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 AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME. In the '60s, the
television show Laugh-In pioneered the idea that if there
were 20 gags in a minute, only one in four had to be funny for
the audience to stay entertained. Austin Powers slavishly
follows this formula, even going so far as to have the characters
wince shamefacedly into the camera after the lamest jokes. The
best part of this '60s spy-spoof is Heather Graham's bizarre "I
can't believe I'm doing this" performance as Austin's sidekick,
Felicity Shagwell. She seems like someone who just won a "you
can be in a movie" contest, and her inappropriate giggles
and smiles during "tense" scenes are the perfect complement
to the ridiculous plot, sets and characters. --DiGiovanna
THE DREAMLIFE OF ANGELS. The structuring device of this
French film is not a narrative but a location. The apartment that
young transients Isa and Marie share is the site of the beginning
and end of their relationship; it serves as their protection from
the patriarchal world they have difficulty navigating, and rejects
them when that realm is invited inside. Focusing on mundane events
such as job hunting and dish washing proves effective in revealing
well-rounded protagonists and the friendship that thrives within
the safe haven they've found. In stark contrast, the male characters
are merely devices to portray these women. Unfortunately, the
film's second half is dominated by Marie's dramatic and unbelievable
emotional shift, as she enters a simplistically vile relationship
and follows it to a clichéd conclusion.
--Higgins
ELECTION. I've never really agreed with universal participatory
democracy, because so much of the electorate is ill-informed and
their votes are easily manipulated by demagogues and heartlessly
ambitious power-mongers. (That's why I just let Tucson Weekly
editor Jim Nintzel pick my votes for me...he's well informed and
has no ambition. I call it Nintzelocracy.) Commenting on this,
Election takes all the worst traits of American politics
and squeezes them into a high school full of immature teens, which
is pretty much what American politics looks like to the rest of
the world anyway. Director Alexander Payne's sharp eye for satire
makes Election the funniest, and one of the smartest, films
so far this year. --DiGiovanna
INSTINCT. After The Matrix and The Phantom Menace,
I thought we'd have a dearth of "chosen one" references,
but Disney keeps the trend alive by offering Cuba Gooding Jr.
as its savior of the month. How exciting that men keep choosing
men--this time, the smitten one is Anthony Hopkins. He plays Ethan
Powell, an anthropologist who communes with gorillas for a couple
of years until he is jailed in Rwanda for killing three men. When
he's transferred to a psychiatric penitentiary in the United States,
Theo (Gooding) is the doctor who attempts to discover Ethan's
motives and understand how he was accepted into a simian family.
The blossoming doctor-patient relationship is dialogue heavy and
relatively free of tension as Ethan recalls his jungle days and
teaches Theo "how to live." Most of the trips outside
of the prison are disjointed, as Theo visits either his reality-based
mentor Ben (Donald Sutherland), or Lyn (Maura Tierney), Ethan's
heterosexually recuperative daughter. According to the musical
score, every scene contains a highly dramatic moment, so be prepared
to laugh, cry and cheer as Ethan sits down, Theo pours a cup of
coffee and a gorilla grooms itself.--Higgins
THE LOVE LETTER. Releasing a film the same weekend as Star
Wars might at first seem insane, but the folks at DreamWorks
are smart enough to realize that older viewers and women are two
huge audiences not targeted by the Lucas blockbuster. Hence, The
Love Letter: a romance with 40-plus-aged characters and lots
of women. Kate Capshaw plays Helen, a bookstore owner whose faith
in love is restored when she receives an anonymous letter she
believes is meant for her. The letter is then found by several
other characters, who all interpret it according to their own
emotional needs. This premise gets tiring quickly, the main character
is unlikeable and the slow pace may make you wish you'd stopped
for coffee before hitting the theater. At the same time, there
are a number of elements that are just wacky or unexpected enough
to be enjoyable: Ellen DeGeneres, playing an overly determined
heterosexual, dispenses blunt sarcasm and practical one-liners;
there's the all-too-rare H-wood circumstance of a woman (Helen)
bedding someone half her age; a strange All-That-Heaven-Allows-inspired
feminist character (Jennifer, played by Julianne Nicholson) spouts
academic rhetoric; Tom Selleck tests his powers without
his mustache; and an older lesbian couple anchors much of the
story. --Higgins
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Local punk rock star Greg Petix
told me that there's always one woman whom you cannot openly admire
without pissing off every other woman in the country. Currently,
that woman is Calista Flockhart, who I must say, turns in a fabulous
performance in A Midsummer Night's Dream. She has a clear
mastery of the language, and is the only actor in the production
who emphasizes the iambic pentameter without sounding artificial.
Kevin Kline is also outstanding, as are Stanley Tucci as Puck
and Rupert Evert as Oberon. Unfortunately, Michelle Pfeiffer as
Titania sounds like a non-native speaker attempting to phonetically
sound-out the script; but there are enough strong performances
here to make her insignificant. This is good stuff for Shakespeare
lovers, but the difficult dialogue may be off-putting to those
who prefer Shakespeare in Love to the real material.
--DiGiovanna
NOTTING HILL. A glorified made-for-TV movie, Nodding-off
Hill employs a mind-numbing pace and uncomfortable story-stretching
conventions. For more than two hours, the simple premise of ordinary
guy William (Hugh Grant) falling for very beautiful and very famous
movie star Anna (Julia Roberts) is painstakingly told through
a series of contrived scenes and an abundance of ridiculous montage
sequences where songs are substituted for actual character development.
For example, "Ain't No Sunshine" plays while William
(sad? confused? hungry?) deals with Anna's absence over a year's
time. The result is a lack of chemistry between the leads and
a sense that William falls in love merely because Anna is pretty,
and ends up in more scenes with him than anyone else. It's a welcome
change that Rotting Hell is told largely from a male perspective,
as William pines for the self-involved Anna. Further adding to
this genre piece is the continuance of Robert's persona, from
My Best Friend's Wedding, of the romantic comedy anti-heroine
who rejects stereotypically feminine characteristics for more
masculine ones. Eventually, though, the tacked-on "happy"
ending forces both William and Anna into traditional and dissatisfying
roles.
--Higgins
OPEN YOUR EYES. A sterilized-looking Madrid is the backdrop
for this incredibly smart and challenging Spanish film investigating--you
guessed it--virtual reality, body modification and immortality.
As César (Eduardo Noriega) recounts stories of lovers,
a disfiguring car crash and numerous plastic surgeries to a psychiatrist,
his credibility is consistently undermined as reality is embedded
in dreams which are in turn enveloped in nightmare. This engaging
phenomenological tale is ostensibly guided by César, but
he is plagued by a seemingly benevolent yet mysterious man who
heads a cryogenics company. The protagonist dons a mask for much
of the movie, raising issues of authenticity as well as self-image
in contemporary Western culture. As the narrative layers are revealed
and recovered, the characters are repeatedly duped; best of all,
so are the viewers. --Higgins
STAR WARS: EPISODE 1--THE PHANTOM MENACE. This movie is
just like real life for a museum tour guide: the dialogue sucks
and there's no plot, but it's full of pretty things to look at.
--DiGiovanna
13TH FLOOR. What if everything was just a virtual reality
simulation? And what if you found out that you were part of that
simulation? And what if this movie had been done twice already
this year? Bonus: 13th Floor postulates that the non-existence
of the world can be proved by going to Tucson.
--DiGiovanna
THREE SEASONS. Extremely beautiful cinematography doesn't
quite make up for the trite stories in this Saigon-slice-of-life
piece. A young woman who begins work at a lotus-blossom farm,
a bicycle-taxi driver and a
10-year-old street urchin all encounter compelling others in the
streets of modern Vietnam. Harvey Keitel does a long vanity bit
about a former Marine searching for his daughter, and there's
a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold piece, but the show stealer is the
story of the flower girl. Serene shots of lakes filled with blossoms
and the women who row out to pick them make this a relaxing, if
not entirely engaging, effort. --DiGiovanna
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