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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 GENERAL'S DAUGHTER. An older, fatter, but still damn
sexy John Travolta stars in this well-paced, misogynist murder
mystery set on a Southern army base. Madeline Stowe, James Cromwell,
James Woods and Timothy Hutton all do face-time as more-and-less
corrupt army officers, and Leslie Stefanson does beautiful naked-dead-body-raped-and-staked-spread-eagle-to-the-ground
time as the exploitive and sleazily titillating element of the
movie. If it weren't for the fact that so much of this film is
about the graphic, visual depiction of the abuse of a young woman,
this would be one of the year's better thrillers, but as it is
it's more of a gussied-up anti-woman porn film. --DiGiovanna
GET REAL. The story of this British coming-of-age-and-out-of-the-closet
film is a familiar one. Steven (Ben Silverstone) is a middle-class,
geeky teenager who falls in love with a rich, popular athlete
named John (Brad Gorton). Steven is comfortable with his gayness,
but John fights it in order to maintain his image and the perks
that accompany it. The unoriginal story is somewhat balanced by
Silverstone's excellent performance and crisp cinematography that
utilizes closeups of the actors to visually draw them together.
The characters are underdeveloped, however, and the worst is Steven's
friend Linda. She embodies the all-too-familiar stereotype of
the lonely, overweight woman who lives vicariously through her
gay friend. Exploration of Steven also remains largely superficial
as he's reduced to a sexual category. He meets John while cruising
public restrooms and falls in love merely because of his gayness,
not because he's attracted to John as a person. It's unfortunate
that even in low-budget films gay characters are rarely allowed
few identifiers beyond who they sleep with. --Higgins
AN IDEAL HUSBAND. In this period piece based on Oscar Wilde's
play, a ne'er-do-well (well-played by Rupert Everett) and a young
parliamentarian are drawn into a web of evil by the cupidity of
the lascivious and mendacious Mrs. Chevely (played with delicious
wickedness by Julianne Moore). The film begins strongly and finishes
well, but bogs down a bit in the middle. Still, lots of good fin-de-siecle
style quips and decadence make this a reasonable divertissement,
although it would probably be more fun to just sit around your
drawing room drinking absinthe and engaging in witty banter with
your cadre of illicit lovers.
--DiGiovanna
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 Everett 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 dialog 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 Roberts' 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
OCTOBER SKY. Here's a film about teens that doesn't have
aliens, a serial killer, or even a prom queen election. (I know,
I found it hard to relate to, too.) It tells the true story of
Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his high-school friends who
strive to avert their coal-mining destinies. By experimenting
with rocketry, they hope to win a science fair and solicit college
scholarships. Most of the adults don't understand their struggle
to leave the small town, especially Homer's black-lunged father
(Chris Cooper). The maudlin music is obtrusive and the pacing
uneven, but the story is generally engaging. It's set in the late
1950s, which in the film and television industries means an excuse
to offer the female characters little development beyond cheerleading
status. --Higgins
THE RED VIOLIN. Perhaps in response to the vast amounts
of dead wood in many Hollywood films, director Francois Girard
casts a violin as the star of this Canadian production that follows
an instrument through various owners. The violin is cleverly animated
through the voice of a 17th-century tarot card reader who tells
its future and lets it serve as tour guide across four centuries
and five countries. The narrative structure is similarly engaging
as a contemporary auction is the touchstone from which flashbacks
of its travels emerge and converge. Also, sound and image are
harmoniously fused together as the score dictates and justifies
much of the pacing. Kudos to you, Red Violin, and also
to your supporting actor, Samuel L. Jackson, who courts you without
shame. --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
TARZAN. (None of our regular cinema staff was ready for
this rumble in the jungle, so we turned the job over to 14-year-old
Michael Peel, TW's Junior Critic. Take it away, Mike!) Disney
redeems itself after a slump of animation disasters with the fast-paced
and fairly enticing Tarzan. This version proves a story about
a lord of the jungle works best as an animated feature. (Apologies
to Johnny Weissmuller and Brendan Fraser.) With impressive animation
and a surprisingly strong script, the film deals with an identity
crisis and gun control at a level a child can comprehend. The
Charlton Heston-like villain may be a weak point in the movie,
but the absence of musical numbers is a plus. Children and adults
alike will enjoy this simple but enjoyable movie (as opposed to
being tortured by that Star Wars: Episode One mess that
refuses to remain a phantom). --Peel
TEA WITH MUSSOLINI. A disappointing effort by Italian cineaste
Franco Zeffirelli, Tea tells of the trials of a group of
English expatriates in Mussolini's Florence. While there are a
number of good performances, the lackluster script and understated
cinematography fail to bring out the style and verve that made
fascism the best-looking force for evil in the 20th century. --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 The 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 can get from most
movies. And, of course, no Australians were harmed in the making
of this film.
--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
THIS IS MY FATHER. One sign of a weak script is a narrative
that relies upon coincidence to drive its story forward, and this
Irish/Canadian co-production depends upon several. The film attempts
to document an ordinary man and his family against an unbelievable
backdrop, a move which results in an uneven tone throughout. Kieran
(James Caan) never knew his father, yet he's motivated to travel
to the Irish village his mother Fiona (Moya Farrelly) grew up
in after his nephew accidentally smashes open a wooden box that
just happens to contain a love letter written by Kieran Sr. (Aidan
Quinn). When he arrives in Ireland, he has the uncanny fortune
to lodge at the home of a woman who was told the story of his
parents by a young Fiona. The narrative then alternates between
Kieran and his father; but their tales are so unrelated, the characters
exist without substantial resonance for one another. The cinematography
and locations are beautiful, but they cannot calm the frustration
caused by the disjointed and incongruous plot. --Higgins
THE WINSLOW BOY. David Mamet's first stab at directing
someone else's story is a smashing success that will have almost
no appeal for American audiences. There's no sex, no violence,
and the surface plot about a young boy accused of theft is there
merely as a distraction from the real story about a 29-year-old
woman who must marry in order to survive in 1920s England. Her
story is left largely unresolved, with only subtle hints at its
outcome, and one of the major plot motivators is never revealed
to the audience--each time it comes up the characters whisper
inaudibly to each other. While this will no doubt infuriate or
bore most Hollywood-trained theater-goers, it is Mamet at his
best, dealing with the difficulties of rule-based human relationships,
and it deserves a wider audience than it will no doubt get. Starring
the impeccable Rebecca Pidgeon and the delectable Jeremy Northam.
--DiGiovanna
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