In the past few years–more or less since the failure of his embarrassing Joan of Arc epic The Messenger–former wunderkind director Luc Besson has become a fantastically prolific writer/producer. (The IMDB claims he has nine projects lined up for next year.) His latest, The Transporter–a swift if sometimes ridiculous action…
Dallas gained a lot more than it lost the day civil rights lawyer Frank P. Hernandez shut down his practice and drove to New York City to talk his way into New York University’s film school. He never established himself as a filmmaker, yet the experience helped inspire the area’s…
The not-so-great American pastime of serial killing has splattered pop culture in recent years, but from the biopics of America’s Most Unwanted to the nervy theatricality of Anthony Perkins, Kevin Spacey or even David Byrne (whose Talking Heads song “Psycho Killer” says it all), only one legend stands definitive, that…
I might as well just come out and say it: Spirited Away is the best movie I’ve seen all year. Though it would be a masterpiece in any language, Hayao Miyazaki’s animated spectacular (and Japan’s highest-grossing film ever) is being released by Disney simultaneously in two versions–one in the original…
Where is the dividing line between romantic devotion and psychotic obsession? How can you know whether your romance is Titanic…or Fatal Attraction? Veteran Spanish writer-director Vicente Aranda (Lovers) uses the story of Queen Joan “the Mad” (1479-1555)–daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, mother of Charles I of Spain (who became Emperor…
Brad Silberling’s instincts are right about half the time, which means that, depending on your point of view, his films are either half empty or half full. His last picture, 1998’s City of Angels, an American remake of Wim Wender’s poetic Wings of Desire, tried to marry European art-house cinema…
So there’s no confusion, the star of Sweet Home Alabama is Reese Witherspoon, who graces the film’s poster in full-body pout and appears on the press kit in close-up mug-shot smirk; any closer, and we’d shoot up her nostrils and exit through her pores. Of course, there’s a great deal…
Chris Smith’s brief but thoroughly entertaining Home Movie carries on a grand tradition of American documentary–seeking out the eccentrics and contrarians among us. In the space of an hour Smith provides glimpses of five U.S. houses and their owners, and–thank goodness–his whirlwind tour is less suited to Architectural Digest than…
Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is released from a mental institution the day of her older sister’s wedding. One afternoon with her dysfunctional family and she’s ready for rehab again. No such luck, however, so instead Lee turns–or returns–to her favorite pastime: self-mutilation. Based on a short story by Mary Gaitskill…
In The Banger Sisters Goldie Hawn plays Suzette, an aging groupie too stuck in a gloriously seedy past to move into the future. It’s 2002, yet she acts as though it’s 1969 and nothing’s changed–not the Sunset Strip’s Whisky A Go-Go, where she still tends bar behind sunglasses and illicit…
There’s no denying that U2 is awesome, nor that Phil Joanou is a snappy director, but the charming awkwardness of Sam Jones’ 16mm black-and-white rockumentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart makes one wanna murmur, “Rattle on? Humbug!” at the Irish Grammy-grabbers’ old-school cinematic self-celebration. As we turn our…
Among the more preposterous rumors spread by Harry Knowles, whose Ain’t It Cool News movie-biz-gossip Web site garners undue attention from studios too craven to do their own thinking, was one from year’s beginning: Terrence Malick, Knowles “reported,” was working on an adaptation of The Catcher in the Rye for…
Although his name sounds like an inventory notebook for candy bars, Heath Ledger is presently overcoming this confusion–as well as the plight of the pretty boy–to become one of contemporary cinema’s more vital actors. In The Four Feathers–as in The Patriot, A Knight’s Tale and Monster’s Ball–Ledger once again plays…
Muccino (But Forever in My Mind) pays his respects to Fellini (Juliet of the Spirits on television) and Tarantino (a Reservoir Dogs poster), then straddles with aplomb the intergenerational niche he’s carved between. It’s a mostly engaging approach, as confused Gen-Xer Carlo (Stefano Accorsi) struggles with his feelings for his…
Originally meant to be called Springtime for Hitler, Mel Brooks’ first feature as writer-director was only a moderate success when released in 1968. Now, it is legendary and for good reason. (It has, of course, also spawned a hugely successful musical.) This story of a manic, larger-than-life Broadway producer (Zero…
He’s one of Oprah’s Angels and an Olympic champ, a published author (of his own autobiography, Harnessing Anger) and, soon enough, the subject of a Walt Disney-produced feature based on his life’s story (cf. The Rookie, Remember the Titans). Till then, here’s Chris Dalrymple’s engaging (if, at a mere 75…
The son of a fascistic intelligence agency boss (Gregg Henry) is kidnapped by Sever (Lucy Liu), a ruthless, mysteriously hooded killing machine. The only one who can retrieve the boy is Ecks (Antonio Banderas), a former FBI operative who has been on the skids for seven years, ever since his…
After several years of taking the baddie roles Dennis Hopper was passing on, not to mention the occasional bizarro gamble (say, as Mr. Roarke in the short-lived Fantasy Island revival), Malcolm McDowell returns to prime form in Gangster No. 1. At long last, this spry and mean little film gives…
For those with any kind of pop cultural memory, it’s more than a little surprising to see Ice Cube in a movie like Barbershop. Not because it’s a light comedy–Friday was, too, and that was certainly in character. What’s odd about Barbershop is its seeming embrace of positions that the…
The much-celebrated Spokane/Coeur d’Alene poet and novelist Sherman Alexie (and writer-producer of Smoke Signals) brings all his ironic intelligence–the great elasticity of his mind–to bear on this striking, semi-autobiographical portrait of a successful Native American writer still struggling to reconcile opposites–his reservation childhood and his urban present, his worldly sophistication…
While it’s no longer the revolutionary tranifesto it may have been, D.A. Pennebaker’s 1973 concert film (first released in 1983) captures David Bowie’s meticulous identity quest with all the frenetic energy (read: slop) of a wildlife documentary on drugs. What this means for you, viewer and/or fan, is that the…
In turn-of-the-century France, a minister (Charles Berling) scandalizes his tiny Protestant community by divorcing his wife (Isabelle Huppert) and falling in love with a newly arrived young woman (Emmanuelle Béart). Their existence is briefly idyllic, until he is called back to run his family’s china factory in Limoges. Between business…
