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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. 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
CONTACT. Jodie Foster plays an emotionally crippled scientist
intent on visiting space aliens in this very long, sentimental,
but nonetheless moving science fiction film. Despite that annoying,
over-earnest quality Foster brings to all her roles as an adult,
she's very good as the driven Ellie Arroway, a researcher so intent
on finding solace from the skies that she forgets to notice how
many people on earth love her. Matthew McConaughey plays her nemesis/boyfriend,
a hunky, non-denominational preacher intent on saving the soul
of a nation. There's some silly confusion between God and aliens,
and Ellie has an annoying habit of looking at her boyfriend whenever
anyone asks her a question, like maybe he's going to answer for
her? Please. Nonetheless, the script, based on a story by Carl
Sagan, manages to link the themes of scientific curiosity and
spiritual longing despite some weak sections, and the special
effects are nothing short of wonderful. --Richter
FACE/OFF. Hong Kong action guru John Woo's latest Hollywood
product, a homoerotically violent take on Freaky Friday,
will likely convert a lot of viewers from saying "Woo who?"
to "Woo hoo!" Basically, good guy John Travolta has
his face switched with evil nemesis Nicolas Cage so he can get
crucial information; then Cage (now Travolta) gets loose, puts
Travolta (now Cage) in prison and takes over his life (not to
mention his wife). The grotesque and technically dazzling face-switching
scene alone is worth the admission price, and it gives Woo his
best-ever excuse for two men to obsess over each other. This time
he throws family values into the mix, creating audacious contrasts
between bursts of sexily edited slo-mo violence and bluntly sincere
dialogue relating to Travolta's dead son. I loved watching Cage
and Travolta try to out-ham and out-earnest each other; they're
perfect sparring partners. But when Woo recycled the two best
scenes from his most successful Hong Kong films, The Killer
and Hard Boiled, it became apparent he'd lost a certain
zany quality; and somewhere around the 1,000th gunshot he starts
riding a fine line between "the poetry of violence"
(as inspired by Sam Peckinpah) and hyperkinetic mush (as inspired
by music videos). Sympathetic supporting performances by Joan
Allen and Gina Gershon can't mask the cartoonishness of Woo's
dramatic style; his attempts to make the audience care are such
wholesome failures they become another part of the spectacle.
In other words, resolve to take Face/Off only at face value
and you'll probably have a good time. --Woodruff
NOTHING TO LOSE. I had a dream I was trying to write
this thing but I couldn't remember the name of the movie...A swirling
mass of trite phrases...Orange, manta ray, a dwarf...I believed
the title might be the vaguely homoerotic The Bigger The Bucks;
then I was convinced it was Nobody's Business, which I
believe to be the name of some other movie (in real life). Bland,
empty, meaningless wordplays arose and fell away in my tormented
head; scenes from 20 different buddy movies blended together and
recombined: A married man kisses a girl in an elevator while
he is being lobotomized.... Alas, nothing that interesting:
It's just your standard black guy/white guy buddy movie, with
Tim Robbins as an advertising executive out-of-control. Strange
coincidences that somehow aren't that strange and sugar-coated
family scenes add up to something so bland and forgettable that
really, I am awake now and I can't remember the title. I'm going
to go look it up. --Richter
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
ULEE'S GOLD. This sweet, slow-paced movie about a beekeeper
who holds his family together through a period of chaos is uneven
but ultimately rewarding. Peter Fonda plays Ulee, an emotionally
withdrawn man who must muster all his resources to save his family
from mayhem, dissolution, and The Law. Some of the supporting
characters aren't quite as well drawn as Ulee, but the story is
mostly about him anyway. This quiet movie harbors big themes about
the value of labor, the redemptive power of nature, and the daily
task of giving love, but doesn't hit you over the head with them.
And the bees are cool. --Richter
Special Screenings
SCREAMINGSCI-FI. Don't miss The Screening Room's ongoing
summer science fiction series, at half the price and twice the
heart of the bulk of the summer blockbusters. This weekend features
20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), Earth Vs. The Flying
Saucers (1956), and chapters five through eight of Flash
Gordon Conquers the Earth. See Cheap Thrills for more information,
or call 622-2262.
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