross-dressing young woman who preferred to be Brandon Teena.
Daring, direct, disturbing and devastating.
dir: Kimberley Peirce
cast: Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan
Sexton III
BRINGING OUT THE DEAD
***½
USA
48 hours in the life of a
paramedic on the verge of insanity.
A flawed but gripping return to Travis Bickle territory.
dir:
Martin Scorsese
cast: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames,
Tom Sizemore
THE CIDER HOUSE RULES
***½
USA
A sensitive young man leaves
his orphanage to see the world.
Unexpectedly poignant and heartfelt, largely thanks to the leading
man's geeky charm.
dir: Lasse Hallström
cast: Tobey Maguire, Michael Caine, Charlize Theron
COOKIE'S FORTUNE
***½
USA
Reactions to the death of an
old woman in the town of Holly Springs.
A warm, amusing and very well acted small town satire.
dir:
Robert Altman
cast: Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Chris
O'Donnell, Charles Dutton, Patricia Neal
DOGMA
***
USA
Jesus' last surviving
descendant must save humanity from two renegade angels.
A ridiculously overlong and badly directed would-be religious satire -
though there's bits that work, most memorably the friendly Jesus mascot.
dir:
Kevin Smith
cast: Linda Fiorentino, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Alan Rickman,
Salma Hayek, Chris Rock
ELECTION
*****
USA
A respected high school teacher
tries to stop an ambitious student from being elected president of the
student body.
A clever, incisive and outrageous political satire. Writing and direction
of pure genius.
dir: Alexander Payne
cast: Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick, Chris
Klein, Jessica Metzler
THE END OF THE AFFAIR
***½
UK/USA
During World War II, a public
servant's wife has an affair with a novelist. But when her lover is
injured, she swears to God that if he would live, she will end the affair.
A cool, elegant and understated study of romance and religion, with
strong performances.
dir:
Neil Jordan
cast: Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore, Stephen Rea
EYES WIDE SHUT
****½
USA/UK
After his wife admits she
almost cheated on him, a successful young doctor goes through a phase of
sexual discovery, which leads to a breakdown.
The haunting swansong of a unique master.
dir: Stanley Kubrick
cast: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack, Rade
Sherbedzija, Leelee Sobieski
FELICIA'S JOURNEY
***½
Canada/UK
A pregnant Irish girl searches
for her lover in Birmingham and meets a lonely catering manager.
Two very different films mysteriously and distractingly blended together: one
is the
poignantly affecting journey of the title, the other a chilling insight
into a disturbed mind.
dir:
Atom Egoyan
cast: Bob Hoskins, Elaine Cassidy
FIGHT CLUB
***
USA
A disillusioned man meets a
mysterious drifter, who shows him a new way of life.
An angry, violent, confronting and influential piece of existential-nihilistic
sensationalism that struck a chord with hordes of disillusioned youth. In
itself, jarringly and maddeningly uneven in tone and quality. Technical mastery and an effectively dark sense of humour
fight for
attention against overbearing voiceover narration, the insistent
hammering of an underdeveloped point and a twist that doesn't quite hold
upon repeated viewings.
dir:
David Fincher
cast: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter
GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI
***½
USA
A black hitman who goes by the
Samurai code is targeted by the mafia.
A deadpan study of an offbeat character, typical of its director.
dir: Jim Jarmusch
cast: Forest Whitaker
THE GIRL
NEXT DOOR
***½
USA
Plucky, idealistic though clearly conflicted housewife-turned-porn star
Stacy Valentine proves an endlessly fascinating subject, so it's doubly
frustrating that director Christine Fugate does things like litter the
soundtrack with songs with titles ranging from "Just Another Ordinary
Girl" and "Love at Last".
dir: Christine Fugate
THE GIRL ON THE BRIDGE
****
France
A knife thrower hires a
suicidal girl as his human target for a circus show.
An arresting, unconventional, rejuvenating love story, beautifully lensed
in black-and-white.
dir: Patrice Leconte
cast: Vanessa Paradis, Daniel Auteuil
GO
****
USA
A story of sex, drugs and
overgrown teenagers, told from three different perspectives.
Frantic and exhilarating ride that never lets up. By the end, you're
completely worn out yet still begging for more.
dir: Doug Liman
cast: Sarah Polley, Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr, Katie Holmes,
Desmond Askew, Nathan Bexton, Robert Peters
THE GREEN MILE
*½
USA
Airacles start to occur at
death row.
A simple-minded, contrived, derivative and shamelessly manipulative Shawshank wanna-be. The fact
that it wants to be Shawshank in the first place is a dead giveaway.
dir:
Michael Darabont
cast: Tom Hanks, Michael Clark Duncan,
David Morse
THE INSIDER
***½
USA
The story of Jeffrey Wigand, a
former tobacco executive, who went on "60 Minutes" to reveal the
harmful effects of tobacco.
An intelligent and compelling thriller is let down by Pacino fanatically
chewing scenery for no good reason. Fittingly, Crowe got the nomination in the end.
dir:
Michael Mann
cast: Russell Crowe, Al Pacino, Christopher Plummer
THE IRON GIANT
***½
USA
In the 50s, boy becomes friends
with a robot from outer space.
An intelligent and insightful cartoon feature revisiting E.T. ground but with
an added 50s paranoia subtext.
dir:
Brad Bird
voices of: Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr, Vin Diesel
|
UNE LIAISON PORNOGRAPHIQUE
***½
France
Two strangers meet for sex
through an advertisement in a porn magazine.
An unusually mature and perceptive exploration of sex.
dir:
Frederique Fonteyne
cast: Nathalie Baye, Sergi Lopez
LIMBO
***
USA
In the Southeastern islands of Alaska, the lives
of a group of troubled people intertwine.
Odd drama with an unnecessary shift in tone half-way that turns it into a TV-level
movie and a pretentious, inappropriate open ending.
dir:
John Sayles
cast: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, David Strathairn,
Vanessa Martinez, Herminío Ramos, Kris Kristofferson
MAGNOLIA
*****
USA
The lives of nine miserable
individuals during one fateful day.
A bold, blackly funny, often harrowing and ultimately devastating study
of loneliness.
dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
cast: John C. Reilly, Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne
Moore, Melora Walters, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William
H. Macy, Jeremy Blackman
THE MATRIX
**½
USA
A computer hacker finds out
reality is fake.
An influential and much-imitated sci-fi epic, with spectacular shots and
sequences, but an unfortunate tendency to take its plot as seriously as
its perennially overwhelmed star does. The dialogue and performances are
excruciating.
dir:
Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo
Weaving
MR. DEATH: THE RISE AND FALL OF
FRED A. LEUCHTER, JR.
****
USA
Erroll Morris holds up yet
another funny little man as a pointer to many things wrong with humanity,
particularly capital punishment and the Holocaust. It's difficult to take
at times - what with all the graphic descriptions of various executions -
but there's always the sense of a greater force at work.
dir:
Errol Morris
NOT ONE LESS
***½
China
In an isolated mountain
village, a 13-year-old girl is left to take care of the primary school.
A sentimental, humanist parable, winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin
Film Festival.
dir:
Zhang Yimou
cast: Wei, Minzhi, Zhang Huike, Tian Zhenda, Gao Enman, Sun
Zhimei, Feng Yuying
OFFICE
SPACE
**
USA
An ode to scared, perennially angsty faintly spoiled American twenty-somethings
in desperate search of an excuse to not take on adult responsibility.
wr/dir: Mike Judge
cast: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Stephen Root, Gary Cole,
David Herman, Ajay Naidu, Richard Riehle, Diedrich Bader, Alexandra
Wentworth
ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER
****
USA
A documentary on the Israeli hostage situation during the 1972 Munich
Olympics.
The crafting is a tad misguided,
with the score and voiceover not just redundant, but distracting even. And
the surviving Palestinian that is interviewed is asked all the wrong
questions. But the event in itself ensures the film is consistently
searing and terrifying and carries great emotional impact.
dir: Kevin Macdonald
ONEGIN
***½
UK
A bitter aristocrat dismisses
the love of a passionate young girl, and later regrets it.
An elegantly presented adaptation of a Russian classic.
dir: Martha Fiennes
cast: Ralph Fiennes, Liv Tyler
ROMANCE
**
France
A frustrated schoolteacher
seeks unorthodox sexual fulfillment.
A provocative, self-reflexive dissection of sex, pointedly concentrating on the
female perspective. Though mostly just lazy and pretentious.
dir: Catherine Breillat
cast: Caroline Ducey, Sagamore Stévenin, François Berléand,
Rocco Siffredi
ROSETTA
****
France/Belgium
An under-privileged young woman
goes to extremes to find and retain a job.
A squalid, intense and gripping verité account of a desperate case, with
a searing central performance. Winner of the Palme
d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, where Dequenne was also named Best Actress.
dir: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
cast: Emilie Dequenne, Fabrizio Rongione, Anne Yernaux,
Olivier Gourmet
THE SIXTH SENSE
***½
USA
A troubled child psychologist
must deal with a boy who communicates with the dead.
Word-of-mouth turned this ambitious horror piece into a spectacular
sleeper hit and a cultural zeitgeist. Although constantly flirting with
self-importance, it generally manages to sustain its creepy and haunting
tone right down to the final notorious twist.
dir: M. Night Shyamalan
cast: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette
SLEEPY HOLLOW
***
USA
A young constable is sent to an
isolated village to research a series of murders reportedly committed by a
headless horseman.
An occasionally effective but generally disappointing horror film with
excellent production design but weak story development.
dir: Tim Burton
cast: Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci
SOUTH PARK: BIGGER LONGER AND
UNCUT
****½
USA
Four young boys watch an
R-rated film from Canada, so their outraged parents pressure the
government into waging a war against the country.
A daring, witty, outrageous and spot-on big screen adaptation of a
subversive and consistently brilliant TV series.
dir:
Trey Parker
voices of: Trey Parker, Matt Stone
THE STRAIGHT STORY
***½
USA
A 73-year-old old man travels across
America on a lawnmower to reconcile with his estranged and ailing brother.
Patient and understated journey through an America symbolic the
opposite of everything Lynch had thus far stood for.
dir:
David Lynch
cast: Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Harry Dean Stanton
SUNSHINE
***½
Germany/Austria/Canada/Hungary
The fate of a Hungarian Jewish
family throughout the 20th century.
A polished, predictable but consistently absorbing saga.
dir: István Szábo
cast: Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Jennifer Ehle, Rachel
Weisz, Deborah Unger SUPERSTAR
***
USA
Molly Shannon plays a high school outcast who french-kisses things like
trees and stop signs, has a secret crush on the football team captain
(played by Will Ferrell, no less) and in order to win him becomes
determined to win the school's upcoming talent competition. Like every SNL-alumnus-vehicle,
this one is broad, crass and hit-and-miss. That it hits as often as it
does has everything to do with Shannon's blistering conviction.
dir: Bruce McCulloch
cast: Molly Shannon, Will Ferrell, Elaine Hendrix, Harlan Williams SWEET
AND LOWDOWN
****
USA
The life of fictional jazz
guitarist Emmett Ray.
A warm, witty and disturbingly affecting return to form. A glowing and
nostalgic re-creation of an era, with irresistible performances.
dir: Woody Allen
cast: Sean Penn, Samantha Morton, Uma Thurman THE
TALENTED MR. RIPLEY
***½
USA
Ripley goes to Venice to
retrieve a spoiled millionaire playboy.
A chilling, compelling, elegant and well-acted adaptation,
burrowing into a disturbed mind without much compromise.
dir: Anthony Minghella
cast: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip
Seymour Hoffman, Jack Davenport
TARZAN
***
USA
An
orphan is raised by gorillas.
An unusually violent and death-laden Disney feature. Still generally forgettable, despite gorgeously detailed animation.
dir: Chris Buck, Kevin Lima
voices of: Tony Goldwyn, Minnie Driver, Brian Blessed, Glenn
Close, Nigel Hawthorne, Lance Henriksen
THREE KINGS
*****
USA
In the aftermath of the Gulf
War, four soldiers set out to steal gold that was stolen from Kuwait.
Offbeat, witty, unpredictable, pitch black
comedy.
dir: David O. Russell
cast: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze, Nora Dunn
TITUS
***½
USA
The Queen of Goths swears
revenge on the Roman general that slaughters her son.
A heavily post-modernized filming of Shakespeare's most gruesome play.
Some of the touches are unfortunate, but most are effective.
dir:
Julie Taymor
cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, Harry
Lennix, Angus Macfayden, Laura Fraser, Matthew Rhys, Jonathan Rhys Meyers,
Colm Feore, James Frain, Geraldine McEwan
TOPSY-TURVY
***
UK
The making of Gilbert &
Sullivan's "The Mikado".
A well-acted but overlong, uninvolving biopic.
dir: Mike Leigh
cast: Jim Broadbent, Allan Corduner
TOY STORY 2
****½
USA
Woody is stolen by a toy
collector, so Buzz & Co. go to
rescue him.
A wonderful improvement on an influential original, telling its story in comic vignettes, each one perfectly timed, memorable and
outrageous.
dir:
Ash Brannon, John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich
voices of: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer,
Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger
TWIN FALLS IDAHO
***½
USA
A prostitute befriends a pair
of Siamese twins, one of whom is ailing, in a seedy hotel.
An intelligent and heartfelt indie that is refreshingly
non-self-conscious, leaving its quirkier aspects in the periphery and
concentrating on the heart and mind instead.
dir: Michael Polish
cast: Mark Polish, Michael Polish, Michele Hicks, Lesley Ann Warren
VÉNUS BEAUTÉ
***½
France
The love lives of employees of
a beauty parlor.
Unremarkable but warm and entertaining romantic comedy. Comes off as
the standard French product, which demonstrates a pretty high standard.
dir:
Tonie Marshall
cast: Nathalie Baye, Bulle Ogier, Samuel Le Bihan, Jacques
Bonnaffé, Mathilde Seigner, Audrey Tautou
THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
****
USA
Memories of four mysterious
teenage sisters during a fateful summer in the 70s.
A hypnotic, haunting and affecting meditiation on innocence and its loss, with a
striking young star.
dir: Sofia Coppola
cast: Kirsten Dunst, James Woods, Kathleen Turner THE
WAR ZONE
***½
Italy/UK
An alienated 15 year old boy
finds out that his father has sexual relations with his sister.
Thoughtful and gripping, with sensational performances.
dir: Tim Roth
cast: Ray Winstone, Freddie Cunliffe, Lara Belmont, Tilda
Swinton
|