Heavenly Creatures

Based on a true story, in early 1950s New Zealand two teenagers (Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet) form an unhealthy, magnetically drawn relationship where they construct a mutually shared fantasy world which culminates in the stoning death of one of their mothers. Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures is a seriously funny and fantastical film in light of the more serious, delicate, and morbid matters at hand, all of which would not have worked if not for the adept performances of Lynskey and Winslet, the latter making her big screen debut.

*** ½ out of ****

Exotica

A grieving bank auditor (Bruce Greenwood) seeks emotional comfort from a dancer (Mia Kirsher) at a specialized Toronto gentleman’s club which stirs the ire of her ex-boyfriend and house DJ (Elias Koteas) while an animal smuggling pet shop owner (Don McKellar) is brought into the damaged circle. Atom Egoyan’s Exotica is pretentiously and obliquely drawn but extremely involving and even spellbinding in parts, with a big assist to the Leonard Cohen soundtrack. Greenwood and especially Koteas standout in the cast.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Don't Drink the Water (1969 and 1994)

While on a European vacation during the height of the Cold War, a grouchy New Jersey caterer (originally starring Jackie Gleason, then Woody Allen), his overbearing wife (Estelle Parsons, Julie Kavner), and daughter are trapped behind the Iron Curtain, accused of espionage, and forced to hideout in a U.S. embassy run by a feckless ambassador (Ted Bessell, Michael J. Fox) while targeted by an overzealous party member. Allen's play, first filmed in 1969, is hilarious fun with Gleason's mugging, Parson's ditziness, and one of the funniest collections of Woody's one-liners until it peters out towards the end. Unsatisfied with the results, Allen directed and starred in a made for TV remake which contained unnecessary rewrites and a lackluster cast which doesn't match up to the original.

1969 version: *** out of ****
1994 version: ** out of ****

Crumb

As he prepares for a move to France, misanthropic cartoonist R. Crumb, best known for Fritz the Cat or the Keep on Truckin' caricatures, meets with fans and publishers, listens to records and sketches, and introduces us to his strange, intelligent, and disturbed family. Terry Zwigoff's documentary profile is a revealing, fascinating, in-depth portrait on the talented, creepy artist and his troubled family that looks inward and outward at its subject and makes wonderful use of Crumb's work.

**** out of ****

Shallow Grave

After putting interview subjects through the ringer, three crass roomates (Ewan McGregor, Christorpher Eccleston, Kerry Fox) finally find a candidate to inhabit the fourth room of their Edinburgh flat who summarily winds up dead from an overdose, leaving behind a small fortune of the mob's money. Danny Boyle's feature film debut is an unfunny, cruel minded psychological thriller which drew comparisons to Hitchcock due to voyeuristic situations and body disposal but totally lacks the tension and wit. With characters so unlikable, lacking any human qualities until the screenplay wishes to humanize McGregor on a dime, and for all its so called originality, at its core the plot and themes could not be more hackneyed.

* 1/2 out of ****

Muriel's Wedding

A social outcast (Toni Collette) living a seaside Australian port finds herself booted from her clique of popular friends after caught wearing a shoplifted bridesmaid's dress at the wedding of one of its members. Bailed out by her pitiable, barely connected political father, and stifled by a stultifying home life, she makes for the big city, is given a confidence boost by a new friendship with a paraplegic (Rachel Griffiths), and winds up a bride in a sham marriage to a foreign swimmer hoping to legitimize his Olympic bid. P.J. Hogan's Muriel's Wedding pushes the envelope for strange and offbeat, and seems a complete anomaly for its genre, but is clever and consistently unique. Collette's performance is just as strange, though completely endearing, and Griffiths is extraordinary in support.

*** 1/2 out of ****

The Paper

An editor (Michael Keaton) is married to his third rate, headline grabbing rag of a newspaper, neglecting his pregnant wife (Marissa Tomei) in the process while contending with a new managing editor (Glenn Close) sent in to make cuts and the other variant and volatile personalities around the newsroom. When his mentor and fellow workaholic editor-in-chief (Robert Duvall) receives a terminal diagnosis, he changes his mind about how to present a fishy major story and sends his lead investigator (Randy Quaid) to get the story straight. Ron Howard's The Paper is a confused, unfunny, and supposed tongue in cheek farce which holds the viewer in amazement at the inanities of its plot, turns, and incredibly stupid conclusion. Keaton is amusing, helping to barely keeping the ship afloat.

** out of ****

Once Were Warriors

In Auckland, New Zealand, a Maorian family, descendants of ancient tribal warriors live a life in urban decay, fraught with poverty, unemployment, alienation, and abuse. From a novel by Alan Duff, Lee Tamahori's Once Were Warriors is startling and harsh, though thoughtful and even poetically composed. Even if it isn't always completely convincing, it manages to inform about a culture by the trials of one family, educating while hitting home with its more blunt aspects.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Three Colors Trilogy: Blue, White, Red

With each title taken from the colors of the French flag and stories very broadly drawn from the motto  "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" (much similar to the way he drew up The Decalogue), Krysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy is brilliantly conceived, expertly committed, and lovingly acted by several generations of gifted international actors. Here's a brief word on each film:

Blue (1993)

The first entry is a unique take on grief as a widow marches to her own beat following her renowned classical musician husband's death. Juliette Binoche is quite wonderful in the lead, the direction is spot on, and great use of music is employed (especially during jarring fadeouts in key moments) although the film does get a little heavy in the finale

*** 1/2 out of ****

White (1994)

The second film in the series is lighter, and a wry, clever little story at that involving a jilted Pole's complex revenge scheme against his beautiful Parisian ex-wife. Zbigniew Zamachowski Julie Delpy turn in fine work as the couple, Janusz Gajos is great in support as a sympathetic entrepreneur, and the exterior photography of the Polish countryside is exceptional.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Red (1994)

Red is the finest of the lot, detailing the growing friendship between a model and an elderly voyeuristic neighbor, uses backhanded story weaving and a keen eye and is told with the superb services of Irene Jacob and Jean-Louis Trintignant.

**** out of ****

Hoop Dreams

The triumphs and (mostly) heartaches of two inner city Chicagoan youths, standouts on the basketball court, who are recruited to a renowned suburban parochial school. Filmed over the course of five years with miles upon miles of footage, Hoop Dreams, the collaborative effort of Steve James and Frederick Marx is epic documentary filmmaking at its most empathetic, with lovable, heartbreaking subjects, keen social insights, great moments of drama and suspense, and a colorful range of supporting characters.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Barcelona

A supercilious American (Taylor Nichols) working for a Chicago sales firm in the title locale finds his life disrupted by an uncouth cousin (Chris Eigeman), a sailor on an overseas assignment. Like all of Whit Stillman's films, Barcelona is talky, intelligent, funny, haughty, and occasionally too light. As in Metropolitan and The Last Days of Disco, Eigeman is a particular standout in a talented cast, which here also includes Mira Sorvino and Tushka Bergen who play romantic conquests of the two male leads.

*** out of ****

The Shawshank Redemption

For those of you who have never flipped to TNT at an indiscriminate time, The Shawshank Redemption, an adaptation of a Stephen King novella, tells the story of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a timid Maine banker unjustly convicted of slaying his wife and her lover, sent to do hard time under a sadistic warden (Bob Gunton). Eventually gaining his footing, Andy befriends a fellow lifer (Morgan Freeman), earns the respect of the guards and his fellow inmates, and gradually prompts a miraculous reversal of fortune through hard work and an unyielding clinging to the idea of hope. Because of how special it was to me as a kid, it would be unfair to knock Frank Darabont's cherished film, even though it largely plays like self-parody when viewed today, especially during Freeman's pious narration. It's a well-made, extremely positive picture, containing many twists and turns that play like gangbusters the first several times you see the picture, which is about the greatest accomplishment a movie can achieve, but I also think the droves of people citing this as the best movie ever made really need to see more movies.

The Last Seduction

A sinister businesswoman (Linda Fiorentino) manipulates her bumbling doctor husband (Bill Pullman) into transacting a six figure pharmaceutical black market deal and then, while he showers after returning with the dough, makes off like a thief in the night. Taking it on the lam in upstate New York before she can begin her life anew in the big city, she quickly finds another pliable dolt (Peter Berg) with whom to hatch her next insidious scheme. "The Last Seduction" is a dark, ingeniously plotted, and stylish work from scripter Steve Barancik and director John Dahl, who seems to have more than a passing admiration for film noir, and whose movie bears more than a few similarities to noir classics old and new, such as "Double Indemnity" and "Body Heat". Among the icy femme fatales that dominate these and other films of the style, perhaps Fiorentino is the most malevolent, perhaps even more so than any villain in film history, with her total disdain for any semblance of morality surely to shock any viewer.

Wolf

A mild-mannered publisher is going through a midlife crisis: A merger is leaving him forced out of his job and a smarmy junior executive is betraying him both at work and at home. However, a recent attack by an animal he hit during a business trip to New England is leaving him feeling more assertive and manly than ever, and is attracting the advances of the sexy daughter of his boss who has picked up on his scent. Mike Nichols' "Wolf" is a darkly funny and intelligent film that transplants the werewolf tale to modern corporate America. Having just prior played The Devil and The Joker, Jack Nicholson can play a wolfman in his sleep, as he does so deliciously here. Fine players surround the great Lothario, including Michelle Pfeiffer as the troubled and seductive boss's daughter, James Spader as the snaky yuppie, Christopher Plummer as Pfeiffer's father, and Richard Jenkins as a bumbling detective. I found this to be a sly and entertaining picture until the final denouement, from which Jack is almost completely absent (having totally morphed into a lyacanthrope). At this point the movie has deconstructed into a standard horror/action picture, but the first 3/4s of this picture are really worth a look with Nichols and Nicholson working at the top of their game.

Four Weddings and a Funeral

During the course of the titular engagements, a bumbling yet charming young Brit who has always avoided commitments falls in love with an American and stumbles to declare his feelings as she becomes betrothed to another. "Four Weddings and a Funeral" was an unanticipated success in 1994 as well as the film that launched Hugh Grant to stardom, and watching it its not hard to believe as the film is thoroughly entertaining and Grant is entirely engaging and funny. After a raucous first half of the film, it does settle down though and become of more routine romantic comedy and doesn't really introduce its characters well so that when we do get to the dreaded burial, its hard to go along with the weepy eulogy because we only have a faint idea how these people know each other (I'm still not quite sure who the waif is living with Grant)! And still, "Four Weddings and a Funeral" is a highly enjoyable film and from it you can see a stew of mostly less worthy romcoms that were concocted from its ingredients.

Swimming with Sharks

We are at the scene of a murder and as the corpse is being wheeled into an ambulance a female voiceover tells us that this is not going to be a tale of love conquers all. We then see a young film executive's assistant takes his boss hostage and begins to torture and demean him, while we are shown flashbacks of the last year in the young man's life as he endures abuse after abuse at the hand of the insufferable employer. Swimming with Sharks is an over the top satire of breaking into the film industry. This ripoff of Robert Altman's great film The Player is smarmy and uneven (Altman is even knocked here, or maybe paid tribute I couldn't tell). I also didn't by Frank Whaley's character's transformation from doormat into ruthless executive and this is made even more clear through the flashback narrative structure where we can compare past and present and realize that the character simply lacks credibility. Still, I appreciated the dark cynicism of the screenplay and the early performance from Kevin Spacey is an absolute knockout as he plays that kind of sleek and hateful character which he does so deliciously well.

Bullets Over Broadway

In Prohibition era New York City, a struggling writer (John Cusack) is unwilling to compromise his new play until his agent (Jack Warden) gains the backing of a local mobster. With the stipulation that the thug's talentless floozy girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly) be cast in a major role, the writer and now director must also contend with his star (Dianne Wiest),  a diva in the Norma Desmond mold he is starting to fall for, a suspicious girlfriend (Mary-Louise Parker) who herself is falling for a blowhard hack writer (Rob Reiner), a lead actor (Jim Broadbent) with an eating disorder and appetite for the mobster's girl, a supporting actress (Tracey Ullman) with an annoying dog, and the gangster's bodyguard (Chazz Palmintari) who is keeping an eye on the girl but also has an uncanny knack for screenwriting. Bullets Over Broadway is an extremely entertaining and occasionally riotous film from director Woody Allen and cowriter Douglas McGrath. Allen brings to vivid life the period of the 1920s which he recently demonstrated such a warm fondness for in Midnight in Paris. The scripting is brilliantly conceived and the jokes are often hilariously on the mark. John Cusack, an actor I do not hold in high regard, fits nicely into the role of the uncompromising producer who finds himself making concession after concession, even in admitting the lack of his own talent. Dianne Wiest is a ball of energy is an Academy Award winning performance in her portrayal of an over the top Broadway star who still holds the powers of manipulation. Jennifer Tilly and Chazz Palminteri are wonderful as well in roles that garnered Oscar nods. Palminteri is a particular scream when he is barking out script changes and insisting on nothing less than greatness for his work. Bullets Over Broadway is a wonderfully inspired film and an entertaining one that functions incredibly on several different levels.

The Madness of King George

Still reeling from the loss of the colonies five years later, King George III seems to be losing his marbles. He's throwing fits, becoming forgetful, and making lewd comments to a chambermaid. As his discontented son, the Prince of Windsor, sees this as an opportunity to seize the throne, the King is whisked away to a nearby locale where he is subjected harsh and ineffective treatment. Then, with only his queen and prime minister looking after his interest, a modern thinking psychiatrist's methods may help restore the King to his normal self and reclaim the throne. From a play and screenplay by Alan Bennett and helmed by theater director Nicholas Hytner, The Madness King George is a literate and bawdy film. Featuring a brave and fierce performance from Nigel Hawthorne, reprising his stage role, he keeps the film going through periodic lulls. Also wonderful in the film is Helen Mirren as his lovely wife and Ian Holm as the strict psychiatrist, who is probably the first person to talk down to the King. The Madness of King George is worth seeing alone for Hawthorne's fearless performance. What, what?

Pulp Fiction

Birth of a Nation. Citizen Kane. Star Wars.

To that list of films that revolutionized the movies I would also add Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino's masterwork from 1994. As the first three films were not so much unique as influential, they changed how movies were made. Pulp Fiction brought independent films to the forefront and inspired countless retreads with its witty, existential, and massive dialogue combined with harsh violence and the tweeking of the plot structure. Aside from what it did for the movies, it is a great movie within itself and one that is just plain fun to watch and contains probably the best performances from John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Ving Rhames, and Bruce Willis. The brilliance of the plotting is in making it episodic, so the film actually feels like three short films and therefore the length doesn't become off-putting. Though I haven't seen it in awhile, I was surprised how much of the dialogue and plotting I remembered, and then I thought that it must be because of how carefully constructed the film is by Tarantino. Every shot, every set, every word, and every actor's mannerism is carefully thought through and presented and the result is a film that did no less than shake the world.

****

Oleanna

Oleanna is a confounding film made by David Mamet in 1994. Starring William H. Macy, it is essentially a two-man play brought to the screen. It tells of a female student going to her professor to ask for help in the class, and then later accusing him of sexual harassment. The dialogue, though written by Mamet, is redundant and seems never ending. It is also maddening because although it is obvious that both sides should have merit, it seems obvious that the professor is the victim and the student is actually the predator. Due to the lengthy dialogue and the staginess, this film seems to go on forever though the Mametspeak is fun.
**1/2