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 Courage Under Fire. Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington star
in this Roshomon-style tale of a fighter pilot being investigated
to see if she deserves the Medal of Honor for her performance
in Operation Desert Storm. Not only is the pilot a girl,
but the stories of her surviving squad-mates don't match very
well and Washington must work overtime to try to sort the mess
out. What's more, the investigator has some skeletons to clean
out of his own closet before he can bask in the hard, clear light
of The Truth. The structure of this movie is interesting, but
the content is sort of revolting. Washington is consumed with
remorse for killing some of his men with friendly fire, but feels
nothing but lasting jingoistic triumph over blowing away scads
of faceless Iraqis, whom he also refers to as "fuckers."
If the thought of the strongest army in the world crushing a much
weaker force in order to protect its economic interests strikes
you as heroic, buy a ticket and have your patriotic chain yanked.
Independence Day. Good guys from Earth battle bad guys
from outer space in this latest incarnation of War of the Worlds.
The good guys are flawed but determined; the bad guys are tentacled
and covered in slime: What could be simpler? The special effects
are cool, the characters are likable, and there's never a dull
moment. A thoroughly fun, mindless little vacation, Independence
Day is sort of like an enema: eventful, and then you feel
empty.
Phenomenon. It's hard to spell and even harder to watch:
Phenomenon, a corny, cloying, life-is-a-gift type of flick
that tries its darnedest to recreate the optimism of Frank Capra
movies like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's a
Wonderful Life. The marvel of Capra's movies though, is that
they're actually incredibly bleak stories with a burst of light
at the end, while Phenomenon keeps to a steady level of
saccharine drivel throughout. John Travolta stars as a dimwitted
mechanic who sees a light in the sky and then becomes breathtakingly
intelligent, except that he can't figure out how to do practical
things, like consult with the faculty at Stanford when the guys
at Berkeley refuse to see him. Sentimental music and hazy, gold-filtered
shots sabotage any chance at dignity this project may have ever
had.
Stealing Beauty. Bernardo Bertolucci splashes around with
both the MTV and the Masterpiece Theater generations in this coming-of-age
movie set in the Italian country side. Beautiful shots, sets,
and actors, hallmarks of any Bertolucci film, make Stealing
Beauty easy on the eyes--and Liv Tyler, the gorgeous 17-year-old
star, doesn't hurt either. Tyler handles herself with ease and
dignity as she plays the role of an American virgin aiming to
get herself deflowered while a bored group of cosmopolitan grown-ups
egg her on. Sometimes though, it seems like the camera lingers
a little too obsessively on the upper region of the inner seam
of her tight jeans, and it's hard to escape the sensation that
perhaps this is just a classy way for Bertolucci to act like a
dirty old man. The screenplay, by author Susan Minot, is disappointingly
flat; but Tyler is so entrancing it hardly matters.
Striptease. Demi Moore peels it off in this plodding, predictable
comedy about a mother who takes up stripping in the hopes of earning
enough money to finance a custody battle for her daughter. Moore's
routines seem forced and overstaged, and in fact she keeps most
of her clothing on most of the time even as the supporting cast
frolics about topless in the background. Burt Reynolds plays to
the balcony in his role as a lecherous senator with a "thing"
for tittie bars; in fact, everyone seems to be trying just a little
too hard in this movie for it to ever seem engaging or believable.
Welcome To The Dollhouse. This startling, original movie
about the misadventures of a school loser manages to be very funny
and very disturbing at the same time. The details and nuances
of nerd-life--the ugly glasses, the awkward gait, the sugary snacks--are
intimately and lovingly chronicled in this independent film, which
won the Grand Jury award at the Sundance Film Festival. Dawn Wiener
(Heather Matarazzo), a homely, unfashionable outcast with an unfortunate
last name, is the scapegoat of her school, her family, and perhaps
the world. Anyone who has ever been betrayed by the promises of
beauty, femininity, belonging and romantic love will appreciate
the relentless dissection of these myths here.
Special Screenings
AROUND-THE-WORLD SERIES. A hodgepodge of movies for all
temperaments will show this weekend at The Screening Room, 127
E. Congress St. For the recently divorced and those who feel uneasy
with their bodies, there's I Married a Monster from Outer Space,
a campy, cult thriller from 1958 about aliens who take over human
bodies as step one in the invasion plan. For the saturnine, there's
Ashes and Diamonds, (1958) the final film in Andrzej Wajda's
trilogy about the Polish resistance, guaranteed to be a sublime
downer. And, for the whimsical, nostalgic or young, there's The
Point, (1971) an animated parable narrated by Dustin Hoffman
about a boy who is banished from his home because his head is
round, while everyone else's is pointed. The Point plays
Saturday afternoon only; the other films play throughout the weekend.
Call 622-2262 for more information.
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