DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN. This mockumentary tells of what happens when all of California's Hispanics vanish at once. People wake up to find that their husbands, gardeners, baby sitters, stevedores, mechanics, doctors and business partners have disappeared without trace. Interviews and newscasts follow the story, from the man who learns that only Mexican mechanics know how to fix Japanese cars, to the woman who winds up paying $100 for a head of lettuce on the black market, to the Egyptian man who is hounded by people asking if he is Mexican. With the Internet blacked out by the loss of communications workers, one nerd notes that we have "underestimated the relation between Mexicans and downloading." By interpolating comedy with actual statistics about the importance of the Hispanic population to the economy and culture of California, Day without a Mexican educates without being didactic. It's part of the Arizona Film Festival, now playing at The Screening Room. --DiGiovanna GO. Go see Go. No, really. I expected this sophomore effort from Swingers director Doug Liman to suck, what with its MTV-ready cast and trendy feel. But guess what? It completely fails to suck. (I hope that gets quoted on an advertisement.) The film tells the same story from three perspectives, repeatedly going back to the same event to restart itself, and each version is very successful. The first tells of a drug deal gone wrong (just once I'd like to see a movie with a drug deal gone right...I've known of quite a few real drug deals, and most of them worked out A-okay); the second is a crime farce set in Las Vegas, and the third and best is the story of two male lovers who star in a TV cop show, and wind up involved with a creepy Amway-dealing police officer and his libidinous wife (played by Ally McBeal's Jane Krakowski). The three stories intersect and the film is tied up as neatly as a Japanese bow. Featuring hot young things Sarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf. --DiGiovanna
THE LAST DAYS. When I saw the publicity on this film, I
wondered why it'd been made. There have been more than 100 films
about the Holocaust, so making another one, even a documentary,
seems a questionable endeavor. Then I read the letter from Bruce
A. Friedemann (Tucson Weekly, March 11, 1999) and I realized
that there were morons out there who doubted the whole thing.
Maybe this painfully affecting movie will help. It follows the
stories of several Holocaust survivors, including some chilling
interviews with a Nazi doctor who worked at Dachau, and provides
enough incontrovertible evidence (and harrowing, effective drama)
to turn a few heads. Of course, Holocaust deniers don't operate
on standard rules of evidence, so this is probably not for them;
but it would be effective both in educating and enlightening those
whose hearts and brains are still working.
THE MATRIX. While watching this I turned to my pal and
fellow ex-childhood comic geek Petix and said, "This is the
movie we dreamed of when we were young." He nodded rabidly
before returning his rapt and drooling visage to the screen. Remember
when the original Superman movie came out, and the tag
line was You'll Believe a Man Can Fly!? That was a load
of crap...anyone could see Superman was supported by strings,
and the rest of his superpowers were equally fakey. Well, not
here: Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburne and some B-listers discover
that the world is a computer simulation and that they can reprogram
themselves with abilities beyond the ken of normal folk. They
dodge bullets, leap across tall buildings and fly through the
air and the whole thing looks so cool you'll forget about the
plot holes and story-flow problems and just have an eye-candy
good time.
MOD SQUAD. Claire Danes has the coolest nose. Like, she
has this sculpted, fashion-model face, but her nose has this wildly
bulbous ending. I pray to God she never gets a nose job, as watching
her enrapturing proboscis is what made this movie bearable. It's
a remake of the '70s TV series about three teenagers who work
as undercover cops. In this version, their mentor is killed and
they must avenge his death. Things are enlivened by some really
trite dialogue and surprisingly good performances by Danes, Giovanni
Ribisi and Omar Epps as fellow Squad members, and a groan-inducingly
bad performance by Dennis Farina as their chief. NEVER BEEN KISSED. What an unexpected Beverly Hills, 90210 reunion! David Arquette (remember Diesel, the girlfriend-beating keyboard player?), Cress Williams (a.k.a. D'Shawn Hardell, token minority/basketball player/fan of Donna Martin), and Jeremy Jordan (teen Vanilla Ice, on the 90210 soundtrack album) team up for Never Been Kissed, 60610: the Chicago years! In the midst of all this fun is the woman once rumored to be Shannen Doherty's replacement, Drew Barrymore. This week's topic has to do with self-love. Poor awkward Josi (Barrymore), a mid-20s copy editor for the Chicago Tribune, gets a writing assignment to go undercover as a high-school senior and find the real scoop on teens. Josi is unable to approach the story objectively because she was tormented throughout her secondary education as the class geek, and she has frequent flashbacks that make her vomit. She confronts her demons with the help of her brother Rob (Arquette), and finally finds self-confidence through the acceptance of the popular kids, including the dreamy Guy (Jordan). --Higgins THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS. In the half-full auditorium where I watched this dismal comedy, only one viewer really seemed to be enjoying herself. If you're undaunted by those odds, read on. Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn play the Clarks, a middle-aged couple from Ohio who travel to New York City for a job interview. They encounter one problem after another during the course of the wackiest 24 hours of their poorly sketched-out lives; they get mugged on the mean streets, unintentionally solicit an audience while having sex in Central Park (yuck, Steve, close your mouth!) and accidentally take hallucinogenic drugs. Both roles are thinly written, yet narrative interest relies upon spectators actually caring about what happens to them. Like I said, one was the lucky number at my screening. I myself had better things to think about, like how far the walk is to the bathroom at those darn monster-plexes. --Higgins SIX WAYS TO SUNDAY. As an Italian, I'm always glad to see a gangster movie where the mobsters don't hail from my homeland. Thus, I was doubly pleased with 6 Ways To Sunday, the tale of a brutal momma's boy who rises to the top of the Youngstown, Ohio, Mafia, where gefilte fish substitutes for lasagna and the thugs say things like "having money and not flashing it is for gentiles." Norman Reedus turns in a truly weird and yet very natural performance as Harry Odum, who comes of age through killings and shakedowns. Deborah Harry is also boffo as his mom, who bathes him, cooks for him, and controls the night light in his bedroom. Some chillingly sexual mother-son sequences reminiscent of Todd Solondz's Happiness make this not your average gangster film. Also featuring scene-stealing performances by Elina Lowensöhn (best known for her work in Hal Hartley's films) and Isaac Hayes (who, beyond all reason, is now best known as the voice of "Chef" on South Park). --DiGiovanna 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU. There are seven Shakespeare adaptations due to hit the screen this year, three of them starring Julia Stiles. She'll play Ophelia in Hamlet; Desdemona in O (a teen-film reworking of Othello); and Katarina in 10 Things I Hate About You, a high-school romance version of Taming of the Shrew. Ten Things successfully makes a feminist flick out of the Bard's most sexist comedy, and does it while achieving that holy grail of teen movies, intentional humor. While not the best film of the year, 10 Things is amusing and distracting, which is more than you get from most movies. And, of course, no Australians were harmed in the making of this film. --DiGiovanna TRUE CRIME. Dear Mr. Clint Eastwood: You do not look sexy lounging around half-naked while making bedroom eyes at women young enough to be your granddaughters. Please, please stop it this instant. And this story you directed, where a reporter takes one day to solve a crime that legions of lawyers and police officers have been working on for 20 years, is not only trite but unbelievable. And your turn as the drunken, womanizing reporter whose heart is in the right place has been done before, and better, by William Holden, Kirk Douglas, and about a dozen other actors from the '50s. Only they weren't so cocky as to think that audiences would believe that they were getting in bed with 20-year-olds when they were in their 70s. So just stop before anyone has to see your flabby nipples again. --DiGiovanna TWIN DRAGONS. Boy, that Jackie Chan just seems to keep getting younger, doesn't he? Oops--turns out his latest film, which ads allow you to believe is "new," was originally released in Hong Kong in 1992. Fresh (but still bad) dubbing and a slicker soundtrack can't hide the inherent sloppiness of this kooky twins-separated-at-birth story. There's a Freaky Friday zaniness to the proceedings, which play off of the psychic connection Jackie the ass-whupping mechanic has with Jackie the wimpy concert pianist. (The mechanic's fingers start to wiggle while the musician is performing; the musician lurches uncontrollably while the mechanic goes on a high-speed boat chase, etc.) The obligatory switcheroo scenes, despite involving two extremely beautiful Asian women, are done so poorly that at times they make Dead Ringers seem like a laff riot by comparison. But the real reason for any Jackie Chan movie is the acrobatic fighting, which continues to amaze--this time, the final showdown takes place in a crash-test lab. If we're lucky, someday someone will figure out how to integrate Chan's talents into a story in ways that are more satisfying than they are erratic. --Topo Gigio WALK ON THE MOON. I just love New York Jewish culture, and nothing is more N.Y. Jewish than a summer in the Catskills, the low-rent vacation area in upstate New York that brought us "Borsht Belt" humor and tiny lakes with paddle boats for rent. I also love period pieces, if they get the clothes and hair exactly right. And I love actors Liev Shrieber, Viggo Mortensen and Diane Lane. So I couldn't help but love this story about a family whose vacation in the Catskills in the summer of 1969 brings their conservative, working-class lifestyle into contact with the Woodstock music festival. Every element is perfectly 1969, from the over-sprayed coifs to the stiff, brightly colored blouses and the free-flowing and dirty style of the neighboring hippies. And the acting is, of course, spot-on. And there's a charming and heartbreaking love story. And pretty people getting naked in the woods. And latkes and matzoh and schmaltz. Oh my. --DiGiovanna
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