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 CHASING AMY. Director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats)
falters in his latest attempt when he tries to describe the experience
of young women, a group he seems to neither respect nor like.
Chasing Amy is the story of Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck),
an outsider who falls hard for Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams),
a sweet but sharp-tongued comic book artist. She's also a lesbian,
a fact Smith uses as a cute little obstacle to their love, which
of course prevails. Though Adams is delightful as Jones, no amount
of snappy dialogue can overcome the film's overt distrust of female
sexuality: While Holden is somewhat fascinated with Alyssa's lesbianism,
he's disgusted when he finds out she's had sex with other men.
This is the point where an annoying movie becomes insufferable.
Smith offers nothing new, even by way of misogynistic anxiety
on the subject of female sex. Hitchcock was doing the same thing
years ago, but at least he had the grace to be entertaining. --Richter
CITIZEN RUTH. A comedy about abortion? For that alone,
Citizen Ruth deserves high marks--if you believe one role
of popular art is to tackle the issues of our times. If you don't,
you probably won't be interested in Citizen Ruth, which
careens between stereotypes of doughy, suburban Baby Savers on
a crusade for God, and militant, lesbian moon-goddess worshippers
intent on keeping feminist slogan-slinging alive. Caught in the
middle is the stereotypical Ruth, a paint-huffing, white-trash
nowhere girl who becomes the unwitting poster child for both camps.
Laura Dern steals the show as Ruth, an uncompromisingly honest
loser who becomes the center of public spectacle when a judge
quietly suggests she can reduce her sentence if she decides to
"take care of her situation" while in jail. Some of
the satire is scathingly apropos to our media-crazed, capitalistic
culture--such as the bidding war that ensues to win Ruth's allegiance--but
even the equal-opportunity-offender approach wears thin early
on, seeming more clichéd than cutting. Still, it's when
was the last time a spirited debate about abortion was good for
a few laughs? It may not be a perfect comedy, but at least it's
a comparatively intelligent one...and long, long overdue. (Ruth
opened more than a year ago in New York.) --Wadsworth
CON AIR. (Senior editor Jim Nintzel was recently suffering
from a neurological disorder, so he asked his 12-year-old nephew
Michael Peel to fill in on this capsule review. Take it away,
Mikey!) Nicolas Cage stars as Cameron Poe, an Army Ranger
sentenced to several years behind bars for killing a Southern
bar lout who harassed his pregnant wife. On his way home following
his parole, Poe hitches a ride on a U.S. Marshall's plane filled
with the most rotten convicts in federal custody. When the convicts
escape and hijack the plane, it's Cage to the rescue! Lots of
stuff blows up before the plane finally crashes into the Las Vegas
strip. While this one's billed as an action-adventure, it's really
one of the best comedies released this summer. --Peel
THE FIFTH ELEMENT. Writer and director Luc Besson sacrifices
sensibility for style in this excessively fashion-designed science
fiction movie. Besson, known for Subway, La Femme Nikita
and The Professional, tries here for a sort of Blade
Runner/Star Wars hybrid but ends up with something closer
to Stargate meets Prêt à Porter. But
it's not just another sci-fi flop--the film has a distinct French
flavor (even hero Bruce Willis' cat looks French)--and you can't
take your eyes off the screen even when it's mind-numbing to watch.
As with The Professional, the story places intense emphasis
on the preternatural beauty of a young woman (Milla Jovovich)
who, this time, is turned into a half-naked, super-powerful-yet-sweetly-vulnerable
Raggedy Ann doll. Gary Oldman once again plays the villain; now
a new-wave Hitler cowboy with buck teeth. If Besson took any of
this seriously, the movie would reek; he didn't, so it's just
an eye-poppingly bizarre experience. --Woodruff
SPEED 2: CRUISE CONTROL. Almost unwatchable due to the
excessive use of close-ups, shaky hand-held shots and meaningless
strobe lights, this is perhaps the worst film so far this year.
Its only competition is Lost World, and both films follow
the same formula: 20 minutes of setting up nothing followed by
an hour and a half of running, screaming, and explosions. Speed
2 does feature the first villain to be driven to criminal
insanity by the lack of insurance regulation, and perhaps the
first to express his villainy by sticking leeches to his chest.
After the bad guy (Willem Dafoe, naturally) gives his requisite
"this is why I'm doing this speech," there isn't much
else in the way of plot, so he repeats the speech every 25 minutes,
just in case we've forgotten. Then again, there's no time for
plot or character development when you've only got two hours of
movie and a virtually unlimited special effects budget. Basically,
this is The Poseidon Adventure, if that film were incredibly
boring and stupid. On the whole, Speed 2 is probably the
best case for strict, Islamic-style censorship of cinema I've
ever seen (i.e., no plot derived from sex or violence allowed).
--DiGiovanna
WILD AMERICA. This is a great movie for boys who aren't
interested in girls yet, and for girls already obsessed with boys.
Three really cute brothers, teen idols all (Jonathan Taylor Thomas,
Devon Sawa, Jamie Bairstow), buy a used 16mm camera and travel
across the United States, looking to capture endangered species
on film. Their final destination is the legendary "cave of
a thousand bears," but on the way they meet wolves, owls,
and anamatronic alligators. Computer effects make some of the
nature scenes downright weird, and considering that the movie
is set in 1967 ("Born To Be Wild" plays insistently,
repeatedly, on the soundtrack) it's possible the brothers have
discovered chemicals. Oh no, it's all squeaky clean and cute and
dumb. Bring a kid. --Richter
Special Screenings
CREATURE. The Screening Room hosts a visit from the 1954
Creature From the Black Lagoon. Cringe to thrills and swampy
chills as the fabled Gillman from the Amazon river falls in love
with a fetching scientist...female scientist, that is. Watch man
vs. nature in exciting 3-D, and...it's in English!
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